ACAD EM I C P RO G R AM
A SOCIALLY COHERENT SOCIETY:
PROSPECTS FOR SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT
IN DENMARK AND THE NETHERLANDS
Historically, Denmark and the Netherlands have both been successful
in establishing a socially coherent society. This is e.g. reflected in
high levels of subjective wellbeing, trust and social security. At this
academic event, leading Danish and Dutch social scientists discuss
how these qualities of Danish and Dutch societies are to be maintained
in the future. The point of departure is that these qualities cannot be
taken for granted as both societies transform both demographically
and socially. The family structure gets more fragile and the populations
get more ethnically diverse in times in which our societies face the
challenges of maintaining a solid economy. At the symposium, the
character, the implications and the potential constructive reactions to
these societal developments will be discussed.
In the general sessions, leading academic scholars will present their
research on Denmark and the Netherlands. In the roundtable session,
participants will be invited to enter the discussions under the headings
of “Happiness and wellbeing – challenges and solutions”. Their
Majesties the King and Queen of the Netherlands will attend selected
sessions at the conference. Finally, all participants are invited to take
part in a reception hosted by the Netherlands Embassy and Aalborg
University following the conference.
The symposium will be moderated by journalist and philosopher Stine
Jensen and Professor in Scandinavian Language and Culture Henk van
der Liet.
Venue: Aalborg University Copenhagen, A.C. Meyers Vænge 15,
Auditorium ACM15
Registration: The symposium is free and open to all students,
scholars and other citizens with an interest in the social development
in Denmark and the Netherlands. Please register at https://
karrierecentret.nemhost.dk/Signup.html?ts_arra_id_tilmeld=246&tpl_
opret_ts_tilmeld (maximum number of participants is 100).
WELCOME
9.00 - 9.30 Registration
9.30 - 9.40
Welcome by Rector Per Michael
Johansen, Aalborg University (tbc)
and Professor Christian Albrekt
Larsen, Centre for Compare
Welfare Studies
GENERAL SESSIONS
Theme I: Wellbeing and family: Demographic
changes and societal development in Denmark
and the Netherlands
Presentation 1: Gender, empowerment and politics:
Perspectives on Welfare and Democracy.
Professor Anette Borchorst, Center for
Comparative Welfare Studies, Aalborg
University, Denmark
Presentation 2: Happy children and content women in
two almost similar welfare regimes.
Professor Trudie Knijn, Centre for Social
Policy and Intervention Studies,
Utrecht University
Break
Presentation 3: Time between job and care in Denmark
and the Netherlands - How
configurations of care policies shape
the patterns of informal care for
children and older people.
Professor Tine Rostgaard, Center for
Comparative Welfare Studies,
Aalborg University
Discussion theme I
11.30 – 12.20: Lunch break
Theme II: Happiness and safety: Trends in happiness and
wellbeing in Denmark and the Netherlands
Presentation 4: Happiness, social security and small
scale democracy in Denmark
Professor Jørgen Goul Andersen,
Center for Comparative Welfare
Studies, Aalborg University.
Presentation 5: Why are the Danes happier than
the Dutch?
Professor Ruut Veenhoven, Erasmus
University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Erasmus happiness Research
Organization EHERO
Discussion theme II
Break
Theme III: Trust, solidarity and immigration: Building
high trust and solidarity in ethnic diverse societies
Presentation 6:
Trust and solidarity in Denmark and the
challenge from migration
Professor Christian Albrekt Larsen,
Center for Comparative Welfare
Studies, Aalborg University
Presentation 7: Social trust, in-group solidarity and
out-group exclusion in the Netherlands:
cross-national and longitudinal
comparisons
Professor Peer Scheepers, Radboud
University Nijmegen
Break
ROUNDTABLE SESSION
Introduction by Stine Jensen & Henk van der Liet
Roundtable discussions
The Dutch and Danish societies on the move.
Summing up by Stine Jensen & Henk van der Liet
RECEPTION
16.10-17.00Reception
ABOUT THE MODERATORS
Dr. Stine Jensen is a philosopher, writer,
journalist and TV program maker. She
has made a documentary series about
Scandinavia for Dutch television. One of
the documentaries focused specifically
on Denmark, the country where she was
born. She is also a writer of philosophical
and nonfiction books and regularly writes
opinion pieces for the Dutch newspaper NRC.
Prof. Dr. Henk van der Liet is a professor in
Scandinavian Languages and Culture at the
University of Amsterdam. He is also a board
member of University College Nordjylland
and a member of the Advisory Board of
the Faculty of Humanities of the University
of Copenhagen. Starting in 2012 and for a
4-year period, Henk van der Liet serves as
chairman of the Board of the Danish Writers
Academy in Copenhagen (Forfatterskolen).
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Anette Borchorst is a professor at
the Department of Political Science,
Aalborg University. Her research
has focused at gender relations and
welfare states in a Comparative
Nordic and European perspective,
and she also works with the impact
of Europeanization on welfare states.
