Modelizing the Nordics: transdiscursive migrations of Nordic models, c. 1965-2020

Journal article, 2023

This article examines the intertwined circulation of multiple kinds of Nordic models. We seek to understand how modelization of the region occurred at multiple levels and in disparate fields, in other words how different aspects of Nordic policies and politics came to be understood as worthy of interest and at times of emulation. In doing so, we aim to contribute to the critical scholarship on the Nordic model concept, exploring how it has been changed and contested over time, the contexts in which it circulates and why it has generated interest. Methodologically, we use digital tools to analyse scholarly literature in different disciplines published between 1965 and 2019. In focusing on intellectual constructions of the Nordic model, we locate academia as a crucial field for the development of the Nordic model concept, but one that is in communication with and integrates typologies developed in other fields. Following a brief discussion of the model concept, we assess intensifications and critical junctures in the modelization of the Nordics through wordclouds. Second, we demonstrate the variety of such modelizations through case studies. Third, we conclude by pointing to the rhetorical and heuristic effects of such modelizations.