About the conference

Neighbourly interactions have become a major challenge for countries, territories, and peoples in the past two years. In the Nordic states and globally, the Covid-19 pandemic has amplified tendencies of bordering and political or social disengagement with the surrounding world. At the same time, efforts to curb the pandemic have given rise to new forms of virtual communication. The 5th Nordic Challenges Conference, organised as an on-site event by the ReNEW university hub, follows current developments and sheds light on the topic of Nordic neighbourhoods from various humanities and social science perspectives.

The conference addresses recent schisms and rapprochement, or ingrained affinities and differences. Inter-Nordic relationships and Nordic entanglements with the Baltic Sea Region, Eastern and Central Europe, the EU, the UK, and the Arctic are of particular interest to the neighbourhood theme of the conference. In addition, the 5th Nordic Challenges Conference offers a forum for any research dealing with the Nordic countries in an evolving world that fits under one of the ReNEW hub’s six research streams: 

  1. Nordic cooperation and region-building
  2. Democracy, governance, and law
  3. Public policy, gender equality, and labour markets
  4. Imagining Norden – branding and Nordic reputation 
  5. Multiculturalism and globalisation 
  6. Nordic culture, education, and media

5th Nordic Challenges Conference is supported by:

Previous Nordic Challenges Conferences:

  1. “Global Challenges ‒ Nordic Experiences”, University of Oslo | 20–21 March 2017
  2. Second Nordic Challenges Conference “Narratives of Uniformity and Diversity”, University of Helsinki | 7‒9 March 2018
  3. Third Nordic Challenges Conference, Copenhagen Business School | 6–8 March 2019
  4. Fourth Nordic Challenges Conference “Reconsidering the Nordic Models in an Age of Polarization”, Boston University | 5–6 November 2021