Globalising the Nordic Model: From Exceptionalism to Entanglement

A critical examination of the Nordic model and its claims to exceptionalism, exploring how Nordic welfare states have both shaped and been shaped by global events since 1970—from Cold War tensions and globalization to the COVID-19 pandemic—through diverse case studies and perspectives. The five Nordic countries are often referred to in terms of a ‘Nordic model’. This volume examines the Nordic model, and the claims to exceptionalism that it implies, in the light of the global events and movements that have defined our world since the 1960s. The Nordic countries have often been described as exemplary welfare states, noted for their relatively high levels of social equality, international solidarity and political consensus. Paradoxically, the Nordic model has gained renown in the context of profound global asymmetries, whether in terms of unequal power relations or inequalities in the distribution of resources. This book asks how the Nordic model can be understood as a product of global phenomena and institutions and to what extent – if any – it has also been a driving force in shaping them. Through a series of case studies and a variety of approaches, the volume explores the entanglements of actors, ideas, identities, experiences and movements. These include North–South confrontation in the 1970s, the final period of the Cold War, rising globalisation in the 1990s and the global crises of the 2000s, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) frequently attract attention as examples of a ‘Nordic model’. The meanings of the term vary, but especially since the global financial crisis of 2008-9 the Nordic countries have often been portrayed positively, as examples of economic dynamism, innovation and social equality. Studies of these images of the Nordic countries and their international circulations have opened new horizons for understanding the global influences upon the Nordic model. This volume explores how the Nordic model has been shaped by global entanglements, in exchange not only with Western Europe and North America, but also with the Global South. Drawing on selected case studies, the volume offers new perspectives on the meanings of the Nordic model and Nordic exceptionalism in a global context during the half century since c. 1970.