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Melissa Gjellstad is an Associate Professor of Languages at University of North Dakota.
This presentation is from a transdisciplinary research workshop entitled Nordic Noir, Geopolitics and the North held at Aarhus University in October 2018.
The term wage earner fund refers to different models of redistributing profit amongst workers of individual employers or sectors. It is often characterised by the 1975 Meidner’s model which set out that new stocks issued could be paid to funds, which would be administered by a group of directors with advice from trade unions.
From a global point of view, few people speak the Nordic languages. Translation is therefore an everyday necessity for many Nordic people who do business and exchange ideas with those outside (and to some extent inside) the region. This has led to a healthy translation industry. Often up to 60% of books published by Nordic publishers are translated texts. Membership associations and certification bodies have grown up to support translators and verify their work, and further education institutions provide relevant theoretical and practical courses. Outside the region, Nordic literature in translation remains limited, often to the genre of crime fiction.
There has been much more official involvement with the Nordic languages than with English. That is true even of the well-established Danish, Icelandic and Swedish standards. Each language exists under the watchful eye of a language ‘committee’, ‘board’ or ‘council’, for the most part state-sponsored, semi-autonomous bodies. A wide spectrum of interested parties participates, including academics, schoolteachers, writers, journalists and terminological experts.
The Nordic countries have a particular parliamentary culture characterised by consensus and working across party lines. Their parliaments remain influential institutions considering the general trend towards greater executive power. The principles of parliamentary government and universal suffrage were introduced comparatively early in Norden. The world’s oldest parliaments are found in the region, in Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
The Nordic experience is characterised by an upward spiral of development resulting from a close interconnection between a strong civil society and a strong state. The term ‘civil society’ was initially used in the Nordic countries as an alien concept to denote antagonism to the dominance of the welfare state. From the late 1990s, civil society came to be understood along more positive lines as a sphere of human engagement and self-empowerment. It has a strong association with the notion of democracy and refers to various social phenomena that have been prevalent in the Nordic countries since the nineteenth century, including popular movements and voluntary organisations.
Corporatism is about the influence of organisations and interest groups on policy making. The Nordic countries are societies with strong interest groups, acknowledged and privileged by the state, that wield considerable influence on policy making and implementation. Corporatism, or neo-corporatism, is found within industrial relations, but is also relevant in areas like agriculture, traffic, environment, and many others. In the Nordic countries, a number of alternative terms (e.g. ‘negotiating economy’, ‘mixed economy’, or ‘mixed administration’) have frequently been used to describe the same phenomena.
The Arctic Council was established in 1996 by the Ottawa Declaration with the intent of fostering “cooperation, coordination, and interaction between the Arctic states.” Member parties work together towards the sustainable development of the Arctic region. Member states, Permanent Participants and others, including observers, meet formally in Ministerial Meetings every two years to discuss and agree on environmental, social and, economic policies. Observer status is granted to non-Arctic states and organisations by the Council at Ministerial Meetings.
The 'labour movement' refers to the network of political, industrial, voluntary, educational and recreational organisations with a socialist or labour ethos. From the late nineteenth century, its aim was to improve living and working conditions for blue-collar workers and their families, and was organised around national trade union confederations. With a broad base of supporters, the labour movement played a crucial role in the success of Social Democratic parties throughout the twentieth century. This allowed for an epochal shift from around 1945 onwards where class differences were reduced as workers gained access to state benefits, higher education and better housing. Since the 1970s, the labour movement has declined. This has been attributed to the challenges of populism and by the left’s focus on other issues, such as feminism and discrimination. Nevertheless, wages and trade unionism (including country-wide negotiations and agreements) still play an important role in the Nordic model.
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