The local culture in the global society is important to everyone. Depending on age we tend to focus on different aspects of the local. While the mature might emphasize the need for local “news”, like political decisions ect, the younger generation focus on what’s happening in local entertainment or the result of the local football game. Another focus is the local advertisement since the audience continues to seek out the goods and services nearby. But it’s crazy to believe that the power of the newspaper – that consumers relate most closely with print media, as many newspaper people say – is the future. Even though advertisement in print media is more likely to make a positive impression (56% of those surveyed said that) compared to ads in tv, it’s a fact that it’s easier to skip the ads in the paper, just to turn a page, than escape a banner or a tv-commercial. When asking people they say that the most negative is the most pushed (tv), meaning the most difficult to avoid. Pushed ads are not the future. Maybe the future of the newspaper will be revealed at INMA conference in Vienna…

I am cynical towards ethnical marketing. There is something with that concept that´s just not right. I mean, its sounds right but it´s not – or is it? It´s like when Kanye West sings “You could be my black Kate Moss tonight.” When I first heard it I thought, go Kanye! But when I gave it some thought … I sort of know what he mean but isn’t there better ways of going about it? Returning to the subject. It makes sense that some people want different things depending on their country of origin and “It’s ok to be different”, as a Swedish marketing lady who specialize in ethnical marketing, claims. I am with her so far and again I am thinking, go lady! But then she continues with “If I am targeting Africans (in Sweden) I have to know how they think.” Hmm … I am sure there are better ways of going about it ethnical marketing lady.

Did you know that Sweden is one of Europe’s most segregated, marginalized and enclaved countries? The public opinion usually talks about the financial weaker suburbs as the Swedish problem child (yes in singular – that is förorten). You seldom hear anything positive about these housing areas unless it’s from some dedicated inhabitant that know the areas well enough to disregard its social stigma. Somehow they feel safe and at home and that’s what it’s all about. These places have great potential but “whoever is in charge” keeps looking at material aspects instead of the social ones – the ones that actually matters. But still, what is to become of the Swedish problem child?

What is it with internet that is so seductive for most people? It’s a journey, it’s a click here and then there, and then go back and find something else of interest.

To get some “general knowledge” Filip 17 years old brows to www.susning.se. “It’s great, I can write any word and get some answers and facts, it’s fun”. Filip is totally absorbed by the “writing words” and “get answers” for almost two hours. This is something he does every day. One day he said: “There is never an end of things to learn… it’s more a problem to be creative in asking”.

Internet browsing is learning by guided serendipity.

Yesterday I held a lecture at Etablera, a company committed to inspire and support new entrepreneurs in the province of Gästrikland, Sweden. (Doing constant fieldwork gives good hints about future scenarios.)

Entrepreneurship is a tricky question in Sweden since it is commonly associated with pessimistic assumptions like: an enormous amount of work, complex systems of taxing, expensive to grow, high cost on recruitments, basically a time and money consuming undertaking. In connection a lot of people – especially young ones – lack confidence in their own capacity. Consequently, it’s a lot easier and safer to be employed. This mantra is so common its becoming a part of Swedish culture. Not so good for the local trade and industry.

The other day I read an article by Johan Steal von Holstein, a successful Swedish businessman, reporting from Techcrunch 50, a conference on business growth in San Francisco. He was amazed and inspired by the positive attitude associated with entrepreneurship in San Francisco, reinforcing that everyone could and should succeed. Pretty much the opposite of what he experience in Sweden.

To create an enterprise culture in Sweden, values and attitudes has to change. This is more of a Durkheimian project including tracing hidden social influences on thought, rather than a pinpointing risks, responsibilities and economical advantages.

In everyday life the experience of the natural is often connected to things that humans put in their mouths, the food. It is a difference between people coming from areas where the cultivation of for example vegetables and fruits are closer in daily life. One man coming from former Yugoslavia said: ”The tomatoes I ate before were very ugly, big, malformed and cracked, but they tasted divine”. For people who have experienced the original, copies become very unnatural and false. The man from Yugoslavia explains while in the food store:

Look at that [he points at a package of a Swedish version of Mortadella, his face shows a grimace], that is disgusting, it tasted like Falukorv [a really typical Swedish sausage] with olives. How can a producer make a copy that is so far away in taste and look from the original.

To make a copy that is suited for other markets but is so different from the original is a mockery to all consumers who have experienced the original and authentic. Sometimes copies become the original but that is only if they in an honest way tell that they are copies.

The experience of the natural is often tightly connected to peoples’ senses, the texture, the scent, the touch, the fragrance. And it is obvious that when a memory of sensory experience is still vivid, everything trying to be or look the same as the origin, will be defined as fake.