Folkhemsnostalgi och gängvåldsdystopi : Ett genus- och kritiskt vithetsperspektiv på SVT:s framställning av gängvåldet som en nationell kris

In 2021, Sweden was ranked as the European country with the highest number of fatal shootings per million inhabitants. As a result, gang violence is described as a national crisis and has turned in to one of the main debate themes among political parties ahead of the parliamentary election in 2022. In the debates on gang violence, it is often linked to migration politics. Swedish Television (SVT) has broadcasted numerous programs on gang violence, and these programs are the main material used in this study. Drawing on feminist- and critical whiteness theory I examine how ideas of gender, whiteness and Swedishness interplay in the construction of gang violence as a national crisis. By using a retrotopic, a security politic and an affective theoretical perspective it is possible to analyze who is portrayed as vulnerable or problematic in relation to the gang violence. A further ambition of this study is to investigate the connection between folkhem nostalgia and the construction of gang violence as a national crisis. I argue that the Swedish exceptionalism is being used to establish collective feelings of folkhem nostalgia, which contributes to the understanding of gang violence as a national crisis. Based on a thematic analysis (Braun & Clark 2006) I show how feelings of folkhem nostalgia are used to establish narratives of a threatening and problematic Other; a male non-white threat within the nation. Further, the debates and documentaries broadcasted on SVT can be seen as part of political and national interests, where a (hi)story of folkhemmetas a part of the Swedish exceptionalism is being used to establish certain feelings and perceptions related to gender and race. This enables a placement of gang violence in another place, in another culture and in another body.