Social Transformations In Scandinavian Cities

The Social Tranformations of Scandinavian Cities highlights the changing face of social sustainability and social disintegration in Scandinavian cities against the backdrop of ongoing global societal transformations. It contributes to the literature on urban development in advanced societies by bringing in theoretical and empirical analyses of how migration, inequality, residential segregation, and changes in national and local policy intersects and unfolds in urban landscapes in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In particular this volume contributes with insights to how these processes play out in a Scandinavian welfare state-context. In The Social Tranformations of Scandinavian Cities we learn in which ways and how progress is being made today.

The Social Tranformations of Scandinavian Cities highlights the changing face of social sustainability and social disintegration in Scandinavian cities against the backdrop of ongoing global societal transformations. It contributes to the literature on urban development in advanced societies by bringing in theoretical and empirical analyses of how migration, inequality, residential segregation, and changes in national and local policy intersects and unfolds in urban landscapes in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In particular this volume contributes with insights to how these processes play out in a Scandinavian welfare state-context. In The Social Tranformations of Scandinavian Cities we learn in which ways and how progress is being made today.

This book examines Nordic cities from 1850 and their transformation from traditional, oligarchic towns to modern, inclusive welfare cities. In the contemporary world, the role of cities as hotbeds for progressive change has become increasingly topical. Historical studies on how Nordic cities addressed social and environmental questions a hundred years ago and how they eventually created new and inclusive policies for the future is a useful contribution to the current debate. The concept of the welfare city is addressed and elaborated upon to analyse the attempts by urban authorities to solve the problems following industrialisation and urbanisation. From the late nineteenth century, municipal public services promoted the integration of new groups in the urban community including workers, immigrants, women and children. The contributions in this book analyse various examples of welfare and public services that include infrastructure and transport systems, health care, housing conditions, outdoor life and entertainment. The chapters highlight the arguments and considerations promoting welfare policies, while also addressing differences between the Nordic countries. The evolution of the Nordic welfare city was a process of several overlapping phases or dimensions. This volume will be of value to students and scholars alike interested in urban history, social and cultural history and European history.

First published in 1987. During the last half of the nineteenth century, nearly two million Norwegians and Swedes migrated to the United States. Declining rates of emigration are moderately associated with the development of urban-industrialization in Scandinavia toward the end of the 19th century. Still, the major explanation of the decline of emigration is argued to be less a response to new urban opportunities than the end result of the transformation of rural, peasant classes and the decay of the diffusion process. In this volume economic change, agricultural development, and the course of the demographic transition are separately considered to isolate the causes underlying the emigration. The social historical context is examined with an eye toward casting the results of this study in a broader light. Those lessons learned in the study of Scandinavian experience are applicable to similar processes currently unfolding in contemporary developing countries.

The Media Welfare State: Nordic Media in the Digital Era comprehensively addresses the central dynamics of the digitalization of the media industry in the Nordic countries—Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland—and the ways media organizations there are transforming to address the new digital environment. Taking a comparative approach, the authors provide an overview of media institutions, content, use, and policy throughout the region, focusing on the impact of information and communication technology/internet and digitalization on the Nordic media sector. Illustrating the shifting media landscape the authors draw on a wide range of cases, including developments in the press, television, the public service media institutions, and telecommunication.

Liberals worldwide invoke Scandinavia as a promised land of equality, while most conservatives fear it as a hotbed of liberty-threatening socialism. But the left and right can usually agree on one thing: that the Nordic system is impossible to replicate elsewhere. The US and UK are too big, or too individualistic, or too . . . something. In Viking Economics George Lakey dispels these myths. He explores the inner workings of the Nordic economies that boast the world’s happiest, most productive workers, and explains how we can enact some of the changes—including universal healthcare, affordable childcare, and a month of paid vacation for all—that the Scandinavians fought for surprisingly recently. We, too, can refuse to be governed by the elites and embrace equality in our economic policy—here’s how.

The book is an overview and analysis of the contemporary location, distribution and dynamics of economic activity, uneven geographies of growth and the local economic development processes. Focus is on the localisation of the knowledge economy and talent, e.g. the part of the labour force which is central to the production, use and distribution of knowledge. The urban turn emphasises the importance of cities and city regions as the key places that generates economic growth in modern capitalism. The resurgence of large cities has happened concurrently with the rise of the knowledge economy and together with the increased use of talent. Thus, this book examines the relationships between the knowledge economy and city regions and how this challenge local and regional development.