Kerstin Sandell | Lund University (original) (raw)
Uploads
Papers by Kerstin Sandell
Legitimizing Ess Big Science As a Collaboration Across Boundaries, 2013
Haften For Kritiska Studier, 2005
Att Utmana Vetandets Granser, 2005
Acta Sociologica, 1999
ABSTRACT Why is the notion of experience so relevant for feminist theory? How has the concept bee... more ABSTRACT Why is the notion of experience so relevant for feminist theory? How has the concept been used and by whom? What are the theoretical and political implications of postmodern theory for a re-thinking of the concept? In these pages we will explore the uses and abuses of the concept of experience in contemporary feminist thought through the works of influential feminist intellectuals. This article has two aims. The first is to create a theoretical space for reflection and re-appraisal of the concept of experience inspired by Dorothy Smith's contribution to feminist sociology. The second is to shift these debates from the periphery to the centre of sociology by taking into account the centrality of the concept for the discipline.
This paper explores the experiences of users of SSRIs, the antidepressants that were launched in ... more This paper explores the experiences of users of SSRIs, the antidepressants that were launched in late 1980s and early 1990s. The focus is on the experiences and understandings of how the pills work, from the users’ perspective, put in dialogue with current theorizations of the body and the mind. The starting point is the tensions that understandings of depressions opens, as it is on the one hand a psychiatric/psychological/mind problem, on the other that it is diagnosed and recognized to a large extent through bodily signs and behaviors, such as not eating, not sleeping, crying. It is also today mainly a problem that is treated by SSRIs/pills, with the popularized idea that SSRIs work through changing the body, the chemical balance in the brain. Theoretically I will draw on Nikolas Rose’s conceptualization of the Neurochemical self, as well as Elizabeth Wilson’s effort to build models that opens up for interactions and fluidity between mind, brain and body. Through the interviews I ...
Sexual & reproductive healthcare : official journal of the Swedish Association of Midwives, 2014
It seems that traditional gender norms influence young women's and men's sexuality differ... more It seems that traditional gender norms influence young women's and men's sexuality differently. However, little attention has been paid to ideal images of sexual situations. This study identifies young heterosexual men's ideal images of sexual situations and their expectations of themselves in sexual situations. The present study employs a qualitative design. Twelve Swedish men (aged 16-20) participated in individual in-depth qualitative interviews. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using the constant comparative method from grounded theory. Our study revealed that the young men's conceptions of normal sexual situations were divided into two parts: sexual situations in relationships, and sexual situations in one-night stands. Their ideal image, "a balanced state of emotional and physical pleasure", was influenced by the presence/absence of intimacy, the partner's response, and their own performance. The greatest opportunities to expe...
Science, Technology & Human Values, 2008
ABSTRACT Breast reconstruction is an everyday, apparently nonviolent, even benevolent, remaking o... more ABSTRACT Breast reconstruction is an everyday, apparently nonviolent, even benevolent, remaking of the normal, and the reasons for why reconstruction is motivated and legitimate are uncontroversial and widely accepted. In this article the author will, through Donna Haraway's way of conceptualizing discourses, analyze what she calls "stories without significance." The author has mapped the stories and interpretations of women undergoing reconstruction, stories that are not becoming part of the monovocal discourse of breast reconstruction. Thus, she focuses on the things said that are not assigned significance, the silences and impossibilities. The article is also an effort to account for some of the invisible work that goes into the process of breast reconstruction in dialogue with the feminist field of science and technology studies. This to explore the (re) making of the normal in a medical practice and reflect on how modest interventions could be made.
Qualitative Health Research, 2012
In this study we explored how men diagnosed with prostate cancer experienced their sexuality from... more In this study we explored how men diagnosed with prostate cancer experienced their sexuality from a lifeworld perspective. One essential meaning was identified: "having the elixir of life stolen." This essential meaning had four constituents: "something that no longer exists," "the threat to manhood," "intimacy," and "staged manhood." The lifeworld for these men comprised the dynamic interaction between being deprived of their "life's elixir" and their ability to have and experience intimacy. The men were preoccupied with embodied experiences unfamiliar to them. They mourned the loss of sexuality in connection with their new life situation that threatened their identity. Their female partner was a great support, and with her the man could picture himself and at best renegotiate his sexuality. In the future, cancer care should be organized so as to enable all aspects of sexuality to be acknowledged and discussed.
