Victim Capital and the Language of Money: The Norwegian Process of Inquiries and Apologies

Abstract

Like several other countries, Norway has carried out inquiries into the treatment received in the recent past by some of society’s most vulnerable members. Care leavers and war children (people born during World War II with Norwegian mothers and German fathers) both have experienced inquiries, public apologies, and payment of reparations, and in this process, both have been recognized as people who have been wronged and have suffered through no fault of their own. They have acquired victim capital. However, when the amount of suffering is to be translated into large or small sums of money, the size of reparations paid carries a symbolic message. To groups or individuals whose applications for reparations are not granted, the refusal may take on an existential meaning. In Norway a host of different local arrangements for the payment of reparations have exacerbated this problem.