Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

uu.sePublications from Uppsala University
Change search
Link to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Thapar-Björkert, SuruchiORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-1962-410x
Publications (10 of 80) Show all publications
Gondouin, J., Eriksson, Å. & Thapar-Björkert, S. (2026). (Un)Desired Families: Stratified Reproduction and Racial Capitalism in Contemporary Sweden and India. NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 34(2), 227-245
Open this publication in new window or tab >>(Un)Desired Families: Stratified Reproduction and Racial Capitalism in Contemporary Sweden and India
2026 (English)In: NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, ISSN 0803-8740, E-ISSN 1502-394X, Vol. 34, no 2, p. 227-245Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The assisted reproductive technology (ART) industry, along with national biopolitical agendas, have contributed to a reconfiguring of the historical entanglements of race and reproduction. In this article, we interrogate this phenomenon by exploring the practice of gestational surrogacy through the lens of racial capitalism. Focusing on surrogates in India and intended parents in Sweden - parties that represent opposite nodes in the "global fertility chain" - we aim to contribute to the understanding of racial capitalism as it articulates in the present, by including biological (in addition to social) reproduction. Our analysis builds on previous research on India and Sweden, including our own ethnographic work on Indian surrogacy. We depart from observations of how policies and discourses of mobility and national belonging reflect hierarchical relations to socially valued reproduction, linked to gender, race, caste, class and migration status. While the reproduction of some families is privileged through cross border mobility for access to ARTs and transnational adoption, and in-migration of reproductive workers, reproduction among other families is denounced in public discourse. Women who are discouraged from reproducing are at the same time made "bio-available" through processes of dispossession, and engaged as bio- and reproductive labourers upholding the reproductive needs of more privileged groups.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2026
Keywords
Racial capitalism, assisted reproductive technologies, surrogacy, India, Sweden
National Category
Gender Studies Sociology (Excluding Social Work, Social Anthropology, Demography and Criminology) Ethnology International Migration and Ethnic Relations Social Anthropology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-587032 (URN)10.1080/08038740.2025.2608826 (DOI)001716911400001 ()2-s2.0-105033055093 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Swedish Research Council
Available from: 2026-06-12 Created: 2026-06-12 Last updated: 2026-06-12Bibliographically approved
Bradby, H., Thapar-Björkert, S., Ahlberg, B. M. & Hamed, S. (2025). Challenges of researching racism in healthcare. Journal of Critical Public Health, 3(2), 85-91
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Challenges of researching racism in healthcare
2025 (English)In: Journal of Critical Public Health, ISSN 3033-3997, Vol. 3, no 2, p. 85-91Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The unprecedented transnational protests following the killing of George Floyd highlighted the need to re-examine institutions that uphold various social injustices experienced by racialised minorities. Black Lives Matter protests thus created a serious reckoning with racism and facilitated global conversations. Against the backdrop of these protests, we evaluate our study of healthcare workers, exploring racialisation in Swedish healthcare including the design and implementation of an anti-racist initiative in healthcare education. We reflect on how the silencing of discussion around racism in Sweden led to difficulties in recruiting participants and the effect of the shift in public discourse following the Black Lives Matter uprising of 2020. The project was ultimately successful in recruitment and outreach to professional and regional authorities. However, this success is contrasted by the lack of structural change in embedding anti-racism as a core value in healthcare practice. We conclude by noting that conversations about anti-racism differ from implementing anti-racist practice in commissioning, evaluation, and service delivery.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Critical Public Health Network, 2025
Keywords
Racism, Anti-racism, Healthcare, Sweden, BLM
National Category
Sociology (Excluding Social Work, Social Anthropology, Demography and Criminology)
Research subject
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-570664 (URN)10.55016/ojs/jcph.vi.81527 (DOI)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2016/04078
Available from: 2025-10-28 Created: 2025-10-28 Last updated: 2026-04-15Bibliographically approved
Ranwa, R. & Thapar-Björkert, S. (2025). The politics of gatekeeping: respondents as gatekeepers and gatekeepers as respondents. Qualitative Research, 25(5), 1154-1163
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The politics of gatekeeping: respondents as gatekeepers and gatekeepers as respondents
