1. Safe Sex, Unsafe Identities: Intersections of 'Race', Gender and Sexuality in Swedish HIV/AIDS Policy (dissertation, 2008) 2. Sexual Risk Taking from an Intersectional Perspective: Experiences and Understandings among Young People in Sweden

Abstract

Project 2
Previous research indicates that young people's sexual risk taking varies depending upon gender, ethnicity and class. A main aim of the study is therefore to explore the issue from an intersectional perspective focusing on how intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality and class shape young people's sexual practice in general and sexual risk taking in particular. In addition, the project consists of two subprojects, one focusing on sexual risk taking in relation to alcohol consumption, and the other on sexual risk taking among gay and lesbian youth.

Theoretically, the project sets out from a perspective where sexual risk taking (as well as alcohol consumption) is understood as shaped by socio-cultural and structural factors. By adopting a qualitative approach (using focus groups and individual interviews), the project seeks to expand a research field that is dominated by quantitative studies.

Keywords:

Description

Project 1:
This dissertation examines the different depictions of immigrants and the ways in which migration, ethnicity and racism have been handled by Swedish HIV/AIDS policy since the early 1980s. The dissertation consists of five separate articles and an introductory chapter that outlines the discourse-theoretical approach used in the subsequent articles. The introduction also provides a contextual framework by summarizing recent research on, and sketching a background to, HIV/AIDS policy development in Sweden.

The dissertation argues that, although the policy discourse early on established that inducing safer sex practices among the Swedish population was the only viable solution to the pandemic, the discourse is nonetheless permeated by notions of unsafe identities. The dissertation also stresses the importance of scrutinizing HIV/AIDS policy in light of broader political developments, and argues that an increasing focus on migrants in HIV/AIDS policy should not be seen as a simple reflection of the global epidemiological development, but should rather be understood in relation to the general political and economic phenomenon of welfare state retrenchment. Applying postcolonial feminist theories, the dissertation reveals how the policy discourse is permeated by conceptions of migrant cultures as not susceptible to change but steeped in tradition and primordiality, alongside racialized fantasies about Africa as the 'dark continent' and the source of disease. It also discusses how both masculinity and femininity, as well as heterosexuality and homosexuality, feature in the policy discourse as demarcations between Western and non-Western subjects; between whites and blacks and between Swedes and non-Swedes, and identifies the challenges that such knowledge implies for feminist HIV/AIDS research and policy.

See further:
http://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?searchId=3&pid=diva2:17781

Publications

Bredström, A. (2003) "Gendered Racism and the Production of Cultural Difference: Media Representations and Identity Work among 'Immigrant Youth' in Contemporary Sweden", Nora: Nordic Journal of Women's Studies, Vol. 11, No 2:78?88.

Bredström, A. (2005) "Love in Another Country?: 'Race', Gender and Sexuality in Sexual Education Material Targeting Migrants in Sweden", Sexualities: Studies in Culture and Society (Sage), Vol. 8, No. 4: 517?535.

Bredström, A. (2006) "'Invandrare' i svensk hiv- och aidspolicy 1985-2005: Från kulturpluralism till neo-assimilering" in de los Reyes, P. (ed.) Välfärdens gränser: bidrag till utredningen om makt, integration och strukturell diskriminering, Stockholm: Fritzes (pp. 69?109).

Bredström, A. (2006) "Intersectionality?: a Challenge for Feminist HIV/AIDS Research", European Journal of Women Studies, Vol. 13, No. 3:229?243.

Bredström, Anna (2008) Safe Sex, Unsafe Identities: Intersections of 'Race', Gender and Sexuality in Swedish HIV/AIDS Policy (Linköpings universitet, VDM Verlag 2009)

Bredström, A. (2009) "Sweden: HIV/AIDS Policy and the 'Crisis' of Multiculturalism", Race and Class, Vol 50, No. 4: 57?74.

Bredström, A. (2010) "Åk inte dit! Exotiska platser och förföriska andra i svensk hiv/aids-policy" in Jansson, M., Wendt, M., and Åse, C. (eds), Den nationella väven: Feministiska analyser, Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Bredström, Anna (2011) Alkohol, unga och sexuellt risktagande. Stockholm: Smittskyddsinstitutet

Other Academic Output

(From 2008, Selection)

Invited to give a talk on "From Cultural Pluralism to Cultural Assimilation: Migrants in Swedish HIV/AIDS Policy 1985-2005" at Forum for Sexual Health, organized by the unit for HIV/STI-prevention in Region Västra Götaland, November 12, 2008.

Invited to give a talk on "Safe Sex, Unsafe Identities: Intersections of 'Race', Gender
and Sexuality in Swedish HIV/AIDS Policy" at the Department of Gender Studies Higher Seminar, Linköping University, October 8, 2008.

Invited to give a plenary talk on "Seductive Otherness and Exotic Places in Swedish HIV/AIDS Policy" at the Conference Emotioner & Skandinaviskt Genus? (Emotions and Scandinavian Gender?), Umeå University, October 3, 2008.

Participated (by invitation) in a workshop on young people and sexuality organized by the National Board of Health and Welfare's Unit for National Co-ordination of HIV/STI Prevention, August 2008.

Invited to give a talk on Norms and sexual risk-taking among young people of different backgrounds, at the conference UNG 2009, Virserums konsthall, April 28, 2009.

Sex, Risk and Safety: Intersectional Perspectives on Youth and Sexual Health, Paper presented at the conference Critical Feminist Dialogues on Sex: Education, Violence and Sexology: Between Agency, Pleasure, Shame and Pain I, Linköping, June 15?17, 2009.

Intersectionality and Sexual Risk Taking: Developing Feminist Safer-Sex Research. Paper presented at the conference KULTUR~NATUR: Konferens för kulturstudier i Sverige 2009, Norrköping, June 15-17, 2009.

Youth, Sex, Risk and Safety: Towards an Intersectional Analysis. Paper presented at the Conference Critical Feminist Dialogues on Sex Education, Violence and Sexology: Between Agency, Pleasure, Shame and Pain II: A Conference for GEXcel Themes 4 & 5: Sexual Health, Embodiment and Empowerment: Bridging Epistemological Gaps, Linköping, November 24