Memorialisation and its denial: slow resistance through derealisation in Kiruna, Sweden

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the role that Judith Butler’s concept of derealisation has to play in the analysis of slow and structural violence within extractivism. I deploy derealisation to examine the denial of public mourning and memorialisation of the evacuated and ruined former city centre of Kiruna, Sweden, by the mining company LKAB. Kiruna is home to the largest underground iron-ore mine in the world. The ore-body extends over two kilometres directly below Kiruna. As a result of ongoing mining practices threatening the stability of the city, Kiruna is currently in the process of a 20-year resettlement. By contrasting the roles of enforced silence and silence as a means of creating a collective, often counter-hegemonic narrative, I highlight the bifurcated roles silence plays in Kiruna, speaking to the simultaneity of structural violence and the emergence of resistance as slow. Resistance here is argued to be emergent in the desire for my informants to collectively memorialise the ruination of the Deformation Zone, the former city centre now owned by LKAB. The fieldwork for this research was conducted ethnographically in Kiruna between September 2020 and August 2021, using semi- and un-structured interviews and an abductive approach.