There is no precise word in English for what Ann Helen Myrvold is doing. “Volunteering” perhaps comes closest. But it’s more than that.

She has not come to this part of suburban Oslo just to beautify the stream Gjersrudbekken on its forested tumble toward the fjord. She has come from some deeply ingrained Norwegian sense of obligation, of community, of responsibility – and, of course, for the waffles.

True, what she is doing looks remarkably like a run-of-the-mill cleanup, removing everything from car tires to motorized scooters from the stream’s path with a sweet treat for everyone afterward. But she and her friends from a nearby university have been doing things like this since kindergarten, cleaning neighborhoods and holding bake sales to fund sports teams.

Why We Wrote This

Across the West, many worry that the sense of shared society is deteriorating.…