Jacob Christensen

Fact: Economists and sociologists do not mix. Even liberal (in the US American meaning of the word) economists and sociologists do not mix.

Proof: J. Brad deLong does a hatchet job on Anthony Giddens: The Madmen in the Attic.

And I might even be comfortable with Tony Giddens’s having access to metal and not just plastic knives if there was less visible nostalgia for the days when so many sociologists were stooges in search of a…

Don’t miss the comments. They are just as entertaining.

A short note: The Swedish Board of Higher Education does a hatchet job on the school teacher education:

• “One in four students fail”, Op-ed article in DN signed by the Director General of the Board of Higher Education and four evaluators
• Press release from the Board with links to the studies presented in the DN op-ed article

Worth noting for other lines of study is that the BHE appears to favour written individual tests in favour of group exams and project based exams. In the article and the reports, the BHE also questions the validity and reliability in much of the grading made in teacher education – and, one may suspect, other lines of higher education.

In the aftermath of the scandal involving Liberal party officials who broke into the intranet of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, four former officials of the Liberal Party, one Social Democrat and a journalist from the tabloid “Expressen” have now been charged with illegal entry.

Some of the coverage and comments: DN – Sex åtalade i fp-härvan, Ny partiledare kan krävas för trovärdigheten (New party leader may be needed for the Liberals to regain credibility, comment by Henrik Brors); SvT – Pinan för folkpartiet förlängs (The Liberals’ agony is prolonged, comment by K-G Bergström).

What’s really troubling the Swedes this evening, though, is the escape of Juha Valjakkala from a Finnish prison.

In case you thought that Swedes and Danes actually liked each other, the answer is: No. At least when we talk about leftish Swedes and non-leftish Danes who seem to bounce off each other regularly in a most peculiar fashion.

Just to summarise a typical debate: The educated, progressive and globally oriented Swede denounces his Danish neighbours as hate-filled, parochial primitives. A chorus of Danes strike back denouncing the Swedes as do-good airheads who lack any experience with the real world.

Interesting observation: True Swedes do not bother to react when Sweden is the topic of debate in Denmark. Danes react instantaneously and agressively when Denmark is the topic of debate in Sweden.

For a case in point: Stefan Johansson (Editor of Dagens Nyheter’s culture and review section): En kulturjournalistik i reservat. Rebuttal in Berlingske Tidende: Svenskerhår (Svenskerhår is the Danish term for a mullet haircut and, yes, it’s a very derogatory term).

The latest bout actually brought an interesting innovation as a commentator in Berlingske Tidende argued that the seeming Swedish tolerance was in fact borne out of pragmatic realism (as in: realpolitik) while the Danish policies on immigration and freedom-of-speech were based on democratic idealism