Trekking in the Norwegian mountains, July 2013
Report 2013
The year 2013 has been as busy as usual. A long tail from previous years commitments combined with add ons in various fields. Last year’s analysis of “Neighboring Culture in the Nordic Countries - distribution, access and use” is being followed up with a job for the Nordic Council of Ministers (see >> here) on harmonizing Nordic cultural statistics, to be finalized mid-2014. I have continued giving advice and lecturing at home and abroad in the media field and on public management and a number of new publications have been added to the list (see >>here).
My eight years term on the Board of Roskilde University (see >> here) is coming to an end next autumn giving me more time to nurse a new relationship as adjunct professor at the newly established research Center for Civil Society Studies at Copenhagen Business School (see >>here).
In 2013 the job with CARE International (see >> here) didn’t bring me to field visits in the areas where the development assistance is taking place. Instead it has been work at “the desk” – or rather in meeting rooms – with a very ambitious plan for transforming the organization from being an international confederation of twelve independent members toward a more coherent, federate structure. As is usually the case with international organizations trying to develop along that path, the most difficult barriers to overcome are often cultural differences and the reluctance of mankind to accept that real influence on the global arena may somehow be related to reduced individual independence.
The huge Open Society/Sorros Foundations program “Mapping Digital Media” (see >> here) where I for a number of years have had the opportunity to work at the Editorial Commission, is now close to have finalized the odd sixty country reports and a number of thematic papers. The program now engage in advocacy participating in seminars and panels in the countries analyzed in the program.
My wife and I continued this summer our piecemeal trekking up through Norway and mid-December we left home for a month touring round New Zealand.