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Reflexive Material Identities
The Sartorial Practices of Ten Young Afghan Male Migrants in Sweden
Tuva Wiking Holmlander
Center for Fashion Studies Stockholm University MA Fashion Studies
MA Thesis Spring 2020
Supervisor: Paula von Wachenfeldt
Abstract
Diasporic and migrational identities are often studied by focusing on aspects such as shared traumas, memories and tribulations. In this thesis, the interdisciplinary aim of combining fashion studies with sociology, ethnography and migration studies will instead explore diasporic and migrational identities through the lens of sartorial practices. By using Giddens’
theories on identity formations in societies of late modernity, together with theories on sartorial symbolism and diasporic identities, this thesis will examine (material) identity formation by interviewing ten young Afghan male minor migrants living in Sweden under a temporarily asylum decree. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) will work as the comprehensive analysis tool to depict the young Afghan males’ perceptions regarding style, sartorial assimilation and the Afghan identity. By focusing on aspects such as alteration processes and symbolism connected to material objects and sartorial practices, this thesis will claim that the young Afghan males use different reflexive survival strategies to alter their sartorial practices to assimilate to their current scenery by distancing from their (visual) Afghan identities.
Key Words: Migrant, Material, Identity, Non-European/Ethnic Dress, Fashion, Branded Clothes, Afghan, Diaspora, Reflexivity.
Acknowledgements
First, I would like to thank my participants; Mohammad, Amed, Homayong, Mahdi, Alireza, Farrid, Marcus, Michael, Amir and Aref for sharing your thoughts and stories and for being so open and co-operative. Second, I would like to thank my supervisor Paula von Wachenfeldt for making me believe in my achievements, for inestimable comments, thorough readings and overall encouragement. Third, I would like to thank Cecilia, for your support and comments and fourth, a thanks to my godmother Ann, for your bare existence, I am so sorry that you aren’t with us anymore. And last, I would like to thank Adam that has put up with my chatter but also been the best discussion partner.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Research Aims and Questions 3
Theoretical Framework 4
Fashion and Non-European/Ethnic Dress 4
Reflexivity 5
Diasporic Identity 6
Material Identity 8
Methodology 10
Semi-Structured Interviews 10
Phenomenology and Phenomenological Interpretative Analysis 13
Previous Research 15
Afghan Migrants and Unaccompanied Minors 16
Migration in Fashion 17
Ethical Discussion 19
Outline and Limitation 20
Chapter 1 Heritage 22
The History of Afghanistan 22
Afghan (male) Sartorial Practices 23
Chapter 2 Alteration 26
Introduction 26
Bullied and Visible 26
Afghans, other Afghans, Terrorists and Gangsters 32
Being Just Like Everybody Else 39
Dismantling Afghan Identity 41
Chapter 3 Unfolding 43
Introduction 43
Spick-and-Span 43
Luxury and Branded Clothes 46
Playing Poor or Being Rich 51
Memories from the Past 54
Unfolded Identities 57
Conclusion 58
Bibliography 63
Printed Sources 63
Unprinted Sources 67
Images 69
Appendix 70
1
Introduction
In the summer of 2019, the photographers Frédéric Delangle and Ambroise Tézenas exhibited their project “Sneakers Like Jay-Z” at the French photographic festival Rencontres d´Arles. The photos and appurtenant interviews in the project displayed and explored the styles of new coming male migrants in Paris.1 The interviews touched upon the social function of clothing, identity, and cultural markers connected to both the homeland and the new land, the old and the new identity. In this context, the clothes became signifiers of the duality of migrant identities.
The history of migration is the history of the world. As long as there have been human beings, people have been forced to flee, move and to reposition for various reasons. The migration process is therefore a global experience affecting individuals’ identities, and more direct material conditions and choices. In 2015, the European Migrant Crises reached its peak when around 1,3 million asylum applications were filed in European Union countries.2 One of the largest migrant groups reaching Sweden were male unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan.3 In 2020 the majority of these young Afghan males have gone to school, begun working and learned Swedish. Most of them are still waiting for a decision on permanent asylum in Sweden. These young Afghan males wake up every morning and get dressed. In these clothes they go to work or school, they hang out with friends, they go to parties, they walk the streets of cities and small towns. But how do they think about the way they dress and how do they choose their clothes?
Multiple studies on migrants’ (and more specifically Afghan migrants) experiences of desertion, mental health and asylum processes have been conducted, mainly in sociology, ethnography, anthropology and migration studies.4However, there are only a handful of studies focusing on the connection between fashion and migration. No study so far has explored Afghan
1 Coraline Kraft. “How Migrants New to Paris Express Themselves Through Clothing”, The New Yorker. Published: 04-04-2019.
Accessed: 17-03-2020. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/how-migrants-new-to-paris-express-themselves- through-style
2 The statistic is based on the European Union member states, together with Norway and Switzerland. The numbers are based on first-time applications, not accounting for the individuals applying for additional asylum in another European country.
(Eurostat. ”Asylum Applications (Non-EU) in the EU-28 Member States, 2008-2018” Accessed: 17-03-2020.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Asylum_statistics#Decisions_on_asylum_applications)
3 During 2015 there came 23.480 unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan to Sweden.
(Migrationsverket, 2019, “Asylsökande till Sverige under 2000–2019”. Accessed: 17-03-2020.
https://www.migrationsverket.se/download/18.4a5a58d51602d141cf41003/1580829370314/Asyls%C3%B6kande%20till%
20Sverige%202000-2019.pdf)
4 See for example; Guilia Scalettaris, Alessandro Monsutti, and Antonio Donini. “Young Afghans at the Doorstep of Europe:
The Difficult Art of Being a Successful Migrant”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (Published Online 23th May 2019);
Eskil Wadensjö and Aycan Celikaksoy. Kartläggning av Erfarenhet och Forskning om Ensamkommande Flyktingbarn i Sverige och Andra Länder (Rapport, Stockholms Universitet, 2016); Katie Kuschminder, Julia de Bresser, and Melissa Siegel. Irregular Migration Routes to Europe and Factors Influencing Migrants Destination Choices (Doctoral Thesis. Maastricht University, 2015).
