Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The presumption of a shared regional identity, commonly referred to as Nordicity, serves as a starting point for many scholars' accounts of Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian policy-making. However, most accounts admit that the contours of this Nordicity are fuzzy. The end of the Cold War and increasing ties to the EU have further blurred identity boundaries. Moreover, the informal or non-sovereignty geared system of Nordic cooperation with its emphasis on free-will participation and the symbolics of family togetherness leaves scholars to grapple with a regional configuration that appears to lack any explicit core. The contested nature of Nordicity has many implications for Scandinavian policymakers and theorists, the most disturbing (or liberating) of which is that there may be no basis to expect and undertake common Nordic action. Without identity, no action. This paper explores the relationship between narration and identity – the ways in which features of Nordicity are or are not articulated in Scandinavian newspapers on an issue of key political and social importance during the last decades, HIV/AIDS. It is hoped that a textual analysis of the sense-making media strategies in five Scandinavian newspapers on an issue of shared importance will help to make sense of the shape of post-Cold War Nordicity using a different set of analytical tools than is commonly employed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper contributes to the discussion about the occupational gender gap in postindustrial societies by combining the skill thesis of the varieties of capitalism-approach with the impact of motherhood policies and child care institutions. The theoretical argument holds that the segregating effect of specific skill profils is reinforces by motherhood policies as long maternitiy leaves and mitigated by child care institutions as these institutions change the behaviour of female labor particiants and employers equally. Further, I provide a better conceptualisation of the horizontal dimension of occupational gender gap by including non-employed women. Common measures of horizontal occupational gender gap have neglected the systematic differences between non-employed women and non-employed men by focusing solely on employed women. I argue that non-employed women differ from non-employed men as non-employed women often work as unpaid mothers and houswives. The empirical analysis of 16 postindustrial societies shows that including these female occupation into the conceptualisation gap allows to explain a remarkable part of the difference in the occupational gender gap between Continental and Scandinavian countries.

Publication Type: Symposium Paper
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the ethical dimension of school leaders’ work in Scandinavian countries. The paper provides an overview of the theoretical concepts associated with ethics, morals and values and examines their practical application in the context of Scandinavian school administration. An ethical framework is used to demonstrate the analysis of several dilemmas that principals encounter in their daily work as well as the implications for school leaders’ work, administrator preparation programs, in-service training and for school policy.

The assumption that schooling is merely about academic skills has been questioned in recent decades by scholars whose attention has focused not only on the knowledge component of the schools’ mission, but also on teaching as a moral enterprise. Ethics have an impact on educational ideologies and the politics of policy making which, in turn, become manifested through leadership actions in specific educational contexts. The importance of educators’ and school leaders’ ethics, values, moral conduct and performance has been increasingly stressed in the literature and closely linked to the creation of the school’s culture. Leaders are expected to communicate values, have a vision for how their schools can improve their performance, and also have the ability to create a culture and a forward-looking structure that can include all stakeholders.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Scandinavian welfare states are regularly described as being universalistic, public, egalitarian and supporting strong redistributive efforts among citizens. The Scandinavian legal cultures are to some extent based on the assumption that all citizens are included in the social infrastructure of the welfare state. When studying disability in this context, limits of welfare state law become visible as the redistributive dimensions in the welfare states are heavily influenced by perceptions of normality and ideal social requirements for inclusion and citizenship. Social citizenship is determined in a qualification process based on rights and obligations and law is part of this ongoing process of designing social citizenship and of articulating subjects and normality.

At the very same time traditional redistributive welfare state law is challenged by new proactive understandings of concepts regarding human rights and anti discrimination. Major sources of these influences are the Anglo Saxon legal systems and these new approaches are channeled in part by the general globalization and particularly by the integrating processes of the European Union. Thus, the traditional redistributive concepts of Scandinavian welfare state law are challenged by concepts of recognition and individual rights. This transformative development raises important questions on how to enhance welfare state law with the dimensions of recognition without endangering the dimensions of redistribution. Such questions may regard important issues of participation, dependency and representation for people with disabilities. With a point of departure in feminist legal theory important normative structures on normality and disability become visible and thus accessible for critique and analysis.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the gendered division of labor in the medical profession and the implications of the feminization thesis.The paper has two purposes. First, it aims to illuminate the gendered division of labor among medical specialties in Finland and Lithuania, where the majority of physicians are women. It shows
that while 93 % of the pediatricians were women in Lithuania, only 11% of the surgeons were women. Second, it explores the culture of surgery and pediatrics in Lithuania in order to account for the implications of the feminization thesis.