Brexit will lead to negative economic trends ...
GUJournal PATRIK RORSMAN PAGE 10
INDEPENDENT JOURNAL FOR THE STAFF AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG #4 SEPTEMBER 2019
NEWS
Green researchers fly just as much NEWS
Time for a new health & safety survey NEWS
How to deal with China
QUESTIONING RIGHT TO ASYLUM
Joakim ruist on migration
VICE-CHANCELLOR A step forward for health and safety EPTEMBER has arrived and we are looking forward to a new semester. New and old students have arrived to liven up the city and our university. They are quickly getting back into familiar routines, their work and the agenda of the autumn semester. But I hope that they all, employees as well as students, had a lovely summer and feel ready to face the autumn together. I would like to dedicate this space to highlighting an important decision that will be of crucial importance for safeguarding and developing health and safety at the University for years to come. The decision concerns a new tool for supporting health and safety across our entire organisation. This is not a new Health and Safety Barometer, but a model for developing health and safety, as an integral part of systematic occupational health and safety. THE PROCESS WILL begin in February with a
Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
survey that will act as a catalyst for initiating a discussion about what it is like in the workplace and what we would like to see. Subsequently, local employees and managers will work together to interpret and prioritise the results of the survey and implement measures. Thus, the focus is not on the results of the survey, but on what we do with it. The model we have chosen is called ARK, and it is a way of working with psychosocial and organisational health and safety. ARK is a partnership between Norwegian and Swedish universities and colleges.
ARK entails mapping health and safety at the local level and means that improvements must be implemented locally, workplace by workplace, at the lowest possible level. This is a health and safety tool for local managers, it is local managers that will develop the work in consultation with health and safety representatives and employees. For this reason it is important that preparations are adapted to the conditions at individual faculties, units, departments or offices. IN OCTOBER, we will be organising breakfast
seminars about ARK. More information about this will be published on the Staff Portal. Managers will also be given access to basic material this autumn, to be able to inform employees before the survey is sent out in February. I am convinced that this model will help us to not only look at columns in a survey result, but instead focus on what is important – that we have a health-promoting and stimulating work environment that will give us the best possible conditions for carrying out and contributing to our core tasks, education and research.
Vice-Chancellor EVA WIBERG ARK – stands for the Norwegian Arbeidsmiljø- og arbeidsklimaundersøkelser.
Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
MASTHEAD Success without flying A NEW CANADIAN STUDY presents surpri-
sing results. Researchers that fly extensively are no more successful than researchers that fly less frequently, at least not in terms of the number of published articles. In addition, the report shows that environmental researchers fly as much as everyone else. As Professor Mats Ekström concludes, the quality of the research is not governed by high attendance at conferences and published articles.
THERE ARE PERCEIVED conflicting goals
between internationalisation and strict
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environmental requirements, but that may not be true. At the same time, voices have been raised, primarily from the Climate Students organisation, in favour of substantially reducing air travel emissions. Perhaps it is time for the University of Gothenburg to introduce stricter climate targets for travel, domestic flights to Stockholm, for instance, should not be permitted. MUCH OF THIS issue is dedicated to interna-
tional exchange, in various ways. How to collaborate with the dictatorship in China, for example? Two researchers point to the
risk of being exploited without being aware of it and that there is a high degree of selfcensorship in that country. Another theme that links up with internationalisation is interdisciplinary research. Jesper Löve argues that the current system benefits researchers who delve deeply into their own discipline without seeing the larger societal perspective. Complex interdisciplinary issues take time.
ALLAN ERIKSSON & EVA LUNDGREN
20 Visiting schools in South Africa
Photo: KEN WENNERHOLM
CONTENTS NEWS 04–17
04. Environmental Researchers Fly as Much as Everyone Else. 06. How Good are the University of Gothenburg’s Programmes? 07. Green Light for New Health & Safety Survey. 09. Unique Programme on Sea and Society. 10. Uncertain Conditions after Brexit. 12. Chinese Partnership – for Good and Bad.
PROFILE 14–17
14. The Right to Asylum Must be Abolished.
FOCUS 18–19
18. Prehistoric Perspectives on Sustainability.
PEOPLE 20–21
20. Inspiring Musical Exchange with South-Africa.
SEPTEMBER 2019 GUJOURNAL
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NEWS
Green researches fly just as much
Researchers who frequently attend conferences are no more successful than colleagues who travel less frequently. And environmental researchers fly as much as other researchers. These are two unexpected results from a Canadian study. STUDIEN ÄR UTFÖRD vid The study was conducted at UBC, the University of British Columbia, and is based on the journeys of 705 researchers. It shows that there is no correlation between the number of flights and a researcher’s HLA index, which provides an indication of their publications’ productivity and reach. But there is correlation between a high salary and frequent flying.
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Mats Ekström, professor at the JMG, is not particularly surprised that scientific publication and citation do not correlate with how much you travel. “THE QUALITY OF the research is
governed by other factors than attendance at conferences, and published results are primarily disseminated and marketed through other channels. But it is important to conduct these types of studies as they provide documentation for discussions on how academia can transition to a more sustainable approach. Reducing air travel and developing digital meetings entail not only more sustainable research in terms of the climate, but also a more efficient use of time and money.”
