Faglige interesser
- Kjønn i akademia
- Kjønn og kapitalisme
- Tysk kritisk teori, fremmedgjøring, resonans
- Kjønn, klasse og sosialisering
- Menn og maskuliniteter
- Sosialteori, Bourdieu, Feministisk teori
- Winnicott, objektrelasjonsteori og psykososiale perspektiver
- Narrative metoder, hermeneutikk, fenomenologi
Undervisning
Bakgrunn
- Konstituert senterleder, Senter for tverrfaglig kjønnsforskning, 2019-2020
- Professor, Senter for tverrfagling kjønnsforskning UiO, 2016–
- Forskningsleder, NOVA, Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus, 2015–2016
- Forsker I, NOVA, Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus, 2014–2015
- Postdoktor, Institutt for sosiologi og samfunnsgeografi, UiO, 2010–2014
- Forsker II, Institutt for samfunnsforskning, 2010–2013
- Junior Scholar, CAS Senter for grunnforskning, Vitenskapsakademiet, 2010–2011
- Forsker og prosjektkoordinator, Senter for tverrfaglig kjønnsforskning, UiO, 2008–2009
- Universitetslektor, Institutt for sosiologi og samfunnsgeografi, UiO, 2007–2008
- NFR-stipendiat, Senter for kvinne- og kjønnsforskning, UiO, 2002–2007
Fullførte prosjekter
- Family Cultures in the Business Elite, Post Doc project, University of Oslo
- Personal Development and Socio-Cultural Change, Centre for Advanced Studies
- New family cultures, Norwegian Council of Research
Verv
- Redaktør, Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning, 2017-2018
Priser
- Årets artikkel, Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning 2010
- Årets artikkel, Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning 2014
- Årets kronikk, Norsk sosiologforening 2014
- Shortlisted for The Sociological Review's Prize for Outstanding Scholarship, 2016
Emneord:
Kjønn,
Klasse,
Familie,
Kjønnsrelasjoner,
Modernitetsteori,
Maskuliniteter,
Feministisk teori,
Modernitet
Publikasjoner
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Krüger, Steffen & Aarseth, Helene
(2025).
The debt of privilege: audit culture, universities and the depletion of mental space.
Journal of Psychosocial Studies.
18(1),
s. 5–21.
doi:
10.1332/14786737Y2025D000000040.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
Vis sammendrag
In a narrative interview study on how academic staff in humanities and social science departments at a Scandinavian university live their lives in academia, we encountered a conspicuous narrative about being privileged. ‘It is an immense privilege to hold a university position’, our interviewees stated repeatedly and in a variety of ways. In this article, we argue that this narrative of privilege is more than a simple display of modesty. Rather, we interpret its evocation as a highly charged expression of something that is being ‘excommunicated’ and thus increasingly difficult to put into words within the neoliberal university. Giving form to this symbolic absence, we propose that what has gone missing from current university culture is the acknowledgement of the legitimacy of ‘mental space’ (Young, 1994). In our analysis, we define ‘mental space’ as the creative and searching work of developing novel ways of thinking and nourishing one’s understanding of the world. By characterising this foundational dimension of scholarly work as a ‘privilege’, and therefore as something that is not ever fully deserved, the pursuit of knowledge itself becomes indebting and the mental space that academic work is based on becomes depleted and hollowed out.
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Lund, Rebecca Waters Boldsen & Aarseth, Helene
(2024).
Theorizing Gender Inequality in Physics: Gendered
Divisions of Labour in the Neoliberal University.
I Leonard, Pauline; Jona, Meytal Eran; Nir, Yosef & Taylor, Marika (Red.),
Gender and Physics in the Academy: Theory, Policy and Practice in European Perspective.
Bristol University Press.
ISSN 9781529222302.
s. 38–55.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene; Nielsen, Harriet Bjerrum & Krüger, Steffen
(2023).
Freedom, Resonance, Interaction.
Critical Theory and Creative Relations Between the Psyche and the Social.
I Frosh, Stephen; Walsh, Julie & Vyrgioti, Marita (Red.),
The Palgrave Handbook of Psychosocial Studies.
Palgrave Macmillan.
ISSN 9783030615109.
s. 1–20.
doi:
10.1007/978-3-030-61510-9.
