Academic Interests
- The intersection of Western psychology and global development policy making and implementation
- Power structures and knowledge production
- Language and discursive negotiations
- Interdisciplinary research
- Qualitative methods
- Malawi
- Ethiopia
Courses taught
Background
- PhD in Cultural Psychology, and Research Fellow, Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM), University of Oslo, 2016-2021. Title The psychologization of development: Westernization, individualization and universalization of human ways of being
- Consultant, Psykologiforbundet 2019-2021
- Research Coordinator, LEVE – Livelihoods in Developing Countries, University of Oslo 2015-2016
- MSc Cultural Psychology, University of Oslo, 2012-2014. Title ‘Looking the other way does not make them disappear’: Social construction of migrant Roma in Norwegian media.
- BA Cultural Studies, University of Oslo, 2007-2011
Tags:
Cultural Psychology,
Development policy and practice,
Knowledge production,
Decolonial- and feminist approaches,
Qualitative research
Publications
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Adolfsson, Johanna Sofia & Moss, Sigrun Marie
(2021).
Making Meaning of Empowerment and Development in Rural Malawi—International Individualism Meets Local Communalism.
The Journal of Social and Political Psychology.
ISSN 2195-3325.
9(2),
p. 623–636.
doi:
10.5964/jspp.7549.
Full text in Research Archive
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Adolfsson, Johanna & Madsen, Ole Jacob
(2019).
“Nowadays there is gender”: “Doing” global gender equality in rural Malawi.
Theory & psychology.
ISSN 0959-3543.
p. 1–21.
doi:
10.1177/0959354319879507.
Full text in Research Archive
Show summary
This article analyzes the intersection of psychology with global development policy and practice, reviewing how gender as a concept is negotiated and understood amongst men and women in rural Malawi. We argue that gender, considered from a psychological perspective, has been narrowed down to meet the standards of global policy actors. By empowering individuals to “self-actualize,” policy implementers expect social and economic spin-off effects such as lower birth rates, higher education levels, and poverty reduction. The focus on individuals acts to obscure the broader structural power inequities, is especially prevalent in rural Malawi. To explain this, we use Haslam’s idea of “concept creep,” on how psychological concepts tend to affect other institutional traditions. The everyday understandings of gendered life described here show how gender is a fluid concept that shifts according to cultural, social, and ideological norms.
View all works in Cristin
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Adolfsson, Johanna Sofia
(2023).
"Hvordan kan man gjøre opp for kolonialismen?" .
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Adolfsson, Johanna Sofia
(2023).
Just a Rhetoric? Climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience in Malawi .
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Adolfsson, Johanna Sofia
(2023).
SustGov status and progress .
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Adolfsson, Johanna Sofia
(2023).
Degrowth: A problematic theory for psychology?
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Adolfsson, Johanna Sofia
(2023).
The Psychologization of Development:Westernization and individualization of ways of being.
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Banik, Dan & Adolfsson, Johanna Sofia
(2022).
Conceptions of illness and belief in the supernatural: A threat to public health?
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Kloster, Maren Olene & Adolfsson, Johanna
(2019).
Kvinnen - en smart investeringsmulighet.
Fett.
ISSN 1504-1921.
p. 36–39.
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Adolfsson, Johanna
(2019).
Spiritual insecurity and political power .
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Adolfsson, Johanna
(2019).
“Moving forward together”: International individualism meets local communalism when discussing empowerment and development with rural Malawians.
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Adolfsson, Johanna
(2019).
SUM-Forum: "Negotiating Girl Power: empowering women and girls to build sustainable livelihoods".
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Adolfsson, Johanna
(2019).
The Philosophy of Nudge and the Psychology of Consumption.
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Adolfsson, Johanna
(2018).
"There is no gender in this car!": Psychological Concepts Constructing the Global Development Agenda
.
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Adolfsson, Johanna
(2018).
Diskurs- og narrativ analyse .
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Adolfsson, Johanna & Madsen, Ole Jacob
(2018).
'Nowadays there is gender': 'doing' global gender policy in rural Malawi'.
View all works in Cristin
Published
Aug. 16, 2013 12:59 PM
- Last modified
Jan. 2, 2023 6:15 PM