Katri Gadd | Åbo Akademi University (original) (raw)

Papers by Katri Gadd

Psychological Applications and Trends 2019

Many asylum seekers have encountered various types of violence in their lives including physical ... more Many asylum seekers have encountered various types of violence in their lives including physical and verbal harm, but also emotional violence. This paper evaluates yet another type of violence, namely epistemic violence, which asylum seekers may encounter when they arrive to a country seeking asylum. Epistemic violence is a failure of hearers to understand and acknowledge the speech of speakers in linguistic exchanges causing a negative impact on the speaker. Thus, epistemic violence is indirect and non-physical, yet it might have extremely severe legal and psychological consequences, such as a negative decision on an asylum request and the trauma caused by the decision and the situation in which person encounters the fork on the road: "Should I stay in Finland, or should I go?". In 2015, Finland received an eightfold number of asylum applications compared with the previous years. Finnish authorities were not well prepared for the increase and in 2016 laws and regulations regarding immigration and legal aid were amended. According to the amended law, the legal assistance in the asylum interview is in practice no longer possible unless there are particularly serious reasons. In this paper we report findings from interviews with 70 former asylum seekers regarding their experiences of their asylum interviews. We illustrate that many former asylum seekers did not experience to have been able to tell their story in such a way that their realities would have been understood and now they are irregular migrants. Irregular migration is a timely phenomenon. Furthermore, it is highly multidisciplinary phenomenon requiring a holistic evaluation and discussion gathering academics from various disciplines including (but not being limited to) psychology, geography, sociology and law. Epistemic violence needs to be avoided as much as possible in European immigration and social policies as it might increase irregular migration. Moreover, most importantly, it increases unnecessary agony and psychological stress for individual asylum seekers. Epistemic violence, as any other violence, has significant psychological effects through the negotiation of individual's self-esteem on a moment in which many experience to have lost the direction of the life. Consequently, we stress that the decision makers ought to acknowledge the possible side effects of the chosen social policies as those side effects such as an increase in experienced epistemic violence, might have extensive impact on living conditions and the quality of life of people in the society.

Reconnect blog, Jan 7, 2021

not%201-12%20Johdatusta%20semiotiikkaan-2011.pdf Seiter, Ellen (1992). Semiotics, structuralism a... more not%201-12%20Johdatusta%20semiotiikkaan-2011.pdf Seiter, Ellen (1992). Semiotics, structuralism and television.

