Papers by Kristín Loftsdóttir
Introduction: Messy Europe: Crisis, Race and Nation-State in a Postcolonial World, 2018
This is the introduction of my co-edited book (with Andrea L. Smith and Brigitte Hipfl). It has s... more This is the introduction of my co-edited book (with Andrea L. Smith and Brigitte Hipfl). It has strong chapters written by fantastic scholars! this is the abstract: "Using the economic crisis as a starting point, Messy Europe offers a critical new look at the issues of race, gender, and national understandings of self and other in contemporary Europe. It highlights and challenges historical associations of Europe with whiteness and modern civilization, and asks how these associations are re-envisioned, re-inscribed, or contested in an era characterized by crises of different kinds. This important collection provides a nuanced exploration of how racialized identities in various European regions are played out in the crisis context, and asks what work “crisis talk” does, considering how it motivates public feelings and shapes bodies, boundaries and communities."
This article reflects on Europe's problematic relationship with its 'others', asking in particula... more This article reflects on Europe's problematic relationship with its 'others', asking in particular how the idea of the 'exotic' -constituting one of Europe's 'imperial ruins' -intersects with the figure of the Muslim migrant. The Muslim migrant has in the present become in Europe a potent marker of otherness, which reflects how some cosmopolitan aspirations are perceived negatively in European discourses, revealing how mobility itself is racilized and gendered. WoDaaBe Fulani migrants from Niger have historically occupied a subject position in Europe as identified with 'the exotic'. The article discusses WoDaaBe temporary migration to Europe to supplement their income back home, and their intersecting positions as 'exotic', as Muslims and black Africans.
Focaal
The economic crash in Iceland created a sense of social and political collapse that extended far ... more The economic crash in Iceland created a sense of social and political collapse that extended far beyond the economic realm. Calls for a "New Iceland" were invoked, where the Icelandic political arena would be "cleaned" and reimagined in drastic ways. In this article, I explore how ideas circulating in the wider European region about how Icelanders dealt exceptionally well with the crisis not only failed to reflect the lived effects of the collapse but also echoed long-standing nationalist ideals of Icelanders' imagined reality of themselves. I show how nation branding in Iceland after 2010 added to the conception that Iceland dealt with the crisis in an exceptional way, and I critically ask why Iceland received such a positive depiction in the international media.
NORA, 2016
This discussion stresses that looking at countries on the margins of European colonial rule can b... more This discussion stresses that looking at countries on the margins of European colonial rule can be useful when considering the wider dynamics of the present, reflecting the persistence of colonial discourses and how racism "endures". Iceland's colonial experience was characterized by duality, in which the country was an object of colonialism, while actively participating in the racist discourses predominant in Europe at that time. This paper demonstrates how Iceland's long association with the exotic and its gendered manifestations is currently being perpetuated by the tourist and state industries, under the influence of neo-liberal ideas about nation branding. When contextualized within the larger geopolitical environment, Iceland as an "exotic" destination unravels the racist and colonized narratives still at play within a wider geopolitical context. 2
Social Identities
Migration has become a key issue in the contemporary European context, with depictions of Europe ... more Migration has become a key issue in the contemporary European context, with depictions of Europe as under 'attack' due to the mass movement of uprooted populations, especially from Africa and the Middle East. The current sentiment of Europe in crisis calls for a deeper understanding of how the idea of Europe is configured. This article focuses on the idea of "Europe" as seen from the point of view of Nigerien men who are living in Brussels without residency permits. Their voices reveal some of the gaps in contemporary discourses concerning crises and Europe's predicament, especially in terms of terror and refugees. Their narratives point to how current debates on migration and crisis tends to rely on an image of a disconnected world, which obfuscate Europe's historical interconnections with those now seeking entrance into Europe. Muslim migrants in particular are regularly portrayed as being incompatible with modernity, reflecting the persistent refusal to acknowledge their coevalness in Fabian's [2014. Time and the other: How anthropology makes its object. New York: Columbia University Press] sense, that is to say their coexistence in the same time and space. One aspect of shared coexistence is "digitalized connectivity" where media representations of Europe in crisis are an integral part of the lives of these migrant men as others living in Europe.
Ritið, 2015
.... Í þessari grein fjalla ég um fjölþættar birtingamyndir kynþáttahugmynda í íslenskum samtíma.... more .... Í þessari grein fjalla ég um fjölþættar birtingamyndir kynþáttahugmynda í íslenskum samtíma. Ég bendi á að hugtakið "sakleysi" geti hjálpað til við að skilja kynþáttafordóma á Íslandi í samtímanum, þar sem.....
„Ég elti auðinn til Evrópu“ Sögur af fólki á flótta, innflytjendum og ,,ólöglegum“ einstaklingum, 2018
Viðfangsefni þessarar greinar er að benda á veikleika í
samtímaumræðu um flóttafólk, þar sem ég s... more Viðfangsefni þessarar greinar er að benda á veikleika í
samtímaumræðu um flóttafólk, þar sem ég set spurningarmerki við þær þekkingarfræðilegu forsendur sem umræðan byggir á og hvernig flokkun fólks í náttúrugerða hópa – svo sem flóttamenn, hælisleitendur, ólöglegir, eða einfaldlega innflytjendur – felur í sér afmennskun og einföldun. Ég styðst við sögur dökkra, karlkyns múslima frá Vestur-Afríku, út frá rannsókn
sem ég hef unnið í Belgíu og á Ítalíu undanfarin ár. ...................
