Why the whiteness in Swedish outdoor recreation? : a discourse analysis of gender and ethnicity in Swedish environmental policy and practice

Sammanfattning: As of 2009, Swedish Outdoor Recreation is guided by public policy, pleading for everyone’s equal value and right to experience and be outdoors, regardless of gen der, age or colour (2009/10:238). Given Swedish Outdoor Recreation history of being founded upon the perspectives of a white, male middle class (Sandell, 2009), this opens up for the questions of how the goals of equality are achieved and what ideas about nature, gender and ethnicity are actually being reproduced. The objective of this study is divided into three parts. First, a literature study of Swedish Outdoor Recreation is conducted to understand the context of study and its particular historical representation of gender and ethnicity. Second, the thesis examines public policy document Future Outdoor Recreation (Governmental bill 2009/10:238) to see how different ideas about gender and ethnicity are described in relation to nature and reflects upon its relation to the history of Outdoor Recreation. Third, the study presents a case study consisting of an analysis of how gender and ethnicity are framed in the practices of the environmental non-governmental organisation Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC). The results show that in the policy document Future Outdoor Recreation, white, male persons were found to be more positively framed in relation to nature than females and immigrants. Being female, “immigrant” or/and “non-Nordic” was either less represented in text or images or specifically described as something negative, in terms of a need of education and training to be out in nature. Similar presentations of gender and ethnicity was also found in the case study of SSNC along with observed perceptions of difficulties for women and immigrants to feel welcome in the organisation. The study suggests that to reach the goals of equality in Swedish Outdoor Recreation, the negative stereotypes about immigrants and women in outdoor recreation need to be actively challenged by both public policy makers as well as SSNC, perhaps also through addressing the idea of nature and culture as separated.