The 7th Nordic Challenges Conference “Uncertain Futures: Nordic (In-)Securities, New Geopolitics and Societal Ruptures“ will start next Wednesday. We have ahead of us exiting program with 83 participants, 2 key notes, 17 panels and 2 roundtables.
Conference themes:
Political Identities and Loyalties: What (has) happened to the Nordic model? Liberal democracy: assessing the damage; nationalism and authoritarianism; populism: Nordic trends and international comparisons; Nordic democracy contributions to democratic innovation on a global scale; Nordic democratic resources and global challenges: climate change, ecological collapse and information wars.
The Impact of the Ukraine War: The end of Swedish and Finnish non-alignment; pan-Nordic security options and new European security constellations; the revival of geopolitics and Cold War tensions; the role of the Nordic countries in a post-war settlement; the ecological consequences of the war; re-examining Nordic relationships with Russia; post-war Russian scenarios, potentials, alternatives: socio-political and cultural responses to the war on “our doorstep” as against “other wars”; exceptionalist policies and Ukrainian refugees in the Nordic countries.
Gender Identities and Culture Wars: The Nordic approach in transnational comparison; transgender debates, consequences, reception; shifts in forward facing policies and cultural practices; the evolution and current state of Nordic policies and guidelines; engaging with and transforming existing policies on sexual harassment at the workplace; SOGIE refugees and asylum seekers.
History, Memory and Tainted Pasts: The politics of memory and forgetting; Nordic collaboration and resistance; colonialism and decolonization: rights, legacies, and complicity; Nordic discourses on development, self-determination and historical violence; intra-Nordic colonial histories; the archaeology of narratives of colonized and the colonizers; from contestations to reconciliations: migration, policies, cultural discourses and collaborations.
Arctic Spaces and Narratives: The end of Arctic exceptionalism; competitive versus cooperative Arctic narratives; the effects of climate change; Nordic cooperation and Arctic governance; historical and contemporary narratives of Arctic geopolitics; (dis-)engaging with Russia in the Arctic; the Nordics and China’s Polar Silk Road project; the role of the Nordic countries in the U.S.-China global rivalry; economic, social, political, and cultural trajectories in Arctic communities; hegemonic power, decolonization and indigeneity in the Arctic; the colonial politics of the “Third Pole”: taking the Arctic model to the Himalayas.
See the entire program on conference website: https://edda.hi.is/renew_2024_programme/
We are looking forward to seeing you in Reykjavík!