2 migrants’ experiences of sartorial practices and identity in Sweden (or elsewhere). In the chapter “Entangled Histories: Fashion and the Politics of Migration” in Fashion and Materiality: Cultural Practices in a Global Context (2020), Elke Gaugele writes:
The large-scale refugee movement with 65.3 million forced migrants worldwide in 2015 to 2016 requires fashion research and fashion theory to make a deeper connection with global and force migration studies.5
Correspondingly, in the chapter “Styles of Religious Practice: Muslim Youth Cultures in Europe” in Muslim Diaspora in the West: Negotiating Gender, Home and Belonging (2010), Thijl Sunnier emphasises the importance of expanding research on Muslim youth communities and migration studies to cover “performance and self-styling, commoditization and popular culture […]”.6 Gaugele further highlights the importance of assembling different interdisciplinary approaches and methods to understand the complex issues of migration, globalisation, transnationalism and sartorial practices.7 Here we see the outlines of the research gap this thesis will try to fill.
In this thesis I will explore the material identity of ten young Afghan male migrants in Sweden. The thesis will further connect and assemble migration studies, ethnography and sociology together with fashion studies while correspondingly concentrating on the understudied research area of migrants’ sartorial practices significance for identity formation.
Applying a mixed theoretical and methodological framework, semi-structured interviews will record and explore the process of creating a material identity, combined with theories on diaspora, material culture and reflexivity. The semi-structured interviews will be analysed according to interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Additionally, an ethical discussion will address researcher biases and knowledge production. Thereafter, the research will be executed by investigating the symbolism of material objects and brands as aspects in the young Afghan males’ sartorial practices and identity formation in a new homeland. I will also examine the performance of Afghan identity in the young Afghan males’ current sartorial practices, through both diasporic and societal mechanisms and theories.
Concludingly, the term migrant instead of immigrant, refugee or asylum seeker will be used throughout the thesis. According to Guilia Scalettaris, Alessandro Monsutti & Antonio
5 Elke Gaugele. “Entangled Histories: Fashion and the Politics of Migration” in Fashion and Materiality; Cultural Practices in Global Contexts, eds. Heike Jenss and Viola Hofmann (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020), p. 273.
6 Thijl Sunnier. “Styles of Religious Practice: Muslim Youth Cultures in Europe” in Muslim Diaspora in the West: Negotiating Gender, Home and Belonging, eds. Moghissi Haideh and Ghorashi Halleh (Great Britain: Ashgate Publishing, 2010), p. 129.
7 Gaugele. “Entangled Histories”, p. 273.
3 Donini (2019) there is a current debate addressing whether Afghans coming to Europe should be labeled refugees, since it connotes to “forced” migration, or migrants which indicates
“voluntarily” migration. Scalettaris, Monsutti & Donini are in their article using the term migrant but emphasize that Afghans motives to migrate are highly influenced by the war in Afghanistan, but also by other factors.8 Therefore, I have chosen to use the term migrant or unaccompanied minor migrant referring to the situation shared by the participating young Afghan males, and to their journey from Afghanistan, via Iran to Sweden as migration, without implying specific forced or voluntary reasons for that migration.
Research Aims and Questions
The aim of this thesis will be to explore the sartorial process of ten young Afghan male migrants, coming to Sweden as unaccompanied minors by examining the development, creation and performance of their material identity through one-on-one semi-structured interviews.
Overall, the thesis aims to examine the link between identity formation and sartorial practices.
The thesis will further explore the current sartorial practices of the young Afghan males, taking into consideration the situation of waiting for a permanent asylum decree as well as their daily life in the Swedish society and culture. The thesis will likewise explore how the approach of the young Afghan males’ relation to their sartorial practices is affected by diasporic group structures. The thesis will additionally examine the young Afghan male’s relationship to the Afghan culture and identity through their current sartorial practices and assimilation processes.
Finally, the thesis will explore the young Afghan males use and practices of material objects drawing conclusions on symbolism and strategies, especially focusing on the importance of branded clothes. The research questions are therefore formulated as following:
1. How does Afghan diasporic group structures, as well as the Swedish society and culture, influence the young Afghan males’ current sartorial practices?
2. How is the Afghan identity depicted and performed in the young Afghan males’ current sartorial practices?
3. What is the role and symbolism of material objects and branded clothes as an element of the young Afghan males’ current sartorial practices?
8 Guilia Scalettaris, Alessandro Monsutti, and Antonio Donini. “Young Afghans at the Doorstep of Europe: The Difficult Art of Being a Successful Migrant”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (Published Online 23th May 2019), p. 4.
4
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework will be divided in the sections of Fashion and Non-European/Ethnic Dress, Reflexivity, Diasporic Identity and Material Identity. In order to apply an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, these sections will assemble theories on ethnography, sociology, migration studies and fashion studies. The section on Fashion and Non- European/Ethnic Dress will through ethnological theories explore and separate fashion and non- European/ethnic dress to enable a definition on Afghan dress. Sociology will be represented in the section on Reflexivity which will depict the participants processes of adaptation to the Swedish society. Social science together with migration studies will be represented in the Diasporic Identity section which will provide theories on diasporic identities pending between shared and personal memories, traditions and processes of assimilation and becoming. The Diasporic Identity section will enable the elucidation of Afghan identity, diasporic in-group factors and the impact of Swedish society and culture as aspects for the participants identity formations and sartorial practices processes. Finally, the section on Material Identity will provide theories in fashion studies and sociology to understand sartorial practices strategies by exploring different consumption mechanism and depict the importance of brands and (in)visibility as features of the young Afghan males’ sartorial practices.
Fashion and Non-European/Ethnic Dress
The discussion on the separation between fashion and non-European/ethnic dress is a permanent issue and research area for scholars in different disciplines.9 Many scholars are critical towards the separation of western and non-European/ethnic dress, claiming the separation being stale and out-of-date in a postmodern transnational world. There have been multiple contributions trying to update and expand research on dress and I will in this section present a few of them.
