Academic literature on the topic 'Cross-Cultural marketing Definition'

Abstract One of the earlier definitions of cross-cultural management focuses on its behavioral aspects and underlines an importance of interaction of people from different cultures. “Cross-cultural management is the study of the behavior of people in organizations located in cultures and nations around the world” [Adler 1983, p. 226]. This definition is based on the description of organizational behavior within countries and cultures on one hand and of organizational behavior across countries and cultures on another. Peoples from different countries often work together in the same environment creating specific interactions but they can also built special relationships during their leisure time. Looking at the particular subject of management from this perspective it is possible to notice that tourism products have quite big potential for creating cross-cultural interactions when services are produced in different cultures or/and consumed in different cultural context. It is mainly connected with a simultaneous production and consumption on the one hand and consumer’s participation in both processes on the other hand. Tourism products posses an additional feature which creates a cross-cultural dimension in both production and consumption: movement (traveling) between different cultural environments which is a source of different cultural experiences; they have to be recognized a priori to be placed on the market with the tourism product. On the other hand tourism services have to be produced according to identified consumer expectations in different cultures. The aim of the study is to present selected aspects of tourism products which can create cross-cultural interactions and require a special managerial marketing approach. This article discusses an impact of cultural diversity on organizational behavior in international tourism and on consumer behavior in cultural tourism with a special focus on cross-cultural interactions in consumption of tourism products. This is connected with the fact that tourism products are produced and consumed by tourists in different cultures; this relationship can create specific interactions of many types. The main research method applied is a literature review on cultural tourism and marketing.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to characterize the cross-functional integration processes between marketing and logistics, while considering five basic elements: boundary spanning activities, integration factors, level of integration, formality/informality and impacts of integration. Design/methodology/approach – After an extensive literature review, five case studies were performed and in-depth interviews conducted. Both within-case and cross-case analysis was performed to better understand the cross-functional integration processes between marketing and logistics. Findings – A characterization of cross-functional integration in the form of a managerial framework was proposed. This framework presents the elements in a process view, instead of disconnected parts of the integration processes. The framework and process perspective helps to explain the integration process, the roles and impacts of integration within organizations, while considering cultural formality and informality. Research limitations/implications – Qualitative data collection and analysis methods cannot achieve amplitude with respect to sampling nor generalize results. In spite of this, the implications revealed by the propositions may be applied not only to Brazilian companies, but organizations in other countries as well, due to the high level of heterogeneity of the sample, and the fact that they represent multinational organizations. Therefore, further research using broad-based survey data could test the correlations between the elements of cross-functional integration processes. Practical implications – The identification of the cross-functional integration processes within organizations can help managers to facilitate the efforts of integration between marketing and logistics, reducing conflicts and improving business performance. Originality/value – Case studies focussing specifically on five Brazilian organizations help provide evidence for an initial definition of cross-functional integration processes by analyzing five key elements according to their characteristics and respective roles. This research provides a strong foundation for future broad-based survey research.

Formulation of the problem. The dramatic aggravation of the situation in world commodity, financial and stock markets leads to critical instability of international business, which confirms the need to study the problematics of national business cultures. The aim of the research is to identify the pivotal category - "national business cultures" and to disclose its content. The subject of the research is the original epistemological basis of analysis and the defining phenomena that reveal the content of the category - "national business cultures". The methods of the research: unity of analysis and synthesis, ascent from concrete to abstract, method of comparative analysis. The hypothesis of the research - national business cultures embody a set of phenomena and processes that are multidisciplinary in content, with reproducibility in time and space with some modification in specific conditions. The statement of basic materials: on the basis of the analysis of the works of the founders of the theory of national business cultures (G. Hofstede, F. Trompenaars; R. Lewis; C. Rapaille) and their followers the essence of the components of the study of national business cultures: cross -cultural management, cross -cultural communications and cross -cultural marketing. The epistemologi cal postulates that are necessary for the categorical definition of the "national business cultures" concept are qualified: multifacetedness; determinants of the formation of national business cultures; the longevity and reproduction of national business cultures; property of identification and classification of differences of national business cultures; modification of forms of manifestations of national business cultures within specific time. The originality and practical significance of the research lays in clear authentication of the "national business cultures" category and identification of the defining components of cross-cultural entrepreneurship. Conclusions and perspectives of further research: national business cultures are a complex interdisciplinary phenomenon that focuses on a set of essential features not only of economic content but also of the institutional environment. The primary tasks of further development are to conduct applied empirical studies on the evaluation of Ukraine's national business culture.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the discussion of cross-cultural research, in particular the use of dimensions of national culture, for international marketing. Design/methodology/approach – Discuss definitions of values and culture, analyze cultural models as to purpose and design and applications of models to international marketing. Findings – International marketers benefit from applying dimensions of national culture, but researchers make mistakes in applying and interpreting such dimensions, thus discrediting useful means of research for international marketing. Practical implications – Researchers should understand the problems of multi-level research and interpret dimensions better when using them for research. Originality/value – The value of this paper is in clearing up some of the misunderstandings about dimensions of national culture.

