Film: Ski Wax and Nordic Identity
Watch a film about the significance of winter sports for Nordic identity, and how narratives about the Winter Olympics have reflected and constructed the relationship between Nordic neighbors.
In films for the New Nordic Lexicon, students ask researchers to talk about an object, book or place that represents their research.
In this film, Martin Johansson, researcher from the University of Södertörn, chooses ski wax as his object. To Martin, ski wax represents the importance of the olympic winter games to the self-image of the Nordic countries, where people have often embraced the image of a cold climate full of expansive nature and athletic people - whether this is entirely accurate or not!
Martin is interviewed by students from the University of Lund and Bergen Private Gynasium, Mattias Carlberg and Kristian Lutro, and the film is in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, with English and Swedish subtitles.
Meet the students and researchers!
Mattias Carlsberg and Kristian Lutro have both also been involved in podcasts for the New Nordic Lexicon. Mattias lives in Sweden, but speaks Danish in the film, and Kristian is from Bergen.
Martin Johansson was a doctoral researcher at the Södertörn University within Historical and Contemporary Studies Centre at the time the film was recorded. He has previously studied at Uppsala University, the University of Gothenburgh and the University of Edinburgh, and is in the Emerging Scholars Network of the university hub Reimagining Norden in an Evolving World.
Further reading:
- Martin Johansson, De nordiska lekarna: Grannländer i pressen under olympiska vinterspel [The Nordic Games: Neighboring countries in the press during the Olympic Winter Games] (Södertörn University, School of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Institute of Contemporary History; 2023.