Helene Aarseth
Biographic Data
| ID | 302898 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helene Aarseth |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helene |
| FAMILY NAME | Aarseth |
| SIGNATURE | AARSETH H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oslo |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0735-9222 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 120 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Retrieving Eros: The Place of Nature in Feminist Critique of Capitalism
The debt of privilege: Audit Culture, Universities and the Depletion of Mental Space
In a narrative interview study on how academic staff in humanities and social science departments at a Scandinavian university live their lives in academia, we encountered a conspicuous narrative about being privileged . ‘It is an immense privilege to hold a university position’, our interviewees stated repeatedly and in a variety of ways. In this article, we argue that this narrative of privilege is more than a simple display of modesty. Rather,…
The implicit epistemology of metric governance. New conceptions of motivational tensions in the corporate university
This article aims to develop enhanced conceptions of the motivational drives that may be imperilled by their encounter with new forms of governance in higher education. Of particular concern are the motivational drives behind creative scientific pursuits associated with the humanities, and their vulnerability in the face of metrics governance and audit culture. I argue that the notion of the ‘motor’ of desire that underpins much social theories, …
Against the grain? The craving for domestic femininity in a gender-egalitarian welfare state
This article aims to develop new conceptions of the psychosocial dynamics that drive the re-romanticization of domestic femininity in current financialized capitalism. Feminist scholars have described this heightened cultivation of mothering as a reparative move in response to irreconcilable tensions between cultural ideals of the ‘balancing mother’ and ‘lean-in femininity’. This article adds a materialist-psychosocial lens to these conceptions, …
Fear of Falling - Fear of Fading: The Emotional Dynamics of Positional and Personalised Individualism
This article explores the emotional dynamics involved in the shaping of middle-class subjectivities, aiming to move beyond the 'fear of falling' thesis and the attendant emphasis on the quest for positional advantage. I argue that this thesis offers a one-dimensional notion of what it is that drives middle-class perceptions, values and motivations, unsuitable for explaining current tensions between symbolic and economic fractions. Drawing on a co…
I think my son is a wonderful chap’: Working-class and middle-class fathers’ narratives of their son’s ADHD diagnosis and medication
This article adds to the emergent literature on classed fathering by exploring how middle-class and working-class fathers relate to their sons’ ADHD diagnosis. The strong requirement on parents to adhere to a dominant medical discourse of ADHD is used as a case to explore how the entwinement of class and gender shape different fathering practices. The article draws on in-depth interviews with 16 fathers of boys diagnosed with ADHD. These intervie…
Adaptation, equality, and fairness. Towards a sociological understanding of ‘the supportive husband’
Many heterosexual couples today follow a neo-traditional pattern where she has main responsibility for the workings of domestic daily life – but there is also a growing number of couples where her job takes centre stage and he must adapt to that circumstance. This article focuses on the re-organization of gendered meanings prompted in such a situation. Drawing on narrative interviews with 22 men living in partnerships with career women, we invest…
Working class fathers and daughters: Thinking about desire, identification, gender and education
Conflicts in the Habitus: The Emotional Work of Becoming Modern
This article argues that Bourdieu's concept of habitus, and, in particular, the way habitus is transmitted intergenerationally, can be enhanced by considering conflictual conscious and unconscious processes that emerge in relationships. We suggest that Christopher Bollas's discussions of the 'unthought known' and of 'transformational objects' add relational depth to the concept of habitus and thus contribute to developing a more psycho-social und…
Eros in the Field? Bourdieu's Double Account of Socialized Desire
In his later works, Bourdieu draws extensively on psychoanalytic approaches in accounting for his concept of socialized subjectivity as bound to the social world by an intense affective grip. This emotional turn holds potential for further developing Bourdieu's account of subjectivity as a formation of socialized desire. However, in accounting for this socialized desire, Bourdieu relapses into a dualism of subjective and objective structures, inc…
Enriching intimacy: The role of the emotional in the ‘resourcing’ of middle‐class children
This paper analyses qualitative interviews conducted with Norwegian middle‐class parents. It explores how a particular type of intimacy – an enriching intimacy – is produced as part of everyday parent–child interactions and considers the notion of the social self that spurs middle‐class parents to seek this very type of intimacy with their child. By so doing it adds to the growing field of research on middle‐class parents' child‐rearing strategie…
