https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8175-2662
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ABSTRACT
While many countries were locking down due to the spread of COVID-19, Sweden remained open with few restrictions, as authorities relied predominantly on a civil sense of responsibility and collective compliance with government recommendations. Drawing on interviews conducted with workers in retail and logistics in 2020–21, ethnographic work in digital environments as well as in public spaces and demonstrations, this article analyses discourses of everyday life and discourses of rejection, exploring how rejections were shaped in reaction to how the government and the Public Health Agency of Sweden handled the pandemic. Ortega Soto's article uses the concept of cultures of rejection—emphasizing a complex compound of values, norms and affects that reject different phenomena in different contexts—to analyse how working and living conditions, political opinions, social views and media habits informed workers' disagreements with and reactions to the official handling of the pandemic, as well as how this may have led to a growing loss of trust in government. Ortega Soto further investigates how the expression of cultures of rejection differs across generations by looking closely into the ways that nostalgia and a sense of loss enhance such responses among various social groups. The article contributes to a wider understanding of the political shifts and cultural changes that were manifested in the context of the pandemic in Sweden.
Notes
1 ‘Regeringens proposition 2020/21:79: En tillfällig covid-19-lag’, available on the Riksdagen website at https://data.riksdagen.se/fil/133A22DB-1D5C-46CD-BC0B-4CA72A5CDA0C (viewed 24 August 2023). All translations from the Swedish, unless otherwise stated, are by the authors.
2 Alexander Harder and Benjamin Opratko, ‘Cultures of rejection at work: investigating the acceptability of authoritarian populism’, Ethnicities, vol. 22, no. 3, 2022, 425–55 (429).
3 Ethnonationalism (or ethno-nationalism) stems from the social construction of a shared history and a cultural homogeneity. Gabriella Elgenius and Jens Rydgren, ‘Frames of nostalgia and belonging: the resurgence of ethno-nationalism in Sweden’, European Societies, vol. 21, no. 4, 2019, 583–602; Aleksandra Ålund, Carl-Ulrik Schierup and Anders Neergaard (eds), Reimagineering the Nation: Essays on Twenty-First-Century Sweden (Frankfurt: Peter Lang 2017).
4 Gøsta Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (Cambridge: Polity Press 1990).
5 Diane Sainsbury (ed.), Gender and Welfare State Regimes (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1999).
6 Carl-Ulrik Schierup, Peo Hansen and Stephen Castles, Migration, Citizenship, and the European Welfare State: A European Dilemma (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2006); Diane Sainsbury, Welfare States and Immigrant Rights: The Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2012).
7 Allan Pred, Even in Sweden: Racisms, Racialized Spaces, and the Popular Geographical Imagination (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press 2000), 6.
8 Ålund, Schierup and Neergaard (eds), Reimagineering the Nation; Göran Therborn, ‘Sweden's turn to economic inequality, 1982–2019’, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, vol. 52, 2020, 159–66; Vetenskapsrådet, Svensk forskning om segregation—en kartläggning, VR 1808 (Stockholm: Vetenskapsrådet, 2018), 32, available on the Vetenskapsrådet website at www.vr.se/download/18.4dd26b09169cbe0ddda629/1555326345256/Svensk-forskning-om-segregation_VR_2018.pdf (viewed 24 August 2023).
9 Carl-Ulrik Schierup and Simone Scarpa, ‘How the Swedish Model was (almost) lost: migration, welfare and the politics of solidarity’ and Anders Neergaard, ‘The Swedish Model in transition: trade unions and racialised workers’, both in Ålund, Schierup and Neergaard (eds), Reimagineering the Nation, 41–83 and 85–118, respectively; Nanako Fujita, ‘The transformation of the Swedish Model since the 1990s: the political aspects of institutional change’, in Hideko Magara and Bruno Amable (eds), Growth, Crisis, Democracy: The Political Economy of Social Coalitions and Policy Regime Change (London and New York: Routledge 2017), 103–99.
10 Peo Hansen, A Modern Migration Theory: An Alternative Economic Approach to Failed EU Policy (Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing 2021).
11 Carl-Ulrik Schierup, ‘Diversity and social exclusion in third way Sweden: the “Swedish model” in transition, 1975–2005’, TheMES: Themes on Migration and Ethnic Studies (Norrköping, REMESO), no. 35, 2010, 1–46.
12 Stefan Carlén and Paulina de los Reyes, ‘Ojämlikhet och polarisering i detaljhandeln 1990–2015’, in Kristina Boréus, Anders Neergaard and Lena Sohl (eds), Ojämlika arbetsplatser: Hierarkier, diskriminering och strategier för jämlikhet (Lund: Nordic Academic Press/Kriterium 2021), 35–62.
13 Viktor Vesterberg, Ethnicizing Employability: Governing the Unemployed in Labour Market Projects in Sweden (Linköping: Linköping University Department of Social and Welfare Studies 2016).
14 Magnus Dahlstedt, Aktiveringens politik: demokrati och medborgarskap för ett nytt millennium (Malmö: Liber 2009).
15 Kelly Björklund and Andrew Ewing, ‘The Swedish COVID-19 response is a disaster. It shouldn't be a model for the rest of the world’, Time, 14 October 2020, available at https://time.com/5899432/sweden-coronovirus-disaster; Maddy Savage, ‘Did Sweden's coronavirus strategy succeed or fail?’, BBC News (online), 24 July 2020, available at www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53498133; Simon Johnson, ‘Pandemic handling sours Nordic neighbours’ view of Sweden, survey shows', Reuters (online), 23 March 2021, available at www.reuters.com/article/sweden-nordic-survey-idUSL8N2LL1QY (all viewed 1 September 2023).
