Nordic Research

Dr Marie Cronqvist

Dr Marie Cronqvist of the Department of Communication and Media, University of Lund, Sweden has kindly agreed to deliver a Northern Scholars lecture on 'Fear and safety in Cold War Sweden'.

CANCELLATION

Dr Marie Cronqvist's lecture has been cancelled and will be re-scheduled once an alternative date is arranged by the Northern Scholars committee.

Portrait photograph of Dr Marie Cronqvist

Fear and safety in Cold War Sweden

Event details

Lecture abstract

In the 1950s and 1960s, Sweden was sometimes referred to as the nation that strives underground. Massive emergency evacuation plans, frequent atomic air raid drills, necklace identification tags campaigns, and the construction of enormous public shelters marked the Swedish Cold War experience. Still in the 1980s, Sweden’s civil defence budget per capita surpassed Cold War great powers such as the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, and the United States.

Why should a small, neutral country on the European grandstand put so much time and effort into digging itself into the solid granite, preparing not only for war but for the end of days? I will discuss this question central to any understanding of Cold War Sweden, though my main interest is not policy making but rather the cultural process by which policy makers and citizens alike domesticated war and made military preparedness a home and family affair.

In what ways did the narrative of the welfare society and Swedish everyday life interact with the Cold War narrative in the context of civil defence? By means of empirical examples of civil defence propaganda - including for example printed brochures, films, radio talks, and public evacuation rehearsals - I will show how warm welfare and cold warfare were two sides of the same coin. The issues dealt with were not only preparedness for war, but moral values, family ideals, work ethos, national community spirit and cleanliness. Ultimately, the precautions taken by the social democratic government would, in the face of nuclear disaster, ensure the subterranean survival of the Swedish folkhem (people’s home).