A Betrayal of the Welfare State?

“There is no such thing as society” was perhaps the most brutal political motto of the 1980s – but didn’t the ideal of the welfare state live on here in the Nordic countries? Scandinavian exceptionalism may have offered us a certain reprieve, while our political leaders have long talked about the importance of preserving our sense of community.

But what stories about the welfare state do we find if we turn to literature? In his book Vitnesbyrd fra vælferdsstaten [Testimony from the Welfare State, 2016], Tue Andersen Nexø described how a new type of narrative about the relationship between the individual and the community emerged after the turn of the millennium. In his latest book, Fælles liv [Communal Living] (2025), he looks further at “how new Danish literature describes other ways of living together that arise in the shadow of, outside, or after the welfare state”. What do these new communities look like? Critic and lecturer in literary studies Tue Andersen Nexø meets professor of Nordic literature Christine Hamm and author and social economist Ola Morris Innset for a conversation led by Eirik Vassenden, professor of Nordic studies at the University of Bergen.

In collaboration with the Selskapet til vitenskapenes fremme (The Bergen Society for the Advancement of Science).

The event will be held in Norwegian.