Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

Within the study of nationalism, national identity, and security, gender is a prominent category of analysis. Yet, earlier research within the area – both nationally and globally – has mainly focused on gender within military organizations, which also has been the case in Sweden. Therefore, an analysis of how crisis preparedness organizations such as Sweden’s civil contingency agency (Myndigheten för Samhällsskydd och Beredskap, MSB) via visual representations depicts Swedish citizens and constructs a Swedish “Self” in relation to an opposite and unknown “Other” from a gender perspective is missing. Consequently,  an analysis of how MSB contributes to constructing a Swedish national identity in their visual representations of civil preparedness and willingness to defend from a gender perspective is argued to further the knowledge on the construction of national identity and fill a research gap within the research field of national identities and security studies in Sweden. 

Departing from a feminist poststructuralist approach using a combinational method of visual analysis and discourse analysis, this thesis demonstrates and problematizes how MSB via visual representations constructs a Swedish “Self” and notions about an opposite and unknown “Other”. 

The construction of a Swedish “Self” is found to be a highly political issue that shapes gendered structures, norms, and beliefs in society in relation to war and crisis. By drawing on power dimensions of gender, ethnicity, nationality, and economy the research identifies a Swedish “Self” that is characterized as norm-breaking, inclusive, gender equal, democratic, and united, while on the contrary, the unknown “Other” is perceived as conservative, excluding, unequal, autocratic, and divided.

MSB’s representation of the Swedish “Self” is argued to build upon “Progressive” and gender “equal” national traits why previous research on gender and national identity in Sweden found by Sanna Strand and Katharina Kehl (2019) and Katarzyna Jezierska and Ann Towns (2018) is confirmed in this thesis. At the same time, by depicting women and children as “strong” and independent individuals and important contributors to the “greater good”, MSB’s visual representations oppose the feminist theory of the “logic of masculinist protection” as rendered by Iris Marion Young (2003). 

 MSB’s visual representations of the Swedish “Self” predominantly consist of “privileged” and “stereotypical” white individuals. The consequence of this representation is that certain groups in society are excluded and issues of discrimination and inequality present in Sweden risk remaining hidden by externalizing those issues to the unknown “Other”. Because MSB’s visual representations of civil defense mainly “speak” to “privileged” groups in society, there is a flagrant risk that the willingness, resistance, and preparedness to civil defense is differently weighted amongst the Swedish population, an issue that can be a matter of life and death when crisis and utmost war occur.

In sum, examining MSB’s visual representations of civil defense and crisis preparedness by applying feminist theories and a combination of visual and discourse analysis, this study contributes to furthering the knowledge on the construction of national identity in Sweden and broadens the field of feminist security studies as previous research mainly has focused on how military organizations (re)construct notions of gender. By examining how the Swedish national identity is constructed by MSB through feminist lenses, this study concludes that MSB constructs a problematic image of an inclusive, “Progressive” and gender “equal” Sweden that builds upon wishful thinking that collides with “reality”.