ASSITEJ Magazine 2019

The Nordic Child:
Growing up in
an ideal world?
NIAMH NÍ BHROIN IS A RESEARCHER AND COORDINATOR
OF LIVING THE NORDIC MODEL, AN INTERDISCIPLINARY
RESEARCH PROJECT FUNDED BY UIO:NORDEN AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF OSLO (N.N.BHROIN@MEDIA.UIO.NO)
Nordic children’s popular
culture is rich with images of
independent and adventurous
characters such as Astrid
Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking
and Tove Jansson’s Moomins.
These representations promote
the ideal of an autonomous
and adventurous Nordic child.
However, more recent representations of Nordic
youth and childhood(s), such as the TV series
Skam, have considerably darker themes. This is in
spite of the fact that these representations are
constructed against a background of significant
prosperity. International research repeatedly
finds that the Nordic states are among the best
countries in the world in which to grow up (cf.
Legatum Institute 2019). The Nordic Council of
Ministers also claims that Nordic people are
generally happier than people in other regions of
the world. At the same time, the same council has
recently called attention to the fact that 13.5% of
young Nordic adults, aged between 18 and 25 could
be categorized as unhappy, or, more precisely,
struggling, or suffering (Nordic Council of Ministers
2018).
So, do Nordic children really grow up in an ideal
world? And if they do, what are the ideals on which
their lived everyday experiences are based? In the
first instance, it is important to acknowledge that
Nordic children are a diverse group. Aged for the
most part between 0 and 15 years, Nordic children
and young people come from a variety of social and
cultural backgrounds, and have reached various
stages of physical health and mental development.
At the same time, it is not diversity, but similarity,
that is at the core of what is understood as the
“Nordic Model.” This refers in particular to the
image of Nordic States as belonging to an ideal
social or economic category. Syvertsen et al
(2014) for example outline that the Nordic model is
conceptualized as a welfare state system aiming at
universal rights within societies with comparatively
small class, income, and gender differences. Key
ideals and values underpinning the Nordic Model
are therefore “universality” and “equality.”
However, partly because of this perception of
“comparatively small” differences in Nordic
societies, the Nordic interpretation of equality has
been problematized in social and anthropological
research. Marianne Gullestad (2002) for
example has pointed out that “equality” has
been understood to equate with ”sameness.”
Gullestad observes that the Nordic preoccupation
with “sameness” could cause people to avoid
establishing social relationships with others whom
they consider to be different from themselves. This
preoccupation with equality as sameness ripples
through Nordic culture, politics, and policy-making
and has particular consequences for children and
the institutions they relate to.
One historical example is the policy of the
“Norwegianisation” of Sámi children and youth in
Norway between 1850 and 1980 (cf. Minde 2005).
The Sámi are an indigenous community that live
in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. In each
of these countries the Sámi have been subject
to harsh assimilation policies, where they were
14 Towards the Unknown – Confronting the Present