Suchergebnisse

The project focused on the emergency management systems in the five Nordic countries. It investigated whether local social services have a formal role in the contingency planning of the systems. The project was part of The Nordic Welfare Watch research project during the Icelandic Presidency Program in the Nordic Council of Ministers 2014-2016. The council financed the project.The main findings show that Finland, Norway and Sweden specifically address the role of social services in times of disaster in their legal frameworks on emergency management. Finland and Norway also address the role in the law on social services. In Sweden, the role is more implicit as the social service act applies regardless of circumstances. All countries expect all authorities to make a contingency plan. This means that even if the law in Denmark and Iceland does not address the roles of social services, the services are legally obligated to make contingency plans. Furthermore, Finland, Norway and Sweden have prepared special guidelines on contingency planning for social services.In recent years the Nordic countries have all faced disasters due to natural, technical and man-made hazards. The frequency of such disasters is on the rise according to forecasts. In order to enhance resilience and preparedness of those most vulnerable in disasters, the involvement of local social services in the emergency management system is of vital importance. The literature shows how social services can enhance social and human investment, the citizen's economic participation and political empowerment. Furthermore, the literature shows that the co-operation between social services and the voluntary sector during the emergency and recovery phases is crucial, and the Red Cross is usually the largest voluntary organization providing social services during disasters in all the countries.The following recommendations build on the results of the project. Their purpose is to make the Nordic Welfare States more resilient and better prepared for future ...

The lands in the northernmost corner of Europe present contradictory aspects in their social and economic development. Urban settlements are relatively few and small-sized, but rich natural resources (minerals, forests, rivers) attract energy-intensive industries. Energy demand is increasing as a result of new investments in mining and industries, while reliable energy supply is threatened by the planned phase out of Swedish nuclear power, the growth of intermittent power supplies and the need to reduce fossil fuel consumption, especially in the Finnish and Norwegian energy sectors. Given these challenges, this paper investigates the potentials of so far unexploited energy resources in the northern counties of Finland, Norway and Sweden by comparing and critically analyzing data from statistic databases, governmental reports, official websites, research projects and academic publications. The criteria for the technical and economic definition of potentials are discussed separately for each resource. It is concluded that, despite the factors that reduce the theoretical potentials, significant sustainable techno-economic potentials exist for most of the resources, providing important insights about the possible strategies to contribute to a positive socio-economic development in the considered regions. ; Validerad;2018;Nivå 2;2018-04-09 (rokbeg)

Master's thesis in Global Development and Planning (UT505) ; Climate change mitigation is a collective effort, and different governmental levels must be involved in pursuing it. People in the Nordic counties have a high awareness of climate change, but there is a discrepancy between knowledge and implementation of climate-friendly policies locally. In recent years, Norway has seen the emergence of protest movements opposing restrictive climate change mitigation measures. These parallel and contradictory dimensions challenge and disrupt established forms of policymaking. The urban regions must strike a balance between national climate goals and potential local resistance. This qualitative case study explores these the socio-political dynamics and challenges oflocal-regional policymaking in increasingly politicised environments. The theoretical framework is built on three different fields of literature addressing communication, media and the fragmented (online) public sphere; consensual political culture in policymaking processes; and the role of local and rural identities in collaborative regional policymaking. The study examines local-regional strategy planning between four adjacent municipalities and the county using The Regional Area and Transport Plan for Arendal Region in Norway as an example.

Soft law, or non-legislative modes of policy making, is becoming increasingly common today. The Nordic countries have a long tradition soft law, not least in central-local relations, where non-binding agreements are frequently used to coordinate policies. A key question springing from soft law theory is that of compliance. Why do independent actors comply if they are not formally obliged to do so, and what happens if they do not comply? This article addresses the question of how compliance can be achieved during policy conflict between actors at different governing levels by investigating a case of health care reform in Sweden. An important finding in the study is that compliance was reached "in the shadow of hierarchy". The central government resorted to the threat of regular legislation to force the county councils to comply. This finding points to the fact that sanctions and the presence of a hierarchical order may play an important role even in soft law governance. The study also shows that an additional important reason that the voluntary agreement between the county councils and central government was honoured in the end by both parties can be attributed to the efforts of a mediating actor: the organization representing the county councils in their negotiations with the government. Finally, the study also illustrates how various forms of informal social pressures such as shaming, peer pressure and moral responsibility can help enforce local compliance in a case of open policy conflict. Arguably, all these compliance mechanisms also have relevance outside the Nordic setting. Adapted from the source document.