Mats Ekström
Mats Ekström is responsible for the platform Digital Research Conferences, which last year organised a conference for 25 researchers, entirely online. The study from UBC also includes an analysis of 165 researchers who had been categorised as either green or non-green. The analysis reveals that both groups do the same amount of flying. Neither is there a difference between the groups in terms of air travel to locations that are relatively close where you only stay overnight, trips that the article designates as “avoidable”, i.e. unnecessary. GUNNAR KÖHLIN, director of the EfD, Environment for Development, points out that this may be a result of researchers at UBC generally
NEWS
cheaper, video conferencing will be even more appealing in the future. We will continue to meet face to face as well, but will ensure that the meetings are as productive as possible.” Gunnar Köhlin also argues that the University of Gothenburg’s travel policy is a step in the right direction.
Illustration: ANDERS EURÉN
being fairly environmentally aware, something that is also highlighted in the article. “THE STUDY MUST be interpreted
with caution, it is for example not always wrong to fly to a location that is relatively close. Still, the article points to an important dilemma: environmental research is global, and therefore involves meetings all over the world. At the same time, it undermines your credibility as a sustainability researcher if you do travel excessively.” However, the EfD has reduced air travel at their branches globally by installing video conferencing equipment. “It is working splendidly. And considering that the technology is constantly improving and becoming
“THE UNIVERSITY OF Gothenburg advise against short trips, such as to Stockholm, and limits the possibility to upgrade to a higher booking class, which takes up more space on the plane. This is of course excellent.” Hans Abelius, Head of the International Centre, points out that sustainability is constantly on the agenda of the new Internationalisation Council. “It is essential that we consider why we meet with one another, and which physical meetings we can replace with virtual ones. But we also need to realise that different types of meetings require different kinds of preparation; for online meetings for example, all participants must really have studied the material and even submitted their opinions in advance.” One way of raising awareness about your own or your team’s travelling habits may be to use a check list, Hans Abelius points out. “Is it necessary to go to the same conference year after year, might it be possible for one person to go there to represent the entire team, is it possible for you to do more when you are there, should perhaps junior researchers be allowed to travel more frequently than senior ones who already have an established network? These are just a few thoughts you could consider before discussing travel.”
We will continue to meet face to face as well, but will ensure that the meetings are as productive as possible. GUNNAR KÖHLIN
Facts Artikeln Academic air travel has a limited influence on professional success är publicerad i Journal of Cleaner Production.
EVA LUNDGREN & ALLAN ERIKSSON SEPTEMBER 2019 GUJOURNALEN
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External review of educations How good are the University of Gothenburg’s programmes and how can they be improved? Over a three-year period, the courses and programmes at the University of Gothenburg have been evaluated, with the aim of answering these questions. What progress has been made so far? This is what will be discussed at a university-wide seminar on October 8. IN 2016, THE VICE-CHANCELLOR de-
cided on the new university policy regarding quality assurance and quality development of programmes. The policy involves more systematic quality efforts where each faculty drafts a six-year plan for evaluating their educational programmes. “One new aspect of the quality policy is that each programme will be reviewed by an external group, appointed by the faculty in consultation with the department. It will comprise no less than two external scientific/ artistic and educational experts, as well as a student or PhD student. The report from the expert group will then form the basis for an action plan”, says Malin Östling, coordinator for the University Board of Education’s Working Group for Quality.
THE REVIEW METHOD decided upon
by the University of Gothenburg is more or less the same one used by the universities in Uppsala and Lund, with the difference being that the University of Gothenburg does not require extensive self-assessment reports. “We feel that there is already a lot of valuable documentation and therefore believe that an additional shorter summary is sufficiently valuable.” So far, around thirty programmes have been evaluated. Monica Johansson, Pro Dean at the Faculty of Education, chairs the Working Group for Quality. On the whole, she is happy with the work so far.
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“It is important to prepare the review group thoroughly for their task and to structure the material that they will be reviewing. For some subjects, we have had difficulties recruiting a review group, which is of course the responsibility of the faculty. The action plans, which are intended to lead to a development plan, are mostly clear and focused, but it does vary.”
“THAT WILL INVOLVE quality initiatives at the university level, not the quality of the individual programmes”, Malin Östling points out. “Naturally, it would be valuable for us to present how we, in six-year cycles, evaluate our programmes using external experts. In addition, the University of Gothenburg implements several other types of quality initiatives, which will also be described and included in the assessment.” EVA LUNDGREN
KENNETH NYBERG, lecturer in histo-
ry, is also a member of the Working Group for Quality. He argues that evaluation in general helps an organisation identify their strengths and weaknesses. “Several of the external reviewers are incredibly highly qualified and some groups also have representation from industry, so there is a lot of variation. My impression so far is that most action plans take critical remarks very seriously. However, sometimes the reviewers identify issues that the department cannot do anything about”, Kenneth Nyberg argues. “It may concern remarks about the fact that programmes have too little classroom instruction. That often comes down to the resource allocation system, and not factors that the individual department or university is able to control.” From 2017–2022, the Swedish Higher Education Authority reviews the universities’ work on quality assurance in relation to their education. By next autumn, the University of
Gothenburg will have written their self-assessment and in the spring of 2021, the Swedish Higher Education Authority will conduct a site visit.
Facts
One new aspect of the quality policy is that each programme will be reviewed by an external group. MALIN ÖSTLING
The Policy for Quality Assurance and Continuous Quality Improvement of Education has been drafted by the Board of Education, which is chaired by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Mette Sandoff, through its Working Group for Quality in dialogue with all faculties. It states that all programmes at the University of Gothenburg shall be evaluated externally in six-year cycles. The policy also states that there shall be continuous follow-up and development of the educational programmes. However, the method chosen for this is to be determined by each faculty, so that it can be adapted to each field. In addition, the policy includes a number of premises for quality development, as well as information on how to follow up and develop the quality initiatives centrally. A seminar on the quality evaluations will be held on October 8, from 9.0012.00, at Torgny Segerstedt, Vasaparken. Register at: https://kompetensutveckling.gu.se/seminarie/detalj/3962
NEWS
“ARK is no silver bullet, it is a tool for measuring and following up”, says Pro Vice-Chancellor Mattias Goksör.
