M Herz
Biographic Data
| ID | 32377 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Herz |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | Herz |
| SIGNATURE | HERZ M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Gothenburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6555-3875 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 99 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Tracing Asylum Hope
Building on an ethnographic approach, this article aims to explore how the social dimensions of hope shape and relate to the migration trajectories of people seeking asylum in Sweden. Departing from the concept of asylum hope, a fragile form of hope that persists under conditions of oppression and uncertainty, the study examines how everyday interactions shape and transform it. Using Randall Collins’ theory of interaction rituals, the analysis sh…
Hope and Asylum
This book applies perspectives of hope to understand the precariousness, suffering, and agency of people seeking asylum. With attention to the restrictions and austerity politics that have characterised public policy following the significant rise in asylum applications in 2015, it draws on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork in the Swedish asylum context, together with data collected in other European countries, to explore how the circumstances …
Discretion as inherent transgression – strategic overidentification as organizational resistance
What is in a failure
Assembling the multitude
This article elaborates on a theoretically informed model of action rooted in the concept of professional resistance, which approaches groups of people and social problems in an alternative way to the dominant modes of managerial practice. The aim is to create conditions for approaching groups with social needs differently and to be able to act politically for social change within contemporary society. We will do this by exploring the potential o…
To establish the unestablishable
This article aims to explore the impact of neoliberal logic and ideas of establishment in Sweden on non-governmental social work with asylum-seeking young people. The focus is on the perceptions of the social workers within a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working with the establishment of unaccompanied young people. Data were collected through interviews and participant observations and analysed using theories of neoliberalism, belonging an…
Precariousness, Sport Participation and Hope Among Young People After Rejections in the Swedish Asylum Process
This article analyses the complex role of hope in relation to sport in the constrained lives of boys and young men who have experienced the Swedish asylum process. The data derives from an ethnographical longitudinal project on the social dimensions of hope in the asylum process. The project is situated in the context of escalating austerity politics and restrictions on asylum law and policy following the increased numbers of people seeking asylu…
Towards an agonistic social work
The aim of this article is to envision a way of bringing political dimensions into the mainstream of social work. Departing from a critique of the long-standing inability of conventional social work to address social problems in political terms, the article conceptualises social work as a profoundly political terrain and argues for the need to make space for politics at all levels – from the administrative procedures of statutory social work to a…
Governing through hope
The aim of this article is to elaborate, theoretically, on the ambiguity of hope and its relation to social change in the asylum context. This ambiguity involves two different perspectives of hope. One more mundane view of hope where it is considered an emotion used to overcome complex issues and move towards a better situation in the future. A perspective often used by social and migration authorities to urge people to hope for a future should t…
The precariousness of asylum-seekers’ care and support
Using ethnographic data, this article aims to analyse the provision of informal care by asylum-seekers in Sweden and how this intersects with the(ir) asylum process. The article argues that asylum-seekers are framed by the Swedish welfare system and immigration authorities as ungrievable and deportable , which not only impedes their access to formal care systems and values, but also creates a strong need for informal care. Further, it is suggeste…
Balancing the line — the relation between waiting and activity among people in need of food in Sweden
At a food bank in Sweden, people stand in line, waiting to receive donated food, which can easily be interpreted as passively receiving hand-outs. But this line is full of activity, and it is very demanding to keep holding the line. However, a common perception of people in need of help from the social services and other authorities is that they need activation. This article aims to explore the relation between waiting and activity among the peop…
Family practices, deportability and administrative violence
Utilising data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork this article investigates (a) how asylum seekers portray family life in relation to their decision to flee their country of origin, and (b) how asylum seekers’ ways of doing family life intersect with the Swedish migration context. Analytically, the article leans on sociologically informed theories of family practices and a conceptual discussion on deportability . The results show how family …
Social tjänst till salu
Marknadsreformer inom den svenska välfärdssektorn har öppnat för köp- och säljmodeller av välfärdstjänster. Den offentlig upphandlingen utgör navet för beställningar och utförande av tjänster inom socialtjänsten¬. Syftet med denna artikel är att undersöka hur socialt arbete formas i en upphandlingskontext, med särskilt fokus på hur socialarbetare som arbetar med att utföra upphandlade tjänster beskriver sitt arbete. Materialet utgörs av intervjue…
