"Bondeskam"

Abstract

The article deals with the phenomenon of bondeskam, a Swedish language term referring to climate shaming of farmers. Drawing on the work of Luna Dolezal, the article studies bondeskam from a culture-analytical perspective, using the concepts "chronic shame" and "acute shame". The article argues, on the one hand, that there exists an historical stigma associated with farming and rural areas, which has led to a smouldering, underlying form of shame. The targeting of agriculture as part of the problem of climate change, on the other hand, has resulted in an acute form of shame. Acute shame can be overcome by adjusting one’s behaviour, for example, by farming climate compensated meat.