State of the Nordic Region 2018

Abstract

Demography (chapters 2-4): Describes and analyses population development in terms of natural increase or decline, migration, urbanisation and age distribution. Labour market (chapters 5-7). Describes and analyses employment, unemployment and economically-inactive groups, especially among young people and foreign born, as well as education. Economy (chapters 8-10): Describes and analyses GDP, income levels, innovation capacity, research and development and foreign direct investment (FDI). The second part consists of four thematic focus areas. The chosen areas for the 2018 edition are: Bioeconomy (chapter 11): Focuses on land use and land ownership, forestry, biogas, fisheries and aquaculture. Digitalisation (chapter 12): Focuses on the broadband coverage and use of Internet to interact with the public sector. Health and welfare (chapter 13): Focuses on public health issues and the territorial dimensions of life expectancy and accessibility to healthcare. Culture and arts (chapter 14): Focuses on newlyproduced data at municipal and regional levels on cinemas, libraries and museums.

Sysmä Community Currency: An Analysis of its Success from the Perspectives of Purposes, Stakeholders and Promotion

“…Sysmä's experiment has lessons for other communities facing similar societal shifts across the Nordic Region (Grunfelder, 2018). As ever, the implementation of an idea is a key factor in whether it is successful or not.…”

“…Finland follows the general demographic trends (Heikkilä, 2003), as it continues to suffer a mass rural to urban migration (Champion and Hugo, 2003) and sees wealth steadily draining from rural areas to Helsinki (Grunfelder, 2018;Saarinen, 2011). To counter this trend, many rural development initiatives have been introduced 4 , along with government spatial policy.…”

Enhanced labour market opportunities for women

“…In Sweden, there is a clear gender divide in the employment rate of newly arrived refugees in the initial stages following their arrival to the country (Sigurjónsdóttir and Norlén, 2018). As seen in Figure 1, however, this difference diminishes with the length of stay in the country (ibid.).…”

Opinber stefna, skólakerfið og hlutverk kennara: Viðbragðsbúnaður skólans

“…Með lögunum er í fyrsta skipti skjalfest að grunnskólinn skuli vera án aðgreiningar með áherslu á lýðraeði og félagslegt réttlaeti í skólum. Þaer áherslur má þó sjá í stefnu um sérkennslu hjá Reykjavíkurborg nokkru fyrr, eða frá árinu 2002 (Nefnd um sérkennslu og sérúrraeði í Reykjavík 2002). Stefnan um skóla án aðgreiningar er eitt af áherslumálum Salamanca-yfirlýsingarinnar frá 1994 og vísar til ákveðinna gilda, vinnubragða og skipulags í skólastarfi á þá leið að skólar eigi að taka við öllum börnum hvernig sem á stendur um atgervi þeirra til líkama og sálar og um félagslegt og tilfinningalegt ásigkomulag þeirra (Menntamálaráðuneytið 1995).…”