ABSTRACT
This chapter aims at capturing the distinct economic and institutional transformations that takes place in the Nordic countries over the period and constituted the beginnings of a new growth and development regime (NGDR) in response to the challenges of globalization. The chapter discusses on 'enabling welfare states' and helps to identify which forms of social partnerships and public institutional practices can reset the Nordic societies back onto the path of the NGDR. The NGDR demands much of who work inside it; such demands would be intolerable and ineffective without appropriate institutionalized supports, not just of a traditional welfare state but of a welfare state that is capable of providing individualized and enabling social services. Large multinational corporations and their in- and outbound foreign direct investments (FDI) generally dominate media headlines about globalization and its impact, but this is not the best way to describe how companies from the Nordic countries have been engaged in globalization during the last decade.