The multinational retailer, Costco, opened its first store in Iceland during spring 2017. Not onl... more The multinational retailer, Costco, opened its first store in Iceland during spring 2017. Not only was the opening greatly anticipated but following the store opening, Costco became one of the key issues in the Icelandic media. Our analysis focuses on Costco’s opening from insights derived from theories of globalization of mobility, where we emphasize that discussions about Costco in Iceland cannot be separated from the post-crash atmosphere after the massive economic crash in 2008. Our perspective is particularly influenced by Tsing’s (2005) emphasis on the unpredictability of global phenomena that move around and transplant in a new context. Our analysis both contextualize Costco’s arrival within Iceland’s historical and social context and analyzes some of the main themes in the Icelandic media discussion during the opening. The dualistic opposition of ‘us’ (Icelanders) against ‘them’ (foreigners), which has been quite salient in Iceland, were largely invisible in discussions about Costco’s opening. Costco in Iceland was quickly incorporated into a discourse as a positive force against Icelandic corruption that started after the crash. The ‘us against them’ themes thus turned from being ‘Icelanders against foreigners’ into ‘the Icelandic population against Iceland’s elite retail sector.
The discussion draws from recent writing on the meaning of ‘whiteness’ in the Nordic countries, e... more The discussion draws from recent writing on the meaning of ‘whiteness’ in the Nordic countries, emphasizing the importance to understand racialization in different localities. Racism is entangled with affective meanings related to discourse of the nation, furthermore, as shaped by global discourses and class. The discussion exempli es this in the context of migrants from Lithuania in Iceland, demonstrating how they become racialized in Iceland during the boom period in the early 2000s.
Crisis has become an important scholarly topic with Europe’s recent economic crisis lingering in ... more Crisis has become an important scholarly topic with Europe’s recent economic crisis lingering in the present. This paper looks at how global transformations appear from the position of severe economic crisis, and the importance of the past in understanding these transformations. Icelandic subjectivity during the boom period and crisis engaged strongly with Iceland’s past as a Danish dependency until 1944. Nationalistic rhetoric mobilised what Arjun Appadurai has called a ‘warehouse of cultural scenarios,’ stressing during the boom period both the iconic gure of the Viking and Iceland having nally gained the status it deserved as being on par with the rest of Europe. The economic crash, however, engendered strong criticism of the boom period discourses as well as reections on similar anxieties of belonging. The repeated references to ‘us’ and ‘them’ can be seen as attempting to create a coherent and clearly dened Icelandic sub- ject amidst wider global transformations.
European Journal of Women's Studies
The Nordic countries have been major contributors to peacekeeping, often seen as particularly wel... more The Nordic countries have been major contributors to peacekeeping, often seen as particularly well suited due to their lack of ties to colonialism and supposedly peaceful nature. The article critically addresses this idea in relation to how gender equality has been conceptualized in peacekeeping taking as an example Icelandic peacekeeping. Iceland’s recent engagement in peacekeeping has strongly emphasized gender issues but has lacked an engagement with issues of power and domination and thus reflects a particular idea of ‘Nordic exceptionalism’. The authors emphasize in their discussion the need to maintain critical feminist perspectives that take diverse relations of power into account.
European Journal of Womens Studies, 2012
Uploads
Papers by Kristín Loftsdóttir
samtímaumræðu um flóttafólk, þar sem ég set spurningarmerki við þær þekkingarfræðilegu forsendur sem umræðan byggir á og hvernig flokkun fólks í náttúrugerða hópa – svo sem flóttamenn, hælisleitendur, ólöglegir, eða einfaldlega innflytjendur – felur í sér afmennskun og einföldun. Ég styðst við sögur dökkra, karlkyns múslima frá Vestur-Afríku, út frá rannsókn
sem ég hef unnið í Belgíu og á Ítalíu undanfarin ár. ...................
samtímaumræðu um flóttafólk, þar sem ég set spurningarmerki við þær þekkingarfræðilegu forsendur sem umræðan byggir á og hvernig flokkun fólks í náttúrugerða hópa – svo sem flóttamenn, hælisleitendur, ólöglegir, eða einfaldlega innflytjendur – felur í sér afmennskun og einföldun. Ég styðst við sögur dökkra, karlkyns múslima frá Vestur-Afríku, út frá rannsókn
sem ég hef unnið í Belgíu og á Ítalíu undanfarin ár. ...................
This book demonstrates the importance of blurring the boundaries between different kinds of mobility in social research and broadens understanding migrants and tourists as interconnected social categories placing Poland and Iceland at the center of the inquiry. Based on a collaborative project between researchers from these two countries it examines leisure and tourist activities of migrants, their perceptions of nature in Iceland and UK, changing images of migrants and tourists in Iceland, and changing images of Iceland as a tourist destination.
Eds. Dorota Rancew-Sikora and Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir -
Although there are many ways in which tourism and migration are interconnected, current research focuses mainly on either one or the other. Tourism is commonly linked to leisure and business, while migration is generally associated with work, politics, and culture. In fact the boundaries between tourism and migration are not often clear cut and the consequences of different kinds of mobility are not obvious.
This book emphasizes the importance of blurring the boundaries between different kinds of mobility in social research and broadens our understanding of migrants and tourists as interconnected social categories, placing Poland and Iceland at the centre of the inquiry. Based on a collaborative project carried out by researchers from these two countries, it examines leisure and tourist activities of migrants, their perceptions of nature in Iceland and the UK, the changing image of migrants and tourists in Iceland, and the evolving attitude towards Iceland as a tourist destination.