Critical Sociology, 2009
ABSTRACT This article is a critical reappraisal of the understandings of gender and the location ... more ABSTRACT This article is a critical reappraisal of the understandings of gender and the location of women within theories of late modernity. These theories, as articulated by Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck, have gained a wide use, not the least since they claim to account for changes in intimate relations. We will use four major feminist interventions for our argument — the problematization of the public-private divide, feminist theorizing of kinship, feminist understandings of labour, and the heterosexual matrix. We argue that the late-modern story is made through violently created presences — of the reinvention of the heterosexual matrix, the private sphere as the location of women/gender, reproduction coupled to biology, and gender as an intimate relation between women and men — and absences of analysis of reproductive and productive labour, of the role of the state, and of gender as a social relation constituted through and within other social inequalities.
Acta Sociologica, 1999
ABSTRACT Why is the notion of experience so relevant for feminist theory? How has the concept bee... more ABSTRACT Why is the notion of experience so relevant for feminist theory? How has the concept been used and by whom? What are the theoretical and political implications of postmodern theory for a re-thinking of the concept? In these pages we will explore the uses and abuses of the concept of experience in contemporary feminist thought through the works of influential feminist intellectuals. This article has two aims. The first is to create a theoretical space for reflection and re-appraisal of the concept of experience inspired by Dorothy Smith's contribution to feminist sociology. The second is to shift these debates from the periphery to the centre of sociology by taking into account the centrality of the concept for the discipline.
Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2012
The aim of this study was to identify young women's ideal images of sexua... more The aim of this study was to identify young women's ideal images of sexual situations and expectations on themselves in sexual situations. We conducted audio-taped qualitative individual interviews with 14 women aged 14 to 20 years, visiting two youth centers in Sweden. Data were analysed with constant comparative analysis, the basis of grounded theory methodology. The women's ideal sexual situations in heterosexual practice were characterized by sexual pleasure on equal terms, implying that no one dominates and both partners get pleasure. There were obstacles to reaching this ideal, such as influences from social norms and demands, and experiences of the partner's "own run". An incentive to reach the ideal sexual situation was the wish to experience the well of pleasure. Our research further accentuates the importance of finding ways to focus on the complexity of unequal gender norms in youth heterosexuality. A better understanding of these cognitions is essential and useful among professionals working with youths' sexual health.
American Journal of Men's Health, 2013
Prostate cancer and its outcomes are a real threat for health and well-being for men living in th... more Prostate cancer and its outcomes are a real threat for health and well-being for men living in the Western world. The number of men with a diagnosis of prostate cancer, before the age of 65 years, has increased in recent decades. The aim of this study was to explore how some of these Swedish men experienced and talked about their sexuality. Four focus group discussions were performed in the context of associations for prostate cancer. Using qualitative content analysis, it was identified how the diagnosis was a threat to their male identity; the men's vulnerability as a group in society was made explicit. Their sexuality was diminished by their illness experiences. These experiences were difficult to share and talk about with others and therefore connected with silence and sorrow. As a result of this, the informants often played a passive role when or if they discussed issues related to sexuality with someone in the health care organizations. The possibility of voluntarily joining a cancer association was probably highly beneficial for these men. During the sessions, several men expressed the opinion that "it is always great to talk."
European Journal of Cancer Care, 2011
The aftermath of breast cancer treatment, especially the sexual side effects, appear to be a negl... more The aftermath of breast cancer treatment, especially the sexual side effects, appear to be a neglected issue in Western society. The purpose of this study was to explore how middle-aged women treated for breast cancer experienced their identity connected to the community norms an values in the society as a whole. Three focus group interviews were conducted, with a total of 12 women. The discussions were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The main theme to feel like an outsider symbolises the women's situation after breast csancer treatment. Hey experienced their body in a wholly new unfamiliar way, ehich affected their sexuality in a deep and profound way. This feeling affected their female roles and overshadowed earlier experiences in life. All their female roles were suddenly vague and this was expressed in various ways across each of the four subthemes: to feel different, the unruly body, eroticism is not what it used to be and re-evaluating. From a nursing perspective, there appears to be a definite challenge to identify the women's own unique sexual needs in the rehabilitation transition and to use the skills from all team professionals to improve sexual health in this context.
