The transparency, accessibility and accountability of the decision-making process are frequently regarded as major assets of Nordic polities. In political and scholarly discussions, these traits are identified with individual empowerment, low levels of corruption, and high levels of trust—in public institutions as well as among fellow citizens. They are seen as democratic virtues that could serve as a “model” not only for the European Union, but for governance elsewhere, too.
However, whereas the global discourses on transparency, open access and good governance make frequent reference to the “Nordic model”, these discourses seldom tackle the underlying causes and mechanisms of the everyday practice of Nordic openness. In these accounts, the Nordic “culture of public trust” is often treated as a given. Thereby, its role as a quite static model of openness is emphasized while its relevance as a dynamic method for ascertaining openness is substantially weakened.
In answer to this challenge, the project “NORDIC OPENNESS: Opportunities and Limits of a Consensual Political Culture” - based at the Centre for Nordic Studies and the Network for European Studies at University of Helsinki - seeks to address the development, the benefits, and the limits of Nordic openness through tracing its origins in specific cultural and social environments. This involves turning the attention to the technicalities of “open government” in discourses on “open society”, social capital, and good governance as well as freedom of the press and freedom of speech.
The approach adopted by the NORDIC OPENNESS project takes the presumption that the traditionally homogeneous political cultures of the Nordic countries and related consensual practices have conditioned Nordic openness as its point of departure. The very concept of openness - including its legal parameters - is not yet adequately understood as a key to the analysis of Nordic political culture. The project thus seeks to place Nordic openness in a comparative European context in order to foster a deeper trans-disciplinary understanding of Nordic political culture and to eventually assess its eligibility as a “model”.
We would hereby like to invite international experts to participate in the workshop “Mapping Cultures of Public Trust: Open Government and Open Society in Northern Europe and the European Union” in order to critically analyze the precepts and promises of openness in Nordic culture, politics, and society at large, its relationship with discourses on European as well as international cooperation and governance. Possible topics include, but are not limited to three major fields of research:
1) Open government: accessibility, accountability, freedom of information, and transparency
2) Open society: agenda-setting, freedom of speech, internet freedom, and public opinion
3) Public trust: consensus, good governance, and social capital
Purpose: The seminar will serve as a dissemination channel for the work done this far within the NORDIC OPENNESS-project, but it will also make the project known both for Finnish audience and among international experts in the field, thus contributing to the networking of the research group. The workshop aims at an edited publication based on the papers delivered. The ideas exchanged in the workshop will also serve as an important point of reference for the future orientation of the NORDIC OPENNESS-project.
Participants: The workshop seeks to bring together invited international experts and the members of the NORDIC OPENNESS-project and its academic network in Helsinki, as well as certain high-profile Finnish practitioners, who may be invited to deliver key note addresses.
Audience: The seminar is open for all public. We will also invite academics based in Helsinki working in the fields of European studies and Public Sphere studies to join the audience.
Reimbursement: Speakers’ accommodation and travel expenses will be reimbursed by the organizers. Meals are included in the conference scheme.
Funding: The costs of the seminar are covered by funding made available by the Kone Foundation and the Network for European Studies, University of Helsinki.
Deadlines: Abstracts and confirmations by 1 March 2010.
Organizers: norbert.goetz@helsinki.fi; carl.marklund@helsinki.fi