How to perform guerrilla warfare in the Nordic welfare state. New approaches when facing a new enemy?

Abstract

“The Bunad guerrillas” is a Norwegian social movement aimed at protecting local maternity wards in sparsely populated areas under threat of being engulfed by larger regional hospitals. The movement has, within a short timeframe, recruited many members and has been prominent in local and national media. In this article, the efforts undertaken by the Bunad guerrilla group are discussed in relation to their cause and their means, as well as their function in the modern Nordic welfare state. The article highlights and discusses what is seen as an especially potent means of combat: the way the Bunad guerrillas utilize national-romantic and feminist symbols, juxtaposing themselves against the faceless and bureaucratized enemy – that of the regional health authority, which represents a new form of welfare organization. Through the optics of the Bunad guerrillas, the potentially changing landscape of the Nordic welfare system and the dialectic between it and social movements more broadly are explored. Drawing on social movement theory, the article argues that the Bunad guerrillas may represent a new form of social movement in the context of the Norwegian welfare model, as a response to changes occurring in the very same model. It is new in its approaches and use of imagery and symbolism, somehow using the old in new ways. It is also, most importantly, new in the sense that is answers to changes in models of welfare provision, thus representing a counterbalance to modern processes of health management, organization and provision.