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Academic Program ACADEMIC PROGRAM A SOCIALLY COHERENT SOCIETY: PROSPECTS FOR SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT IN DENMARK AND THE NETHERLANDS Historically, Denmark and the Netherlands have both been successful in establishing a socially coherent society. This is e.g. reflected in high levels of subjective wellbeing, trust and social security. At this academic event, leading Danish and Dutch social scientists discuss how these qualities of Danish and Dutch societies are to be maintained in the future. The point of departure is that these qualities cannot be taken for granted as both societies transform both demographically and socially. The family structure gets more fragile and the populations get more ethnically diverse in times in which our societies face the challenges of maintaining a solid economy. At the symposium, the character, the implications and the potential constructive reactions to these societal developments will be discussed. In the general sessions, leading academic scholars will present their research on Denmark and the Netherlands. In the roundtable session, participants will be invited to enter the discussions under the headings of “Happiness and wellbeing – challenges and solutions”. Their Majesties the King and Queen of the Netherlands will attend selected sessions at the conference. Finally, all participants are invited to take part in a reception hosted by the Netherlands Embassy and Aalborg University following the conference. The symposium will be moderated by journalist and philosopher Stine Jensen and Professor in Scandinavian Language and Culture Henk van der Liet. Venue: Aalborg University Copenhagen, A.C. Meyers Vænge 15, Auditorium ACM15 Registration: The symposium is free and open to all students, scholars and other citizens with an interest in the social development in Denmark and the Netherlands. Please register at https:// karrierecentret.nemhost.dk/Signup.html?ts_arra_id_tilmeld=246&tpl_ opret_ts_tilmeld (maximum number of participants is 100). WELCOME 9.00 - 9.30 Registration 9.30 - 9.40 Welcome by Rector Per Michael Johansen, Aalborg University (tbc) and Professor Christian Albrekt Larsen, Centre for Compare Welfare Studies GENERAL SESSIONS Theme I: Wellbeing and family: Demographic changes and societal development in Denmark and the Netherlands Presentation 1: Gender, empowerment and politics: Perspectives on Welfare and Democracy. Professor Anette Borchorst, Center for Comparative Welfare Studies, Aalborg University, Denmark Presentation 2: Happy children and content women in two almost similar welfare regimes. Professor Trudie Knijn, Centre for Social Policy and Intervention Studies, Utrecht University Break Presentation 3: Time between job and care in Denmark and the Netherlands - How configurations of care policies shape the patterns of informal care for children and older people. Professor Tine Rostgaard, Center for Comparative Welfare Studies, Aalborg University Discussion theme I 11.30 – 12.20: Lunch break Theme II: Happiness and safety: Trends in happiness and wellbeing in Denmark and the Netherlands Presentation 4: Happiness, social security and small scale democracy in Denmark Professor Jørgen Goul Andersen, Center for Comparative Welfare Studies, Aalborg University. Presentation 5: Why are the Danes happier than the Dutch? Professor Ruut Veenhoven, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Erasmus happiness Research Organization EHERO Discussion theme II Break Theme III: Trust, solidarity and immigration: Building high trust and solidarity in ethnic diverse societies Presentation 6: Trust and solidarity in Denmark and the challenge from migration Professor Christian Albrekt Larsen, Center for Comparative Welfare Studies, Aalborg University Presentation 7: Social trust, in-group solidarity and out-group exclusion in the Netherlands: cross-national and longitudinal comparisons Professor Peer Scheepers, Radboud University Nijmegen Break ROUNDTABLE SESSION Introduction by Stine Jensen & Henk van der Liet Roundtable discussions The Dutch and Danish societies on the move. Summing up by Stine Jensen & Henk van der Liet RECEPTION 16.10-17.00 Reception ABOUT THE MODERATORS Dr. Stine Jensen is a philosopher, writer, journalist and TV program maker. She has made a documentary series about Scandinavia for Dutch television. One of the documentaries focused specifically on Denmark, the country where she was born. She is also a writer of philosophical and nonfiction books and regularly writes opinion pieces for the Dutch newspaper NRC. Prof. Dr. Henk van der Liet is a professor in Scandinavian Languages and Culture at the University of Amsterdam. He is also a board member of University College Nordjylland and a member of the Advisory Board of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Copenhagen. Starting in 2012 and for a 4-year period, Henk van der Liet serves as chairman of the Board of the Danish Writers Academy in Copenhagen (Forfatterskolen). ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Anette Borchorst is a professor at the Department of Political Science, Aalborg University. Her research has focused at gender relations and welfare states in a Comparative Nordic and European perspective, and she also works with the impact of Europeanization on welfare states. She is currently the director of two research projects about gender and politics that have obtained funding from the VELUX and Carlsberg foundations. The projects cover historical and recent developments in gender and politics and policy, and they aim at perspectivizing the 100 years of female suffrage in Denmark in June 2015. Professor Ruut Veenhoven studied sociology. He is also accredited in social psychology and social- sexology. Veenhoven is emeritus professor of ‘social conditions for human happiness’ at Erasmus University Rotter¬dam in the Netherlands, where he is currently involved in the Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization. Veenhoven is also a special professor at North-West University in South Africa, where he is involved in the Optentia research program. He is director of the World Database of Happiness and founding editor of the Journal of Happiness Studies. Jørgen Goul Andersen is a professor at the Center for Comparative Welfare Studies, Aalborg University. MSc Political Science 1977, assistant/associate prof. Pol.Science Aarhus 1977-1995; professor of political sociology Aalborg since 1995 (professor of political science, Aarhus University, 2009-2011). Co-directing the Danish Power and Democracy Study 1998-2003. Jørgen Goul Andersen has published intensively on the Danish and Nordic welfare states; both on political, sociological and economic aspects. Jørgen Goul Andersen has given academic consultancy to a large number of Danish ministries and has been in the scientific advisory board for TrygFonden (2008-present) and the Rockwool Foundation (1997-2010) Tine Rostgaard is a professor in social welfare analysis at the Center for Welfare Studies (CCWS), at Aalborg University, Denmark. Her research contributions have mainly been to the field of social care for children and elderly, and more specifically to the understanding of care regimes, family obligations, welfare mix, consummerism in care and quality in care. She has published widely on family policy, amongst other as the co-editor of the books ‘Caring Fathers in the Nordic Welfare States - Policies and Practices of Contemporary Fatherhoods’ and ‘Care Between Work and Welfare in Europe’, and is presently editing a Handbook in child and family policy for Elgar. Trudie Knijn graduated in sociology at the University of Tilburg (1978) and worked as a lecturer and junior researcher at the department of Cultural Psychology of the Radboud University (Nijmegen). She got her PhD in 1988 on a study on ‘motherhood, self-development and duty’. Since 1985 she works at Utrecht University, where she became full professor of Interdisciplinary Social Science in 2003. Currently she is head of the Centre for Social Policy and Intervention Studies (SOPINS), and member of the UU priority programs ‘Institutions’ and ‘Professional Performance’. She founded and coordinated (1993 – 2003) the European network ‘Women, Citizenship and Welfare State’. From 2007 to 2014 she was co-chair of the board of ESPAnet, and coordinator of the National Associations of ESPAnet. She was one of the founders and researchers of the Netherlands Kinship panel Study, member of the Executive committee of the FP6 Network of Excellence Reconciling Work and Welfare (RECWOWE), and PI of the research programme Pathways to Work. Currently she coordinates master students projects of the Faculty of Social Science in South Africa, and is a visiting professor of the University of Johannesburg, and co-PI of the Ndlovu Research Consortium on HIV/Aids. She is also member of the executive committee of the FP7 research program bEUcitizen, PI of the ORA research program ‘Governing new Social Risks’, and participant of the Horizon 2020 programme ‘Solidus’. Peer Scheepers is a full professor of comparative methodology and vice-dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He is member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 2004). His scientific interests are to describe and explain societal phenomena regarding in-group solidarity (e.g., trust and social capital) and exclusion of out-groups (e.g., denial of civil rights for minorities and voting for political parties aiming to exclude minorities) from a longitudinal and/or cross-national perspective. He has conducted survey research on these topics
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