Nordic Branding: The Politics of Exceptionalism

We kick off a new blog and interview series on the results of the Nordic Branding project.

Photo credit: Bryan Boyer.

A Research Project

Nordic exceptionalism is often treated – or tested – as a fact. In scholarship, there is no shortage of glowing descriptions of the region’s global performance. The Nordics are ‘moral superpowers’ (Dahl 2006), ‘agents of a world common good’ (Bergman 2007), ‘havens of gender equality’ (UN-CEDAW 2003), and the ‘referent’ for welfare states (Esping-Andersen 1990).

However, correct or not, such statements can be themselves treated as research objects, something we can study. We can ask how and why did these ideas and narratives of exceptionalism emerge? Who drove their development? And how are they used strategically in politics and practice?

These questions formed the core of the Nordic Branding: Politics of Exceptionalism research project at UiO:Nordic. Its starting point was that these striking and consistent descriptions of the Nordics were suggestive of a “brand” – specific, simple, and stable. Moreover, they emerged especially in a global environment characterized by political and economic competition and rankings. Thus, we were curious as to whether Nordic exceptionalism might be better (and critically) understood with the help of marketing and branding theory.

In the months to come, we will share in this blog series some of the results. Through short interviews, you will meet many of the 35 researchers from different countries, institutions, and disciplines that worked on the project.

Beyond Nordic exceptionalism

This group of researchers was brought together by a shared interest in moving beyond conventional explanations of the Nordic model(s). For decades, scholars have addressed Nordic exceptionalism with a departure point in the societal successes in the region. And the explanation for success is usually a ‘Nordic model’.

The most-discussed model has been the welfare systems of Nordic countries, with an emphasis on the region as such, or one of its individual countries – Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, or Iceland. Gøsta Esping-Andersens typology of welfare states regimes placed these countries – with their ‘social democratic’ model – firmly at the centre of the global research agenda. With its generous and universalist programs and ambition of reducing social inequality, this model has deeply influenced the global image of the Nordics. Yet, as Carl Marklund and Klaus Petersen have shown, this welfarist discourse about the Nordics emerged already in the 1930s, especially in the USA. It was later adopted in the Nordic region and thereafter exported out again.

Social welfare is only one of many Nordic models and ‘brands’. Our research group has tracked many narratives of Nordic exceptionalism. These include gender equality, criminal justice, democracy, international development aid, child rights, peace, rule of law, and even fashion, fish products and interior architecture. In these narratives, we find often two common threads. The first is that Nordic models almost always are described as ‘natural’, ‘democratic’, ‘egalitarian’, and ‘humanist’ – even when it concerns furniture design! The second is that the narratives are the result of a complex and historical interplay of actors across the world with different motivations and means.

Why branding?

Our choice to draw upon theories from the field of marketing might seem unconventional, if not suspect in a critical and constructivist project. In a later blog post we will explain more about the history of branding and its underlying theory.

However, there are several advantages in studying Nordic exceptionalism through the lens of branding. Besides the fact that Nordic exceptionalism resembles, if not constitutes, a brand, our principal motivation is that contemporary branding theory helps us understand how narratives are co-created for different and competitive ends. Thus, the apparent audience, or the consumer if you like, is included in the strategic creation of Nordic exceptionalism.

The perceivers of the Nordic region as much as the Nordic countries themselves create and shape – often for their own purposes – our imaginary of the region, representing their ways of doing such things, whether it is public welfare, consensus democracy or gender equality etc. Former right-wing US president Donald Trump bashed Sweden’s liberal immigration policy; British conservatives praised Sweden’s liberal schooling model; and left-wing presidential candidate Bernie Sanders praised Denmark’s welfare model. Yet, regardless of why and where, these performative actions point to the symbolic value of the Nordic model (serving political ends) and how its meaning is shaped in the process of communication (co-creation).

