In his letter to the editor Johan Strang reflects on Nordic cooperation and the handling of coronavirus pandemic asking why the countries failed to coordinate their policies and why the joint efforts were so few? Strang argues that this points not only at a lack of priority of Nordic cooperation at government level, but also at weakened networks of so called “everyday” cooperation, that is, the informal routinized contacts between different actors in the different Nordic countries. Traditionally a special strength of Nordic cooperation, these practices of everyday cooperation have during recent years been neglected by the governments who during recent decades have reduced the support of the institutions that uphold these networks. As a result the Nordic cooperation was incapacitated in the face of crisis.
Read the entire letter to the editor:
Johan Strang: Det nordiska samarbetet står handfallet inför kriser som drabbar hela regionen på en gång, Hufvudstadsbladet 26.2.2020
More on Nordic cooperation and practices of everyday cooperation:
Nordic cooperation: A European Region in Transition, Johan Strang (ed.). Routledge, 2016.
Det nordiska samarbetets vardagspraktiker: vad vet vi om dessa förutom att de har varit / är viktiga? Henrik Stenius and Heidi Haggrén, Pohjola-Norden 2005.