Is privilege a problem? Scandinavians ask, Is this okay?—and wrestle with the answer A twenty-first century paradox has emerged in contemporary Scandinavian societies: the region’s deeply ingrained egalitarian ideals exist uneasily alongside its undeniable global privilege. In The Predicament of Privilege, Devika Sharma examines this tension, exploring how a well-intentioned desire to “do good” collides with an unsettling realization: the very structures that enable ethical consumption, charitable donations, and humanitarian action are themselves embedded in a system of exploitation. Through an incisive analysis of contemporary Scandinavian cultural texts, The Predicament of Privilege introduces the concept of skeptimentality—a pervasive moral ambivalence about virtuous emotions like compassion and generosity. As Sharma demonstrates, this sentiment does not necessarily lead to action but creates a vacuum, leaving privilege-sensitive publics with a crisis of conscience but no clear path forward. Sharma’s book challenges both the self-image of Nordic societies and the broader assumptions of humanitarian ethics. A necessary read for scholars, cultural critics, and anyone engaging with the politics of privilege, this book offers a bold new perspective on the unfinished business of equality. "Sharma’s perceptive and exhaustively documented book makes a convincing argument that there is a crisis in sensibility among the privileged that responds to, but fails to solve, the global regimes of inequality in which we live. We must take seriously the moral quandaries in which privilege-sensitive citizens of the Global North find themselves, while not valorizing this moral self-awareness and the humanitarian giving it inspires as a sufficient solution to global inequality. Sharma provides a rich scholarly lexicon and develops a compelling set of ideas to enable precisely that kind of reckoning."―Benjamin Bigelow, author of Menacing Environments: Ecohorror in Contemporary Nordic Cinema " The Predicament of Privilege offers an intriguing glimpse behind the curtain of the famously happy and prosperous Scandinavian countries into the ways Nordic authors and artists grapple with the costs of their societies’ privilege. Through the concept of skeptimentality, Sharma skillfully highlights some of the weaknesses of the social-democratic model and suggests ways to develop more effective means of addressing the privilege gap between countries."―Julie K. Allen, author of Icons of Danish Modernity: Georg Brandes and Asta Nielsen "A boldly skeptical take on fashionable skepticism about humanitarian do-gooders, The Predicament of Privilege is also compassionate toward the critics of compassion. Sharma makes a sparkling contribution to social-democratic sensibility and common sense."―Bruce Robbins, author of Atrocity: A Literary History Devika Sharma is associate professor of modern culture at the University of Copenhagen. She is author of Amerikanske fængselsbilleder: Kunst, kultur og indespærring i samtidens USA , coeditor of Structures of Feeling: Affectivity and the Study of Culture , and editor of the Nordic journal K&K .