A central question is how to give elderly from the majority- and minority populations in Norway equivalent care services. In the project «Care Services for elderly persons with a non-western ethnic minority background» the aim has been to to give an overview of the knowledge from research and deve¬lopment on care services to elderly from ethnic minority groups in Norway and other Nordic counties, identify problems and propose further research. The project is financed by the Department of Integration and Diversity, Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion. There are many common questions in the Norwegian, Nordic and international research literature in this field. Main topics are: Availability and use of care services; family care vs. formal care services; general services vs. culture-specific or multicultural services; the user's choice and preferences and staffs' competence building. Questions about the adaptation of care services to meet the needs of elderly with a non-western ethnic minority background are complex and relates to central political and ideological questions as well as to practical everyday-care. The use of care services will depend upon many factors like health, living conditions and resources. Information is a crucial issue. Elderly with a minority ethnic back¬ground represent a great diversity. Some know the majority culture and language and have lived in Norway for years, some have recently arrived, some of them after traumatic experiences in their former homeland. Some live embedded in their families while others live on their own. Care staff often points to the need of an individual approach combined with cultural competence. We need more research to get more solid knowledge to estimate the use of community care services among elderly with a minority ethnic background as compared to the majority population. Important aspects about the use of services are information, communication, expectations of the care users and how the services fit their needs. ; Denne rapporten er et ledd i prosjektet "Eldre innvandrere - tilpasning av pleie og omsorgstilbudet" som finansieres av Integrerings- og mangfoldsavdelingen i Arbeids- og inkluderingsdepartementet. Et sentralt spørsmål er: Hvordan kan eldre med innvandrerbakgrunn nyttiggjøre seg omsorgstjenester på lik linje med majoritetsbefolkningen? Et mål med rapporten er å gi en kunnskapsoversikt over forskning og utviklingsarbeid om eldre med innvandrerbakgrunn og deres bruk av omsorgstjenester i Norge og i Norden. Det vises også til internasjonale studier. Tilrettelegging av omsorgstjenester for eldre med innvandrerbakgrunn er et omfattende tema som berører både sentrale politiske og ideologiske spørsmål og den konkrete omsorgshverdagen. Et økende antall eldre med innvandrerbakgrunn vil få behov for omsorgstjenester. Dette er brukere som representerer en stor variasjon i forhold til språklig og kulturell bakgrunn, og botid her i landet. Tilpasning av pleie- og omsorgstjenestene er en kontinuerlig prosess der dialog med brukerne er en forutsetning for å kunne forstå og møte deres behov.

A central question is how to give elderly from the majority- and minority populations in Norway equivalent care services. In the project «Care Services for elderly persons with a non-western ethnic minority background» the aim has been to to give an overview of the knowledge from research and deve¬lopment on care services to elderly from ethnic minority groups in Norway and other Nordic counties, identify problems and propose further research. The project is financed by the Department of Integration and Diversity, Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion. There are many common questions in the Norwegian, Nordic and international research literature in this field. Main topics are: Availability and use of care services; family care vs. formal care services; general services vs. culture-specific or multicultural services; the user's choice and preferences and staffs' competence building. Questions about the adaptation of care services to meet the needs of elderly with a non-western ethnic minority background are complex and relates to central political and ideological questions as well as to practical everyday-care. The use of care services will depend upon many factors like health, living conditions and resources. Information is a crucial issue. Elderly with a minority ethnic back¬ground represent a great diversity. Some know the majority culture and language and have lived in Norway for years, some have recently arrived, some of them after traumatic experiences in their former homeland. Some live embedded in their families while others live on their own. Care staff often points to the need of an individual approach combined with cultural competence. We need more research to get more solid knowledge to estimate the use of community care services among elderly with a minority ethnic background as compared to the majority population. Important aspects about the use of services are information, communication, expectations of the care users and how the services fit their needs. ; Denne rapporten er et ledd i prosjektet "Eldre innvandrere - tilpasning av pleie og omsorgstilbudet" som finansieres av Integrerings- og mangfoldsavdelingen i Arbeids- og inkluderingsdepartementet. Et sentralt spørsmål er: Hvordan kan eldre med innvandrerbakgrunn nyttiggjøre seg omsorgstjenester på lik linje med majoritetsbefolkningen? Et mål med rapporten er å gi en kunnskapsoversikt over forskning og utviklingsarbeid om eldre med innvandrerbakgrunn og deres bruk av omsorgstjenester i Norge og i Norden. Det vises også til internasjonale studier. Tilrettelegging av omsorgstjenester for eldre med innvandrerbakgrunn er et omfattende tema som berører både sentrale politiske og ideologiske spørsmål og den konkrete omsorgshverdagen. Et økende antall eldre med innvandrerbakgrunn vil få behov for omsorgstjenester. Dette er brukere som representerer en stor variasjon i forhold til språklig og kulturell bakgrunn, og botid her i landet. Tilpasning av pleie- og omsorgstjenestene er en kontinuerlig prosess der dialog med brukerne er en forutsetning for å kunne forstå og møte deres behov.

