On January 29, join us for a talk on Down and Out in Utopia with Kelly McKowen! The cultural anthropologist and former American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellow Kelly McKowen will discuss his forthcoming book, Down and Out in Utopia: Unemployment as Moral Education in Norway (University of Toronto Press), with Ellen Cushing, staff writer at The Atlantic. Based on more than a year of fieldwork among a diverse cast of unemployed in Oslo, Down and Out in Utopia offers unparalleled insight into life without work in one of the world's wealthiest and most egalitarian countries. Though both Norway and the United States measure unemployment rates, McKowen argues, the everyday experience of unemployment is very different in a society with a social democratic welfare system, and so too are the lessons that being unemployed teaches people about government, work, welfare, taxes, freedom, and belonging.
Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America is the leading center for Nordic culture in the United States. It offers a wide range of programs that illuminate the culture and vitality of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Scandinavia House offerings include diverse exhibitions and film series, as well as concerts and other performances, readings, lectures, symposia, language courses, and children’s activities.