Nordic Perspectives Research Articles

Special Issue on Nordic Perspectives on Play and Playful Approaches to Pedagogy, Teaching and Learning

There has been a flourishing of interest in recent years in the positive contribution of play and playfulness to the everyday lives of children and young people, as well as to their life at school and as students. This special issue of the Nordic Journal of Pedagogy & Critique on Nordic perspectives on play and playful approaches to pedagogy, teaching and learning will insist on looking at the multifaceted nature of play and playfulness, at the fact that play and playfulness come in a variety of shapes and forms and insist that we take an interest in all this variety. The multifacetedness of play and playfulness draws our attention to the details, to the empirical evidence, to the diversity of theoretical approaches to play and, above all, it allows us to demonstrate the importance of never stopping talking about play and playfulness – now or in the future.

Playful Dramatizations – Doing German the Nordic Way

Nordic perspectives on playful learning have been defined by values and preconceptions associated with play in schooling. However, playful learning also emerges in specific ways as part of the patterns of relations that form classroom teaching and learning. Patterns can be understood as sociomaterial relationships in practice that create rhythms which become constitutive for specific teaching and learning practices (Sørensen, 2009). In the paper, I identify and trace ways in which specific patterns are created by multiple relationships that enable and hold together playful learning activities. With a focus on patterns of relations, I draw on performative understandings of playful learning which are holistically defined by complex sociomaterial relationships. The paper explores how these patterns enact Nordic ways of doing playful learning that are defined by both specific materialities, moods, and rhythms of doing language learning in secondary schooling. The paper builds on observations and interview data from a project in which teachers and students from three Danish schools experimented with playful learning in the school subjects English and German. In the project, experimentation and didactic development were enabled through action learning processes involving the participating teachers and the researcher. Experiments were scaffolded through use of the platform Drama Studio, where students can create animated stories using avatars in multimodal drama production. The paper focuses on a specific case in which the teaching of German became part of doing hygge as a seasonal mood in the classroom during an unusually long, four-hour German session. In the dynamics of enacting German as hygge, multiple relationships emerged that both held together and transcended the apparently delineated activity of doing German through Drama Studio.

Interpretation and Application of General Anti-Avoidance Rules after BEPS and ATAD: Nordic Perspectives

This paper compares general measures against tax avoidance and the design of general anti-avoidance rules (GAARs) in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. It focuses on aspects such as tax benefits, tax purposes, economic substance, and breaches of legislative purpose. The paper also examines potential compliance issues between national GAARs, tax treaties, and the European Union’s Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD). The analysis highlights variations in how the national GAARs apply economic substance considerations and the level of pragmatism allowed when assessing conflicts with the purpose of the circumvented legislation. Additionally, it shows that differences in the wording of the GAARs, such as requirements related to tax purposes, do not necessarily result in practical differences due to other GAAR elements reducing or nullifying them. For similar reasons, the authors conclude that compliance issues between the national GAARs and the ATAD GAAR’s requirements are unlikely, despite some differences in wording. Whilst focusing on the Nordic region, the paper offers insights relevant to broader international contexts, as the diverse approaches, distinctions, and issues identified mirror tax developments worldwide.

Nordic perspectives on the emerging biochar business

Biochar production offers various benefits related to climate change mitigation, circular economy, waste management, renewable energy, and reduced dependency on fossil carbon. Despite these advantages, the biochar market in the Nordic region is still developing. This study explores the current state and future potential of the Nordic biochar market, identifying existing and potential market segments, the role of biochar and its co-products, and factors affecting market growth. The study involved an online survey conducted in 2021, targeting key Nordic biochar stakeholders, including business actors, academic researchers, and other relevant groups (N = 72, representing 64 organizations). The findings reveal that the Nordic biochar market is in its nascent stages, with producers often considering biochar production as a side business. The market faces challenges such as inadequate legal and policy support, limited public awareness, lack of established norms, and uncertainties regarding profitability, technological efficiency, and market potential. However, the industry holds substantial growth potential due to its environmental and climate benefits, provided that current barriers are overcome. Key applications of biochar include carbon removal, water filtration, soil remediation, landscaping, and composting. Additionally, co-products such as energy-dense gases and bio-oil have the potential to enhance the economic viability of biochar production. To facilitate market development, integrating established scientific knowledge into industry standards and policies is crucial. The study underscores the importance of biochar networks and associations in advocating for industry development and highlights the need for enhanced collaboration among stakeholders to overcome existing barriers. Additionally, focused research on the varied applications of biochar is needed, with an emphasis on thoroughly evaluating its environmental, economic, and social impacts.