2025 (English)In: Qualitative Research, ISSN 1468-7941, E-ISSN 1741-3109, Vol. 25, no 5, p. 1154-1163Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The important role of gatekeepers in accessing and negotiating the field has been well established. In this research note, we highlight an underexplored dimension of gatekeeping in relation to our fieldwork on the Kalbeliya community of Rajasthan in India. Existing scholarship on the Kalbeliyas has mainly focused on the politics of heritage recognition of Kalbeliya dance of India, which was recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2010. Nonetheless, no significant research exists on the methodological challenges encountered in this field. Our navigations in the field uncovered an aspect deeply embedded in arguably, the multi-layered nature of gatekeeping - the blurred boundaries and shifting positionalities between gatekeepers and respondents, with respondents acting as gatekeepers and gatekeepers as respondents. In this research, key respondents were Kalbeliya women dancers and other respondents included state officials, Manganiyars and Kalbeliya men, who acted as gatekeepers in accessing Kalbeliya dancers. These shifting positionalities also exposed their gendered power dynamics, which shaped our methodological navigations in the field.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2025
Keywords
state, gatekeeping, caste, heritage, Kalbeliya
National Category
Political Science (Excluding Peace and Conflict Studies)
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-577862 (URN)10.1177/14687941241306417 (DOI)001379497900001 ()2-s2.0-85212707127 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2026-01-30 Created: 2026-01-30 Last updated: 2026-01-30Bibliographically approved
Thapar-Björkert, S. & Ranwa, R. (2024). Aiding AIDS: fallouts of a social protection scheme in India. Development in Practice, 34(5), 655-660
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Aiding AIDS: fallouts of a social protection scheme in India
2024 (English)In: Development in Practice, ISSN 0961-4524, E-ISSN 1364-9213, Vol. 34, no 5, p. 655-660Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The public works program (PWP), the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in India, opened a new chapter in rural governance, signifying transformative potential for enhancing economic and social security. Despite the aim of this social protection scheme to enhance the "livelihood security of the household", provide employment to landless labourers, and encourage sustainable development, young men still opt to be migrant labourers in Bombay, many of whom become infected with AIDS and subsequently die. Often economic returns outweigh social risks and the new channels of disempowerment it reopens for women and children who are dependent on the income of these migrant men. We draw on ethnographic research conducted in Udaisarai (Gram Panchayat), Bhitaura block in Fatehpur District (Uttar Pradesh), to uncover rural-to-urban migration to Bombay, for better employment opportunities, and AIDS as one of the fallouts of the poor implementation of MNREGA. These pressing concerns need to be critically evaluated.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2024
National Category
Economics Peace and Conflict Studies Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-541379 (URN)10.1080/09614524.2024.2358313 (DOI)001238962700001 ()
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2015-01245
Available from: 2024-11-05 Created: 2024-11-05 Last updated: 2025-02-20Bibliographically approved
Gondouin, J., Eriksson, Å. & Thapar-Björkert, S. (2024). Chains of extraction: shifting bioeconomies in India and East Africa. Frontiers in Sociology, 9, Article ID 1149368.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Chains of extraction: shifting bioeconomies in India and East Africa
2024 (English)In: Frontiers in Sociology, E-ISSN 2297-7775, Vol. 9, article id 1149368Article, review/survey (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Since the early 2000s, India has been a world leading hub for cross border reproductive treatments, in particular surrogacy, with the nation positioning itself as the "mother destination" for transnational commercial surrogacy, offering "First world services at Third world prices". State policies, lack of legal regulation, state of the art medical infrastructure and a steady supply of women ready to take on the role as surrogate mothers against meager remuneration have been key factors behind the Indian success story. Yet, a gradual process of regulation in recent years, culminating in the introduction of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2020, has forced the industry to reinvent itself in order to maintain its role as a market leader in a booming global bioeconomy. This article takes the 2020 bill as a starting point for an exploration of the key trajectories that the Indian reproductive industry has taken since. This includes moving into new market segments, such as the unregulated practice of oocyte donation, and expanding globally into new geo-political contexts. Through these practices, India has successfully rebranded itself as a world leading "pre-conception assemblage hub" where embryos are assembled and implanted into surrogates who carry their pregnancies to term in countries with no protective legislation. The article begins to map the emerging links between the reproductive industry in India and East Africa - where diasporic networks are mobilized in the creation of new reproductive markets, dominated by Indian IVF providers. In particular, we discuss the current expansion in Kenya, which we situate against the backdrop of the colonial entanglements between the two countries. While the ART industry in Kenya is still young, we suggest that these emerging developments illuminate the effect of the ban on commercial surrogacy in India, which appears to have resulted in a partial relocation to countries that lack regulation, shifting the precarious conditions of surrogates in India to other women, elsewhere, in ways that rearticulate colonial racial hierarchies and migration patterns.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Frontiers Media S.A., 2024
Keywords
India, East Africa (Kenya), surrogacy, biocapitalism, colonial histories, globalization - economic development
National Category
Gender Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-549128 (URN)10.3389/fsoc.2024.1149368 (DOI)001289443700001 ()39139472 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85201184111 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, VR 2021-04822
Note