Joanne B. Eicher & Barbara Sumberg’s (1995) contribution is the term world fashion, which refers to a global uniform worn around the world consisting of blue jeans, business suits, t-shirt and athletic shoes.10 In this context, world fashion detaches itself from the fashion or non- European/ethnic dress fragmentation, working as a sort of transnational global anti-fashion alternative to be used in research. Another alternative outline was created by ethnographers David W. McCurdy, James P. Spradley & Dianna J. Shandy leaning on three frameworks to
9 See for example; Susan B. Kaiser, Fashion and Cultural Studies. (London, Berg, 2012); Sandra Ann Niessen, Ann Marie Leshkowich and Carla Jones. Re-Orienting Fashion: The Globalization of Asian Dress. (Oxford: Berg, 2003); Ted Polhemus and Lynn Procter. Fashion and Anti-Fashion: An Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment. (Thames and Hudson, 1978).
10 Joanne B., Eicher, and Barbara Sumberg. Dress and Ethnicity. (Oxford: Berg, 1995), p. 300-304.
5 describe, separate and study dress. These are; microculture (street style and local dress practices), culture (ethnic and national dress) and macroculture (world fashion).11 Finally, in the twenty-firstcentury, the term new materialism was proposed as a larger concept, created to
“[…] consider multiple systems of fashion” accommodating both fashion and non- European/ethnic dress as well as all material objects and bodies wearing material objects.12 By presenting concepts defining different types of dress and different research approaches, I will in the first chapter make a definition on what Afghan dress is and what it is not. The presented concepts will in the analysis simultaneously exemplify the young Afghan male’s different sartorial expression in different spaces and contexts.
Reflexivity
Reflexivity is a concept used in multiple disciplines and is in social science, and in this thesis, described as the process when an agent regulates and adapts the self/identity to current conditions. The reflexivity concept can also refer to researchers being aware of biases and set conceptions while doing academic work and evaluating facts.13 This type of reflexivity is very much actualised in my thesis as well but will not be referred to as the concept reflexivity. It will instead be covered in the Ethical Discussion section by the term strong objectivity.
Reflexivity is a concept studied by social scientists connected to the term reflexive modernity, also referred to as late modernity.14 Reflexive modernity is the societal consequence of the built-in condition of change that lies in the core of modernity, meaning that modernity has brought on itself a new scepticism towards the institutions and customs created by modernity. In Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (1991) Anthony Giddens develops a framework for reflexivity and connects it to individual’s identity processes in reflexive modernity. This book and its concepts and explanations will be of great importance for this thesis and will work as the main theory guiding the analysis. Since Giddens’
theory isn’t developed and adapted towards my specific topic, the use of reflexivity in the analysis will be my reading of Giddens’ theory applied onto the context of the young Afghan males.
11 David W. McCurdy, James P. Spradley, and Dianna J. Shandy. The Cultural Experience: Ethnography in Complex Society. 2nd ed. (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2004), p. 14.
12 Heike Jenss, and Viola Hoffman. eds., Fashion and Materiality Cultural Practices in Global Contexts (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020), p. 249.
13 Brenda Gray. “Putting Emotions and Reflexivity to Work when Researching Migration”, Sociology, Volume 42, Number 5, (2008), p. 936.
14 See for example; Margaret Archer. Making Our Way Trough the World: Human Reflexivity and Social Mobility. (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2007); Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens, and Scott Lash. Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. (Oxford: Polity, 1994).
6 Reflexivity is a concept formed by a phenomenological influence which characterises human action and essence in the lifeworld of late modernity.15 The concept reflexivity is the process forming the individual’s identity, adapting and re-adapting it to current society in an ongoing process. In this process, the self becomes a reflexive project with a narrative of whom the self is.16 Concurrently, the self in reflexive modernity is being shaped by the components of the society’s built in norms of constant change in the process of creating an identity and adapting that identity to prevalent conditions. The reflexive act is therefore both a consequence and a symptom of reflexive modernity, it is the act of both dealing with the change of late modernity as well as a reaction towards it. According to Giddens the self and the bodily presence are deeply intervened with the act of reflexivity, being aware of the body and regulating it, as well as making conscious decisions about adornment and appearance as a part of this process.17 Further, the self in reflexive modernity creates an identity by committing to a certain lifestyle, routinizing everyday choices, such as consumption and sartorial practices through material frameworks.18 The lifestyle routinization replaces and disrupts tradition and ceremonies and replaces the self while showcasing and producing an identity adaptable to fit different social situations, according to Giddens.19 In Giddens, reflexive modernity and reflexivity as mechanism are contrasted against traditional societies built on mechanism of rituals and customs. This contradiction becomes an important aspect in this thesis since the young Afghan males have left the traditional society of Afghanistan for the society of Sweden characterised by reflexive modernity. To further connect reflexivity to the situation and perspective of the young Afghan males, reflexivity will be referred to and used to describe the process involving the adaption towards a new society and culture, that is the assimilation process, while continuously building and developing a material identity.
Diasporic Identity
I will explore the young Afghan male’s material identity both as an expression of individuality but concurrently as a diasporic group with a shared history. The chapter “Diaspora and Cultural Memory” by Ahn Hua in Diaspora, Memory and Identity: A Search for Home (2005) provide a framework for studies touching upon different diasporic groups and their collective memory.
15 Anthony Giddens. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991), p.
47.
16 Giddens. Modernity and Self-Identity, p. 32, 75-76.
17 Giddens. Modernity and Self-Identity, p. 77.
18 Giddens. Modernity and Self-Identity, p. 81.
19 Giddens. Modernity and Self-Identity, p. 99.
7 Hua defines diaspora as a community with shared histories, containing both trauma and adjustment, but stresses the importance of various definitions. Diasporas are communities living in different geographical locations than they originated from and are often (but not always) migrants.20 In the chapter, Hua differentiates between personal and collective memory when researching diasporic communities.21 However, even though I will focus on the participants as a (diasporic) group and therefore will be aware of their shared collective memory, this does not necessarily mean that they will share the same views on sartorial practices and other issues being explored in this thesis. Hence, the focus in the analysis section will mostly be on the young Afghan males as a diasporic community sharing pre-conditions and motives as well as on their personal memories and identity processes. These definitions on diaspora will therefore be significant elements in this thesis together with the concepts of personal and collective memory.
