Paper short abstract:

This paper explores Iceland's shifting social, political & economic state following the financial and government collapse of 2008-09. It argues that many Icelanders have begun to shift attention away from the state's center and towards initiatives that promote the needs & aspirations of the people.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores Iceland's shifting social, political and economic state following the collapse of the country's banking sector and government administration in 2008-09. After becoming independent from Denmark in 1944 and through the introduction of neoliberal economics in the late 1980s, the nation's economy strengthened and Icelander's grew accustomed to very high standards of living. Yet in October of 2008, this sense of social and economic security came to an abrupt end with the collapse of the country's three major banks and revelation of insidious greed and corruption by a small but powerful elite group within Iceland. What's more, the incumbent government was seen to fail in preventing the economic collapse and in their response in the days and weeks following. Feelings of anger, frustration and abandonment resulted in mass protests and the fracturing of Icelandic society as Icelanders sought to work out what had gone wrong and who was to blame. While much has been written about people's immediate responses to the threat of economic ruin, this paper provides ethnographic insights into Iceland's social, political and economic state as it has shifted and changed over the last decade. Working with the testimonies and experiences of Icelandic citizens and citizen-led political and economic movements, this paper argues that many Icelanders have now begun to shift attention away from the democratic and neoliberal agents of the state's center and towards personal, familial, local and creative initiatives that promote the needs and aspirations of the people.