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A survey of developments in interlibrary co‐operation in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Various possibilities for closer co‐operation between countries or between libraries are discussed, as is the possibility of a Scandinavian international lending library or a Swedish national library. Mention is made of the Scandia‐plan and of LIBRIS

This paper explores some social‐psychological aspects of South Asian young adults in Denmark, including identity processes through social relations across geographical borders and psychological diaspora consciousness, and is a follow‐up of a project conducted in the mid‐nineties, in Denmark (N = 14). Diasporic conceptualisations focusing on human‐centredness and processes in migration, combined with a lifecourse perspective, provide the theoretical framework for this study. The method used is in‐depth interviews, analysed through condensation and meaningful categorisation of the narratives. The young adults are perceived as active actors in relation to their life situation. The results show the young adults', as well as the parental generations', re‐interpretation of the self, other and home. They also show that the young adults' diasporic identities involve the countries of origin as well as the Scandinavian welfare societies. However, the myth of return is not supported, although the countries of residence have adopted increasingly restrictive migration policies in the past years.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the European transnational migration of poverty in a regional context, specifically focusing on homelessness among the migrant poor in Norway and Sweden. Gathering insight from individuals who routinely assist with social care, this research seeks to find out if the liberal provision of welfare and supportive services attracts poor migrants to this region from other parts of Europe.

Qualitative in-depth interviews with individuals who provide social care assistance to homeless migrants in Oslo and Stockholm.

The influx of people experiencing homelessness in these areas is comprised mainly of two distinct sub-populations. One group migrated in search of employment opportunities but struggled with tenuous working and living arrangements. A second more transient group appeared to be motivated by perceptions of Scandinavian benevolence and charity. Both groups lacked familiarity with the social welfare system but were generally uninhibited by cultural differences between their destination and country of origin.

The intent of this study is not to generalize to a broader population but to develop an in-depth exploration of homelessness and migration from the perspective of social care workers. Purposive sampling is used to gather insights from key informants that work closely with homeless migrants; however the findings can be limited by the unique experiences of each individual.

In the public discourse on homelessness it is a mistake to group all homeless migrants together. Additionally it is important to distinguish between the needs of migrants and non-migrants, as these two homeless populations generally do not struggle with the same issues.

With a better understanding of this issue, governments will be able to provide more adequate assistance and develop more effective initiatives to combat and prevent homelessness.

Purpose – To examine the evolution of the online newspaper genre in Scandinavia. To provide an understanding of the institutional context in which online newspapers initially were produced and modified over time. Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal study of three different types of newspapers in three Scandinavian countries. The study is based on interviews with newspaper representatives conducted during recurring visits in 1996, 1999 and 2002, and web page analysis of their online newspapers. Findings – The study illustrates how online newspapers have established a number of communicative practices significant for recognizing them as a distinct digital genre, and it outlines a set of institutional factors shaping the ongoing change of these newspapers. In addition, the study demonstrates the emergence of sequential interdependencies between online and printed news. Originality/value – The focus on Scandinavian newspapers in this paper complements studies conducted in other parts of the world regarding online newspaper genre evolution.

Gender diversity and equality vary tremendously among countries. This is a particular challenge for foreign subsidiaries, when the level of gender diversity and equality differs between the home and host country. Various indicators such as a low-gender pay gap or a high ratio of females in managerial positions suggest that Scandinavia is ahead in terms of gender diversity and equality, whereas those indicators suggest that the level in Japan is currently lower. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how executives leading Scandinavian subsidiaries operating in Japan perceive this situation, and whether and what kind of actions they take to initiate change.

This study is based on a qualitative analysis of 20 in-depth interviews with executives of Scandinavian subsidiaries in Japan.

Findings reveal that executives of Scandinavian subsidiaries respond to the major differences in gender equality between Scandinavia and Japan with three strategies of change: resistance and rigid change, compromise and moderate change, and adaptation and maintaining status quo. Moreover, the findings indicate that the strategy of change varies depending on individual differences of the executives, e.g., nationality, and organizational differences, e.g., subsidiary size.

Due to the small sample size, the generalizability of the findings is limited. Given the paucity of research on this topic, this approach provides first insights for building a basis for future studies.

This study contributes to the scarce literature on gender diversity and equality in multinational enterprises by identifying strategies of how gender equality can be fostered in a non-Western context from a top executive perspective.

