Edited by Are Vegard Haug, Senior Researcher, Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway

• ContentsPreface xviAcknowledgments xviiList of abbreviations xviiiPART I INTRODUCTION, HEALTH CONSEQUENCESAND LEGAL POLICY1 COVID pandemic and the Nordic model of localgovernance – high stakes, high risks 3Are Vegard Haug and Harald Baldersheim2 How severe was the COVID-19 pandemic in the Nordiccountries?­ 17Kristian Heggebø and Axel West Pedersen3 Legal framework and rule of law 28Iris Nguyên Duy and Sigrid StokstadPART II NATIONAL POLICY CHOICES4 Denmark – centralised crisis management and loyalimplementation 52Søren Kjær Foged and Kurt Houlberg5 Iceland: COVID-19 handling strategy in Iceland:centralised and expert-led 60Grétar Thór Eythórsson6 Sweden: relaxed crisis management 68Fredrik Garcia, Erik Järnland, Johan Nordensvärd,Carl-Johan Sommar and Elin Wihlborg7 Finland: prepared yes, but sufficiently agile? 77Sebastian Godenhjelm8 Norway: decentralised crisis management 86Harald Baldersheim, Are Vegard Haug, Linda Hye, and Morten Øgård9 The Faroese COVID-19 response: testing and soft law 97Jens Christian Svabo Justinussen and Rógvi Olavson10 Greenland 105Maria Ackrén11 The Åland Islands 113Maria AckrénPART III LOCAL DEMOCRACY12 The chain of municipal governance in crisis 122Sebastian Godenhjelm and Maria Ackrén13 The communicative climate: municipal leaders’ experiences 132Johan Nordensvärd Carl-Johan Sommar and Elin Wihlborg14 Civil society: a resource for local crisis governance? 142Are Vegard Haug, Johan Nordensvärd and Elin Wihlborg15 Multi-level governance: a helping hand from the state, orcentralisation of crisis responses? 153Harald Baldersheim and Are Vegard HaugPART IV CRISIS MANAGEMENT AT THE LOCAL LEVEL16 Who contributed and to what extent? 166Kurt Houlberg and Søren Kjær Foged17 Leadership at the apex in times of crises: Who is runningthe show? 178Linda Hye and Morten Øgård18 Keep a distance – go online! Digitalisation for crisisresponses and its lasting consequences 189Elin Wihlborg, Fredrik Garcia and Are Vegard Haug19 Modes of local crisis management: is there a Nordic model? 198Linda Hye and Morten ØgårdPART V THE CITIZENS’ ‘JUDGEMENT’20 How (un)reasonable were the pandemic measuresaccording to citizens? 209Are Vegard Haug, Harald Baldersheim and Therese Sefton21 Citizen trust in local government in the Nordic Countriesduring the COVID-19 Pandemic 219Harald Baldersheim, Are Vegard Haug, Grétar Thór Eythórsson22 Conclusions and implications 234Are Vegard Haug and Harald Baldersheim

‘This is a highly distinctive book. It addresses critical differences and similarities in the approaches to managing the COVID-19 pandemic among Nordic countries. It does so through the multiple frames of governance structure, crisis management, citizen trust and confidence, organizational networks as well as important contrasts between processes of reliability and adaptation. Its separate richly described cases and chapters are written by a set of very accomplished and insightful authors. It also offers very useful quantitative survey data from a wide variety of participants, at many different levels, ranging from governmental officials (mayors and municipal directors), managers of schools, kindergartens and elder care institutions, as well as five general population surveys across five countries. This book will be of great value, with its cases, data and insightful analyses, to researchers, governmental officials at all levels, as well as crisis managers and public health professionals in nations across the world. Its treatment alone of the possible role of high reliability and “high adaptation organizations” together in pandemic-like crises adds a new dimension to high reliability organizations research.’