´Prepping´ for Security in Sweden

During the Covid pandemic, people in Sweden and around the world not only hoarded food and essential items, they also took ´prepping´ courses, joined self-declared survivalist groups, and consumed ´prepping´ merchandise in record numbers.

Since then, concerns about imminent disasters did not abate, but spread widely, also in part encouraged by the state. ‘Prepping’, broadly understood as the practice by which the anticipation of calamity prompts individuals and communities to prepare ways to mitigate or adapt to insecurity, has moved to the center of debates around societal security and preparedness, but thus far received comparatively little scholarly attention.

Focusing on the Swedish context, marked by an active prepper scene amid multiple scenarios of insecurity, our project aims to understand the phenomenon of prepping and what it tells us about how societal security and preparedness are being imagined and practiced, and by whom.

Based on a multi-method, qualitative design, we trace historical developments, map out the diversity of the prepping boom in Sweden, and study four different types of prepping practices in-depth.

By taking the perspectives of preppers seriously, we inquire into the identities and motivations, ideologies, threat scenarios and anticipated futures that drive the contemporary prepping boom.

The insights of our research are not only relevant for scholarship in Sweden and beyond, but also support closing an information gap for security policies.