Knowledge on the Nordics

This is extra material on the The Nordics and Small State Theory  from the nordics.info podcast with Janne Holmén, 'Sweden: Uncovering Nordic Education and Society with Janne Holmén' from February 2021.   Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and LinkedIn .

Interested in the Nordic universal welfare systems and how effective welfare can be in times of crisis? How has Iceland fared compared to the other Nordic countries, before and after the Great Recession of 2008? Can this teach us anything about how to tackle Covid? Join the editor of nordics.info , Nicola Witcombe, on her virtual visit around the Nordic countries, this time to Stefán Ólafsson , Pr...

This is extra material on the Icelandic pensions system and means-testing  from the nordics.info podcast with Stefán Ólafsson , ' Iceland: Uncovering the Nordic Welfare State with Stefán Ólafsson ' from January 2021.  Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and LinkedIn .

In current times, schools are often hot spots for education policy initiatives driven by party politics. Encounters between the majority ethnic group and newcomer children can be exaggerated or underplayed depending on the political context, and it can be a highly contested area. In this nordics.info podcast, the head of Aalborg University’s Centre for Education Policy Research, Mette Buchardt, gi...

In the ninth century, the word ”viking” in many parts of Europe would have conjured up a terrifying image of violent maurauders teeming forth from their longships and inflicting unspeakable carnage. Today, the word ”viking” is invoked in all sorts of contexts, from underwear and hand-dryer brands to the fantasies of business and management leaders and onwards to home DNA testing kits and their sed...

I 1944 udgav den berømte finsk-svenske romanforfatter Sally Salminen ’Kommer far hjem til jul?’ som en novelle i magasinet Juleroser. Salminen fik sin berømmelse efter at have vundet en finsk-svensk litteraturpris i 1936 for sin roman Katrina. Hendes berømmelse var måske ikke blot grundet romanens kvalitet og store appel, men også fordi hun skrev den under en ganske usædvanlig omstændighed, mens h...

In 1944, the renowned Finland-Swedish novelist Sally Salminen has the short story 'Kommer Far hjem til jul?' (Is Daddy coming home for Christmas?) published in the magazine Juleroser (Christmas Roses). Salminen had shot to fame after winning a Finnish-Swedish literary prize in 1936 for her novel Katrina . Her celebrity status was perhaps not only because of the quality and wide appeal of...

An ageing population, immigration, tax evasion and incoming foreign workers are frequently cited as threats to the Nordic Model. The universal welfare state is built upon citizens and the state fulfilling their particular roles: the state providing childcare, healthcare and benefits in return for people working and paying their taxes (’the social contract’). But don’t these roles require a lot of...

The global success of Danish TV drama in the late 2000s and early 2010s was surprising because of the relatively small number of people who can understand the Danish language and because the programmes were produced largely for a domestic audience by public broadcasting corporations. Audiences around the world appear to have responded to the combination of authenticity, emotional proximity and the...

Around a third of the world’s population play video games. But how are video games used to explore images of the Nordic region? What place do video games occupy in terms of cultural representations? To what extent can video games be considered part of a cultural hegemony from a historical culture perspective?  Nordic regionality is expressed through different applications of game, game design and...

Siden 1990'erne har nordisk krimi været en vigtig undergenre inden for den globale krimigenre. Normalt kendetegnet ved socialrealisme, dystre omgivelser og gnavne efterforskere. Kriminalromaner og tv-serier fra hele Norden omhandler indviklede mysterier og spændende historier, der bruger kriminelle plot til at undersøge retfærdighed, lighed, sårbarhed og andre aktuelle debatter, der er specif...

Since 1990s, Nordic crime fiction has been a significant sub-genre within the global genre of crime fiction. Usually characterised by social realism, gloomy locations and morose detectives, crime novels and TV series from across the Nordic region provide puzzling mysteries and thrilling stories that use the crime plot to investigate the state of justice, equality, vulnerability and current debates...