A new health & safety survey The time has come for a new health & safety survey. After a two-year investigation, management has decided on a Norwegian model that is designed for academic institutions, ARK. The focus is now on action and intervention, stresses Pro-Vice Chancellor Mattias Goksör, hoping that everyone will respond to the survey, which will be sent out at the beginning of next year.
THE LAST TIME a health & safety
survey was conducted was 2015. Four years later, we are introducing a new tool that will not only map the psychosocial work environment but also provide managers with better documentation for addressing problems. “The new tool does not create better health & safety in and of itself, but provides managers with an opportunity to remedy the existing shortcomings. The methodology is based on tried and tested research,
The methodology is based on tried and tested research. MATTIAS GOKSÖR
which I think will appeal to our academic managers.” The reason the Health & Safety Barometer was discontinued is, according to the Pro Vice-Chancellor, that it was very resource-intensive. “Managers had to rely too heavily on skills available centrally at the University of Gothenburg and there was more focus on investigation than on remedial measures. We now ensure that outcomes are followed up after the survey”, says Mattias Goksör, who between 2011 and 2017 SEPTEMBER 2019 GUJOURNAL
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meter. ARK reporting places great responsibility on managers, but who is going to follow up to ensure that the necessary measures are actually implemented? For example, what if the survey reveals strong criticism aimed at a particular manager, will that manager really propose measures that are directed at himself/herself?” According to Mattias Goksör, the responsibility for following up the progress made by the departments lies with the faculties, just as management will follow up the faculties’ progress.
was Prefect at the Department of Physics. ARK is a model for developing health & safety that was jointly designed by the four largest Norwegian universities and which is administered by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. It is currently used by 19 Norwegian universities and, for the past few years, University West. Mattias Goksör highlights the fact that it is customised for the academic sector, based on theory and research and complies with the legislative and regulatory requirements within health & safety. “A major benefit is the potential for comparison between universities. We are hoping that more Swedish universities will follow suit.” UNLIKE THE Health & Safety Baro-
meter it will be possible to produce results even for smaller workplaces with at least five respondents. For larger workplaces and entire faculties, we will be able to present results sorted by gender, age and employment category. “In Norway, they found it quite amusing to sort by gender, since they argue that a good work environment is in everybody’s interest. They mean that the aim of ARK should be to generate documentation for developing the organisation.” Neither does the survey contain questions about discrimination and sexual harassment.
“FOR THAT REASON, we have initi-
ated a pilot study on how we can proceed. But sexual harassment must be investigated continuously and be rectified immediately.” Mathias Hassnert, section head at HR, says that the initiative will be launched in earnest this autumn with information campaigns and training. “We are very happy to be getting
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started. We believe this is a much sought-after tool within the organisation. The greatest benefit of using this tool is that it involves the entire workplace. Health & safety concerns everyone, even though the manager has ultimate responsibility.” In the spring of 2018, a pilot study was conducted at the Department of Education, Communication and Learning and the University Library. Maja Pelling from Saco is one of the people who participated in the evaluation. “I am quite positive. It is about time that the University of Gothenburg takes a comprehensive approach for the entire university, but we should be clear about the fact that the ARK survey is not the same thing as the Health & Safety Baro-
Maja Pelling is quite satisfied with the new model.
THE SURVEY, which comprises around 80 questions, is expected to be disseminated in February and the response time is three weeks. Despite the fact that there is general survey fatigue, Mattias Goksör is hoping that the survey will be seen as important. “Health & safety is more important today than ever. Psycho-social ill health is affecting people at an ever younger age and everybody feels the growing stress. I believe health & safety is such an important issue that many people will want to respond to the survey. The more people that contribute, the easier it will be to remedy any shortcomings.” ALLAN ERIKSSON
Facts The Health & Safety Barometer that was conducted every three years from 2002 until 2015 was a very ambitious and comprehensive survey that aimed at improving our knowledge about health & safety and identifying areas for improvement, at different levels within the University of Gothenburg. It was led by Marianne Leffler and Olle Persson, who in 2017 was tasked with benchmarking various health & safety surveys within academia. They recommended the ARK model.
