Aarhus University

Listen to these two podcasts to find out more about the Nordic countries’ maritime connections: Why do the Nordic countries see themselves as maritime nations; and does that extend to taking the lead in the green transition within shipping?

’Christian cultural heritage’ is widely discussed in public debates in Denmark and Norway, and often in polarising political discussions on integration. Headteachers and managers at public broadcasting services understand what is meant by Christian cultural heritage in different ways and likewise incorporate it in school curricula and TV programming differently. Some see Christian cultural heritage as fixed and self-evident, whereas others see it as a lived practice that develops and changes over time.

Despite regularly ranking high up in global happiness indexes, the image of the Nordic people as extraordinarily suicidal has persisted since the 1960s. The fact is that most studies do not indicate a particularly strong tendency towards suicide in the Nordic region. Nordic people are just like people elsewhere. Their struggles with suicide indicate the challenges of modern society and the tragedy of mental illness.

There is a common understanding outside the Nordic countries that Nordic people can all understand one another’s languages, or at least the Scandinavians (the Danes, Swedes and Norwegians) can. However, this impression of linguistic unity is not wholly accurate.

Watch a 10-minute film on why modern business people like to compare themselves to their vision of the Vikings.

Listen to a podcast on hot topics in current academic research on the Nordic region today include welfare, colonialism and heterogeneity.

Listen to a podcast on how we make sense of all the historical images that are fired at us all the time, and whether we ever stop to ask who is creating them and for what purpose.

Danish nurses still receive 10-20% less in pay than male-dominated professions requiring a similar level of education. There are many contributing factors to unequal pay, but a recent report from the Danish Institute for Human Rights found that one key reason is the effect of the 1969 Public Servant Reform Act which saw nurses and other female-dominated professions placed at a lower pay level. In recent national negotiations, Danish nurses voted ‘no’ to a pay offer of up to 5% which was set to preserve real wages for public workers over the next three years. A citizens' petition to reform the law in respect of many traditionally female professions has also received the requisite 50,000 signatures for it to make it to parliament.

Listen to a podcast which takes contemporary, cultural case studies and traces them back in history to uncover important narratives that often go overlooked.

In this podcast, medieval historian from Aarhus University Richard Cole explores why the Viking era is ‘up for grabs’, and zooms in on why and how some business gurus have latched on to truths, half-truths, and fallacies about the Vikings.