Lagom
Lagom is a Swedish word meaning "just the right amount, degree, or level " or "not too much, not too little — sufficient but not ostentatious". Swedes make considerable use of the word lagom — and the concept plays a significant role in Swedish culture.
Quotes
- This term is extensively used in daily life. It mirrors the dilemma between personal freedom and social responsibility, between informal relations and formally showing respect for the person, between expressing one’s emotions and avoiding open conflict through compromising and consensus. Lagom är bäst (Lagom is best), which is similar to what Aristotle said, “virtue lies in the middle point”.
In normal life, lagom renders into the paradoxical individual desire for being somehow different but without sticking out too much. Wille Crafoord in one of his songs phrases this Swedish peculiarity with a beautiful game of words Alla vill vara annorlunda på ett likadant sätt (Everybody wants to be different in a similar way). At the work level, this was confirmed in a study by Åkerblom (1995) who conducted a series of focus group interviews. When asked to state three advises to a manager, many participants said things like: “You should be just like everyone else”, and “Do not think you are special, just because you are a manager!” Following the norm Swedish leaders remain behind the curtains, becoming invisible.- Ester Barinaga: Swedishness through lagom. Can words tell us anything about a culture?. Research Paper Series. Stockholm: Centre for Advanced Studies in Leadership. 1999. (quote from p. 8)
- ... At its simplest, the word describes something that's "just enough" or "just right"—like the right amount of milk in your coffee or the perfect pressure of a massage. Beyond the material world it becomes far more sophisticated, implying that the balancing act has reached perfection, and relying on a range of social codes. Lagom is accepting an invitation to spend the weekend at a friend's house, but bringing your own bed sheets because it's fair to share the burden of laundry. It's having the right to stay at home with a sick child—pay intact—but never abusing that right.
- Linnea Dunne: Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living. Running Press. 12 December 2017. ISBN 9780762463763.
- For me, the word that encapsulated the way we eat in Sweden is lagom. The Swedes themselves are the first to admit to their peculiar attachment to this small, loaded word, even to the extent of joking about how lagom they are. "Lagom är bäst" (lagom is best), they say, rolling their eyes.
Notoriously difficult to translate, lagom can be used to describe almost anything: you can be lagom well, your friend can be lagom tall, your coffee lagom strong and the weather lagom warm. But to dismiss it as simply a quantifier would be to underestimate its importance. Lagom goes right to the heart of Sweden's national psyche and characterizes everything from Sweden's political leanings and stance on gender equality to their aversion to anything too ostentatious. It is at the core of many typically Scandinavia ideals like fairness, consensus and equality.- Steffi Knowles-Dellner: Lagom: The Swedish Art of Eating Harmoniously. Hardie Grant. 5 October 2017. ISBN 9781787132023.
