Lectures

Selector

Looking back, going forward: Swedish lessons in sustainability

Monday, November 9, 2009
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm, Royce Hall - Room 314

Scandinavian Section lecture by L. Anders Sandberg, Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto

Admission

Free and open to the public

Contact

The Scandinavian Section at UCLA
(310) 825-3010
willson@humnet.ucla.edu

Additional Information

Students and practitioners of sustainability (hållbarhet) often look to Sweden as a best example. Since the formulation of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21 at the Earth Summit in 1992 and the launch of the Swedish Green Vision (det gröna folkhemmet) in 1995 by former Social Democratic Prime Minister Göran Persson, Sweden has perhaps moved the furthest among the world’s nations in promoting sustainability concerns. There are, however, illusory dimensions to many forward-looking sustainability practices and policies in Sweden, illusions that remain hidden by the lack of progress elsewhere, as well as by the efforts of the Swedish state and others to promote their apparent progressiveness.

I also propose that there is lack of recognition of social policy traditions in Swedish sustainability initiatives. These traditions include powerful social movements (folkrörelserna); a spirit of pragmatism, consensus and accommodation in decision-making (e.g. Saltsjöbadsandan); the social welfare state (folkhemmet); a solidaristic wage policy (solidarisk lönepolitik); a national discourse of reflexivity (e.g. presstödet); the presence of the common access prerogative (allemansrätten); an active global international voice advocating international and inter-generational justice (internationell solidaritet), and the celebration of the “everyday” (vardagen) of the common people (“vi vanliga”). Indeed, some of these traditions are seen as liabilities in the face of Sweden’s challenges to meet the “realities of a new global economic order,” the global environmental crisis, and the incorporation of the skills and traditions of an increasingly multi-cultural society.

In this presentation, I identify and illustrate some of the contradictions, constraints, and promises presented by the tensions between environmental and social aims in the promotion of sustainability in Sweden. These tensions are not static but constantly changing and contested. I argue that visions and policies that combine social and environmental sustainability are present and possible. In presenting and making my case, I use personal experiences, an extensive set of photographs and visual illustrations, songs and anecdotes, and insights from the academic and popular literature.

L. Anders Sandberg was born in Eskilstuna, Sweden. He is the editor of Trouble in the Woods (1992) and co-author of Against the Grain: Foresters and Politics in Nova Scotia (2000). His research interests and writings on sustainability issues in Sweden include the forest and automobile industries, industrial and labour market policy, and the novelist Sven Delblanc. In Sustainability, The Challenge (1998), co-edited with Sverker Sörlin, he presents theoretical perspectives and case studies on sustainability issues in Sweden and Canada. He makes his home in downtown Toronto, Canada.

Comments