The emotional citizen: Quality of life-analysis and the formation of emotional democracy in 1970s Sweden

Measurements of experienced “quality of life” have become an important part of policy making in contemporary democracies. Yet, when quality of life-analysis was first introduced in 1970s Sweden it stirred heated debate.

Combining the tools of governmentality studies with perspectives from the history of knowledge, I examine the production of knowledge and meaning regarding quality of life in 1970s Sweden, in order to scrutinize the emergence of what I refer to as "emotional democracy" and "emotional citizenship".

I also investigate how the emotionalization of citizenship might have contributed to political challenges to the Swedish welfare model.The project runs over three years and is organized in three case studies, concerned with knowledge production regarding quality of life within the fields of welfare research, psychosocial research, and urban planning.

Careful attention is also afforded to the dynamic between the knowledge produced and political debates provoked by the new concept in media and parliament.

The project makes a historical and theoretical contribution to the sociologically oriented field devoted to the present politics of wellbeing, and to research concerned with the role of emotions in politics.

Attending to the ways in which quality of life-analysis was used in contestations of the Nordic welfare model, the project also contributes to historical research about the transformations of the Nordic welfare states in the late 20th century.