Additionally, in the same book, diasporic identity is according to Vijay Agnew described by using the term hybridity because of the negotiation of constant flux, becoming and marginalization.22 Diasporic identity as something dual is further emphasized in the research by Stuart Hall. According to him, the duality of all cultural identity, but specifically diasporic identity (the focus in his text is Caribbean diasporic cultural identity), is in a constant state of becoming while simultaneously resting on a shared history. Much like Hua, Hall means that we need to explain cultural identity from two perspectives. The first being cultural identity defined and seen in terms of “one people” with a sort of essence shared by this specific group.23 The second perspective is the transformative and hybrid factor of cultural identity being in constant state of becoming.24 According to Hall, cultural identity is despite shared history and possibly shared experiences, also unique and shifting. Hall refers to it as being “[…] both the same and different”.25 I find it important to emphasize both Hua, Agnew and Hall’s focus on the duality aspect of cultural and diasporic identities being in a constant state of becoming since it will be an central issue in the analysis.
Finally, I will underline the importance of the concept visible migrants, used in the research by Haideh Moghissi, which is described as migrants in diasporic Muslim communities
20 Ahn Hua. “Diaspora and Cultural Memory” in Diaspora, Memory and Identity: A Search for Home ed. Vijay Agnew. (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2005), p. 192-193.
21 Hua. “Diaspora and Cultural Memory”, p. 198.
22 Vijay Agnew. ed., Diaspora, Memory and Identity: A Search for Home (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), p. 12.
23 Stuart Hall. ”Cultural Identity and Diaspora” in Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A reader. eds. Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman (London: Harvester Weatsheaf, 1994), p. 223.
24 Hall. ”Cultural Identity and Diaspora”, p. 222-225.
25 Hall. ”Cultural Identity and Diaspora”, p. 227.
8 being visible by their sartorial practices in public. Their sartorial practices may emphasise the use of ethnic/non-European dress as well as the fact that these migrants may have a different skin colour than the majority which therefore makes them visible.26
Material Identity
In this section I will explore theories about material objects, identity and consumption practices.
Scholars investigating the issues of identity and garments seem to agree that possessions are highly connected to a sense of self and the building of an identity and that the sense of one’s self incorporates the objects that the self sees as his or hers.27 Material objects as garments and other possessions become symbols for who we are, or who we want to be perceived as, and work as tools in the identity process. According to Grant McCracken, cultural categories are shaping and constructing our worlds while creating specific cultures with specific norms and values through the help of material objects. “Objects contribute to the construction of the culturally constituted world precisely because they are a vital, tangible record of cultural meaning that is otherwise intangible”.28 Accordingly, dressing practices is the act of being able to decide which cultural category you want to place yourself in.29 According to McCracken, the meaning attached to an object from the cultural category it is associated with, transfers meaning onto the consumer through the consuming process.30
In this thesis, the term material identity will be used to describe the intervened processes of identity and sartorial practices. In the concept of material identity, the term material stands for the act of dressing and fashioning the body, that is, the sartorial practices. The term identity is the outcome of both social and biological factors. Social, as dependent on position and situation and biological, dependent on pre-conditions such as race and gender, as well as traits such as skin colour and appearance. Concludingly, in the process of creating a material identity the individual is presenting, communicating and accommodating the identity and self through the non-verbal symbol of materializing through dressing. The concept material identity will therefore be used to describe the process and unfolding of the young Afghan males’ sartorial
26 Haideh Moghissi. “The `Muslim´ Diaspora and Research on Gender: Promises and Perils” in Diaspora, Memory and Identity:
A Search for Home ed. Agnew, p. 258.
27 See for example; Helga Dittmar. Consumer Culture, Identity and Well-Being: The Search for a `Good Life´ and the ´Body Perfect´. (Hove: Psychology, 2011); Daniel Miller. Stuff. (Cambridge: Polity, 2013); Russell W. Belk. "Possessions and the Extended Self," Journal of Consumer Research 15, September, (1988); James Williams. “The Consciousness of Self” in Principles of Psychology. Volume 1, (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, (1981), 1890).
28 Grant McCracken. “Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods”, The Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 13, Number 1 (1986), p. 73.
29 McCracken. “Culture and Consumption”, p. 72.
30 McCracken. “Culture and Consumption”, p. 78.
9 practices. To analyse the creation of a material identity I will present a couple of studies and theories to understand and explain identity formation linked to dressing practices. Firstly, the connection between identity formation and age is emphasised by Gregory P. Stone who means that appearance is connected to identity formation in both the child and adolescent phase.31 Stone further examines the connection between appearance and self and means that “[…] the self as object and attituded is established by appearance”.32 To continue, what constitutes the self has further been studied by Ernst Prelinger (1959), focusing on adults that ranked categories such as “body parts”, “abstract ideas” and “possessions and productions” to be included and regarded as a part of the self.33 Dixon & Street (1975) tested the same hypothesis but on children and adolescents reaching the conclusion that adolescents were placing “possessions and productions” higher than average when ranking what constituted the self.34 Possessions can for adolescents therefore be “[…] instrumental to the development of self”.35 This will apply onto the young Afghan males since they are in the mentioned age span between 17-22 and are in the process of building an identity in a simultaneous act with the sartorial practices. Therefore, to study the young Afghan males’ sartorial practices in their adolescent years, when they according to these studies are intervened in the midst of their identity formation, we will be able to unlock (material) identity in a wider sense making it clear that what we wear and how we choose to fashion ourselves matters, enabling a broader understanding of migration, identity and diasporic processes.
Finally, the topic of brands and branded clothes as a form of material objects will be an important issue in this thesis. To analyse the symbolism of branded clothes I will lean on Paula von Wachenfeldt’s research, presented in the articles “The Myth of Luxury in a Fashion World”
(2018) and “The Mediation of Luxury Brands in Digital Storytelling” (2019) where she explores the meaning and symbols of luxury in the twenty-first century. Since the young Afghan males are affected by western symbols of luxury and the procedure of wanting social recognition attained by their sartorial practices, these two articles will be useful when exploring the mechanism behind the symbolism of branded garments.
31 Gregory P. Stone. “Appearance and the Self” (1962) in Dress and Identity eds. Mary Ellen Roach-Higgins, Joanne B. Eicher and Kim K. P. Johnson (New York: Fairchild Publications, 1995), p. 30.
32 Stone. “Appearance and the Self”, p. 23.
33 Ernst Prelinger. ”Extension and Structure of the Self”, The Journal of Psychology, Issue 47, Number. 1 (1957), p.14.
34 J.C Dixon and J.W Street. “The Distinction Between Self and Not-Self in Children and Adolescents”, The Journal of Genetic Psychology. Volume 127, Issue 2, (1975), p. 161.
