Dissertation in Sociology with Shifte Mosalli

The doctoral dissertation "The Power Dimensions of Mobility – Class and Race in the Geography of Inequality" examines class mobility, so-called class trips, among racialized people who grew up in Swedish suburbs. Based on the participants' own stories, it is analyzed how their experiences of moving between different social positions are connected to broader societal processes. The thesis shows that class mobility is not a simple or neutral movement, but a complex and power-driven process that can entail both opportunities for recognition and inclusion, but also demands for distance to the communities one comes from.

"I show how class mobility is not a linear or neutral movement between two positions, but an ongoing and power-driven process," says Shifte Mosalli.

The interest in the subject is partly rooted in a theoretical engagement in questions of power, race, class and place, and partly in contemporary social debates where integration and class mobility are often highlighted as solutions to segregation and inequality. In this context, class mobility often becomes a normative ideal, something that is especially expected of racialized people from the suburbs. The dissertation therefore examines how these expectations are experienced by people who, according to society's norms, are considered to have succeeded in their class journey.

The dissertation will take place on April 24 in room O111 Mid Sweden University, Campus Sundsvall at 13:15.

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Supervisors:

Katarina Giritli Nygren

Assistant supervisor:

Angelika Sjöstedt, Ebru Özturk

Examination Board:

Sabine Gruber, Professor of Social Work, Mid Sweden University. Alireza Behtoui, Professor of Sociology, Södertörn University. Maja Cederberg, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Gothenburg.

Opponent:

Anders Neergaard, Professor of Sociology

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