Thomas Hylland Eriksen

National symbols share an ability to fuse diverse people in a shared feeling of identity. They are as diverse as flags to food, scenery to famous people, and they vary depending on whether they are viewed from inside or outside the Nordics or a specific country. A pressing question today is which national symbols are appropriate for globalised, multicultural, thoroughly modern societies.

A comprehensive infrastructure caters to both domestic and foreign demand for outdoor activities in the Nordic countries, a demand resulting from swathes of both developed and undeveloped nature, and a widespread perception that being outdoors is character-building and healthy. In recent times, the younger and immigrant populations have shown that they are less interested in activities in the Nordic outdoors.

With a low population density in all Nordic countries barring Denmark, nature has taken on a central feature of everyday life for many in the region. It has also played a role in the formation of national identity reflected in art and the ideal of being outdoors.

Iceland, Norway and the Faroe Islands are among the few countries in the world that still permit limited whaling.

Second homes are used as holiday and weekend getaways in the Nordic countries by many people, not just the elite, probably due to widespread prosperity and an abundance of space.

A number of peace research institutes emerged in the Nordics from around 1960. They were initially seen as politically radical and interdisciplinary with a focus on the applied rather than the academic side of peace studies. Since them, they have become more part of the establishment, advising governments and producing staff skilled in peace negotiation and conflict management.

The internet facilitates social relations and participation in society in the Nordics which is a thinly populated region excepting Denmark. State involvement in all the Nordic countries has been patchy and left major investment to private actors to date, making the growth of the informational communications infrastructure very different from that of the state-sponsored physical infrastructure (roads, railways etc.) in the 19th and 20th centuries. Some have argued that the dominance of private investment in the field will lead to a ‘digital divide’ along class and regional lines.

Even before Norway banned smoking in public arenas in 2004 and the other Nordic countries followed suit, the percentage of the population who smoke has been diminishing and continues to do so, although Swedish snuff (snus) can be chosen as an alternative.

The Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl was internationally renowned for leading expeditions across vast oceans in rudimentary vessels.

The Nordic mobile telephone network Nordisk MobilTelefoni (NMT) opened in 1981 quickly becoming the world’s largest until the early 2000s when it was superseded by the digital GSM network. Unlike the original Nordic telecommunications companies which were state-owned, mobile providers remain private. Since the turn of the century and certainly since the rise of the smartphone from 2007-8, access to a range of media via the mobile phone has increased so much that it is difficult to function without it leading some to question its grip on everyday life.