Suchergebnisse

Introduction : Gaining credibility in the public debate -- Towards a multi-dimensional political party space -- National myths as political opportunity structures and editorial writers as opinion makers -- National myth-making in Sweden, Norway and Denmark -- Issues and tone towards the nationalist populist parties in mainstream press editorials in Scandinavia -- Between a normal political contester and a devil in disguise : Framing the national populist parties in mainstream press editorials in Scandinavia -- Conclusion : Similar, yet different.

The development towards the mainstreaming of extremism in European countries in the areas of immigration and integration has taken place both in policy and in discourse. The harsh policy measures that were implemented after the 2015 refugee crisis have led to a discursive shift; what is normal to say and do in the areas of immigration and integration has changed. Anti-immigration claims are today not merely articulated in the fringes of the political spectrum but more widely accepted and also, at least partly, officially sanctioned. This study investigates the anti-immigration claims, seen as (populist) appeals to the people that centre around a particular mythology of the people and that are, as such, deeply ingrained in national identity construction. The two dimensions of the populist divide are of relevance here: The horizontal dimension refers to articulated differences between "the people", who belong here, and the "non-people" (the other), who do not. The vertical dimension refers to articulated differences between the common people and the established elites. Empirically, the analysis shows how anti-immigration views embedded in processes of national myth making during and after 2015 were articulated in the socially conservative online newspaper Samtiden from 2016 to 2019. The results indicate that far-right populist discourse conveys a nostalgia for a golden age and a cohesive and homogenous collective identity, combining ideals of cultural conformism and socioeconomic fairness.

The encapsulation of Europe´s borders inside the national states and current demands to limit migration inte the EU lie at the core of this study. I discuss how feelings of anxiety towards growing diversity in the population transmute into party political preferences. I show how the nationalist-populist party the Sweden Democrats in Sweden mobilize voters from both the right and the left, using the national myth of the People´s Home to distinguish between the fearful outside and the authenticity of the inside.

This article introduces the concept of banal populism to emphasize the intrinsic ambiguity of the relationship between democracy and populism in representative politics. The article expands on three approaches to populism, based on ideology, style and logic to suggest a framework for the study of articulations of banal populism in the everyday political communication between the people and the mediated elite, devoid of normative presuppositions. Empirically, the article shows how the rhetorical figure of the reality people [Verklighetens folk] has been used differently by three political parties in Sweden; i. e the right-wing populist party New Democracy (NyD), in parliament between 1991 and 1994, the Christian Democratic Party (KD) which is currently in the government and also by the nationalist-populist party the Sweden Democrats (SD), which gained 20 seats in the parliament by 2010. The article concludes that the struggle of who the people are and what they wish for is a permanent companion nested in the everyday communication of the votes.

In this article, the author explores how the question of Europe has been established on the domestic scene. The article focuses on referenda on EU-related issues held in three EU member states, ranging from Ireland in 2001, to Sweden in 2003, and finally France in 2005. In all three cases, the national populations voted against the will of a majority of their representatives, and chose not to follow the defined EU agenda towards greater integration. The study includes analyses of the national news reporting in the three cases as well as responses from Brussels. The author infers that the three No-votes, in the perspective of the political elites, were interpreted as incentives to further the integration process, spelling out a message of that Europeans want Europe, even if some people (i.e. the No-voting majorities) were consideredyetto learn what it means to be, act and think as Europeans in Europe.

In this presentation I will introduce a very preliminary draft of the text "Passions of Representative Politics". My ambition is to sketch a first chapter of my book project "Struggles of the people: nationalism, populism and democracy in Scandinavian politics, 1928-2010". The passions of representative politics refer to the delicate balancing between the functional needs of the system and the emotive appeals to the people. Recognising the passions of representative politics, I emphasise the struggles of the people as a basis for how politics is performed and communicated between the citizenry and the mediated elites; how the Pathos continuum between the acceptable normalcy and the pathological deviance is established differently in Sweden, Denmark and in Norway. The book aims to explain the appearance and development of three nationalist parties, by means of scrutinizing and comparing changing perceptions of the people in these countries. The main thesis is that the nationalist parties (Dansk Folkeparti in Denmark, Sverigedemokraterna in Sweden and Fremskrittspartiet in Norway), by acting as the true heirs of Social Democracy – i.e. the proponents of the people – gain resonance for their politics. The ambition is, by way of extrapolation, to illuminate differences and similarities concerning the contemporary debate on national self images (and threat images), integration and migration in contemporary Scandinavian politics.

Why is it considered more European to vote in the affirmative of the Euro than it is to vote against it? Why is not possible to be a populist and a ?Good European? at the same time? What makes an illegal immigrant different from a tourist? These questions all concern the limits of what it means to be, act and think as Europeans in Europe. In the political process of bringing the nations and peoples of Europe together, Europe is imagined as a distinct community. The aim of this study is to analyse contemporary articulations of what makes Europe ?Europe? in the context of the political project of the EU. Elaborating on the correlation between articulations of a certain European identity and the politics of European integration, this thesis combines theories and perspectives of identity construction with theories that, more explicitly, deal with mechanisms of power and repression as immanent in any societal formation (i.e. discourse theory). By bringing Europe down to earth, the author highlights contradictions and tensions that are inherent in our perceptions of what makes Europe ?Europe?. In a first step, the study emphasises how knowledge of what makes Europe ?Europe? is reproduced in a ?constitutive split? between the positions of ?Europe? and ?the nation?. The analysis suggests that this relationship of mutual dependency further constrains the possibility of articulating alternative positions. Bringing Europe down to earth, in this perspective, means to underline the continuity between past attempts to imagine nation-states and current endeavours to articulate a certain European identity that knit together Europeans with a distinct notion of a European community. In a second step, the author focuses on contemporary labelling processes that separate ?us? (the Europeans) from them ?them?, the ?not-Europeans?. This dissertation includes analyses of domestic referenda on EU-related issues, the transformation of the EU into an area of freedom, security and justice and finally also the relation between Brussels and populism. The identity-making enterprise that takes place in the name of Europe is not merely about the making of spatial demarcations of where Europe ends or who is to become a European citizen and who is not. The question of what makes Europe ?Europe? is expressed also inside the territorial borders of the enlarged Union as manifest in a series of constitutive splits that separate between ?Good Europeans? and ?Bad Europeans?; between ?Good strangers? and ?Bad strangers?; between friends and foes. In his analysis of EU-elite rhetoric, the author infers that the European integration process is attached with a certain logic of irrevocability that trigger the development further, despite a lack of popular support. The project of bringing Europe down to earth encourages us to remove the question of Europe from the realm of historic necessity to the sphere of politics.

This article explores the process of small-scale technological innovation through the concept of experienced and enacted time. By conducting a series of semi-structured, deep interviews with 10 entrepreneurial innovators around issues of time and their ventures, we were able to construct four higher order concepts: time as a force, time as a flow, time as relations and time as a personal, cognitive resource; as well as 12 subcategories depicting ways in which time and innovation are weaved together. The study concludes with a number of suggestions as to how previous research on innovation may be extended in the light of the present findings. Especially important in this respect is the call for a stronger emphasis in innovation research on intentionality, uncertainty creation, vision and social action as being significant denominators of this phenomenon.