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RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE

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RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE

RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE
WORKING CLASS
a
Göran Eriksson
a
Department of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
(HumES), Media and Communication Studies, Örebro University,
ÖREBRO SE-701 82, Sweden
Published online: 14 Oct 2014.

To cite this article: Göran Eriksson (2015) RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE
RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE WORKING CLASS, Critical Discourse Studies, 12:1, 20-38, DOI:
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 Critical Discourse Studies, 2015
Vol. 12, No. 1, 20–38, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2014.962067

RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE

RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE
WORKING CLASS
A multimodal analysis of class-making
on swedish reality television

Göran Eriksson
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This paper discusses the role of reality television in the ongoing transformation of Swedish working-
class discourse. This transformation is linked to a neoliberal political project and concerns a shifting
relationship between discourses of exclusion and inclusion. The key argument is that working-class
people are now portrayed through ‘a moral underclass discourse’ in which the working class is
devalued and delegitimized, and given moral blame for their own structural situation. This discus-
sion is based on a multimodal critical discourse analysis of participants who appear to be ‘ordinary’
working-class people in Ullared, a docu-soap that follows the goings-on at, and in the vicinity of a
popular, rural low-cost outlet (called Gekås). Hence it puts participants’ consumption and consu-
mer behaviour in the foreground, and these activities are ridiculed through a mode of production
best described as the ‘middle-class gaze’. Ordinary participants are presented as flawed or patho-
logical consumers and become signifiers of a morally flawed lifestyle.

KEYWORDS consumption; critical discourse analysis; consumer society; exclusion/

inclusion; multimodal; neoliberalism; ordinary people; reality television; recontextua-
lization; working class

Introduction
Scholars within Critical Discourse Studies have pointed to shifting patterns in media
representations of the working classes, which now are being depicted as an underclass
who are morally to blame for their own structural situation of poverty and lack of opportu-
nities (Hayward & Yar, 2006; Lawler, 2005a, 2005b; Tyler, 2008, 2011; Wood & Skeggs, 2011). It
has been observed that working-class people are increasingly evaluated and delegitimized
through a kind of middle-class gaze that judges them as repulsive or silly on the basis of inap-
propriate style, consumer choices and behaviours (Bennett, 2013; Lockyer, 2010; Lyle, 2008).
This moral assessment of working-class people has been linked to neoliberalism and the dis-
mantling of the welfare state, as authorities withdraw from structural responsibility for
inequalities in the society (Machin & Richardson, 2008).
In this paper I discuss a similar, although in some ways unique, transformation of dis-
courses that represent the working classes in Sweden. In the later decades of the twentieth
century, Swedish political decision-making was still infused with a redistributionist dis-
course, seeing social exclusion as possible to reduce with a good welfare system. But
this has changed albeit more slowly and slightly less overtly than in other European

© 2014 Taylor & Francis

 RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE WORKING CLASS 21

countries to a situation where we now increasingly begin to find what Levitas (1998) calls ‘a
moral underclass discourse’ which tend to put the blame of exclusion onto the culture of
the excluded themselves. I examine one realization of these discourses in the represen-
tation of the participants who appear as ‘ordinary’ working-class people in one reality tele-
vision show that has been highly popular in Sweden. Following Machin and Van Leeuwen
(2007), my point of departure is that the political ideologies are communicated not primar-
ily through newspapers and political speeches, but most importantly through entertain-
ment media and leisure.
The particular case I study is Ullared, a programme best described as a specific form of
docu-soap (cf. Hill, 2005), appearing on Swedish television in the late 00s. Typical for these
docu-soaps is that they recontextulize what is generally considered as working-class pastime
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activities and that they operate through certain strategies of ridicule, making fun of these
activities. One of them, called Färjan (En. The Ferry) is about the crew and the guest on a
popular ferry-route, while another, Böda camping, is named after a well-known camping
ground and follows people during their holidays. Ullared focuses on events at and in the
vicinity of a popular, rural low-cost shopping outlet (called Gekås) and places consumption
and consumer behaviour in the foreground. This is of particular relevance for analysis
because in what today is often referred to as consumer society (e.g. Bauman, 2005) or consu-
mer culture (e.g. Chaney, 1996; Featherstone, 1991), choices related to consumption are
central to the construction of identities. As Hayward and Yar (2006, p. 14) state: ‘Individuals
not only recognize themselves but are crucially recognized by others, through their publicly
visible consumer choices’. Previous research on reality television (mainly concerning televi-
sion in the UK, USA and Australia) has convincingly shown that such programming depicts
middle-class values and tastes as normative and universally valid (see e.g. Lewis, 2008; Ouell-
ette & Hay, 2008; Palmer, 2003; Taylor, 2002; Wood & Skeggs, 2011). Programmes thus set
standards for what is acceptable, desirable, ‘normal’ behaviour, often by ascribing negative
values to working-class behaviours, deeming them to be dysfunctional or tasteless, and
sometimes more or less offensive (Skeggs, 2005; Skeggs & Wood, 2011).
Ullared is no exception from this pattern and its mode of production can best be
described as a ‘middle-class gaze’ (cf. Lyle, 2008). In this case, this gaze makes fun of ‘ordin-
ary’ working-class people’s excessive and tasteless consumption. The strategies of ridicule
on which I focus consist of diverse semiotic resources. They are made up of discourse
devices (talk), editing techniques and audiovisual effects in complex combinations. There-
fore the analysis is influenced by the multimodal version of Critical Discourse Analysis
(MCDA), mainly put forward by Machin and Mayr (2012) and recently presented in a
special edition of this journal (see Machin, 2013; Machin & Mayr, 2013). The analysis
aims to identify how the producers use a range of semiotic resources to construct a pos-
ition from which a mood of laughter and ridicule, and sometimes emotions of embarrass-
ment or shame, becomes the ‘preferred reading’.1

