Ov Cristian Norocel

“Give Us Back Sweden!” A Feminist Reading of the (Re)Interpretations of the Folkhem Conceptual Metaphor in Swedish Radical Right Populist Discourse

The present analysis investigates the discursive redefinitions of the folkhem conceptual metaphor, which accommodates centrally located heteronormative masculinities at the intersection of gender, class, and race. It focuses on recent reinterpretations of this conceptual metaphor as heralded by the main Swedish radical right populist party, the Sweden Democrats (SD), and its leader, Jimmie Åkesson. To do so, the main tenets of conceptual metaphor theory are discussed, and criticisms of the present methodologies are presented, leading to the suggestion of a new, genealogical approach. The research material is then analysed with the help of the proposed method, evidencing Åkessons use of the national family metaphor over time. An overview of the findings is then provided, and a feminist perspective on the study of radical right populist discourses, with the aid of conceptual metaphor theory, is articulated.

Populist radical right protectors of the folkhem: Welfare chauvinism in Sweden

The article scrutinises a version of welfare chauvinism taking shape in Sweden, by concentrating on the concept of folkhem (the [Swedish] people’s home), and examines how it was expressed in the 2010–2014 parliamentary activity of the Sweden Democrats. It offers an analysis of how the welfare chauvinism project is first contextualised in the party documents, and subsequently articulated in the party-endorsed parliamentary motions. The article is an analytical contribution to welfare studies and to analyses of the populist radical right, providing a critical inquiry into welfare chauvinism in Sweden. The article is also an empirical contribution to the study of the populist radical right in Sweden.

The politics and policies of welfare chauvinism under the economic crisis

The ongoing economic crisis that emerged in the wake of the global recession in 2008, and was followed by the more recent crisis of the Eurozone, has introduced new themes and remoulded old ways of approaching the welfare state, immigration, national belonging and racism in Northern Europe. This article identifies two main ways of understanding welfare chauvinism: 1) as a broad concept that covers all sorts of claims and policies to reserve welfare benefits for the ‘native’ population; 2) an ethno-nationalist and racialising political agenda, characteristic especially of right-wing populist parties. Focusing on the relationship between politics and policies, we examine how welfare chauvinist political agendas are turned into policies and what hinders welfare chauvinist claims from becoming policy matters and welfare practices. It is argued that welfare chauvinism targeting migrants is part of a broader neoliberal restructuring of the welfare state and of welfare retrenchment.

The Populist Radical Right in Europe : A Xenophobic Voice in the Global Economic Crisis

Since the late-1980s, populist radical Right parties have established themselves in the party systems of several Western, Central and Eastern European democracies, in some cases even temporarily partaking in governing coalitions (Delwit and Poirier 2007). They are present throughout Europe, from the French National Front (Front National, FN), and the (True) Finns (Party) (Perussuomalaiset, PS/Sannfinlandarna, SF), to the Hungarian Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik Magyarorszagert Mozgalom, Jobbik) and, in the context of the economic and financial crisis, the Greek Golden Dawn (Xρυσή Aυγή, GD). The European Parliament elections of 2014 confirmed the electoral success of these Eurosceptic parties, though their impact on the European political agenda remains to be assessed. They ply protectionist ‘national-populism’, which can also take the form of separatist regionalism as with the Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang, VB) in Belgium.

Gendering violence in the school shootings in Finland

Within barely a year, two school shootings shook Finland. The school shootings shocked Finnish society, forcing media, academics and experts, police and politicians alike to search for reasons behind the violent incidents. Focusing their analysis on the two main Finnish newspapers, Helsingin Sanomat and Hufvudstadsbladet , authoritative sources of information for Finland’s two language communities, the authors maintain that the Finnish case contributes to research on school shootings by evidencing the intimate linkages between the state, gender and violence. The authors argue that violence is to be understood through different discourses about the Finnish state. In particular, they discern three discourses about the state that produce gendered discourses of violence: the welfare state, the realist state and the neoliberal state. The authors conclude that these discourses produce different notions of rational and irrational violence thereby providing different legitimizations for male-embodied/masculine violence.

Media Visibility and Inclusion of Radical Right Populism in Hungary and Romania: A Discursive Opportunity Approach

This article investigates the discursive opportunities for radical-right populist politics in Hungary and Romania. We argue that it is important to assess whether the discursive activities of radical-right media are reflected and included in the chains of discussion in the public sphere. The involvement and visibility of radical-right media in news coverage is considered a cue for their acceptance as legitimate actors in the wider media ecosystem, even when other media may not accept their interpretations. Our findings tell two different stories in the compared countries. In Hungary, we note that radical-right media are to a certain degree incorporated into the wider media networks, while in Romania, radical-right media are observed to be in isolated positions in both of the media networks we examined.