Undergraduate studies: I teach courses on Children, youth and sexuality in education, and on Social relations in school, as well as supervise theses at different levels.

Postgraduate studies: Every few years, I give a Ph.D. course on Critical Perspectives on Men and Masculinity, organized by the Gender Academy at Stockholm University. I am also part of Ph.D. courses on contemporary theoretical debates and theory of science in child and youth studies.

I am co-supervisor for Noor Nassef at BUV and member of the doctoral committee for Rannveig Ágústa Guðjónsdóttir, University of Iceland.

Young men's violence against women

In recent years, I am interested in questions about youth intimate relationships. Young men's violence against women is in focus for the research I have conducted with Lucas Gottzén and Hanna Bornäs. The young men's processes of change are the subject of "It's not just dad who's got problems: Feminist phenomenology and young men's violence against women" (2023). In "Rethinking male peer support theory" (2022) we focus on how the social network responds to violence. The article "Queering desistance: Chrononormativity, afterwardsness and young men's sexual intimate partner violence" (2020) analyzes the role of temporality in perpetrator narratives. The chapters "Theorising masculinity and intimate partner violence" and "The rape capital or the most gender-equal country in the world?" are published in Men, masculinities and intimate partner violence (2021).  

"Dealing with discomfort: Affective dissonance in fathers’ narratives of violence" (with Rannveig Ágústa Guðjónsdóttir, 2024) explores the importance of (dis)comfort in violent fathers' processes of change.

 

Men and masculinity

A recurring theme in my research - from my first studies of hip hop to recent work on violence - concerns how we can understand questions about men and masculinity. "Sticky masculinity" (2014) and "Is everything compatible?" (2018) are contributions to the international theoretical discussion. Two articles in Swedish give overviews of different theoretical perspectives, "Masculinity theory in change" (2020) and "Young men: What's the problem?" (2021). The article "Ashamed of one's sexism, mourning one's friends" (2020) analyzes contemporary Swedish books about men and gender issues.

I am currently the Swedish represantative in the board of the Nordic Association for Research on Men and Masculinities (NORMAS).

 

Intersectionality and sociological theory

I am also interested in intersectional perspectives, most recently in the Swedish textbook Intersektionalitet (with Minoo Alinia, 2023). My chapter on Anna Julia Cooper in Sociologins klassiker (2022) is the first to introduce Cooper's black feminist and intersectional approach in Swedish. In the article "Who is theory?" (2018, in Swedish) I discuss the problem of the history of sociological theory being centered around white men, as well as how this can be addressed.

 

Hip hop

In my Ph.D. thesis Reading Rap (2014) and after, I have analyzed rap lyrics in Sweden from feminist, queer and intersectional perspectives. Publications on this theme: "No homo" (2012), "Degrees of intersectionality" (2013), "Hip hop feminism in Sweden" (2014), "Theorizing power, identity and hip hop" (2016) and "The dude thought he was cool..." (2016, in Swedish).

 

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Temporalitet: Perspektiv på ungdom som tidskategori

  2024. Kalle Berggren. Ungas villkor och vuxenblivande, 52-67

  Chapter

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• Dealing with discomfort: Affective dissonance in fathers’ narratives of violence

  2024. Rannveig Ágústa Guðjónsdóttir, Kalle Berggren. Feminism and Psychology

  Article

  Researchers focusing on fathers’ violence and perpetrator programmes have expressed growing interest in the question of change. Yet, there has been little dialogue in relation to feminist affect theories on change. Drawing on the narratives of eight fathers in Iceland who had been violent against their female partner and/or children, we suggest that attending to comfort and discomfort is central to understanding violent fathers’ process of change. Inspired by feminist theories of affective dissonance, the analysis shows that, on the one hand, fathers avoided dealing with uncomfortable emotions, conversations, and situations in diverse ways, for example, by leaning on women’s emotional labour. On the other hand, the fathers also attempted to deal with discomfort, and this was often as part of their decision to seek help, turn to self-reflection, or hold themselves accountable. By foregrounding discomfort in these narratives, this paper provides insights into the possibilities of and hindrances to fathers’ change from perpetrating domestic violence.

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• It’s not just dad who’s got problems: Feminist phenomenology and young men’s violence against women

  2023. Kalle Berggren, Lucas Gottzén. Men and Masculinities

  Article

  Research on men who have been violent against women has often shown how these men justify or excuse their violence, minimize their responsibility, as well as construct dominant forms of masculinity. However, as attitudes in support of intimate partner violence are declining around the world, we might expect perpetrators to become less self-righteous and more self-critical about their violence. This article reports data from a qualitative interview study with 14 young partner-violent men in Sweden. While our participants sometimes downplayed their responsibility, more often they condemned violence in intimate relationships, and reflected upon the place of violence in their lives. This included experiences of domestic violence as children, as well as their processes of moving away from violence. Drawing on feminist readings of phenomenology, particularly Heidegger, we suggest that phenomenological conceptualizations of embodiment, consciousness and practice are helpful in understanding the experiences of partner-violent men.

  Read more about It’s not just dad who’s got problems

• Intersektionalitet

  2023. Minoo Alinia, Kalle Berggren.

  Book

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• Rethinking male peer support theory

  2022. Kalle Berggren, Lucas Gottzén. Journal of Men's Studies

  Article

  Male Peer Support Theory (MPST) is one of the few principal theories about masculinity and men’s violence against women. The theory foregrounds the role of social networks in encouraging violence. This article offers a critical discussion of MPST, particularly the assumption that social networks primarily support violence. Drawing on a qualitative study of young men perpetrators in Sweden, we suggest that the concept of response is better suited than support in capturing the diversity of social network responses to violence. In our data, there were few stories about unmitigated pro-abuse support. Instead, we found responses that unequivocally condemned violence, as well as ambiguous and transformative responses. We suggest that such responses be understood in relation to changing attitudes concerning violence.

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• Anna Julia Cooper

  2022. Kalle Berggren. Sociologins klassiker, 135-149

  Chapter

  Anna Julia Cooper skrev den första boken i vad som i dag kallas den svarta feministiska traditionen, A voice from the south, år 1892. Hon utvecklar ett perspektiv på social ojämlikhet utifrån svarta kvinnors erfarenhet. Cooper erbjuder en kritisk genusanalys av rasproblemet och samtidigt en kritisk rasanalys av kvinnofrågan. Svarta kvinnor konfronteras med bägge problemen, och därför behövs en kritisk samhällsanalys som länkar samman olika maktdimensioner i stället för att ställa dem mot varandra. Cooper var engagerad i olika organisationer som verkade för social rättvisa, särskilt i utbildningsfrågor. Hennes texter spänner över en rad områden, såsom litteratur, ekonomi och kolonialism, teman som hon analyserar med utgångspunkt i frågor om ras, kön och klass. Coopers arbete visar hur denna typ av sociologiska analyser, som i dag ofta går under namnet intersektionalitet, har funnits sedan slutet av 1800-talet.

  Read more about Anna Julia Cooper

Show all publications by Kalle Berggren at Stockholm University