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Unique programme on Sea and Society “We think it is a courageous step that is also in tune with our times”, explains Per Moksnes, coordinator for Sea and Society, a newly launched interdisciplinary master’s programme. The programme is a collaboration between five faculties and 12 departments and its broad scope is unique. PROGRAMME SUPERVISORS Per Moksnes and Milena
Arias Schreiber, at the Department of Marine Sciences, have spent a lot of time designing a programme that is broad in scope but which also delves into the details. The programme has been developed from the marine paired-doctorate school of research which ran from 2012-2016. The person behind both the school of research and the master’s programme is Kerstin Johannesson, Director of the Tjärnö Marine Laboratory. “The students will be more employable out in the wider world, where there is an urgent need for biologists who understand law and economists who are Kerstin familiar with ecology. And the University Johannesson of Gothenburg has a lot to offer, including free programmes for EU students, high-quality education and an amazing infrastructure.” “Several parties have contributed to designing the programme”, says Anna Jöborn, Director of the Science Affairs Department at the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. “THIS PROGRAMME IS eagerly awaited and in much demand. The programme has been designed in close collaboration with us and this exchange will continue
throughout the course of the programme.” Around 350 students have applied to the course and around thirty have been accepted. “About half of the students come from other countries and we have as many social scientist and liberal arts students as we have natural scientists, which we are very happy about”, Lecturer Per Moksnes tells us. The first year comprises mandatory courses on historical background, blue economy and seascape management. In the second year, the students specialise and write a paper. “AROUND FIFTY LECTURERS will be teaching on the programme, of which around half are professors. But the programme has also been developed to enable students to learn from one another and we have already had several interesting discussions.” “The interdisciplinary aspect is important but can also be difficult, not least in administrative terms”, Lena Gipperth, Director of Sea and Society, explains. “RED 19 highlights the need for strengthening communication between departments and the central administration. Those efforts should involve those of us who already have strategic contacts with official agencies, other public organisations and the industry.” “The university should also invest more in stable partnerships than in research centres”, Lena Gipperth argues. “Chalmers, for example, has identified a number of focus areas with strong research, in terms of breadth as well as depth. Such an approach would facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration at the University of Gothenburg as well.” EVA LUNDGREN
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Great uncertainty about Brexit The United Kingdom is the University of Gothenburg’s largest partner in EU-funded research, not least within medical research. Nobody knows what impact Brexit will have on the partnership, but in the long term, we may not have cause to be overly concerned. “WE KNOW THAT we need each
other”, said Mathilda Ernkrans, Minister for Higher Education and Research, to Dagens Nyheter in April. She understands the concern that has been growing within the research community in the face of the United Kingdom’s impending exit from the EU, but she was convinced that the United Kingdom would want a good relationship with the European Union, particularly concerning involvement in the world’s largest research programme – Horizon Europe. But what will happen when it is launched in 2021, nobody knows. As things currently stand, the British government has made it clear that they will participate in the ongoing project and pay their share to the current European Union framework programme, Horizon 2020, irrespective of how Brexit plays out. However, in the event of a no-deal Brexit there is uncertainty concerning what will happen to programmes that are coordinated by the United Kingdom. There is a risk that the coordinator will have to be replaced or the project will cease. “In application processes, people are unwilling to have a British coordinator. Because what will happen if your application is granted and the contract is signed after Brexit? That is the uncertainty right now”, says
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But I do think that the United Kingdom will suffer. HENRIK ZETTERBERG
Henrik Lindskog, Head of Research Grants at the Grants and Innovation Office. But he does not believe that the University of Gothenburg will be overly impacted, at least not financially. Most of the European Union funding that reaches the university, more than 80 percent, is funnelled directly to prominent, individual researchers. “The major partnership projects can be found within the field of ‘Societal Challenges’. In that area, the United Kingdom is our most important partner. But we have not been able to raise any significant sums of money for that over the past seven years. I would say that the greatest damage will be symbolic”, he says. “Personally, I believe that everything will be resolved in the long term, but that there will be a couple of problematic years. But nobody knows anything for certain. Not even Vinnova, who is our national contact on the matter. I asked them last week and they had received no more information. Researchers are free to contact us at the Grants and Innovation Office if they have any questions.” THE SAHLGRENSKA ACADEMY has several partnerships with the United Kingdom. How does Dean Agneta Holmäng think Brexit will impact them? She responds via email: “Research is a truly global undertaking, where collaboration and interaction between researchers are not determined by the European Union’s borders. But in terms of the opportunity to apply for joint EU funding, Brexit does constitute a concern, which is understandably worrying British researchers. But that notwithstanding, Swedish researchers will naturally continue their collaboration
with British researchers, just as we are partnering with researchers from countries such as Switzerland, Norway, China and the United States.” Other researchers we have spoken to echo this sentiment. Henrik Zetterberg, Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry: “I don’t think it will unduly impact our partnerships. But I do think that the United Kingdom will suffer. They will have difficulties attracting international researchers. They will simply not risk moving there with their families.” HENRIK ZETTERBERG is himself running a research team of ten people at University College London. “Many of them come from EU countries and they will of course be assessing the possibility for them to remain in the country. But I have told them not to worry about it, I don’t. You have to deal with it as it arises. They are young, it is a little scarier if you have a family and are about to buy a house and all that.” The most difficult issues are not related to project grants, but to rules governing the mobility of goods and people, Vinnova writes in their final report on the impact of Brexit on research and innovation partnerships. But Henrik Zetterberg thinks that it will turn out alright even in the case of a no-deal Brexit. “It will be confusing for six months or so. I am actually going to Great Britain on October 31. It will be really interesting”, he says. Professor Patrik Rorsman has led a team of researchers at Oxford University for 20 years. A year ago, he chose to return to Sweden when he was offered a post at the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology. He has kept his job in Oxford, but only
for one day a week, he tells us over the phone from the lab there. “Brexit is one reason why my wife and I moved back home. We felt that it was a negative, that things were veering off track. In the supermarket, we didn’t even dare to speak Swedish out loud with one another. That is how strong the xenophobia is. So when my wife found a job in Sweden and I got the chance to work as an international researcher, we went for it.”