Background. The cultural reforms at the end of the 20th century in China opened to the world a whole variety of genres of Chinese short stories, as well as science fiction and historical fiction. Thanks to the Internet, they are gaining popularity at the present stage of literature formation, expanding the range of genres of online works with new types such as xianxia, xuanhuan, wuxia, which are rich in lexemes that denote the realia of Chinese culture and are of interest to translators. Purpose. The article considers the stratum of equivalent-free vocabulary and reveals a variety of ways to translate realia from Chinese into English and Russian Materials and methods. The research material comprises the popular Chinese short stories of the xianxia genre by the writers Mo Xiang Tong Xiu “Mo Dao Zu Shi” (also known as “The Untamed”), published by Jinjiang Literature City online publishing house (晋江文学城), 2015-2016, and the short story “Divine Doctor: Daughter of the First Wife” by Mo Shu Liu, published by Motie (磨铁图书), 2015. The material was analyzed using the continuous sampling and content analysis method, as well as the lexical-semantic and translation analysis. Results. In this article the authors reviewed the scientific definition of the term “realia”. They also analyzed a new genre of Chinese online literature (xianxia) as one of the rapidly gaining popularity. Examples of realia from two online novels were classified according to the typology by four principles of division (subject, local, temporal, translational). It is defined that the indicated division of analyzed realia while translating them from Chinese into Russian and English manifested itself in creating a neologism, which results in preservation of content and flavor of the translated realia, as well as the descriptive, approximate and contextual types of translation. Practical implications. The practical usefulness of the results of the study consists in the possibility of replenishing the cross-cultural dictionary of Chinese realia with new lexemes and their interpretation in Russian and English, in the use of the analyzed lexemes when compiling the trilingual corpus for linguists, philologists, literary scholars to work with.

Purpose: The aim of this research is focused on the identification of communication patterns prior and after COVID-19 was announced and the approach to the choices that end users make in various aspects of life. Design/methodology/approach: The authors decided to execute two-step research including practical use of 4 popular collaboration platforms: Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Jitsi, Google Meet, based on the proved user experience. After a defined focus group of respondents gathered hands-on experience in a controlled manner, using the defined communication platforms, further research was carried out in the form of a survey to assess the change of behavior of respondents, considering IT tools used to support distance learning and collaboration. The research included a comparison of behavior prior the epidemic and during the epidemic period. The research covered the following aspects: how the behavior patterns of UCC use have changed across the identified areas (business, educational, private) and what are the most preferred toolsets. The following structure was applied: a short introduction to the communication platforms, definition of the research method, analysis, and discussion of the identified results. Findings: The conducted survey identified the following elements: the level of digital communication among respondents and the familiarity with different platforms have a significant role in the use and development of UCC platforms. The generic conclusion of the research was that almost all respondents have prior experience using UCC platforms. The survey has proved the 100% use of UCC cross various areas of life. Based on the research, it has been noticed that respondents tend to use one or two UCC platforms as a standard for business and private use. UCC platforms that are more widely used across different areas of life are rated as the most preferred by the respondents and include Microsoft Teams (30%) and Google Meet (23%). Research limitations/implications: The usage of non-probabilistic sampling, a relatively small sample and the usage of qualitative analysis methods were major limitations of the conducted research. Firstly, the research data was collected from students of one specialty, from one specific university. The research did not find any cultural differences in distance learning and communication. Secondly, the study uses basic statistical measures without cross analysis to enable a deeper analysis of the research. Originality/value: The presented paper is a part of the research area related to communication platforms across various areas of peoples’ life. The research was aimed at the identification of the most preferable UCC platforms and features that serve the communication purpose. The cognitive value of the paper might also be seen in the focus on a relatively narrow and homogenous group of respondents (students of e-business and digital marketing).