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Vis sammendrag
This chapter introduces a psychosocial strand of thinking that offers a way to conceive of creative relations between the psyche and the world. Whereas much current psychosocial theory stresses how anxieties are managed by defending the self against the world or fuel subjection to oppressive social norms, the theories we engage with here point to ways in which anxieties can be employed in the urge to bridge inner longings and external realities. These ideas took form in the early Frankfurt School, which despite their comprehensive integration of psychoanalytic and social theory until recently has been comparatively marginalized in Anglophone Psychosocial Theory.
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Aarseth, Helene
(2023).
Emotional investments in narrative interviews:
a practice theoretical contribution.
I Frosh, Stephen; Walsh, Julie & Vyrgioti, Marita (Red.),
The Palgrave Handbook of Psychosocial Studies.
Palgrave Macmillan.
ISSN 9783030615109.
doi:
10.1007/978-3-030-61510-9_52-1.
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This chapter describes a psychosocial narrative method that focuses on modes of being in and relating to the world through practice. Whereas the “cognitive interpretations” prevalent in narrative research tend to conflate our attachments to the world with verbalized interpretations, psychosocial narrative research emphasizes that narratives are informed by emotional processes beyond language and consciousness. Much psychosocial narrative research proceeds by combining a discourse-theoretical framework with a psychoanalytic notion of individual, emotional processes. This chapter develops a psychosocial narrative method along a sociological practice, rather than a discourse, theoretical conception of the social. In this practice-theoretical conception, subjects are seen as coming into being by their productive engagement with the world, and the analytic focus is on the motivational energies involved in these psyche-world-interactions. While psychoanalytic theory typically sees investments in the world as a concealment of more “authentic” drives, the practice-theoretical psychosocial theory could be combined and developed with a Winnicottian notion of emotional investments that includes the drive to invest energies in the outer world. Developed this way, the psychosocial narrative method offers a tool to grasp emotional investments in the world as “modes of being driven,” and of managing anxieties through bridging inner and outer worlds within different societal contexts and fields of practice. To illustrate how this method could be employed, the final part of the chapter presents an example from research on family practices in the financial elite in Norway. I suggest that a notable reromantization of domestic femininity within this class fraction could be interpreted as a “response to relevance,” informed by motivational energies that arise in these interviewees’ specific experience of being “radically exposed to,” and “invested in,” the world. Rather than a renunciation of the critical potential of psychosocial theory, this practice-theoretical optic directs attention to the social institutions with which the interviewees engage, and how these institutions ignite reifying and defensive, or life-promoting, motivational energies.
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Aarseth, Helene; Bråten, Beret & Lund, Rebecca Waters Boldsen
(2022).
Kjønnsbalanse i tellekantenes tid. Epistemisk mangfold eller monokultur på speed?
I Aarseth, Helene & Owesen, Ingeborg Winderen (Red.),
Kjønn og akademia: På vei mot BALANSE?.
Fagbokforlaget.
ISSN 9788245044102.
s. 42–61.
doi:
10.55669/oa160802.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2022).
The implicit epistemology of metric governance.
New conceptions of motivational tensions in the
corporate university.
Critical Studies in Education.
ISSN 1750-8487.
63(5),
s. 589–605.
doi:
10.1080/17508487.2022.2037680.
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This article aims to develop enhanced conceptions of the motivational drives that may be imperilled by their encounter with new forms of governance in higher education. Of particular concern are the motivational drives behind creative scientific pursuits associated with the humanities, and their vulnerability in the face of metrics governance and audit culture. I argue that the notion of the ‘motor’ of desire that underpins much social theories, including the Bourdieusian I draw on here, offers powerful accounts of the desires leveraged by metrics governance. However, they are less suitable for understanding the motivational drives that are curtailed in their encounter with the audit culture. I therefore suggest that an object-relational notion of the motor of the desire, a ‘desire for resonance’, could refine the Bourdieusian practice theory and yield enhanced conceptions of the motivational tensions in the corporate university. I suggest that these conflicts are not primarily concerning agents’ positions in the field and their relative acquisition of prestige and recognition, but rather conflicts among different modes of employing and directing human energies in the academic field and beyond.
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Song, Minji & Aarseth, Helene
(2021).
Privilegert tilhørighet? Kosmopolitiske orienteringer i en trygg velferdsstat.
