Contemporary Land Questions in Sweden, Far-Right Populist Strategies and Challenges for Inclusionary Rural Development

Abstract

This article analyses the rural politics and discursive strategies of the Sweden Democrats political party and contrasts them with the politics of movements proposing inclusionary rural development in Sweden. The article examines political and media documents on rural issues produced by the Sweden Democrats, uses documents of and interviews with representatives of rural development initiatives in Sweden and analyses relevant forest owners' magazines. The results show that the defence of property rights and exclusionary politics are a prominent part of the populist strategy of the Sweden Democrats in rural areas and that technological development and mechanisation of forestry and agriculture become crucial challenges in articulating political efforts for inclusionary rural development in Sweden. The article concludes by highlighting differences between the Sweden Democrats' populist strategies and the political efforts to build inclusionary rural politics in the context of contemporary land questions in Sweden.

Keywords

land questions; populist strategy; far-right party; rural politics; inclusionary rural development; Sweden

Published in

Sociologia Ruralis
2020, Volume: 60, number: 4, pages: 833-856
Publisher: WILEY

SLU Authors

• Alarcón Ferrari, Cristián

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano (UAHC)

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG16 Peace, justice and strong institutions


UKÄ Subject classification

Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalization Studies)


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12319

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/107771