Project description

In scholarship, there is no shortage of glowing descriptions of the region’s global performance. The Nordics are ‘moral superpowers’ (Dahl 2006), ‘agents of a world common good’ (Bergman 2007), ‘havens of gender equality’ (UN-CEDAW 2003), and the ‘referent’ for welfare states (Esping-Andersen 1990).

Our starting point was that these striking and consistent descriptions of the Nordics were suggestive of a “brand” – specific, simple, and stable. These statements, however correct or not, can be themselves treated as research objects. We can ask how and why did these ideas and narratives of exceptionalism emerge? Who drove their development? And how are they used strategically in politics and practice?

The project also seeks to advance the theory of branding, particularly its use as an analytical concept.

Organisation of the group

The coordinating institutions was from the University of Oslo's Faculty of Law, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, and Centre for Environment and Development (SUM).

The administering institution was at the Department of Public and International Law and the Forum for Law and Social Science is the host research group. Other University of Oslo departments involved included the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law  and Norwegian Centre for Human Rights.

Our group researches a diverse range of topics from gender equality as branding to the Nordic peace image. 

About the group

Nordic Branding was led by Eirinn Larsen, together with Malcolm Langford, Sidsel Roalkvam, and Inger Skjelsb?k. It was previously led by Malcolm Langford.

The project involved 42 researchers from the University of Oslo and beyond. The disciplines covered included law, sociology, criminology, psychology, history, political science, economics, marketing, and anthropology.

Cooperation

The project brought together leading branding experts with experts on social models from the University of Oslo and fourteen other institutions in the Nordic region and UK. These included: 

Research projects

Dataset of indexes - the Nordics in global rankings

In an effort to map and study how global indices affect nation branding, Nordic Branding researchers developed a dataset of 78 global indices.

Project background

The dataset assists in research projects designed to investigate the claim that Nordic countries top every global ranking, and understand the drivers of global rankings, asking how indices shape societal success, politics, and identity. Assuming that global rankings have an effect on global and national perceptions, indices may play a role in nation and policy branding. The dataset allows one to study the dynamics of nation branding and the creation of a ‘Nordic brand’ through investigating how the Nordics actually perform. The project does not study whether the indices are accurate. Given the diversity of indices, where only some are annual, the rankings span across many years.

Variables

The dataset includes information about who publishes the index, which sources of data make out the foundation for the index, which issue areas the indices cover, and the rank of Nordic countries in the last available index (01.07.2020). On publishers, the dataset separates between research institutes, international organizations, civil society, interest group/corporations, and states, to be able to study whether certain groups dominate specific issue areas. The issue areas identified are social, economic, infrastructure, governance, global contributions (i.e. aid), global perspectives, and gender. 

Methodology

Indices from the data were identified partly through targeted searches and partly based on a list collated in Cooley A and Snyder J (eds) (2015) Ranking the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The project team developed the coding manual, and the data was hand coded by two researchers at Nordic Branding/UiO:Nordic.

Do-gooders at the End of Aid

Book project on 'Branding Nordic Humanitarianism in the 21st Century'

Project leaders

Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée

Kristian Bj?rkdahl

Sidsel Roaldkvam

Gender Equality as Branding

How has gender equality been branded as a central element of the Nordic model? And how is it politicized in different contexts? The book project on Gender Equality as branding took a closer look.

About the book project

This book aimed at studying the so-called Nordic model of gender equality as an imaginary as well as an activity of imagining. Our focus was to investigate these processes outside as well as inside the Nordic region, in the recent past as well as in present. Former studies of this model have focused mostly on the policy development and achievements of individual Nordic states, or the Nordics as a region. The Nordic model of gender equality has also been studied by politicians and bureaucrats world-wide, looking for new solutions to old questions, or the reverse – referred to as a model to avoid. Together with the rising index-industry, these former studies have reinforced the notion of the Nordics as especially woman-friendly. Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, but also Denmark and Finland perform well in the global indexes. But, how is gender equality used in imagining the Nordics countries, by whom – when and where? And for what purpose and with what result?

