Edvard Westermarck Memorial Lecture: ‘Friendly Fascism’: How Liberal Democracies Bend, not Break.
Edvard Westermarck -muistoluento:
Friendly Fascism’: How Liberal Democracies Bend, not Break.
Muistoluennon pitää professori Vanessa Lynn Barker Tukholman yliopistosta. Diskusanttina toimii professori Eeva Luhtakallio Helsingin yliopistosta.
Muistoluento järjestetään tänä vuonna poikkeuksellisesti Turun yliopistossa. Muistoluennolla juhlistetaan sosiologian 100-vuotista historiaa Turun yliopistossa.
Muistoluento alkaa klo 16 ja se järjestetään Turun yliopiston Publicum-rakennuksen salissa Pub5 (Assistentinkatu 7). Luentoa voi seurata myös etänä: https://utu.zoom.us/j/65390679668
Luennon abstrakti ja puhujaesittely löytyvät alta. Kutsu luennolle löytyy myös Westermarck-seuran kotisivuilta: https://westermarck.fi/2026/09...
Edvard Westermarck Memorial Lecture:
Friendly Fascism’: How Liberal Democracies Bend, not Break.
This year’s memorial lecture will be delivered by Professor Vanessa Lynn Barker from Stockholm University. Professor Eeva Luhtakallio (University of Helsinki) will serve as the discussant.
This year, the memorial lecture will exceptionally be held at the University of Turku. The event will commemorate the 100-year history of sociology at the University of Turku.
The lecture will begin at 4:00 pm and will take place in Lecture Hall Pub5 of the Publicum Building at the University of Turku (Assistentinkatu 7).
The lecture can also be attended online: https://utu.zoom.us/j/65390679668
The abstract and biographical note of the speaker can be found below. An invitation to the lecture is also available on the website of the Westermarck Society: https://westermarck.fi/2026/09...
‘Friendly Fascism’: How Liberal Democracies Bend, not Break
Abstract
Democratic societies are being transformed in real time and in ways we are just beginning to understand. Democratic back-sliding, authoritarian drift, illiberal liberalism, end days fascism, are all terms of the day trying to capture what we can see but cannot quite accept: the erosion of civil liberties; the retrenchment of civil rights; and reassertion of social hierarchies in which some members of society thrive while others are left adrift or cast out. These trends are vivid and violent in the USA where masked agents have literally thrown people into unmarked vans and shipped others to prisons far from home. But what about the Nordic societies, long thought to be immune from such anti-democratic tendencies, recognized as social democracies and moral superpowers with mild and humane approaches to social problems. Could this happen here?
This Lecture takes up these pressing questions by examining recent political and legal developments in Sweden, a least likely case of rights retrenchment. Democratic principles of equality, fairness, and dignity of persons are indeed under threat and the unravelling of rights lays at the center of this transformation.
This talk will argue that penal nationalism as a form of statecraft changed the conditions of citizenship, social belonging and justice in Sweden and has had a disparate impact on noncitizens and racialized and ethnic minorities, caught in a carceral archipelago of policing, detention, and expulsion or “re-migration.” Under a right-wing government, these arrangements accelerated to such an extent that teen deportations and child prisons became possible, if not desirable to some factions. Rights retrenchment has been successful in part because of the duality of democracy in Sweden, that is, it’s cracked foundation that espouses equality for all while affirming a hierarchy of rights based on worthiness, ethnic boundaries and shared cultural values. This is how democracies bend, not break.
This talk will conclude with implications for Nordic societies, reflections on how sociology can and should contribute to the debates about authoritarian drift, and lastly invite a collective discussion about how we might de-escalate the current situation, as it has long lasting consequences for all of us living in nominally free and open societies.
Vanessa Lynn Barker is Professor of Sociology at Stockholm University. A historical sociologist by training, she has been interested in exploring the relationship between political orders and legal orders across societies over time. Her first book The Politics of Imprisonment examined how distinctive democratic practices shaped crime and justice politics in unexpected ways in three American states. Her second book, Nordic Nationalism and Penal Order: Walling the Welfare State investigated the border closing in Sweden during the height of the refugee crisis and the rise of penal nationalism in response to mass mobility. Other publications have focused on Nordic exceptionalism, the rise of right-wing legal mobilization, the role of nationalism in criminal justice, the internationalization of justice and punishment studies, the American crime decline, the role of recognition in justice, and the possibility of civic repair and social change. She has been an active participant in several academic and international networks, including serving as (former) editor-in-chief for Punishment & Society.