Surveys show that the Nordic countries have strong democracies, are among the best for business and startups, score high on human capital, have the most liveable cities, happiest peoples, strong economies, and much more…
How did the Nordics get there?
And what is Rosa Parks doing on the cover?
The Nordic Secret first came out in 2017 and has inspired people around the globe.
Discover how Denmark, Norway, and Sweden went from dirt poor agricultural societies in 1850 to wealthy, modern nations by 1920. Go on an amazing journey together with pastors, poets, common people, some Danish royals, and the so-called schoolmen as they lifted Scandinavia from the bottom. The heroes of this transformation: a stubborn school teacher and some young farmhands.
As new technologies and globalization are revamping our societies, what can we learn from the past and from the Nordics, and how they transformed during industrialization? And how can we approach human flourishing and meaning-making in times of great change?
Table of Content
Preface 13
Introduction and overview 21
PART I – Setting the scene 31
Chapter 1: Are the Nordic countries really that remarkable? 32
Chapter 2: Personal freedom and responsibility – psychology 47
PART II – Personal freedom and responsibility – Bildung philosophy 75
Chapter 3: A very different kind of Europe 77
Chapter 4: The Bildung prelude 89
Chapter 5: The German Spring 113
Chapter 6: Bildung and ego-development 177
PART III – The Scandinavian Spring – implementing Bildung 187
Chapter 7: The Danish Spring 191
Chapter 8: The Norwegian Spring 247
Chapter 9: The Swedish Spring 265
Chapter 10:
Summing up the Scandinavian spring – Nordic bildung 1.0 291
Chapter 11: The Modern Spring – Nordic bildung 2.0 297
PART IV – Exploring what we have found 333
Chapter 12: What happened elsewhere? – Control cases 335
Chapter 13: Does this kind of thinking hold up? 359
Chapter 14: Scandinavia today – self-destruction in the making 377
Chapter 15a: Discoveries while writing this book 389
Chapter 15b:
Discoveries since publishing The Nordic Secret 1st Edition 409
PART V – Looking forward 429
Chapter 16:
Can the Nordic experience benefit the rest of the world? 431
Chapter 17: Societal transitions 443
Chapter 18:
Where are we now? – Challenges, obstacles, and choices 453
Chapter 19: What could bildung and Nordic bildung 3.0 look like? 475
Chapter 20: Looking forward to our conversations 495
Appendix 499
Sources 502
Index 509
About the author
Lene Rachel Andersen is a full member of the Club of Rome, President of the Copenhagen based think tank Nordic Bildung, and co-founder of the Global Bildung Network.She is an economist, author, futurist, philosopher and bildung activist. After studying business economy for three years, she worked as a substitute teacher before she studied theology and wrote entertainment for Danish television until becoming a fulltime writer with a focus on technological development, big history, and the future of humanity.Since 2005, Lene Rachel Andersen has written 20 books and received two Danish democracy awards: Ebbe Kløvedal-Reich Democracy Baton (2007) and Døssing Prisen, the Danish librarians’ democracy prize (2012).
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