35 Dixon and Street (1975) in Russell W. Belk. "Possessions and the Extended Self", Journal of Consumer Research. Volume 15, Number 2, (1988), p. 141.
10
Method
The aim of this thesis will be an interdisciplinary qualitative approach enabling an exploration of the material identity of ten young Afghan male migrants currently living in Sweden. The main method for collecting material will be semi-structured interviews, analysed through phenomenological interpretative analysis (IPA) and the comprehensive methodology will be a phenomenological approach.
Semi-Structured Interviews
For this thesis I have conducted semi-structured interviews with ten young Afghan males currently living in Sweden, waiting for a decision on permanent asylum. Since I was dependent on the participants’ will to share their experiences it was important for me to be aware of the possible power situation incorporated in my position as a Swedish citizen, female and researcher. I could envision this scenario to arouse both feelings of shyness and wanting to perform in a way that was expected of the participants in an interviewing situation. Thus, I used
“Asking Descriptive Questions” (1979) by James P. Spradley and Embodied Research Methods (2019) by Torkild Thanem & David Knights, before writing the questions and conducting the interviews. Spradley’s article emanates from an ethnographic approach, describing a step by step method enabling the researcher to ask the “right” questions to get better insight into informants’ culture and situation when there is a gap between informant and researcher. In their book, Thanem & Knights emphasize the importance of the embodied aspect of an interview.36 In the interview situation I was therefore aware of the fact that body language, appearance and gestures would be emotionally charged. I was thus very careful to pick neutral clothes when conducting the interviews, as well as striving to create an open and welcoming atmosphere.37 In order to achieve this, the interviews were conducted in my home.38
The interviews lasted approximately between 20-60 minutes and were all recorded and transcribed. The interviews were conducted in Swedish. All the participants have Dari or Farsi as their first language and Swedish as their second, speaking and understanding Swedish on an elevated basic level or better. Because of this precondition I tried to be very articulated and transparent in the interview situation, asking a lot of follow up questions to make sure the understanding between me and the participants was clear. Because of these preconditions, the
36 Torkild Thanem and David Knights. Embodied Research Methods (London: Sage Publications, 2019), p. 83-86.
37 Thanem and Knights. Embodied Research Methods, p. 101.
38 All the interviews were conducted in my home, except for one which was conducted at Filmhuset at the Stockholm University Fashion Department in 12-03-2020.
11 interviews underwent a language barrier in different steps. Firstly, in the occasional difficulty for the participants to express themselves in Swedish. Thereafter, during the transcribing part which in some case was a difficult process because of the participants syntax and pronunciation.
Lastly, in the translation process from Swedish to English, which in some rare cases resulted in content and information being reformulated or clarified to make the meaning clearer. As a cause of this, the quotes displayed in the analysis part will reflect the transcribed records and they will therefore, in some cases, contain non grammatically correct English.
The participants were between 17 and 22 years old, living in Stockholm and attending upper secondary school and municipal adult education when the interviews were conducted.39 When the participants arrived in Sweden they were classified as unaccompanied minors, but when they turn 18 years old they are no longer minors from the perspective of Swedish laws. I will though refer to the young Afghan males as both unaccompanied minors and migrants throughout the text since they arrived in Sweden as just unaccompanied minors. All the participants (except for two who go under other definitions of temporary asylum decrees), are comprised by gymnasielagen. Gymnasielagen is a temporary asylum decree enabling the ones comprised by it to get a permanent asylum decree if they finish their studies and thereafter get permanent work in the six-month period following.40 Due to shape of these decrees the participants do not know if they will be able to stay permanently in Sweden and this fact will be an important aspect in the analysis.
The first participant Mohammad was my main contact to reach the additional participants.
Mohammad is an acquaintance of mine and I was also familiar with two of the other young Afghan males since before. The rest of the participants were new contacts for me. Some of the participants knew each other as in being friends or sharing accommodation. Being familiar with the participants from before could be both beneficial and a disadvantage. The benefitting part could be that the researcher/participant stigma is less present in a situation where you are familiar, which hopefully could contribute to a more indulgent situation, related to one of Spradley’s notions of trying to encourage participants to answer the questions like they would have told a friend.41 However, the situation of being familiar with participants could as well
39 According to the research of Scalettaris, Monsutti and Donini (2019) recording births are not a systematic practice in Afghanistan and age is often determined after criteria’s such as matureness and capability. This practice often collides with the western perception of age as set and recorded, because of this, the age of the participants is not absolute. However, even when important to highlight this element, the age discussion surrounding Afghan migrants will not be emphasised further in this thesis.
40 Migrationsverket, 2020, “Om Gymnasielagen”. Accessed: 24-03-2020. https://www.migrationsverket.se/Andra- aktorer/Kommuner/Om-gymnasielagen.html
41 James P. Spradley. “Asking Descriptive Questions”, The Ethnographic Interview, 1st Edition, (1979), p. 52.
12 affect the situation to be less open and to possibly be more affected by unstated expectations from the participants perspective. According to Sharam Khosravi, interviews can for refugees/migrants be associated with the asylum process leading to the answers possibly being affected by these previous associations.42 Khosravi also stresses that the role of the refugee/migrant could require the individual to “[…] perform the role ascribed to them”, meaning that their situation requires them to be one-dimensional and to some extent possibly exaggerating and overplaying to gain advantages in the asylum process.43 Even though my interviews have been focused on the more neutral subject of clothes, they have still been touching on subjects related to the current asylum process. This is important to be aware of, but the fact that these interviews were mainly touching upon their personal experiences of sartorial practices is crucial.
I sent all the participants the questions in advance, so they were able to read and think through the answers. I also informed the participants, in writing, about the circumstances of the interviews clearly stating the aim, the aspect of the interviews being recorded and transcribed as well as the fact that they could choose to be anonymous in the study if they wanted to.
However, the names in the thesis are their real names, since no one wanted to be anonymous.
After the interviews were conducted, I sent the transcribed interviews to the participants to approve and has continuously provided a possibility for them to remove parts throughout the process, which has though not been actualized. Lastly, I informed the participants about the final thesis being written in English (which most of them are not fluent in) and that they will receive it even if they are not able to read it and fully understand the text.
