Narrations of homogeneity, waning welfare states, and the politics of solidarity

This chapter introduces the book’s critical approach to the narratives of cultural homogeneity and social cohesion that are usually taken for granted in the understandings of societal security in the Nordic region. Through historical analyses, the contributions show how the idea of exceptional cultural homogeneity was developed through activities by social scientists, nationalist politicians, journalists, and cultural actors, among others. The production of a “homogeneous nation” was achieved through repression and assimilation of indigenous peoples and ethnoracially defined minorities living within the nation-state borders.