White melancholia: three phases of hegemonic whiteness in Sweden

Abstract

This project offers an historicized account of three phases and moments of hegemonic whiteness in Sweden, namely the white purity period between 1905-1968, the white solidarity period between 1968-2001 and the white melancholy period from 2001 and onwards, and their interrelation with different racial formations and minority discourses, class structures and gender relations, as well as different political ideologies and affective structures that characterise these three periods. The argument is that Sweden at the present moment is subjected to the double-binding power of Swedish whiteness in the sense that the disappearance of old Sweden, that is Sweden as a racially homogeneous nation, and the passing of good Sweden, that is Sweden as a politically progressive nation, are both perceived to be threatened by the presence of people of colour within the Swedish body politic and state territory. Consequently, both the reactionary and racist camp, and the radical and antiracist camp, are affected by and implicated in the contemporary crisis of Swedish whiteness.

Keywords

Multiculturalism, Nation and Nationalism, Racialisation/Racism/"race", Whiteness, Melancholia

Publications

Lundström, Catrin & Tobias Hübinette (2020) Vit melankoli. En analysav en nation i kris.Göteborg: Makadam.

Lundström, Catrin och Tobias Hübinette, Vit melankoli i en krisande nation, Arena Essä.Dagens Arena. 2020-02-16.

Hübinette, Tobias & Catrin Lundström (2015) Three phases of hegemonic whiteness: understanding racial temporalities in Sweden. Social Identities.

Hübinette, Tobias & Catrin Lundström (2014) Three phases of Swedish whiteness. A white nation in crisis. In Veronica Watson, Deirdre Howard-Wagner, and Lisa Spanierman (eds) Unveiling Whiteness in the 21st Century: Global Manifestations, Transdisciplinary Interventions. Lexington Books.

Hübinette, Tobias och Catrin Lundström (2011) Sweden after the recent election: The double-binding power of Swedish whiteness through the mourning of the loss of “old Sweden” and the passing of “good Sweden”. NORA, Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 19(1): 42-52.