237 God. Titius, br. 6-7 (2013. i 2014.), 237-248 Aleksandra Ålund and Carl Ulrik Schierup UDC: 316.73 314.7 (Švedska) Preliminary communication THE ROLE OF CULTURAL MEMORY... IN CONTEMPORARY MIGRANT ACTIVISM: STAGING GENDER IN A TRANSFORMING WELFARE STATE Abstract: Contemporary scientifc and media debates about cultural confict and gender relations have consolidated stereotypical categorisations of female migrants as passive victims of traditional cultural values. This risks veiling agen- cy against ethnic, gender and other kinds of discrimination inherent in contem- porary transformation of Swedish welfare state. In the light of a critical review of the current debate on gender and culture, the authors discuss an alternative un- derstanding of past memories in contemporary activism for gender equality and social inclusion. They illustrate how civic agency echoes a dynamic interplay be- tween the past and the present. Keywords: migration, citizenship, gender, activism, culturalism Introduction Activism targeting ethnic discrimination in Sweden has not, until recently, re- ceived suffcient attention in Swedish research and politics due to widely held cultural stereotypes on the persistence of cultural traditionalism within ‘immi- grant associations’ (Ålund et al 2008.; Ålund and Alinia 2011.). In times of a shrinking welfare state, when social exclusion of ethnic minorities tends to in- crease, emergence of different kinds of activism among organisation founded on ethnic grounds in Sweden, have been in addressed in recent research (Schierup, Ålund and Kings 2013). Emergence of both an organised extreme right wing po- litical party, now present in the Swedish government, as well as expressions of everyday racism and populism, often articulate demands for cultural homoge- nisation, referring to the problems of cultural traditionalism, not least regarding gender relations in migrant families, which tend to be categorically regarded as a threat to democratic values of society. The present article addresses these issues, in particular related to dominant discourses on so-called ‘honour-related violence’, and how this problem is per- 237-248