Unaccompanied minors’ in Sweden reflecting on religious faith and practice
In this article, we listen to young people having arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied minors, in relation to how they talk about and relate to religion, belief and practice. There is still a lack of research focusing on these young people’s own narratives and experiences in their everyday life. This is particularly noteworthy since this category of young people, and especially those with a ‘Muslim heritage’, have received increased attention both …
Life Planning and Habitus
The article examines how unaccompanied young refugees in Sweden relate to and talk about their everyday lives and life plans during a time of transition from childhood to adulthood. We regard them as navigators and emotional beings embodying social situations, relationships and sentiments in their habitus throughout their lives affecting their life plans and acting to build capital in social fields. Their narratives show that they all have a life…
Youth Studies in Transition
‘Becoming’ a possible threat
A debate on masculinity and immigration rose across Europe in 2015 after an incident with sexual harassments taking place in Cologne, Germany. The incident refuelled a debate positioning unaccompanied young men as a possible threat. This article is based on a research project where we during this time ethnographically followed 20 young men, having arrived in Sweden as ‘unaccompanied’ minors. The aim is to examine how the young men themselves talk…
I Am Going to Europe Tomorrow
The term ‘anchor child’ implicates that, to create future homes in another country, parents supposedly use their children by sending them on a mission as ‘unaccompanied minors’. Since the term is sometimes used in public debate, our aim is to use elements of this stereotype to analyse and contrast it to the young people’s own narratives. Through repeated interviews and observations with 23 unaccompanied children living in Sweden over the course o…
Being alone or becoming lonely? The complexity of portraying ‘unaccompanied children’ as being alone in Sweden
Research has largely focused on ‘unaccompanied minors’ as a vulnerable group at risk of developing psychological problems that affect their health. Separation from primary caregivers is considered one of the foremost reasons for these young people’s proposed loneliness. Thus, the official and ascribed identity is that they are lonely and that loneliness is their major problem. But research has seldom given the young people themselves an opportuni…
Then we offer them a new project’—the production of projects in social work conducted by civil society in Sweden
In some areas in Europe and Sweden, it is possible to find institutional deficits, that is, areas wherein the welfare state has more or less withdrawn its institutions. In parallel with this development, greater interest has shifted towards social work already being conducted by volunteers and non-profit organizations. How this social work could take on more responsibility for the social well-being of society is a key question. By applying the th…
The Normativity of the Concept of Heteronormativity
The aim of the article is to analyze and to critically examine use of the concept of heteronormativity. We find it important to adjust the concept to some extent in order to analyze, for example, changes occurring in homosexual families, contemporary gender-equal families, or the progressive youth culture. We find two approaches when using the concept. One minimizes the importance of how sexual practices are embedded in social institutions. The f…
Live Social Work”
In this article I discuss how professional social work can entail critical, reflexive work. This is accomplished by adapting the concept of “live sociology”. It is mainly an exploratory article, trying to raise suggestions that can be adopted and be further developed. I argue that people coming into contact with contemporary social work are sometimes reduced to being “dead” objects, as they are pinned down into static categories. The demand for d…
It’s a matter of eating or being eaten’ Gender positioning and difference making in the heavy metal subculture
The purpose of this article is to study how gender difference and ultimately female gender positioning are created and manifested in the heavy metal culture. The empirical material consists of single interviews and focus group interviews with heavy metal fans between the ages of 18 and 26. The overall finding is that while gender is a moveable position in general, women move their gender position to a greater extent than men, as they are forced c…
The Experience of Being Stopped
The purpose of the present article was to investigate social psychological processes leading to complex patterns of inclusion and exclusion. Following Sarah Ahmed’s theory of the phenomenology of ‘being stopped’, we explored young adults’ experiences of coming to or living in Sweden. The empirical material used consists of four strategically selected case studies. Living in the new Europe can be described as an experience of having to constantly …
Doing' Social Work
Social work is a multi-dimensional and contradictory field of practice, which often leads to theoretical confusion. Another tendency within social work today is the development of an evidence-based practice. This kind of social engineering, together with the theoretical confusion, might lead to the reproduction and strengthening of dominant discourses and perspectives. Pointing out the need for critical theory to transgress and resist hegemonic p…
The Normativity of the Concept of Heteronormativity