The strong and persistent image of the Nordics as so-called ‘havens of gender equality’ is an invitation to scholars to rethink the approaches we use when studying the Nordic model of gender equality. We approach the Nordic model of gender equality as a transnational imaginary and practice of imagining, which is different from seeing it as a fact. Instead, we examine the construction and use of ideas related to the development and circulation of country specific policies of gender equality, the societal organization of the Nordic countries, the structure of the economy, the role of the state and the perception of its long-lasting egalitarian culture. The chapters in the book explore the politics of imagining when it comes to gender equality and branding the Nordics, taking a critical look at the Nordic policies and practices related to this imagining This practice or activity has an almost unlimited number of actors and agents from an almost unlimited number of countries and places. We will just cover some of them in this book, including how the Nordic countries’ are imagining themselves by the aid of gender equality.

In this way, the book also show how gender equality has been a major force in the processes of branding the Nordics: The politics of imagining has helped creating gender equality as a Nordic brand.

Events

Gender Equality as Branding: Moving Beyond Nordic Exceptionalism

Project leaders

Inger Skjelsb?k

Eirinn Larsen

Sigrun Marie Moss

Nordic Aesthetics

This project gathered scholars to examine the branding of Nordic aesthetics inside and outside of the Nordic region.

Nordicness, or Nordicity, is a prominent theme today in the cultural industries. Nordic design and fashion, new Nordic cuisine, or Nordic noir are just a few among numerous familiar cultural expressions in the Nordic countries and outside of them. These aesthetics are often facilitated by economic competition but also political projects that depict or promote a Nordic model.

Events

Conference 30-1 December 2017: Branding Nordic Aesthetics

Publication

The project will produce an edited volume on Nordic Aeasthetics.

Project Leaders

Veronique Pouillard

Mads Mordhorst

Nordic Exceptionalism and Criminal Justice

What is the role of the Nordics in international and transnational criminal justice? 

For more than a century, the internationalization of criminal justice has evolved along two paths, which correspond to two distinct fields of research: one associated with law enforcement and policing, and another with human rights and international law. On one hand, certain crimes with an international connection - organized crime, terrorism, money laundering and tax evasion - are historically linked to national law enforcement, the police in particular, and to street-level crime. On the other hand, specific crimes of international concern – war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and other kinds of ‘crimes of the powerful’ – are associated with the high politics of foreign ministries, and have generated the creation of new international institutions, such as the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and the permanent International Criminal Court.

This project contributed new perspectives on the discussion of the relationship between the high and the low politics of transnational criminal justice by investigating the linkages between the two from a Nordic perspective. By zooming in on Nordic approaches to criminal justice, the workshop will analyze the connection between high and low politics in judicial, penal and police cooperation. As different national ideas and practices of criminal justice engage other national systems, the Nordic systems are often perceived and promoted as having ‘exceptionally’ positive characteristic such as low imprisonment rates and ‘humane’ prison conditions. By investigating Nordic criminal justice cooperation with particular attention to high and low politics, law and policing, the workshop will contribute new perspectives on how these countries have interacted with other systems and what role the perception and promotion of their own system have played in these interactions.

Events

Workshop Mar. 1-2, 2018: Nordic exceptionalism in the high and low politics of justice-making elsewhere

Project leader

Kjersti Lohne

Nordic Narratives on International Law

The purpose of the project was to explore how international law has been constructed and applied in Nordic public spheres and abroad.

Background

International law has traditionally enjoyed significant attention in the Nordic countries. It occupies an important position in domestic debate and is often thought to have significant influence on relevant policy areas. Nordic governments have an outspoken ambition to comply with international law and to promote further development of the international legal system. International law has also occupied an important place in Nordic legal scholarship and there is a long history of joint Nordic discourse on topics of international law, with dedicated Nordic conferences and specialist journals such as the Nordic Journal of International Law. Since the early 20th Century, several international lawyers from the region have made important contributions to the development of international law, theoretically and practically.

At the same time, there has been ambivalence, even opposition, in the Nordic states towards international norms and instruments. This contradictory position has been historically less visible but has been the subject of growing research; and in the past few years this ambivalence is much more recognizable in government policy. In the field of human rights, expulsion of foreign citizens and restrictive measures towards refugees and migrants, perception of the Nordics as exceptional in respecting and implementation of international law has come under challenge. Moreover, various legal cases in the ICJ and elsewhere have challenged the idea that Nordic conceptions of international law are necessarily universal.

Focusing on Nordic conceptions, understandings and scripts allows for a broader investigation of the position and relevance of international law in the Nordic societies. The application of a Nordic perspective permits, on the one hand, comparisons between the five Nordic countries. On the other hand, it provides a basis for confirming or challenging the common perception that there is a joint Nordic perspective on international law.