Correction in: Front. Sociol. vol 9, 1149368, 2024

DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1532386

Available from: 2025-01-31 Created: 2025-01-31 Last updated: 2025-03-13Bibliographically approved
Hamed, S., Bradby, H., Thapar-Björkert, S. & Ahlberg, B. M. (2024). Healthcare staff's racialized talk: The perpetuation of racism in healthcare. Social Science and Medicine, 355, Article ID 117085.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Healthcare staff's racialized talk: The perpetuation of racism in healthcare
2024 (English)In: Social Science and Medicine, ISSN 0277-9536, E-ISSN 1873-5347, Vol. 355, article id 117085Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Research points to the existence of racial bias and beliefs among healthcare staff but does not explicate accounts of racialization in healthcare and the day-to-day utterances that have racializing effects excluding minoritized users' right to care. This study understands racism as structural and embedded in societies and institutions, including healthcare, as well as in interactions and talk. Through excavating accounts of healthcare staff's talk that devalues minoritized users, this study posits talk as reflective and constitutive of the dominant structure of racism within which it is situated. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 58 staff in Sweden, the study delineates three categories through which racialized talk differentiates between minoritized and majoritized users. These are: Characterizing minoritized users as ‘bad’ users, Characterizing minoritized users' health complaints as unworthy and finally, Devaluing minoritized users as justification for suboptimal and differential care. Healthcare staff accounts show that continuous racialization of minoritized users maintains existing power-relations representing Western users as civilized and non-Western users as uncivilized and problematic. Through reiteration, these practices of exclusion become invisible, normalized, and assume the status quo. It is imperative to address racialization as it has implications for the core ethics of healthcare.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2024
Keywords
racialization, racism, healthcare, healthcare staff, Sweden
National Category
Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-488467 (URN)10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117085 (DOI)001275410400001 ()39032198 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85198968581 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2016-04078
Available from: 2022-11-16 Created: 2022-11-16 Last updated: 2025-09-02Bibliographically approved
Dahlberg, M. & Thapar-Björkert, S. (2023). Conceptualizing xenophobia as structural violence in the lives of refugee women in Gauteng, South Africa. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 46(12), 2768-2790
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Conceptualizing xenophobia as structural violence in the lives of refugee women in Gauteng, South Africa
2023 (English)In: Ethnic and Racial Studies, ISSN 0141-9870, E-ISSN 1466-4356, Vol. 46, no 12, p. 2768-2790Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This paper highlights the embeddedness of xenophobia in institutions through a theoretical but empirically under-researched concept of structural violence. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interview data with refugee women in Gauteng, South Africa, we explore the empirical utility of the concept of structural violence in shaping refugee women's everyday experiences of xenophobia through three analytical themes: (a) unequal access to resources (b) constrained agency and (c) dehumanization. While keeping an empirical grip on experiential narratives on xenophobia, we draw attention to three public institutions that enhance the vulnerability of those already vulnerable: The Department of Home Affairs, The South African Police Service and Public Hospitals. Our paper elucidates how refugee women experience xenophobia and how they manage their "everyday" in these circumstances- an aspect that remains underdeveloped in existing research.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2023
Keywords
Structural violence, xenophobia, exploitation, agency, Kwerekwere, dehumanization
National Category
Social Anthropology Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-511403 (URN)10.1080/01419870.2023.2179890 (DOI)000943772000001 ()
Available from: 2023-09-14 Created: 2023-09-14 Last updated: 2023-09-14Bibliographically approved
Bradby, H., Hamed, S., Thapar-Björkert, S. & Ahlberg, B. M. (2023). Designing an education intervention for understanding racism in healthcare in Sweden: development and implementation of anti-racist strategies through shared knowledge production and evaluation. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 51(4), 531-534
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Designing an education intervention for understanding racism in healthcare in Sweden: development and implementation of anti-racist strategies through shared knowledge production and evaluation
2023 (English)In: Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, ISSN 1403-4948, E-ISSN 1651-1905, Vol. 51, no 4, p. 531-534Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