Brief Background: From Welfare to Neoliberal Discourse in twenty-first

Century Sweden
In the decades following the Second World War, a period when the social-democratic
party formed the government,2 political decision-making in Sweden was infused by
 22 GÖRAN ERIKSSON

redistributionist discourse, involving a strive to improve the working class’s living con-
ditions. Facilitated by a tax-system based on equalizing principles, an extensive welfare
system was built up, generally associated with the creation of folkhemmet. Social problems
(as poverty) were seen as caused by social exclusion and as something that could be elimi-
nated through a good welfare system. Starting somewhere in the 1980s with more liberal
regimes (both libral/conservative and more liberal social-democratic), and accelerating
with the Alliance-government (consisting of a coalition of four liberal/conservative
parties) that took office in 2006, this system has been replaced by one characterized
increasingly by neoliberal ideas. Since 2006 taxes have been substantially reduced, particu-
larly for people with higher incomes (i.e. the middle class), while unemployment insurance
and sick-leave benefits have been severely reduced, above all for people who need support
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for extended periods of time. As a consequence, the gaps between social groups are
growing.3
Fundamental to these changes is a discourse now used by the Alliance which has
shifted from older discourses where unemployment was fundamentally a structural
problem to one dominated by the idea of benefit-dependency. Benefits here are rep-
resented as bad for the recipients as they reduce people’s motivation to work. Unemploy-
ment, in this discourse, as Levitas, (1998) observed, becomes represented as a symptom of
‘a moral underclass’, whose exclusion becomes their own responsibility. The solution here
is that government can help to address this problem, not by economic measures geared to
creating jobs, but by withdrawing benefits. In fact, the Alliance’s leading party, the (former)
conservative party Moderaterna, now brand themselves as ‘Sweden’s labour party’ with a
‘work-first’ policy.
My overall claim is that Ullared is part of an ongoing discursive change through which
the Swedish working class is being devalued and delegitimized (see Fairclough, 2000;
Levitas, 1998). I make the case that popular Swedish reality shows like Ullared, Färjan
and Böda Camping is one part of the way whereby these discourses are disseminated
and naturalized. They are a part of the process of the legitimization of a gradual shift
away from social welfare and equality in Sweden. It is no coincidence that they appear
in Sweden in the second half of the 2000s when neoliberal ideas more clearly than
before penetrate the Swedish society.

Theoretical Approach
Key points of reference for my approach are the theories of the production and trans-
formation of class relations advanced by Skeggs (2004, 2005; see also Skeggs & Wood,
2011). It may appear like a trivial observation, but, as Skeggs (2004) points out, when
dealing with the concept of class one must keep in mind that the act of classifying some-
thing is always done from a particular perspective and involves the making of boundaries.
Categories are historical constructs and must be seen as results of historical circumstances
and struggles; they are not impartial concepts, as they are organized in accordance with
specific interests. It is equally important to keep in mind that the middle class is not a
clear-cut category. It cannot be read as a coherent group with distinct common notions
about the world and with more-or-less equal socio-economic characteristics. This also
means that the boundaries between it and other classes are flexible. What counts as
 RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE WORKING CLASS 23

middle-class behaviour is elastic and, of course, changes over time. This ‘elasticity’ is what is
at stake in this article. Even if classes are characterized by ambiguous boundaries, such
boundaries are repeatedly being shaped and transformed. Today, this struggle is ‘fought
out at the level of the symbolic’ (Skeggs, 2004, p. 5). Ullared is one site where this
ongoing struggle emerges. Through the programme’s mode of production, boundaries
are set up to establish what are to be viewed as problematic, inappropriate behaviours. Par-
ticipants in this programme and their actions are looked at from a more sophisticated,
knowledgeable position, which can be viewed as a position preserving a middle-class
habitus.
This argument also suggests that classifications normally have moral implications,
which are essential for the making of class. Previous research, particularly by scholars focus-
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ing on lifestyle makeover programmes, has revealed that reality programming often
involves (sometimes harsh) judgements of participants’ conduct (see e.g. Eriksson, 2014;
Giles, 2002; Heller, 2007; Lewis, 2008; Palmer, 2008; Smith, 2010; Taylor, 2002). Makeover
programmes are concerned with everyday matters and generally include people who
seem to be ordinary, but whose behaviours or habits are depicted as dysfunctional or inap-
propriate. The hosts of these programmes help the participants improve themselves and
achieve what is constructed as a better life or more appropriate ways of dealing with
things. The participants are portrayed as being transformed into ‘happier, more satisfied,
up-to-date versions of their selves’ (Bonner, 2003, p. 136). Even if docu-soaps are not struc-
tured like makeover narratives, they nevertheless contain (often obvious) moral perspec-
tives (see e.g. Lyle, 2008; Tyler, 2008; Wood & Skeggs, 2011). Ullared is no exception.
Participants’ behaviours and manners are, through the mode of production, depicted as
excessive or tasteless, and are thus recognized as less valued, less desirable. This attribution
of negative value to the working class is, as Skeggs (2005, p. 977) formulates it, ‘a mechan-
ism for attributing value to the middle class self’.
Inscription, the process through which discourse is established and transformed, is
essential to making classifications. Skeggs (2004) defines inscription as ‘the way value is
transferred onto bodies and read off them, and the mechanisms by which it is retained,
accumulated, lost or appropriated’ (p. 13). Inscription can thus be seen as the process of
marking, and should not be confused with the sign itself, the product of the process. So,
it is through this process that value is linked to individuals or groups of people. A good
current example of such processes is the British phenomenon of the ‘chav’, and how the
word becomes a term for discrediting poor white urban youths in particular (cf. Bennett,
2013; Lockyer, 2010; Tyler, 2008, 2011). Hayward and Yar (2006, p. 10) suggest that the
‘“chav” represents a popular reconfiguration of the underclass idea’, which, in contrast to
earlier conceptualizations of the underclass, is mainly characterized by patterns of con-
sumption. This consumption is deemed to be excessive, vulgar and tasteless. Attributes
such as certain kinds of shoes, caps and brands of clothing are associated with the
‘chav’, and thereby come to represent the underclass and are associated with irrational,
ill-mannered behaviour. Labels and monograms become symbols of identity that mark
social deviance. What I claim in this paper is that Ullared is part of such an inscription
process, one that involves a reconfiguration of Swedish working-class discourse. Con-
sumption and consumer behaviour are, as I will show, central to this ongoing
reconfiguration.
 24 GÖRAN ERIKSSON

