ABSTRACT
A main feature of civil society development and the growth of associational life in the Nordic region is the comprehensive transnational cooperation within and across the region. This transnational experience, evolving since the late eighteenth century and expanding throughout the nineteenth century and beyond, included at times pan-national activistic elements related to Scandinavianism and Nordism. It facilitated the emergence and strengthening of regional identities and a sense of community and laid the ground for what became a widespread practice of Nordic cooperation. The rise, expansion—and setbacks—of this associational practice reflect contacts as well as confrontations between the Nordic neighbours. It is a history of regional and transnational developments with a global dimension and, furthermore, often accompanied and facilitated by a normative discourse. Not least, however, is the broader development of transnational associational ties driven by pragmatic and practical motivations and solutions. This chapter aims to map, categorize and suggest a taxonomy of important features of the historical formation of regional civil cooperation, mainly during the long nineteenth century. Of particular interest are inter-Nordic transnational associations and organizations that contributed to shape structural transnational relations, vital to the growth of what may be termed a networked region and a Nordic subsystem of civil society.
