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Title: Even in Sweden: Racisms, Racialized Spaces, and the Popular Geographical Imagination by Allan Richard Pred ISBN: 0-520-22449-3 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 06 November, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: 3 stars = Good
Comment: Allan Pred is a professor of Geography at the University of California at Berkeley, but has spent some 40% of his time since 1960 in Sweden. Over the period of the 1990s, Professor Pred saw a profound change in how Sweden saw and welcomed immigrants and refugees. Prior to the 1990s, economically prospering Sweden, facing chronic labor shortages proclaimed itself a "moral superpower," acting as conscience in racial matters to the rest of the world. During the 1990s, when Sweden was hit by economic forces that raised unemployment to near-record levels and sapped money needed for the maintenance of the welfare state, Sweden began to turn against foreigners, making life difficult for those already there.
This book traces the history of this historic change in Sweden's policies, and shows how non-European and Muslim minorities are mistreated in a country that has always prided itself in its enlightened racial policies. It shows what racism can do...even in Sweden.
I find myself of two minds about this book. First off, I must say that this is a fascinating and enlightening look at modern Sweden. If you are interested in race relations in Europe, then this is definitely a book that you should read.
On the other hand, this book does have its problems. First of all, in trying to give weight to his words, the author makes extensive use of quotations from manifold sources; in fact, far too many quotations are presented. The quotations in this book, sprinkled throughout the text, often run to two pages, giving the text a disjointed feeling. Second of all, the author goes far in assigning racist motives to people, counting any anti-immigration sentiment as de facto racism. The book begins by referencing the 1962 book, An American Dilemma by Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish book that documents racism in America, and then turns the author's words back against Sweden, with a seeming sense that Sweden's comeuppance has finally arrived.
But, that said, the author does do an excellent job of describing present day Sweden. I was also quite intrigued by his showing that many of Sweden's modern race problems are a result of well-intentioned laws passed in the past. I give this book 3 stars, which stands for "Good," as I do think that its flaws hold it back from being the very good or even excellent book that it could have been. I give it a somewhat guarded recommendation.
Rating: 1
Summary: Don't judge a book by its cover
Comment: On the surface, this might seem like a good sociology book, looking at conditions in Sweden, but that surface is misleading. First of all, Berkeley professor and self-proclaimed Marxist Allan Pred is NOT a professor of sociology, but of geography. But let's move on.
Pred's book is heavily footnoted, but many of his claims about Swedish police, news media, and so forth are unsubstantiated. That is to say he will make a claim of certain actions or opinions, but provide few if any footnotes giving a source; the book is highly anecdotal, with Prof Pred not hesitating to list himself as a resource. Therefore, what you are reading in this book is NOT the disinterested and impartial examination of Swedish culture by a trained sociologist, but instead the deep felt opinions of an opinionated sociological layman.
That leads me on to another point - culture. Prof Pred toes the line when it comes to liberal orthodoxy - he denies the very existence of culture. To him any country is a herd of humans, constantly changing with no past and no future. Have you read about Japanese culture, or Indian culture? Well, forget it, there are no such things! To Prof Pred there is no Swedish culture, only a group of people living in a geographic area, who should not reference anything that came before.
What is the meaning of all this? The West (yes, there is such a thing) is in a state of crisis, where people from other cultures are arriving in unprecedented numbers, changing the very nature of the culture penetrated. Why did the good prof not discuss the Sami (Lapp) people? This is because he is part of the liberal establishment that actually wants to see Western culture shattered and replaced by that of third-world cultures. The book points out that Swedish unemployment is running at 12-15%, and yet prof Pred identifies anti-immigration sentiment as racist, never bothering to explain why that is.
Do not read this book, it is nothing but a bunch of biases that the author brought to his (untrained) examination, reaching conclusions that slavishly conform to university Marxism and distort the truth.
Rating: 4
Summary: excellent book
Comment: I just finished reading Even in Sweden and I found it fascinating. Given the political and social history of this country one would not necessarily thinks of race or racism as a factor. I came to understand that a young woman from Ethiopia or from Iran is seen a exotic screen where native swedish men project fantasies of sexual freedom. This is also the case in America. I also gained insight in terms of how the progeny of African men and white Swedish women are looked at in terms of not being European or Swedish enough.This was fascinating.
While Pred's discussion of race and sexuality was interesting,it was a bit limited to me. I failed to get a clear sense of how women and men of African descent from the US are looked at (or treated in the swedish context). Given that some of the offspring from black deserters during Vietnam grew up in Sweden it might be interesting to find out.
Other than these questions, the book is excellent. I highly recommend it!
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Title: Geographies of Exclusion: Society and Difference in the West by David Sibley ISBN: 0415119251 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 09 November, 1995 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Putting Women in Place: Feminist Geographers Make Sense of the World by Mona Domosh, Joni K. Seager ISBN: 1572306688 Publisher: Guilford Press Pub. Date: 30 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Space, Place, and Gender by Doreen Massey ISBN: 0816626170 Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr (Txt) Pub. Date: December, 1994 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott ISBN: 0300078153 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.61 |
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