I Bostad, Inga (Red.),
Å høre hjemme i verden. Introduksjon til en pedagogisk hjemstedsfilosofi..
Spartacus.
ISSN 9788230402917.
s. 285–310.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2020).
Against the grain? The craving for domestic femininity in a gender-egalitarian welfare state.
The European Journal of Women's Studies.
ISSN 1350-5068.
doi:
10.1177/1350506820970241.
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This article aims to develop new conceptions of the psychosocial dynamics that drive the re-romanticization of domestic femininity in current financialized capitalism. Feminist scholars have described this heightened cultivation of mothering as a reparative move in response to irreconcilable tensions between cultural ideals of the ‘balancing mother’ and ‘lean-in femininity’. This article adds a materialist-psychosocial lens to these conceptions, to enhance understanding of what drives this craving for domestic femininity. Drawing on a free-association narrative interview study with couples in the financial elite in the comparatively gender-egalitarian Norwegian context, I describe a specific emotional mechanism that resists democratization of gender in this specific group. The interviews reveal a felt need to cultivate ‘the human side of things’ at safe distance from the competitiveness of ‘hard-core finance’. The Nordic earner–carer model with its entwinement of care and professional pursuits, cultivated by the more self-fulfilment-oriented parts of the professional middle-class appears not only unwanted but threatening. In my analysis, I retrieve and develop a psychoanalytically inspired historical-materialist feminism, one that perceives of the gendered division of work as a split in modes of focusing human energy. I suggest that the resurgent cultivation of domestic femininity is nurtured by a self-energizing antagonism between competitive and relational practices. I further argue that the cultivation of domestic femininity in these financial couples points to a potential antagonism between the democratization of love and the specific anxiety-driven competitiveness to which this financial-elite group may be particularly susceptible.
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Bach, Dil & Aarseth, Helene
(2019).
Lyst til læring. Fra nordisk modkultur til transnational præstationsstrategi.
Dansk pædagogisk tidsskrift.
ISSN 0904-2393.
3,
s. 55–66.
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Olsvold, Aina; Aarseth, Helene & Bondevik, Hilde
(2017).
‘I think my son is a wonderful chap’: Working-class and middle-class fathers’ narratives of their son’s ADHD diagnosis and medication.
Families, Relationships and Societies.
ISSN 2046-7435.
8(1),
s. 105–120.
doi:
10.1332/204674317X15034051559819.
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In the rich literature on ‘new fathers’ there is an emergent focus on the role of class in shaping fathering practices and identities. According to time-use measures, the new ‘hands-on-father’ involved in the daily activities of childcare (Brannen and Nielsen, 2006) is most evident among middle-class fathers (Sullivan, 2010). Indeed, this new father is subject to much critical scrutiny (Bekkengen, 2006; Johansson and Klinth, 2008). Yet, so far, the persistent emphasis on this specific configuration of emotionally involved fathering may have the unintended consequence of assigning working-class fathers the role of those lagging behind in a movement towards one particular form of emotional involvement (Plantin 2007; Farstad and Stefansen, 2015). An emergent focus on how various material and cultural life situations shape different configurations of fatherhood and emotional involvement offers a promising way out of this impasse (Brannen and Nielsen, 2006; Plantin 2007; Braun et al., 2010; Stefansen and Farstad, 2015). In this article, we will provide an enhanced insight into the complex issue of emotional involvement by examining how middle-class and working-class fathers relate to their sons’ ADHD diagnosis. Diagnosis and medical treatment of ADHD often entail difficult dilemmas for parents concerning their child’s well-being and educational success. We will use this as a lens through which we explore how the entwinement of gendered and classed perceptions informs men’s fathering practices and emotional involvement with their children. Drawing on a narrative interview study of fathers of boys diagnosed with ADHD (Olsvold, 2012), we describe classed differences in fathers’ narratives around their sons’ ADHD diagnosis and medication. These different narratives contribute to enhanced insight into how classed experiences and life situations play into and shape different formations of masculinity and emotionally involved fathering. © 2017 Policy Press
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Aarseth, Helene
(2017).
Fear of Falling – Fear of Fading: The Emotional Dynamics of Positional and Personalised Individualism.
Sociology.
ISSN 0038-0385.
doi:
10.1177/0038038517730219.