The present paper tries to depict how Sweden and Norway were represented in the novels Gösta Berling's Saga (1891) and Children of the Age (1913) written by the two Scandinavian Nobel Prize laureates, Selma Lagerlöf and Knut Hamsun, respectively. We will especially focus on the regions Värmland (in west central Sweden) and Nordland (in northern Norway). These two counties represent in fact the areas where Lagerlöf and Hamsun grew up and which they knew very well. Lagerlöf's story renders an area of mansion houses and ironworks from 1820, while Hamsun's novel dealing with the Segelfoss estate at a moment around 1870 depicts a society in change from old practices to modern times. Despite some supernatural elements in Gösta Berling's Saga, the two novels contribute to a geographical, social and economic identification with the regions under consideration. We thus find ourselves in front of two concentrated areas which resemble the real ones although the writing style of the authors is quite different, namely a neo-romantic way of writing with Lagerlöf versus Norwegian new realism with Hamsun.

Outdoor areas are important for adolescents, since they often lack access to other spaces. Focus group discussions were conducted with 15–16 year old girls and boys in Stockholm and Uppsala Counties, Sweden, to explore their ideas regarding threats they face when moving in public space, including traffic. The threats which emerged as most prominent were lone rapists—mainly threatening girls—or gangs of adolescent boys—threatening boys with violence and girls mainly with (sexual) harassment. Traffic, though sometimes admitted to be a major safety risk, was perceived as more manageable. Boys and girls suggest coping with social risks by behaving opposite to the gendered idea of a 'victim'—boys by being non-aggressive, girls by acting confidently. Boys portray themselves as level-headed, skilled and making rational risk assessments. Girls sometimes described themselves as behaving in an unsafe way in traffic, but not in relation to social/sexual threats.

AbstractThe Good Friday Agreement is transforming the model for implementing human rights in Ireland, aligning the protection of civil rights and liberties in the State more closely with the broader human rights movement in Europe and throughout the rest of the world. This article examines the orchestrated model for protecting human rights which emerges from four of the main human rights commitments undertaken by the Irish government in the Good Friday Agreement. These are: the definition of self-determination and abandonment of the Irish constitutional claim to the six counties of Northern Ireland, the guarantee of the `parity of rights' between the North and South of Ireland, the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms into Irish law, and the creation of a national Human Rights Commission. This orchestrated framework for human rights protection in Ireland offers a unique model for implementing international human rights obligations in an advanced democracy.

Northern Sweden is increasingly influenced by competing social interests striving for advantages and claiming territorial influence through "scalar politics". The strategic deployment of scalar conceptions is an integral part of policy making and implementation. Increasing use of varying scalar conceptions follows from "new spatial planning" practices. Set territorial delineations and administrative responsibilities are opened up to complex associational relationships with varying spatial claims. Focusing on territorial policies, this paper examines what orientations there are in territorial policy development in and for northern Sweden. The 29 municipalities embraced by the two northernmost counties Norrbotten and Västerbotten are the geographical delimitation of the study. As the analysis shows, the dominating scalar constructs relate to national and EU territorial policies rather than to competing constructs focused on Nordic, Barents and Arctic territorialization. ; publishedVersion

