The Governing of Shopkeepers in Sweden: The Shop Opening Hours Discussions, 1904–1991
The Governing of Shopkeepers in Sweden: The Shop Opening Hours Discussions, 1904–1991

Summary/Abstract: This article analyses how shopkeepers were governed in the Swedish shop opening hours discussion between 1904 and 1991. The article examines how different “problematisations”, i.e., the questioning of governing, lead to particular regimes of practices. These regimes were made visible with particular techniques (mainly inquiries performed by experts) and were informed by various forms of knowledge, i.e. social and welfare issues in the 1904–1919 period, welfare and consumerism in the 1930–1948 period, welfare, efficiency, rationalisation and large-scale benefits in the 1955–1966 period, consumerism and large-scale benefits during the 1970s, and in the final period (1980s–1990s), freedom of the market. These different forms of knowledge came to determine the very existence of shopkeepers but also consumers. The article demonstrates how the problematisations, forms of knowledge and regimes were interlinked and exhibited change as well as continuity over time. However, the regimes are highly contingent, which means that they can be resisted. The perspective of governmentality allows to reflect on consumers as governing subjects. Consumers’ late evening and Sunday shopping practices contribute to the governing of both consumers and shopkeepers alike.

• Details
• Contents