The paper explores how visual affective practice is used to spread and bolster a nationalist, extremist and racist ethos on the public Facebook page of the anti-immigrant group, Soldiers of Odin. Affective practice refers to a particular sensibility of political discourse, shaped by social formations and digital technologies-the contexts in which political groups or communities gather, discuss and act. The study shows how visual affective practice and sharing and responding to images fortify moral claims, sense exclusionary solidarity and promote white nationalist masculinity which legitimizes racist practices of "soldiering." By examining both the representations and their reactions (emoticons), the study demonstrates how ideas and values are collectively strengthened through affective sharing and are supported by platform infrastructures. Most importantly, it demonstrates that instead of considering the affect of protecting the nation as a natural result of "authentic" gut feeling, we should understand the ways it is purposefully and collectively produced and circulated.

This article contributes to a better understanding of the ‘anti‐immigration’ discourse that has prevailed in Poland following the electoral victory of the Law and Justice party in 2015 by theoretically engaging the category of ‘race’ in the examination of Polish nationalism. To do so, it employs the Foucauldian perspective on racism, understood as deployed in defence of one's own nation, which is imagined as "race". The article also contextualises this discourse by elaborating how three globally circulated racist themes (threat, unworthiness and otherness) are deployed to uphold three components of hegemonic Polish national self‐definition (vulnerability, deservingness and ‘Westernness’) against three aspects of the perceived liminality that destabilise this self‐definition (temporal, moral and spatial). The article concludes that in Poland, the ‘anti‐immigration’ discourse deploys racism as a device symbolically to ‘protect’ the imagined ethnically, religiously and culturally homogenous Polish nation from the belittlement and dilution of collective self‐definition under the conditions of globalisation.

The focus of this thesis is on the recent changes in ethnic and class relations that have taken place in Bolivia since the beginning of the 21st century with the expansion of the economic middle class and the rise of the indigenous movements, Evo Morales and his socialist party to political power. This is approached through the medium of coca leaf, a key symbol of the Central Andean indigenous peoples, and its chewing that has recently been appropriated by all social layers of Bolivia. The recent popularity of coca challenges the race-based class structure of Bolivia, where prejudices on indigenous peoples have been epitomised in coca. The realities of social change are investigated by looking into the contemporary perceptions that Bolivians have towards coca, and how its increasing use reflects the changing identities and relations between different social layers. The city of Tarija was chosen as the primary field site as coca is commonly chewed there publicly. As previous anthropological research on coca has mainly been conducted in rural surroundings, this thesis illuminates how the leaf is used by the urban population of Bolivia. The principle research questions are: How is the chewing of coca leaf perceived and practiced by the different layers, of the contemporary society of Tarija, and how does this contribute to the production of separate ethnic and class identities, but also national and departmental unity? This thesis is mostly based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Bolivia between 3 December 2018 and 23 February 2019, of which two months were spent in the city of Tarija and it surroundings, while one month of supplementary research was conducted in other parts of Bolivia. In addition to participant observation, the material collected included 14 recorded interviews as well as 63 informal interviews. Besides ethnographic data, this thesis also analyses the history of coca leaf at the epicentre of racial and social relations of Bolivian society, which also includes its place as one of the main ingredients of the global drug trade. As the perceptions surrounding coca are linked to its possible narcotic qualities and medical applicability, an analysis of the medicinal value of the coca leaf is included to provide a background for the claims made by the interviewees. To approach the multiple meanings of the coca leaf, this thesis employs a locally engaged theory. Anthropological concepts and theories of multiple origins are employed and applied throughout the ethnographical analysis to build a multi-sited and encompassing understanding of coca chewing. The identities are approached from an intersectional perspective to show the complexity of identity building, where gender, age, race and class are in interaction with each other. The reasons that members of different groups give for coca chewing and how these reasons work to create differences between the chewers are analysed to demonstrate how the traditional upper and middle classes of Tarija do not partake in the key symbolism that coca has for the Central Andean indigenous peoples. Instead, they perceive coca as an ancient medicine, a national emblem that works to create unity between all Bolivians by connecting them to their shared indigenous roots, while the chewing of the leaf for work-related reasons, as a stimulant, is perceived to be practiced mainly by the rural population and the working class. By further differentiating the zones of coca production to traditional producers and narcotraffickers, and as also demonstrated with an analysis on the public chewing of coca, this thesis argues that through coca chewing, the traditional upper and middle classes are able to overpass the racism previously employed in demonstrations against Evo Morales and his socialist party. Their new rhetoric highlights national unity regardless of class or ethnicity in the name of democracy. The ambiguous relation that the people of Tarija have towards coca reflects the ambiguous relations that exist between the different social layers of the city. The increasing popularity of coca reflects the social change that has diluted the colonial race-based boundaries between social classes, but also the limits of this change, as many of the prejudices and stereotypes previously attached to race and coca, instead of disappearing, have been reassigned to low income levels and political affiliation.

