Sweden's self-perceived global role: Promises and contradictions

Simons, Greg; Манойло, А.В.

doi:10.1016/j.resglo.2019.100008

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Such research provides much-needed nuance and complexity to a subject so often shrouded in myth and stereotyping. The mainstay of this scholarship questions the notion of Nordic exceptionalism by highlighting a wide array of contradictions (Simons and Manoilo, 2019), together with growing challenges to the comparative reputational advantage of the ‘Nordic brand’, inter alia , issues concerning gender equality (Larsen et al, 2021), and Nordic humanitarianism (de Bengy Puyvallée and Bjørkdahl, 2021). There are also emergent critiques of how the Nordic countries have responded to recent ‘crises’ such as the refugee crisis (Gammeltoft-Hansen, 2021) and the Covid-19 pandemic (Milne, 2020), which some argue, have diminished the notion of so-called ‘Nordic exceptionalism’.…”

Section: Nordic Branding With a Particular Focus On Swedenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Branding ‘progressive’ security: The case of Sweden

Coetzee¹,

Larsson²,

Berndtsson³

2023

Cooperation and Conflict

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Contemporary research on so-called Nordic branding has provided crucial insights into the social power of states and how various actors use and circulate ‘progressive’ nation brand tropes for political and commercial goals. Hitherto, the literature on Nordic branding has focused on a wide range of substantive issues, among other things, human rights, gender equality, social welfare and foreign aid, but considerably less attention has been paid to the topic of security. The present article adds to a small but established literature on how the security sphere is increasingly entangled with nation branding. In the Nordic region, we argue, the latter is particularly evident in the case of Sweden – one of the world’s largest per-capita arms exporters in the post-Cold War era but also a country known and often revered for its peaceful and progressive image. Focusing on the case of Sweden, the article contributes to knowledge of how defence industry-related actors (both public and private) draw on and frame nation branding tropes to sell and legitimise their products and services to both insiders (domestic constituents) and outsiders (the global security market).

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Section: Nordic Branding With a Particular Focus On Swedenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Branding ‘progressive’ security: The case of Sweden

Coetzee¹,

Larsson²,

Berndtsson³

2023

Cooperation and Conflict

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“…Sweden has more than 200 years of history as a neutral state, and neutrality and non-alignment have long been part of the Swedish self-image, which is evident in its attempt to define its role as a 'humanitarian superpower' but also in its feminist foreign policy. As Simons and Manoilo noted in 2019, cracks had for years been visible in the domestic consensus as the contradictions of the humanitarian superbrand and feminist foreign policy became more salient (Simons & Manoilo 2019). Today Sweden is not only waiting to enter NATO, it has also radically changed its migration policy, once a strong ideology of international solidarity and hospitality demonstrated during the 2015-16 refugee crisis, when many other countries closed their borders.…”

Section: The Political Reception Of Immigration and Muslim Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The teaching of Islam in Scandinavia

Berglund,

Gilliam,

Selimović

2023

TIFO

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“…Mediterranean countries perceive order and safety as problematic in spite of the low incidence of crimes, while the opposite occurs in most core countries of Northern Europe. This could be influenced by cultural factors that induce politicians and the public to remove issues incompatible with the perception of their own social model, as appears to be the case in Sweden (see [59]). This tendency seems to be reflected in the public spending profiles, as shown in Figure 6.…”

Section: Grasping the Role And The Roots Of The Over/underestimation ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

To Be, or Not to Be: The Role of Self-Perception in European Countries’ Performance Assessment

Casagrande

Dallago²

2022

Sustainability

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Performance evaluation is commonly based on objective indicators which do not explicitly consider the role of perceptions. Especially when evaluating countries’ performance, citizens’ perceptions can influence public debate and socio-economic narratives. Since these may influence policy making and countries’ performance, perceptions should not be ignored. The objective of this article is to investigate the presence of discrepancies between objective performance and self-perception (subjective performance) among European Union countries. The aim is to raise awareness of the importance of recognizing biases in performance perception as factors that may hamper European debate, countries’ relations and, thus, the political and social sustainability of the European project. The article considers five spending areas that may influence the public opinion’s assessment about countries’ performance (education, environmental protection, health, public order and safety and social protection) and compares objective and subjective indicators for 28 EU countries from 2007 to 2017 using the distance-to-frontier score methodology. The results indicate that the discrepancies are significant, with a generalized tendency toward overestimation, especially among some Central and Northern European countries. The opposite occurred in Greece and some Eastern European countries. These results represent a starting point for grasping an undervalued aspect of the complexity of the European socio-economic environment.

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Sweden's self-perceived global role: Promises and contradictions

Cited by 8 publications

References 3 publications

Branding ‘progressive’ security: The case of Sweden

Branding ‘progressive’ security: The case of Sweden

The teaching of Islam in Scandinavia

To Be, or Not to Be: The Role of Self-Perception in European Countries’ Performance Assessment

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