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It is often argued that Germany and Scandinavia stand at two opposite ends of a spectrum with regard to their response to social-economic disruptions and cultural challenges. Though, in many respects, they have a shared cultural inheritance, it is nevertheless the case that they mobilize different mythologies and different modes of coping when faced with breakdown and disorder. The authors argue that it is at these critical junctures, points of crisis and innovation in the life of communities, that the tradition and identity of national and local communities are formed, polarized, and revalued; it is here that social change takes a particular direction.

Nina Witoszek is Professor of Cultural History at Oslo University.

Lars Trägårdh received his Ph D in history from UC Berkeley and currently co-directs a research project concerning trust and state/civil society relations in Sweden at the Research Institute of Ersta Sköndal University College in Stockholm. His most recent publications include State and Civil Society in Northern Europe (Berghahn Books, 2007), After National Democracy: Rights, Law and Power in America in the New Europe (Hart Publishing, 2004), and with Henrik Berggren Är svensken människa: Oberoende och gemenskap i det moderna Sverige (Norstedts, 2006).