There is no intensive review available of research at the interface of international marketing and entrepreneurship. This article systematically logs and organizes the subject matter and provides research suggestions. An organizing framework with three main dimensions—international marketing, the nature of marketing, and entrepreneurship—guides the literature review, which relies on a full search of articles relevant to international marketing and entrepreneurship published in academic journals over the past two decades (1997–2016). The study adopts a qualitative research approach to analyze 169 articles that meet the definitions of both international marketing and entrepreneurship research. Nine research types emerge at the intersection of international marketing and entrepreneurship research, and the study examines the theoretical and empirical trends of each type. A promising avenue for future studies would be cross-cultural comparative research on the individual–opportunity nexus in marketing across countries. More mixed-method and longitudinal research designs are also welcomed. The authors conclude by offering suggestions for future interdisciplinary research.

The article presents a corpus-based method developed to specify the cross-linguistic equivalence of words based on the analysis of their corpus profiles. The method was tested on the example of the names of emotional concepts (ECs) which form «an anger petal» of R. Plutchik’s wheel of emotions in its English, German and Ukrainian language versions. The first stage of the investigation involved the comparative analysis of definitions of the lexemes mostly used by translators to convey the English «anger petal» in German and Ukrainian. It allowed eliminating the cases of false equivalence. At the second stage the results of the previous one were verified by the use of language corpora data. For this purpose, language corpora data were involved to define the common and distinctive senses of 10 most relevant emotional proximates of each analysed EC as to their relevance and intensity indicators. These indicators are used as criteria of cross-cultural equivalence of anger-like ECs, so the results of proximate analysis formed quite an objective basis for featuring such cross-cultural equivalence of the compared concepts: Anglo-Saxon «annoyance» ↔ German «Ärger» ↔ Ukrainian «роздратування»; A-S. «anger» ↔ Germ. «Wut» ↔ Ukr. «гнів»; A-S. «rage» ↔ Germ. «Zorn» ↔ Ukr. «лють». Extrapolated on the language level, this analysis made it possible to detect current semantic shades of the names of these ECs that helped to define the more precise German and Ukrainian equivalents for the Anglo-Saxon lexemes annoyance, anger and rage. The development of the second stage of the method testified to the fact that forming profiles of words in language corpora and the comparative analysis of their frequency do not require translators’ special efforts, so this approach to specifying the equivalence of language units can be considered as a perspective one in translation studies.

This variable describes the basic journalistic genres typically used in specialized cultural coverage. The fundamental distinction goes between fact-based objective-seeking genres, such as news and news feature, and opinionated articles based on subjective accounts, such as columns, essays, comments and reviews. In journalism, it is important to separate opinions from facts, and this is why subjective views are differentiated from ways of representation that are based on the strategic ritual of objectivity (Tuchman, 1972), i.e., presenting facts by referring to sources or simply describing them instead of exposing the journalists’ own opinions and feelings. Reviews present a specialist genre of their own, connected to the institution of criticism (Hohendahl, 1982). Reviewing – the evaluation of new cultural products on the market – underlies the assumption that only selected experts are allowed to write reviews (Chong, 2020). Newspapers are also constantly developing their means of presentation, which results in an increased number of different newspaper-specific and hybrid formats, both in print and online (see, e.g., Santos Silva, 2019). Being not only medium-specific, genres may also vary from one journalistic culture to another, which makes a nuanced cross-cultural comparison difficult and motivates a limited use of values. Field of application/theoretical foundation Journalistic genres constitute the epistemological ground on which cultural journalists and reviewers cover culture. Scholars have been interested in the shifts in cultural coverage that have occurred between descriptive, interpretative, and evaluative content (Widholm et al., 2019). Descriptive content is often regarded in professional terms as non-ambitious in culture, while the meaning-making subjective elements are preferred and conceived of as an indication of quality (proactive professional engagement