Despite a growing focus on national identity in and outside the Nordics, the Nordic regional identity persists. The participants of this podcast explore what is takes to make a region consisting of numerous nation states a success, comparing it to other areas, such as the Baltics and Eastern Europe. An important concrete example that is discussed is an advert produced by Scandinavian Airlines in F...

Academics tend to agree that identity is of particular importance right now. The participants of this podcast explore how different portrayals of history can influence our identity, these portrayals can be in the form of school curricula, museums and cultural institutions, or even company advertising and specific nation-branding. Local and national identities appear to be becoming more dominant th...

Saamelaisen kirjallisuuden historia voidaan jäljittää 1600-luvulta lähtien, ja sen historiaa voidaan tulkita tärkeiden saamelaisten, kansallisten ja kansainvälisten poliittisten liikkeiden kontekstissa. Saamelainen kirjallisuus on saamelaisten eli saamen kansan jäsenten kirjoittamaa kirjallisuutta. Tässä lyhyessä podcastissa kuvataan saamelaista yhteiskunnallispoliittista kehitystä sekä itsenäisen...

Sámi literature's history can be traced from the 1600s and the course of this history can be interpreted in the context of important Sámi, national and international political movements. Sámi literature is that written by authors who are Sámi, members of the Sámi people. In this short podcast, the Sámi socio-political development will be illustrated as well as the expression of an independent...

I 1973 indførte den socialdemokratiske regering et akut indvandringsstop på grund af voksende arbejdsløshed. Indvandring var dog ikke et særligt problematiseret emne i den politiske og offentlige debat i 1970'erne. Fra begyndelsen af 1980'erne kom der stadig flere flygtninge til Danmark, især fra Mellemøsten og den tredje verden, hvor mange lande var hærget af kriser, krige og borgerkrig...

 In 1973, the Social Democrat government introduced an immediate stop to labour immigration because of growing unemployment. Immigration was, however, not a particularly problematic subject in the political and public debate in the 1970s. From the beginning of the 1980s, more refugees came to Denmark, particularly from the Middle East and the Global South, where many countries were ravaged by cris...

Umiddelbart efter afslutningen på 2. verdenskrig i 1945 begyndte en verdensomspændende diskussion om afvikling af kolonierne i verden. Diskussionen foregik i det nyligt oprettede FN og kom til at få betydning for Grønlands afkolonisering. Grønland havde været knyttet til Danmark siden missionæren Hans Egedes ankomst til landet i 1721, og landet blev styret som en dansk koloni. I årene 1945-1954 bl...

An international discussion on decolonisation followed in the aftermath of the Second World War in the mid-1940s. The newly formed United Nations created some of the most important platforms for these discussions. Consequently, Danish politicians and civil servants feared that Greenland, the last of the Danish colonies, would attract negative international attention. Greenland had joined the Danis...

Genforeningen af Sønderjylland med Danmark i 1920 blev muliggjort af Tysklands nederlag i 1. verdenskrig. Den fandt sted i juni 1920 efter et forløb, der tog sin begyndelse i oktober 1918, da Tyskland erkendte sit nederlag og bad om våbenhvile. Genforeningen blev konkret gennemført efter en folkeafstemning i de berørte områder. I Danmark gav genforeningsspørgsmålet dog anledning til megen politisk...

The reunification of Southern Jutland with Denmark was made possible in 1920 with the German defeat in the First World War. It took place in June 1920 after a process that in fact started with the German admission of defeat in October 1918 and its ensuing request for an armistice. The reunification followed a plebiscite in the concerned areas. In Denmark, questions over reunification ignited heate...

In this podcast, researchers examine how the Nordic model is framed and used in and outside Norden. They present examples of how different aspects of the Nordic Model have been applied outside the Nordics, and how these attempts (and the global use of the term 'Nordic Model') has reflected back on the Nordic countries, defining in many ways how they see themselves. This podcast also illu...

This podcast introduces the concept of the Nordic Model and gives examples of how it is perceived as 'good' and 'bad' by differing groups. The three participating researchers discuss, amongst other things, that there are many different Nordic Models and the idea of the Nordic Model has changed over time and geography. Could the essence of the Nordic Model in fact be its flexibi...