Acknowledgments

I did not set out to write this book to understand my life, but that has nevertheless been one of its outcomes. Through the nearly decade-long process, I have come to recognize how deeply everything – and everyone – is connected and how profoundly the people in my life have shaped me.

My heartfelt thanks to Barbro Osher, whose steadfast support and generous spirit have encouraged me over many years. Her deep commitment to the possibilities the Nordics offer in shaping a more just world has inspired much of the work in these pages and the launch of our Nordic Center at the University of California (UC), Berkeley. I am also grateful to Barney Osher, whose support has helped make this work possible.

My sincere thanks to Mette Morsing, Norm Bowie, Scott Pinkus, Mads Øvlisen, Mark Sandberg, Jay Stowsky, Marco Lindsey, Laura Tyson, Laurence Wainwright, Dara O’Rourke, Ove Ullerup, Azita Raji, Liv Duesund, Annik Magerholm Fet, Rolf Lunheim, Jesper Kamp, Gry Rabe Henriksen, Jo Sletbak, Bertel Haarder, Eric Guthey, Dorte Salskov-Iversen, Ed Freeman, Dirk Matten, Jeremy Moon, Kai Hockerts, Steen Vallentin, Andy Crane, Barry Schwartz, Scott Lewis, Alfie Marcus, Steve Spruth, Andy Van de Ven, Majken Schultz, Susanne Stormer, Simon Boas Hoffmeyer, Marianne Barner, Annette Stube, Anne Mette Christiansen, Claus Meyer, Neel Strøbæk, Søren Staugaard Nielsen, Tobias Grut, Eric Nelson, Andrew Nestingen, Tim Carlson, Rufus Gifford, Brooke Warner, Anne Durette, Laura Portwood-Stacer, Ben Mangan, Linda Rugg, Lotta Weckström, Jo Mackness, Persis Sberlo, Nathalie Muñoz, Amber Van Meter, Dara McKenzie, Emily Pelissier, Seren Pendleton-Knoll, Cathy Garza, Jennifer Sturdy, Adam Ross, Paul Gertler, Henry Chesbrough, Cynthia Steele, and Rich Lyons.

I am profoundly grateful to the many students I have had the privilege of engaging with over the years – especially those from the University of Minnesota’s Corporate Social Responsibility in Scandinavia courses, where this journey began, and the UC Berkeley and Copenhagen Business School cohorts from our Sustainable Capitalism in the Nordics? course series, who workshopped this book with me across many classes. I am deeply thankful to the Berkeley Haas Center for Responsible Business Student Advisory Board members, whose insights and enthusiasm inspire me and provide a continued source of hope. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Carlsberg Foundation for its early support through the project grant “Establishing the Global Research Paradigm: Sustainability in a Scandinavian Context,” which first brought me to UC Berkeley and set this work in motion.

My deep thanks and love to Michael and Gretchen Lamb; Gary, Judee, and Mark Brone; Lucas Lettner, Katrina Scoville, Travis Krumholz, Matt Krumholz, Chad Mahutga, Ben Chambers, Jim Krzoska, Joe Wolfe, Jeremy and Nicole Prestholdt, Mie and Henrik Nielsen, Jeff Denby and Adam Seymour, Jane and Bill Amundson, Jim Granum, Rich Abts, Susan and Steve Prussing, Bea and Paul Koehn, Katie and Tarek Bly-Haddad, Jonas and Anki Eder-Hansen, Kay Nelson, Susan and Leof Strand, Elizabeth and Dean Cimini, Jennifer Strand and Doug Mattson, and Joey and Bill Bly.

To my wife and partner in everything, Sarah Bly; our children, Jonas and Mikkel Bly-Strand; and my parents, Gavin and Constance Strand – thank you. I love you all deeply.

I believe the purpose of life is to love and be loved. I find meaning in the pursuit of that purpose. My experiences in the Nordics revealed how the systems and structures of Nordic capitalism expand freedom and opportunity, enabling more people to pursue their purpose – however they define it.

Throughout this book, I offer personal reflections to ground its ideas in lived experience and to invite deeper understanding through self-reflection, in the spirit of engaged scholarship. As AI-generated content becomes more widespread, I believe we will increasingly value scholarship in which authors reflect on their position in relation to their research and connect their lived, human experiences to it with humanism and humility. This is something artificial intelligence, for all its incredible capacity, cannot genuinely offer.

Realizing sustainable capitalism will require humanism and humility – a recognition that we are beneficiaries of systems larger than ourselves, that we share a responsibility to act with empathy as stewards of our planet and societies, and that – even in the face of daunting challenges – the work ahead can be a joyful and hopeful pursuit.

Open Access publication of this book was made possible in part by support from the Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII), sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley Library, making the digital version freely available for anyone to read under a Creative Commons licence.