About the group
Freedom of association is vital for a well-functioning democracy, but different kinds of liberty may also take exclusionary forms and turn in on itself.
The members of this research group are studying democracy and its antitheses from a range of different angles and perspectives, be it as normative standards, ideals, models, and collective memories or as human experiences, actions, organisations, beliefs, and emotions.
We combine research on extremism and anti-democratic movements and mentalities with research on the construction of the "Nordic". In this manner, the research group takes a critical look at simplified yet influential perceptions of liberty and democracy in the Nordic region. It does so by considering how the Nordic countries are positioned, imagined and even branded in the wider world – and how these ways of seeing and representing the Nordics circulate and are used in politics and practice within the Nordic countries and region as well as globally.
Experiencing American Democracy
UiO:Democracy funds five new research groups
Ongoing projects
Experiencing American Democracy: Nordic Encounters in Transatlantic Perspective (2024-27)
Regendering Diplomacy funded by the Norwegian Research Council (2023-27)
Expired projects
- The Public Sphere and Freedom of Speech in the NordicCountries, 1815–1900 (2016–2021)
- Nordic Branding (2017–2021)
- Nordic Civil Societies (2020–2024)
Cooperation
- The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- The Center for Research on Extremism, C-REX
- Centre for Development and the Environment
- Centre for Gender Research
- University of Gothenburg