Regional Policy Spaces, Knowledge Networks, and the “Nordic Other”

Abstract

This chapter examines the use of regional policy knowledge and the importance of Nordic cooperation in the latest education reforms in Finland, Iceland, and Norway. By drawing on interviews and bibliometric network analysis, the authors demonstrate that policymakers do not consider knowledge sources from other Nordic countries as essentially prominent. The authors offer four explanatory narratives for this finding and coin the concept the “Nordic Other” as various mindsets of experts that vary in different settings of cooperation. In the international policy space, a coalition based on a Nordic consensus is of core importance, while in the regional space, policymakers utilize knowledge to explore national solutions to common problems. Therefore, Nordic cooperation has various functions in terms of evidence-based policymaking that depend on the context in which collaboration takes place.