For us as researchers, these dynamics show that understanding Nordic exceptionalism needs new approaches, and branding theory provides a helping hand. In addition – and importantly –  branding helps us see how market logic and language has shaped increasingly the ways in which states present themselves and their political achievements globally.

Contemporary phenomenon and analytical devise

Branding comes in different forms. In the early 2000s, the Nordic countries started, in various degrees, their own nation branding programs according to Svein Ivar Angell and Mads Mordhorst. While the national programmes have mostly tapered off, the Nordic Council in 2015 developed their own explicit branding strategies for enhancing the global reputation and attractiveness of the Nordic region. Moreover, reputation management is still central to all countries foreign and domestic policies.  

However, more important for this project than the contemporary phenomenon of national and regional branding, is the analytical value of looking at Nordic exceptionalism from a branding perspective. It enables us to study Nordic models and exceptionalism, as a co-constructive affaire over time. The incentive to create simple and specific country models that outperformed others was already present by the end of the 19th century, if not much earlier.  

In this process, contemporary branding consultants are not necessarily needed.

For example, the notion of the gender-progressive Nordics developed initially, argues Eirinn Larsen, when the international suffragette movement, led by American activists in the early 1900s, changed tactics. Scandinavia was represented as ‘modern’ and ‘progressive’ in order to push other states to accede to the movement’s demands. Later, this idea of the Nordics became a “natural” ingredient in the communication strategies developed by Nordic government for foreign consumption. Today, Sweden is the most aggressive gender brander of the Nordic countries, followed by Iceland, Finland, Norway and Denmark, according to Katarzyna Jezierska and Ann Towns.

Hence, branding perspective helps us to better understand the politics of Nordic exceptionalism: Who uses it, for what reason and purpose, and with what effect in politics, law and consumer culture.

We hope that the coming series will help illustrate how the Nordic Branding project has sought to shed light on the emergence and use of Nordic exceptionalism.  In the next blog, we will present an interview with one of our researchers, professor Klaus Petersen from the University of Southern Denmark, on his two decades of historical work on Danish and Nordic welfare policies. See you then!

 

References

Angell, Svein Ivar and Mads Mordhorst (2015) "National reputation management and the competition state: The Cases of Denmark and Norway". Journal of Cultural Economy 8 (2), 184-201.

Bergman, Annika (2007), ‘Co-Constitution of Domestic and International Welfare Obligations: The Case of Sweden’s Social Democratically Inspired Internationalism’, Cooperation and Conflict 42(1): 73-99.

Dahl, Ann-Sofie (2006). "Sweden: Once a moral superpower, always a moral superpower?" International Journal 61: 895.

Esping-Andersen, Gøsta (1990), Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton, Princeton.

Jezierska, Katarzyna and Ann Towns (2021) Variations on shared themes: Branding the Nordics as gender-equal. In: Larsen E, Moss SM, Skjelsbæk I. (eds.). Gender Equality and Nation-Branding in the Nordic Region. Abingdon: Routledge, 39-61.

Larsen, Eirinn (2021) ‘The gender-progressive Nordics’: A matter of history. In: Larsen E, Moss SM, Skjelsbæk I. (eds.). Gender Equality and Nation-Branding in the Nordic Region. Abingdon: Routledge, 13-38.

Marklund, Carl and Klaus Petersen  (2013) "Return to sender – American Images of the Nordic Welfare States and Nordic Welfare State Branding". European Journal of Scandinavian Studies 43 (2), 245-257.

Marklund, Carl (2017) "The Nordic model on the global market of ideas: The welfare state Scandinavia´s best brand". Geopolitics 22 (3), 623-639.

UN-CEDAW (2003). "Norway called haven for gender equality as Women's Anti-Discrimination Committee examines Reports on Compliance with Convention". Geneva, Press Release, UN OHCHR.

 

Authors

Eirinn Larsen is the project leader of Nordic Branding and professor of History at the University of Oslo.

Malcolm Langford is professor of Law at University of Oslo and was the project leader of Nordic Branding from its inception until 2020.