Sweden became an outlier among the Nordic countries in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Nordic countries have historically shared a social democratic welfare state regime, with strong cooperation and harmonization of social policies, their responses to the pandemic showcased fundamental differences to that of Sweden. In particular, Sweden’s prioritization of individual civil liberties over social rights diverged from the more coercive approaches of Finland and Norway, which placed greater emphasis on public health and social welfare. This study examines the media framing surrounding the contrasting Swedish approach and highlights the dichotomy between statist individualism/autonomy and welfare paternalism/interdependence that has been an inherent part of the Swedish welfare state framing. Employing interpretive policy analysis, the study explores the media narratives used by policy actors to frame their pandemic response in terms of individual autonomy and governmental paternalism. We identified two contrasting perspectives on governance regarding the COVID-19 policy strategy. One framing perspective backed the strategy, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding individual autonomy and minimizing central control. The other viewpoint demanded a lockdown and criticized the Swedish response as too lenient. This deviated from usual Swedish political alignments and created a polarized and lively debate around the core values of individual autonomy, agency, and central governmental paternalism.

In this article, we put forward a conceptual map for understanding the role ecocentric narratives can play in future Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). By comparing Western and Indigenous scholars' narratives of river governance, we show how this makes two different ontological narratives of the river possible. By using liminality and the rite-of-passage narrative of the learning journey associated with it, and by understanding how different river governance narratives rely on different ontological scaffolding, policymakers can gain a better understanding of alternative approaches to river governance that synthesise Western and Indigenous insights. The paper makes two contributions. First, we extend the debate of integration beyond its current centre of gravity around an anthropocentric perspective to show how an ecocentric vantage point open new understandings of IWRM. Second, we consider the river as a stakeholder in its own right and explore how ecocentric narratives and knowledge can lead to an improved role for ecosystems and Indigenous stakeholder engagement in IWRM policy design and implementation. We look at the case of Whanganui River in New Zealand - a river that was granted legal personhood in 2017 - in order to reflect on the limitations and opportunities of implementing an ecocentric approach to IWRM in practice.

This chapter explores the extent to which mayors in Nordic municipalities value the role of civil society in pandemic management. We asked Nordic mayors because, as ombudsmen and representatives, they are a touchpoint for the local community. A general finding is that mayors consider the contributions of voluntary associations and businesses important for local crisis management. However, there are extensive variations in both types of civil society contributions and between countries. The contribution of civil society is perceived as significantly more important in Norwegian and Swedish municipalities than in Finnish, Danish, and Icelandic municipalities.

The Council is the voice of the member states' governments in the EU policymaking process and the institutional setting where member states can enforce their national interest. The literature on Council decision-making has previously mostly used expert interviews or voting patterns. Through a detailed examination of one specific legislative file in the recent 'Fit for 55' climate package in which subsidiarity and varying national conditions is central, this study focus on how disagreements between member states are resolved and how strategic word framing can aid in resolving political controversies in EU energy policy. This article analyses Council working group meeting notes and revisions of the recent recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, providing a unique look behind the curtains of negotiations between member states in the Council within a deliberative intergovernmental framework. A mix of quantitative and qualitative text analysis is applied to deliberations and legislative revisions. The findings show that a fragile consensus is reached despite disagreement through enabling of national flexibility in policy decisions, indicating that the Council determines the speed of European integration in the policy domain.

This chapter addresses the role of municipalities in Sweden’s decentralised and minimalist COVID-19 pandemic strategy. Building on a number of separate qualitative field studies, the chapter focuses management of schools, elderly care, reporting duties, and how the institutions of local democracy fared. All case studies indicate a frustration among local actors concerning the modes of information sharing between government levels, the slowness of the state bureaucracy when dealing with decentralised actors, and a general ambiguity concerning responsibilities. There was a focus on horizontal coordination of local crisis management and collaborative decision-making, where local autonomy was largely respected. Despite their autonomy, most local actors in all studied sectors based their strategies on the recommendations of the National Health Agency. In general, we found that the municipalities managed most of the local services and adopted the national minimalistic COVID-19 strategy based on open guidance mainly from the expert authority, the National Health Agency.

Compliance during crisis is especially essential in the Nordic countries, where local government has comprehensive responsibility for crisis management, particularly in maintaining welfare delivery. Drawing on survey responses from politicians and civil servants, this chapter examines the pandemic’s impact on local democracy. We frame this impact using three different conceptualisations of democracy: as rights, as deliberation, and as representative governance procedures. Across all three dimensions, the survey results indicate that local democracy and governance were generally perceived as stable and well-functioning. Citizens predominantly adhered to restrictions, and the deliberative aspects of democracy were largely unaffected by threats or hateful messages.

This paper analyzes through qualitative and quantitative analysis of European Union (EU) policy documents the framing of EU policy on energy-efficient buildings from the 1970s to 2022. We find that it has been framed in different ways over the decades and the framing has expanded to include more and more benefits. Through this expansion, energy efficiency has been linked to other policy areas, such as security, environmental, economic, and social policy. The shifts in framing can be seen as responses to external events. The expansion can also be explained using two metaphors to analyze how the framing differs depending on political positioning. One where policy is seen as a Swiss knife, able to solve multiple political problems, and one where policy is seen as a Trojan horse, where new policy domains are snuck in by policymakers disguising it as energy efficiency policy to increase EU competency in relation to national governments.

This timely Handbook presents the latest knowledge on technological innovation for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Looking beyond technical fixes, it further draws on economics, politics and sociology to explore how modern technology can contribute to effective and socially just sustainability transitions. Examining cutting-edge research on energy, transport and industry, this Handbook argues that we have the technologies and policy instruments needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change. However, for larger-scale implementation the support at the socio-economic and political levels has to be increased. Chapters further analyse the role that technology plays in key sectors, such as agriculture and forestry, in order to become more sustainable. Contributors also reflect on the position of technology in society, illustrating the wider socio-technical systems that determine the impact that new technologies can have. They call for the political will to implement and scale up technological measures to address climate change across the world. The Handbook on Climate Change and Technology will be essential reading for academics and students of climate change, energy, sustainability, and environmental governance and regulation. It will also be an invaluable resource for practitioners and policymakers seeking a deeper understanding of the role of technology in sustainability transitions.

The aim of this article was to use an interpretivist approach to analyse the state-citizen nexus in general and the conflict between civil and social rights imposing restrictions on people's freedom of movement during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Nordic countries: Sweden (restrictions were voluntary and relied on nudging and individual implementation), Norway (restrictions of movement were for everyone and was enforced by authorities), and Finland (restrictions of movement were for the capital region and was enforced by authorities). Sweden focused more on upholding the civil rights vis-à-vis social rights whereas in Norway and Finland social rights have trumped civil rights in the face of the pandemic. Thus, the analysis suggests that the Nordic countries cannot be understood as monoliths in all respects. The article thereby contributes to a greater understanding of how the Nordic governments prioritise civil and social rights differently when they are forced to choose.