Publication

The output of the project will be an edited book.

Project leaders

Nordic Peace Revisited

Nordic peace raises many questions about; the emergence and development of Nordic peace, how Nordic peace has become internalized in the self-identity narratives of the different nations, and the extent to which, in more recent years, Nordic peace has become reconceptualised as a brand.

Background

The Nordic countries are often held up as exemplars in debates about international politics. Be it in terms of their proclaimed environmentalism, their promotion of gender equality, or their support for humanitarian causes and multilateral peace support through the United Nations, the Nordic countries are often depicted as world leaders. In particular, the region is frequently characterized as almost unique in having managed to escape the otherwise (apparently) ubiquitous security dilemma and its attendant logics of mistrust and mutual suspicion, which it is claimed necessitate that states adopt a cautious and limited approach towards multilateral cooperation. In contrast, the region is often depicted as comprising a prima facie example of a Deutschian security community (Deutsch et al 1957), a region where stable expectations of peaceful change prevail and upon which the successful development of Nordic economic development has depended.

Although questions can be raised about this image – not least because the so-called Nordic peace was preceded by the occurrence of numerous wars (Wiberg 2000), while even during its proclaimed existence fractious intra-Nordic disputes have not been uncommon (Archer and Joenniemi 2003) – the image continues to be upheld. Indeed, this image has been internalized such that regional leaders often depict Norden as being fundamentally ‘world leaders in peace’. Indeed, to this extent, peace has often been depicted as a Nordic export and competitive edge, with this no less evident than in the extent to which the region is often depicted as possessing unique expertise in conflict resolution and where Nordic peace has become cultivated as a global brand (Browning 2007) – most evident in the annual awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Events

Conference 18-19 March, 2019: Nordic Peace revisited - Call for papers.

Project leaders

Christopher Browning

Marko Lehti

Inger Skjelsb?k

The Implementation Paradox: Child Rights in Norway

An interdisciplinary book project on measuring child rights in Norway edited by Malcolm Langford, Marit Skivenes, and Karl S?vig.

Background

Within a short span of twenty-five years, the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child (CRC) has emerged as a central yardstick in assessing policies and practices concerning children. While many of the key elements in the CRC were legally embedded in Norwegian law before ratification, the treaty has helped trigger a series of legal and institutional reforms. It is also notable that in the nascent global index on children’s rights (Kids Rights Index), Norway performs exceptionally well on certain output indicators, particularly health, life and policy environment.

However, the level of compliance and implementation by Norway with the CRC continues to attract criticism in a number of areas. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has been particularly critical in the areas of asylum, child protection, disability and poverty. These concerns and others are not only championed by non-governmental organisations and the Children’s Ombudsmen but are reflected in the scholarly literature. Norway also scores poorly on children’s rights to education and protection in the Kid’s Rights Index.

While various reports have provided a comprehensive overview of Norway’s performance on children’s rights, few offer a rigorous quantitative and qualitative analysis. This book would therefore seek to provide a complementary perspective with a focus on quantitative measurement (with in-country and comparative European-specific indicators) and a richer interpretive gloss through grounded qualitative research. For instance, the afore-mentioned Kid’s Rights Index suffers from numerous design and reliability problems making its general usefulness doubtful.

Project

This project sought to analyse the current state of implementation of children’s rights in Norway. It assessed whether the current structural framework contributes to real change for children and young people. The project was initiated and is supported by Save the Children Norway. The organisation is especially interested in identifying the extent to which policies and laws successfully incorporate and implement children’s human rights in the public and private sphere, particularly in areas where children’s rights are especially vulnerable.

In addition to the book project, we will publish a report (in Norwegian) summarizing findings on measuring child rights in Norway.

Editors

  • Malcolm Langford, Professor, University of Oslo
  • Marit Skivenes, Professor, University of Bergen
  • Karl S?vig, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen

