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Author: Fredrik Engelstad
Publisher: de Gruyter Open
Published: 2015-11
Total Pages: 310
ISBN-13: 9783110444278
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book scrutinizes Nordic in particular Norwegian working life and welfare states from the perspective of institutional change. The analyses range from property rights, boardroom politics and wage formation to old-age pensions, care work and childcare policies."
Author: Jeffrey C. Alexander
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 2020-01-07
Total Pages: 327
ISBN-13: 1509539476
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe civil sphere is a distinctively democratic field in modern societies, one that sustains universalizing cultural aspirations and organizational structures and that has tense and uncertain boundaries with other spheres of social life, like the economy, religion, family, and state. Unlike the latter, which are more particularistic and hierarchical in character, the civil sphere defines itself in terms of solidarity – the feeling of being connected with every other person in the collectivity. The utopian ideals of democratic solidarity shape every modern society, even if they are often compromised by the messy realities of social life. This volume uses the theory of the civil sphere to shed new light on Nordic societies, while at the same time drawing on the distinctive experiences of the Nordic nations to reflect on and advance the theory of the civil sphere. Nordic societies have long been admired for creating a distinctive form of social democracy, but this admirable achievement has not been well conceptualized theoretically. Most attempts to explain Nordic social democracy focus on material and organizational factors. This volume, by contrast, emphasizes the cultural foundations and characteristics of social democracy, demonstrating how civil sensibilities are necessary for the creation of an egalitarian and democratic state. Nordic civil spheres, however, are not only pro-civil but also white in color, European in ethnicity, secular in character and gender-equal in a subtly restrictive manner. Such primordialization of state civility is vividly on display in the sometime tense relationships that develop among natives and “foreigners” in Nordic countries, relationships that expose the primordial undersides of the social democratic codes and civil values that constitute the Nordic civil sphere. A major contribution to the theory of the civil sphere and to our understanding of the cultural and normative underpinnings of social and political life, this volume will be of particular interest to students and scholars of sociology and politics.
Author: Hagemann, Anine
Publisher: Nordic Council of Ministers
Published: 2019-04-09
Total Pages: 57
ISBN-13: 9289361433
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFor a long time, the Nordic countries have been a region of peace, with the ability to resolve conflicts peacefully among themselves, and a region for peace, actively promoting peace globally. Although efforts to actively brand the Nordic region are ongoing, the Nordic Peace brand is an area with untapped potential. The Nordics have rich traditions for working together on peace and conflict resolution. These joint efforts have grown organically and informally from like-mindedness, letting the common Nordic culture and ways of working foster integration among them where relevant. The people working in the Nordic countries on Nordic cooperation and peace recognize the potential of strengthening the Nordic Peace brand. One area of special potential is increasing focus on the shared Nordic priorities of prevention and the women, peace and security agenda as part of the Nordic Peace brand.
Author: Helge Hvid
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-12-07
Total Pages: 370
ISBN-13: 1351169947
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Nordic countries have the world's best working life. Unlike in many other countries, global competition has not created inequality, uncertainty, long working hours, standardization and restrictive managerial control. The main reason for this lies in the way interests are expressed and conflicts are resolved. Both employees and employers are well organized and both recognize the interests of the other. Working life develops in a constant interaction between conflict and compromise. This book examines working conditions in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. It explores how these good working conditions are created and maintained. The chapters explain: How work organization is formed How education, training and work place learning give access to the labour market How work is managed in the public sector How precarious work unfolds in the Nordic countries. Work and Wellbeing in the Nordic Countries is addressed to all those who have interest in the quality of working life. It will be of particular use to all students, academics and policy makers working in the fields of social policy, wellbeing, management studies, employment relations, work sociology and work psychology.
Author: András Simonyi
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Published: 2017-07-25
Total Pages: 487
ISBN-13: 0990772195
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe project Nordic Ways is a book of short insightful essays written by distinguished authors from all five countries representing a broad spectrum of Nordic life. The project features an impressive and august array of nearly 50 authors representing all five Nordic countries. The ultimate goal is to provide a long-term platform for what it means to be Nordic in business, as environmental stewards, in the arts, culture, innovation, education and in commitment to democratic values. There is growing interest in the United States in Nordic societies and attention being paid to Nordic solutions: cutting edge innovation in technology and design, arts, culture, liberal democratic values, including gender equality and a free press, environmental responsibility, and economic success achieved on a global level in partnership with employees. Today, with a U.S. Presidential campaign marked by widespread dissatisfaction among the electorate, it is abundantly clear that Nordic Ways can guide this new and increasingly important dialogue.
