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Social Science Media Studies

The End of Iceland's Innocence

The Image of Iceland in the Foreign Media during the Financial Crisis

by (author) Daniel Chartier

Publisher
University of Ottawa Press
Initial publish date
Mar 2011
Category
Media Studies, Economic Conditions, General
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780776619439
    Publish Date
    Mar 2011
    List Price
    $14.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780776607603
    Publish Date
    Feb 2011
    List Price
    $29.95

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Description

In the space of a few days, one of the world’s richest and most egalitarian nations, Iceland, toppled into financial chaos and sunk into an economic, ethical, moral and identity crisis. The vast empire built by Iceland’s young entrepreneurs, the “new Vikings”—who had propelled the country to the top of wealth, equality and happiness charts—collapsed under the combined effect of the failure of its banks and astronomical debt (more than ten times the country’s gross domestic product). Iceland became, in the midst of the global economic crisis, an icon of disaster that troubles all Western countries seeking to understand how the Scandinavian model could collapse so suddenly.

In this book, Daniel Chartier traces, through thousands of articles appearing in the foreign press, the fascinating reversal of Iceland’s image during the crisis. Citizens of a country now humiliated, Icelanders must deal with a number of significant issues including the quest for wealth, sovereignty, ethics, responsibility, gender and the limits of neoliberalism.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Daniel Chartier is a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal and Director of the International Laboratory for the Comparative Multidisciplinary Study of Representations of the North.