Children and young people who drift about the streets working, having fun, relaxing in the shade ... more Children and young people who drift about the streets working, having fun, relaxing in the shade or committing petty crimes are an increasingly visible part of the dynamics in cities around the world. They are often misunderstood, despite researchers’ aspirations to diminish the gap between the common understanding about street realities and the realities experienced by the children and young people in street situation. Researchers attempt to demonstrate this reality by covering the varied aspects of street life such as; street life style, the reasons for migrating to the streets, survival strategies, identity, and agency. Owing to the misconceptions, the activities of these children and young people are frequently misinterpreted by societies in general, and the children and young people are represented as the primary causes of the accretion in social evils, such as crime, drugs, or prostitution. However, the elements of street life are highly inextricable and should be kept together in analyses of street realities. These inextricable elements include, mentioning but a few, mental and social elements and their interrelations with the physical street environments and vice versa. Moreover, within the social sciences, little focus has been given to aspects such as sadness, depression, low self‐esteem, and other mental burdens create by living on the streets. All these aspects, whether human or non‐human have different meanings for individuals; aspects are interpreted in a variety of ways and affecting how livelihoods are experienced. In this thesis, I explore the lives of children and young people living on the streets of Pelotas in southern Brazil using a time‐geographic methodology, which provides a useful perspective in order to investigate children’s and adolescents’ lives on the streets. I have three concrete research questions in this dissertation: 1. What processes impact the multidimensional networks within which children and young people on the streets are connected? 2. How are the relationships of these children and young people with their street environments formed in relation to space and time? 3. What are the processes behind the actions of children and young people on the streets? I investigated 19 children and young people, and their relationships with their multidimensional environment using various traditional methods such as observation, interviews, and focus group discussions. I also used self‐designed exercises and walkabouts and analysed poems, lyrics, and photographs taken by the participants. My interest was primarily on the interconnections between different elements from the mental, socio‐cultural dimensions of space, and the physical street environments where my participants were visibly present. Furthermore, I illustrate how they actively structure their lives on the streets. This dissertation illustrates the how the highly relational nature of street life is shaped by the constantly changing succession of encounters and dispersions of the manifold elements that form the complex networks of the streets. These networks are shaped by multiple intertwined processes, which connect different times and spaces. The legacy of past times, in the form of outdated legislation, repute, or the ways in which street living people are portrayed in the media or even in fiction, impact the networks of children and youths who are living on the streets. Moreover, children and young people actively transform the networks within which they are connected. To a great extent, these same processes, which shape the networks of street children, are behind the activities of the children and young people, i.e. certain elements in the environment are approached physically or in the imagination in order to reach one’s own goals. The goals are often related to possibilities to create a better means of survival and live as normal a life as possible, in one way or another. To reach their goals these children and young people create space‐time pockets either physically, by socially forming them, or merely imagining. The relationships children and young people on the streets develop with the environment are the result of constant negotiation between one’s own desires and wants in relation to what is perceived as affordable in the environment for the person. This complex negotiation is also affected by past experiences, as well as by hopes for the future.Lapset ja nuoret, jotka kuljeskelevat kaduilla työskennellen, pitäen hauskaa, rentoutuen viileissä varjoissa tai pikku rikoksia tehden, ovat enenevässä määrin näkyvä osa kaupunkien dynamiikkaa ympäri maailman. He ovat usein väärinymmärrettyjä, huolimatta tutkijoiden yrityksistä pienentää yleisen käsityksen ja koetun katutodellisuuden välistä kuilua tutkimalla useita katuelämän aspekteja, kuten katuelämäntapoja, kadulle muuton syitä, selviytymiskeinoja, katulasten identiteettiä ja toimijuutta. Väärinymmärrysten takia yhteiskunta tulkitsee tämän tästä väärin kadulla…

The Geographical Journal, 2021

This article explores how multiple layers of spacetimes overlap and merge in individuals’ lives a... more This article explores how multiple layers of spacetimes overlap and merge in individuals’ lives and relationships, transforming, enhancing, and/or hampering their abilities to interact with the environment. Drawing upon content‐analysed ethnographic notes, the article investigates the case of irregular migrants in Finland. It shows how their past activities, practices, and relationships, as well as their hopes and fears for the future, materially shape their now‐times. The latter change and evolve through a relentless combination of different past and future elements, in multiple, disparate, and often contradictory ways. This article considers how these migrants survive by inventing new activities and practices and building social relationships (with local residents and their own communities) on a daily basis, negotiating disparate elements, such as laws, digital and physical spaces, and work‐ and health‐related issues. In so doing, migrants acquire, in roundabout (non‐linear) ways, the knowledge and capacity to deal with their current, stressful conditions. The article shows how a spatio‐temporal approach can transform the emotional geographies of irregular migrants by shedding light on how they navigate the disparate and often conflicting elements of their lives, activities, and relationships.

Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2021

This article demonstrates the usefulness of time-geographic approach in research with irregular m... more This article demonstrates the usefulness of time-geographic approach in research with irregular migrants. Time-geographic approach acknowledges individual space-times as being assembled of multiple...