Legitimizing Ess Big Science As a Collaboration Across Boundaries, 2013
Haften For Kritiska Studier, 2005
Att Utmana Vetandets Granser, 2005
Acta Sociologica, 1999
ABSTRACT Why is the notion of experience so relevant for feminist theory? How has the concept bee... more ABSTRACT Why is the notion of experience so relevant for feminist theory? How has the concept been used and by whom? What are the theoretical and political implications of postmodern theory for a re-thinking of the concept? In these pages we will explore the uses and abuses of the concept of experience in contemporary feminist thought through the works of influential feminist intellectuals. This article has two aims. The first is to create a theoretical space for reflection and re-appraisal of the concept of experience inspired by Dorothy Smith's contribution to feminist sociology. The second is to shift these debates from the periphery to the centre of sociology by taking into account the centrality of the concept for the discipline.
This paper explores the experiences of users of SSRIs, the antidepressants that were launched in ... more This paper explores the experiences of users of SSRIs, the antidepressants that were launched in late 1980s and early 1990s. The focus is on the experiences and understandings of how the pills work, from the users’ perspective, put in dialogue with current theorizations of the body and the mind. The starting point is the tensions that understandings of depressions opens, as it is on the one hand a psychiatric/psychological/mind problem, on the other that it is diagnosed and recognized to a large extent through bodily signs and behaviors, such as not eating, not sleeping, crying. It is also today mainly a problem that is treated by SSRIs/pills, with the popularized idea that SSRIs work through changing the body, the chemical balance in the brain. Theoretically I will draw on Nikolas Rose’s conceptualization of the Neurochemical self, as well as Elizabeth Wilson’s effort to build models that opens up for interactions and fluidity between mind, brain and body. Through the interviews I ...
Sexual & reproductive healthcare : official journal of the Swedish Association of Midwives, 2014
It seems that traditional gender norms influence young women's and men's sexuality differ... more It seems that traditional gender norms influence young women's and men's sexuality differently. However, little attention has been paid to ideal images of sexual situations. This study identifies young heterosexual men's ideal images of sexual situations and their expectations of themselves in sexual situations. The present study employs a qualitative design. Twelve Swedish men (aged 16-20) participated in individual in-depth qualitative interviews. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using the constant comparative method from grounded theory. Our study revealed that the young men's conceptions of normal sexual situations were divided into two parts: sexual situations in relationships, and sexual situations in one-night stands. Their ideal image, "a balanced state of emotional and physical pleasure", was influenced by the presence/absence of intimacy, the partner's response, and their own performance. The greatest opportunities to expe...
Science, Technology & Human Values, 2008
ABSTRACT Breast reconstruction is an everyday, apparently nonviolent, even benevolent, remaking o... more ABSTRACT Breast reconstruction is an everyday, apparently nonviolent, even benevolent, remaking of the normal, and the reasons for why reconstruction is motivated and legitimate are uncontroversial and widely accepted. In this article the author will, through Donna Haraway's way of conceptualizing discourses, analyze what she calls "stories without significance." The author has mapped the stories and interpretations of women undergoing reconstruction, stories that are not becoming part of the monovocal discourse of breast reconstruction. Thus, she focuses on the things said that are not assigned significance, the silences and impossibilities. The article is also an effort to account for some of the invisible work that goes into the process of breast reconstruction in dialogue with the feminist field of science and technology studies. This to explore the (re) making of the normal in a medical practice and reflect on how modest interventions could be made.
Qualitative Health Research, 2012
In this study we explored how men diagnosed with prostate cancer experienced their sexuality from... more In this study we explored how men diagnosed with prostate cancer experienced their sexuality from a lifeworld perspective. One essential meaning was identified: "having the elixir of life stolen." This essential meaning had four constituents: "something that no longer exists," "the threat to manhood," "intimacy," and "staged manhood." The lifeworld for these men comprised the dynamic interaction between being deprived of their "life's elixir" and their ability to have and experience intimacy. The men were preoccupied with embodied experiences unfamiliar to them. They mourned the loss of sexuality in connection with their new life situation that threatened their identity. Their female partner was a great support, and with her the man could picture himself and at best renegotiate his sexuality. In the future, cancer care should be organized so as to enable all aspects of sexuality to be acknowledged and discussed.
