Many of the articles have earlier been presented at six conferences held between 1995 and 1997 by the Nordic Network for Masculinity Studies within the Nordic Summer University, arranged by the editors and financed by the Nordic Ministry Council. This early collection has been complemented by a few additional articles that have been presented at other seminars on "masculinities" in the Scandinavian countries during the same period. Finally we have included contributions from some of our visitors, among them some of the major researchers on masculinities, who have been promoting this hitherto predominantly Anglo-American subject.2