Biopolitical and juridical creations of the quarantine hotel

A discourse analysis of the Norwegian case

Bibliographic Data

ID2301368
AuthorsL E L Gjerde (0000-0002-2650-2653, European University Institute, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume66
Issue4
Pages357-371
Publication date2023-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueActa Sociologica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-6993 • E-ISSN: 1502-3869
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00016993221136038
OpenAlexW4309890796
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited7

The quarantine hotel is one of several political instruments used to control the spread of Covid-19 in diverse countries, from Norway to China. I apply discourse analysis to map the discursive struggle to define the quarantine hotel in Norway. The government and other key political actors channel a biopolitical discourse constituting the quarantine hotel as necessary to protect the Norwegian population from imported contagion. This discourse's meaning is contested by a juridical counter-discourse articulated by lawyers and travellers, which constitutes the quarantine hotel as imprisonment/internment and a breach of rights. Travellers tend to combine this with a biopolitical counter-discourse, dismissing the quarantine hotel's biopolitical properties, strengthening the juridical critique. These discourses are important resources in a transnational, ongoing struggle, where the prize is the legitimacy of the politics of Covid-19, and the very ordering of the post-pandemic world

Biopower · Discourse analysis · Government (linguistics · Governmentality · Imprisonment · Legitimacy · Norwegian · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts

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