The aim of the article is to analyze and to critically examine use of the concept of heteronormativity. We find it important to adjust the concept to some extent in order to analyze, for example, changes occurring in homosexual families, contemporary gender-equal families, or the progressive youth culture. We find two approaches when using the concept. One minimizes the importance of how sexual practices are embedded in social institutions. The f…
Being alone or becoming lonely? The complexity of portraying ‘unaccompanied children’ as being alone in Sweden
Research has largely focused on ‘unaccompanied minors’ as a vulnerable group at risk of developing psychological problems that affect their health. Separation from primary caregivers is considered one of the foremost reasons for these young people’s proposed loneliness. Thus, the official and ascribed identity is that they are lonely and that loneliness is their major problem. But research has seldom given the young people themselves an opportuni…
Towards an agonistic social work
The aim of this article is to envision a way of bringing political dimensions into the mainstream of social work. Departing from a critique of the long-standing inability of conventional social work to address social problems in political terms, the article conceptualises social work as a profoundly political terrain and argues for the need to make space for politics at all levels – from the administrative procedures of statutory social work to a…
The Experience of Being Stopped
The purpose of the present article was to investigate social psychological processes leading to complex patterns of inclusion and exclusion. Following Sarah Ahmed’s theory of the phenomenology of ‘being stopped’, we explored young adults’ experiences of coming to or living in Sweden. The empirical material used consists of four strategically selected case studies. Living in the new Europe can be described as an experience of having to constantly …
Governing through hope
The aim of this article is to elaborate, theoretically, on the ambiguity of hope and its relation to social change in the asylum context. This ambiguity involves two different perspectives of hope. One more mundane view of hope where it is considered an emotion used to overcome complex issues and move towards a better situation in the future. A perspective often used by social and migration authorities to urge people to hope for a future should t…
Life Planning and Habitus
The article examines how unaccompanied young refugees in Sweden relate to and talk about their everyday lives and life plans during a time of transition from childhood to adulthood. We regard them as navigators and emotional beings embodying social situations, relationships and sentiments in their habitus throughout their lives affecting their life plans and acting to build capital in social fields. Their narratives show that they all have a life…
Family practices, deportability and administrative violence
Utilising data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork this article investigates (a) how asylum seekers portray family life in relation to their decision to flee their country of origin, and (b) how asylum seekers’ ways of doing family life intersect with the Swedish migration context. Analytically, the article leans on sociologically informed theories of family practices and a conceptual discussion on deportability . The results show how family …
Unaccompanied minors’ in Sweden reflecting on religious faith and practice
In this article, we listen to young people having arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied minors, in relation to how they talk about and relate to religion, belief and practice. There is still a lack of research focusing on these young people’s own narratives and experiences in their everyday life. This is particularly noteworthy since this category of young people, and especially those with a ‘Muslim heritage’, have received increased attention both …
I Am Going to Europe Tomorrow
The term ‘anchor child’ implicates that, to create future homes in another country, parents supposedly use their children by sending them on a mission as ‘unaccompanied minors’. Since the term is sometimes used in public debate, our aim is to use elements of this stereotype to analyse and contrast it to the young people’s own narratives. Through repeated interviews and observations with 23 unaccompanied children living in Sweden over the course o…
Tracing Asylum Hope
Building on an ethnographic approach, this article aims to explore how the social dimensions of hope shape and relate to the migration trajectories of people seeking asylum in Sweden. Departing from the concept of asylum hope, a fragile form of hope that persists under conditions of oppression and uncertainty, the study examines how everyday interactions shape and transform it. Using Randall Collins’ theory of interaction rituals, the analysis sh…
What is in a failure
Balancing the line — the relation between waiting and activity among people in need of food in Sweden
At a food bank in Sweden, people stand in line, waiting to receive donated food, which can easily be interpreted as passively receiving hand-outs. But this line is full of activity, and it is very demanding to keep holding the line. However, a common perception of people in need of help from the social services and other authorities is that they need activation. This article aims to explore the relation between waiting and activity among the peop…
Then we offer them a new project’—the production of projects in social work conducted by civil society in Sweden
In some areas in Europe and Sweden, it is possible to find institutional deficits, that is, areas wherein the welfare state has more or less withdrawn its institutions. In parallel with this development, greater interest has shifted towards social work already being conducted by volunteers and non-profit organizations. How this social work could take on more responsibility for the social well-being of society is a key question. By applying the th…
Doing' Social Work
