Objects of affection and competing images of the Swedish North: movements for and against ‘green’ investments and reindustrialization

We are witnessing the mobilization of geographical and social peripheries as sites for change in the current industrialization and ‘green’ development of the sparsely populated Swedish North (Norrland). In this article, we aim to explore how objects of affection and images of the Swedish North are framed in movements both for and against the establishment of a new so-called green industry in the northern Swedish countryside. This prospect has been hotly debated in the local community, which has seen both struggles for it (because of job opportunities) and against it (because of the destruction of nature and livelihood opportunities). Combining selective digital archiving with Sara Ahmed’s concept of affective economies and its application to images of place and belonging, we analyze how the region’s re-industrialization both draws upon and contests traditional images of the northern countryside. Our analysis shows that the resistance to and mobilization of such ideas of renewal and escape are rooted both in nostalgia for a pre-industrial past and a desire for the prosperity brought by industrial investments. It also shows how different development goals are invoking different ideas of what is best for the local community, making visible the rural as a conflicted space.