The general seminar invites international and national guests to present and discuss ongoing research. The general seminar is also an important forum to collectively discuss and contribute to the quality of ongoing research and doctoral theses at the department. Book releases, associate professor- and professor’s lectures are followed by a reception.
Book launch: Alternative Futures in a Heating World: Visions and Vision Work of the Swedish Climate Movement
Presenters: Mattias Wahlström, University of Gothenburg and Lotte Schack, Lund University
Discussant: Martin Hultman, University of Gothenburg
Chair: Håkan Thörn, University of Gothenburg
Lotte Schack and Mattias Wahlström present their new book Alternative Futures in a Heating World: Visions and Vision Work of the Swedish Climate Movement, co-authored with Joost de Moor (UC Louvain), Katrin Uba (Uppsala University) and Magnus Wennerhag (Södertörn University).
Lotte Schack, PhD in sociology, works as researcher at the Sociology of Law department at Lund University. Her PhD thesis Children of the Crisis examined how Swedish climate activists construct and negotiate ideas of political subjectivity, responsibility, and justice.
Mattias Wahlström, Professor of sociology at GU, has published widely on social movements, protest, political violence and repression.
Martin Hultman is Professor of sociology at GU with a specialization in science and technology studies (STS) focusing primarily on four areasRead more about the book: energy, climate, environmental legislation and economics. Among Hultman's books are Climate Obstruction (2022); and Ecological Mascit (2018).
Read more about the book
Final seminar: Nathan Siegrist
Title: AUTONOMOUS SPACE: Squatting, Neoliberal Urbanism, and the Problem of Subsumption in Ljubljana, Slovenia
Discussants: Margit Mayer, Center for Metropolitan Studies Technische Universität, Berlin.
Anton Törnberg, Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg
Chair: Stefano Longo, Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg
For participation via Zoom, please contact hakan.thorn@gu.se
NOTE! Room K002
Nathan Siegrist is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Gothenburg. His research focuses on how urban movements connected to squats and autonomous spaces influence urban development in contemporary Europe. For these purposes, he has a particular interest in current developments in Central and Eastern Europe.
Margit Mayer is Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Center for Metropolitan Studies at TU Berlin. Her research focuses on critical urban studies, social movements and U.S. politics and she has published numerous books and articles on these topics. Her latest book is Die US-Linke und die Demokratische Partei: Über die Herausforderungen progressiver Politik in der Biden-Ära (2022).
Anton Törnberg is Associate Professor in Sociology. His research primarily focuses on far-right movements on the Internet, with an emphasis on radicalization processes and violent-extremist and xenophobic rhetoric. His latest book is Intimate Communities of Hate. Why Social Media Fuels Far-Right Extremism (2024).
Associate Professor Lecture: Patrik Vulkan
Title: TBA
Chair: TBA
NOTE! Room D143
Associate Professor Lecture: Ylva Wallinder
Title: Sociological Curiosity – as a Motivation and Method
Chair: Mattias Wahlström, University of Gothenburg
NOTE! Room D138
In this lecture, I will reflect on some of the concrete experiences that have shaped me as a sociologist and university teacher, and on why sociology has become, for me, an empirical science in which theory serves as a central analytical and methodological tool, rather than an end in itself. I will discuss how and why sociology, and sociological curiosity, are important enablers to imagine alternatives to dominant perspectives and interpretations of different materials, methods, and forms of data.
Approaching empirical research with a curious – and at times naïve – sociological gaze, I have engaged with a broad range of empirical settings and methods, combining ethnographic fieldwork, narrative interviews, survey and register data. By drawing on theories of organisational reproduction of similarity – with particular focus on social capital, cultural cloning, and social sustainability in practice – I have sought to understand and explore differences and contrasts within and between organisations, individuals, categories, and institutions. These contrasts show us how tacit knowledge, norms, and expectations shape the boundaries of what employees and organisation members in Sweden are allowed and expected to do. The lecture also considers power and influence as relational phenomena, and concludes with a reflection on how researchers’ and university teachers’ choices of empirical focus shape the questions that are asked, the perspectives that are made visible, and the knowledge that is (re)produced.
Associate Professor Lecture: Elena Bogdanova
Title: TBA
Chair: TBA
NOTE! Room D250
Seminar: Utopias/Dystopias
Presenters: Carl Cassegård, Søren Mau, and Paula Mulinari
Chair: Johan Alfonsson
NOTE! Time and place: 15.00-17.00, Husaren
Final seminar: Veronica Flyman
Title: TBA
Discussants: Kerstin Jacobsson, University of Gothenburg
Andreas Henriksson, Karlstad University
Chair: TBA
NOTE! Room D250
Lecture: Between Belonging and Alienation: Environmental Awareness among Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Question of Land
Presenter: Maisalon Dallashi, Stockholm University
NOTE! Room Husaren
Maisalon Dallashi has a Ph D in Sociology and her research focuses on education, labor market inequalities, environmental issues, and patterns of violence and crime within Palestinian society. She examines how structural segregation and systemic inequality shape everyday life and opportunities for both Jews and Palestinian citizens of Israel. She is currently developing her postdoctoral research at the Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, exploring Palestinian migration, statelessness, and transnational belonging. Alongside her academic work, she actively advocates for Palestinian rights, striving to connect critical research with meaningful social and political change.
(Joint seminar with CSM-RESIST and Environmental Sociology)