Sweden Backcasting, Now?—Strategic Planning for Covid-19 Mitigation in a Liberal Democracy

Jouni Korhonen and Birk Granberg
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Jouni Korhonen: Department of Sustainable Production Development and CE@KTH Initiative, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden
Birk Granberg: Independent Researcher, 151 02 Södertälje, Sweden

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: Sweden is applying the herd-immunity as its main natural science strategy to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. This has been communicated in a transparent manner. Small groups of young(er) people of up to approximately 50 individuals are subject to a bigger risk of infection than others. The objective of this paper is to make a case for the argument, that alongside herd-immunity, Sweden is using the social science originated planning approach: backcasting . The government has not been transparent on backcasting. The authors present the use of backcasting only as an argument based on available data and authors’ reasoning. A backcasting exercise for the case of the Swedish economy is constructed. This frame outlines five interdependent levels with which a national economy can apply what this paper calls a backcasting herd-immunity approach in its COVID-19 policy. The authors further suggest how it is possible to use social science, natural science and political ideology as complementary in COVID-19 mitigation in particular and in sustainability strategies in general.

Keywords: herd-immunity; backcasting; transdisciplinary research; circular economy; political ideology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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