rather than marketing of cultural events). In cultural coverage, it is yet often difficult to separate facts from evaluative accounts, as the description of products, phenomena, persons, and events often require that they are put into an evaluative frame. The selection of a genre is related to the production structures, as many reviews are written by freelancers outside the newsroom. The number and share of reviews are typically regarded as an indication of journalistic acknowledgement for expert knowledge, and also the volume of outsourced production, as a great majority of reviews are written by freelancer-based experts. A decreasing number of reviews is thus typically interpreted as a crisis of criticism (Elkins, 2003; Jaakkola, 2015). References/combination with other methods of data collection Journalistic genres are often studied in conjunction to the artistic genres (see variable “Forms of culture”). Some studies are only interested in tracing the number and volume of reviews. Sample operationalization The two basic journalistic genres are news and reviews. News coverage can be further broken down to news feature (phenomenon-led coverage also called reportage) and person-led feature (typically referred to as person portraits). Further, there are two typical opinionated genres, essays and columns, and many kinship genres such as analysis, (news) comment and preview, that can be separately identified or merged into one variable showing personal voicing of the author. Example study Jaakkola (2015) Information about Jaakkola, 2015 Author: Maarit Jaakkola Research question/research interest: Representation of the share of journalistic genres applied in covering culture on culture pages of daily newspapers across time, to expose the production structure Object of analysis: Articles/text items on culture pages of five major daily newspapers in Finland 1978–2008 (Aamulehti, Helsingin Sanomat, Kaleva, Savon Sanomat, Turun Sanomat) Timeframe of analysis: 1978–2008, consecutive sample of weeks 7 and 42 in five year intervals (1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008) Info about variable Variable name/definition: Journalistic genre Unit of analysis: Article/text item Values: Journalistic genre Description 1. News Informative, fact-based article intended to deliver an objective account on an event 2. Review Opinionated, subjective article related to a new cultural product with an intention to evaluate it, written by a reviewer or critic 3. Person portrait/feature An informative article, typically interview-based, in which a person constitutes the topic 4. Reportage/feature An informative article intended to give account of the context of a news event or examine a phenomenon 5. Essay A longer opinionated, subjective article written by a journalist or reviewer to cover a phenomenon, process, state of the art or arts, etc. 6. Other commentary A short opinionated, subjective article written by a journalist (non-reviewer): a column, causerie, comment, preview or analysis, sometimes related to a news article 7. Other A text item not suited for any other category; e.g., a list, visualization, hybrid format, or similar Scale: nominal Intercoder reliability: Cohen's kappa > 0.76 (two coders) References Chong, P.K. (2020). Inside the critics‘ circle: Book reviewing in uncertain times. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Elkins, J. (2003). What happened to art criticism? Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Bristol University Presses. Hohendahl, P.U. (1982). Institution of criticism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Jaakkola, M. (2015). Witnesses of a cultural crisis: Representations of mediatic metaprocesses as professional metacriticism of arts journalism. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(5), 537–554. doi:10.1177/1367877913519308 Santos Silva, D. (2019). Digitally empowered: New patterns of sourcing and expertise in cultural journalism and criticism. Journalism Practice, 13(5), 592–601. doi: 10.1080/17512786.2018.1507682 Tuchman, G. (1972). Objectivity as strategic ritual: An examination of newsmen's notions of objectivity. American Journal of Sociology, 77(4), 660–679. doi:10.1086/225193 Widholm, A., Riegert, K., & Roosvall, A. (2019). Abundance or crisis? Transformations in the media ecology of Swedish cultural journalism over four decades. Journalism. Advance online publication August, 6. Journalism. doi:10.1177/1464884919866077