In addition to the interviews I planned to accompany some of the participants to a concert with an Afghan singer to celebrate the Afghan new year (nawroz). I wanted to attend the concert to gain more knowledge of Afghan culture and to witness a situation when the young Afghan males were surrounded by other individuals of Afghan origin and observe the clothing choices and in-group materiality taking place. However, due to the course of event related to the Covid- 19 pandemic during the spring of 2020, the concert was cancelled. I have additionally executed an external interview with Mohammad to be able to get an oral source to confirm and help me gain and broaden my knowledge about Afghanistan and Afghan culture. An oral source together with multiple written sources will make me create a wider and more nuanced picture and understanding of Afghan culture which is necessary for me as a researcher studying a group where I do not share initial experience.
42 Sharam Khosravi. 'Illegal' Traveller: An Auto-ethnography of Borders (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), p. 71.
43 Khosravi. 'Illegal' Traveller, p. 72.
13 Participants.
Name: Mohammad. Time in Sweden: 4 years.
Name: Alireza. Time in Sweden: 4,5 years.
Name: Mahdi. Time in Sweden: 4,5 years.
Name: Homayong. Time in Sweden: 5 years.
Name: Amed. Time in Sweden: 4 years.
Name: Marcus. Time in Sweden: 4 years.
Name: Farrid. Time in Sweden: 4 years.
Name: Michael. Time in Sweden: 4 years.
Name: Aref. Time in Sweden: 5 years.
Name: Amir. Time in Sweden: 5 years.
Phenomenology and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Phenomenology as a method was initially developed by Edmund Husserl and has been further elaborated by for example Martin Heidegger in Being and Time (1927), Alfred Schütz in On Phenomenology and Social Relations (1970) and by Sara Ahmed in Queer Phenomenology:
Orientations, Objects, Others (2006). Phenomenology emanates from studying phenomena subjectively through individual experiences and the phenomenological approach is based on the notion of individuals creating meaning and knowledge from consciousness, adding to the individual’s experience of his own reality. In the implementation of a phenomenological methodological framework I will investigate lived experience precepted through the young Afghan males, connected to the initial aim of this thesis. Their perception of “reality” as the essence of their lifeworld is what will steer the thesis.44 The concept essence appears in this thesis both as a concept referring to the central idea of phenomenology and in the theories by Hall. However, even if the concept is used to describe different aspects, the meaning of the concept essence is in both contexts principally trying to describe the human processes of becoming and being (that is identity formation). Additionally, the comprehensive choices of theories and additional methods has been actively applied with the phenomenological approach in mind.
44 The concept essence is in Husserl’s phenomenological approach the signifiers of a physical object and/or how the physical object is intended to be used or seen or how it is experienced from a human perspective. Essence can also be applied to a human being or an animal since it has a corporality which resembles the physical object. These beings with an essence exist in the lifeworld. The lifeworld concept is according to Husserl our everyday world which we live and act in. (Staffan Carlshamre. Fenomenologi – Ett Försök till en Pedagogisk Översikt. Stockholm Universitet, 2007, p. 5–6. Accessed: 07-05- 2020. https://www2.philosophy.su.se/carlshamre/texter/Fenomenologi.pdf)
14 Leaning on phenomenology as a comprehensive methodology, there are many methods analysing qualitative data from interviews. Choosing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was partly based on the decision of rejecting discourse analysis because of its strong focus on the function of language.45 To focus on the function of language was not applicable in this thesis since the language barrier made it difficult to interpret the interviews literally. IPA was developed as a qualitative psychological analysing tool inspired by the key concepts of phenomenology. It is an interdisciplinary method and has been applied to multiple studies evolving around identity which therefore made it a suitable method for this thesis.46 IPA concerns both the phenomenological part focusing on individual’s perception of objects and lifeworld and the hermeneutic personal aspect of each case.47 The distinctive features of IPA are the ideographic, inductive and interrogative aspects. IPA recommends a maximum of 15 participants in one-on-one semi-structured interviews. The low number of recommended participants is related to enabling an ideographic detailed analysis of each case.48 According to Amedeo Giorgi & Barbro Giorgi (2003) cited in Jonathan A. Smith’s “Reflecting on the Development of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and its Contribution to Qualitative Research in Psychology” (2004),the detailed analysis of the specific cases bring us “[…] closer to significant aspects of a shared humanity, and the particular case can therefore be described as containing an ‘essence’[…]” which is connected to Husserl’s initial phenomenological approach.49 The inductive aspect relates to the researcher being aware of keeping an open mind, letting side-tracks be a part of the final material, as well as starting the study with open questions instead of a set hypothesis.50 Thereafter, the focus is to detect meaning. By following this inductive aspect, my aim was focused on the interviews and to let their content steer the thesis.
I had 18 questions as a skeleton, but in most cases the interviews developed into a conversation between me and the participant.51 The questions were often leading to topics that I hadn’t intended to discuss and since I wanted the answers to lead the focus of the thesis, I allowed the conversation to live. The last aspect, interrogative, refers to setting the detected material into
45 Katie Reid, Paul Flowers, and Michael Larkin. “Exploring Lived Experience”, The Psychologist. Volume 18, Number 1, (2005), p. 21.
46 See for example; Adrian Coyle, and Deborah Rafalin. “Jewish Gay Men’s Accounts of Negotiating Cultural, Religious, and Sexual Identity”, Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality. Volume 12, Issue 4, (2001); Lada Timotigevic, and Glynnis M.
Breakwell. “Migration and Threat to Identity”, Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology. 10, (2000).
47 Jonathan A. Smith. “Reflecting on the Development of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and its Contribution to Qualitative Research in Psychology”, Qualitative Research in Psychology 1:1 (2004), p. 40.
48 Smith. “Reflecting”, p. 42.
49 Amedeo Giorgi, and Barbro Giorgi (2003) in Smith “Reflecting”, p. 43.
50 Smith. “Reflecting”, p. 43.
51 See questions in Appendix.
15 conversation with established theories in the field of the body of material.52 The actual analysing part of IPA is dependent on organising and thematising content, interpreting with a reflexive approach.53 In the IPA process, the focus is on one case at a time analysing it in detail which enables a cross-case analysis resulting in themes.54 In the analysis process I applied the IPA approach while reading through the transcribed interviews mutinously, creating a document interpreting and grouping themes and subthemes. These themes will be presented in the analysis part and examined with the help of the theoretical framework.