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This article explores the emotional dynamics involved in the shaping of middle-class subjectivities, aiming to move beyond the ‘fear of falling’ thesis and the attendant emphasis on the quest for positional advantage. I argue that this thesis offers a one-dimensional notion of what it is that drives middle-class perceptions, values and motivations, unsuitable for explaining current tensions between symbolic and economic fractions. Drawing on a comparative narrative interview study of managerial and professional parents in Norway, I describe the emotionally charged investments – ‘fear of falling’ and ‘fear of fading’ – as well as the excitements that drive different modes of socialisation in these groups. Further developing the phenomenological and psychosocial trajectories in Bourdieu’s practice theory yields a productive tool for exploring these modes of socialisation, contributing to an enhanced conception of emotional dynamics of different middle-class subjectivities. © 2017 SAGE Publications
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bach, Anna Sofie & Aarseth, Helene
(2016).
Adaptation, equality, and fairness. Towards a sociological understanding of ‘the supportive husband'.
NORMA - International Journal for Masculinity Studies.
ISSN 1890-2138.
11(3),
s. 174–189.
doi:
10.1080/18902138.2016.1217692.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Lucey, Helen; Olsvold, Aina & Aarseth, Helene
(2016).
Working class fathers and daughters: Thinking about desire, identification, gender and education.
Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society.
ISSN 1088-0763.
21(2),
s. 128–146.
doi:
10.1057/pcs.2015.42.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Bøhler, Kjetil Klette & Aarseth, Helene
(2016).
Følelsenes politiske potensial.
Agora Journal for metafysisk spekulasjon.
ISSN 0800-7136.
1(1),
s. 299–311.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene; Layton, Lynne & Nielsen, Harriet Bjerrum
(2016).
Conflicts in the habitus: The emotional work of becoming modern.
Sociological Review.
ISSN 0038-0261.
64(1),
s. 148–165.
doi:
10.1111/1467-954X.12347.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2015).
A sound Foundation? Financial elite families and egalitarian schooling in Norway.
I Maxwell, Claire & Aggleton, Peter (Red.),
Elite Education. International Perspectives.
Routledge.
ISSN 9781138799615.
s. 79–91.
doi:
10.4324/9781315755984-7.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
Se alle arbeider i NVA
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Aarseth, Helene
(2024).
Likestillingsprosjektet har slett ikke «gått for langt». Det har sporet av.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2024).
Flere menn uten partner og barn: ikke et symptom på at likestillingen har gått for langt.
[Journal].
Dagsavisen.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2024).
Mannsutvalget vil motvirke polarisering mellom kjønnene.
[Internet].
Kilden.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2024).
Likestillingens neste steg. Kommentarer til Mannsutvalgets innstilling.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2023).
Emotional investments in narrative interviews:
a practice-theoretical contribution to studies of everyday personal life.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2023).
Menn omfavner tradisjonelle kvinneklær.
[Journal].
Aftenposten.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2023).
Mannen er ikke i krise. Men ett bestemt mannsideal kan være det.
[Journal].
Aftenposten.
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Aarseth, Helene & Owesen, Ingeborg Winderen
(2022).
Kjønn og akademia: på vei mot balanse?
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene & Lund, Rebecca Waters Boldsen
(2021).
Rethinking Historical Materialist Feminism and its Psychosocial Conception.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2020).
Eros, Gender and Epistemic Governance? Exploring the psycho-social dynamics of the competitive university.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2020).
Kjønn, kjærlighet og kunnskapsbegjær i det kompetitive universitet.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2020).
Er kjønnsforskningen i ferd med å gi opp sitt prosjekt om å endre samfunnet?
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2019).
Kjønn, kjærlighet og kunnskapsbegjær: Nye spenninger mellom hverdagslivets demokratisering og akademias instrumentalisering?
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2018).
Presses til å velge penger og jobb foran barna.
[Journal].
Dagens Næringsliv.
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Aarseth, Helene
(2018).
Høyrepopulisme og mangfold i kjønnsforskningen.
KILDEN : informasjonssenter for kjønnsforskning.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2018).
Jeg er jernmannen som bare fyker rundt og leverer penger hver måned.
[Journal].
Dagens Næringsliv.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2018).
The other side of finance? Exploring the cult of domesticity among financial elite families.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2018).