Social work is a multi-dimensional and contradictory field of practice, which often leads to theoretical confusion. Another tendency within social work today is the development of an evidence-based practice. This kind of social engineering, together with the theoretical confusion, might lead to the reproduction and strengthening of dominant discourses and perspectives. Pointing out the need for critical theory to transgress and resist hegemonic p…
The Experience of Being Stopped
The purpose of the present article was to investigate social psychological processes leading to complex patterns of inclusion and exclusion. Following Sarah Ahmed’s theory of the phenomenology of ‘being stopped’, we explored young adults’ experiences of coming to or living in Sweden. The empirical material used consists of four strategically selected case studies. Living in the new Europe can be described as an experience of having to constantly …
Doing' Social Work
Social work is a multi-dimensional and contradictory field of practice, which often leads to theoretical confusion. Another tendency within social work today is the development of an evidence-based practice. This kind of social engineering, together with the theoretical confusion, might lead to the reproduction and strengthening of dominant discourses and perspectives. Pointing out the need for critical theory to transgress and resist hegemonic p…
It’s a matter of eating or being eaten’ Gender positioning and difference making in the heavy metal subculture
The purpose of this article is to study how gender difference and ultimately female gender positioning are created and manifested in the heavy metal culture. The empirical material consists of single interviews and focus group interviews with heavy metal fans between the ages of 18 and 26. The overall finding is that while gender is a moveable position in general, women move their gender position to a greater extent than men, as they are forced c…
Live Social Work”
In this article I discuss how professional social work can entail critical, reflexive work. This is accomplished by adapting the concept of “live sociology”. It is mainly an exploratory article, trying to raise suggestions that can be adopted and be further developed. I argue that people coming into contact with contemporary social work are sometimes reduced to being “dead” objects, as they are pinned down into static categories. The demand for d…
The Normativity of the Concept of Heteronormativity
The aim of the article is to analyze and to critically examine use of the concept of heteronormativity. We find it important to adjust the concept to some extent in order to analyze, for example, changes occurring in homosexual families, contemporary gender-equal families, or the progressive youth culture. We find two approaches when using the concept. One minimizes the importance of how sexual practices are embedded in social institutions. The f…
Then we offer them a new project’—the production of projects in social work conducted by civil society in Sweden
In some areas in Europe and Sweden, it is possible to find institutional deficits, that is, areas wherein the welfare state has more or less withdrawn its institutions. In parallel with this development, greater interest has shifted towards social work already being conducted by volunteers and non-profit organizations. How this social work could take on more responsibility for the social well-being of society is a key question. By applying the th…
Being alone or becoming lonely? The complexity of portraying ‘unaccompanied children’ as being alone in Sweden
Research has largely focused on ‘unaccompanied minors’ as a vulnerable group at risk of developing psychological problems that affect their health. Separation from primary caregivers is considered one of the foremost reasons for these young people’s proposed loneliness. Thus, the official and ascribed identity is that they are lonely and that loneliness is their major problem. But research has seldom given the young people themselves an opportuni…
‘Becoming’ a possible threat
A debate on masculinity and immigration rose across Europe in 2015 after an incident with sexual harassments taking place in Cologne, Germany. The incident refuelled a debate positioning unaccompanied young men as a possible threat. This article is based on a research project where we during this time ethnographically followed 20 young men, having arrived in Sweden as ‘unaccompanied’ minors. The aim is to examine how the young men themselves talk…
I Am Going to Europe Tomorrow
The term ‘anchor child’ implicates that, to create future homes in another country, parents supposedly use their children by sending them on a mission as ‘unaccompanied minors’. Since the term is sometimes used in public debate, our aim is to use elements of this stereotype to analyse and contrast it to the young people’s own narratives. Through repeated interviews and observations with 23 unaccompanied children living in Sweden over the course o…
Youth Studies in Transition
Unaccompanied minors’ in Sweden reflecting on religious faith and practice
In this article, we listen to young people having arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied minors, in relation to how they talk about and relate to religion, belief and practice. There is still a lack of research focusing on these young people’s own narratives and experiences in their everyday life. This is particularly noteworthy since this category of young people, and especially those with a ‘Muslim heritage’, have received increased attention both …
Life Planning and Habitus
The article examines how unaccompanied young refugees in Sweden relate to and talk about their everyday lives and life plans during a time of transition from childhood to adulthood. We regard them as navigators and emotional beings embodying social situations, relationships and sentiments in their habitus throughout their lives affecting their life plans and acting to build capital in social fields. Their narratives show that they all have a life…
