Welcome

Flinders University established the Centre for Scandinavian Studies in 2003 to bring together research scholars in the field of Scandinavian studies, with membership from Flinders University and network membership from tertiary institutions throughout Australia and overseas. The purpose of the Centre is to promote and help coordinate research in the general field of Scandinavian Studies.

Our mission

The Centre for Scandinavian Studies seeks to provide leadership in promoting awareness and understanding of Scandinavia at Flinders University and throughout Adelaide, and in the wider Australian and international community through:

• fostering high quality teaching on Scandinavia at Flinders University and the other educational institutions in South Australia
• coordinating and facilitating Scandinavian research and other activities
• disseminating information on research output and other activities through the electronic journal Nordic Notes and the innovative use of the Centre’s web site
• facilitating special events relating to Scandinavian business links and culture
• encouraging reciprocal visits between Australian and Scandinavian university staff and students
• providing a network to encourage and support visitors and students from Scandinavia to Flinders University, and help students and staff develop links with Scandinavia
• facilitating links between Flinders University and other educational institutions in Adelaide and the companies engaged in trade between Scandinavia and Australia
• supporting links between Scandinavian diplomatic representatives and the university sector

The future

The Centre understands that the future will bring closer ties between Australia and Scandinavia. Trade and investment should increase and these linkages will lead to increasing mutual understanding. Through its teaching, research, community activities and links with business and government, the Centre can influence and facilitate understanding of Scandinavian issues.

Australia and Nordic countries have much in common. They share a high standard of living, and are parliamentary democracies. Particular challenges that they will both face in the near future are the expansion of the knowledge economy, continued globalisation and the reaction against it by some sections of the community, and substantial demographic changes.

In terms of the knowledge economy, due to both Australia and the Nordic region having large distances between major centres, both communities have taken up the use of the internet to an extent unparalleled elsewhere. This provides an opportunity for the Centre to accelerate the growth in its profile, the export in both directions of knowledge, and the development of intellectual property.

The effects of globalisation are readily apparent in both regions and both are smaller scale economic players on the world stage. The issues of how to be pro active in this process and how to deal with both the benefits and the disadvantages of globalisation provide important collaborative research opportunities for the Centre.

Both Australia and the Nordic countries face increasing aged populations, declining birth rates and pressures from refugee, clandestine and orthodox immigration. Models and solutions to these problems are found in both regions. Equally important is the study of the welfare state and its future.

With these issues in common, the Centre for Scandinavian Studies is confident that it is making a vital contribution to the Australia/Scandinavia relationship

The director of the Centre is Dr Tony Griffiths