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Jennie Brandén

PhD in Political Science. My research focuses on the governing of social and political problems such as safety, gender equality and gendered violence, from feminist & (post)colonial perspectives. 

Contact

Works at

Affiliation
Associate professor at Department of Social Work
Location
Samhällsvetarhuset, plan 5, Biblioteksgränd 4 Umeå universitet, 901 87 Umeå
Affiliation
Affiliated as visiting lecturer at Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (UCGS)
Location
Samhällsvetarhuset, Plan 4

I work as an Associate professor at the department of Social Work and have a PhD in political science. My research primarily focuses on the governing of social problems such as safety, gender equality and gendered violence, from feminist, (post)colonial and Indigenous perspectives. I am also affiliated to the research group Lávvuo - focusing on research and education for Sámi health, at the department of Epidemilogy and Global Health.

During the last two years I have been the main researcher in a research project focusing on violence against Sámi women in Sweden which is connected to the research group Lávvuo and commissioned by the Sámi parliament in Sweden. Within the project, funded by the Sámi Parliament in Sweden, we examine Sámi women's exposure to various forms of violence based on the Sámi Health on Equal Terms survey (Sámi-HLV) carried out in 2021. Through qualitative interviews, we also examine the conditions for meeting and preventing violence against Sámi women within the societal support system in Sweden.

I am also working in the Formas funded research project "Together for Safety: The role of civil society in creating safe public spaces", anchored at Umeå Center for Gender Studies and funded by Formas (2024-2027). By studying civil-society based initiatives to increase safety through media analysis, interviews and participant observations, the project aims to investigate how safety is addressed and given meaning in public space within and through civil society engagement.

In my dissertation "In the Name of Safety: power, politics and the constitutive effects of local governing practices in Sweden", I examined how (un)safety in public space is addressed and given meaning as a political problem in Swedish municipalities' local safety work. In the thesis, three different strategies for increasing safety in public space were studied; community safety walks; an international certification for safe city centres; and the use of patrolling security guards. The study shows how the municipalities' safety work rests on a perception of safety as something taken for granted, which obscures the fact that what is done in the name of safety also contributes to exclude of certain groups and perspectives on safety i public space. The study also shows how the responsibility for safety in practice is increasingly shifting towards private actors and security companies, as well as towards those living in unsafe areas and the often racialized and already marginalized groups and individuals that are defined as unsafety problems .
 

Umeå: Umeå University 2024
Brandén, Jennie; Nilsson, Lena Maria; Burman, Monica; et al.
Critical Policy Studies, Routledge 2023, Vol. 17, (4) : 619-636
Brandén, Jennie
Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning, Oslo: 2023, Vol. 47, (2-3) : 113-129
Brandén, Jennie; Nilsson, Lena Maria; Burman, Monica; et al.
Statsvetenskapliga institutionens skriftserie, 2022:1
Brandén, Jennie
Space & Polity, Routledge 2021, Vol. 25, (1) : 1-19
Brandén, Jennie; Sandberg, Linda
(O)tryggt?: Texter om makt, plats och motstånd, Premiss förlag 2020 : 75-98
Brandén, Jennie; Olsson, Josefin; Sandberg, Linda
Offentlig Förvaltning. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, Göteborg: Göteborgs universitet 2019, Vol. 23, (3-4) : 23-41
Brandén, Jennie; Rönnblom, Malin
Umeå: Umeå universitet 2017
Sandberg, Linda; Brandén, Jennie; Rönnblom, Malin; et al.

Research projects

1 January 2021 until 31 December 2024

I have broad experience in teaching and supervising at both basic and advanced levels. I have mainly taught courses related to theory and method within political science, gender studies and public health. I have experience teaching in both Swedish and English, digitally and on campus. 

I am currently involved in teaching on several courses in gender studies, including "Equality in Policy and Practice" (7.5 credits) and supervision of master's thesises at UCGS. I am also responsible for the PhD course "Introduction to Gender Studies" (7,5 credits) through the Gender Resarch School at Umeå University.

Within public health, I teach qualitative methods at advanced level, supervise student thesises at master level and teach on the course "Gender based violence, health and health-care" (7,5 credits). I am also involved in the master course Sámi and Indigenous Health (7.5 credits), where I am responsible for a module focusing on gender and violence that I have developed.