Today we began our journey with meeting students from Göterborg University at our hotel. We made our way to Göterborg University’s School of Business, Economics and Law. We met our first lecturer, Professor Lisbeth Svengren Holm, who discussed AGECAP and research for aging capability and health.
AGECAP’s aim is to understand prerequisites of capability in aging and older persons. The professor defined capability as the ability to function independently, to maintain control, as well as the ability to maintain one’s own safety. Professor Holm emphasized the imperativeness of keeping elderly people fit in order to reduce the costs of care to that population. She used Dagny Carlsonn as the prime example of an elderly person using all of her available tools to remain healthy and happy well beyond old age. At 105 years old, Carlsonn is still maintaining a blog updating her daily activities day to day. Dagny is an excellent example of the human spirit maintaining a courageous attitude to remain curious and daring through old age in order to reduce loneliness and improve longevity.
Our next lecturer Ola Bergstrom, gave us an overview of Human Resources practices in the Swedish context and highlighted relevant economic perspective as well. His presentation outlined Solidaristic Wage Policy which summarizes Sweden’s labor which is the relationship between production and the number of firms in the economy. Due to legislation and presence of work councils, Sweden favors larger firms that are more productive to provide better jobs. Furthermore, we learned that models of co-determination, and global trade are what set apart Sweden and other Nordic countries from the European Union and are essential to their small population countries. Bergstrom briefly discussed how Sweden unabashedly will remove business investment and reinvest to adapt to changing market conditions, contrary to their stigma of strong government intervention.
After our time at Gothenburg University, we went to get lunch at a local cafe with two students Dina and Lenia. For the rest of the day they showed us beautiful naturalistic sites, coffee shops, and a public zoo which had a range of animals from moose, to penguins. Our day was full of activity and learning.
-Nick Jacoubs
-Michael Krastin