Sustainable Modernity
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i Sustainable Modernity In the 21st century, Norway, Denmark and Sweden remain the icons of fair societies, with high economic productivity and quality of life. But they are also an enigma in a cultural-evolutionary sense: though by no means following the same socio- economic formula, they are all cases of a “non- hubristic”, socially sustainable modernity that puzzles outside observers. Using Nordic welfare states as its laboratory, Sustainable Modernity combines evolutionary and socio- cultural perspectives to illuminate the mainsprings of what the authors call the “well- being society”. The main contention is that Nordic uniqueness is not merely the outcome of one particular set of historical institutional or political arrangements, or sheer historical luck; rather, the high welfare creation inherent in the Nordic model has been predicated on a long and durable tradition of social cooperation, which has interacted with global competitive forces. Hence the socially sustainable Nordic modernity should be approached as an integrated and tightly orchestrated ecosystem based on a complex interplay of cooperative and competitive strategies within and across several domains: normative- cultural, socio- political and redistributive. The key question is: Can the Nordic countries uphold the balance of competition and cooperation and reproduce their resilience in the age of globalization, cultural collisions, the digital economy, the fragmentation of the work/life div- ision and often intrusive EU regulation? With contributors providing insights from the humanities, the social sciences and evolutionary science, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, sociology, history, institutional eco- nomics, Nordic studies and human evolution studies. Nina Witoszek is a research professor at the Centre for Development and the Environment, Norway, and the Director of the Arne Næss Programme on Global Justice and the Environment at the University of Oslo, Norway. Atle Midttun is a professor at the BI Norwegian School of Management, Department of Law and Governance, Norway; the Co-Director of the Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Denmark; and the Co-Director of the Centre for Energy and Environment, UK. ii Routledge Studies in Sustainability www.routledge.com/ Routledge- Studies- in- Sustainability/ book- series/ RSSTY Energy and Transport in Green Transition Perspectives on Ecomodernity Edited by Atle Midttun and Nina Witoszek A Political Economy of Attention, Mindfulness and Consumerism Reclaiming the Mindful Commons Peter Doran Sustainable Communities and Green Lifestyles Consumption and Environmentalism Tendai Chitewere Aesthetic Sustainability Product Design and Sustainable Usage Kristine H. Harper Stress, Affluence and Sustainable Consumption Cecilia Solér Digital Technology and Sustainability Engaging the Paradox Edited by Mike Hazas and Lisa P. Nathan Personal Sustainability Exploring the Far Side of Sustainable Development Edited by Oliver Parodi and Kaidi Tamm Sustainable Modernity The Nordic Model and Beyond Edited by Nina Witoszek and Atle Midttun iii Sustainable Modernity The Nordic Model and Beyond Edited by Nina Witoszek and Atle Midttun iv First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Nina Witoszek and Atle Midttun; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Nina Witoszek and Atle Midttun to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 71821- 0 (hbk) ISBN: 978- 1- 315- 19596- 4 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Out of House Publishing v Contents List of figures vii List of tables viii List of contributors ix Foreword xi 1 Sustainable modernity and the architecture of the “well- being society”: interdisciplinary perspectives 1 NINA WITOSZEK AND ATLE MIDTTUN 2 Cooperation, competition and multi- level selection: a new paradigm for understanding the Nordic model 18 DAVID SLOAN WILSON AND DAG O. HESSEN 3 Nordic humanism as a driver of the welfare society 36 NINA WITOSZEK AND ØYSTEIN SØRENSEN 4 Individualism and collectivism in Nordic schools: a comparative approach 59 KIRSTI KLETTE 5 Scaling up solidarity from the national to the global: Sweden as welfare state and moral superpower 79 LARS TRÄGÅRDH 6 Scandinavian feminism and gender partnership 102 CATHRINE HOLST 7 A welfare “regime of goodness”? Self- interest, reciprocity, and the moral sustainability of the Nordic model 119 KELLY MCKOWEN vi vi Contents 8 Challenges to the Nordic work model in the age of globalized digitalization 139 ATLE MIDTTUN 9 Between individualism and communitarianism: the Nordic way of doing politics 160 NIK BRANDAL AND DAG EINAR THORSEN 10 Civilising global capitalism: aligning CSR and the welfare state 187 ATLE MIDTTUN 11 Eco- modernity Nordic style: the challenge of aligning ecological and socio- economic sustainability 204 ATLE MIDTTUN AND LENNART OLSSON Afterword: lessons from the Nordic model – the US perspective 229 JEROME LIEBERMAN AND PAMELA IZVANARIU Index 237 vii Figures 1.1 Within- domain and across- domain sustainability 6 8.1 Disabled as a share of the population by age groups 149 8.2 Top income shares 1875– 2011 150 8.3 Advanced functional flexibility and teamwork, by country 155 10.1 Government strategies to increase compatibility between CSR and advanced welfare states’ policies 190 10.2 Cross- national CSR performance in 2007 and 2012 194 10.3 Partnered governance 196 11.1 Ecological footprints in 2013 of selected industrial countries (in global hectares) 209 11.2 Territorial emissions of CO2 (tonnes/ capita) of four Nordic countries and the EU from 1990 to 2014 210 11.3 CO2 emissions from the four Nordic countries and the average of EU countries (tonnes/ capita) 212 viii Tables 2.1 Eight Core Design Principles required for groups to function as collective units 27 4.1 How different aspects of deregulation have impacted on education in Nordic countries 67 8.1 Nordic performance 153 11.1 GDP per capita, 11 highest European countries 208 11.2 EU Member States’ GHG reduction targets 213 ix Contributors Nik Brandal is Assistant Professor in International Studies at Bjørknes University College, Oslo, Norway. Dag O. Hessen is Professor of Biology, Dept of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Norway. He works primarily on evolution and ecology, from genes to ecosystem processes. He specializes in studying carbon cycling and climate, and his numerous publications focus on what can be labelled as “humans in nature – and the nature in humans”. Cathrine Holst is a professor at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Norway. She is also connected to ARENA– Center for European Studies, University of Oslo, and CORE– Center for Research on Gender Equality at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo. She has published extensively on feminism and gender equality policy, democratic and political theory, the role of expertise in policy- making, European integration and the Nordic model. Pamela Izvanariu is a legal scholar and practitioner and sociologist, who specializes in the nexus between labour, race and immigration. She has served as director of Florida International University’s Research Institute for Social and Economic Policy, USA. Kirsti Klette is a professor at the University of Oslo, Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, Norway. Her research interests include teaching and learning, teacher quality, classroom studies and comparative studies. She is currently the principal investigator in a project on Nordic Comparative Classroom Analyses (Justice through Education (JustEd)) and a large-scale classroom video study Linking Instruction and Student Achievement (LISA). Jerome Lieberman is co-founder and secretary/treasurer of the Evolution Institute, an international science think tank. His studies and work have been focused on applying theory to practice for the purpose of improving quality of life, especially in communities and regions where inequality and social injustice remain prevalent. x x List of contributors Kelly McKowen is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Princeton University, USA. His research focuses on the intersection of cul- ture, morality and the welfare state in Scandinavia and the United States. At present, he is completing his dissertation project – an ethnographic study of unemployment and ethics in Norway. Atle Midttun is a professor at the BI Norwegian Business School, Department of Law and Governance, Norway.