Authors

  • Asgeir Falch-Eriksen, Senior Researcher, Oslo Metropolitan University
  • Christian Wendelborg, Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
  • Elisiv Bakketeig, Senior Researcher, Oslo Metropolitan University
  • Hadi Str?mmen Lile, Associate Professor, ?stfold University College
  • Hilde Lidén, Research Professor, Institute for Social Research
  • Hilde ?vrljuga S?tre, Research Fellow, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
  • Inger Aasgaard, Adviser, Utlendingsnemnda
  • Ingrid Egeland Thorsnes, Policy Officer, European External Action Service
  • Jan T?ssebro, Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
  • Karl S?vig, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen
  • Kirsten Sandberg, Professor, University of Oslo
  • Kristin Skj?rten, Researcher, Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Studies
  • Linda Gr?ning, Professor, University of Bergen 
  • Malcolm Langford, Professor, University of Oslo
  • Marit Skivenes, Professor, University of Bergen
  • May-Len Skilbrei, Professor, University of Oslo?
  • Nina Drange, Researcher, Statistics Norway 
  • Tone Fl?tten, Managing Director, FAFO 
  • Tori Loven Kirkeb?, Researcher, University of Oslo

Project leaders

Malcolm Langford

Marit Skivenes

Karl S?vig

The Limits of the Legal Complex: Nordic Lawyers and Political Liberalism

An interdisciplinary, collaborative book project.

Sitting atop most global indexes on core civil rights (not to speak of political and social rights), the Nordic states seem curiously devoid of visible legal complexes; representing seemingly the antithesis of turbocharged legal adversarialism (Kagan 2001; Hirschl 2011). If such a Nordic phenomenon exists, it might undercut the empirical (and normative) thrust of the legal complex project. Not only is the legal profession absent in struggles for political liberalism but this grouping appears relatively unimportant for its survival and sustenance.

This collaborative project brought together leading scholars working on the legal complex and/or the politics of the legal profession in the Nordic states. The objective was to interrogate possible Nordic exceptionalism and its implications for prior research on the legal complex.

Authors

  • Malcolm Feeley, Professor, University of California (Berkeley)
  • Malcolm Langford, Professor, University of Oslo
  • Esa Konttinen, Professor, University of Jyv?skyl?
  • Hans Petter Graver, Professor, University of Oslo
  • Johan Karlsson Schaffer, Associate Professor, University of Gothenburg
  • Mikael Rask Madsen, Professor, University of Copenhagen / Director of iCourts, Centre of Excellence
  • Ragnhildur Helgadóttir, Professor, Reykjavik University

Project leader

Malcolm Langford

Events

2022

Book launch- Limits of the Legal Complex: Nordic Lawyers and Political Liberalism

Nordic Branding along with the research group Law, Society, and Historic Change are launching the book Limits of the Legal Complex: Nordic Lawyers and Political Liberalism edited by Professor Malcolm Langford and Professor Emeritus Malcolm Feeley (UC Berkeley).

Time and place: May 11, 2022 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM, Rettshistorisk samling,Domus Bibliotheca, UiO

The book questions the view that political lawyers are required for the development of a liberal political regime, with case examples across the Nordic region. Its contributors consist of high profile academics from across the region.

The book is available for purchase at the Oxford University Press website. It is also published on Open Access and is available at the same link.

The book launch takes place in Rettshistorisk samling on the ground floor of Domus Bibliotheca at the central city campus, Faculty of Law. The venue can be accessed via the the building's old library.

Programme

15:00-15:10 Introductory remarks by editor Malcolm Langford

15:10-15:35 Talk by book contributor Johan Karlsson Schaffer (University of Gothenburg)

15:35-15:45 Comments by Dag Michalsen

15:45-16:15 Discussion

Description from the OUP website

This insightful volume provides a comprehensive account of the history and politics of lawyers of the last 200 years in the Nordic countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Topping most global indexes of core civil rights, these states have been found to contain few to no visible legal complexes. Where previous studies have characterized lawyers as stewards and guardians of the law that seek to preserve its semi-autonomous nature, these legal complexes have emerged in a manner that challenges the standard narrative. This book offers rational choice and structuralist explanations for why and when lawyers mobilise collectively for political liberalism. In each country analysis, authors place lawyers in nineteenth century state transformation and emerging constitutionalism, followed by expanding democracy and the welfare state, the challenge of fascism and world war, the tensions of the Cold War, and the latter-day rights revolutions. These analyses are complemented by a comprehensive comparative introduction, and a concluding reflection on how the theory of the legal complex might be recast, making The Limits of the Legal Complex an invaluable resource for scholars and practitioners alike.

Contributors

The book is edited by Malcolm Langford and Malcolm Feeley. The contributors of the book are Johan Karlsson Schaffer (University of Gothenburg), Mikael Rask Madsen (University of Copenhagen), Hans Petter Graver, Esa Konttinen (University of Jyv?skyl?), and Ragnhildur Helgadóttir (Reykjavik University).