From Modernized Masculinity to Degendered Lifestyle Projects: Changes in Men's Narratives on Domestic Participation 1990—2005
This article explores men's motivations for change in the interface of a feminist demand for gender equality and the appeal of new consumerist lifestyles. Drawing on a longitudinal study of egalitarian dual career couples within a Nordic welfare state, the article analyzes the case story of four men interviewed in 1990 and 2005. During this period, the men and their partners challenge a gendered division of work in their families by turning the a…
Food and masculinity in dual-career couples
A lifestyle-oriented reformulation of food preparation in the family may serve as a vehicle for a transgression of the gender division of labour. Drawing on two qualitative studies of Norwegian and Danish dual-career couples, we identify three patterns of praxis in relation to food. The patterns are steps in a process of change towards a more gender-equal organization of family life. In the first pattern, the narratives expose feelings of shortco…
Between Labour and Love: The Re‐erotization of Home‐making in Egalitarian Couples within a Nordic Context
This article addresses a proposed rupture between duty and desire in late modern intimacy: the optimistic account of liberated love propagated by Anthony Giddens (Citation1991, Citation1992) on the one hand, and the feminist critique, among others presented by Lynn Jamieson (Citation1998, Citation1999) on the other, that emphasizes a widened gap between ideals of pure love and a persistent gendered division of work. Drawing on a longitudinal stud…
Food and Masculinity in Late Modern Family Life
Maskulinitet, imagination och livssammanhang. Att nå förändringspotentialer hos män
The article discusses theoretical and methodical approaches to masculinity and social change. The authors argue that a Nordic critical research on men and masculinities should develop analytical tools that enable us to grasp potentials for change in what they call "normal male" life patterns. Changes in Nordic masculinities are not necessarily attached to experiences of subordination or marginalisation in relation to a hegemonic masculinity. We s…
Enriching intimacy: The role of the emotional in the ‘resourcing’ of middle‐class children
This paper analyses qualitative interviews conducted with Norwegian middle‐class parents. It explores how a particular type of intimacy – an enriching intimacy – is produced as part of everyday parent–child interactions and considers the notion of the social self that spurs middle‐class parents to seek this very type of intimacy with their child. By so doing it adds to the growing field of research on middle‐class parents' child‐rearing strategie…
Food and masculinity in dual-career couples
A lifestyle-oriented reformulation of food preparation in the family may serve as a vehicle for a transgression of the gender division of labour. Drawing on two qualitative studies of Norwegian and Danish dual-career couples, we identify three patterns of praxis in relation to food. The patterns are steps in a process of change towards a more gender-equal organization of family life. In the first pattern, the narratives expose feelings of shortco…
From Modernized Masculinity to Degendered Lifestyle Projects: Changes in Men's Narratives on Domestic Participation 1990—2005
This article explores men's motivations for change in the interface of a feminist demand for gender equality and the appeal of new consumerist lifestyles. Drawing on a longitudinal study of egalitarian dual career couples within a Nordic welfare state, the article analyzes the case story of four men interviewed in 1990 and 2005. During this period, the men and their partners challenge a gendered division of work in their families by turning the a…
Conflicts in the Habitus: The Emotional Work of Becoming Modern
This article argues that Bourdieu's concept of habitus, and, in particular, the way habitus is transmitted intergenerationally, can be enhanced by considering conflictual conscious and unconscious processes that emerge in relationships. We suggest that Christopher Bollas's discussions of the 'unthought known' and of 'transformational objects' add relational depth to the concept of habitus and thus contribute to developing a more psycho-social und…
Eros in the Field? Bourdieu's Double Account of Socialized Desire
In his later works, Bourdieu draws extensively on psychoanalytic approaches in accounting for his concept of socialized subjectivity as bound to the social world by an intense affective grip. This emotional turn holds potential for further developing Bourdieu's account of subjectivity as a formation of socialized desire. However, in accounting for this socialized desire, Bourdieu relapses into a dualism of subjective and objective structures, inc…
Fear of Falling - Fear of Fading: The Emotional Dynamics of Positional and Personalised Individualism
This article explores the emotional dynamics involved in the shaping of middle-class subjectivities, aiming to move beyond the 'fear of falling' thesis and the attendant emphasis on the quest for positional advantage. I argue that this thesis offers a one-dimensional notion of what it is that drives middle-class perceptions, values and motivations, unsuitable for explaining current tensions between symbolic and economic fractions. Drawing on a co…
