Norway
Film: Outdoor kindergarten in Arctic Norway
At long last, outdoor nurseries and kindergartens are getting some official encouragement in Scotland. Pioneers like the Secret Garden in Fife and about a dozen others have offered an alternative to indoor early life for over a decade. But now Inspiring Scotland’s been funded by the Scottish Government to work with eight councils setting up new outdoor play projects. The need to get kids moving and enjoying outdoor activity is urgent. Five years ago, a study of 38 nations ranked Scotland joint last for physical activity, while childhood obesity levels here continue to rise, with a quarter of five-year-olds deemed to be at risk of becoming seriously overweight. So what does the future look like? Maybe a bit like Norwegian kindergarten today – minus the snow. So here’s a sa...Read More
Heating homes without gas – the Nordic way
None of Scotland’s Nordic neighbours depends on gas for heating – but 85% of homes in Scotland do. Why the big difference? How did Nordic nations jump the green heating hurdle & should Scotland fix its energy crisis by installing district heating like Sweden and Denmark – or go electric like Norway? These were some of the big climate questions tackled by Nordic Horizons speakers, in our COP26 Verdict event, held straight after COP26 in November 2021. This 50 minute podcast of the COP 26 – Nordic Verdict event tackles all these big questions with contributions from Viktoria Raft, a former energy journalist and co-founder of the gender equality network for women in energy, Kraftkvinnorna; Tore Furevik, Professor in physical oceanography at the Geophysical Institut...Read More
PODCAST: NATO membership for Finland & Sweden – the end of Baltic neutrality??
This podcast was produced after a fascinating online Nordic Horizons meeting in March 2022, eight weeks before the Swedish and Finnish premiers announced their intention to join NATO. It explores their fears about Russian intervention during the accession process when both states might be vulnerable to attack, their reasons for not originally joining NATO along with neighbours Denmark and Norway in the 1950s and fears that a change in US President might make NATO a less stable long-term bet than it currently appears. Nordic Horizons · NATO, Nordics and Russian Aggression Our speakers – 3 Nordic experts and one Scot discuss opinion polls suggesting most Swedes and Finns want to join NATO and predict whether that will happen. They consider how well Nordic non-alignment has worked for 7...Read More
NEW PODCAST Powerful pint-sized Nordic democracy
Scotland has the largest units of ‘local’ government in the developed world with just 32 councils for 5.3 million folk. Norway has almost 400 councils for roughly the same population. The Faroes – with fewer folk than Falkirk – has 29 local councils. What difference does that make to dynamism and democracy? Don’t small councils run the risk of nepotism, inefficiency and high costs? Listen as Lesley Riddoch chairs a discussion recorded just before Scotland’s local elections in May 2022 with with Norway’s State Secretary for Local Government Ole Gustav Narud, and Dennis Holm, the former Mayor of Vágur on the Faroes island of Suðuroy. More info The EU average council has a relatively meagre 10 thousand inhabitants. And Vágur, on the isolated southern...Read More
Electric Dreams
Electric cars in Norway have risen to a record 54% market share, making this Nordic country the first in the world where the sale of electric cars has outstripped any other type for a full year. It’s quite a milestone for January 2021 and was forecast in a Nordic Horizons event just over two years ago. There’s nothing mystical about Norway’s electric car success – using taxes and giving leccie cars traffic priority have been big factors. Read more about the latest news via https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/05/electric-cars-record-market-share-norway. Watch the short video about Norway’s electric car strategy in the Nordic Horizons clip below. It features Petter Haugneland, Communications Director, Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association. Vimeo V...Read More
Nordic Horizons guide to Celtic Connections 2020
So many fabulous Nordic performers are appearing at Celtic Connections in January 2020, it seemed a good idea to list them. Each year, Scotland’s largest traditional music festival presents a “showcase Scotland” partnership with a different nation. This year’s it’s Finland … so there are loads of performances featuring Finnish artists playing with top stars of the Scottish Trad Music scene. Get booking folks. Norway Jan 19th 7.30pm Mitchell Theatre Scots fiddler Sarah-Jane Summers is based in Norway, and is reprising Owerset, her New Voices commission that’s themed around Scots and Gaelic words originating in Old Norse. It features a six-piece ensemble on fiddles, trumpet, accordion, guitars and double bass. Sarah-Jane is playing with the fabulous Scots pianist, flautist and composer Hamis...Read More
If trees grow along Norway’s fjords why not in Highland glens?
It seems some folk are sceptical about how well trees would grow in the Highlands or on the fifth of Scotland’s landmass currently covered with grouse moors. There’s wind and rain and the soil is pretty degraded. So maybe the glens are just too barren for any other land use? On no, they’re not. Watch this excellent presentation including a 6 min video by Scots/Norway expert Duncan Halley of the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research, speaking at the Nordic Horizons event “Nurturing Nature” a few years ago. Then decide if Scotland is ready for a Norwegian-style reforestation programme with a wider variety of species – and a much, much wider variety of landowners. If you’d like to know more, here’s a brilliant article by Rewilding Britain with ...Read More
Next event announced – Charging Patients: managing demand for healthcare visits in Norway
Date and Venue Tuesday 27 November 2018 Grassmarket Community Project 86 Candlemaker Row Edinburgh EH1 2QA Tor Ingebrigtsen is professor of clinical neuroscience at the University of Tromsø, the Arctic University of Norway and senior adviser to the CEO at the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN) in Tromsø, Norway. Chaired by Lesley Riddoch, writer and broadcaster Spending on health in Scotland is proportionally less than in other European nations, and our NHS is often overwhelmed. Last winter delayed discharge of elderly patients led hospitals to cancel scheduled operations and miss A&E targets. In Norway patients pay to see GPs and need referrals to A&E, and councils, which run hospitals, are charged for bed-blocking. This system was designed to boost doctors’ income, ...Read More
Brexit, Norway and the EEA
Brexit, Norway and the EEA ‘Brexit, Scotland & the EEA: The Nordic half-way house option’ Tuesday 20th March 6pm to 8pm Scottish Parliament Sponsored by Ivan McKee MSP Brexit makes it more likely Scotland will soon be negotiating its own relationship with Europe. But what will that be? Full EU membership or the expensive “halfway house” inhabited by Norway and Iceland? What’s life like in the EEA? Frustrating – since decisions and regulations are made elsewhere. But worthwhile? Christophe Hillion is professor of European Law at the universities of Leiden and Oslo and researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and at the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies. He has advised several European governments on EU legal issues. He discussed...Read More
Women’s Quotas and The Norwegian Experience – meeting notes
Women’s Quotas and The Norwegian Experience – meeting notes Women’s Quotas – The Norwegian experience NORDIC HORIZONS with Mai-Lill Ibsen and Arne Selvik Lecture Theatre Moray House, EH8 8AQ 6pm 2nd December 2014 In 2002 the Norwegian conservative Trade Minister announced a ‘Quota Law’ requiring publically listed companies to appoint 40% of the under-represented gender to their boards or face being closed down. Despite criticism the law came into force in 2006. Around 500 PLC’s were affected and during a two year transition period a hundred opted to delist from the Oslo Stock Exchange – some to avoid the quotas. Since then numbers of women on PLC boards has risen from 10% to 40%. Research suggests board selection is now more professional and international, and female boar...Read More
- 1
- 2