Skeggs (2004, 2005) sees bodies as key elements in representations of the working
class. She centres her attention on the values associated with the body of the white
working-class woman, how it has been associated with excessiveness, with unhealthy
and immoral ways of living, and constructed as ‘a body without governance’ (Skeggs,
2005, p. 965). This ‘monstrousness’ is then perceived as reflecting the working-class self,
which stands in contrast to the middle-class self. For instance, a fat female body signals
excessive eating-habits and a lack of self-governance (Skeggs, 2004, p. 102) and this (gro-
tesque) body comes to represent otherness (Lawler, 2005a, 2005b; Skeggs, 2004).
In such processes of creating otherness, emotions play a significant role, as they
recognize and maintain difference (see Miller, 1997) and can be considered ‘evaluative jud-
gements’ (Sayer, 2005, p. 948). A key emotion in this context is disgust (Lawler, 2005a,
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2005b; Skeggs, 2004). According to Lawler (2005a, 2005b), disgust towards the working
class is a key mechanism in the making of middle-class identities: ‘their very selves are pro-
duced in opposition to the “low”’ (Lawler, 2005a, 2005b, p. 430) and what are perceived to
be working-class identities. My view is that disgust seems to be a rather intense emotion,
and even less powerful feelings of disdain towards other people can invoke borders
between classes. ‘Looking down’ on certain behaviours and tastes, considering something
as less worthwhile (the position implied by Ullared’s mode of production), suggests an
understanding of one’s own position or identity in relation to the object being looked
at. It is an understanding of one’s own identity based on distinguishing oneself from
what one is not. This rejected identity is then understood as needing to be excluded
from the formation of a middle-class identity (cf. Featherstone, 1991, p. 78).
Laughter is, as Tyler (2011, p. 217; see also Tyler, 2008) notes, also important in the
process of boundary-forming. The idea is that laughing at someone is an act of distancing
oneself from the laughable, and can in some cases be an act of displaying disgust or con-
tempt in relation to someone (Menninghaus, 2003). In face-to-face interaction, jokes and
laughter are considered actions that exhibit shared views and closeness between interlo-
cutors (Hay, 2001, p. 76; Zajdman, 1995, p. 327–331; see also Eriksson, 2009). This suggests,
as I think is valid in the context of Ullared, that when viewers see something as laughable
they most likely are sharing the middle-class values implied by the programme’s mode of
production. So, laughter has the potential to establish a distance between ‘them’ and ‘us’,
as it tends to be an action that displays moral judgements and a superior position (Tyler,
2008, p. 23).
As Lyle (2008) shows, the middle-class gaze is a mode of production with clear
potential to provoke emotions like disgust or to trigger laughter. On reality television,
issues of class are not explicitly invoked. Instead, they are raised through how taste and
appearance are treated in discourse. The middle-class gaze is organized around certain
discourses of identity, fashion, actions and values, and it promotes a superior, more cred-
ible position, which appears to be the natural, normal and respectable way of seeing
things. This way of seeing things is structured by concern for the relationship to other
classes, and particularly the lower standing working class. In order to maintain its elevated
position, it needs to constantly mark boundaries to what should be considered less
respectable and undesirable. The gaze in Ullared is directed towards ‘ordinary’ participants’
consumption and consumer behaviours, and indicates what kinds of behaviour are appro-
priate in this context.
 RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE WORKING CLASS 25