Northern Sweden is increasingly influenced by competing social interests striving for advantages and claiming territorial influence through "scalar politics". The strategic deployment of scalar conceptions is an integral part of policy making and implementation. Increasing use of varying scalar conceptions follows from "new spatial planning" practices. Set territorial delineations and administrative responsibilities are opened up to complex associational relationships with varying spatial claims. Focusing on territorial policies, this paper examines what orientations there are in territorial policy development in and for northern Sweden. The 29 municipalities embraced by the two northernmost counties Norrbotten and Västerbotten are the geographical delimitation of the study. As the analysis shows, the dominating scalar constructs relate to national and EU territorial policies rather than to competing constructs focused on Nordic, Barents and Arctic territorialization.

Strong geographical variations have been noted in the twinning rate (TWR). In general, the rate is high among people of African origin, intermediate among Europeans, and low among most Asiatic populations. In Europe, there tends to be a south–north cline, with a progressive increase in the TWR from south to north and a minimum around the Basque provinces. The highest TWRs in Europe have been found among the Nordic populations. Furthermore, within larger populations, small isolated subpopulations have been identified to have extreme, mainly high, TWRs. In the study of the temporal variation of the TWR in Norway, we consider the period from 1900 to 2014. The regional variation of the TWR in Norway is analyzed for the different counties for two periods, 1916–1926 and 1960–1988. Heterogeneity between the regional TWRs in Norway during 1916–1926 was found, but the goodness of fit for the alternative spatial models was only slight. The optimal regression model for the TWR in Norway has the longitude and its square as regressors. According to this model, the spatial variation is distributed in a west–east direction. For 1960–1988, no significant regional variation was observed. One may expect that the environmental and genetic differences between the counties in Norway have disappeared and that the regional TWRs have converged towards a common low level.

AbstractStrong geographical variations in the twinning rate have been presented in the literature. In general, the rate is high among people of African origin, intermediate among Europeans and low among most Asiatic populations. In Europe, a progressive increase has occurred in the twinning rate from south to north, with a minimum around the Basque provinces. The highest twinning rates in Europe have been found among Nordic populations with the exception of the Saamis (Lapps). Within larger populations, some small isolated subpopulations have been identified to have extreme, mainly high, twinning rates. In this study, we investigated the regional variation of the twinning rate in Sweden. We analysed twinning rates for different counties for the period 1751–1850. From the middle of the 19th century, the environmental and genetic differences have decreased and the regional twinning rates have converged towards a common decreased level. The models applied have the geographical coordinates as regressors. The optimal model for the twinning rate has the longitude, the latitude and their product as regressors, indicating both horizontal and vertical trends. According to this model, the maximum twinning rate in Sweden is located in the eastern part of central Sweden, mainly on the island of Gotland and in the counties around Stockholm. Relatively low twinning rates are seen in the western and northern parts of Sweden.

Developed nations, especially Nordic countries such as Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland allocate a sizeable portion of their budget for social welfare. On the contrary, developing counties' allocation for social welfare has been negligible. The question is: can state intervention through social welfare provisions ensure sustained economic growth? In other words, do social expenditures promote economic growth? This study seeks to answer this question by establishing links between social expenditures and economic growth in Australia and New Zealand, and draw lessons for fast developing ASEAN economies as they aspire to be developed nations soon. Using annual data from 1980 to 2012, we deploy cointegration and error correction methods for establishing long-run relationship between social expenditures and economic growth. We conduct Granger causality tests for testing short-term direction of causality among the variables. For Australia, economic growth is found to have three main determinants- education, health and social expenditures. For New Zealand, health and social expenditures have been found as the main determinants of growth. However, no long-run relationship could be established among the variables when we included budget deficit in our model. The Granger causality tests indicate that one way causality running from economic growth to health expenditure, and social expenditure to economic growth in Australia. In case of New Zealand, on the other hand, one-way causality runs from education expenditure to economic growth, health expenditure to education expenditure, economic growth to health expenditure, and education expenditure to budget deficit. Social welfare expenditures also Granger cause economic growth. Our findings suggest that social expenditures promoted growth in Australia and New Zealand. The fast developing economies such as Singapore and Malaysia, which aim to achieve the developed country status by 2020 and usually do not allocate sizeable portion of their budget for social welfare, should adopt more 'generous' social policies for the sake of a balanced development.