Work-in-progress presentation of ph.d. project by Søren M. Andreasen
Issues surrounding refugeeism and migration are defining challenges of the 21st century. More people are forced to live outside their country of birth today than in any other period of human history, and these levels are expected to continue to rise in the nearby future due to inequalities created by global capitalism and human induced climate change. In response to the humanitarian necessities of contemporary migration, when 1 in every 88 people on earth has been forced to flee, it is increasingly important to understand how processes of meaning formation in mediated public spheres contribute to create and negotiate differentials at the level of affective, and ultimately moral, perception that predispose in/exclusion of societal newcomers from the Global South. Focusing on the context of the late modern Norwegian welfare state and using the methodology and theoretical tools of discourse analysis, this ph.d. project critically examines different frames through which perceptions of migration are currently shaped and to what effects. My main concern is to explore the discourse-technical means through which negative affects, fears, and anxieties in relation to newcomers are structured and brought to emerge and the ways in which underlying cultural preconditions for social in/exclusion may be influenced in this way– how and why these processes are made more difficult, or easy, to take place.
Author bio
Søren Mosgaard Andreasen is senior lecturer (Førstelektor) in social work at UiT, Norways Arctic University. His research focuses on the ways in which social perceptions of societal newcomers from the Global South are negotiated in mediated public spheres in Scandinavia and implications for processes of in/exclusion. Prior to entering academia his work experience centres on social work amongst youth affected by trauma and psychosocial unhealth.