The impossibility of social inclusion : The ethno-racist welfare discourse in Sweden
(2025) p.131-155- Abstract
- The fall of 2022, with the election success of a coalition of right wing and ethnoracist parties, marks the transition from a racialized to a racist state in Sweden. We analyse the discourses of three welfare projects in Swedish racial capitalism - Keynesian, Neoliberal, and ethnoracist - in relation to safety/security.
Methodologically, we use CDA analysing elite institutional texts (party documents, government, and media texts), supplemented with references to previous research, thereby linking and comparing historical and modern discourses.
Departing from Althusser’s distinction between repressive and ideological state apparatuses, we demonstrate how a re-interpellation of welfare has shifted focus to repression,... (More) - The fall of 2022, with the election success of a coalition of right wing and ethnoracist parties, marks the transition from a racialized to a racist state in Sweden. We analyse the discourses of three welfare projects in Swedish racial capitalism - Keynesian, Neoliberal, and ethnoracist - in relation to safety/security.
Methodologically, we use CDA analysing elite institutional texts (party documents, government, and media texts), supplemented with references to previous research, thereby linking and comparing historical and modern discourses.
Departing from Althusser’s distinction between repressive and ideological state apparatuses, we demonstrate how a re-interpellation of welfare has shifted focus to repression, targeting the racialized other. The discursive combination and word associations used, while avoiding the category of “race”, create a vernacular of racism without race.
Recognizing the structure of Sweden’s racial capitalism as fluid and complex, the migrant “other” has become the shorthand for racialization in popular and academic vernacular, while the Muslim other becomes the nucleus of threat. It foregrounds the racialized “others” as an ethno-biological category and shifts the discourse and policy towards securitization, signifying a discourse that purports the impossibility of social inclusion. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8805fd15-b619-4353-814d-d09a47575378
- author
- Mulinari, Diana LU and Neergaard, Anders LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-01
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- host publication
- Welfare Racism : The Discursive Dimension - The Discursive Dimension
- pages
- 25 pages
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105022555486
- ISBN
- 9781040452998
- 9781032998671
- DOI
- 10.4324/9781003606437-5
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 8805fd15-b619-4353-814d-d09a47575378
- date added to LUP
- 2026-02-09 14:53:25
- date last changed
- 2026-03-09 17:36:13
@inbook{8805fd15-b619-4353-814d-d09a47575378,
abstract = {{The fall of 2022, with the election success of a coalition of right wing and ethnoracist parties, marks the transition from a racialized to a racist state in Sweden. We analyse the discourses of three welfare projects in Swedish racial capitalism - Keynesian, Neoliberal, and ethnoracist - in relation to safety/security.<br/><br/>Methodologically, we use CDA analysing elite institutional texts (party documents, government, and media texts), supplemented with references to previous research, thereby linking and comparing historical and modern discourses.<br/><br/>Departing from Althusser’s distinction between repressive and ideological state apparatuses, we demonstrate how a re-interpellation of welfare has shifted focus to repression, targeting the racialized other. The discursive combination and word associations used, while avoiding the category of “race”, create a vernacular of racism without race.<br/><br/>Recognizing the structure of Sweden’s racial capitalism as fluid and complex, the migrant “other” has become the shorthand for racialization in popular and academic vernacular, while the Muslim other becomes the nucleus of threat. It foregrounds the racialized “others” as an ethno-biological category and shifts the discourse and policy towards securitization, signifying a discourse that purports the impossibility of social inclusion.}},
author = {{Mulinari, Diana and Neergaard, Anders}},
booktitle = {{Welfare Racism : The Discursive Dimension}},
isbn = {{9781040452998}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{131--155}},
publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}},
title = {{The impossibility of social inclusion : The ethno-racist welfare discourse in Sweden}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003606437-5}},
doi = {{10.4324/9781003606437-5}},
year = {{2025}},
}