Covid-19 pandemic, Swedish Crisis Management and The Shopping Needs of Home-quarantined : Measures taken by authorities, the interaction between State, Humanitarian Actors and Communities; and the Neo-liberal Paradigm

Abstract: The focus of this research is upon the measures that Swedish Crisis Management System carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic toward the shopping needs (i.e., food/groceries, medicines) of home-quarantined individuals (those who should stay at home according to the authorities’ recommendations because they were either elderly or regardless their ages, were in risk groups or had symptoms of disease). The research identifies the immediate responsible authority concerning this need and examines how this actor behaved and what measures took to address the shopping needs of home-quarantined. The interaction between this responsible actor and other social parties (e.g., humanitarian actors/civil society, and/or Local Communities), explored to illustrate whether the responsible actor had carried out its immediate duty or not. The outcomes of various operations that different social actors performed are analyzed and compared. For assessing the Swedish Crisis Management System and the measures carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic, five case studies conducted; the action of the municipalities in four cities (Örebro, Staffanstorp, Uppsala and Umeå) and one Community Initiative in Örebro (named Coronahjälpen, which launched and operated via a Facebook group) examined and compared. Additionally, the pattern exercised in more than a hundred cities explored. The relationship/interaction between state agents (mainly municipalities) from one side and Civil Society organizations or Community Initiatives is illustrated by applying one practical categorization of the relationship between state and Civil Society and one politico-economic categorization. For the latter, the Neo-liberal paradigm applied for such an analysis toward the relationships. Based on the primary and secondary data and the discussion upon them, the failure or success of the Swedish Crisis Management System during the Covid-19 pandemic regarding shopping needs of home-quarantined individuals was examined. In the conclusion part of the paper, a recommendation for such a system is provided.