IntroductionThe “North” is given explicitly “Nordic” value in extreme metal, as a vehicle for narratives of identity, nationalism and ideology. However, we also contend that “Nordicness” is articulated in diverse and contradictory ways in extreme metal contexts. We examine Nordicness in three key iterations: firstly, Nordicness as a brand tied to extremity and “authenticity”; secondly, Nordicness as an expression of exclusory ethnic belonging and ancestry; and thirdly, Nordicness as an imagined community of liberal democracy.In situating Nordicness across these iterations, we call into focus how the value of the “North” in metal discourse unfolds in different contexts with different implications. We argue that “Nordicness” as it is represented in extreme metal scenes cannot be considered as a uniform, essential category, but rather one marked by tensions and paradoxes that undercut the possibility of any singular understanding of the “North”. Deploying textual and critical discourse analysis, we analyse what Nordicness is made to mean in extreme metal scenes. Furthermore, we critique understandings of the “North” as a homogenous category and instead interrogate the plural ways in which “Nordic” meaning is articulated in metal. We focus specifically on Nordic Extreme Metal. This subgenre has been chosen with an eye to the regional complexities of the Nordic area in Northern Europe, the popularity of extreme metal in Nordic markets, and the successful global marketing of Nordic metal bands and styles.We use the term “Nordic” in line with Loftsdóttir and Jensen’s definition, wherein the “Nordic countries” encompass Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland, and the autonomous regions of Greenland: the Faroe Islands and the Aland Islands (3). “Nordic-ness”, they argue, is the cultural identity of the Nordic countries, reified through self-perception, internationalisation and “national branding” (Loftsdóttir and Jensen 2).In referring to “extreme metal”, we draw from Kahn-Harris’s characterisation of the term. “Extreme metal” represents a cluster of heavy metal subgenres–primarily black metal, death metal, thrash metal, doom metal and grindcore–marked by their “extremity”; their impetus towards “[un]conventional musical aesthetics” (Kahn-Harris 6).Nonetheless, we remain acutely aware of the complexities that attend both terms. Just as extreme metal itself is “exceptionally diverse” (Kahn-Harris 6) and “constantly developing and reconfiguring” (Kahn-Harris 7), the category of the “Nordic” is also a site of “diverse experiences” (Loftsdóttir & Jensen 3). We seek to move beyond any essentialist understanding of the “Nordic” and move towards a critical mapping of the myriad ways in which the “Nordic” is given value in extreme metal contexts.Branding the North: Nordicness as Extremity and AuthenticityMetal’s relationship with the Nordic countries has become a key area of interest for both popular and scholarly accounts of heavy metal as the genre has rapidly expanded in the region. The Nordic countries currently boast the highest rate of metal bands per capita (Grandoni). Since the mid-2000s, metal scholars have displayed an accelerated interest in the “cultural aesthetics and identity politics” of metal in Northern Europe (Brown 261). Wider popular interest in Nordic metal has been assisted by the notoriety of the Norwegian black metal scene of the early 1990s, wherein a series of murders and church arsons committed by scene members formed the basis for popular texts such as Moynihan and Søderlind’s book Lords of Chaos and Aites and Ewell’s documentary Until the Light Takes Us.Invocations of Nordicness in metal music are not a new phenomenon, nor have such allusions been strictly limited to Northern European artists. Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden displayed an interest in Norse mythology, while Venom and Manowar frequently drew on Nordic imagery in their performance and visual aesthetics.This interest in the North was largely ephemeral–the use of popular Nordic iconography stressed romanticised constructions of the North as a site of masculine liberty, rather than locating such archetypes in a historical context. Such narratives of Nordic masculinity, liberty and heathenry nevertheless become central to heavy metal’s contextual discourses, and point to the ways in which “Nordicness” becomes mobilised as a particular branded category.Whilst Nordic “branding” for earlier heavy metal bands was largely situated in romantic imaginings of the ancient North, in the late 1980s there emerged “a secondary usage” of Nordic identity and iconography by Northern European metal bands (Trafford & Pluskowski 58). Such “Nordicness” laid far more stress on historical context, national identity and notions of ancestry, and, crucially, a sense of extremity and isolation. This emphasis on metal’s extremity beyond the mainstream has long been a crucial component in the marketing of Nordic scenes.Such “extremity” is given mutually supportive value as “authenticity”, where the term is understood as a value judgement (Moore 209) applied by audiences to discern if music remains committed to its own premises (Frith 71). Such questions of sincerity and commitment to metal’s core continue to circulate in the discourses of Nordic extreme metal. Sweden’s death metal underground, for example, was considered at “the forefront of one of the most extreme varieties of music yet