Collage: ANDERS EURÉN
BUT THERE IS no noticeable xenophobia in the British research community. “I don’t think I know anybody who voted for Brexit. 90 percent of people within academia want to remain in the European Union. This country has benefited from people moving here. Now, there are fewer people coming over here and there are already figures indicating that researchers from the European Union have started to move back home. We are also seeing fewer students applying to come here.” “It has always been difficult to recruit people from abroad”, he says – outside of the EU that is. “Employing people from other countries has involved an inordinate amount of paperwork. You are only allowed to employ a certain number of them. These rules will now also apply to the European Union. The British are very good at bureaucracy. From my own perspective, I also think it will be more difficult to send animals between our labs in Sweden and the UK.” He does not think the country will isolate itself, but that the financial conditions for research and collaboration will deteriorate. The British government’s promise of covering any lost EU funding cannot be trusted.” “The current cabinet, not least the Prime Minister, have a somewhat flexible view of truth and commitment, to say the least. Brexit will lead to negative economic trends and both the state and private financiers will have less money. In all probability, the conditions for research in this country will deteriorate.” LARS NICKLASON SEPTEMBER 2019 GUJOURNAL
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How should we deal with China?
In 30 years, China has developed from a marginal R&D stakeholder to becoming one of the most influential research nations in the world. But China is also a dictatorship. The GU Journal asked two experts to reflect on what attitude researchers and lecturers should have towards the country. LAST YEAR, the Government Offices
published a report on Sweden and China – Strengthened Partnership for a Sustainable Future. It highlights the fact that China is currently the world’s second largest producer of scientific articles and that the country invests more in research and development than the European Union. Close to 850,000 Chinese students are studying abroad, primarily in the U.S., but also in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada. Marie Carlsson has more than 30 years’ experience of China. She argues that it is difficult to provide general advice on what to think about when collaborating with the country besides there often being a political dimension to be considered. “Is it a partnership with a university, a research institute or maybe a private school? Is the partnership national, regional or local, does it concern research, education or perhaps business contacts? China is changing rapidly, which means that old knowledge need to be revised. For example; previously education was much about rote learning, this is true in a much lesser extent today.”
SOME RESEARCH areas have become
Fredrik Fällman is doing research on religion and ethnicity in China.
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more open, while others see more of ideological governance, especially since 2013 when President Xi Jinping took over the leadership, says Marie Carlsson. “Examples of the former are in science, technology and medicine, while the latter can be found in parts of the social sciences and the
humanities. For example, research on water resources can be seen as uncontroversial but can also be perceived to be linked to national security and then become more problematic.” Some fields where China has seen rapid advancements include innovation, information technology and AI. China is for example a world leader in terms of published articles in AI-related journals. Some companies require that a partner transfers their technical know-how to the company, but it is not always the case, says Marie Carlsson. “Many partnerships with China are characterised by a considerable level of commitment where one or two people build networks, learn a lot about the country and create exchanges. Although contacts are usually personal in China, many universities and businesses are not so good at passing on this knowledge, which is ultimately lost when the people concerned change jobs or quit. The importance of maintaining contacts with former Chinese alumni and actually working in China should also be emphasized. So there is rarely a fundamental strategy for what they want out of the exchange or what the partnership should lead to in the long term. This is particularly problematic as Chinese universities and businesses usually do not enter into a partnership without a plan and a specific vision of what they want to achieve.” FREDRIK FÄLLMAN has also had a
thirty-year involvement with China. He argues that Swedish state officials frequently have quite a naive view of partnerships. “When delegations visit for example, someone from the party always attends, and in order to have a research career, you have to be a party member. It is not necessarily a problem, but it is important to keep in mind that a partnership may have underlying political aims. For that reason, you need to stri-
ke a balance between, on the one hand, treating Chinese researchers and students like everyone else and, on the other, remaining vigilant”, argues Fredrik Fällman. ”A more measured partnership where you have considered the consequences of what you are doing would be better for everyone involved. For example, should you conduct research in Xinjiang, where persecuted Uighurs are put in prison camps? And is there a risk of exposing, maybe not oneself but the Chinese recipient, to problems by careless wording in an email?” CHINESE PEOPLE censor themselves constantly, and are used to the capriciousness of the state, Fredrik Fällman tells us. “I have an example from a Chinese colleague who wrote a book about Christian Chinese businessmen. No publisher was willing to publish the book, even though it was state funded and sanctioned. Another example was when I had been invited to hold a lecture and had to cross out the word faith in the title, then I was free to say anything I liked. I have also had some of my writing redacted, which is something you obviously have to object to.” The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), where China builds trade routes on land and at sea across much of the world, is a way for the country to advance their agenda. Another is to invest in soft power such as culture. The largest chain of cinemas for example, AMC Theatres, which the Swedish company Filmstaden is part of, is owned by the Chinese company Dalian Wanda. “Around the world, the Chinese Ministry for Education is also establishing Confucius Institutes, to try to disseminate the party-state image of China. About fifteen years ago, I myself was involved in such an institute in Stockholm that focused on education in language and culture. That cooperation worked well for the first few years, but the suspicion of political influence caused the institute to be closed a few years ago.” China is investing more and more
Facts Marie Carlsson is a Sinologist and a University Lecturer in East and Southeast Asian Studies with a special focus on China. Her research is, among other things, focused on resistance and security, especially on the Falun Gong movement. Fredrik Fällman, Associate Professor of Sinology, conducts research into C hinese policies on religion and ethnicity, the role of propaganda in the country’s religious discourse, as well as the role of Sinology in the cultural exchange between China and the West.