This multidisciplinary volume reflects the shifting experiences and framings of Finnishness and its relation to race and coloniality. The authors centre their investigations on whiteness and unravel the cultural myth of a normative Finnish (white) ethnicity. Rather than presenting a unified definition for whiteness, the book gives space to the different understandings and analyses of its authors. This collection of case-studies illuminates how Indigenous and ethnic minorities have participated in defining notions of Finnishness, how historical and recent processes of migration have challenged the traditional conceptualisations of the nation-state and its population, and how imperial relationships have contributed to a complex set of discourses on Finnish compliance and identity. With an aim to question and problematise what may seem self-evident aspects of Finnish life and Finnishness, expert voices join together to offer (counter) perspectives on how Finnishness is constructed and perceived. Scholars from cultural studies, history, sociology, linguistics, genetics, among others, address four main topics: 1) Imaginations of Finnishness, including perceived physical characteristics of Finnish people; 2) Constructions of whiteness, entailing studies of those who do and do not pass as white; 3) Representations of belonging and exclusion, making up of accounts of perceptions of what it means to be ‘Finnish’; and 4) Imperialism and colonisation, including what might be considered uncomfortable or even surprising accounts of inclusion and exclusion in the Finnish context. This volume takes a first step in opening up a complex set of realities that define Finland’s changing role in the world and as a home to diverse populations.

Racism continues to be both a widely discussed topic and continuing problem within many of our societies. Yet, most of the mainstream discourse on race lacks any reference to the actual concept of race itself. This has led to a situation in which racism is understood as systematic discrimination but race itself is generally treated as a neutral and unproblematized identity category instead of a political system of oppression. In this master’s thesis I will examine the ontological relationship between the concept of race and power. The main goal is twofold. Firstly, I will show that the relationship between race and power is an inherent one. Secondly, I will show that it is not only possible but necessary to take Whiteness as a vantage point as we examine this relationship. For while we are generally accustomed to approach the topic of racism and racial injustice through the experiences of people of color, Whiteness continues to remain in the margins of our political, social, and theoretical conversations. This, I claim, results from the normalization of Whiteness that has rendered White people unable to see how race functions and affects their daily lives. I will begin by briefly examining how the ideas of race and Whiteness were historically constructed and implemented as oppressive systems. This will help us establish that race was never discovered but constructed to serve a specific purpose. From here I move onto examine the relationship between race and power through the frameworks of class and state power. First, I look at Charles Mills’ argument for why racial power relations are distinct from and transcend those of class. After this I examine how Michel Foucault conceptualizes race as a necessary technology of power to the modern state. Then I move onto examine George Yancy’s method that not only forces Whites to see the workings of race but allows us to comprehend that there is no sense in making a distinction between “good” and “bad” White people. Finally, I present my own method of asking the ethically laden question: “Is there anything good about Whiteness?” I argue that any meaningful discussions on racism must theoretically examine the historical construction of race and the purposes that it has been used. For this reveals the ontological relationship between race and power as an inherent one. In addition, it is also crucial to comprehend that race is first and foremost a lived experience that affects the daily lives of countless people before any of our conceptual analysis. Thus, examining both the theoretical and the empirical level of race is a necessity for us to have any change to move beyond race. And I suggest that we start by asking “Is there anything good about Whiteness?” For an adequate answer to this question requires an understanding of what it is to be White. Which then necessitates a thorough theoretical understanding of the construction, history and workings of race.

