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This Is the Published Version of a Paper http://www.diva-portal.org This is the published version of a paper published in Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography. Citation for the original published paper (version of record): Eriksson, M. (2008) (Re)producing a "peripheral" region: Northern Sweden in the news Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, 90(4): 369-388 https://doi.org/1468-0467 Access to the published version may require subscription. N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published paper. Permanent link to this version: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-19636 (RE)PRODUCING A “PERIPHERAL” REGION – NORTHERN SWEDEN IN THE NEWS (RE)PRODUCING A “PERIPHERAL” REGION – NORTHERN SWEDEN IN THE NEWS by Madeleine Eriksson ERIKSSON, M. (2008): ‘(Re)producing a “peripheral” region – ential in the making of Western national peripher- northern Sweden in the news’, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, ies. This may be why researchers such as Barnes et Human Geography 90 (4): 1–20. al. (2007, p. 33) can claim legitimately that ‘ethno- ABSTRACT. Building on theories of internal orientalism, the ob- graphic depth in economic geography remains il- jective of this study is to show how intra-national differences are lusive’. In the same manner one might state that re- reproduced through influential media representations. By ab- search with ethnographic depth rarely engages in stracting news representations of Norrland, a large, sparsely pop- issues of economic development and that this re- ulated region in the northernmost part of Sweden, new modes of “internal othering” within Western modernity are put on view. search to a larger extent has focused on non-West- Real and imagined social and economical differences between the ern nations (for a recent example, see Farbotko “rural North” and the “urban South” are explained in terms of 2005). It is as if culture and economy are still treat- “cultural differences” and “lifestyle” choices. The concept of ed as independent and separate phenomena in geo- ‘Norrland’ is used as an abstract essentialized geographical cate- gory and becomes a metonym for a backward and traditional rural graphical research (see Barnes 2003; Schough space in contrast to equally essentialized urban areas with fa- 2008). voured modern ideals. Specific traits of parts of the region become The point of departure of this study is that rep- one with the entire region and the problems of the region become resentations are of importance; they have real ma- the problems of the people living in the region. I argue that the news representations play a part in the reproduction of a “space terial consequences and may, for instance, influ- of exception”, in that one region is constructed as a traditional and ence employment rates, financial investments, pop- undeveloped space in contrast to an otherwise modern nation. A ulation flows and industrial reforms. Regional poli- central argument of this study is that research on identity construc- cies and processes of regional restructuring shape tion and representations of place is needed to come to grips with issues of uneven regional development within western nations. and are shaped by geographical imaginations of what places are and should be, by norms of spatial Key words: internal orientalism, news representations, regional justice and representations of different actors; their development, Sweden, Norrland. capabilities, rights and obligations. This being the case, a central argument of this study is that a complementary set of tools is needed Introduction to come to grips with issues of uneven regional de- All nations identify “weaker” and “stronger” re- velopment within nations. By way of giving Swed- gions within the own nation. “Weak” regions are of- ish examples and by drawing on concepts of space, ten characterized by, for instance, low economic place, power and difference, the objective of this growth, and high levels of out-migration and un- study is to show how intra-national differences are employment. Research on the representations of reproduced through influential media representa- such weak regions within Western nations shows tions. Building on theories of internal orientalism, that the people residing in these places are often de- the aim of this contribution is to add to our under- scribed in media, politics and popular culture and standing of the recurrent and concurrent construc- elsewhere as stagnant, traditional and backward tion of spaces and people of exception (Agamben (Jarosz and Lawson 2002; Moe 2002; Jansson 1998; see also Gregory 2004) within countries that 2003; Paulgaard 2008). As a result, the problems so far have been considered as practically exempt within these areas are implicitly blamed on the peo- from injustices and inequalities such as racism and ple living there. class divisions, nations that in the popular geo- Yet, despite a very large literature on the subject graphical imagination are viewed as “modern wel- of regional development research (Pred 1967; Stor- fare states”. per 1997), few studies have acknowledged identity Different from