This reflective essay on the papers in this special issue of EERJ on Northern European curriculum analysis discusses issues of comparison and scale, and the significance of global and local specificities in curriculum research. Drawing on comparative examples from outside Europe, the essay draws attention to some commonalities of the European positioning from which these analyses begin, in particular the questions about governance, policy process and constructions of citizenship engendered today both by the formation of the EU and by the impact of OECD activities on it. The article argues the need to recognize different types of curriculum analyses and purposes, and particularly the salience of both big picture and closer-up detailed perspectives, and discusses the contribution these articles make to addressing both. It considers further issues about two matters raised by these contributions: the significance of moves to more competency and outcomes-centred curriculum forms, and the usefulness of a focus on constitutional origins as a basis for understanding the citizen-formation curriculum agendas of different nations.