Nordic perspectives on linguistic diversity and multilingualism in early childhood education and care: Guest editorial

Nordic perspectives on linguistic diversity and multilingualism in early childhood education and care: Guest editorial

Nordic perspectives on linguistic diversity and multilingualism in early childhood education and care: An afterword

Nordic perspectives on linguistic diversity and multilingualism in early childhood education and care: An afterword

Introduction to Special Issue on Nordic Perspectives on the International Legal Regulation of Cyberspace

Introduction to Special Issue on Nordic Perspectives on the International Legal Regulation of Cyberspace

Shrinking geographies or challenged rurality’s? Three points of reflection – commentary to Syssner

By asking ‘what could geographers do for shrinking geographies’ Josefina Syssner offers a very comprehensive overview of what has been and should be on the research agenda’s for understanding rural shrinking geographies. In this commentary I would like to address three issues related to the Fennia keynote, that may add an additional perspective or a moment of reflection: 1) the issue of demographic change, rather than shrinkage, 2) how we can imagine the future of shrinking geographies, and 3) what Nordic perspectives have to offer. In conclusion, I believe that peripheral geographies, and challenged rurality’s deserve a key position within geography and related disciplines, and call for a repolitisation of the topic: what we research, how we conceptualise or even advice has consequences for those living and imagining futures in peripheral, rural and depopulating regions.

Who’s Laughing Now?: Feminist Tactics in Social Media

Who’s Laughing Now?: Feminist Tactics in Social Media

Baltic crisis: Nordic and Baltic countries during the end stage of the Cold War

ABSTRACT The end of the Cold War was in many ways a formative moment in recent European and global history, but it also had important regional and interregional ramifications. Not least from the Baltic and Nordic perspectives, the events in 1987–1992 marked the definite end of an era, and the beginning of another. As relevant sources from these years have increasingly become available, a research community has emerged to investigate the complexities of international politics in the Baltic-Nordic space during the last years of the Soviet Union and the immediate aftermath of its collapse. This special issue on Nordic and Baltic countries during the end stage of the Cold War is dedicated to furthering research on transnational Nordic-Baltic contacts and perceptions in this period.

Fulfilling the Promise. . . An Essay on Swedish Archaeology and Archaeology in Sweden

This paper presents a vision of archaeology in Sweden intended to transcend traditional Nordic and Euroamerican perspectives and build on the potentials of Swedish diversity and geography. Sweden is viewed as the northwestern corner of Eurasia and a meeting ground of longterm European and circumpolar cultural and environmental forces. As a player in world archaeology, Sweden can make major contributions to the growth of new theoretical and methodological perspectives incorporating western and non-western lindigenous) ways of knowing. The subject of archaeology is undergoing post-national reformation and must redefine its institutions, better assert its public roles and clarify its message to achieve its full promise.

