Biopolitical and juridical creations of the quarantine hotel: A discourse analysis of the Norwegian case

• Published in: Acta sociologica Vol. 66; no. 4; pp. 357 - 371
• Main Author: Gjerde, Lars Erik Løvaas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-11-2023; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Biopolitics; Contagion; COVID-19; Discourse analysis; Discourses; Hotels & motels; Imprisonment; Internment; Legitimacy; Pandemics; Property; Quarantine; Travellers; biopolitics; quarantine hotel; antagonism; Covid-19; discourse analysis
• ISSN: 0001-6993; 1502-3869; 2067-3809
• DOI: 10.1177/00016993221136038

The quarantine hotel is one of several political instruments used to control the spread of Covid-19 in diverse countries, from Norway to China. I apply discourse analysis to map the discursive struggle to define the quarantine hotel in Norway. The government and other key political actors channel a biopolitical discourse constituting the quarantine hotel as necessary to protect the Norwegian population from imported contagion. This discourse's meaning is contested by a juridical counter-discourse articulated by lawyers and travellers, which constitutes the quarantine hotel as imprisonment/internment and a breach of rights. Travellers tend to combine this with a biopolitical counter-discourse, dismissing the quarantine hotel's biopolitical properties, strengthening the juridical critique. These discourses are important resources in a transnational, ongoing struggle, where the prize is the legitimacy of the politics of Covid-19, and the very ordering of the post-pandemic world.