Swedish exceptionalism, herd immunity and the welfare state : A media analysis of struggles over the nature and legitimacy of the COVID-19 pandemic strategy in Sweden

Compared to many other countries, Sweden has managed the COVID-19 pandemic with no lockdowns, less regulation and more voluntary action expected of citizens and organizations. In this article, the authors explore media representations of national preventative strategies and how they were anchored in broader discourses. The article aims to analyse the development of crisis narratives and struggles over legitimacy during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden. Employing a critical discourse analysis, the authors investigate the editorials and opinion articles in Sweden’s largest morning newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, during the spring of 2020. The authors combine descriptive analyses of the development of the crisis narratives with discursive analyses of conflicting ideologies in the debate. The study indicates that three crisis narratives dominated the debates: health, the economy and democracy. Within and between these narratives, struggles over legitimacy in the handling of COVID-19 were captured in several conflicting perspectives or paradoxes: Swedish exceptionalism versus the world, centralization versus decentralization and herd immunity versus herd humanism.

Production of ectomycorrhizal mycelium peaks during canopy closure in Norway spruce forests.

Summary *Here, species composition and biomass production of actively growing ectomycorrhizal (EM) mycelia were studied over the rotation period of managed Norway spruce (Picea abies) stands in south-western Sweden. *The EM mycelia were collected using ingrowth mesh bags incubated in the forest soil during one growing season. Fungal biomass was estimated by ergosterol analysis and the EM species were identified by 454 sequencing of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) amplicons. Nutrient availability and the fungal biomass in soil samples were also estimated. *Biomass production peaked in young stands (10-30 yr old) before the first thinning phase. Tylospora fibrillosa dominated the EM community, especially in these young stands, where it constituted 80% of the EM amplicons derived from the mesh bags. Species richness increased in older stands. *The establishment of EM mycelial networks in young Norway spruce stands requires large amounts of carbon, while much less is needed to sustain the EM community in older stands. The variation in EM biomass production over the rotation period has implications for carbon sequestration rates in forest soils