SOCI 266 - The Happiest Country? Finland and its Welfare State

FC SSCI CD

4 credits
Finland regularly ranks as the happiest country with the world’s best education system. Common explanations focus on cultural values such as appreciation for nature, humility, cultural homogeneity, and the virtue of stubborn persistence called sisu. Social scientists, by contrast, emphasize the robust Nordic welfare state with its longtime provision of social support for the young, the unemployed, the ill, immigrants, and the elderly. Economic globalization, increasing migration, and shifting European security priorities put pressure on this “Nordic model,” meaning that the generous social welfare state may be a thing of the past. This course explores the interaction among Finnish culture and politics to understand national happiness as the product not of abundant joy, but the elimination of social misery, and how tensions in that project may lead to the reduction of policies that promote equality. Field trip(s) required.

This course is cross-listed with POLT-266