Guro Korsnes Kristensen
Guro Korsnes Kristensen is working as a post doctor on the research project "Buying and Selling (gender) Equality. Feminized Migration and Gender Equality in Contemporary Norway" . The project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council (NFR) under the programme Welfare, Working life and Migration (VAM) for the period 2011-2014.
Previously she has written a PhD- thesis on reproduction and family planning among immigrants in contemporary Norway (2011).
Guro has for several years been giving courses at Høgskolen i Nord- Trøndelag/University College in Nord- Trøndelag. She has also been a lecturer at the masterprogram at Institutt for tverrfaglige kulturstudier/Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture.
Research interests: Gender, migraton, social class, ethnicity, gender equality, reproduction and family planning.
Post doc. - project
Someone to help out and Same situation – different solutions?
The main aim of the post doc. project is to gain insight into how Norwegian couples who employ either au pairs or domestic workers perceive these arrangements, and the cultural meanings they attach to them. How does the purchase of domestic services relate to the norms, values and expectations of gender equality? How is "race"/ethnicity, gender and class produced in the women's and men's relations to the au pairs and domestic workers, and how is it negotiated? Which imaginaries of gender equality, domestic work, home and family are (re)produced in the ways the interviewees talk about, explain and justify the outsourcing of domestic work? A key point in this project is to examine the discussions, disputes, negotiations and compromises that are involved in the couple's ongoing production of its au pair/domestic worker story/stories.
The project is informed by the concepts of intersectionality and complexity, and addresses the significance of inter- and transnational dimensions in the development of the welfare society. The project's research design is based on qualitative research methods. The data will consist of a combination of in depth- interviews and group interviews.
Parts of the reserach will be done in collaboration with Associate professor/senior researcher Malin Noem Ravn.
The projects homepage: http://www.ntnu.no/kult/bsge
Ph.d.- thesis
Familieplanlegging – bak tallene. Fortellinger om reproduksjon i det flerkulturelle Norge (2011)
The thesis' topic is fertility and migration, with an emphasis on how immigrants understand and relate to reproduction and family planning in contemporary Norway. A main part of the research has been to examine how immigrants talk about reproduction and family planning, the content of their narratives, and central features of their reflections with respect to past, present and future situations. The study is done according to qualitative methodology and based on interviews with 21 immigrants, both men and women. In addition, I interviewed a number of professionals working with these issues in practical contexts, used as a backdrop for the analysis.
The thesis demonstrates that immigrants are a heterogeneous category of people who display many internal differences as well as points of similarity with the local Norwegian population regarding the knowledge and use of family planning. Thus, it also becomes clear that the notion of the large immigrant family with ever increasing numbers of children has little basis in reality.
Secondly, the thesis shows that the informants generally are quite aware of Norwegian stereotypes of the large immigrant family mindlessly producing children and present themselves through various narratives that enable them to underscore their position as active and reflective subjects who make their own choices. This means that the interviewees are not to be regarded as expressing ‘traditional' as opposed to ‘modern' or ‘developed Norwegian' narratives and subject positions on reproduction.
Thirdly, the thesis argues that immigrants are quite heterogeneous in the subject positions they make and the normativities in which they engage. This heterogeneity is not one which can be easily classified, but one where class and age are important variables. Also being a migrant – being subjected to that position – seem to be important – as it may force the informants into (talking about) reproductive choices that underline their structural disadvantages compared to ‘real' Norwegians. They can for example seldom convincingly position themselves as modern and wanting many children, while this is very trendy among middle class and well off ‘real' Norwegians. Studying immigrants is thus also a way to uncover hegemonic ideas about these ‘real' Norwegians, another valuable contribution.
http://www.forskning.no/artikler/2011/november/303488
Publications
Kristensen, Guro Korsnes (2010) Trad eller trendy med tre? Om barnetall, likestilling og "norskhet". Berg, Anne-Jorun, Flemmen, Anne Britt, Gullikstad, Berit (red.) Likestilte norskheter. Om kjønn og etnisitet. Trondheim:Tapir
Kristensen, Guro Korsnes (2009) Tobarnskull eller stua full. Innvandreres fødselstall i norsk offentlig diskurs. Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning (33) 4, s 276-309
http://kilden.forskningsradet.no/c17251/artikkel/vis.html?tid=68416
http://kilden.forskningsradet.no/c17251/artikkel/vis.html?tid=74685
Kristensen, Guro Korsnes (2007): Barn og foreldreroller hos "dem" og "oss". Barn 2007 (3-4) s. 81-100, NTNU
Conferance papers (selected)
Kristensen, Guro Korsnes (2012): "Why intersectionality? Reflections on an attempt to apply intersectionality in a study on family planning among immigrants in contemporary Norway". 8th European Feminist Research Conference 2012. Budapest 17.- 20. mai 2012
Kristensen, Guro Korsnes (2010): ""Us" and "them" in public discourses on reproduction". Transnational/Global feminism: Issues, Contestations, Challenges. Bergen 25.-26. mai 2010
Kristensen, Guro Korsesnes (2010) "1,9 children = modern, gender equal and Norwegian?" Beyond citizenship: Feminism and the Transformation of Belonging. London 30. juni -2 juli 2010
Other publications (selected)
Kristensen, Guro Korsnes (2006): Bokanameldelse av: I en klass för sig. Genus, klass, och sexualitet bland gymnastjejer.Ambjörnsson, Fanny (2004). Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning 2006 nr 4.
Kristensen, Guro Korsnes (2004): Bokanmeldelse av Hijab i Norge: Trussel eller menneskerett? Høstmælingen, Njål (red.) Abstrakt forlag, (2004). Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning 2005 nr 1.
Kristensen, Guro Korsnes (2004): "Unge muslimske kvinner i Norge og hijab". Mira – magasinet. Jubileumsnummer 01-02. 2004. Minoritetskvinnebevegelsen i Norge gjennom årene. Feminisme og rasisme.
Master thesis
Kristensen, Guro Korsnes (2003): Hijab – islams fakkel. En antropologisk studie av unge muslimske kvinners forhold til skaut i en norsk kontekst. Hovedoppgave i sosialantropologi- Sosialantropologisk institutt. NTNU 2003.
Verv
Board member of Forening for kjønnsforskning i Norge (FOKK) 2011-
Member of Instituttråd ved Institutt for tverrfaglige kulturstudier 2010-