Between Labour and Love: The Re‐erotization of Home‐making in Egalitarian Couples within a Nordic Context
This article addresses a proposed rupture between duty and desire in late modern intimacy: the optimistic account of liberated love propagated by Anthony Giddens (Citation1991, Citation1992) on the one hand, and the feminist critique, among others presented by Lynn Jamieson (Citation1998, Citation1999) on the other, that emphasizes a widened gap between ideals of pure love and a persistent gendered division of work. Drawing on a longitudinal stud…
Adaptation, equality, and fairness. Towards a sociological understanding of ‘the supportive husband’
Many heterosexual couples today follow a neo-traditional pattern where she has main responsibility for the workings of domestic daily life – but there is also a growing number of couples where her job takes centre stage and he must adapt to that circumstance. This article focuses on the re-organization of gendered meanings prompted in such a situation. Drawing on narrative interviews with 22 men living in partnerships with career women, we invest…
Food and Masculinity in Late Modern Family Life
The implicit epistemology of metric governance. New conceptions of motivational tensions in the corporate university
This article aims to develop enhanced conceptions of the motivational drives that may be imperilled by their encounter with new forms of governance in higher education. Of particular concern are the motivational drives behind creative scientific pursuits associated with the humanities, and their vulnerability in the face of metrics governance and audit culture. I argue that the notion of the ‘motor’ of desire that underpins much social theories, …
Against the grain? The craving for domestic femininity in a gender-egalitarian welfare state
This article aims to develop new conceptions of the psychosocial dynamics that drive the re-romanticization of domestic femininity in current financialized capitalism. Feminist scholars have described this heightened cultivation of mothering as a reparative move in response to irreconcilable tensions between cultural ideals of the ‘balancing mother’ and ‘lean-in femininity’. This article adds a materialist-psychosocial lens to these conceptions, …
I think my son is a wonderful chap’: Working-class and middle-class fathers’ narratives of their son’s ADHD diagnosis and medication
This article adds to the emergent literature on classed fathering by exploring how middle-class and working-class fathers relate to their sons’ ADHD diagnosis. The strong requirement on parents to adhere to a dominant medical discourse of ADHD is used as a case to explore how the entwinement of class and gender shape different fathering practices. The article draws on in-depth interviews with 16 fathers of boys diagnosed with ADHD. These intervie…
Working class fathers and daughters: Thinking about desire, identification, gender and education
Maskulinitet, imagination och livssammanhang. Att nå förändringspotentialer hos män
The article discusses theoretical and methodical approaches to masculinity and social change. The authors argue that a Nordic critical research on men and masculinities should develop analytical tools that enable us to grasp potentials for change in what they call "normal male" life patterns. Changes in Nordic masculinities are not necessarily attached to experiences of subordination or marginalisation in relation to a hegemonic masculinity. We s…
Maskulinitet, imagination och livssammanhang. Att nå förändringspotentialer hos män
The article discusses theoretical and methodical approaches to masculinity and social change. The authors argue that a Nordic critical research on men and masculinities should develop analytical tools that enable us to grasp potentials for change in what they call "normal male" life patterns. Changes in Nordic masculinities are not necessarily attached to experiences of subordination or marginalisation in relation to a hegemonic masculinity. We s…
Food and Masculinity in Late Modern Family Life
Between Labour and Love: The Re‐erotization of Home‐making in Egalitarian Couples within a Nordic Context
This article addresses a proposed rupture between duty and desire in late modern intimacy: the optimistic account of liberated love propagated by Anthony Giddens (Citation1991, Citation1992) on the one hand, and the feminist critique, among others presented by Lynn Jamieson (Citation1998, Citation1999) on the other, that emphasizes a widened gap between ideals of pure love and a persistent gendered division of work. Drawing on a longitudinal stud…
Food and masculinity in dual-career couples
A lifestyle-oriented reformulation of food preparation in the family may serve as a vehicle for a transgression of the gender division of labour. Drawing on two qualitative studies of Norwegian and Danish dual-career couples, we identify three patterns of praxis in relation to food. The patterns are steps in a process of change towards a more gender-equal organization of family life. In the first pattern, the narratives expose feelings of shortco…
From Modernized Masculinity to Degendered Lifestyle Projects: Changes in Men's Narratives on Domestic Participation 1990—2005
This article explores men's motivations for change in the interface of a feminist demand for gender equality and the appeal of new consumerist lifestyles. Drawing on a longitudinal study of egalitarian dual career couples within a Nordic welfare state, the article analyzes the case story of four men interviewed in 1990 and 2005. During this period, the men and their partners challenge a gendered division of work in their families by turning the a…