conceived” (Moynihan and Søderlind 32), with both the Stockholm and Gothenburg “sounds” proving influential beyond Northern Europe (Kahn-Harris 106).Situating Nordicness as a distinct identity beyond metal’s commercial appeal underscores much of the marketing of Nordic extreme metal to international audiences. Such discourses continue in contemporary contexts–Finland’s official website promotes metal as a form of Finnish art and culture: “By definition, heavy metal fans crave music from outside the mainstream. They champion material that boldly stands out against the normality of pop” (Weaver).The focus on Nordic metal existing “outside” the mainstream is commensurate with understandings of extreme metal as “on the edge of music” (Kahn-Harris 5). Such sentiments are situated in a wider regional narrative that sees the Nordic region at the geographic “edge” of Europe, as remote and isolated (Grimley 2). The apparent isolation that enables the distinctiveness of “Nordic” forms of extreme metal is, however, potentially undercut by the widespread circulation of “Nordicness” as a particular brand.“Nordic extreme metal” can be understood as both a generic and place-based scene, where genre and geography “cross cut and coincide in complex ways” (Kahn-Harris 99). The Bergen black metal sound, for example, much like the Gothenburg death metal sound, is both a geographic and stylistic marker that is replicated in different contexts.This Nordic branding of musical styles is further affirmed by the wider means through which “Nordic”, “Scandinavian” and the “North” become interchangeable frameworks for the marketing of particular styles of extreme metal. “Nordic metal”, Von Helden thus argues, “is a trademark and a best seller” (33).Nordicness as Exclusory Belonging and AncestryMarketing strategies that rely on constructions of Nordic metal as “beyond the mainstream” at once exotify and homogenise the “Nordic”. Sentiments of an “imagined community of Nordicness” (Lucas, Deeks and Spracklen 279) have created problematic boundaries of who, or what, may be represented in such categories.Understandings of “Nordicness” as a site of generic “purity” (Moynihan and Søderlind 32) are therefore both tacitly and explicitly underscored by projections of ethnic purity and “belonging”. As such, where we have previously considered the cultural capital of the “Nordic” as it emerges as a particular branding exercise, here we examine the exclusory impetus of homogenous understandings of the Nordic.Nordicness in this context connotes explicitly racialised value, which interpellates images of Viking heathenry to enable fantasies of the pure, white North. This phenomenon is particularly evident in the context of Norwegian black metal, which bases its own self-mythologising in explicitly Nordic parameters. Norwegian black metal bands and members of the broader scene have often taken steps to continually affirm their Nordicness through various representational strategies. The widespread church burnings associated with the early Norwegian black metal scene, for instance, can be framed as a radical rejection of Christianity and an embracing of Norway’s Viking, pagan past.The ethnoromanticisation of Nordic regions and landscapes is underscored by problematic projections of national belonging. An interest in pagan mythology, as Kahn-Harris notes, can easily become an interest in racism and fascism (41). The “uncritical celebration of pagan pasts, the obsession with the unpolluted countryside and the distrust of the cosmopolitan city” that mark much Norwegian black metal were also common features of early fascist and racist movements (Kahn-Harris 41).Norwegian black metal has thus been able to link the genre, as a global music commodity, to “the conscious revival of myths and ideologies of an ancient northern European history and nationalist culture” (Lucas, Deeks and Spracklen 279). The conscious revival of such myths materialised in the early Norwegian scene in deliberately racist sentiments. Mayhem drummer Jan Axel Blomberg (“Hellhammer”) demonstrates this in his brief declaration that “Black metal is for white people” (in Moynihan and Søderlind 305); similarly, Darkthrone’s original back cover of Transylvanian Hunger (1994) prominently featured the phrase “Norsk Arisk Black Metal” (“Norwegian Aryan Black Metal”). Nordicness as exclusory white, Aryan identity is further mobilised in the National Socialist Black Metal scene, which readily caters to ontological constructions of Nordic whiteness (Spracklen, True Aryan; Hagen).However, Nordicness is also given racialised value in more tacit, but nonetheless troubling ways in wider Nordic folk and Viking metal scenes. The popular association of Vikings with Nordic folk metal has enabled such figures to be dismissed as performative play or camp romanticism, ostensibly removed from the extremity of black metal. Such metal scenes and their appeals to ethnosymbolic patriarchs