The Case
Ullared is produced by Strix Television, one of the largest television production com-
panies in Scandinavia, and is aired by the commercially financed Channel 5 (SW: Kanal 5).
Ullared is actually the name of the town (situated in the southwest of Sweden) where the
shopping outlet Gekås is located. On Strix Television’s website – targeting potential broad-
casting companies in other countries – the programme is presented as a format called The
Outlet.
Well before the show was first aired in November 2009, the town of Ullared was well
known for its outlet, and had a reputation for being a place for low-cost shopping. Accord-
ing to its website, Gekås had a total turnover of nearly SEK 3 billion in 2008 (about 320
million Euros) and the total number of customers was 3.9 million. These figures have
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increased since the show went on the air. In 2012, the turnover was SEK 4.3 billion and
the number of customers was 4.6 million. On 30 July 2013 the outlet set a record with
27,500 visitors in one day. According to Strix’s website, however, there are no formal finan-
cial connections between them or Channel 5 and Gekås (i.e. Gekås does not sponsor the
programme).
The first season, including seven episodes, was broadcast in November and Decem-
ber 2009, and was an instant success for Channel 5 with over one million viewers (very
good ratings for commercial channels in Sweden). The second season was aired in
autumn 2010 (eight episodes), the third in spring 2011 (seven episodes) and the fourth
in early 2013 (10 episodes). A fifth season (nine episodes) was aired spring 2014. In total,
41 episodes have been produced so far. It should also be mentioned that Strix Television
has produced three seasons of an Ullared spin-off entitled A mighty journey with Morgan
and Ola-Conny (Sw: En stark resa med Morgan och Ola-Conny). In this programme, two
Gekås employees who became well known in Ullared travel to famous cities and tourist
resorts.

Outline of Ullared
The basic storyline of each episode is that the production team follows the events
going on at and near the shopping outlet over the course of one day, from the early
opening hours until closing time. This time-frame is stressed by the narrator with comments
like ‘today we’ll meet … ’ or remarks on the weather (‘Today it’s raining in Ullared’). It is also
accentuated at the end of each episode when business-related facts (sales receipts, number
of shoppers, etc.) for one particular day are presented by the narrator.
A central feature of the show is that no host or other person on the production team
is visible in the programme. The viewers are guided by a voice-over. On some occasions an
audible but invisible interviewer takes part. The participants talk to this invisible (to the
viewers) interviewer, who appears to be standing next to the camera, like in a traditional
news interview. In some sequences, interview questions are edited out, and a standard
technique is the use of vox pop surveys, in which two or more interviewees answer the
same question, one after another.
The programme is structured around three main categories of participants, which I
label (1) nameless shoppers, (2) named shoppers and (3) employees. As indicated by these
 26 GÖRAN ERIKSSON

terms, functionalization, that is, representing people mainly through what they do, is a
central strategy in the programme (see Machin & Mayr, 2013). On the basic level, this strat-
egy defines participants’ agency and is central to how relations between participants, and
between participants and viewers, are set up and can be understood. Such aspects are vital
to the MCDA (see below) employed in this study.
The first category consists of people who are not presented by name or given a clear-
cut identity, and who appear as part of an anonymous mass. They are seen in visuals from
the outlet but also appear in the vox pop interviews and answer questions about shopping
at Ullared.
The named-shoppers category comprises people whom the producers follow as they
go around shopping. They are identified by their first name, and often with some form of
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epithet like ‘happy shopper’, ‘big shopper’ or ‘Ullared veteran’. Generally, the voice-over
also mentions their hometown. The participants almost exclusively come from smaller
towns in rural regions, which often can be heard in their accents. Through this presen-
tation, repeated interviews related to their visit to Ullared, and sequences from the
outlet while they shop, they become characters whom the viewers get to know. Some
of these people appear in more than one episode, and a very few in more than one season.
The employees are people working at the outlet, including the CEO Boris, who is in all
the episodes. Some of the named shoppers, but also some of the employees, are con-
structed as ‘ordinary’ working-class characters and play a significant role in the making
of class in Ullared. However, in the ensuing analysis I concentrate on consumption and
specifically explore the category of named shoppers.

Method
The analysis is inspired by the MCDA-approach proposed by Machin and Mayr (2012,
2013). This methodology analyses linguistic elements of a text combined when appropriate
with the analysis of visual elements. It is derived from Social Semiotics (see Kress and Van
Leeuwen, 1996, 2001; Van Leeuwen, 2005) and treats the actions and artefacts used in com-
munication as semiotic resources. In the following analysis, I treat spoken discourse (talk),
audio (music, sound effects), visuals (camera work) and editing as semiotic resources
that the producers use in order to produce a programme with the potential to attract
and entertain audiences.
I consider the following analysis to be a form of social actor analysis (Machin & Mayr,
2013). A central concept in this analysis is ‘recontextualization of social practice’, which
centres on how ‘social practices (including discursive practices) are turned into discourse
(into representations of social practices) in the context of specific discursive practices’
(Van Leeuwen & Wodak, 1999, p. 93). This study concerns how the social practice of shop-
ping being enacted at the outlet Gekås is turned into discourse and is represented through
the discursive practice of the programme Ullared. In this form of analysis, specific attention
is given to sequences of activity, or the ‘doing of discourses’ (Machin & Mayr, 2013, p. 4),
which can also be described as a form of scripts (see also Machin, 2013). In my case,
scripts depict what goes on at Gekås and comprise ideas about how the shopping, as
well as the consumers and the values they hold, can be understood. Recontextualizing a
social practice necessarily involves making choices about how to represent the practice
 RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE WORKING CLASS 27

in question; different semiotic resources will be used for different purposes, and it is the
end result of these choices that is analysed.
A basic aspect of analysing spoken discourse is to analyse lexical choices, here mainly
those used by the narrator to depict shoppers and their actions. The analysis also pays
attention to how the participants are visually represented. I specifically consider what attri-
butes and settings the participants are linked to through their visual appearance in the pro-
gramme. Another important part of the analysis is to examine the editing techniques, that
is, how different sequences are linked together. I will also try to show how music and sound
effects are used to help accentuate specific characteristics. The choices made will stress
certain identities of the participants and link particular values to them, and, of course,
also suppress other identities and values.
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Ridicule and the Making of Class