Critical Sociology, 2009
ABSTRACT This article is a critical reappraisal of the understandings of gender and the location ... more ABSTRACT This article is a critical reappraisal of the understandings of gender and the location of women within theories of late modernity. These theories, as articulated by Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck, have gained a wide use, not the least since they claim to account for changes in intimate relations. We will use four major feminist interventions for our argument — the problematization of the public-private divide, feminist theorizing of kinship, feminist understandings of labour, and the heterosexual matrix. We argue that the late-modern story is made through violently created presences — of the reinvention of the heterosexual matrix, the private sphere as the location of women/gender, reproduction coupled to biology, and gender as an intimate relation between women and men — and absences of analysis of reproductive and productive labour, of the role of the state, and of gender as a social relation constituted through and within other social inequalities.
Acta Sociologica, 1999
ABSTRACT Why is the notion of experience so relevant for feminist theory? How has the concept bee... more ABSTRACT Why is the notion of experience so relevant for feminist theory? How has the concept been used and by whom? What are the theoretical and political implications of postmodern theory for a re-thinking of the concept? In these pages we will explore the uses and abuses of the concept of experience in contemporary feminist thought through the works of influential feminist intellectuals. This article has two aims. The first is to create a theoretical space for reflection and re-appraisal of the concept of experience inspired by Dorothy Smith's contribution to feminist sociology. The second is to shift these debates from the periphery to the centre of sociology by taking into account the centrality of the concept for the discipline.
Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2012
The aim of this study was to identify young women's ideal images of sexua... more The aim of this study was to identify young women's ideal images of sexual situations and expectations on themselves in sexual situations. We conducted audio-taped qualitative individual interviews with 14 women aged 14 to 20 years, visiting two youth centers in Sweden. Data were analysed with constant comparative analysis, the basis of grounded theory methodology. The women's ideal sexual situations in heterosexual practice were characterized by sexual pleasure on equal terms, implying that no one dominates and both partners get pleasure. There were obstacles to reaching this ideal, such as influences from social norms and demands, and experiences of the partner's "own run". An incentive to reach the ideal sexual situation was the wish to experience the well of pleasure. Our research further accentuates the importance of finding ways to focus on the complexity of unequal gender norms in youth heterosexuality. A better understanding of these cognitions is essential and useful among professionals working with youths' sexual health.
American Journal of Men's Health, 2013
Prostate cancer and its outcomes are a real threat for health and well-being for men living in th... more Prostate cancer and its outcomes are a real threat for health and well-being for men living in the Western world. The number of men with a diagnosis of prostate cancer, before the age of 65 years, has increased in recent decades. The aim of this study was to explore how some of these Swedish men experienced and talked about their sexuality. Four focus group discussions were performed in the context of associations for prostate cancer. Using qualitative content analysis, it was identified how the diagnosis was a threat to their male identity; the men's vulnerability as a group in society was made explicit. Their sexuality was diminished by their illness experiences. These experiences were difficult to share and talk about with others and therefore connected with silence and sorrow. As a result of this, the informants often played a passive role when or if they discussed issues related to sexuality with someone in the health care organizations. The possibility of voluntarily joining a cancer association was probably highly beneficial for these men. During the sessions, several men expressed the opinion that "it is always great to talk."
European Journal of Cancer Care, 2011
The aftermath of breast cancer treatment, especially the sexual side effects, appear to be a negl... more The aftermath of breast cancer treatment, especially the sexual side effects, appear to be a neglected issue in Western society. The purpose of this study was to explore how middle-aged women treated for breast cancer experienced their identity connected to the community norms an values in the society as a whole. Three focus group interviews were conducted, with a total of 12 women. The discussions were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The main theme to feel like an outsider symbolises the women's situation after breast csancer treatment. Hey experienced their body in a wholly new unfamiliar way, ehich affected their sexuality in a deep and profound way. This feeling affected their female roles and overshadowed earlier experiences in life. All their female roles were suddenly vague and this was expressed in various ways across each of the four subthemes: to feel different, the unruly body, eroticism is not what it used to be and re-evaluating. From a nursing perspective, there appears to be a definite challenge to identify the women's own unique sexual needs in the rehabilitation transition and to use the skills from all team professionals to improve sexual health in this context.