Malcolm Langford is Professor of Law at the University of Oslo and one of the editors of the book.

Johan Karlsson Schaffer is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Global Studies, the University of Gothenburg and contributed the chapter ?Sweden: The legal complex in struggles for political liberalism?.

Dag Michalsen is Professor of Legal History at the University of Oslo and is the leader of the research group Law, Society, and Historic Change.

2021

Closing Conference: Nordic Branding – the Politics of Exceptionalism

The closing conference of the project Nordic Branding—The Politics of Exceptionalism takes place 21.-22. October 2021. Highlights are a keynote lecture by Nadia Kaneva on “Simulation Nations” and presentation of new books on branding and circulating Nordic humanitarianism, gender equality, criminal justice, lawyering and the welfare model.

Time and place:  – , Professorboligen, Digital

Information

The Nordics have been described as ‘moral superpowers’, ‘agents of a world common good’ and ‘havens of gender equality’. Over the last five years, the Nordic Branding project has investigated how these labels of exceptionalism emerged and asked: How were these images constructed? Who created them? How are they circulated and maintained? And how are they used in politics and practice?

The closing conference of the project, supported by UiO:Nordic, is a bookend for our official work and offers a time to reflect on the work that has been done, as well as being a step in the ongoing work of brand research.

The event begins with a keynote speaker from the University of Denver—Nadia Kaneva. She will deliver the keynote lecture “Simulation Nations: Hypermediation and the Remaking of the National”.

The event features a series of panels with researchers from the universities of Oslo, South-Eastern Norway, Helsinki, Gothenburg, S?dert?rn, Warwick, Aarhus, Southern Denmark, The Fridtjof Nansen Institute, and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) on the construction and circulation of Nordic models, cooperation and identity in diverse fields.

A special feature is many of the newly published and submitted books:

Nordic Gender Branding: Upcoming lecture in the series Constructing Norden

Organised by the National Library of Norway, project leader Eirinn Larsen is to give a lecture on the Nordics' brand as gender equal utopias.

Time and place:  – , Nationalbiblioteket

The event, titled "World Champions of Gender Equality" ("Verdsmeistrar i likestilling") explores the Nordic brand of gender equality: Its historic trajectory, how we "prove" this brand through ex. global indexes, and how this brand is used by the Nordics domestically and internationally. It also asks how realistic this brand really is.

The event is part of a lecture series called Constructions of the Nordic ("Konstruksjoner av Norden") and all of the upcoming lectures in the series can be found in the National Library's event calendar (nb.no). 

The themes of this lecture coincide with the newly published book Gender Equality and Nation Branding in the Nordic Region, of which Larsen was an editor, along with Sigrun Marie Moss and Inger Skjelsb?k.

Participation

The lecture is free and open to the general public. Tickets can be reserved through the National Library's website. It is not necessary to reserve tickets to gain entry, but it does guarantee a seat. The lecture will also be streamed online at the National Library's website as well as on Facebook.

Further information

Eirinn Larsen is the project leader for Nordic Branding and Professor of History at the University of Oslo.

29th May 2021: "Vikingar: Nordens mest kjente merkevare?" with Jón Vi?ar Sigur?sson

Discussion at The Norwegian Festival of Literature about Vikings as a commercial brand for the Nordic region and its cultural value globally.

Time and place:  – , Lillehammer cinema, hall 2

Summary

The event takes place physically in Lillehammer, Norway, but digital participation is also available.

"Vikingar: Nordens mest kjente merkevare?" takes place on Saturday the 29th May, and features Professor of History and Head of the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History Jón Vi?ar Sigur?sson, as well as Bergsveinn Birgisson, Mona Ringvej, and Tore Skeie. 

The event explores the concept of Vikings as a commercial brand for the Nordics- and its cultural value globally. Both historians and 

This event is made in collaboration with the University of Oslo.

Further information

Jón Vi?ar Sigur?sson is the Head of the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (IAKH) and is Professor of Medieval History at the same department.

The Norwegian Festival of Literature takes place between 25th and 30th May, 2021. 

27th May 2021: "Litter?r festaften" with Eirinn Larsen and Tore Rem

An event at The Norwegian Festival of Literature which discusses the Nordic region and what we are known for- gender equality, democracy, societal balance, and the projection of these brands.

Time and place:  – , Maihaugsalen, Lillehammer

Summary

The event takes place physically in Lillehammer, Norway, but digital p