Knowledge on the Nordics
77 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago -Listen to researchers talk about the history, society and culture of the Nordic region (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the autonomous territories, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland). Mainly interviews and panel discussions, but also synopses of particular historical events and topics within the humanities and social sciences written by researchers and read out in one of the Nordic languages as well as English.
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Episodes
Extra material: The Nordics and Small State Theory
February 11, 2021 14:00 - 6 minutes - 4.92 MBThis 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 Twitter.
Podcast: Iceland: Uncovering the Nordic Welfare State with Stefán Ólafsson
February 03, 2021 10:00 - 37 minutes - 26 MBInterested 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, Professor of Sociology at the University of Iceland. Stefán has had a long career looking at social...
Iceland: Uncovering the Nordic Welfare State with Stefán Ólafsson
February 03, 2021 10:00 - 37 minutes - 26 MBInterested 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, Professor of Sociology at the University of Iceland. Stefán has had a long career looking at social...
Extra material: Icelandic pensions system & means-testing
February 03, 2021 09:00 - 12 minutes - 8.62 MBThis 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 Twitter.
Migrant Children in the Nordics: A Conversation on Schooling
January 28, 2021 14:00 - 49 minutes - 33.8 MBIn 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, gives a historical overview of developments in Denmark in comparison with the other Nordic countr...
The Vikings and Capitalism
January 14, 2021 13:00 - 51 minutes - 35.3 MBIn 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 seductive promise of ”Viking heritage”. In this podcast, medieval historian from Aarhus University ...
Kommer Far hjem til Jul? Af Sally Salminen
December 15, 2020 08:00 - 19 minutes - 13.1 MBI 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 hun arbejdede som huspige i New York. Salminen kom fra en stor familie og voksede op med mange b...
Is Daddy coming home for Christmas? By Sally Salminen
December 15, 2020 07:00 - 18 minutes - 13.1 MBIn 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 the novel, but also because she wrote it quite unusually while working as a house maid in New York. Salmi...
The Nordic Model at Risk?: Conversations on Regulation
December 11, 2020 07:00 - 43 minutes - 30.1 MBAn 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 national regulation? And what happens to them when globalising forces (such as the arrival of wo...
Global Audiences of Danish TV Drama
November 30, 2020 10:00 - 41 minutes - 28.3 MBThe 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 portrayal of gender as well as the exotic Nordicness of the series. Many people from the Anglop...
Global Audiences of Danish TV Drama
November 30, 2020 10:00 - 41 minutes - 28.3 MBThe 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 portrayal of gender as well as the exotic Nordicness of the series. Many people from the Anglop...
Gaming the Nordics
November 18, 2020 14:00 - 40 minutes - 27.6 MBAround 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 play. It is used in different ways (such as, counterfactual uses of history or using myth and n...
Nordisk krimi fiktion
September 24, 2020 13:00 - 18 minutes - 12.8 MBSiden 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 specifikke for det nordiske velfærdssamfund. Klassiske eksempler på den nordiske krimi inkluderer moderne t...
Nordic crime fiction
September 24, 2020 12:00 - 22 minutes - 15.3 MBSince 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 specific to the Nordic welfare societies. The genre includes modern TV classics such as the Dan...
The Nordics and identity: innate or imagined?
July 07, 2020 11:00 - 27 minutes - 18.9 MBDespite 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 February of this year, which sought to deconstruct and construct identity markers of Scandinavia ...
The Nordics and identity: unite or divide?
July 01, 2020 13:00 - 32 minutes - 22.1 MBAcademics 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 than global or regional ones, which were arguably favoured at earlier points in time; concepts of ...
Saamelaisen kirjallisuuden lyhyt historia
July 01, 2020 10:00 - 15 minutes - 10.7 MBSaamelaisen 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 saamelaisen äänen ilmaisua kirjallisuuden kautta. Tämä podcast on osa sarjaa, joka tarjoaa yht...
A brief history of Sámi literature
June 29, 2020 15:00 - 16 minutes - 11.6 MBSámi 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 Sámi voice through literature. It is written by Lill Tove Fredriksen, Associate Professor in Sámi Li...
Dansk indvandrings- og udlændingepolitik, 1970-1992
June 29, 2020 14:00 - 17 minutes - 11.8 MBI 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 borgerkrige. I 1983 vedtog Folketinget en ny udlændingelov, der blev kendt som Europas mest liberale. Tilstrømningen...
Danish immigration policy, 1970-1992
June 29, 2020 13:00 - 22 minutes - 15.7 MBIn 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 crises, war and civil conflict. In 1983, the Danish Parliament passed a new Aliens Act that was know...
Danish immigration policy, 1970-1992
June 29, 2020 13:00 - 22 minutes - 15.7 MBIn 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 crises, war and civil conflict. In 1983, the Danish Parliament passed a new Aliens Act that was know...
Grønlands afkolonisering, 1945-1954
May 28, 2020 11:00 - 12 minutes - 8.64 MBUmiddelbart 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 blev spørgsmålet om Grønlands statsretlige stilling et vigtigt led i dansk FN-politik. Den danske ...
The Danish decolonisation of Greenland, 1945-54
May 28, 2020 10:00 - 13 minutes - 9.06 MBAn 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 Danish colonial empire when the missionary Hans Egede (1686-1758) began colonisation in 1721. Denmark...
Genforening 1920
April 28, 2020 07:00 - 13 minutes - 9.26 MBGenforeningen 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 debat, da vide kredse ønskede, at også dele af Sydslesvig skulle indlemmes i Danmark. Artiklen ...
The reunification of Denmark 1920
April 28, 2020 07:00 - 16 minutes - 11.5 MBThe 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 heated political debate, as there was a widespread wish that southern parts of Schleswig should be in...
The Nordic Model: Heaven or hell? – podcast number II
April 15, 2020 10:00 - 26 minutes - 18.3 MBIn 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 illuminates a more general impulse to create understandable frameworks (like ‘models’) in order to fathom comp...
The Nordic Model: Heaven or hell? – podcast number I
March 30, 2020 13:00 - 24 minutes - 17.1 MBThis 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 flexibility, or ‘chameleon-like’ quality, as one of the participants puts it? The three researchers are Carl Marklund, Byro...