Aarhus University

Racial prejudice in many Nordic children’s classics can be overt or more subtly embedded. The republishing of some of these controversial books in e.g. Sweden and Iceland discloses contemporary views of race and reveals how the past is positioned in contemporary Nordic society.

The 'use of history' is the term used to denote a combination of selecting, emphasising and overlooking people, events and epochs taken from history. These aspects are to be found in the pool of historical knowledge that we share and are usually identified with the intention of promoting certain interests. In the Nordics, as elsewhere, these interests are usually either to do with politics, providing information or entertainment, or have something to do with identity.

Christian IV (1577-1648), who ruled Denmark and its possessions from 1588-1648, is probably the most famous - and infamous - king in the history of Denmark. On the one hand, he is known as the longest reigning monarch, as the patron and creator of some of the country's most significant and spectacular buildings. On the other hand, he is also known as the king who definitively crushed Denmark's dreams of being a great power.

Why does Danish TV drama travel around the world? Pia Majbritt Jensen and Ushma Chauhan Jacobsen from Aarhus University discuss the reasons given by audiences in eight different countries and learn about the three-leaf clover method and how it helped explain their findings - and also how consumer goods like television series circulate around the world.

Scandinavian “socialism” has been oddly absent from the final stages of the recent US election. It is possible to trace the arguments for and against ‘Scandinavian’ policies of different kinds in the American left and right from the 2016 election campaign until recently. However, the “socialism” that both the American right and left previously thought they saw in Scandinavia is no longer as unequivocal after the challenges of the coronavirus and the new fault lines of a meandering election campaign.

Christian II (1481-1559) ruled Denmark and Norway from 1513 to 1523 as well as Sweden for some of that time, from 1520 to 1521. In Sweden he has been remembered as the instigator of a bloody massacre, whereas in Denmark he has been lauded as a supporter of the poor against the aristocracy.

When Denmark became a member of the European Community in 1973, European law was not high on its domestic agenda. It was first and foremost the potential economic benefits of membership that occupied the public consciousness. However, European Community law went on to have explicit consequences for Denmark, but it was not until the late 1980s that it was first clear what it would mean; Law emanating from the European Community’s key institutions constituted rules and regulations of major importance to the member states, including Denmark. It gave member states, private companies and citizens rights and obligations, and these rules and regulations became part of the member states’ legal systems. After 1st November 1993, it became EU law.

The Nordic Model is used in all sorts of contexts, ranging from the disposal of nuclear waste to the management of prostitution. In 2013 The Economist…

Since the late 1990s, the Danish regional film funds have been successful in encouraging the development of audio-visual production and talent outside…