• FGM alerts and expert assessments from healthcare providers: legal ca...
  Johnsdotter, Sara; Essen, Birgitta   Conference contribution in Reproductive Health;S2 : BioMed Central (2017) Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting : Sharing data and experiences to accelerate eradication and improve care: part 2 (March 13-14, 201 : Geneva, Switzerland)	Conference contribution

  

  

  English abstract:

  Introduction: Sweden legislated against FGM in 1982. Since then, nearly 90 suspected cases have reached the police and prosecutor. A few of the reports were alerts from healthcare professionals, but the bulk of them originated from daycare and social services sectors. Healthcare providers play a prominent role as experts in forensic investigations. Methods: Cases of suspected FGM originating from healthcare providers who have reported suspected, performed, or planned FGM were analylzed to determine the role of healthcare providers as experts in assessing whether FGM has been performed, and, if so, to what extent. Results: Very few cases analyzed had sufficient indictable evidence; two cases during 35 years were brought to court. The review revealed inconsistencies in the medical assessment processes during which medical experts reached divergent conclusions about FGM status. Conclusion: Variations in normal anatomy and also in cutting procedures make genital assessments by healthcare providers very difficult. It is of utmost importance that appropriate medical experts are summoned in FGM criminal investigations, since these processes often involve radical measures from the police and prosecutor, such as detention of legal custodians and compulsory medical genital examinations of young girls in order to obtain a legally valid medical certificate for an eventual court proceeding.

• The increasing demand for reconstructive clitoral surgery among circu...
  Johnsdotter, Sara; Essen, Birgitta   Conference contribution in Reproductive Health;S2 : BioMed Central (2017) Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting : Sharing data and experiences to accelerate eradication and improve care: part 2 (March 13-14, 2017 : Geneva, Switzerland)	Conference contribution

  

  

  English abstract:

  Introduction: The demand for the surgical technique of clitoral reconstructive surgery introduced by Pierre Foldès is increasing globally despite lack of evidence of its benefits weighed against its potential harms. Methods: In an ongoing study, we use nexus analysis to study the introduction of the surgery in Sweden. In nexus analysis, one simultaneously reviews current discourses, actors and settings to understand a particular phenomenon. In this analysis we seek to determine who is promoting the surgery, in what settings, and what discourses are offered to interpret the phenomenon. Results: Preliminary results, in line with other studies from social science literature, suggest that reconstructive clitoral surgery as a biomedical practice is a response to Western discourses on ‘female genital mutilation’: discourses that label cut women as ‘mutilated’, sexually deprived and less feminine than uncut women. These discourses in themselves are harmful to women and may cause them to seek a surgical solution that may not actually lead to improved outcomes. Conclusion: A new biomedical surgical procedure has been introduced and is generally praised, despite the lack of evidence to prove beneficial outcomes. This surgery is embedded in a powerful discourse that may negatively affect far more women than those who opt for surgery. The negative effects of female genital cutting should be carefully addressed in campaigning in order not to stigmatize already cut women further.

  https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-017-0362-x

• Is research data used in education for health professionals on manage...
  Essen, Birgitta; Johnsdotter, Sara   Conference contribution in REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH; : BioMed Central (2017) Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: sharing data and experiences to accelerate eradication and improve care (March 13-14 : Geneva, Switzerland)	Conference contribution

  

  

  English abstract:

  Introduction Since the 1980s, refugees have come to Sweden from the Horn of Africa, where the majority of women have undergone Female Genital Cutting (FGC). Sweden was the first country in the West to outlaw the practice in 1982, later it became illegal for a Swedish resident to perform FGC abroad. The Swedish government has allocated research funding and has put a lot of effort into prevention and management by means of writing guidelines and organized professional training activities for best practices of persons with FGMC. Methods We have explored to what extent empirical data from the international research field is used in professional education and policy documents from Swedish health authorities since the 1990s. We performed a systematic review of scientific papers, books, guidelines and grey literature reports from Sweden. We focus on outcomes related to maternity care (maternal, perinatal mortality) and youth health counselling (menstruation disorders, sexuality). Results The evidence-based knowledge from perinatal and maternal death audits had not been used in an appropriate way, basic medical knowledge on dysmenorrhea was neglected, and qualitative data on sexual health among women with FGC was not acknowledged in the documents. Conclusion Swedish authorities have worked to improve the health outcomes among women with FGC. However, evidence-based knowledge has been underused, thereby increasing the risk for harm in spite of good intentions.

  https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-017-0362-x

• Östra Göinge i världens mitt
  Lundberg, Susanna   Conference article in Abstracts : Arbetslivets utmaningar i staden och på landsbygden; (2017) FALF:s nationella arbetslivskonferens: Arbetslivets utmaningar i staden och på landsbygden (13-15 juni 2017 : Alnarp, Sweden)	Conference article

  

  

