Newsletter from the Nordic Labour Journal 7/2012
Editorial: Art and culture shapes the future working life
Working life is changing and improving constantly. The essence of art is to go beyond what is already there and point to something new. Can art and culture help innovation processes and the development of new jobs?
Culture increasingly important for employment
Culture plays an increasingly important role in employment. Cultural and creative trades employ five million people in Europe and represent 3.3 percent of the total EU economy. Employment in cultural occupations also grows three times faster than the rest of the economy. Both in the EU and in the Nordic region culture is being highlighted as a creative catalyst which can help create competitiveness and employment within the wider economy.
One in four Icelanders in creative jobs
The culture, entertainment and experience industry is increasingly important in Iceland. The country’s single most important cultural industry is music. Many jobs are also created when US producers come to Iceland to shoot their films. Icelandic computer games do well abroad and the country has renewed its export of literature after an 800 year long break. Culture is so deeply rooted in Icelandic identity that Icelanders themselves fail to realise how important it is.
Culture helps handle the darker sides of working life
There are great hopes that creativity will give businesses the competitive edge, but amateurish attempts at introducing culture into working life do not help, say Finnish pioneers on culture in businesses.
Board game injects creativity into medical technicians
There is growing interest in the way industrial designers work, and design ideas are entering into more and more areas. The ability to create processes, focus on customers and to think outside the box fuels the interest among big and small companies.
Art is always ahead but lacks a centre
All architects who are drawing culture houses share a secret dream of creating a new Sydney Opera House, a landmark which can draw people from around the world. Renzo Piano is one of the few who have actually done it.
Nordic seniors want longer working lives
Nordic women and men work for longer than their European colleagues, and the retirement age is increasing. But there are also differences between the Nordic countries. In later years Denmark has considered Sweden and Norway to be good examples when it comes to employment among the older generation. So why the differences, and why do more people want to work for longer?
How to increase equality in Norway
From next year Norway increases parental leave to 49 weeks. Yet months of daddy leave and nursery places for all children do not automatically make for a less gender segregated labour market nor does it make the male dominance in top jobs disappear, warns Professor Hege Skjeie, who has been heading the largest report on equality in Norway so far.
Unemployment benefit cuts undermine the Danish model
Danish trade unions warn cuts to unemployment benefits are undermining the Danish labour market model.
Nordic worry over EU internal market package
The European Commission’s proposal for how to apply the EU directive on the posting of workers must not limit our powers to control foreign companies! That was the unified message from government officials, authority representatives, the social partners and researchers from all Nordic countries when they met in Oslo to discuss how to deal with what remains of the the so-called internal market package.
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