Wildflowers, Nationalism and the Swedish Law of Commons

Abstract In post-war Sweden, overt demonstrations of political nationalism have been considered bad taste. In middle-class culture, the construction and emotional charging of Swedishness have instead taken place in terms of an idiom of love for nature. Conceptions of freedom and equality are by this idiom tied up with symbolic references to childhood and to the flora of forests and meadows. The Swedish 'Every Man's Law' regulating access to flowers and berries and mobility in the natural landscape in this context comes to stand as a central national symbol.