Creating National Relevance : A Qualitative Study on “Black Lives Matter Sweden”

Abstract: Black Lives Matter protests and rallies erupted in the summer of 2020 following several cases of police brutality in the US, including the death of George Floyd after video of him being killed by a police officer were shared in the media. These protests quickly spread internationally and pushed countries to face their own histories and structurally embedded racism, including Sweden. The aim of this thesis was to examine how the global spread of #BlackLivesMatter in 2020 helped mobilize a nationally relevant movement in Sweden via Facebook, despite its cultural history of disregarding the concept of race and the implications that has had on today. This is achieved through the exploration of interpreting information on social media and the construction of reality in media spheres, with the help of digitally networked action and transnationalism. This framework is accompanied by an inductive thematic analysis of the Black Lives Matter Facebook page in their first 30 days on the platform (June 3-July 3), which is where the organization based itself upon creation, ultimately leading to a sample of 52 posts. The main results of the study yielded three themes: US References, Nationally Relevant Issues (which produced three subthemes), and Action & Organizing. In conclusion, with regard to the research focus, the thesis reveals that this is achieved by a few choices. The organization's ability to use elements that greatly influence the US movement is balanced with factors that are more culturally specific to Sweden and the Black and brown communities here using a connective action frame in which users were able to seamlessly support and participate online and spread the message further. The conclusions implicate that the avoidance of discussing race/racism in Sweden clearly hasn’t helped or prevented Black and brown communities from being negatively impacted and that further research could potentially help guide future policies to solidify Sweden’s image of inclusion and equality.