Fra samfunnsendring til marginaliseringsfetisjisme? En historie om norsk kjønnssosiologi.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene; Anving, Terese & Bach, Dil
(2018).
Farewell to the universal caregiver model?
Emergent patterns in Nordic upper-middle-class families.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2018).
Intensive parenting in todays’ Scandinavian Countries. The end of Egalitarianism?
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2018).
Exploring the cult of domesticity in Norwegian financial elite families: the theory of love power revisited.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene & Orning, Sara Elisabeth Sellevold
(2018).
Leder Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning nr. 1-2.
Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning.
ISSN 0809-6341.
s. 1–2.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene; Orning, Sara Elisabeth Sellevold & Helseth, Hannah
(2018).
Leder Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning nr. 3.
Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning.
ISSN 0809-6341.
s. 1–3.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2018).
Exposed to and invested in the world:the revival of Frankfurt School Theory of praxis and it’s feminist potential.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene & Orning, Sara Elisabeth Sellevold
(2018).
Leder Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning nr. 4.
Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning.
ISSN 0809-6341.
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Aarseth, Helene
(2017).
Eros in the Field? Bourdieu's Double Account of Socialized Desire.
[Internet].
The Sociological Review website.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2017).
Menn føler fortsatt forsørgeransvar.
[Internet].
Kjønnsforskning.no.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2017).
Kjønnsavdelingen 10 – Økonomi: Deltidsfella, tidsklemma og ulønna omsorgsarbeid.
[Internet].
Kjønnsavdelingen Kilden Norges Forskningsråd.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Orning, Sara Elisabeth Sellevold & Aarseth, Helene
(2017).
Leder i Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning nr. 3/2017.
Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning.
ISSN 0809-6341.
3.
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Orning, Sara Elisabeth Sellevold & Aarseth, Helene
(2017).
Leder i Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning nr. 2/2017.
Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning.
ISSN 0809-6341.
2.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Orning, Sara Elisabeth Sellevold & Aarseth, Helene
(2017).
Leder i Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning nr. 1/2017.
Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning.
ISSN 0809-6341.
1.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2016).
Forsker mener storstilte og foreldreorganiserte halloweenfeiringer bør forstås i en større sammenheng.
[Internet].
Aftenposten.
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Aarseth, Helene
(2016).
Jeg klarer oftere å nyte små øyeblikk med barna. Det er fordi jeg har mer tid.
[Internet].
Aftenposten.no.
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Aarseth, Helene
(2016).
Habitus and Social Science: a Virtual Roundtable.
[Internet].
The Sociological Review website.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2016).
Likestillingsombudet om russeseks: veldig provoserende at det skjer.
[Internet].
Aftenposten.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene & Bøhler, Kjetil Klette
(2016).
Political Emotions, why love matters for justice.
Agora Journal for metafysisk spekulasjon.
ISSN 0800-7136.
33/34(4),
s. 299–312.
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Aarseth, Helene
(2015).
Hei, foreldre – dere er tidenes beste!
[Journal].
Aftenposten, Oppvekst.
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Aarseth, Helene
(2015).
Masculinity, family and the rejection of gender equality. The case of financial elite couples in Norway.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2015).
«Årets artikkel» handler om finanselitens kjønnsstereotype familieliv.
[Internet].
Kilden.no.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene
(2015).
'Go for gold' or 'incessant enrichment'. Intensive parenting in academic and the financial elite families in Norway.
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Aarseth, Helene
(2015).
Lever vi i en tidsklemme? Hvorfor opplever foreldre og familier stress og tidspress, og hvordan påvirker det oss?
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Aarseth, Helene & Bråten, Beret
(2014).
Høyt henger de - og marginaliserte er de? Om vurderingshierarkier i kjønns-, klasse- og minoritetsforskningen.
Bulletine.
ISSN 1503-5247.
s. 14–16.
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Aarseth, Helene
(2014).
Vil ruste barna til møtet med en tøff verden.
[Journal].
Vårt Land.
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Aarseth, Helene
(2014).
De opplever at verden er et røft sted hvor barna deres må beskyttes.
[Journal].
Aftenposten.
Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
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Publisert
4. mai 2016 09:16
- Sist endret
6. jan. 2026 15:10