Nuclear Nostalgia: How the Sweden Democrats Construct the Past and Future of Nuclear Power
(2024) HEKM51 20241Department of Human Geography
Human Ecology
- Abstract
- This thesis studies the relationship between the far right and nuclear power in the context of Sweden, where anti-immigration party the Sweden Democrats advocate for a massive expansion. In its nuclear rhetoric, the party relates the technology with the nation’s past to promote its revival. Nationalism gains legitimacy through nostalgic framings of national history. The period of the 1950s Swedish welfare state, metaphorically termed folkhemmet, serves as the golden age in the historical narration of the Sweden Democrats. Through interviews with representatives from the party, the thesis approaches the links between nationalism and this particular energy source by exploring the role of nostalgia in its nuclear politics. A theoretical... (More)
- This thesis studies the relationship between the far right and nuclear power in the context of Sweden, where anti-immigration party the Sweden Democrats advocate for a massive expansion. In its nuclear rhetoric, the party relates the technology with the nation’s past to promote its revival. Nationalism gains legitimacy through nostalgic framings of national history. The period of the 1950s Swedish welfare state, metaphorically termed folkhemmet, serves as the golden age in the historical narration of the Sweden Democrats. Through interviews with representatives from the party, the thesis approaches the links between nationalism and this particular energy source by exploring the role of nostalgia in its nuclear politics. A theoretical framework on the politics of nostalgia and the relationship between technology, culture and national identities is adopted. The thesis argues that the Sweden Democrats employ nostalgic myths about history to promote nuclear power and retain an image of Swedish exceptionalism. Hence, an expansion of Sweden’s nuclear capacity becomes a means for the party to fulfill an imagined destiny of the nation and return to the nation’s past. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9157153
- author
- Englund, Christina LU
- supervisor
-
- Andreas Malm LU
- organization
- course
- HEKM51 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 9157153
- date added to LUP
- 2024-07-24 10:25:13
- date last changed
- 2024-07-24 10:25:13
@misc{9157153, abstract = {{This thesis studies the relationship between the far right and nuclear power in the context of Sweden, where anti-immigration party the Sweden Democrats advocate for a massive expansion. In its nuclear rhetoric, the party relates the technology with the nation’s past to promote its revival. Nationalism gains legitimacy through nostalgic framings of national history. The period of the 1950s Swedish welfare state, metaphorically termed folkhemmet, serves as the golden age in the historical narration of the Sweden Democrats. Through interviews with representatives from the party, the thesis approaches the links between nationalism and this particular energy source by exploring the role of nostalgia in its nuclear politics. A theoretical framework on the politics of nostalgia and the relationship between technology, culture and national identities is adopted. The thesis argues that the Sweden Democrats employ nostalgic myths about history to promote nuclear power and retain an image of Swedish exceptionalism. Hence, an expansion of Sweden’s nuclear capacity becomes a means for the party to fulfill an imagined destiny of the nation and return to the nation’s past.}}, author = {{Englund, Christina}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Nuclear Nostalgia: How the Sweden Democrats Construct the Past and Future of Nuclear Power}}, year = {{2024}}, }