Books


A Fair Share of Tax: A Fiscal Anthropology of Contemporary Sweden.

Drawing on the seminal work of Marcel Mauss, this book hones in on the diverse reciprocal relations that tax, as with any exchange, can be seen to create. The book is based on ethnographic encounters—being and speaking with taxpayers, tax cheaters and tax collectors in Sweden engaging with tax research from various disciplines.

2018 Björklund Larsen, Lotta. A Fair Share of Tax: A Fiscal Anthropology of Contemporary Sweden. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Open Access.


Shaping Taxpayers. Values in action at the Swedish Tax Agency.

An ANT inspired ethnography based on three years of fieldwork offering a vivid, yet nuanced account of knowledge making at one of Sweden’s most esteemed bureaucracies – the Swedish Tax Agency. In its aim to collect taxes and minimize tax faults, the Agency mediates the application of tax law to ensure compliance and maintain legitimacy in society.

Voices about the book:

“How tax compliance is shaped merits much more attention than it has received in anthropology and the social sciences. The book offers a wonderful rendering of the true strangeness and contingency of familiar routines – something the best social theory does.” Liz McFall, Open University

“Shaping Taxpayers will be a significant, indeed, ground-breaking study that will propel this vein of interdisciplinary scholarship, concerned with social studies of finance, cultural economy, fiscal sociology and bureaucratic practice, into the mainstream.” Bill Maurer, University of California, IrvineMcFall & Maurer

2017 Björklund Larsen, Lotta. Shaping Taxpayers. Values in action at the Swedish Tax Agency. Oxford – New York: Berghahn Books.


Illegal yet Licit. Justifying Informal Purchases of Work in Contemporary Sweden.

Svart arbete, informal purchases of work, is a widely debated Swedish phenomenon. It is often seen as detrimental to contemporary welfare society, eroding taxpaying morals, fair competition and solidarity with fellow citizens–yet also acceptable and commonplace. This study shows how these inconspicuous exchanges of work are distinguished in terms of legality and licitness.

2010 Björklund Larsen, Lotta. Illegal yet Licit. Justifying Informal Purchases of Work in Contemporary Sweden. Stockholm Studies in Social Anthropology N.S. 2. Stockholms Universitet.