The #metoo tag has united women’s movements in a global campaign against sexism and violence. The #metoo petitions in Sweden describe the structural oppression exercised through sexual harassment and sexual violence that takes place in most professions and contexts such as lawyers, doctors, construction industry, politicians, journalists, students in upper secondary schools, the music industry, etc. Overall, the #metoo activism has made a huge medial and political impact. The purpose of this interdisciplinary research project is to investigate, through a mixed method approach, the development of the #metoo activism in Sweden. The aim is to document the development of the Swedish #metoo activism and compare the consequences for the actors in different sectors. Based on these results, we will use a participatory design methodology to further develop strategies and tools that can strengthen democratic processes and support continued work against sexual harassment and abuse.
The initial data collection is funded by Formas (2018-2019). This data collection specifically targets material at risk to be lost, such as online materials not covered by archival routines of traditional media and all the experiences that weren’t published, which we will gather through interviews, focus groups and surveys with organizers and other involved actors. Through this data collection we want to ensure and maintain this unique but volatile material for future analyses.
The ongoing research project is funded by the Swedish Research Council (2020-2023), and is situated at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University.
Project organization and contact
Hillevi Ganetz, Professor in Gender Studies at Stockholm University, contributes with her knowledge of gender theory and epistemology. She has worked mainly with qualitative, interpretative methods but also interviews. She has a PhD in Media and Communication Studies, and has a long history of project organization
Karin Hansson, project manager, Associate professor in Media technology at Södertörn University, has written extensively about technology-based participation from a design perspective. Hansson contributes with deep knowledge of interactions, participatory design development and participation in social media networks. She has long experience of organizing large projects, and working with a variety of stakeholders, internationally as well as from the surrounding community.
Malin Sveningsson, Professor in Media and Communication Studies at the University of Gothenburg, is an author of several books and research articles in areas such as digital media, computer-mediated communication, virtual worlds, social interaction, popular culture, youth culture, gender and identity. She contributes to the project with her experiences of media analyses where she combines quantitative and qualitative methods.
Ethical considerations
In accordance with the UNESCO Code of conduct for social science research regarding information, consent, confidentiality and use requirements, participants in interviews, focus groups and surveys will be given information about the purpose of the studies, that they can cancel participation at any time, wish for confidentiality, and that the data material is used only for research purposes. Results from the studies will be presented on group level. The data from interviews, focus groups and surveys will be unidentified on personal details for storage and publishing, and especially the qualitative material from interviews and focus groups will only be available to the involved researchers and not to other third parties. This information on restrictive access of qualitative material will also be available to participants, as it is increasingly common in research for data to be available for review by the person who requests the data.
For more information contact khansson@dsv.su.se