This breifing paper outlined the research questions and design associated with the study of Regional Action and European integration using fusion techniques. The paper draws upon some of the initial ideas developed for the successful Fusing Regions? project being funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers' research programme in 2007-2008
What do European regions do in order to influence the European Union? How can regions get the best out of the EU? This working paper represents the final stage in the first phase of an ongoing research project aiming at answering these questions by comparing regional actors’ activities towards the European Union.
The project focuses on: (i) exploring and categorising existing regional action among Nordic regional policy-makers, with an emphasis on assessing the attention given to, and the action undertaken by, these policy-makers on EU questions; (ii) evaluating the conceptions and attitudes of regional actors toward existing and future participation in EU-related frameworks in order to, (iii), facilitate the development of an empirically and theoretically informed model for comparing Nordic regional relations with the EU.
In this working paper the conceptual elements that will be used to describe and understand regional action are presented.
The research project is funded by Nordic Council of Ministers as part of the Internationalisation of Regional Development Policies – Needs and Demands in the Nordic Countries research programme and the Centre for Research on Regional Development (Cerut) at Karlstad University.
The challenging effects of globalization upon the nation-state have been a recurrent theme in the social science discourse since the 1990’s. Nationally organized education is also seen as challenged by new demands originating from globalization. In this article it is argued that ‘nation-state’ and ‘national identity’ are highly relevant concepts when discussing a citizenship education that seeks to develop a civic ethos with, potentially, a global reach. It is further argued that the understanding of such an ethos would benefit significantly from incorporating the role of political trust since trust has been identified as a main feature of the social capital that makes democracy work. Three themes are brought together: national identity and identification, the importance for democracy of political trust and the challenges citizenship education face when carried out in a national context but intended to manage issues that go far beyond the reach of the nation-state. The importance of citizenship education is discussed using recent research on the Swedish citizenship education classroom.
I denna bok berättar fjorton forskande lärare om sina forskningsresultat.
Resultaten handlar om bland annat betyg och bedömning, om prov och deras betydelse, om interkulturell undervisning, hur man kan intressera pojkar på yrkesprogram för politik och om lärarens position mitt emellan styrdokument och klassrumsverklighet. Lärarna är alla förre detta studenter från Forskarskolan i historia och samhällskunskap (FLHS) inom Lärarlyftets första omgång 2008-2010.
Genomgående för de fjorton bidragen är att de tar utgångspunkt i lärarens vardag och verklighet. Forskarutbildade lärare är därmed en viktig faktor för att knyta samman skola och forskning. Knytningen mellan skola och akademi är nödvändig om skollagens skrivning att utbildningen i den svenska skolan ska vila på både vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet ska bli verklighet.
I boken argumenteras också för att forskarskolor för yrkesverksamma lärare, som fortsätter sin lärargärning efter avslutad forskarutbildning, är ett viktigt medel för att knyta skola och akademi närmare varandra
In 2011, a Norwegian right-wing extremist killed 77 mostly young people in an attack on proponents of multiculturalism. A critical event of this magnitude is important in a nation’s collective memory. For young people’s political socialization and value orientation, it could be crucial. Adolescents’ memories and interpretations of terrorism are an understudied area. On the basis of different memory narratives among ethnic Norwegian adolescents, who were 13 or 14 in 2011, implications of the attacks, seen as a case of collective memory formation of terrorism, are discussed in terms of how young people remember and interpret the attacks and negotiate between competing narratives. Focus group interviews conducted in 2015–2016 with 18-year-olds showed a marked tension between support for democratic values and numerous references to individuals and organizations having critical views on immigration and diversity and the importance of active agents promoting the conflicting narratives.
The terror attacks in Norway 2011, targeting what the perpetrator described as proponents of immigration and multicultural society, created exceptional circumstances for people to reflect on issues of belonging. In this kind of situation it is assumed that people emphasize their affinity with the affected country. This, in turn, makes the problematization of the affinities displayed particularly interesting since the act of expressing them even in a very taxing situation indicates their importance. Texts by individuals from ethnic minorities, written soon after the attacks, are analysed in terms of conceptions of 'Norwegianness'. Results show explicit support for civic values but also multiple expressions of not feeling recognized as part of majority society also from individuals obviously acculturated to Norwegian lifestyles and cultural codes. These expressions are explained in terms of whiteness-non-whiteness and religion.