Enriching intimacy: The role of the emotional in the ‘resourcing’ of middle‐class children
This paper analyses qualitative interviews conducted with Norwegian middle‐class parents. It explores how a particular type of intimacy – an enriching intimacy – is produced as part of everyday parent–child interactions and considers the notion of the social self that spurs middle‐class parents to seek this very type of intimacy with their child. By so doing it adds to the growing field of research on middle‐class parents' child‐rearing strategie…
Adaptation, equality, and fairness. Towards a sociological understanding of ‘the supportive husband’
Many heterosexual couples today follow a neo-traditional pattern where she has main responsibility for the workings of domestic daily life – but there is also a growing number of couples where her job takes centre stage and he must adapt to that circumstance. This article focuses on the re-organization of gendered meanings prompted in such a situation. Drawing on narrative interviews with 22 men living in partnerships with career women, we invest…
Working class fathers and daughters: Thinking about desire, identification, gender and education
Conflicts in the Habitus: The Emotional Work of Becoming Modern
This article argues that Bourdieu's concept of habitus, and, in particular, the way habitus is transmitted intergenerationally, can be enhanced by considering conflictual conscious and unconscious processes that emerge in relationships. We suggest that Christopher Bollas's discussions of the 'unthought known' and of 'transformational objects' add relational depth to the concept of habitus and thus contribute to developing a more psycho-social und…
Eros in the Field? Bourdieu's Double Account of Socialized Desire
In his later works, Bourdieu draws extensively on psychoanalytic approaches in accounting for his concept of socialized subjectivity as bound to the social world by an intense affective grip. This emotional turn holds potential for further developing Bourdieu's account of subjectivity as a formation of socialized desire. However, in accounting for this socialized desire, Bourdieu relapses into a dualism of subjective and objective structures, inc…
I think my son is a wonderful chap’: Working-class and middle-class fathers’ narratives of their son’s ADHD diagnosis and medication
This article adds to the emergent literature on classed fathering by exploring how middle-class and working-class fathers relate to their sons’ ADHD diagnosis. The strong requirement on parents to adhere to a dominant medical discourse of ADHD is used as a case to explore how the entwinement of class and gender shape different fathering practices. The article draws on in-depth interviews with 16 fathers of boys diagnosed with ADHD. These intervie…
Fear of Falling - Fear of Fading: The Emotional Dynamics of Positional and Personalised Individualism
This article explores the emotional dynamics involved in the shaping of middle-class subjectivities, aiming to move beyond the 'fear of falling' thesis and the attendant emphasis on the quest for positional advantage. I argue that this thesis offers a one-dimensional notion of what it is that drives middle-class perceptions, values and motivations, unsuitable for explaining current tensions between symbolic and economic fractions. Drawing on a co…
Against the grain? The craving for domestic femininity in a gender-egalitarian welfare state
This article aims to develop new conceptions of the psychosocial dynamics that drive the re-romanticization of domestic femininity in current financialized capitalism. Feminist scholars have described this heightened cultivation of mothering as a reparative move in response to irreconcilable tensions between cultural ideals of the ‘balancing mother’ and ‘lean-in femininity’. This article adds a materialist-psychosocial lens to these conceptions, …
The implicit epistemology of metric governance. New conceptions of motivational tensions in the corporate university
This article aims to develop enhanced conceptions of the motivational drives that may be imperilled by their encounter with new forms of governance in higher education. Of particular concern are the motivational drives behind creative scientific pursuits associated with the humanities, and their vulnerability in the face of metrics governance and audit culture. I argue that the notion of the ‘motor’ of desire that underpins much social theories, …
The debt of privilege: Audit Culture, Universities and the Depletion of Mental Space
In a narrative interview study on how academic staff in humanities and social science departments at a Scandinavian university live their lives in academia, we encountered a conspicuous narrative about being privileged . ‘It is an immense privilege to hold a university position’, our interviewees stated repeatedly and in a variety of ways. In this article, we argue that this narrative of privilege is more than a simple display of modesty. Rather,…
Retrieving Eros: The Place of Nature in Feminist Critique of Capitalism
Sociology (12 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Gender Roles and Identity Studies (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Masculinity (5 works) · Narrative (5 works)