Byron Zachary Rom-Jensen
Byron Rom-Jensen is a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University, Denmark. His areas of study include transnational and international political history, with a focus on the relationships and transfers between the Nordic countries and North America. You can read more about Byron by clicking here.
Contributions to nordics.info
2020.11.09 | Outlook, Byron Zachary Rom-Jensen, Carl Marklund, Reputation
Vanishing Scandinavian "socialism" in the 2020 US election
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…
2020.07.17 | Film, Byron Zachary Rom-Jensen, Region-building, Nation building, Public policy
Film: The Nordic Model: A Complex Concept
The Nordic Model’ is a concept that appears frequently in scholarship, media reports, and public debates to refer to the socio-political organization and progressive values of the Nordic countries. While the concept has been applied since at least the 1980s, it lacks a standard definition and thus is open to variation and alteration. The term has…
2020.04.15 | Podcast, Andreas Mørkved Hellenes, Byron Zachary Rom-Jensen, Carl Marklund, The Nordic Model, Nation building
Podcast: The Nordic Model: Heaven or Hell?
Since the interwar years, foreign observers have regularly portrayed the Nordic countries as well functioning states, successful in solving crises, with happy populations; in short as good societies. Why did this happen? Are the Nordic countries the way they are simply because they are in a relatively safe corner of the world? Because they have…
2019.11.28 | Outlook, Byron Zachary Rom-Jensen, Reputation, Culture, Research
‘Socialist’ suicide in Scandinavia: a historical view of a common myth
High rates of suicide are often connected with the Nordic countries and their apparently ‘socialist’ policies. Highlighting high suicide rates in Scandinavia can be traced back to at least the 1960s when foreign observers attempted to either undermine or legitimize the welfare states in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. These characterizations forced…