Publications

Artiklerne i denne bog belyser aspekter af kristendommens religiøse, kulturelle og samfundsmæssige betydning i Grønland.

Homelessness in Nuuk is a social issue that has been known for several years. In the 1970s Nuuk got it’s first shelter for women. In the 2010s some attention in the field has emerged with the establishment of a municipal night shelter and the opening of the Salvation Army day shelter and a Kofoeds Skole in Nuuk. Homelessness has not nearly gotten the same social policy focus as has children and their families. The lack of political attention to this topic is one of the reasons why there are yet large public planning challenges to be solved. In research based on prolonged fieldwork we can observe several challenges when homeless citizens try to engage with public agencies. The article draws on fieldwork and data from interviews in the field of social welfare and health care since 2010. A critical sociological perspective can create a new understanding of the challenges that lie in process of strengthening disempowered citizens’ autonomy. The article brings excerpts from interviews regarding the direct experience of the encounter between disempowered citizens and public systems. It points to some solutions through an enhanced crosssectorial and communicative action. Public systems can, without losing function and power, hand over sovereignty to the citizens. Such efforts may in the long run create a more equal Greenlandic society.

Kapitlet undersøger og diskuterer virksomme processer i familieklasserne i Nuuk og peger især på tryghed, dialog, kollektiv læring, ligeværd og fælles refleksion - samt lyst og fælles latter - som problemopløsende udviklingsveje.

Certain Greenlandic popular music artists use the Greenlandic nation brand as a co-brand for their music when attempting to gain attention on the international music mar- ket. By examining various strategies for co-branding music together with the Greenlandic nation, this article discusses how the two bands Nive Nielsen and the Deer Children, and Nanook, articulate connections between their music, and Greenland and the Arctic, through narratives, symbols and sounds. Using existing narratives and stereotypes means acting within existing discursive fields, as well as the expectations of international music audiences, and though this may open up new opportunities for the artist, it may also limit the artist’s agency, because the artist may then be expected to act in accordance with these expectations. But in terms of changing the Greenlandic nation brand image, which is very much caught up in narratives from the past, co-branding Greenland and modern popular music could be a strategy with great potential.

The social worker profession in Greenland has to some extent been overlooked in Greenlandic social research the last 50 years. Perhaps it is because the professionals have not had a voice in the social political debate, or it may be due to the fact that the majority of social research conducted in Greenland has a traditional approach to research as an objectifying activity. To counter-act these hypotheses, this research project is inspired by the work of Paulo Freire, modern Marxism, and critical theory. An analysis of how current working conditions and structures disempower the possibility of doing what social workers in Greenland view as good social work is followed by a discussion of how we have designed this study as a participatory action research project. Participation is about inviting social workers to collaborate with us during the project - a process we believe will result in democratic sustainable research. Moving from problem identification via participatory collaboration and on to problem solving through the transformative methodologies of focus groups and workshops, the empirical findings will guide the next steps of the research process towards creating a better understanding of social workers’ working conditions.