An educational intervention, based on qualitative evidence of racism in healthcare, is described. Using vignettes from a previous project, interviews were conducted to gather qualitative evidence of racism in healthcare settings from a wide range of healthcare staff in Sweden. From this interview material, case studies were devised that were subsequently presented to trainee healthcare professionals, in a seminar discussion. After the seminar, trainees responded to reflective questions. The order of work, as well as the materials used, are described. This intervention was successful in facilitating discussion about racism in an educational context, despite the difficult nature of these conversations for some participants.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2023
Keywords
Healthcare practitioners, racism, participatory methods
National Category
Social Sciences Sociology Pedagogy
Research subject
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-467768 (URN)10.1177/14034948211040963 (DOI)000694812900001 ()34510981 (PubMedID)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2016-04078
Available from: 2022-02-16 Created: 2022-02-16 Last updated: 2023-07-17Bibliographically approved
Odzakovic, E., Huus, K., Ahlberg, B. M., Bradby, H., Hamed, S., Thapar-Björkert, S. & Björk, M. (2023). Discussing racism in healthcare: A qualitative study of reflections by graduate nursing students. Nursing Open, 10(6), 3677-3686
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Discussing racism in healthcare: A qualitative study of reflections by graduate nursing students
Show others...
2023 (English)In: Nursing Open, E-ISSN 2054-1058, Vol. 10, no 6, p. 3677-3686Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Aim: The aim is to illustrate and analyse reflections from graduate nursing studentsover their experience of discussing racism in healthcare in an educational intervention.Design: A qualitative, descriptive design was adopted.Methods: Data were collected through written reflections and analysed through con-tent analysis. In total, 81 students participated in the intervention; 39 paediatric and42 public health care nursing students. Of those, 27 participants gave consent to havetheir written reflections included in the study.Results: Three main categories were developed in the content analysis of studentreflections: (a) the implicit embeddedness of racism in healthcare organization; (b) theeffect of racism on interactions with patients; and (c) a growing awareness of one'sown understanding of racism. This study indicates that student nurses discussed rac-ism as relevant to understanding good clinical practice for the benefit of patients andwork-based wellbeing of staff. This recognition of the organizational nature of racismwarrants nursing leaders and managers to include racism as a social determinant ofhealth in the undergraduate and graduate curricula to educate the next generation ofnursing about racism.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2023
National Category
Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-500075 (URN)10.1002/nop2.1619 (DOI)000922006700001 ()36692244 (PubMedID)
Available from: 2023-04-11 Created: 2023-04-11 Last updated: 2024-05-20Bibliographically approved
Thapar-Björkert, S., Majumdar, A. & Gondouin, J. (2023). "There are two sides to everything": Re (locating) vulnerability in the surrogacy industry in India. Feminism and Psychology, 33(3), 335-356
Open this publication in new window or tab >>"There are two sides to everything": Re (locating) vulnerability in the surrogacy industry in India
2023 (English)In: Feminism and Psychology, ISSN 0959-3535, E-ISSN 1461-7161, Vol. 33, no 3, p. 335-356Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Vulnerability is a pivotal concept for understanding transnational commercial surrogacy and the ethics of reproductive travel. While implicitly recognizing vulnerability as important, existing scholarship falls short of understanding the dynamism of vulnerability. Placing our empirical analysis in conjunction with the rich theoretical literature on this concept, we explore vulnerability in surrogacy arrangements in India as a "mode of openness," defined by its multilayeredness and context specificity. We focus on two retellings of vulnerability. In the first narrative, we analyse the journey of an intended parent who becomes an agent, while in the second narrative, we focus on the trajectory of a surrogate and egg donor becoming an agent. In both narratives, the layers of vulnerability across different interconnected circuits of reproduction-of intended parent, agent, and surrogate-are explicated. Our analysis illustrates the complex and conflicting meanings of vulnerability and illustrates vulnerability as an instigator of agency and resistance; how it can propel upward social mobility and animate attempts to transform an unjust system, but also how such individual agency and empowerment may serve to uphold exploitative relationships.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2023
Keywords
agents, India, intended parents, surrogacy, vulnerability
National Category
Ethics Peace and Conflict Studies Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-522499 (URN)10.1177/09593535231172592 (DOI)001068960000001 ()
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2016-04078
Available from: 2024-02-07 Created: 2024-02-07 Last updated: 2025-02-20Bibliographically approved
Projects
Civil Society and Deliberative Democracy: ?suburban riots? in Sweden and Civic Associations? Representation of Marginalization in Public Discourse [2014-01768_VR]; Uppsala UniversityNature as Culture: the (re)production of common sense; Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Center for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS) (Closed down 2025-12-31)State, Tourism and Heritage: Kalbeliyas in Post-Recognition Phase in India [2022-02019_VR]; Uppsala University
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-1962-410x

Search in DiVA

Show all publications