16 Kristoffer Örstadius, ‘Fakta i frågan: Hade Sverige färre dödsfall under pandemin än andra länder?’, Dagens Nyheter (online), 27 March 2023, available at www.dn.se/sverige/fakta-i-fragan-hade-sverige-farre-dodsfall-under-pandemin-an-andra-lander (viewed 1 September 2023).
17 Torbjörn Sjöström, ‘Rapport Novus: förtroende för myndigheter, institutioner och media’, 20 January 2021, available at https://novus.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/novusfortroende20210120.pdf (viewed 1 September 2023).
18 Katia Elliott, ‘Polisen kritisk till coronaregler: “Inte förklarade på ett bra sätt”’, SVT Nyheter (online), 21 March 2021, available at www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/polisen-kritisk-till-coronaregler-inte-forklarade-pa-ett-bra-satt (viewed 1 September 2023); Polismyndigheten, ‘Ändringar i begränsningsförordningen’, diary no. A096.741/2021, 26 February 2021, available on the Regeringen.se website at www.regeringen.se/contentassets/0a09e74759694b45852935ab4430189d/polismyndigheten.pdf (viewed 1 September 2023).
19 Socialstyrelsen, ‘Ny statistik om smittade och avlidna i Covid-19 bland äldre’, 6 May 2020, available on the Socialstyrelsen website at www.socialstyrelsen.se/om-socialstyrelsen/pressrum/press/ny-statistik-om-smittade-och-avlidna-i-covid-19-70-ar-och-aldre (viewed 2 November 2023).
20 Ibid.
21 Karin Thurfjell, ‘M: Finns en majoritet för en coronakommission’, Svenska Dagbladet (online), 29 May 2020, available at www.svd.se/debatt-i-riksdagen-sd-kraver-coronakommission (viewed 1 September 2023).
22 See ‘Om kommissionen’, 2020, available on the Coronakommissionens website at https://coronakommissionen.com/om-kommissionen (viewed 1 September 2023).
23 Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, ‘Using thematic analysis in psychology’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, vol. 3, no. 2, 2006 (77–101).
24 Our referring to the Facebook users as middle-aged or elderly was based on their profile pictures and their names, which suggested that they might belong to an older generation than the interviewees.
25 Tanja Joelsson and Danielle Ekman Ladru, ‘Cracks in the well-plastered façade of the Nordic model: reflections on inequalities in housing and mobility in (post-)coronavirus pandemic Sweden’, Children's Geographies, vol. 20, no. 4, 2021, 478–86; Gabriella Nilsson, Lisa Ekstam, Anna Axmon and Janicke Andersson, ‘Old overnight: experiences of age-based recommendations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden’, Journal of Aging & Social Policy, vol. 33, no. 4–5, 2021, 359–79.
26 Carlén and de los Reyes, Ojämlikhet och polarisering i detaljhandeln 1990–2015, 35–64.
27 The concept of ‘racialization’ is used in this article in terms of ‘racialized Others’. It refers to ‘race’ as a social construct, and in order to capture differences in phenotypes and cultures that are often used to differentiate, exclude and dominate the Other. In Sweden racialized Others has referred to various communities over time, but today especially focuses on some migrants, their children and generations following: Robert Miles, Racism after ‘Race Relations’ (London and New York: Routledge 1993).
28 Johanna Lindell and Lisa Pelling, Det svenska missnöjet (Stockholm: Atlas 2021).
29 Liv Sunnercrantz, ‘Hegemony and the Intellectual Function: Medialised Public Discourse on Privatisation in Sweden 1988–1993’, Ph.D. dissertation, Lund University, 2017.
30 Quoted in Gellert Tamas, ´De kommer fortsätta att sprida sitt hat´, Aftonbladet, 14 September 2022.
31 Related emojis included the demon emoji, mushroom emoji, the fuck-you emoji, the sick emoji, the wondering emoji, the plane emoji and others.
32 Diana Mulinari and Anders Neergaard, ‘We are Sweden Democrats because we care for others: exploring racisms in the Swedish extreme right’, European Journal of Women's Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, 2014, 43–56.
33 Lindell and Pelling, Det svenska missnöjet.
34 Daniel Suhonen, Göran Therborn and Jesper Weithz (eds), Klass i Sverige: Ojämlikheten, makten och politiken i det 21:a århundradet (Lund: Arkiv förlag 2021).
35 Harder and Opratko, ‘Cultures of rejection at work’.
36 Marcus Edmund Funck, Henrik Sköld and Oscar Gyllander, ‘Säpo varnar för våldsbejakande högerextremister på coronademonstrationer’, SVT Nyheter (online), 22 January 2022, available at www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/sapo-varnar-for-valdsbejakande-hogerextremister-pa-coronademonstrationer (viewed 7 September 2023).
37 Jean Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate, trans. from the French by George J. Becker (New York: Schocken Books 1995), 20.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Celina Ortega Soto
Celina Ortega Soto is a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnic and Migration Studies at the Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO) at Linköping University. Her research focuses on social polarization, radicalization and digital discourse. Email: [email protected]. ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0005-8175-2662