PastForward: The political uses of the past in digital discourses about Nordic futures
The project PastForward investigates how political parties in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland use the past to justify their visions of the future in digital campaign communication and discourses on social media.
The team not only analyzes digital campaign communication across the party spectrum to identify which references to the past are made and how the past is used to engage potential voters with imagined futures but also how this communication resonates in discourses among citizens, politicians, journalists, activists, and others responding on social media.
This is relevant because the inclusion or exclusion of specific groups and their pasts within the national imagined community can have an impact on the sense of belonging and representation and ultimately on social cohesion in Nordic societies.
By comparing the political uses of the past in the four selected Nordic countries, PastForward will determine whose needs and demands for the future are given legitimacy based on their place in national and Nordic pasts – and whose not.
PastForward is at its core a comparative project. The study designs and analyses will allow comparing the findings across the party spectrum and the four Nordic countries. Based on the outlined background, the project asks the following research questions (RQs):
RQ1: Which references to the past occur in the campaign material and social media discourses during elections in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden?
RQ2: How and when do parties use the past, i.e., national and Nordic collective memories and histories, as a communication strategy to connect to potential voters?
RQ3: How are imaginaries of the future anchored in and legitimized by the pasts of the addressed voters and their imagined communities; and who might be excluded?
RQ4: How and by whom are the uses of the past in party communication supported or challenged on social media?
RQ5: How and why do our findings differ or resemble across the political spectrum and between the four Nordic countries?
RQ6: Is there a shared imaginary of a Nordic future in national elections in the four countries and how is it related to a Nordic past and identity?
RQ7: Which impact on social cohesion do our findings suggest regarding the political uses of the past and their influence on national and Nordic futures?
- Rune Karlsen, Professor at the University of Oslo, Norway
- Emily Keightley, Professor at Loughborough University, UK
- Randi Lorenz Marselis, Associate Professor at the University of Roskilde, Denmark
- Christian Pentzold, Professor at the University of Leipzig, Germany
ECREA Pre-Conference, Ljubljana
24 September 2024
The Past, Present and Future of Victimhood Identities in Mediatised Politics
External
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ihlebæk, Andrea Karoline | Professor OsloMet University, Norway |
+4791560837 | |
| Merrill, Samuel | Associate Professor University Umeå, Sweden |
+46907866282 | |
| Pettersson, Katarina | Assistant Professor Helsinki University, Finland |
+358294124186 |
Funding
Funded by NordForsk
Project period: December 2023 - November 2026