Social & Cultural Geography, 2019

This longitudinal qualitative research explores the significance of affects in the lives of child... more This longitudinal qualitative research explores the significance of affects in the lives of children and young people on the streets of Pelotas, Brazil. Affects have not previously been examined in depth in a street context, despite their impact on the experiences and behaviour of street children. Street affects emerge in and through encounters between the human and non-human elements of the urban environment. When a set of affects arise and endure through time, street dwellers may experience them as affective atmospheres and respond in particular ways. They may also try to manipulate affects and to thereby change affective atmospheres, and yet the success of such efforts can never be guaranteed. This article shows that manipulating affect on the streets of Pelotas is a way to obtain and wield power, and that power hierarchies on the streets are partly based on successful affect manipulation. I argue that future geographical research ought to focus on situations in which particular affective atmospheres, such as those characterized by fear, are subject to contestation and challenge. Comprendre les affects dans les vies des enfants des rues de Pelotas au Brésil Cette recherche longitudinale qualitative explore l'importance des affects dans les vies des enfants et des jeunes dans les rues de Pelotas au Brésil. Les affects n'ont jusqu'ici pas été étudiés en profondeur dans le contexte de la rue, malgré leurs retombées sur les expériences et le comportement des enfants des rues. Les affects de la rue émergent dans et à travers les rencontres entre les humains et les éléments non-humains de l'environnement urbain. Quand un ensemble d'affects se font jour et durent dans le temps, les habitants des rues peuvent les vivre comme des atmosphères affectives et réagir de manières spécifiques. Ils peuvent aussi essayer de manipuler les affects et de ce fait, changer les atmosphères affectives et pourtant le succès de tels efforts ne peut jamais être garanti. Cet article montre que la manipulation d'affect dans les rues de Pelotas est une façon d'obtenir et de brandir le pouvoir et que les hiérarchies du pouvoir dans les rues reposent en partie sur une manipulation réussie de l'affect. Je soutiens que la recherche géographique dans l'avenir devrait se ARTICLE HISTORY

YOUNG, 2017

This article investigates the life experiences of 19 young people on the streets of Pelotas, sout... more This article investigates the life experiences of 19 young people on the streets of Pelotas, southern Brazil. Manifold methods were used revealing several highly interconnected aspects in their realities. This study, which was conducted for a period of seven years (2009–2016), illustrates how the studied street youths form their environments physically, socially and mentally in order to reach their goals and create the multiple means of survival in challenging street environment. It is important to understand heterogeneous, interrelated physical, sociocultural and mental elements to study subjectively experienced realities. Personally experienced multidimensional constraints and incentives and the individual’s own goals shape these realities.

Journal of Youth Studies, 2016

ABSTRACT This article explores the processes which affect street children and youths’ relationshi... more ABSTRACT This article explores the processes which affect street children and youths’ relationships with the place called the ‘streets’. The street as a place to live is violent and hostile. However, street dwellers aspire to see the street environment positively. In fact, being able to establish a positive relationship with the street, to become attached to it, is crucial for coping within it. In this research, longitudinal qualitative data concentrating on processes were produced time-geographically with 19 street children and youths in the Brazilian town of Pelotas. The analyses of this research reveal that attachment changes over time instead of remaining static. Examples from the streets demonstrate how the human–environment relationship is shaped by constantly changing encounters of physical, social and mental (f)actors. This article stresses the importance of individual life experiences and goals for the attachment processes and for what positively affects the attachment.

Children's Geographies, 2015

This article investigates the street-children phenomenon and their view of street life as actor-n... more This article investigates the street-children phenomenon and their view of street life as actor-networks in Pelotas, Brazil. Street children manipulate actor-networks to reach their life goals. They physically approach certain actors and withdraw from others. To explore this phenomenon, I acquired qualitative data about the lives of 19 street children over 7 years. Manifold methods were utilised: observation, interviews, poems, walkabouts and drawings. The most important actors from the children's perspective affecting street life, such as other street children, police, violence, trees offering safety, street knowledge, sunglasses, drugs and states of mind, were discovered. I analysed children's lives by combining actor-network theory and time-geography, which clarified why same actors may hold varying meanings depending on the other actors in the networks. Furthermore, the capacity of actors is influenced by the intensity of the connection between actors and the reasons why certain actors are enrolled in the networks.

RECONNECT Deliverable 13.2., 2021