The ridiculing performed in Ullared is based on a discourse that associates consump-
tion with style, taste and careful choices. From this position, the pleasure of shopping is
above all related to the symbolic value of the products, suggesting that the ‘aestheticiza-
tion of the everyday’ (Featherstone, 1991) is part of a more appropriate lifestyle. The activi-
ties going on at Gekås are depicted as rather the opposite of such consumption. There are
no traces of well-known brands or any discussions about design or style. The activities
going on at the outlet are instead portrayed as a massive consumption of cheap, more-
or-less unnecessary products, and it is the enjoyment that seems to accompany this con-
sumption that is ridiculed.
A key strategy for this ridicule is the ridiculing of the products for sale at Gekås. This is
mainly accomplished through the involvement of nameless shoppers and images of the pro-
ducts. One example of this is the use of sequences where nameless shoppers appear in vox
pop interviews and are asked to show their best purchases. All kinds of products are dis-
played in these sequences, usually without any comments from the narrator, where they
appear cheap and superfluous and unrelated to peoples’ needs (see Figure 1). Another
example of this is when nameless shoppers appear and talk about all the pointless products
they buy. A good example of this is in the first season (Episode 1) when a middle-aged man
appears and says ‘when there’s nothing you need, this is a good place to go’.
Consumption appears instead to be carried out for its own sake. The dominant
motive stated by participants in the programme is that shopping at the outlet is cheap,
enabling them to buy large quantities, which is depicted as intensely satisfying. Shopping
in Ullared is done for the sheer pleasure of its massive scale. The pleasure is instant, because
it is the act itself that is pleasurable, not the goods that comes with it. However, consump-
tion as such is never questioned in the programme, which can thus be seen as reproducing
what Bauman (2005) considers a key aspect of a consumer society: that the satisfaction that
consumption can provide is constructed as preceding the needs.
The pleasure that comes from tasteless and massive consumption is, as I will
demonstrate, effectively constructed as being related to working-class people and
culture. In Ullared, this is done through the inclusion of extreme characters. This is, as
Piper (2004, p. 281) shows, a way to display the dividing line between ‘normality’ and
‘difference’ (cf. Lyle, 2008). Such extreme characters appear in the show to represent
 28 GÖRAN ERIKSSON
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FIGURE 1.
Nameless shoppers show their best bargains at the outlet: (a) an ashtray shaped like a
propane tank, (b) a t-shirt with a printed skull, (c) a Santa Claus costume for a
Chihuahua, (d) a pink fishing-rod

‘ordinary’ working-class people, and are crucial for the making of class distinctions. Below
I will focus on the inclusion of three such ‘ordinary’ consumers: the couple Kjell and Rose-
Marie, and Linda. Their (extreme) working-class identities are central to what becomes
laughable or embarrassing. Although the proceeding analysis might seem to suggest
that those characters are just cynically ridiculed and humiliated, this is not the whole
picture. Persons appearing in the show can also be depicted with some warmth. An
example of this is the storeman Morgan (discussed more below) who is ridiculed but
also appears a very likable guy.

Ridiculing Working-Class Consumption

Kjell and Rose-Marie, a married couple in their 50s, appear in the first episode of
season 1 (1:1) and are instantly linked to the working class and associated with negative
values. Particularly the narrator’s linguistic choices and the visual presentations of them
fulfil this function. The narrator’s voice introduces them in the following way:
Example 1 (Season 1, episode 1)
VO: In Ullared you meet many people who combine
business and pleasure, staying at the campground
while they shop uncontrollably and cheaply
/different voices from the campground/
Kjell, Rose-Marie, and all their daughters
 RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE WORKING CLASS 29

are regular guests at the campground

HERE they generally stay for two weeks and that
gives them enough time both for a vacation and to
buy everything they need for the coming year.

In the first part of this sequence the narrator describes a collective of people who
combine ‘business and pleasure’ and are there to ‘shop uncontrollably and cheaply’.
Through these lexical choices this collective is associated with excessiveness. It is not
stated by the narrator, but when Kjell and Rose-Marie appear they emerge as representa-
tives of this collective. Presenting the couple, the narrator says that ‘Kjell, Rose-Marie and all
their daughters are regular guests at the campground’. This lexical choice, foregrounding
the indefinite number of children and deleting the real circumstances, indicates that they
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are uncountable. Kjell and Rose-Marie are connected to fertility and strong sexuality,
characteristics central to the making of the working class (Skeggs, 2004). The setting and
the attributes seen in this sequence also visually realize specific discourses of working
class identity. The camera follows them as they put up a tent at the campground while
in the background we occasionally catch a glimpse of another attribute, their old car (a
Volkswagen). Their visual, and bodily, appearance also carries out this role. They seem to
be wearing low-priced clothes and to be overweight, especially Kjell, which further
signals a lack of self-governance.
The couple’s lack of self-control is also reproduced in other, and apparently gen-
dered, scripts. In this introductory sequence, the woman is linked to excessive consump-
tion while the man is associated with heavy drinking. Those characteristics are not
pronounced by the narrator, but implied by other semiotic resources at work in this
script. When Rose-Marie appears and makes her first utterance, the title ‘big shopper’ is
put beneath her name. The preceding narrator’s voice (see Example 1 above) explains
that they are in Ullared to find bargains for the coming year. Then Rose-Marie appears
and says that there are ‘bargains’ and that it is ‘fun to go shopping there’ and describes
what she plans to buy (mainly clothes for their children, she says). In connection with
this, Kjell is asked if he also wants to go shopping, but he answers that he wants to do
something else, and jokingly makes clear that he wants a drink. He is then shown
pouring a drink (probably vodka) in a plastic cup and drinking it (see Figure 2), while his
wife and two of their daughters are still occupied with organizing the tent. So, in this