in Swedish businesses. Geely, for example, is about to launch a major innovation centre at Lindholmen. “The financial development is enormous, but the political one is going in the opposite direction. That is why we have to be clear about universal values of democracy and openness,” Fredrik Fällman argues. HOWEVER, ONE of the most impor-
tant aspects in succeeding with partnerships with China, is by beginning to develop base knowledge, Marie Carlsson points out. “I teach students who are interested in China as well as authorities and business leaders who want to establish a presence in the country, and their level of knowledge is often limited, with some exceptions, not least when it comes to how complex the country is. There are some differences between China and Sweden, among others when it comes to political and economic systems, and laws and values. However, one must be careful not to exoticise the country. You can come a long way with common sense.” Fredrik Fällman, on the other hand, points out that the Chinese party state emphasizes ”Chinese characteristics”, a kind of reverse exoticization to justify its policies and to avoid universal values being applied in China. “One of the main authors of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 was actually a Chinese diplomat, P. C. Chang, but he is sadly forgotten today.”
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PROFILE
Abolish right to asylum
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Text: EVA LUNDGREN Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
Hypocrisy unmatched in any other policy area, that is what Joakim Ruist thinks about the right of asylum. His solution is to introduce refugee quotas instead. “How many migrants would we accept if we could choose ourselves? Nobody knows.”
T TAKES A LITTLE over an hour to travel from Gothenburg to the small house in the countryside in Ödsmål where Joakim Ruist lives. The oldest part of the house is from 1850, but it has since been extended. There are apple trees weighed down with fruit, four clucking hens and a kayak laid out on the lawn, in which he and his children went out last summer. A small path through the woods quickly lead us to a bay. When the GU Journal visits, Joakim Ruist is in the process of scraping paint off an old window frame in the living room. “I don’t know what my life would have been like if I didn’t have this close connection with nature. Spending time with my children is the most important thing, but a close second is the opportunity to sit on the cliffs and reflect, to muck about in the garden and to hear birdsong when I come home from work.” Joakim Ruist became aware of the refugee problem in 2004. He had read an article in Arena magazine about people climbing fences to get into Europe, and was astounded. “I had a BA in development and international cooperation, I worked with aid and development and considered myself a fairly enlightened citizen. And still, this was news to me. So I decided to become a person that contributed to increasing our knowledge about migration and refugees. To get as broad a perspective as possible, I started studying economics. I thought I was picking the low-hanging fruit when I took on such a burning question, but despite the overpopulation in the research community I discovered that very few people were doing research in my field.” THE FLOW OF refugees in 2015 meant that Joakim Ruist suddenly became a media celebrity. “I, who previously had mostly been asked to talk about Polish plumbers, was now being contacted incessantly by journalists asking questions that increasingly deviated from my field. In a more normal situation, I don’t think a relatively unknown economist would have been given such prominence, but since most other researchers avoided the issue, I took the opportunity to try to increase society’s knowledge.” Since then, Joakim Ruist is a frequently consulted expert on issues of migration. But he garnered most
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attention for remaining silent, for as long as 20 seconds in a piece on the “Aktuellt” evening news last year. “I had written a report on how much asylum migration costs. The questions I was asked were not about increasing knowledge of the topic, but about creating conflict. I did not want to contribute to that.” On the living-room table is his newly published book, Global migration, in which Joakim Ruist summarises ten years of work and research. Among other things, he reminds us that migration covers many different things, from the most successful engineers with well-paid jobs waiting for them, to the most vulnerable victims of war, who have nothing at all. Naturally enough, their different circumstances mean different opportunities in terms of settling and being successful in their new country. Despite the highest level of refugee immigration in modern history Sweden continues to operate much like before, with a large amount of trust between people and a stable economy. “We should be better at communicating that to the world”, Joakim Ruist argues. “But something that is affected by high levels of
migration is people’s attitudes to migration itself. It is not about the actual number of migrants per se, but about the feeling of losing control. The impression that the number of refugees is just overwhelming, without our being able to do anything about it, creates apprehension.” “THE PROBLEM IS the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees”, Joakim Ruist argues, this cornerstone of humanitarianism from 1951, which states that persecuted people have a right to asylum. Originally, it only applied to Europeans who were fleeing the Second World War, but since 1967 it covers all refugees from all countries. Because the convention is so appealing it is difficult to discuss. I mean, who does not want to safeguard human rights? “My conclusion is that we need to abolish the right to asylum, a concept that I myself have had difficulties accepting. But the right to asylum only works to the extent that we are willing to live up to it. Since the eighties, Europe is evidently not prepared to do so, but instead in practice limits the right by preventing people
It is not about the actual number of migrants per se, but about the feeling of losing control.
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from travelling, which has led to tens of thousands of people dying. Yet, if we intend to limit the right, it would be better and more humane if we also were able to state it clearly.” “Different countries attract different types of migrants. In the United States for example, it is not the refugee flows that are perceived as threatening but illegal labour immigration”, Joakim Ruist points out. “If you feel that people behave in an undesirable manner you need to remove the incentives for doing so. If the U.S. wishes to reduce the number of immigrants from Mexico, a wall is not the answer, but rather they need to monitor the illegal labour market. But of course, there are strong forces opposing that.” “IN THE SAME way, in Sweden, instead of the right to asylum, we should decide democratically what quota of refugees we are prepared to accept. At the same time, we can determine applicable criteria; should we invest in people who match our labour market or in orphans? In such a system the right to asylum would not be about where you are in the world, you could apply for
Joakim Ruist Current position: Lecturer at the Department of Economics. Current project: His book Global migration – Causes and Consequence, published by SNS förlag. Lives in: Ödsmål. Family: Two children: 12 and 9 years old.
