Not a Major or Complicated Task

Activating Dugnad under Covid-19 and the Imagination of Equality in the Norwegian Welfare State

Bibliographic Data

ID3614667
AuthorsLena Gro (0000-0002-3419-315X, Sámi University of Applied Sciences, corresponding author), Lena Gross
Year2023
Volume65
Issue1
Publication date2023-09-28
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropologica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0254-9212 • E-ISSN: 2224-6428
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press (PUBLISHER • CA)
DOI10.18357/anthropologica65120231069
OpenAlexW4387122642
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited8

In Norway, the institution of the welfare state and trust in the government defined the country's approach to tackling the pandemic. In particular, the government's strategy to activate the cultural concept of dugnad (voluntary, reciprocal communal work), which relies on an equal standing of all participants, plays into the national imaginary of an egalitarian and just society. However, like in other countries, COVID-19 has put the spotlight on inequalities in access to healthcare, information, adequate housing, and more. Investigating infection measures and their indirect consequences can clarify which values and people are given priority in a crisis and who is seen as belonging to Norwegian society. This article points to the pandemic as a magnifying glass revealing the lack of enough emergency care nurses, physicians, equipment, hospital and psychiatry beds, adequate health literacy efforts and more. Moreover, it magnifies heteronormative and Eurocentric ideas of who makes up a family, compounded by nationalistic notions of who is Norwegian enough to belong. By activating dugnad, politicians transferred their responsibilities as elected leaders to individual citizens, leading to the growth of socioeconomic inequalities and health disparities during the pandemic while also resulting in the poor communication of the long-term and indirect costs of pandemic measures

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Economic growth · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Health care · Inequality · Norwegian · Pandemic · Political science · Politics · Population · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · State (computer science) · The Imaginary · Welfare · Welfare state · Employment and Welfare Studies · Feminism, Gender, and Intersectionality · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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