This thesis focuses on slavery as an example of a past injustice and how the issue came up in the World Conference against Racism in Durban (WCAR), South Africa, held 31 August – 7 September 2001. The legacies of slavery, slave trade and colonialism and their implications almost ruined the whole WCAR conference as African countries raised the issue of slavery on the agenda of the conference. They wanted an apology for slavery and reparations for it. Not surprisingly, the issue was a red cloth for the United States and Western European countries with colonial pasts. The WCAR process and also the experiences from the national truth commissions and trials in transitional situations have showed that not only economic factors but also the issues of the past are important to people. As slavery and past injustices in general do seem to have consequences even today, in this thesis I will try to answer to the questions what has been done in order to amend the past wrongs, especially for slavery, and what other alternatives there might be available in solving the problem that such issues have presented. I will look at the slavery in the context of dealing with the past. In the last three decades there are several examples of states which after abuses of human rights or transitions to a more democratic regime have dealt with their difficult past. I will present a short overview of the practices from the reality, and look into the different ways to deal with the past. Two methods are taken into closer examination, i.e. trials and tribunal and truth commissions. From this point of view I will examine whether the methods and proceedings applied so far in the domestic use may be appropriate also on the global scale. A part of the scientific significance of this work arises in the connection of two, at least so far quite separate discourses, namely the discourse of dealing with the past and the discourse on global (distributive) justice. In the theoretical framework I will examine probably the most important work in the field of distributive justice, namely John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice, published in 1971. Distributive justice is about allocation of present and future recourses, but pays no attention to history and memory in its definition of justice. This is where this thesis brings something new to the field of global justice.

This master's thesis examines extra-European international students as an important part of the migrant labour force in Finland. Student migration is one of the fastest growing forms of migration today. Student migrants have principally been discussed in relation to education policy, human capital and the unwanted brain drain has been underlined. Aspects outside of the education-related have been studied less and for example wage work done by non-European students with a student visa in Finland has been ignored to a large extent. This thesis builds over the gap between the administrative migration-categories student-migrant and migrant-worker. Accordingly, the main subjects in this thesis are named student-migrant-workers. Emphasis is also put on the racist structures these migrants are confronted with at work and in everyday life as well as on their social and legal position in Finland. The analysed material consists of seven semi-structured theme interviews with migrants from five different countries in Sub-Saharan Africa who came to Finland in order to study. The analysis departs from a critical perspective on borders that underline how borders, and extensions of these, function as control mechanisms within the migration administration. Today borders no longer constitute a clear dividing line between nation-states, but are instead flexible and located at the centre of the migrants lives. The extensions of borders the analysis emanates from, is the temporary residence permit the migrants have obtained and how it influences their possibilities of forming their life in a way they would want to. Since the residence permit implies certain requirements for the migrants and restricts their social and political rights, this scope is remarkably limited. The thesis illustrates how borders, in the form of the student s residence permits, produce a precarious labour force that is easy to exploit. As will be seen, most of those holding a student s residence permit have no other choice than wage working in order to avoid deportation. Because of the strict limitations, these migrants are produced as flexible workers that quickly can react to the demand on the labour market. The analysis also shows that boundaries are created on the basis of race , ethnicity and language and also influence the position on the labour market as well as the experiences of everyday life. The analysis is situated in a context of migration in contemporary capitalism and shows that borders produce new subjectivities that are possible to utilize in the current economic system. The temporariness the characterises the lives of the student-migrant-workers renders inclusion in society more difficult and questions in this way integration as analytical tool in contemporary migration research.

This chapter focuses on how minority young people search for ways to build their lives, gain respectability and perform agency in a societal context characterized by the previously mentioned processes. It also focuses on the gendered and sexualized aspects of racism, as they are lived out by young people in a multi-ethnic suburb in Finland, and the different strategies they develop to question, ignore and disturb practices. The chapter examines the interviews with young people who have one or two parents born outside Finland. It also examines how gendered racism shapes the conditions in which racialized minority youth live their everyday lives and how the young people challenge, ignore and disturb such discourses and practices. The concept "territorial stigmatization" also rightly points to the importance of media coverage in the establishment of othering narratives of the residence areas where ethnic/racial and class-bound inequalities merge.

Visual stereotypes constitute a set of tropes through which the Other is described and depicted to an audience, who perhaps never will encounter the individuals that those tropes purport to represent. Upon the arrival of Muslim Tatar traders in Finland in the late nineteenth century, newspapers and satirical journals utilized visual stereotypes to identify the new arrivals and draw demarcation lines between them and what was considered “Finnish”. The Tatars arrived during a time of tension in the relationship between the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland and the Russian Empire, with the Finnish intelligentsia divided along political and language lines. Stereotypical images of Tatar pedlars were used as insults against political opponents within Finland and as covert criticism of the policies of the Russian Empire. Stereotypes about ethnic and religious minorities like the Tatars fulfilled a political need for substitute enemy images; after Finland became independent in 1917, these visual stereotypes almost disappeared.