ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyses Northern Europe, but it also deals with immigrant Finnish communities in the USA and Canada. It discusses the transfer of intangible family heritage from one generation to the next in the contexts of religious upbringing, livelihood, social mobility, and nation-building. The Nordic societies are known for their welfare state model and equality. They have dominated international statistics on egalitarianism, well-being, happiness, and education in the twenty-first century. To understand the transfer of values on a micro-level, it is useful to take a closer look at Nordic families on the one hand and education in the Nordic region on the other. After all, these were the forums in which children were integrated into the prevalent culture of their kin and/or society.
