Defending the Nordic model: Understanding the moral universe of the Norwegian working class

Figures & data

Table 1. Distribution of participants according to sector, region, and gender.

	Industry		Artisanal		Healthcare		Sales and service		Transport		Petroleum
	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F
Oslo	6		5			3	6	4	2	1	2
Bergen	1		5			3	1		1	1
Kristiansand								4
Two industrial communities	8	2						1
N	15	2	10			6	7	9	3	2	2		56

Table 2. Moral ideal types in the Norwegian working class.

	Good Samaritan	Socially responsible citizen	Hardworking person
Common good/worth	Altruism, honesty, compassion	Equality, solidarity	Work ethic, diligence
Highly valued people	People who spend their lives helping others (such as refugees, the poor). Humanitarian workers, Médecins Sans Frontières	People who want to distribute goods more equally. People involved in local voluntary work (culture, politics, sports). Left-wing politicians, people with dugnadsånd (a willingness to participate in communal voluntary work)	People who work hard in order to: -take care of themselves, -support a family, - handle their job, - start a business. Single mothers, former drug addicts, people who struggle in life, ordinary workers, entrepreneurs from ordinary backgrounds
Lowly valued people	Liars, racists, criminals, cheats, bigots, dictators, neo-Nazis	People who want to increase inequalities, business leaders, the wealthy, people who dominate others, real estate cynics, egoists, politicians who enrich themselves. The political right	People who are able to work but don't, people who take advantage of the system, such as companies that avoid paying taxes and people who take advantage of welfare benefits, freeloaders

See also Appendix.

Table

Values	Total
Polite	64
Responsible	91
Fair/equality oriented	108
Independent	18
Will to work	26
Compassion	51
Common decency	61
Tolerant	36
Competitive	4
Goal-oriented	22
Socially responsible	6
Religious	4
Creative	13
Refined (Bildung)	5
Solidarity	28
Honest	144
Conscientious	38
Down-to-earth	14
Performance-oriented	0
Obedient	10

The table shows that values such as responsibility, social responsibility and fair/equality oriented scored high, supporting the moral ideal type, labelled socially responsible citizen. The common good associated with the Good Samaritan also scored high (honesty and compassion). However, not all the participants answered, and not all the 20 values were presented at the start of the project. The findings are therefore not entirely reliable.