NORDIC DEVELOPMENT STUDIES: LESSONS, PITFALLS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

1. Introduction In November 2015, the Third Joint Nordic Conference on Development Research was organised by the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg (Sweden). Development research has a long (and rather strong) history in the Nordic (1) countries. In fact, Nordic development studies have been able to respond continuously (and to some extent jointly) to the challenges over the last 50 years by producing thought-provoking research--as evidenced by a range of new approaches, new methodologies, new theories, extending both mono- and cross/ interdisciplinary areas of study and innovative development policies. Between the 1970s and 1990s, there was a fairly strong sense of 'Nordic-ness' among both researchers and policymakers. However, the so-called 'crisis of development studies' in the 1980s and 1990s impacted negatively on Nordic cooperation and both research and policy became more varied and fragmented. In the early 2000s, attempts were made by leading Nordic development researchers to revitalise cooperation, which resulted in the First Joint Nordic Conference on Development Research in Copenhagen in 2011. The general purpose of the joint conferences is to bring together researchers and practitioners from the Nordic countries (and beyond) to debate and rethink contemporary issues in development research and policy. The inaugural conference of this 'new era of Nordic cooperation', held in Copenhagen in 2011, focused on the contribution of the Nordic perspectives and approaches to development/development studies visa-vis global and other approaches to development. Subsequent bi annual conferences have continued to explore the Nordic approach to development policy and research while at the same time addressing other critical issues in development research. The second Joint Nordic Conference in Helsinki in 2013 focused on the role of knowledge production in and for development while the third held in Gothenburg in 2015 continued and deepened the discussions from previous conferences through the theme A Changing Global Development Agenda?. It aimed, in particular, to address the development implications of global recovery, emerging powers, new patterns of vulnerability, as well as of economic crisis, environmental crises, urbanisation, and humanitarian and governance crises. The conference also reflected on the significance, content, and possible implications for the post-2015 global development agenda and the future of sustainable development. Attracting more than 200 participants from 18 countries, the conference in Gothenburg was organised around 17 working groups that involved more than 100 paper presentations, four thematic roundtables, and two keynote speeches by Professor Inge Kaul and Professor Adebayo Olukoshi. The purpose of this report is to reflect on the status of Nordic development studies in light of the experience of the last conference in Gothenburg. To that end, we reflect on two themes that we consider as essential to the field of study but which causes both friction and fragmentation: (i) the many meanings of development; and (ii) Africa as a continued 'object' of Nordic development studies. The report concludes with a reflection about how we think different standpoints on these issues can be productively balanced. 2. The many meanings of 'development': frictions or creative pluralism? Everybody interested in 'development' knows that is an essentially contested concept, implying that there is no consensus about its meaning and how should be defined. As Sumner and Tribe (2008: 10) rightly point out, it would be an understatement to say that the definition of 'development' has been controversial and unstable over time. There is, as with most 'fields of study', no consensus on an absolute and final definition, only suggestions as to what development may mean in different contexts (Hettne 1995, 2005, 2009). Similar to previous gatherings, development was a contested concept at the recent conference. …

Research in a time of liturgical change – Nordic perspectives

Research in a time of liturgical change – Nordic perspectives

Nordic perspectives on disability studies in education: a review of research in Finland and Iceland

ABSTRACTDisability studies in education (DSE) is an interdisciplinary field derived from the need to re-conceptualise special education dominated by a medical perspective on disability. In this article we identify what characterises DSE research and consider whether there is a case for arguing for a specific field of DSE in Finland and Iceland. Our analysis is based on a review of 59 studies published by Finnish and Icelandic scholars during the time period of ratification process of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities from 2007 to 2016 in Finland and Iceland. We suggest that DSE has emerged as a dynamic area of research in both countries. It has provoked researchers to analyse disability in social contexts and turn the gaze from individual person with disabilities to the social structures and educational policies and practices. The fields of DSE in Finland and Iceland have not developed in identical ways and both have fluid crossovers to related fields such as disability studies and inclusive education. We argue for the potential of DSE to contribute to the discussion on educational equality and social justice. However, this requires opportunities to bring together scholars across disciplinary borders.

Intercultural education in transition: Nordic perspectives

ABSTRACTOver the last several decades intercultural education has played a key role in many educational policies and practices, both across the Nordic countries and internationally. In this article we examine current conceptual discourses on intercultural education with an emphasis on developments in the Nordic research context. The analysis shows how the concept of intercultural education and its focus on “culture” has been criticised in the Nordic countries and internationally for the pitfalls of essentialism and relativism. This criticism is linked to a perceived lack of focus on power issues in education, which undermines the development of a social justice-orientated intercultural education. However, the analysis within the Nordic research context shows signs of re-conceptualisations, which includes a widening of the field and the emergence of new and more critically-orientated approaches.

Biography, Gender and History: Nordic Perspectives ed. by Erla Hulda Halldórsdóttir et al.