Previous Research
In the process of gathering material for this thesis I have not come across any research that specifically touches upon the sartorial practices of migrants, neither in a Swedish context nor regarding Afghan (male) migrants. However, there is a doctoral thesis by Ebru Kurt & Kira Kneijnsberg (2016) about the sartorial identity of young refugees in Germany. Unfortunately, it is not translated to English and I was therefore left with the short outline provided by Fashion and Materiality: Cultural Practices in Global Context.55 Furthermore, there are a few studies on diasporic groups’ sartorial practices in the west, though they are focused on the practising of non-European/ethnic dress, for example the practising of Islamic dress in Finland.56 Hence, since none of the participating young Afghan males wear Afghan or Islamic dress in the everyday sartorial practices, I do not believe this research to be of further relevance for this thesis.
Nevertheless, the chapter “Styles of Religious Practice: Muslim Youth Cultures in Europe” by Sunnier in Muslim Diaspora in the West: Negotiating Gender, Home and Belonging provides an insight into Muslim diasporic youth communities in Europe touching upon the connections between integration, Muslim and western embodiment hybridization and identity and is in this regard a key study in the process of assembling research related to my area of interest. According to Sunnier “[…] performance and aesthetics are central concepts to understand the reproducing of Islam among young people in Europe”.57 Additionally, Jonathan
52 Smith. “Reflecting”, p. 43.
53 Reid, Flowers, and Larkin. “Exploring Lived Experience”, p. 22-23.
54 Smith. “Reflecting”, p. 41.
55 Ebru Kurt and Kira Kneijnsberg. “Vesitmentäre Identitätsarbeit von jugendlichen Flüchtlingen – Die Herausforderung, den eigen Stil zu Finden” (Master Thesis, TU Dortmund University, Seminar für Kulturanthroplogie des textilen. 2016)
56 See for example; Anna-Maria Almila. “Fashion, Anti-Fashion, Non-Fashion and Symbolic Capital: The Use of Dress Among Muslim Minorities in Finland”, Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture. Volume. 20, Issue 1, (2016); Ritva, Koskennurmi-Sivonen, Jaana Koivula, and Seija Maijala. ”United Fashion: Making a Muslim Appearance in Finland”, Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture. Volume. 8, Issue 4, (2004).
57 Sunnier. “Styles of Religious Practice”, p. 129-130.
16 Friedman’s article Being in the World: Localization and Globalization (1990) is not a study connected to Afghan sartorial practices but will due to the lack of analogous studies provide as a comparison in the analysis, since it touches upon the importance of material objects as status symbols of western opulence through the case study of the Congolese subculture of la sape.
Because of the absence of studies directly relating to my specific area of research, I will in more detail explore some of the research done on Afghan migrants and unaccompanied minors as well as highlighting the few studies on the connection between fashion and migration, disentangling migrations role in the wider context of fashion. Concludingly, the presented previous research on Afghan Migrants and Unaccompanied Minors will be conducted in migration studies, social science and psychology. The part on Fashion and Migration will cover previous research in fashion studies. Therefore, I will actively combine different disciplines to enable the coverage of this thesis interdisciplinary aim.
Afghan Migrants and Unaccompanied Minors
Afghan migrants and especially unaccompanied minors are a large migrant group, in 2015 they were the second biggest migrants group applying for asylum in European countries.58 The following presented studies all highlights different aspects of and research on Afghan migrants and unaccompanied minors. Firstly, Katie Kuschminder, Julia de Bresser & Melissa Siegel’s (2015) research provide an overview of factors influencing migration routes to and in Europe.
They do not specify a certain migrant group but considers the Nordic countries to be a “top destination” for all migrants based on the number of filed asylum applications.59 Secondly, Eskil Wadensjö & Aycan Celikaksoy (2016) makes in their report a qualitative overview of collected research related to unaccompanied minor migrants in Sweden. In this report they compare and implement aspects on migration arrangements from selected countries and conclude possible provisions being made to simplify integration for unaccompanied minors in Sweden. None of these two research overviews focus on Afghan migrants solely but provide a comprehensive outline of the reasons behind migration decisions, as well as describing the journey and ultimately the pursuits of arriving and applying for asylum. Further, there are a handful of studies where the issues of war trauma, wounded memory and mental illness in the Afghan migrant group is explored.60
58 Scalettaris, Monsutti, and Donini. “Young Afghans at the Doorstep of Europe”, p. 1.
59 Katie Kuschminder, Julia de Bresser, and Melissa Siegel. Irregular Migration Routes to Europe and Factors Influencing Migrants Destination Choices (Doctoral Thesis. Maastricht University, 2015), p. 50.
60 See for example; Denise Phillips. “Wounded Memory of Hazara Refugees from Afghanistan Remembering and Forgetting Persecution”, History Australia. Volume 8, Issue 2, (2011); Rim Mghir, and Allen Raskin. “The Psychological Effects of the War
17 An additionally important contribution to the research on Afghan migrants is the article
“Young Afghans at the Doorstep of Europe: The Difficult Art of Being a Successful Migrant”
(2019) by Scalettaris, Monsutti & Donini. In the article the authors have interviewed unaccompanied minor Afghan migrants in Europe about their situation, memories and pursuits.
The article concludes the complex migration process as a rite of passage possibly resulting in the migrants being “successful migrants”, meaning that they manage to get permanent asylum in Europe, which is granted only for a few. The article offers a complex insight into the comprehensive migration issue and into the specific issue of unaccompanied Afghan migrants.
Finally, two papers are, from different angles of approach, touching upon identity and agency of Afghan Hazara migrants in Australia. Cheryl Lange, Zahra Kamalkhani & Loretta Baldassar’s paper “Afghan Hazara Refugees in Australia: Constructing Australian Citizens”
(2007), focuses on depicting Hazara migrant’s identity and agency as new citizens while learning English. Debbie Rodan & Cheryl Lange’s paper “Going Overboard? Representing Hazara Afghan Refugees as Just Like us”(2008) focuses in turn on the representation of Hazara migrants in two Australian television shows creating and maintaining the Hazara migrants both as full-fledge Australian citizens and as other.61
Migration in Fashion
Migration has always affected material conditions, both in practical ways such as needing clothes adapted to shifting climates, as well as connected to assimilation processes in a new culture and homeland. Additionally, the migration process can be displayed both in individuals’
everyday sartorial practices and in the wider context of high fashion.