nevertheless remain central to the ongoing construction of Nordic metal as a site that enables the instrumentality of Northern European whiteness precisely through hiding such whiteness in plain sight (Spracklen, To Holmgard, 359).The ostensibly “camp” performance of bands such as Sweden’s Amon Amarth, Faroese act Týr, or Finland’s Korpiklaani distracts from the ways in which Nordicness, and its realisations through Viking and Pagan symbolism, emerges as a claim to ethnic exclusivity. Through imagining the Viking as an ancestral, genetic category, the “common past” of the Nordic people is constructed as a self-identity apart from other people (Blaagaard 11).Furthermore, the “Viking” itself has cultural capital that has circulated beyond Northern Europe in both inclusive and exclusive ways. Nordic symbolism and mythologies are invoked within the textual aesthetics of heavy metal communities across the globe–there are Viking metal bands in Australia, for instance. Further, the valorising of the “North” in metal discourse draws on the symbols of particular ethnic traditions to give historicity and local meaning to white identity.Lucas, Deeks and Spracklen map the rhetorical power of the “North” in English folk metal. However, the same international flows of Nordic cultural capital that have allowed for the success and distinctiveness of Nordic extreme metal have also enabled the proliferation of increasingly exclusionary practices. A flyer signed by the “Wiking Hordes” in May of 1995 (in Moynihan and Søderlind 327) warns that the expansion of black and death metal into Asia, Eastern Europe and South America posed a threat to the “true Aryan” metal community.Similarly, online discussions of the documentary Pagan Metal, in which an interviewee states that a Brazilian Viking metal band is “a bit funny”, shifted between assertions that enjoyment should not be restricted by cultural heritage and declarations that only Nordic bands could “legitimately” support Viking metal. Giving Nordicness value as a form of insular, ethnic belonging has therefore had exclusory and problematic implications for how metal scenes market their dominant symbols and narratives, particularly as scenes continue to grow and diversify across multiple national contexts.Nordicness as Liberal DemocracyNordicness in heavy metal, as we have argued, has been ascribed cultural capital as both a branded, generic phenomenon and as a marker of ancestral, ethnonational belonging. Understandings of “Nordic” as an exclusory ethnic category marked by strict boundaries however come into conflict with the Nordic region’s self-perceptions as a liberal democracy.We propose an additional iteration for “Nordicness” as a means of pointing to the tensions that emerge between particular metallic imaginings of the “North” as a remote, uncompromising site of pagan liberty, and the material realities of modern Nordic nation states. We consider some new parameters for articulations of “Nordicness” in metal scenes: Nordicness as material and political conditions that have enabled the popularity of heavy metal in the region, and furthermore, the manifestations of such liberal democratic discourses in Nordic extreme metal scenes.Nordicness as a cultural, political brand is based in perceptions of the Nordic countries as “global good citizens”, “peace loving”, “conflict-resolution oriented” and “rational” (Loftsdóttir and Jensen 2). This modern conception of Nordicness is grounded in the region’s current political climate, which took its form in the post-World War II rejection of fascism and the following refugee crisis.Northern Europe’s reputation as a “famously tolerant political community” (Dworkin 487) can therefore be seen, one on hand, as a crucial disconnect from the intolerant North mediated by factions of Nordic extreme metal scenes and on the other, a political community that provides the material conditions which allow extreme metal to flourish. Nordicness here, we argue, is a crucial form of scenic infrastructure–albeit one that has been both celebrated and condemned in the sites and spaces of Nordic extreme metal.The productivity and stability of extreme metal in the Nordic countries has been attributed to a variety of institutional factors: the general relative prosperity of Northern Europe (Terry), Scandinavian legal structures (Maguire 156), universal welfare, high levels of state support for cultural development, and a broad emphasis on musical education in schools.Kahn-Harris argues that the Swedish metal scene is supported by the strength of the Swedish music industry and “Swedish civil society in general” (108). Music education is strongly supported by the state; Sweden’s relatively generous welfare and education system also “provide [an] effective subsidy for music making” (108). Furthermore, he argues that the Swedish scene has benefited from being closer to the “cultural mainstream of the country than is the case in many other