Den senaste tidens framväxt av illiberala, konservativa och högerpopulistiska rörelser utgör ett akut hot mot demokrati och jämlikhet i Europa. En genomgripande men underbeforskad del av dessa rörelser förespråkar \"traditionella familjevärderingar\", i synnerhet konservativ sexual- och genuspolitik, i namn av att skydda barn. Projektet kommer att fylla denna forskningslucka genom tvärvetenskaplig forskning som undersöker den diskursiva konstruktionen av barnet som den ultimata platsen för sårbarhet och risk, och därmed i behov av skydd och politisk intervention. Den irrationella eller affektiva komponenten i sådana diskurser kräver ett tillvägagångssätt som kan redogöra för deras känslomässiga kraft eller \"grepp\". Detta förslag syftar till att utveckla ett sådant tillvägagångssätt genom att kombinera insikter och metodik från politisk diskursteori, mediestudier och psykosociala studier. Forskningen kännetecknas av en betydande jämförande dimension, där diskurser analyseras av konservativa aktörer med \"pro-traditionella familjevärderingar\", från politiker till aktivister, i Tyskland och Ryssland.
","en":"The recent rise of illiberal, conservative and right-wing populist movements poses an acute threat to democracy and equality in Europe. One pervasive but underresearched strand of these movements advocates ‘traditional family values’, in particular conservative sexual and gender politics, in the name of protecting children.
The project will fill this research gap through interdisciplinary research examining the discursive construction of the child as the ultimate site of vulnerability and risk, and hence in need of protection and policy intervention. The irrational or affective component of such discourses calls for an approach capable of accounting for their emotive force or ‘grip’. This proposal aims to develop such an approach, combining insights and methodology from political discourse theory, media studies and psychosocial studies. The research is characterised by a significant comparative dimension, analysing discourses by conservative, ‘pro-traditional family values’ actors, from politicians to activists, in Germany and Russia.
"},"dates":{"start_date":"2021-02-22","end_date":"2023-09-01"},"organizations":[{"funding":[{"_id":345,"id":"502073-1617","sv":"Europeiska kommissionen","en":"European Commission"}]},{"coordinating":[{"_id":881850,"id":"202100-4920","sv":"Malmö universitet","en":"Malmö University"}]}],"people":[{"project_leaders":[{"_id":"authority-person:33152","orcid":"0000-0002-9615-5597","name":"Brock, Maria","role":"principal_investigator","affiliation":[{"_id":882923,"sv":"Institutionen för konst, kultur och kommunikation (K3)","en":"School of Arts and Communication (K3)","parent":[{"_id":882920,"sv":"Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS)","en":"Faculty of Culture and Society (KS)","parent":[{"_id":881850,"id":"202100-4920","sv":"Malmö universitet","en":"Malmö University"}]}]},{"_id":882927,"sv":"Rethinking Democracy (REDEM)","en":"Rethinking Democracy (REDEM)","parent":[{"_id":882920,"sv":"Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS)","en":"Faculty of Culture and Society (KS)","parent":[{"_id":881850,"id":"202100-4920","sv":"Malmö universitet","en":"Malmö University"}]}]},{"_id":11817,"sv":"Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap","en":"Media and Communication Studies","parent":[{"_id":11809,"sv":"Institutionen för kultur och lärande","en":"School of Culture and Education","parent":[{"_id":481,"id":"202100-4896","sv":"Södertörns högskola","en":"Södertörn University"}]}]}]}]},{"other_personnel":[{"_id":"authority-person:76826","orcid":"0000-0003-4953-2852","name":"Askanius, Tina","role":"project_officer","affiliation":[{"_id":882923,"sv":"Institutionen för konst, kultur och kommunikation (K3)","en":"School of Arts and Communication (K3)","parent":[{"_id":882920,"sv":"Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS)","en":"Faculty of Culture and Society (KS)","parent":[{"_id":881850,"id":"202100-4920","sv":"Malmö universitet","en":"Malmö University"}]}]},{"_id":882927,"sv":"Rethinking Democracy (REDEM)","en":"Rethinking Democracy (REDEM)","parent":[{"_id":882920,"sv":"Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS)","en":"Faculty of Culture and Society (KS)","parent":[{"_id":881850,"id":"202100-4920","sv":"Malmö universitet","en":"Malmö University"}]}]}]}]}],"tags":[{"_id":11762,"id":"508","sv":"Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap","en":"Media and Communications"}],"titles":{"sv":"Barnet som symbol för 'traditionella värden' inom anti-genusrörelser: en jämförande studie mellan Ryssland och Tyskland","en":"The child as cipher for a politics of ‘traditional values’ in the anti-gender movement: A comparative study of Russia and Germany"},"type_of_awards":{"sv":"EU-finansiering","en":"EU grant"},"publications":[{"id":"diva2:2009384","type":"article-journal","status":"Published","issued":{"date-parts":[[2025]]},"title":"The adult in the room : mobilizing the figure of the child in Sweden and Germany","language":"eng","author":[{"family":"Brock","given":"Maria","ORCID":"0000-0002-9615-5597","localId":"mabr24","affiliation":[{"id":"11817","name":"Södertörns högskola, Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap"}]},{"family":"Sundhall","given":"Jeanette","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Gothenburg, Sweden"}]},{"family":"Martinsson","given":"Lena","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Gothenburg, Sweden"}]}],"abstract":"This discussion takes as its starting point recent right-wing protests and -rhetoric, forming part of a conservative moral panic surrounding Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) and LGBTQ+ pride events, and in particular the harm these are proclaimed to be causing children. While mobilizing the figure of the child for political purposes is not a recent phenomenon, the momentum and number of fellow travelers the instrumentalization of vulnerable innocence of children has achieved recently demand an intervention. The aim of this article is therefore-in conversation with feminist theoretical work, primarily focusing on gender-based needs, to explore specific figures of the child at a time when nationalist right-wing politics are naturalized across multiple domains and geographies. We situate our research at a specific historical and political juncture, with the purpose of enabling a feminist reflection of the categories of childhood and adulthood in order to open them up in potentially empowering ways. We focus on the symbolic and political weight of childhood as a particular age category, analyzing political rhetoric from Germany and Sweden, but speaking to transnational discourses about the child and how it is both transformed and anchored in different national contexts. Importantly, this also means inquiring what it means for some population groups to be forcibly adultified, while being infantilized in other contexts. We conclude that the political use and co-optation of the child in order to mobilize actors arguing that the child is only safe within the confines of traditional values and the ethnonationalist state in fact undermines children's rights.","DOI":"10.3389/fpos.2025.1623683","ScopusId":"2-s2.0-105016856735","NBN":"urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-58321","volume":"7","number":"1623683","container-title":"Frontiers in Political Science","ISSN":"2673-3145","keyword":"(figure of) the child; feminist and gender studies; right-wing nationalism; anti-gender movement; adultism","publisher":"Frontiers Media S.A.","published":[{"raw":"2025-10-27T15:40:00.000+01:00"}],"created":[{"raw":"2025-10-27T15:40:36.246+01:00"}],"updated":[{"raw":"2025-10-28T15:57:41.910+01:00"}],"URL":"https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-58321"}],"links":[{"type":"pid","link":"https://sh.diva-portal.org/smash/api/project/swecris/project:8245"}]}]