FIGURE 2.
Kjell pours a drink and takes a sip
 30 GÖRAN ERIKSSON

introducing sequence linguistically the viewers are told about the specific case of this
couple who will shop uncontrollably, but it is the visual that also points to lack of self-gov-
ernance and lack of good taste. This is not realized verbally. On the one hand, this sequence
is amusing and the characters likable, but on the other they are clearly ridiculed and
delegitimised.
The couple’s personal characteristics are further strengthened in this and coming
episodes. Kjell’s drinking and Rose-Marie’s passion for shopping are, in fact, central
elements in the ensuing episodes of season one. Kjell, who seems to despise shopping,
is often shown drinking. Another example comes from the last episode of the season.
While the family is preparing for the trip back home, Kjell is asked if he is homesick. He
answers that he is yearning for his cocktail cabinet. The interviewer follows up on this
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and maintains that Kjell brought his liquor with him, but he declares that it is all used
up now.
Rose-Marie’s enjoyment of shopping is visually reproduced later on in the first
episode when the camera follows her around the outlet. When she enters the outlet, the
interviewer asks her how she normally shops. Rose-Marie answers that she has a long
list (two pages) for the coming weeks, but that the first two days are about impulse
buying. In the subsequent sequences this impulse shopping is visualized. The camera
follows an excited and seemingly very happy Rose-Marie while she eagerly fills a trolley.
Later on she is shown at the counter where she pays SEK 11,300 (roughly 1200 Euros)
for these purchases. She receives a receipt longer than her height, and displays it for the
camera while laughing loudly (see Figure 3). The revelation of emotions, what Hirdman
(2011) calls a ‘bodily emotionalism’, is crucial to reality television. Bodily reactions like
anger, tears, or, as in this case, happiness appear to be authentic and true reactions (cf.
Aslama & Pantti, 2006; Eriksson, 2014). Rose-Marie seems to be truly happy about her shop-
ping, but this feeling seems more or less absurd. Her shopping appears to be totally out of
control and her spending of so much money on impulse buying of cheap and low-quality
products just seems stupid for a person in her position. She is then shown leaving the
outlet pushing three (!) trolleys by herself.
Characters such as Kjell and Rose-Marie come to represent the working class and a
working-class self associated with excessiveness and a highly questionable capacity for
moral judgements. Through the use of semiotic resources like images of them putting

FIGURE 3.
Rose-Marie at the counter displaying the receipt for the camera
 RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE WORKING CLASS 31

up a tent, images of their car, Rose-Marie’s shopping, Kjell’s drinking, and the narrator’s
description of them, these characters are caricatures of the working class, but they never-
theless seem to represent the working class and the working-class self. Their cheap and
tasteless, yet expensive in total, shopping is associated with the working class and is
related to other negative values and excessive behaviours historically often linked with
an underclass discourse. They are certainly excluded from the middle-class culture and
are set up to represent otherness; their basic function is to define ways of conduct other
than their own as more suitable and desirable.
Personified by Rose-Marie, as well as other female characters on the show, the
working-class woman is the character that most strongly draws this constitutive limit, as
she comes to represent a pathological or flawed consumer (cf. Bauman, 2005; Hayward &
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Yar, 2006). However, as I will now proceed to demonstrate, there are also other strategies
that support this distinction between appropriate and inappropriate morality.