studies focusing merely or pre- construction and representations of place as influ- dominantly on various one-way representations of © The author 2008 Journal compilation © 2008 Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography 1 MADELEINE ERIKSSON the “others” (e.g. Jarosz and Lawson 2002; Jansson for example, through news reporting and reports on 2003), this study emphasizes the importance of the policy-making. It may be seen as a ‘space of action’ reproduction, resistance and reworkings of repre- that ‘affects the distribution of resources and the sentations, by elites as well as by others. Moreover, life of the people in the regions’ (Paasi 2002, p. this study aims to uncover strategies of “internal 805). The news media encompasses a discursive othering” distinctive to modern welfare states. Re- practice that contributes to what we see in the world lated research on England (Woodward 1996), Italy and how we perceive it; all representations empha- (Moe 2002) and the USA (Jarosz and Lawson size certain characteristics of a place at the expense 2002) view modernity as a system of differentiation of other characteristics. This implies that all repre- and social reproduction which itself creates or else sentations are incomplete pictures of a place. contributes to the construction of peripheries; even Hence, it is crucial to emphasize that representa- so, all regions and places are (re)produced within tions are always political, in the sense that repre- very different national contexts and discourses, sentations work by reinforcing conceptualizations producing very different geographies. of, for instance, a place that legitimize certain uses Researchers such as Ehn et al. (1993), Pred and prohibit others (Massey 1993; McDowell (2000) and Schough (2008) suggest that the Swed- 1999). ish self-image is made up of imaginations of being Through the use of critical discourse analysis of the most equal and just nation in the world. I sug- Swedish newspaper texts collected from the lead- gest that weak regions in Sweden are constructed in ing daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter, I examine a contrast to this exalted national self-image and in body of media representations of Norrland and the contrast to a relentless construction of national dis- people living in Norrland (norrlänningar or Norr- tinctiveness. This means that the construction of landers) which suggest understandings and imagi- peripheries within Sweden involves some general nations of Norrland that are likely to influence and characteristics, but also that these representations reinforce existing views on the region, the people take very specific forms. Hence, the construction of who live there and the choices they make. As such, “spatial others” within Sweden involves a paradox- this work will explore how the journalistic practic- ical form of representation that inevitably needs to es of news-making play a part in the discursive con- reproduce a national self-image of being the most struction of Norrland as a “space of exception” modern and equal of nations. By abstracting repre- within an otherwise modern nation. sentations of a Swedish region with a colonial his- I start by introducing the relevant theoretical per- tory, and a present overshadowed by regional de- spectives on the (re)production of space and place velopment policies, new modes of internal othering and also the historical context of Norrland. I then, within a modern Western society are put on view. proceed to discuss the politics of representations, The geographical focus of this article is Norr- media as a producer and reproducer of discourse, land, a large, sparsely populated region in the and the methodological location of this study. This northernmost part of Sweden. Representations of is followed by an application of discourse analysis Norrland in the media, in research, in popular cul- to the chosen material and the findings this analysis ture and by politicians have been criticized for be- yields. I conclude by discussing the significance of ing incomplete, to a great extent focusing on rural the news representations of Norrland. deprivation (Persson 1990; Hansen 1998; Öhman 2001; SOU 2004). Yet the meanings of these rep- resentations have received little attention from The spatial other scholars to date. This article discusses geographi- To study the meanings of the representations, I will cal imaginations of the peripheral North that are re- draw on the work of critical geographers (Massey produced, reworked and resisted in different set- 1993, 1994; Pred 2000, 2004) who assert that all tings and times, thereby reproducing asymmetrical social relations are spatial, and that this is of sig- power relations. nificant importance. In other words, social relations News media is one important source of informa- do not exist, nor are they best understood in some tion that contributes to creating the geographical abstract purity. Instead, they must be understood imagination of Norrland; the ways people come to relationally and situationally in both space and understand the region and how they situate them- time, and in terms of a variety of spatial scales.
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