Title Information
Title
Black American Women in Sweden: Making Sense of Changing Fields
Name: Personal
Name Part
Thompson, Dondrea R.
Role
Role Term: Text
creator
Origin Information
Copyright Date (encoding="w3cdtf", keyDate="yes")
2009
Physical Description
Extent
v, 246 p.
digitalOrigin
born digital
Note
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Brown University (2009)
Name: Personal
Name Part
Fruzzetti, Lina
Role
Role Term: Text
director
Name: Personal
Name Part
Hollos, Marida
Role
Role Term: Text
reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Townsend, Nicholas
Role
Role Term: Text
reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Sawyer, Lena
Role
Role Term: Text
reader
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. Anthropology
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Genre (aat)
theses
Abstract
Anthropological studies of black Americans' lives beyond the borders of the United States are rare and a literature gap exists in the study of this part of the ?New Black Diaspora'. This dissertation explores how black American women negotiate being both black and American as residents of Sweden, a nation in which recent immigration has precipitated debates about the existence of a distinct racial hierarchy of belonging and acceptance. In this research, conducted through interviews, and participant observation, this negotiation is addressed firstly by an examination of how black American women are placed and positioned by others and how they place and position themselves in their new location. Secondly, it is addressed by an examination of whether the women possess a sense of belonging to the US and/or to Sweden and the form(s) it may take. This study suggests that this negotiation is experienced through the navigation of multiple and simultaneously existing social fields. It is argued that Black American women in Sweden occupy separate and distinct placements and positionings with respect to each of these transnational social fields through the successful activation of specific and differing forms of capital. Moreover, it is argued that they practice ?American ways of belonging', which are selective and changing over time. They also practice ?Swedish ways of being' from which they gain some measure of acceptance through the quotidian participatory acts in which they engage. Finally, this research reveals the shifting values that the women place on different sets of interactions, which suggests that the value of fields themselves may shift in importance to an individual.
Subject (Local)
Topic
African-American
Subject (Local)
Topic
Scandinavia
Subject (Local)
Topic
Europe
Subject (Local)
Topic
Diaspora
Subject (Local)
Topic
Transnationalism
Subject (Local)
Topic
Belonging
Subject (Local)
Topic
Capital
Subject (Local)
Topic
Immigrants
Subject (Local)
Topic
Racism
Subject (Local)
Topic
Positioning
Subject (Local)
Topic
Sensemaking
Subject (Local)
Topic
Black Capital
Subject (Local)
Topic
Transnational
Record Information
Record Content Source (marcorg)
RPB
Record Creation Date (encoding="iso8601")
20091218
Language
Language Term: Code (ISO639-2B)
eng
Language Term: Text
English
Identifier: DOI
10.7301/Z03N21N7
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
Collection is open for research.
Type of Resource (primo)
dissertations