Ridiculing Aspirations
Skeggs (1997) shows that aspiring females, that is, women who attempt to be
respectable, can easily be rendered as comical or disgusting. Humour that makes fun of
pretentiousness can function as a working-class critique of the middle class, but it can
also ‘operate as a form of surveillance within the middle-class’ (Skeggs, 2004, p. 114). A
similar form of ridicule occurs during the fourth season (Episode 5) when Linda, a
woman in her 40s, participates. The construction of Linda’s character is complex and con-
tradictory, but she is above all portrayed as a ‘nouveau riche’. She appears to be as an aspir-
ing person who lacks the necessary signifiers for being the middle-class (or even upper-
class) person she wants to be. The semiotic resources employed link her to a posh lifestyle,
but all the attributes signifying this lifestyle are exaggerated. This exaggeration, together
with other attributes, signals otherness: Linda seems to be a working-class person in
disguise and she is thus a morally questionable person.
The first time Linda is introduced in the programme the semiotic resources
used signify a posh lifestyle, often associated with celebrities and the rich. The viewers
see a giant white limousine driving along a road (Figure 4(a)). The narrator introduces
this sequence by saying: ‘On Highway 154 we find Linda and her family. They love to
shop and often take the limousine to Ullared’. The next scene is filmed inside the limou-
sine. Linda, nearest the camera, is together with her family (Figure 4(b)). Her husband
and one of the boys open what seem to be two bottles of champagne and pour it.
The interviewer (present in the car next to the camera) asks Linda how often they do
this and why. Linda responds that they do it as often as possible as it ‘brightens up
your life’ while the subtitle ‘loves luxury’ is shown beneath her name. A plate of straw-
berries and chocolate is displayed during this exchange (Figure 4(c)). When they arrive at
the outlet, the chauffeur opens the door and Linda gets out of the car with a glass of
champagne in her hand. With a happy face she loudly declares: ‘oh it’s so great to be
here’ (Figure 5(d)).
A luxurious lifestyle is further stressed later in this episode, but also ridiculed when
Linda guides the camera around the palace where the family lives and runs a youth
hostel (see Figure 5(a) and 5(b)). She is now given the title ‘Lady of the palace’. During
 32 GÖRAN ERIKSSON
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FIGURE 4.
Linda is presented to the viewers: (a) limousine on the road; (b) Linda and the family in
the limousine; (c) strawberries and chocolate; (d) Linda arrives at the outlet

FIGURE 5.
Linda guides the camera/viewers around the palace: (a) the palace; (b) Linda invites the
viewers to her palace; (c) Linda finds some things for the palace; (d) a pink cushion for
the limousine
 RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE WORKING CLASS 33

the tour she repeatedly uses expressions like ‘my palace’, ‘my palace family’ and ‘palatial’
(Sw: ‘slottslig’), and she also accentuates that the family ‘likes glamour’ and ‘loves
luxury’. However, the editing overstresses the references to the palace. Linda seems to
be obsessed with the idea of living in a palace and too eager to portray herself as a glamor-
ous and prosperous person. She seems to aspire to a life as the ‘lady of a palace’ and thus to
be seen as stylish, classy person.
This (constructed) self-portrayal is, however, contradicted by the shopping at the
outlet (Figure 5(c) and 5(d). Associated with tasteless consumption on a massive scale, it
is not where you go to find decorations appropriate for the interior design of a palace.
Linda therefore seems to be a person lacking in awareness of style and taste. She is also
portrayed as finding the cheap, bulk shopping exceedingly pleasurable. She thus
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adheres to the same flawed behaviour as the working-class character Rose-Marie. Linda
seems to be pretending to be something she clearly is not.
Another semiotic resource strongly contributing to this script is the choice of music.
When the limousine is shown coming down the road, the chorus of M People’s song ‘Movin
on up’ is played. Lines like ‘movin on up, nothing can stop me, I’m moving on up’ manifestly
support the interpretation of Linda as an aspiring person. This theme music is repeated
every time she appears.
The construction of Linda as a ‘nouveau riche’ is cemented the third time she appears
in the episode, when the employed semiotic resources further demonstrates her tasteless-
ness. This time she is travelling with her friends in the limousine (Figure 6(a)–(c)). According
to the speaker’s voice, she is about ‘to get a much longed-for tattoo’. Linda declares that

FIGURE 6.
Linda is getting a tattoo: (a) Linda and her friends on their way to (b) the tattoo studio;
the tattoo artist in action; (d) the finished tattoo
 34 GÖRAN ERIKSSON

she will ‘have a symbol put in’ between her shoulders, one that means a lot to her, and that
one of her dreams will now be fulfilled. When the interviewer asks her why she will do it,
she says that the motif symbolizes who she is: ‘the motif itself is me’. Linda is then shown
getting the tattoo and saying ‘I’m so happy, I’ve made the best choice of my life’. The whole
sequence ends with the finishing of the tattoo which is displayed for the viewers. The
tattoo takes the form of a dark shield surrounded by ornaments and with the word
Ullared beneath it (see Figure 6(d)). Linda seems to identify very strongly with the
massive and tasteless consumption that takes place at Ullared.
The ridiculing of Linda serves the same purpose as the construction of the
working-class characters Kjell and Rose-Marie; it draws a line between what is acceptable
and appropriate behaviour and what is not. Linda seems to be wealthy (living in a palace,
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riding in a limousine, running her own business) but her utter lack of taste – signified by
her extensive shopping at the outlet, her exaggeration of glamour and luxury and
especially her tattoo – links her to a working-class identity. She aspires to be a classy
person but she lacks the necessary signifiers. Linda (as she is portrayed) also violates
another important social code: she is too outspoken about her desire for upward mobi-
lity. She is constructed as a social climber, a ‘parvenu’ or a ‘nouveau riche’, a persona that
easily could provoke embarrassment (on her behalf) or lead to her being laughed at. It is
the contrast between the scale of her ambitions and her actual connection to working-
class morals and the deficiencies associated with this culture that provokes such
responses.

