This study focuses on the dynamics of power and (in)equality within Swedish higher education institutions (HEI), by looking at how discrimination is described and monitored in governing policy documents. By critically analysing HEI official documents from four Swedish universities in relation to increasing diversity and internationalization-oriented strategies, the study scrutinizes the promotion of equal opportunities and guidelines related to discrimination. It engages with and troubles concepts like diversity, the political drive for widening participation, and increasing internationalization. Notably, the study draws attention to the conspicuous absence of terms like race and racism in the governing policies that are ostensibly tasked with monitoring discrimination in HEIs. The reasons for these omissions are engaged with through an alignment with a Second Wave of Southern Perspectives (SWaSP) framework. The findings raise important questions about the efficacy of current anti-discrimination policies within HEI spaces, inviting reflections on the nature of monitoring of discrimination and the (re)production of inequities and racism. Our analysis highlights the need for unpacking issues related to whose gaze is privileged and who is (in)visibilized when discrimination is monitored. Additionally, the study raises questions regarding how discourses of equity within HEI become framed in relation to marginalization processes.
Rosa et al. (Tue,) studied this question.