asylum at a consulate. That would mean that the incentive for embarking on a perilous journey across the Mediterranean would no longer exist. Since we have never discussed how many refugees we actually want to accept, we obviously do not know what that quota would be, if we could decide it entirely by ourselves. But, just as we decide to provide aid to poor countries, I believe that we will continue to be generous.” MIGRATION ALSO ENTAILS encounters with new cul-
tures. They can sometimes be conflict-ridden, Joakim Ruist points out. “Unfortunately, we have seen a discourse that has become increasingly radicalised, led by people in the cultural elite who are used to expressing their opinion and who are used to deciding what can be discussed. The fact that they are being cheered on in the comments section leads to an ever-intensifying situation. But the normal approach is not to point your finger at everyone who is a little different, but instead to play down differences and misunderstandings. Compare it to your child exclaiming ‘Wow, look at how fat that lady is’. As a parent, you then need to explain that this may be true, but that you don’t point it out.” SEPTEMBER 2019 GUJOURNAL
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A thosand-year perspective on sustainability The soil along the Amazonian rivers is black and rich in nutrients, but also in ceramics. Man has tilled the soil here in small communities for more than 2,000 years, archaeologist Christian Isendahl tells us. “Thus, contrary to what many believe, the Amazon is to a great extent a cultural landscape.” This is just one example of how the historical sciences, by studying the relationships between man and the environment over time, can contribute to sustainability research. CHRISTIAN ISENDAHL is the editor
in chief of the newly published anthology The Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology in which 55 researchers in subjects such as archaeology, history, anthropology and geography describe how pre-historic cultures can help us with our current problems. “Without archaeology we would know nothing about how people lived in the Nordic region, for example, before the Middle Ages. And even if there are written documents from cultures like the Mayans, they only describe the rulers and their alliances, not the lives of ordinary people.” The book dispels several notions that people may harbour, such as the importance of preserving nature untouched by man. “The general view on the Amazon for example, is probably that there were only small hunter-gatherer
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groups in the pre-Columbian age, which barely impacted nature at all. However, new research tells us that, on the contrary, people have lived and tilled the earth there, and created irrigations systems, for thousands of years. Practically nowhere on earth is entirely unaffected by man. So when, for example, we expel local inhabitants in Africa in order to create a nature reserve, we are acting in a very unhistorical manner. The existing landscape there has been developed and shaped through human interaction.” “THE SOIL IN tropical areas is typically very dystrophic. So if instead you find several metres of black soil, that is a sure sign of hundreds of years of agriculture”, says Christian Isendahl. “The black soil has formed by people using the soil and concentrating organic material, primarily in the form of carbon which binds
Practically nowhere on earth is entirely uneffected by man. CHRISTIAN ISENDAHL
nutrients in the soil and also reduces the CO2 content of the atmosphere. Today, you can buy so-called ‘terra preta’ in garden centres, soil that has been enriched with charcoal, just like people did in the pre-historic Amazon basin.” THE TITLE OF the book includes two
fairly new terms. “Historical ecology” is about looking back through history, perhaps several thousand years, in order to investigate how people impacted the world around them, and the consequences this has had for subsequent generations. “Applied archaeology” is used to describe how the historical sciences can help solve the problems of today. How come, for example, that certain pre-historic societies survived difficult crises such as drought,
Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
Facts Christian Isendahl, lecturer in archaeology,is the editor-in-chief of the anthology The Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archae ology. The book is about the lessons we can learn today from how prehistoric man impacted their environment.
for several hundred years was due to the fact that they had farms on the outskirts of the city which could quickly be expanded. The lesson we should learn from that is to not build on arable land and to safeguard agricultural skills, management of organic material and waste management. BUT ARCHAEOLOGY can also be
crop failure and epidemics, while others did not?” “MY MAIN AREA of research is the
Mayan culture in Central America, which underwent a revolutionary crisis in the 9th and 10th centuries. Was it due to conflict with rival cities, the elites overusing resources or drought and climate change? In all probability, there are several complex causes, but one contributing factor may have been a growing monumentalism. For example, when Uxmal, which today lies in ruins, was collapsing, they continued their efforts to construct the largest building in the city, a building that was never finished. Just like today, they seemed to focus on ‘business as usual’, while the world around them fell apart.”
Pre-Columbian Mayan culture flourished for 2,000 years, even if they went through several major crises during that period. Several cities endured for more than a thousand years, and one reason for their longevity may have been that they were so sparsely populated, spread out over vast tracts of land in the tropical environment, in order to sustain urban agriculture. “MANY PEOPLE believe that urban agriculture is a modern phenomenon, but on the contrary it is the other way around. In ancient times, it was obvious that you had to grow essential supplies in the city, or at least in the immediate vicinity. It is true that Constantinople fell in 1453, but the fact that the city had managed to survive repeated sieges
Christian Isendahl arguges that some answers to today’s problems can be found in history.
about very tangible things, such as how to divert water.” “Among the contributions to the book is one written by a farmer in Tuscany. He is using a 2,500-yearold water management system that he has improved with a solar-powered pump. If you want to save the world, do not become an archaeologist. But if you already are an archaeologist and want to save the world, you have a lot to contribute”, Christian Isendahl argues. “Such as the IHOPE network, Integrated History and Future of People on Earth, was formed to facilitate interaction between the human and natural sciences. Because if we cannot have a profound and complex discussion about the major challenges of our time within academia, who can?”
