So Strong, yet So Weak: The Emergence of Protest Publics in Iceland in the Wake of the Financial Crisis (original) (raw)

Finding a place in the world: Political subjectivities and the imagination of Iceland after the economic crash

Focaal

The economic crash in Iceland created a sense of social and political collapse that extended far beyond the economic realm. Calls for a "New Iceland" were invoked, where the Icelandic political arena would be "cleaned" and reimagined in drastic ways. In this article, I explore how ideas circulating in the wider European region about how Icelanders dealt exceptionally well with the crisis not only failed to reflect the lived effects of the collapse but also echoed long-standing nationalist ideals of Icelanders' imagined reality of themselves. I show how nation branding in Iceland after 2010 added to the conception that Iceland dealt with the crisis in an exceptional way, and I critically ask why Iceland received such a positive depiction in the international media.

"Where Is the New Constitution?" Public Protest and Community-Building in Post-Economic Collapse Iceland

Conflict and Society, 2020

Following mass demonstrations in response to the country's 2008 economic collapse, a dynamic civil society has emerged in Iceland focused on democratic reform through rewriting the constitution. Th is article demonstrates how, in the absence of the new constitution that was promised by the government, protesters are pursuing an unfinished project of reform by holding small, routinized protests founded on an ethic of empathic solidarity (samkennd). By exploring the aesthetic elements of these meetings, I argue that the protest site is being used to highlight and condemn ongoing government transgression while also providing a space to prefigure a future free of political corruption. To this end, explicit signage is shown to be reshaping political discourse while also extending (and denying) kin bonds between protesters.

Crisis and Belonging: Protest Voices and Empathic Solidarity in Post-Economic Collapse Iceland

Religions, 2020

This article explores the politics of belonging in Iceland in the context of an ethico-political project focused around increased transparency following the country’s 2008 banking collapse. By employing literature on autochthony (i.e., a return to, and interpretation of, “the local”), it examines the tensions that are reignited within and between nation-states during economic crisis. Through ethnography with ordinary Icelanders and the members of two protest movements, this research shows how Icelanders are cultivating a public voice to navigate the political constraints of crisis and reshaping Icelanders’ international identity from below in the wake of the collapse. To this end, the article accounts for the role of populist politics in re-embedding Iceland into the European social imaginary as an economically responsible and egalitarian nation. It then turns to highlight the push for meaningful democratic reform through collaborative, legislative exchange between the government and the people that resulted in a new—if not actually implemented—constitution. By exploring protest culture in Iceland, the article highlights the importance of public witnessing and empathic solidarity in building intercultural relations in an era of globalized finance and politics.

Economic crisis and real critical junctures -on the decay of the political party system of Iceland

The political party system of Iceland has since the 1980s developed from decay to crisis. This article explains this development with the real critical conjuncture in 1979-1983 that marked the introduction of the neoliberalist societal regime of Iceland. It argues that despite the crisis of the regime and the political party system, the traditional parties and new political movements such as the Pirates are not likely to create a real critical juncture that will generate post-neoliberalist regime change. Hence, due to structural strains of Iceland as a small economy that suffers from high levels of oligopoly, and because of the persistence of the neoliberalist societal regime of Iceland, it is likely that this regime will generate another financial crisis in the years to come.

Explaining the Crisis of Iceland: A Realist Approach

Journal of Critical Realism, 2012

This article focuses on critical realist analysis of concrete processes of structure formation and realization of structural propensity. It aims to explain the reasons for the rise and fall of the neoliberal regime in Iceland that led to the Extreme expansion of the Icelandic Financial system and its crisis. The article argues that the neoliberal regime was actively constructed by economic and political actors within the framework of the particular structural characteristics of Iceland. It claims that rigid structural conditions due to the very small size of the economy and severe problem of oligopoly undermined the neoliberal utopia of perfect market competition. In order to develop this argument, the paper observes how power elites actively affect public opinion and establish their hegemonic position in the political system.

The Collapse: Economic Considerations in Vote Choice in Iceland

Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 2014

ABSTRACT This paper examines the consequences of the collapse of the Icelandic banking system in the fall of 2008 on voters' support for the political parties. The literature on economic voting has demonstrated that voters hold governments accountable for past economic outcomes, and such concerns should be especially salient in times of large-scale economic crisis such as that experienced by Iceland. In such cases, where the cause is more likely to be seen as the consequence of policies having to do with organization of the economy and, in particular, the banking sector, rather than a consequence of short term economic management, the question of who voters hold accountable is of particular interest.

Political trust in Iceland: Performance or politics?

Veftímaritið Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla, 2018

Economic performance has a well-known relationship to political trust. If the economy is perceived as performing well, the levels of political trust are likely to improve. During the 2008 economic crash in Iceland, this relationship seemed vindicated once more. Political trust in Iceland fell from very high to medium levels. Paradoxically, strong indicators of good economic performance after the crash have not been reflected in similarly strong indicators of greater political trust. Thus, while the economy has recovered, political trust has not followed suit to a comparable degree. To account for this discrepancy, we analyse the data on political trust in Iceland before and after the crash. Our findings indicate that while the economy is important in generating political trust, improved economic performance does not account for the whole scenario. The political impact of the crisis remains an obstacle to re-establishing political trust to previous levels, as identifying with a party...

The New Political Order in Post-Crash Iceland: Refoundation, continuity or status quo

In autumn 2008, Iceland suddenly took centre stage as a symbol of the international financial crisis when its three international banks, representing 85 % of the country's financial system, collapsed within a single week. Similarly to what happened in other countries, this episode has become known as " the crash " since then. International media extensively covered the financial collapse of this tiny island state, which was unable to meet its obligations and has come to rank third in the history of the world's greatest bankruptcies. Financial crisis and democratic crisis: the impact of the crash The stock exchange and the entire equity market were virtually wiped out almost immediately and the Icelandic króna (ISK) tanked, spurring rampant inflation which, in the following weeks and months, ate up most people's savings. Property values dropped by more than a third and unemployment