Family practices, deportability and administrative violence
Utilising data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork this article investigates (a) how asylum seekers portray family life in relation to their decision to flee their country of origin, and (b) how asylum seekers’ ways of doing family life intersect with the Swedish migration context. Analytically, the article leans on sociologically informed theories of family practices and a conceptual discussion on deportability . The results show how family …
Social tjänst till salu
Marknadsreformer inom den svenska välfärdssektorn har öppnat för köp- och säljmodeller av välfärdstjänster. Den offentlig upphandlingen utgör navet för beställningar och utförande av tjänster inom socialtjänsten¬. Syftet med denna artikel är att undersöka hur socialt arbete formas i en upphandlingskontext, med särskilt fokus på hur socialarbetare som arbetar med att utföra upphandlade tjänster beskriver sitt arbete. Materialet utgörs av intervjue…
Governing through hope
The aim of this article is to elaborate, theoretically, on the ambiguity of hope and its relation to social change in the asylum context. This ambiguity involves two different perspectives of hope. One more mundane view of hope where it is considered an emotion used to overcome complex issues and move towards a better situation in the future. A perspective often used by social and migration authorities to urge people to hope for a future should t…
The precariousness of asylum-seekers’ care and support
Using ethnographic data, this article aims to analyse the provision of informal care by asylum-seekers in Sweden and how this intersects with the(ir) asylum process. The article argues that asylum-seekers are framed by the Swedish welfare system and immigration authorities as ungrievable and deportable , which not only impedes their access to formal care systems and values, but also creates a strong need for informal care. Further, it is suggeste…
Balancing the line — the relation between waiting and activity among people in need of food in Sweden
At a food bank in Sweden, people stand in line, waiting to receive donated food, which can easily be interpreted as passively receiving hand-outs. But this line is full of activity, and it is very demanding to keep holding the line. However, a common perception of people in need of help from the social services and other authorities is that they need activation. This article aims to explore the relation between waiting and activity among the peop…
Towards an agonistic social work
The aim of this article is to envision a way of bringing political dimensions into the mainstream of social work. Departing from a critique of the long-standing inability of conventional social work to address social problems in political terms, the article conceptualises social work as a profoundly political terrain and argues for the need to make space for politics at all levels – from the administrative procedures of statutory social work to a…
Assembling the multitude
This article elaborates on a theoretically informed model of action rooted in the concept of professional resistance, which approaches groups of people and social problems in an alternative way to the dominant modes of managerial practice. The aim is to create conditions for approaching groups with social needs differently and to be able to act politically for social change within contemporary society. We will do this by exploring the potential o…
To establish the unestablishable
This article aims to explore the impact of neoliberal logic and ideas of establishment in Sweden on non-governmental social work with asylum-seeking young people. The focus is on the perceptions of the social workers within a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working with the establishment of unaccompanied young people. Data were collected through interviews and participant observations and analysed using theories of neoliberalism, belonging an…
Precariousness, Sport Participation and Hope Among Young People After Rejections in the Swedish Asylum Process
This article analyses the complex role of hope in relation to sport in the constrained lives of boys and young men who have experienced the Swedish asylum process. The data derives from an ethnographical longitudinal project on the social dimensions of hope in the asylum process. The project is situated in the context of escalating austerity politics and restrictions on asylum law and policy following the increased numbers of people seeking asylu…
Hope and Asylum
This book applies perspectives of hope to understand the precariousness, suffering, and agency of people seeking asylum. With attention to the restrictions and austerity politics that have characterised public policy following the significant rise in asylum applications in 2015, it draws on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork in the Swedish asylum context, together with data collected in other European countries, to explore how the circumstances …
Discretion as inherent transgression – strategic overidentification as organizational resistance
What is in a failure
Tracing Asylum Hope
Building on an ethnographic approach, this article aims to explore how the social dimensions of hope shape and relate to the migration trajectories of people seeking asylum in Sweden. Departing from the concept of asylum hope, a fragile form of hope that persists under conditions of oppression and uncertainty, the study examines how everyday interactions shape and transform it. Using Randall Collins’ theory of interaction rituals, the analysis sh…
Sociology (21 works) · Political science (20 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (10 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Social science (7 works)