Reviewed by: Biography, Gender and History: Nordic Perspectives ed. by Erla Hulda Halldórsdóttir et al. Hannah Yoken (bio) Erla Hulda Halldórsdóttir, Tiina Kinnunen, Maarit Leskelä-Kärki, and Birgitte Possing, editors. Biography, Gender and History: Nordic Perspectives, K&H 2016, 274 pp. ISBN 978-9512966776, €25.00. As the title Biography, Gender and History: Nordic Perspectives makes clear, this volume triangulates three central themes—biography, history, and gender—and discusses them using case studies from across the Nordic region. The primary objective of the book is to strengthen the relationship between history and biography by utilizing biography as a method of historical analysis. The book is divided into four thematic sections: genre, gender, context, and relations. Despite the focus of the book being on case studies from the Nordic region, there is nothing explicitly Nordic in the theoretical and methodological scope presented in this collection. As articulated in the introduction, to talk of a biographical turn in the Nordic countries and beyond might be too stark, since there is a long tradition here of historical biography. However, what this collection does is approach biography from a critical point of [End Page 416] view. In its chapters this book problematizes and rethinks a multitude of aspects relating to biographical approaches to writing history, from the sources used to the theories applied. This book is of practical utility to researchers working on or considering working on historical approaches to biography or biographical approaches to history. What is refreshing about this interdisciplinary collection is the transparency with which researchers from various backgrounds discuss the methodological challenges they have faced while doing biographical research and the source-related resolutions that they have needed to make. For example, several chapters explore the trials of using sources that detail the lives of specific individuals without the input of the individuals themselves in the construction of these documents. To demonstrate this challenge, Irene Andersson discusses in her chapter on the Swedish Communist Valborg Svensson the use of surveillance information and how this type of information fits into a wider discursive network of primary sources. Another chapter by Kaisa Vehkalahti details the development of Finnish child welfare documents and how these sources produced life stories for administrative purposes. A second practical yet highly valuable insight stressed in this volume is how biography draws attention to and challenges the conventional structures of historiography. In her chapter on feminists Alexandra Gripenberg and Ellen Key, Tiina Kinnunen walks the reader through the challenges and benefits of narrating two lives in parallel by employing the concept "fighting sisters." Another related example is provided by Birgitte Possing, who discusses her rationale for structuring the biography of Danish politician Bodil Koch as a nonchronological, thematically driven narrative, while omitting heavy theoretical and methodological discussions from her book to make it accessible for a wider audience. Thus, what is being narrated in this collection is how historical research into the biographies of individuals has been conducted, as much as the biographies themselves. At times, this focus inevitably leads to methodological considerations and theoretical postulations overtaking and eclipsing the biographical material and life stories presented. However, the book is rich in suggested reading, with case studies often stemming from fuller biographical projects upon which these more methodological essays are based. While this collection does not focus on or offer novel revelations concerning the ethical dimensions of biographical research, it highlights some interesting approaches, most notably by suggesting we pay further attention to the relationship between the narrator and the individual being narrated. As Maarit Leskelä-Kärki concisely posits, researchers bring their own selves and life experiences into their research, whether knowingly or unconsciously, and there is a balance to be reached between getting too involved with [End Page 417] and remaining too distant from the individual being researched. While not at the forefront of the analysis provided, Leskelä-Kärki extends processes of relationality to also encompass the relationship between author and reader. Though this proposition is not explored in depth in the book, it leads to important questions surrounding the extent to which writing by historians should be approachable and accessible to wider audiences. Biography, which as a genre...

Windows of opportunities: Nordic perspectives on sexual diversity in education

ABSTRACTThe Nordic countries have often been depicted as progressive societies regarding sexual diversity and gender equality. These progressive changes in sexual minority issues, however, have not brought about radical changes in educational policies in addressing gender and sexual equality in schools. Both compulsory and upper secondary education often lack coherent protection of queer students. The same applies to specific policies on queer issues within the education system; they are hidden in the depths of many national curricula. In fact, a discrepancy exists in broader social policies supporting equality based on sexual orientation in the educational context. The main objective of this article is to investigate this discrepancy and justify it. In doing so, we will discuss in detail the educational policies and practices on sexualities currently operating in the Nordic area, particularly in Finland and Iceland. We analyse curricula documents, legislation, research reports, and other data from our own research projects, including ethnographic interviews, observation data, survey data, and written material.

Making sense of Nordicness, or making Nordicness?

What is Nordic? Does it make sense to talk about Nordic Scienceand Technology Studies (STS)? If so, what kind of contributionscould Nordic perspectives give to global STS and other disciplines? And what elements of the international field of STS are being developed and honed by Nordic scholars?

2nd Nordic NJF Seminar on Reindeer Husbandry Research "Reindeer herding and land use management - Nordic perspectives"

The 2nd NJF Seminar on Reindeer Husbandry Research was held at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland from 19 to 21 October 2014. The seminar was organised under the framework of Reindeer Husbandry Research Section of NJF (Nordic Association of Agricultural Scientists), established in 2012. Over 100 Nordic and international delegates including researchers, managers, educators, students and reindeer herders participated in the seminar.

Call for papers: NJL Special Issue on Discourse, Grammar and Intersubjectivity: Nordic Perspectives

The second issue of Volume 39 (autumn 2016) of the Nordic Journal of Linguistics will be a special issue devoted to discourse, grammar and intersubjectivity. This issue will be edited by Marja Etelämäki, Ilona Herlin, Tapani Möttönen and Laura Visapää.