ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a study of the politics of the decision-making processes behind the two Scandinavian pavilions. In both cases, official representatives of the Nordic countries sought to combine inter- and extra-Nordic mediations of 'Scandinavia'. Nordic representation in Montreal and Osaka, like all representations of identity, was negotiated and contested. In the case of Osaka, the dispute instead concerned the non-distribution of a particular image of the Nordic region within it. The twentieth-century history of Nordicness must be considered a strategic identity, without that necessarily meaning that it was in some way a fake identity. It is clear that all the actors involved in the decision-making processes took as axiomatic the assumption that the Nordic countries shared certain cultural, economic and social traits. Swedish industry, because of its export-oriented nature and the markets on which it was dependent, was clearly more eager to ensure Swedish participation at the two exhibitions than its Finnish and Norwegian counterparts.
