What The Denmark | Danish Culture for Expats, Internationals and Danes
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We're back with Season 3! In this episode we tackle Janteloven or "The Law of Jante". In 1933, a Danish-Norwegian author called Axel Sandemose wrote a book describing a fictional town in rural Denmark. The people of the town were very set in their ways, and didn't like it when individuals tried to break from the norms, or think that they were in any way special. This fictional (satirical) piece of work has come to define how many in Scandinavia see their lives today: people are sceptical of individual success, and prefer to "be average" rather than aspire to stand out from the crowd. Of course, it's not that simple, but knowing about this undercurrent of conformity can help explain why people in Denmark are seemingly content (or frustrated by!) following the crowd. We are joined by writer Michael Booth (author of The Almost Nearly Perfect People) and also speak with Søren Ledet, co-founder of Geranium, a Danish restaurant that has been voted as the best restaurant in the world. Michael shares his experiences of getting to grips with Janteloven and even learning to love it (on occasion). In the episode we reference this article he wrote for The Guardian that ca