Love and hate for the welfare state landscape

This paper investigates the often ambivalent assessment of the landscapes that have been shaped by Swedish modernity and the welfare policy. This ambivalence could be noticed in different medias, I would argue, for instance in art, photography and novels. In Lefebvrian terms I think you could identify an ongoing negotiation between the modern welfare state’s conceptualization of space and the lived places of the people in the Nordic countries during the late modern era. Within the former aspect, emphasis has been laid on a spatial planning that has tried to regulate economic and social forces so that the good life of the welfare state should be accessible to everybody; it has been an integrated part of the modern politics in the Nordic countries.