Jenss Heike and Viola Hofmann writes in the anthology Fashion and Materiality:
Cultural Practices in Global Contexts about the connection between migration and different aspects of materiality. During the European Migrant Crises in 2015, clothing became a material asset donated to the cause by the masses in Europe, though, it became evident that many migrants didn’t want to be “[…] marked and identified as needy, by wearing second hand goods”.62 This statement is not further developed in the text but it demonstrates the diverse
in Afghanistan on Young Afghan Refugees from Different Ethnic Background”, International Journal on Social Psychiatry.
Volume 45. Number 1, (1999).
61 The terms other and othering are in this thesis is both accounting for a non-western individual which is classified as a subordinated oriental stereotype with a divergent essence from a western perspective and is also used to describe individuals that is considered to differ from the group they are categorized from or belongs to. (Alison Mountz. “The Other” in Key Concepts in Political Geography eds. Peter Shirlow, Carl T Dahlman, Carolyn Gallagher, Mary Gilmartin and Alison Mountz.
Sage. 2009, p. 328.)
62 Jenss and Hofmann. eds. Fashion and Materiality, p. 235-236.
18 contexts existing between materiality and migration, framed by an historical background of garments as valuable commodities, as well as highlighting the difficulty on how to help migrants in their current situations. It also discloses the assumption that individuals do not necessarily want to wear used and donated clothes just because they are migrants.
In the same anthology, Gaugele writes in the chapter: “Entangled Histories: Fashion and the Politics of Migration” about high fashions reaction towards the migrant crises in 2015 and forward. One example is the case of three asylum seekers arriving in Italy in 2015, being invited to model in the “Generation Africa” show at the Florence Menswear Fashion Week the same year. The show got attention both for raising awareness on the migrant situation as well as raising questions about othering in fashion.63 In Djurdja Bartlett’s Fashion and Politics (2019) the migrant issue is further exemplified by the Balenciaga SS18 Menswear collection, designed by Demna Gvasalia.64 The collection featured models wearing shirts around theirs heads connoting to migrants transporting the clothes they carry with them on their bodies while simultaneously resembling shawls associated with Middle Eastern dressing practices. Gvasalia further displayed printed hoodies and shirts with the text Europa! and a leather jacket with the print The Power of Dreams, which in this context could be interpreted as referring to migrant’s dreams of the west. Two more recent examples that are also worth mentioning are Vetements SS19 Ready-to-Wear and Telfar SS20 Menswear. In the Vetements collection, Gvasalia remembers and explores his childhood in Georgia in the shadow of the civil war in the 1990s and his experience of being a migrant. The Vetements show was held below a bridge in the Montrouge area in Paris which is an area where many migrants/refugees live and sleep under bridges.65 The collection displayed models wearing black masks connoting towards political manifestations and militaries, hoodies with prints such as Georgia, military patterns, flags, and symbols possibly referring to the red cross and their Muslim sister organisation the red half- moon.66 The Telfar collection was presented together with a short film, The World isn’t Everything, also touching upon the issue of migration. Telfar’s founder Telfar Clemens has personal experience of being a migrant.67 In a clip from the movie we see an all-black cast
63 Gaugele. “Entangled Histories”, p. 263.
64 Sarah Mower. “Balenciaga SS18 Menswear”, Vogue. Published: 21-06-2017. Accessed: 31-03-2020.
https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2018-menswear/balenciaga
65 Djurdja Bartlett. ed. Fashion and Politics (Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 2019), p. 38–39.
66 Sarah Mower. “Vetements SS19 Ready-to-wear”, Vogue. Published: 01-07-2018. Accessed: 31-03-2020.
https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2019-ready-to-wear/vetements
67 Chioma Nnadi. “Telfar Clemens Teases His New Collection with a Screening Party in Bushwick”, Vogue. Published: 08-09- 2019. Accessed: 01-04-2020. https://www.vogue.com/article/telfar-spring-2020-video-bushwick-trailer-party
19 wearing clothes from the Telfar collection walking on a catwalk floating on water, while a voice asks questions related to declaring things at an airport, heritage and citizenship.68
Ethical Discussion
Since I am a white Swedish woman with no experience of being a migrant, as well as not having any experiences of being subjected to racism or societal alienation, having an ethical discussion about my role writing this thesis felt necessary. Even though I want to direct focus away from myself and instead give space to the voices of the young Afghan males, I believe it to be important discussing my role as a researcher together with some of the approaches I have implemented into the work of this thesis.
Firstly, my focus when working with this thesis has actively been to provide a space for individuals that are often not heard in academia in general and in fashion studies in particular.
However, while letting the young Afghan males’ voices and experiences take up the space of this thesis, my perspective as a researcher analysing the content is still central.
Secondly, when conducting this type of research even though I have been focused on the topic of material identity, it has been inevitable hearing stories and incidents during the interviews which are personal and deeply moving and in that situation being affected, not just as a researcher but as a human being. For example, during the thesis process one of the participants got a refusal on his last asylum application. When I finished the writing of this thesis his situation was still obscure. However, I will simultaneously let the thesis speak for itself and not take any position in the debate surrounding the issue of migrants/refugees’ in Sweden.
Lastly, I have used standpoint theory to make myself aware of the researcher/participant power situation intervened in the complex issues of transnationalism and migration, while still enabling myself to be the “owner” of the conducted research presented in this thesis. Standpoint theory is a sociological theory departing from experience and situated knowledge of minority groups and individuals, often focused on oppression and discrimination as a starting point for the production of knowledge. InWhose science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women’s Lives (1991) Sandra Harding criticises that “knowers” in science are interchangeable and dismisses “objective” knowledge, criticising the production of knowledge being historically driven by a male, western and bourgeois dominance maintaining a scientific hegemony, referred
68 The World isn’t Everything. Vimeo. Still from Video. 2:27. Accessed: 01-04-2020. https://vimeo.com/363290010
