Nordic Horizons

Moving Kiruna - digital meeting notes

Following a sold out Nordic Horizons meeting, here are the meeting notes. You can download Krister Lindstedt's fascinating powerpoint presentation, you can listen to the whole presentation and view a short video interview with Krister Lindstedt.

It's all here -  please feel free to share and pass on. If you are interested , there is a fairly extensive archive of digital materials to explore on this website, Soundcloud and Vimeo channels.

Uffe Elbaek - the audio

For those of you fortunate enough to be at the "People Power - Towards Equality Through Technology"; you were able to hear the inspiring Uffe Elbaek in person. His presentation was stunning as he recounted his journey from activist to starting a new political platform in Denmark. As a gifted public speaker, he held the Nordic Horizons audience wrapt. Men sitting in an office, a coffee pot and a young woman with the ambition to invade the Soviet Union (but with no plan) are the unlikely starting points for this inspiring story. Uffe explains his personal journey to becoming an MP and what happened next. He also talks about the future and what he hopes to achieve based on moving away from 'the illness of old politics'. His recipe for the new political platform is thought provoking.

For ease of listening, we have broken the audio up into three separate tracks - in the first section "From Actor to MP" , Uffe outlines the background from 'Front Runners' to becoming a MP. In the second section, "How to create a Political Party"  he talks about the reasons which led him and others to consider a different path. He speculates on the importance of being attractive, flirting and dancing in politics. He also outlines the values based manifesto of the new platform of Alternativet; the Alternative.

Finally, Uffe also talked briefly about the role of entrepreneurship and the various models - this short section, "Types of Entrepreneurs" galvanised the audience.

It was an exceptional event and these recordings are full of the atmosphere and information - please enjoy and share widely.

Nordic Cooperation - Meeting Report

Nordic Co-operation - Meeting Report

Members Restaurant Scottish Parliament

5th November 6-8.30pm

Hosted by Jayne Baxter MSP

Chaired by journalist and NH Director Lesley Riddoch

As promised, this meeting was recorded in three sections. In the first section, there are welcomes (5 minutes approx. ) from Jayne Baxter MSP, Humza Yousaf MSP, and Lesley Riddoch. There follows a short presentation (20 minutes approx. ) from Mary Hilson, UCL lecturer and author of ‘Nordic Model’, who outlines the historical background and context for ‘Nordic Cooperation’. Johan Strang, from the Centre for Nordic Studies University of Helsinki and author of the ‘Nordic Communities’ report , presented a wide ranging examination of ‘Nordic Cooperation’ ( 20 minutes approx. )

Download the Nordic Cooperation Presentations Audio here - ( 33Mb)

The second section is a recording of the ‘Question and Answer’ session where the audience gets an opportunity to pose questions, make assertions and generally discuss ‘Nordic Cooperation’. This section lasts for approximately  70 minutes.

Download the Nordic Cooperation Question and Answer session - ( 51 Mb)

 

And finally, it is important never to mention birthdays to the cheerful Nordic Horizons crowd, as our host Jayne Baxter MSP found out. The reason? They will sing ‘Happy Birthday ‘to you.

Here’s the short section of evidence…Happy Birthday Jayne.

Nordic Welfare - a DIY Guide - A Short Audio Precis

Nordic Welfare Event Poster

After the meeting about Nordic Welfare with Profs Jon Kvist and Jochen Clasen, we have recorded a short summary podcast with Lesley Riddoch giving her report and initial thoughts.

You can download and listen to Nordic Welfare - A Short Guide with Lesley Riddoch

If you would like a copy of the presentation which is an excellent guide to the Danish Welfare perspective, we have posted a full copy of Prof Kvist slides here. The full audio recordings of the presentations and lively Q&A session are also available here.

Is the evolution of social democracy in Norway relevant to Scotland?

This is the provocative title for an article written by Øivind Bratberg of the University of Oslo. It is an edited version of his presentation to Nordic Horizons in June. You can download and read the article in full here.
 

Norway, independence, social democracy and Scotland's referendum - the notes

 

Lesley, Jenny Marra, Nicola, Oivind

The meeting was a huge success and thanks to all involved. Jenny Marra MSP for hosting, Oivind Bratberg of Oslo University for presenting ( his speech  is available for download here. ) , Nicola McEwen of Edinburgh University for responding, Lily Greenan has supplied extensive meeting notes which can be downloaded here. and Rhona McLaren supplied the photo. Lesley has blogged about the event here. An audio recording of the event is being edited. The Facebook page remains open for business; discussions and insights.

The full "Finns can only get better " presentation

As promised, Dr Tapio Lappi-Seppälä has sent on a full copy of his slides which he used at the recent meeting of Nordic Horizons. They are full and comprehensive and  and available here as "the Scotland 2012 Finnish prison reduction presentation ".

As a reminder, you can listen to the presentation recording in real time by downloading the audio recording below. ( Tapio starts speaking about 7 minutes in ) .

 

Download the "Finns can only get better" Podcast

 

The full Pasi Sahlberg presentation

Pasi Sahlberg has kindly let us have a copy of his slides from his presentation. It's a big file ( 3+ mb ) and you can download it here. Download Pasi Sahlberg Presentation in the Scotland Parliament 2012