Author: Laust Schouenborg
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012
Total Pages: 236
ISBN-13: 0415519233
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book provides a comprehensive analysis of Scandinavia as a regional international society, including the Nordic Peace and the rise of the Scandinavian welfare state. Schouenborg aims to take the next big step in the theoretical development of the English School of International Relations - particularly the structural version introduced by Barry Buzan. He analyses the formation of a Scandinavian regional international society over a 200-year period and develops the concepts of ‘primary institutions’ and ‘binding forces’ as an analytical framework. In doing so, he not only offers one of the first systematic applications of English School structural theory, but also sheds a new comparative light on the distinctiveness of Scandinavian international relations, and provides a novel intervention in the debates about the emergence of the so-called Nordic Peace. In the first part of the book Schouenborg explains the core concepts and discusses how one may distinguish a regional international society from the broader global international society in which it is embedded. In the second part he provides an in-depth study of the Scandinavian case, focussing on the periods 1815 to 1919; 1919 to 1989; and 1989 to 2010. The Scandinavian International Societywill be of interest to students and scholars of international relations theory, Scandinavian international relations and history, and researchers engaged in comparative welfare state studies.
Author: Jesper Manniche
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-12-07
Total Pages: 131
ISBN-13: 135102857X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe ambition of the book is to investigate a possible transition in the markets for food in the Nordic countries. Six chapters from various disciplinary traditions study change and innovation within the food sectors in Denmark, Sweden and Norway; while an introductory chapter discusses the findings of these analyses. Specialty food has established a strong position within product categories such as craft beer in Denmark and organic food in Sweden, but has failed to do so in others. The emergence of markets for specialty foods have been promoted by top-down policy initiatives and bottom-up entrepreneurial efforts. Far from providing the only relevant platform for food transition and innovation, the "New Nordic Food" manifesto has helped creating a territorialized action space for networks of food producers and distributors promoting diversity in local food and rural development. Some of the specialty food networks have succeeded in re-scaling their operations from a local to a national market. Today even large retailers and food processing companies have to pay notice to the ongoing changes among consumers. There is however a paradoxical constraint in a transition towards specialty food. A large-scale transition would imply that producers and consumers abandon precisely what constitute them - their exclusiveness. The chapters were originally published in a special issue of European Planning Studies.
Author: Fredrik Engelstad
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Published: 2017-04-24
Total Pages: 281
ISBN-13: 3110546337
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe main focus of the book is institutional change in the Scandinavian model, with special emphasis on Norway. There are many reasons to pay closer attention to the Norwegian case when it comes to analyses of changes in the public sphere. In the country’s political history, the arts and the media played a particular role in the processes towards sovereignty at the beginning of the 20th century. On a par with the other Scandinavian countries, Norway is in the forefront in the world in the distribution and uses of Internet technology. As an extreme case, the most corporatist society within the family of the “Nordic Model”, it offers an opportunity both for intriguing case studies and for challenging and refining existing theory on processes of institutional change in media policy and cultural policy. It supplements two recent, important books on political economy in Scandinavia: Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity (Kathleen Thelen, 2014), and The Political Construction of Business Interests (Cathie Jo Martin and Duane Swank, 2013). There are further reasons to pay particular attention to the Scandinavian, and more specifically the Norwegian cases: (i) They are to varying degrees neo-corporatist societies, characterized by ongoing bargaining over social and political reform processes. From a theoretical perspective this invites reflections which, to some extent, are at odds with the dominant conceptions of institutional change. Neither models of path dependency nor models of aggregate, incremental change focus on the continuous social bargaining over institutional change. (ii) Despite recent processes of liberalization, common to the Western world as a whole, corporatism implies a close connection between state, public sphere, cultural life, and religion. This also means that institutions are closely bundled, in an even stronger way than assumed for example in the Varieties of Capitalism literature. Furthermore, we only have scarce insight in the way the different spheres of corporatism are connected and interact. In the proposed edited volume we have collected historical-institutional case studies from a broad set of social fields (a detailed outline of contents and contributors is attached): • Critical assessments of Jürgen Habermas’ theory of the public sphere • Can the public sphere be considered an institution? • The central position of the public sphere in social and political change in Norway • Digital transformations and effects of the growing PR industry on the public sphere • Institutionalization of social media in local politics and voluntary organizations • Legitimation work in the public sphere • freedom of expression and warning in the workplace • “Return of religion” to the public sphere, and its effects
Author: Éléonore Lépinard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2018-07-19
Total Pages: 491
ISBN-13: 110842922X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKExplains the adoption, diffusion of, and resistance to gender quotas in politics, corporate boards and public administration across Europe.
Author: Edward L. Killham
Publisher: Howells House
Published: 1993
Total Pages: 330
ISBN-13: 9780929590127
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis analysis of the delicate Nordic Balance and the role it has played in recent history is an excellent introduction to the study of Soviet policy in Scandinavia. It focuses on the history of mutual entanglement among the Slavs, Germans, and Nordic peoples in peace as well as in war. The "Nordic Balance" meant that the NATO membership of Norway, Denmark, and Iceland was balanced by Finland's security relationship with Russia, while Sweden's armed neutrality acted as a buffer between the Eastern and Western spheres of influence. The concept embodied a tacit recognition by all parties that this balance was stable and that any attempt to tilt it would meet a corresponding reaction from the other side.