Immigrant and native child poverty in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden 1993–2001 is studied using large sets of panel data. While native children face yearly poverty risks of less than 10 percent in all three countries and for all years studied the increasing proportion of immigrant children with an origin in middle- and low-income countries have poverty risks that vary from 38 up to as much as 58 percent. At the end of the observation period, one third of the poor children in Norway and as high as about a half in Denmark and in Sweden are of immigrant origin. The strong overrepresentation of immigrant children from low- and middle-income countries when measured in yearly data is also found when applying a longer accounting period for poverty measurement. We find that child poverty rates are generally high shortly after arrival to the new country and typically decrease with years since immigration. Multivariate analysis shows that parents years since immigration and education affect risks of the number of periods in persistent poverty. While a native child is very unlikely to spend nine years in poverty, the corresponding risk for a child to a newly arrived immigrant was found to be far from negligible. Much of the pattern is similar across the three countries but there are also some notable differences.

The paper aims to compare and discuss the findings of discursive constructions of patients in legal texts from the three Scandinavian countries. Since traditional welfare state systems in Scandinavia are being challenged by new governance systems, new questions are being raised about patient positions and agency, carrying with them potential ethical dilemmas for healthcare professionals.

The methodology of the paper is inspired by critical discourse analysis. Comprehensively analysing the findings of previous discourse studies on how “the patient” is constructed in central policy texts, this study compares the position of the patient in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

The paper reveals ideological struggles across the Scandinavian countries, operating at a political level, a legislative level and a healthcare level. It is shown that national governance systems still exert hegemonic power by strongly influencing patients' degree of choice and autonomy. The discursive struggle between welfare state governance and other governance systems in Scandinavia indicates a shift towards a commercial healthcare market although a traditional welfare model is advocated by professionals and researchers.

Because of the specific conditions of Scandinavian healthcare policy, the findings lack generalisability. The research approach should therefore be explored further in additional contexts.

The findings of this study can inform policymakers, professionals and patients of the ideological values underlying seemingly objective shifts in national policy.

A comparative critical discourse analysis can expose patterns in the Scandinavian approaches to patient rights.

Organized co‐operation between Swedish research libraries dates back to the end of the nineteenth century, when work began on the Swedish union catalogue. In 1990, Sweden, with 6,127 requests per 100,000 population, was the most interlending intensive country in Europe. However, the decentralization of higher education has focused attention on local services rather than national co‐operation. To meet the threat of fragmentization, a system of national resource libraries has been developed, administered by the Royal Library′s Office for National Planning and Co‐ordination (BIBSAM). The tradition of co‐operation is common to the Nordic countries, Iceland, owing to its small size, taking a rather unique position. Legal deposits provide access to the national imprint; interlibrary lending is used extensively for foreign publications; the union catalogues have been automated; and different types of central library system have been developed, Sweden being exceptional with regard to the extent of funding. The idea of planning acquisitions on a Nordic basis, introduced by the middle of the 1950s in the so‐called Scandia Plan, proved completely unrealistic.

The purpose of this paper is to advance understanding of international differences in supply chain management (SCM) perspectives and practices, by comparing perceptions of Scandinavian and American supply chain managers.

The survey focused on the definition of SCM, along with facilitators of and barriers to SCM implementation. A four‐page questionnaire was designed and sent by mail. After follow‐ups, 23 Scandinavians and 104 Americans returned completed questionnaires.

While many similarities were found between Scandinavians and Americans, several differences were also identified. Both groups have adopted broad, multiple function perspectives on SCM; and both groups perceive SCM implementation to be slower and more difficult than expected. Two differences are the Americans' greater concern about incompatible systems and implementation costs as barriers to SCM, compared to the Scandinavians.

The study is based on relatively small samples, of limited functional (logistics) and geographic (Scandinavia and America) scope. Future research should expand the functional focus into purchasing, operations, and marketing; and the geographic coverage to other parts of the world.

Internal resistance is more of a barrier than external (customer or supplier) resistance to SCM. Thus, organizations should focus first on internal (functional) integration, and then move onto inter‐organizational integration. However, employees working with customers and suppliers should use these external relationships to inspire closer internal relationships. Further, people are more critical than technology in implementing SCM. Organizations should get the right people in place first, and then think about technology.

There is little empirical research on SCM implementation. Practitioners and researchers should find value in this unique comparative study.

It is a distinctive feature of Scandinavian law that employers, public authorities and others traditionally have had the freedom to take positive action (including discriminatory measures as part of positive action) to promote equality between the sexes.