Book review: Vanessa Barker, Nordic Nationalism and Penal Order: Walling the Welfare State
| Author | Jize Jiang |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480618770303 |
| Published date | 01 August 2019 |
| Date | 01 August 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480618770303
Theoretical Criminology
2019, Vol. 23(3) 433 –449
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1362480618770303
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Book reviews
Vanessa Barker, Nordic Nationalism and Penal Order: Walling the Welfare State, Routledge:
Abingdon, 2018; 168 pp.: 9781138284111, £41.14 (hbk)
Reviewed by: Jize Jiang, The University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
The past two decades have witnessed increasing criminalization and penalization of
migration, and the expanding deployment of penal power in immigration enforcement
and border control across western democracies—albeit to varying degrees in different
jurisdictions (Bosworth et al., 2018). Surprisingly, as a highly acclaimed country based
on values of openness, equality and humanitarianism, Sweden has not withstood the
trend of punitive and exclusionary treatment of migrants. Its punitive turn reached an
apex in 2016, when the Swedish government abruptly closed its border with Denmark.
This dramatic change in Swedish migration control strategy and questions regarding the
co-existence of widely accredited Nordic countries’ open, generous social policies and
mild penal regime with Swedish border closure and restrictions against migrants are now
a topic of conversation and concern.
In an attempt to decipher this puzzle in her new book, Barker employs historical,
institutional and sociological analyses to shed light on more fundamental causes of con-
temporary Sweden forsaking open and equal principles for migrants and foreign nation-
als, including asylum seekers and refugees. In this review essay, I will present the book’s
outline, highlight its key arguments and discuss its significance and implications.
The book is organized by six chapters. In Chapter 1, Barker presents her research
question (why has a dramatic penal upsurge in Sweden’s migration/border control
emerged?) and the proposed theoretical framework that integrates the welfare state,
membership and penal order (p. 15). In the next three chapters, she examines how the
framework is applied to explain the border closure: Chapter 2 explores the internal logic
of Sweden’s welfare state—a national project for nationals; Chapter 3 on membership
examines the institutional mechanisms that structure social attachments to society; and
Chapter 4 clarifies the core concept of “penal nationalism”, illustrating how penal power
is deployed to preserve the welfare state for insiders. In Chapter 5, Barker discusses the
resultant consequences of the penal mobilization for Swedish society—penal harms on
770303TCR0010.1177/1362480618770303Theoretical CriminologyBook reviews
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