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This article investigates the normative logic and orientation of civic and religious education in seven countries in northern Europe. One main underlying argument is that public schooling must be generically regarded as a heavy functional contributor to the 'soft' normative reproduction and validation of certain ethical and cultural identities. In the article, the rhetorical goals of neutralism and tolerance in current European political–educational thought are measured against empirical modes and practices of education. A parochialism–cosmopolitanism conceptual dichotomy is constructed and used as a main analytical guide, which allows for a number of critical conclusions to be made on the production of normative statehood through education in contemporary 'post-normative' Europe. The ultimate ambition of the text is thus to contribute to shedding new light on the interpretation and enactment of value diversity in these seven educational settings and interculturalising societies.

What is good politics? It is both a knowledge of philosophical, organizational and normative questions. It is about how and where the political science branch of the social science tree grows, of what political scientists really should do and how political science education should be conducted. By extension, it is also about which frames political order, power and social organization can best be analyzed within. There are big questions. Are there any good answers or just bad? Or could it even be that the question of what distinguishes good from bad politics leads to awkward enough paradigmatic, epistemological, and other difficult or insoluble problems that maybe we should refrain from imposing or even trying to answer it? Well, it would actually be pretty bad. Adapted from the source document.

Contemporary European life seems to require new ways for people to combine family life and career. There is a fear among European governments and the European Union, however, that such changes will alter received patterns of child rearing and may, in the long run, threaten social cohesion, integration and solidarity between generations. In current discussions how to make childcare generally available, as a social service, without posing a threat to social cohesion, the Swedish post-war experience may serve as a point of reference. This study traces and analyses the development of Swedish childcare which, in order to cater to two-career families, has changed from rudimentary and scarce to sophisticated and comprehensive.

This volume critically explores the state of religious and civic life and politics on the margins of state spaces by analysing the themes of borders, education, and religions in northern Europe. It suggests that the formation of religious and civic identity through education is not becoming less parochial and more culturally open. It also challenges the idea that secular liberal democracies are by definition uninvolved in matters of faith