Results from a research project conducted among 1000 secondary school students inSweden are used for discussing superordinate national identity as a means for immigrantsintegration into democratic politics and the challenges this may present for social scienceeducation. The theoretical point of departure is taken within social identity theory, with emphasison its findings concerning relationships between superordinate and subgroup identities. It issuggested that a superordinate national identity perceived as inclusive, by immigrants and thenative population, would be conducive to integration into democratic nation-states. Such statesare seen as the dominant organizational form for democratic politics in the foreseeable future. It isargued that command of the dominant language of society is most important of the inclusivecriteria. Other such criteria are respect of the state's political institutions and feelings of belongingto the country where you live. The argument is supported by data, showing a majority ofsecondary school students of self-identified 'Swedish' or non-'Swedish' backgrounds in favourof inclusive criteria for a 'Swedish' national identity
The terror attacks in Norway in July 2011 led to massive popular mobilization as expressed in particular in thousands of memory messages displayed at spontaneous memorial sites. This article is based on a review and analysis of all messages collected in Oslo and in the area around Utøya island, using the concepts ‘critical event’, ‘national identity dynamic’, ‘depoliticization’ and ‘domestic alien’. It is shown that the predominant theme in the messages of peace and compassion is partly made possible by subordinate themes of depoliticization and of alienating the perpetrator from majority, national community, thus contributing to the continued construction of a Norwegian, national identity.
This rejoinder article takes the contributions in the Special Issue of Cooperation and Conflict – Vol. 46(3) – on Neutrality and ‘Military Non-Alignment’ as point of departure for a discussion of some of the problems former neutrals face in shaping their foreign and security policies. The author argues that current and future developments regarding neutrality norms are dependent on internal factors such as national identity and public opinion, and on external factors such as the military non-aligned states’ relationships to EU, NATO and, not least, the UN. The possibility of a ‘Second Option’ of full-scale military cooperation if a preferred neutral position fails is discussed. Increased UN activism, for example, connected with the R2P concept and the tendency to outsource major UN-mandated military operations to NATO, is touched upon as well as the Libya crisis of 2011 and some of its implications for European foreign and security policy cooperation. Special attention is given to current Swedish debates on military non-alignment and NATO membership.
This article discusses superordinate national identity as a means for immigrants integration into democratic polities. It is suggested that a superordinate national identity perceived as inclusive, by immigrants and by the native population, would be conducive to such integration. Command of the dominant language of society is seen as most important of the inclusive criteria. Other such criteria are respect of the country´s political institutions and feelings of belonging to the country where you live. The argument is supported by data, showing a majority in favour of inclusive criteria for ´Swedishness´, from a recent study among 1000 secondary school students of ´Swedish´ and non-´Swedish´ backgrounds.
Results from a research project conducted among 1000 secondary school students in Sweden are used for discussing superordinate national identity as a means for immigrants integration into democratic polities and the challenges this may present for social science education. The discussion is presented in the form of an article, intended for publishing. The theoretical point of departure is taken within social identity theory, with emphasis on its findings concerning relationships between superordinate and subgroup identities. It is suggested that a superordinate national identity perceived as inclusive, by immigrants and the native population, would be conducive to integration into democratic nation-states. Such states are seen as the dominant organizational form for democratic polities in the foreseeable future. It is argued that command of the dominant language of society is most important of the inclusive criteria. Other such criteria are respect of the state´s political institutions and feelings of belonging to the country where you live. The argument is supported by data, showing a majority of secondary school students of self-identified ´Swedish´ or non-´Swedish´ backgrounds in favour of inclusive criteria for a ´Swedish´ national identity. This ´civic´ understanding of national identity highlighting the importance of a dominant and culturally non-neutral language is implicitly critical to the predominant concept of ´multiculturalism´. Thus, issues of inclusion and exclusion are paradoxically problematized, since multiculturalism is often seen as an including approach. For social science education, in school and in teacher training, this paradox presents a challenge with its focus on questions I would like to highlight in the concluding discussion: How is a civic understanding of ´inclusion´ to be understood as opposed to a multicultural? And: Which are the consequences of a civic understanding for matters of recognition of minority groups and their rights?