Denmark: Uncovering Nordic Collectivism with Cathie Jo Martin
Listen to a podcast on Denmark's collective mindset within education from an historical perspective.
Examples of a collective mindset include: Denmark’s introduction of the earliest mass education system in the world in 1814. Nordic social democracy in the 20th century had full employment as a key aim. Different national organisations which represent employers on the one side and workers on the other (the social partners) have managed industrial disputes and informed policy-making for over 100 years.
American political scientist Cathie Jo Martin, Professor at the University of Boston, guides us through these examples as well as others. She has decades’ worth of experience in comparing particularly Denmark to other countries, and she sheds light on approaches to collectivism and individualism through her particular historical and political point of view.
Listen to this podcast if you are interested in:
- How social investment and a collective mindset has been discernable in Denmark since the 19th century – and whether this still applies today;
- The greater emphasis on vocational training than in other countries e.g. the UK;
- Conflict resolution in industrial relations;
- Neoliberalism and the perception of the Nordics in the US.
Join the editor of nordics.info, Nicola Witcombe, on her sixth virtual visit around the Nordic countries in the podcast series ’The Nordics Uncovered: Critical Voices from the Region’. Cathie and Nicola spoke over Zoom in March 2021.
Podcast
Some of the items mentioned in this podcast:
- Confederation of Danish Employers (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening)
- Danish Trade Union Confederation (Fagbevægelsens Hovedorganisation (earlier Landsorganisationen or ‘LO’ and still known under that name in e.g. Sweden)
- Ludvig Holberg, The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground (1741)
- N.F.S. Grundtvig
Further reading:
- Cathie Jo Martin and Duane Swank, The Political Construction of Business Interests: Coordination, Growth and Equality (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
- Cathie Jo Martin, ‘Imagine All the People: Literature, Society and Cross-national Variation in Education Systems.’ World Politics 70, 3 (2018).
- Cathie Jo Martin, ‘Growth Strategies and Employers’ Coalitions: Renewing Welfare States.’ in Anke Hassel and Bruno Palier eds., Growth and Welfare in Advanced Capitalist Economies: How Growth Regimes Evolve (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021).
- Cathie Jo Martin and Tom Chevalier, ‘What we talk about when we talk about poverty: Culture and welfare state development in Britain, Denmark and France.’ British Journal of Political Science (2021).
- Cathie Jo Martin, Dennie Oude Nijhuis and Erik Olsson, ‘Cultural Images of Labor Conflict and Cooperation: Literature and the Evolution of Industrial Relations Systems.’ European Journal of Sociology (Forthcoming).