countries” (108). Such close relationships to the “cultural mainstream” also invite a critical backlash against the state. The anarchistic anti-government stance of Swedish hardcore bands or the radical individualism of Norwegian black metal embodies this backlash.Early black metal is seen as a targeted response to the “oppressive and numbing social democracy which dominated Norwegian political life” (Moynihan and Søderlind 32). This spurning of social democracy is further articulated by Darkthrone founder Fenriz, who states that black metal “…is every man for himself… It is individualism above all” (True Norwegian Black Metal). Nordic extreme metal’s emphasis on independence and anti-modernity is hence immediately troubled by the material reality of the conditions that allow it to flourish. Nordicness thus gains complex realisation as both radical individualism and democratic infrastructural conditions.In looking towards future directions for expressions of the “Nordic” in extreme metal scenes, we want to consider how Nordicness can be articulated not as exclusory ethnic belonging and individualist misanthropy, but rather illustrate how Nordic scenes have also proffered sites for progressive, anti-racist discourses that speak to the cultural branding of the North as a tolerant political community.Imaginings of the North as ethnically homogenous or pure are complicated by Nordic bands and fans who actively critique such racialised discourses, and instead situate “Nordic” metal as a site of heterogeneity and anti-racist activism. The liberal politics of the region are most clearly articulated in the music of Swedish hardcore and extreme metal bands, particularly those originating in the northern university town of Umeå. Like much of Europe’s underground music scene, Umeå hardcore bands are often aligned with the anti-fascist movement and its message of tolerance and active anti-racist, anti-homophobic and anti-sexist resistance and protest. Refused is the most well-known example, speaking out against capitalism and in favour of animal rights and civil liberties. Scandinavian DIY acts have also long played a crucial role in facilitating the global diffusion of anti-capitalist punk and hardcore music (Haenfler 287).Nonetheless, whilst such acts remain important sites of progressive discourses in homogenous constructions of Nordicness, such an argument for tolerance and diversity is difficult to maintain when the majority of the scene’s successful bands are made up of white, ethnically Scandinavian men. As such, in moving towards future considerations for Nordicness in extreme metal scenes, we thus call into focus a fragmentation of “Nordicness”, precisely to divorce it from homogenous constructions of the “Nordic”, and enable greater critical interrogation and plurality of the notion of the “North” in metal scholarship.ConclusionThis article has pointed towards a multiplicity of Nordic discourses that unfold in metal: Nordic as a marketing tool, Nordic as an ethnic signifier, and Nordic as the political reality of liberal democratic Northern Europe–and the tensions that emerge in their encounters and intersections. In arguing for multiple understandings of “Nordicness” in metal, we contend that the cultural capital that accompanies the “Nordic” actually emerges as a series of fragmented, often conflicting categories.In examining how images of the North as an isolated location at the edge of the world inform the branded construction of Nordic metal as sites of presumed authenticity, we considered how scenes such as Swedish death metal and Norwegian black metal were marketed precisely through their Nordicness, where their geographic isolation from the commercial centre of heavy metal was used to affirm their “Otherness” to their mainstream metal counterparts. This “otherness” has in turn enabled constructions of Nordic metal scenes as sites of not only metallic purity in their isolation from “commercial” metal scenes, but also ethnic homogeneity. Nordicness, in this instance, becomes inscribed with explicitly racialised value that interpellates images of Viking heathenry to bolster phantasmic imaginings of the pure, white North.However, as we argue in the third section, such exclusory narratives of Nordic belonging come into conflict with Northern Europe’s own self image as a site of progressive liberal democracy. We argue that Nordicness here can be taken as a political imperative towards socialist democracy, wherein such conditions have enabled the widespread viability of extreme metal; yet also invited critical backlashes against the modern political state.Ultimately, in responding to our own research question–what is the cultural capital of “Nordicness” in metal?–we assert that such capital is realised in multiple iterations, undermining any possibility of a uniform category of “Nordicness”, and exposing its political tensions and paradoxes. 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