The Norwegian closedown during the COVID-19 pandemic: Crisis maneuverability and uncontrol

COVID-19 is one of the deadliest crises in modern times, having infected and caused deaths to millions. Despite a long history of managing pandemics, COVID-19 revealed gaps in our crisis management knowledge. A crisis is a serious threat to the fundamental values and norms of a system, demanding critical decisions under time pressure and highly uncertain circumstances. Yet, as investigations in Norway indicate, it was the perceived loss of control, rather than the characteristics of a crisis that defined the pandemic as a crisis. This paper aims to study losing control in relation to pandemics, and what it means for crisis management. The data used to answer this were gathered from the COVID-19 management that culminated in Norwegian national lockdown March 12th, 2020. Through a thematic analysis, I present some ‘strains’ of losing control: the findings are that the ‘nexus’ of our worries in losing control relates to uncertainty, criticality and urgency. For example, the lacking data for modeling the virus. Further, this is coupled with an acknowledgement that there are things we want to protect. For example, when the system that protects health and well-being is being pressured, it can lead to a sense of lacking control over the situation. I conceptualize that the core of the problem with losing control is an experience of decreasing ‘crisis maneuverability’, and then how it makes sense to talk about degrees of ‘uncontrol’ to explain what makes us recognize when a threat becomes a crisis.