This book is important to help an international audience understand the cultural peculiarities behind the Scandinavian “success story”. It is also vital that Scandinavians themselves read this book to help them understand the market reforms that are essential for a successful future.

This book explains why the Nordic Model retains its influence, especially on the Anglo-American left, notwithstanding internal problems.

Modernism and principles of Functionalism came to prominence in Scandinavia during the early 20th century, becoming influential in shaping the distinct character of Scandinavian Design as we recognize today. Through text, photographs, and info-graphics; we examine the unique historical and political phenomena of Scandinavia to gain a broader understanding of the rise of social democracy in the region and its pertinence to the philosophical underpinnings of a national design identity.

Capitalism offers greater prosperity and opportunity for everyone, while socialism, unnecessary interventionism, and other choices inevitably fail. But capitalism is quickly falling out of favor with the middle class in the Western world. Fortunately, it can be fixed. The next decades will present numerous challenges: exponentially accelerating technology and use of robots, an aging population, repressive taxation, and the sustainability of education and health care costs—to name just a few. Freedom or Equality addresses those challenges while presenting a fresh examination of Social Capitalism—a moderate option between extreme solutions of all sorts that can deliver superior growth and prosperity worldwide.

Sport, Outdoor Life and the Nordic World explores the Nordic model of sport and outdoor life with respect to such issues as sport facilities, mountain guiding, women and ethnic minorities, urban planning, anti-doping, health, elite sport coaching and leadership, and the globalization of sport. The aims of the volume are twofold. First, it advances knowledge of Nordic sport and outdoor life, as important fields of social activity in their own rights. Second, it enhances the understanding of the ‘Nordic model’ of society, and the ways in which this is constructed, explored and challenged within and through sport and outdoor life activities. In doing so, the contributors explore a range of key themes, notably: how modern Nordic sport and outdoor life activities emerged and are organized through specific social policies; how they may challenge or harbour forms of social exclusion, particularly in regard to gender or minority populations; how they are affected by, and respond to, deviant practices such as doping; how they may contribute to alleviating social problems; and how they confront major structural challenges and changes, such as the impacts of globalization and the continuing dominance of neoliberal economic policies. Interdisciplinary in approach, Sport, Outdoor Life and the Nordic World is essential reading for those studying Nordic sports and societies, and will also appeal to students, academics and wider readers with interests in sport studies, sociology, social policy, cultural studies, anthropology and public health. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

The crux of this book is that it can help build Vision and processes for improvementsby stances on positive development syndromes versus special interests scenarios. That may even open up to serendipity. In contrast, there are specific econometric models and adjacent historic data, which lack contact with todays diverse events of real life, i.e., behavioural aspects and the risk of changes. It is much too easy to build a scenario based on game theory and/or accepting others algorithm based on interpretation of behaviour and risk of changes defined by so-called elasticities. By embracing the financial economy, a ring of well-positioned econometricians has gained power Worldwide, especially in small Nordic countries, where seeking consensus based on historic data is a common practice. New insight tends to arrive too late; unforeseen events will continue to surprise. Such countries are easily exploited by elite circulation and fragmentation of decision making benefiting special interests. The GAP between the financial and the real economy will grow. Hidden agendas and asymmetric information will thrive. The results are losses of resources plus disintegration for a large majority of enterprises and citizens. One may say that the demise of the old-fashioned Nordic model is embedded in the gullibility of its inmates. They look up to authorities and lack the needed oversight, agility, and sense of urgency to adapt and change. To rock the boat and reinvent the Nordic model is much needed. It can be attained by focusing on the real economy and the behaviour of its inmates.