During the late 1990s I was a PhD student at Stockholm University and studied youth crime. I interrupted my studies in the early 2000s but resumed them a few years later and completed a part of the PhD with an essay (2006), one of the parts of my thesis project, dealing with graffiti. This and some of the other work I completed during my PhD period can be read on my website.

This past week, when I have been home isolated due a Covid infection, I read through my essay and discovered to my surprise that it is interesting. I am amazed at how the author, my younger self, creatively manages to integrate theories from different genres while managing to be both creative and innovative. Sounds like big words and bragging, but that’s my picture today of this text with a little perspective. Of course, it is not perfect, if I did it again, I would do it in a slightly different way – of course, I have hopefully learned something in the last 20 years…

By reading the text, I have now rediscovered many of the theorists who shaped me and whose reasoning has become integral parts of my way of seeing and perceiving the world. Graffiti is an international phenomenon and I think some of my reasoning may be of interest in other countries where the phenomenon exists. For that reason, I’m going to start translating the essay into English. This is a big project for me; the essay is about 100 pages and I also do it as part of my ongoing project to improve my ability to write in English, so I will do this in parts and start with the initial summary. I will post new parts here on this blog and will add the texts on my website under “texts”.