The Nordic Environments

First published in 1999, this volume features 13 contributors with expertise in social science and environmental research who have brought together comparative 12 articles which study the connection between humanity and nature, focusing on comparisons between the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. They are among the most homogeneous and hence most comparable societies in Europe. The articles reflect the need for environmental and political change recognised by social scientists and political scientists across the Nordic countries, with an emphasis on ecological modernisation. They first consider conceptions of the environment, before comparing both between and within these countries. The traditions and institutions presented in the volume reflect the comprehensiveness of the approaches used within the field in the Nordic countries.

First published in 1999, this volume features 13 contributors with expertise in social science and environmental research who have brought together comparative 12 articles which study the connection between humanity and nature, focusing on comparisons between the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. They are among the most homogeneous and hence most comparable societies in Europe. The articles reflect the need for environmental and political change recognised by social scientists and political scientists across the Nordic countries, with an emphasis on ecological modernisation. They first consider conceptions of the environment, before comparing both between and within these countries. The traditions and institutions presented in the volume reflect the comprehensiveness of the approaches used within the field in the Nordic countries.

Many contemporary environmental risks and global environmental changes occurring today are unprecedented in the history of human life on earth. However, the images and narratives through which humans relate to these phenomena are built on existing cultural tropes and narrative models. Cultural, social, and historical contexts strongly influence how we construct images and narratives of nature and the environment. It is therefore highly important to study such narratives in works of literature, film, and other forms of cultural expression in relation to the specific circumstances from which they arise. Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment is the first English language anthology that presents ecocritical research on northern European literatures and cultures. The contributors examine specifically Nordic narratives of nature and the environment, with a focus on the cultures and literatures of the modern northern European countries Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, including Sápmi, which is the land traditionally inhabited by the indigenous Sami people. Covering northern European literatures and cultures over a period of more than two centuries, this anthology provides substantial insights into both old and new narratives of nature and the environment as well as intertextual relations, the variety of cultural traditions, and current discourses connected to the Nordic environmental imagination. Case studies relating to works of literature, film, and other media shed new light on the role of culture, history and society in the formation of narratives of nature and the environment, and offer a comprehensive and multi-faceted overview of the most recent ecocritical research in Scandinavian studies.

In 2013, the Nordic Ministers for the Environment decided to strenghten the measurement of green estimates of welfare and socio-economic developments. The report Making the Environment Count is describing how statistics on the environment and the economy thorugh the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts can be used to enable cross-sectorial analysis. The report proposes indicators that can be compiled annually in a Nordic context through existing statistics linking economic statistics to environmental statistics.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/nord2021-024/ This analysis sheds light on the Nordic region's environmental "spillover effect" as a result of our consumption, as well as other social effects.The results indicate that in general consumption-based emissions reveals that the global emissions continue to grow with transport as the biggest source to consumption-based CO2-e emissions from households in the Nordic countries, followed by food and housing. Also, there is a need for better due diligence, transparency and monitoring. Based on reported CO2-e intensities several shifts are suggested to be supported by policy instruments: 1. Shift from beef to other meat consumption. 2. Shift from meat to vegetables. 3. Reduce food waste. 4. Reduce air travel. 5. Shift from private cars to public transportation and soft mobility. 6. Prolong life of goods. 7. Respect human rights. 8. Reduce overall private consumption.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2021-511/ The project is concerned with sustainability in compulsory education in the Nordic countries and is part of the Iceland Presidency Project for the Nordic Council of Ministers initiated in 2018. The overall focus of the Presidency Project is on young people but this report looks at policy, curricula, teacher education and school practices. The analysis shows both similarities and differences across the Nordic Region. Compulsory education in the Nordic countries share some striking similarities, reflecting a strong emphasis on certain aspects of sustainability such as equality, democracy.Although sustainability education has a clear application in the fields of social and political life and economic activities in all of the Nordic countries, it is still the case that when sustainability education is discussed, an environmental perspective is most often taken.

With discourses of ’crisis’ and ’disaster’ featuring strongly in contemporary discourses on contemporary society, this book brings together critical perspectives from across the humanities and social sciences to explore the idea of ’crisis’ as inherently related to power dynamics and the formation of different subjectivities and identities within the Nordic countries and globally. This volume emphasizes the importance of investigating the interrelationship of three crises - social, economic and environmental - as these address the interlinked surfaces of the same reality, and it examines the negative connotations of the notion of crisis, whilst also raising the question of when and why something becomes identified as crisis, and for whom. With chapters on media representations of crisis and the global context of crisis discourses, the crisis of national identities and their mobilization in response, and environmental crisis, as well as the interrelationship between the social and the environmental and the different positioning of individuals in relation to power, this volume offers an understanding of crisis as a multivocal symbol of the present. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, history, cultural studies, literature and political science.