  English abstract:	Over the last few years a substantial share of the refugees arriving to Sweden have been offered housing in smaller countryside towns far from the geographical centres. This housing offer is connected to community resources of various kinds, so the refugees cannot really move to a different town, should they want to. One of the small local communities in the southern part of Sweden, Östra Göinge, has taken on a larger share than many in relation to the local population, and through this the negative trend of a shrinking and aging population has turned upwards. But at the same time, the labour market is very weak, much like in many of the smaller towns outside the city regions all over Europe. A large share of the locally settled and rooted population is poor and geographically “locked” due to their limited social and economic capital. And at the same time, organized racism increases its share of the vote, and North-eastern Skåne has a historically well-established Nazi movement. Springing from my doctoral thesis, I want to examine what is going on in these towns, regarding the labour market and social interaction/integration. What narratives are established in the community, which individuals, capacities and values will be promoted in the local “we”? The political management of Östra Göinge is an actively driving force in welcoming the newly arrived, acting on the regional and national political arenas. In order to understand this better, it is important to gain a deeper and broader view of how different parts of the community acts – those settled and the newly arrived, civil society and labour market actors, people of different class position and so on.
  Swedish abstract:	Under de senaste åren har många av de flyktingar som kommit till Sverige kommunplacerats i mindre orter runt om i landet. En av Skånes minsta och befolkningsglesaste kommuner, Östra Göinge, har tagit emot fler flyktingar i relation till kommunens folkmängd än många andra orter, och har genom detta vänt sin negativa befolknings- och åldersutveckling. Samtidigt är ortens arbetsmarknad väldigt svag, likt stora delar av Europas mindre orter utanför storstadsregionerna. En betydande andel av den befolkning som är rotad och bofast i orten är fattig och geografiskt låst på grund av sitt begränsade sociala och ekonomiska kapital. Samtidigt ökar den organiserade rasismen i väljarandel både i kommunen och i riket i stort. Min avhandling i sociologi från Örebro universitet är placerad i en annan mindre ort nämligen Degerfors, i de sociala strukturer och nätverk som utgör ortens liv. Jag undersökte hur den kollektiva identiteten och de lokala berättelserna om orten inkluderade, rangordnade eller exkluderade grupper av ortsbor, och hur berättelserna påverkade människors tillgång till de ekonomiskt relevanta nätverken. Diskursiv inklusion visade sig vara nära kopplat till materiell inklusion, men sambandet är komplext. Genom olika sätt att markera distans eller närhet visar människor var de placerar sig själva och andra, och vilka människor som värderas högt eller lågt i det lokala. Med bas i samma teoretiska ramverk vill jag undersöka vad som händer i en ort som Östra Göinge, både vad gäller arbetsmarknad och social integration. Vilka berättelser om orten etableras? Vilka personer, egenskaper och värderingar kommer att bli inkluderade i de lokala ”vi”:et? Kommunens ledning i Östra Göinge är aktivt drivande för att ta emot nyanlända, på de regionala och nationella politiska arenorna. Det är samtidigt viktigt att få en bredare bild av hur olika delar av samhället agerar – nyinflyttade och väl rotade, civila samhället och arbetsmarknadsaktörer, människor med olika klassposition och så vidare. Genom att undersöka både berättelser om orten och sociala strukturer med relevans för det lokala ekonomiska livet kan vi få en djupare bild av hur integration fungerar.

  Östra Göinge i världens mitt.pdf   (645.9Kb)

• Parenthood beyond the norm of coupledom – Negotiating legal vulnerabi...
  Andersson, Catrine Malmö University. Centre for Sexology and Sexuality Studies  (2017) Significant others – Nordic network for Research on Family and Personal Life (Oct 23-24 : Lund, Sweden)	Conference contribution

  

  

  English abstract:

  Theorists point to late modernity as a time of new intimacies where individualism and self-knowledge are central components (Giddens, 1992; Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 1995). According to Plummer (1995), one of the major shifts in intimacy and sexuality the last decades of the 20th century is the constitution of the family. Previous ideas of nuclear family and traditional values has shifted to how family members are chosen rather than biologically given. One of the kinds of relationships and families that represent this move away from the heterosexual nuclear family with biological children is the family with more than two parents, for example one based on a polyamorous relationship. Polyamory means that more than two people are involved in an intimate and/or sexual relationship with one another. Polyamory as a relationship practice bears many similarities with how late modern intimacy is described, and could, according to Barker (2005), be seen as part of a wider transformation of intimacy in postmodern society. Preliminary results from analysis of media representations of polyamorous families show that explicit strategies are deemed necessary for handling the legal vulnerability of the families, but that these strategies depend on the families having both social and economic resources to draw from. Contacts with school and health institutions are reported as both positive and negative, but there is a recurring theme of invisibility that the families perceive – the system is generally designed for coupled parents. Lastly, there are also stories of the importance of community and thus how geography and place are central for offering contact with other families in a similar situation. These conclusions point to the need for further studies of the legal situation for non-coupled families – how are the families faring that do not have the social or economic resources to navigate the legal vulnerability, and how are invisibility and lack of community affecting families outside norms of coupledom?

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