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Inspired by music exchange with South Africa
LAST APRIL WAS the sixth time that student music teachers went on their practicum internship to South-Africa. This time, 19 students participated, which is more than usual. Helena Wattström, lecturer in Music Education, was the organiser, guide and teacher during the visits. “The first school we visited was a private school for boys in Durban. Its pupils are almost exclusively white and the annual tuition fees are around SEK 200,000. After that we went to Hluhluwe, in the heart of safari country, and stayed at a bed & breakfast. Every morning during our six-day stay, two minibuses came and picked us up. Then we headed out into the countryside.” The students were dropped off in pairs at eight different schools located about one or two hours apart.
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Photo: KEN WENNERHOLM
The song Summer, Summer and Sun was performed by around eighty happy children’s voices But it is not a Swedish choir singing the well-known song by the Swedish band “Sven Ingvars”, but young people from the village of Hluhluwe, 270 km north of Durban. The choirmasters were future music teachers who spent two weeks doing their practicum internship in the South-African countryside.
Susanna LIndén conducts pupils at the Dlilanga High School in Hluhluwe.
Helena has worked with these same schools every year. “This means that we meet the same headmasters and teachers, and mostly the same students in years eight and nine. The children travel long distances to get to school, perhaps two hours on foot every day, many of them are orphans or are victims of abuse or crime. The classes comprise 80-90 pupils, some of whom only speak Zulu, and the schools have no musical instruments. So the music education is built solely on body and voice. We prepare the visits carefully, but the students have to be aware that unforeseen events may occur. You simply have to be flexible and be prepared to relinquish control.”
It was amazing to see how the students had grown in just a few days. HELENA WATTSTRÖM
“Facing completely different circumstances also involves facing yourself ”, Helena Wattström points out. “Every night, we get together in groups at our bed & breakfast and discuss the day. The discussions can be about happiness over something that went well, about a new song to share, or about despair over failure. The experience is often very emotional, but as we are all assembled in the same place every night we have time to talk things over in a way that we rarely do.” “MEETING WITH THE South-African schools is about exchange”, Helena Wattström emphasises. “It is important that we do not go there and tell them how to do things. When the pupils teach us Zulu songs, for example, we make sure to find out what they are about and where they come from. And then we can, in turn, tell them about our Lucia or Midsummer celebrations.” Over the course of the six days, Helena Wattström also visits all the students on site at the different schools to discuss their experience. The visit ends with a concert at each school. THE INTERNSHIP IN South-Africa is based on a previous Sida partnership initiated by Gunnar Lindgren and Stig-Magnus Thorsén at the end of the 1990s.
Helena Wattström
ucation at Lecturer in Music Ed Drama, has a and sic Mu of the Academy department’s the for ity particular r esponsibil , equalit y and ves iati init ent atm equal tre nt. She also works for broadening recruitme sation was founded in Star for Life. The organi an Dan Olofsson and ssm ine bus 20 05 by the ead of HIV and to spr aims to reduce the ldren in vulnerable chi ool sch for e hop provide areas of Africa. r formance of Summe Take a look at the per e: her n ldre chi n ica Afr and Sun by the South.com/p/ https://w ww.instagram / 8EO 6Jo BxPpM
“I got involved as early as 1999 and then we travelled with all kinds of students, from opera to improvisation. But I also work for the organisation, Star for Life, which the businessman Dan Olofsson started in 2005 in order to support schools in vulnerable areas in Africa. That is also inspiring.” HELENA WATTSTRÖM sees herself as
an enabler of new insights. But the lion’s share of the work in terms of learning is obviously something that the students have to do themselves. “After we returned from the countryside, we paid another visit to the private school in Durban. It was amazing to see how the students had grown in just a few days. They have had an experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.” The South-Africa internship is part of a larger project where the Academy of Music and Drama work with social sustainability and inclusion. “What is so rewarding about being a lecturer is that we work with young people who will in turn pass on their knowledge to yet another generation. What an incredible amount of power and responsibility we have in terms of building a better society!”
Helena Wattström point out that the future music teachers had experiences from South Africa they will never forget.
Text: EVA LUNDGREN Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG SEPTEMBER 2019 GUJOURNAL
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THE MOMENT Where: At the corner of Götabergsgatan–Storgatan. Who: An eagle owl. When: August 22, 2019.
Short description: In August, Gothenburg city centre was visited by an eagle owl that was seen perched a short distance from the entrance to the offices of the Faculty of Fine Applied and Performing Arts. The eagle owl is one of the largest species of owl in the world. “There have been eagle owls in the city for several years, although we don’t see them. The eagle owl sees the buildings as mountains and if it were left to its own devices, it might very well build a nest on a balcony. The city is a perfect environment for the eagle owl, as long as they watch out for the traffic”, explains Urban Olsson, Professor of Systematics and Biodiversity. Photo: Johan Wingborg
GUJournal EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Allan Eriksson 031–786 10 21 allan.eriksson@gu.se
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Eva Lundgren 031–786 10 81 eva.lundgren@gu.se
PHOTOGRAPHER Johan Wingborg 070–595 38 01 johan.wingborg@gu.se
LAYOUT Anders Eurén 031–786 43 81 anders.euren@gu.se
Address: GU Journal, University of Gothenburg, Box 100, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden E-mail: gu-journalen@gu.se Web address: gu-journalen.gu.se ISSN: 1402-9626 Please feel free to quote but give us credit. Translation: Hero Tolk.