She is currently the director of two
research projects about gender and
politics that have obtained funding
from the VELUX and Carlsberg foundations. The projects cover
historical and recent developments in gender and politics and
policy, and they aim at perspectivizing the 100 years of female
suffrage in Denmark in June 2015.
Professor Ruut Veenhoven studied
sociology. He is also accredited
in social psychology and socialsexology. Veenhoven is emeritus
professor of ‘social conditions for
human happiness’ at Erasmus
University Rotter¬dam in the
Netherlands, where he is currently
involved in the Erasmus Happiness
Economics Research Organization.
Veenhoven is also a special professor
at North-West University in South Africa, where he is involved
in the Optentia research program. He is director of the World
Database of Happiness and founding editor of the Journal of
Happiness Studies.
Jørgen Goul Andersen is a professor at the
Center for Comparative Welfare Studies,
Aalborg University. MSc Political Science
1977, assistant/associate prof. Pol.Science
Aarhus 1977-1995; professor of political
sociology Aalborg since 1995 (professor
of political science, Aarhus University,
2009-2011). Co-directing the Danish Power
and Democracy Study 1998-2003. Jørgen
Goul Andersen has published intensively
on the Danish and Nordic welfare states; both on political, sociological
and economic aspects. Jørgen Goul Andersen has given academic
consultancy to a large number of Danish ministries and has been in
the scientific advisory board for TrygFonden (2008-present) and the
Rockwool Foundation (1997-2010)
Tine Rostgaard is a professor in social
welfare analysis at the Center for Welfare
Studies (CCWS), at Aalborg University,
Denmark. Her research contributions have
mainly been to the field of social care for
children and elderly, and more specifically
to the understanding of care regimes, family
obligations, welfare mix, consummerism in
care and quality in care. She has published
widely on family policy, amongst other as
the co-editor of the books ‘Caring Fathers in the Nordic Welfare States Policies and Practices of Contemporary Fatherhoods’ and ‘Care Between
Work and Welfare in Europe’, and is presently editing a Handbook in child
and family policy for Elgar.
Trudie Knijn graduated in sociology at the
University of Tilburg (1978) and worked
as a lecturer and junior researcher at the
department of Cultural Psychology of the
Radboud University (Nijmegen). She got her
PhD in 1988 on a study on ‘motherhood,
self-development and duty’. Since 1985
she works at Utrecht University, where she
became full professor of Interdisciplinary
Social Science in 2003. Currently she is
head of the Centre for Social Policy and Intervention Studies (SOPINS),
and member of the UU priority programs ‘Institutions’ and ‘Professional
Performance’. She founded and coordinated (1993 – 2003) the European
network ‘Women, Citizenship and Welfare State’. From 2007 to 2014
she was co-chair of the board of ESPAnet, and coordinator of the
National Associations of ESPAnet. She was one of the founders and
researchers of the Netherlands Kinship panel Study, member of the
Executive committee of the FP6 Network of Excellence Reconciling Work
and Welfare (RECWOWE), and PI of the research programme Pathways
to Work. Currently she coordinates master students projects of the
Faculty of Social Science in South Africa, and is a visiting professor
of the University of Johannesburg, and co-PI of the Ndlovu Research
Consortium on HIV/Aids. She is also member of the executive committee
of the FP7 research program bEUcitizen, PI of the ORA research program
‘Governing new Social Risks’, and participant of the Horizon 2020
programme ‘Solidus’.
Peer Scheepers is a full professor of
comparative methodology and vice-dean at
the Faculty of Social Sciences at Radboud
University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He
is member of the Royal Dutch Academy of
Arts and Sciences (since 2004). His scientific
interests are to describe and explain societal
phenomena regarding in-group solidarity
(e.g., trust and social capital) and exclusion
of out-groups (e.g., denial of civil rights for
minorities and voting for political parties aiming to exclude minorities)
from a longitudinal and/or cross-national perspective. He has conducted
survey research on these topics in the Netherlands as in Europe, as
a national coordinator of the European Social Survey, recently also in
south-east Asia. He has published intensely on these phenomena (>
350 contributions) in European Sociological Review, European Societies,
European Journal of Political Research, Social Science Research and
Social Indicators Research. His studies have been cited frequently (>5100
times, H index=37). According to Thomson Reuters’ citation index, he was
among the 1% most frequently cited scientists, worldwide, in the years
2000-2010, in the domain of general social sciences.
Christian Albrekt Larsen is a professor at
the Center for Comparative Welfare Studies
at Aalborg University, which he currently
coordinates (2014-2015). He has published
a number of books and articles primarily
about the Danish and Nordic welfare state.
One of his major research topics has been
public support for welfare policies in various
welfare regimes. In 2006 he published the
book “The institutional logic of welfare
attitudes: How welfare regimes influence public support” (Ashgate).
From 2009 to 2012 Christian continued this work in a comparative study
of the US, UK, Denmark and Sweden (financed by the Velux foundation).
In 2013 he published the book “The Rise and Fall of Social Cohesion.
Constructing and De-constructing Social Trust in the US, UK, Sweden
and Denmark” (Oxford University Press). From January 2015 Professor
Christian Albrekt Larsen is a member of the Danish National Research
Council for Social Science.