From Laura Agustin. I yammered about her book here, Sex at the Margins, and Doug had her on his radio program shortly after the book came out:
--------------------------------
Hello everyone,
I've lived in southern Sweden for the past year, a short ride across water from Copenhagen, and now feel I can begin to analyse what Swedish (and Nordic) gender-equality policies are about. I also want to maintain my sanity whilst watching highly biased trafficking information reproduce itself in Sweden, which is a product, of course, of ideas about prostitution and inequality. So I have opened up a column on The Local, a Swedish media site in English, called The Other Swedish Model. The introductory post is:
The pleasures of dissent: Not? http://www.thelocal.se/blogs/theotherswedishmodel/2009/10/28/the-pleasures-of-dissent-not/
At a drinks reception not long ago I referred nonchalantly to the fact that Sweden is supposedly the world's most gender-equal state. A shiver was felt; eyes rolled. Had I said supposedly? Was I actually questioning Sweden's version of Gender Equality, jämställdhet? That, it seems, is practically taboo in Sweden....
Please send on to interested people.
Best wishes, Laura
Laura María Agustín Border Thinking: http://www.nodo50.org/Laura_Agustin
Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry http://www.amazon.com/dp/ASIN/1842778609/?tag=lauragus-20