Concluding Remarks
In this article I have argued that Ullared is part of an ongoing transformation of the
Swedish working class. By ridiculing what are constructed as ordinary working-class
people, a ‘constitutive limit’ to what can be seen as inappropriate ways of conduct is set
up. Fundamental to the ridicule are scripts that relate to a moral underclass discourse. In
particular, it is the portrayal of participants and their actions as related to a working-
class identity, and thus as belonging to working-class culture, that makes these participants
laughable or embarrassing characters; their comical or embarrassing deficiencies are attrib-
uted to their class-belonging.
This is done in particular through the female characters Rose-Marie and the aspira-
tional Linda, who represent an identity of a pathological or flawed consumer (cf.
Bauman, 2005; Hayward & Yar, 2006). In consumer society, where people’s identities and life-
styles are supposed to be expressed through consumer choices (cf. Bauman, 2005; Chaney,
1996; Featherstone, 1991), the pathological consumer is a signifier for a pathological life-
style. This working-class lifestyle is above all characterized by excessiveness and a lack of
self-control, not just concerning shopping, but also when it comes to other vital parts of
everyday life such as sex, eating and drinking. The position, and thus lifestyle, implied
by the programme’s gaze is essentially the opposite of this. It is a lifestyle characterized
by self-control and consumption-behaviour that is guided by taste and attentiveness to
the consumption’s symbolic value.
It is important to note that the programme’s gaze does not question consumption as
such, or the pleasure of it. Rather, it is the choices made by the named and nameless
 RIDICULE AS A STRATEGY FOR THE RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE WORKING CLASS 35

consumers and the pleasures coming from these (bad) choices that are being criticized.
Nevertheless, the consumption at Ullared is still constructed as a choice. The low-cost shop-
ping is not forced upon people. It is not, for instance, related to financial hardship and
essential needs. People like Rose-Marie choose to shop there because it is enjoyable,
and it is constructed as a part of their lifestyle. The underlying discourse of lifestyle is a
matter of choice and self-improvement. With the ‘right’ (middle-class) knowledge,
working-class people could make other choices and live better (middle-class) lives. Belong-
ing to working-class culture, they simply lack the capacity to make better choices.
This certainly conceals the fact that class belongings are a question of structural
inequalities, but Ullared also suggests that the working class is indifferent to self-improve-
ment. In doing this, one of the characters is central, the storeman Morgan who appears in
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all the seasons broadcast so far and who is constructed as representing the workers at
Gekås. Unlike the other participants described above, Morgan is not an excessive or
uncontrollable character. Instead, he seems in many ways to be a disciplined worker,
although he is depicted as the antithesis of the ambitious middle-class achiever. His see-
mingly phlegmatic attitude towards his job and his slow speech signify a lazy, futile
worker. He lacks career ambitions and a drive for self-realization; he does not appear to
be involved in any interesting recreational activities or to be dedicated to anything in par-
ticular outside work. Uninterested in any projects for self-improvement, Morgan stands in
stark contrast to the image of the enterprising citizen (cf. Ouellette & Hay, 2008) and
appears to be part of a flawed culture.
The constructions of working-class lifestyles as flawed or pathological lifestyles are
central for the ongoing societal changes in Sweden. By ridiculing working-class people
and representing them as excessive, lazy or stupid, Ullared reproduces an image of
the working class as problematic. This image is part of a wider discourse that has
gained particular prominence in the neoliberal ideas that permeate the political
agenda and public debates today. This discourse facilitates political decisions that
reduce such things as unemployment insurance and sick-leave benefits to enable tax
reductions that mainly benefit people with higher incomes. This means that a seemingly
harmless reality programme like Ullared can, by recontextualizing and reassessing ‘the
ordinary’ as something laughable or embarrassing, become part of political project
that aims to delegitimize the working class.
Finally, this study hopes to have helped to show the need for Critical Discourse
Studies to examine how political ideologies are communicated across entertainment
media. It also hopes to have shown the worth of conducting MCDA in this context.
As demonstrated above, at the linguistic level viewers are introduced to character and
situation, but much evaluation and realization of discourses that delegitimize the
working classes are done visually, through selection of scenes, shots and also through
editing and music. Ideological work is essentially multimodal which might make it
harder to identify, but it is nevertheless a crucial task for Critical Discourse Studies to
carry on doing so. In this paper I have revealed that multimodal discourses are one
way that Swedish people are being encouraged to understand sections of the popu-
lation, not as equals but as a moral underclass. Such an outcome may be rather
useful when politicians come to debate the extent to which Sweden should maintain
or change its current benefits system.
 36 GÖRAN ERIKSSON

Funding
This paper is part of the three-year project Ordinary People on Television [2011–
1708] funded by The Swedish Research Council (Sw. Vetenskapsrådet).

Acknowledgements
I thank David Machin for valuable and encouraging comments on earlier drafts of this
paper.

Notes
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1. I use the latter concept to stress that viewers can of course resist the programme’s gaze (cf.
Skeggs & Wood, 2012); they can ‘re-inscribe, re-work and challenge the normative assump-
tions of the middle-class gaze’ (Lyle, 2008, p. 321).
2. The Social Democrats formed government from 1946 to 1976.
3. According to an OECD-report published in May 2013 the income poverty rate in 2010 (9%)
was more than twice what it was in 1995 (4%). Between 2007 and 2010 the average
income for poorer families’ incomes increased less than it did for people with average
incomes.

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Göran Eriksson is a Professor of Media and Communication Studies, Örebro University,

Sweden. He writes in the areas of politics and media, and is also involved in projects con-
cerned with television history. His research is published in journals such as Text & Talk,
Journalism, Journal of Pragmatics, International Journal of Press/Politics and Media,
Culture and Society. Department of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
(HumES), Media and Communication Studies, Örebro University, ÖREBRO SE-701 82,
Sweden. E-mail: goran.eriksson@oru.se

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