In this insightful collection, academic experts consider the impact of neoliberal policies and ideology on the status of care work in Nordic countries. With new research perspectives and empirical analyses, it assesses challenges for care work including technologies, management and policy-making.
Arguing that there is a care crisis even in the supposedly feminist Nordic ‘nirvana’, this book explores understandings of the care crisis, the serious consequences for gender equality and the hitherto neglected effects on the long-term sustainability of the Nordic welfare states.
This astute take on the Nordic welfare model provides insights into what the Nordic experience can tell us about wider international issues in care.
mothers of Nordic care research, Kari Wærness, has argued (Wærness, 1982 ). In this book we discuss the status of care work, and especially paid care work, in the Nordic welfare states in light of the neoliberal turn in welfare politics, and what this means for gender equality and the sustainability of the Nordic welfare state. When care work is commodified i.e. paid either in a market or by the state, it simultaneously becomes a public form of care work. Our focus is upon formalised care work, that is, care that is commodified (paid), regulated politically and
empowerment of women as citizens, workers and mothers, as these welfare states propel women’s social status closer to that of men – and towards system equilibrium. In a welfare state regime analysis, the social democratic welfare states, such as the Nordic welfare states, come out as more women-friendly than those that are conservative/corporatist or liberal. 3 However, the claim of being a women-friendly welfare state has been heavily criticised. In the welfare state, as elsewhere, the gender system operates through gender segregation and hierarchy, positioning women as
219 TWELVE Experiences from two financial crises in the Nordic welfare states: 1990-93 and 2008-10 compared Pekka Kosonen Introduction This chapter examines the 2008 economic crisis in three small Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland and Sweden. It compares the responses in these countries to the 2008 crisis with the financial crisis of the early 1990s. The structure of the chapter is as follows. First, the regulatory regimes of Nordic welfare states are explored. Second, the roots of the early 1990s financial crisis are analysed. Last, the economic and
The five Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, are well-known for their extensive welfare system and gender equality which provides both parents with opportunities to earn and care for their children. In this topical book, expert scholars from the Nordic countries, as well as UK and the US, demonstrate how modern fatherhood is supported in the Nordic setting through family and social policies, and how these contribute to shaping and influencing the images, roles and practices of fathers in a diversity of family settings and variations of fatherhoods. This comprehensive volume will have wide international appeal for those who look to Nordic countries and their success in creating gender equal societies.
Kamali M. and Jönsson J. ( 2018 ), Neoliberalism, Nordic welfare states and social work , London and New York : Routledge , ISBN: 978-1-138-08430-8 Masoud Kamali and Jessica Jönsson’s edited book, Neoliberalism, Nordic welfare states and social work , is timely. Through the voices of various authors, in diverse social work fields of practice and in social work education, they demonstrate how the Nordic countries, once the ‘bastions of equality, equity and social cohesion’ (p 8), are being impacted by neoliberal restructuring and its concomitants, New
POSTSCRIPT Gender, citizenship and social justice in the Nordic welfare states: a view from the outside1 Ruth Lister This postscript offers an outsider’s assessment of the political ambition represented by the Nordic welfare-state model from a gender perspective. More than any other welfare-state model, the Nordic or social-democratic model is not just a label applied by welfare-regime analysts but is worn with pride by Scandinavian governments and citizens. As this volume demonstrates, gender equality is treated as a hallmark of this model (even if there
153 Childcare policies of the Nordic welfare states EIGHT Childcare policies of the Nordic welfare states: different paths to enable parents to earn and care? Guðný Björk Eydal In the welfare literature, it is common to group the Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and label them as the Scandinavian or Nordic welfare model (for example, Esping-Andersen, 1993, 1999; Millar and Warman, 1996; Sipilä, 1997). However, the fifth independent Nordic country, Iceland, has rarely been included in the comparative research1. While Iceland has developed a
entrepreneurialism is pivotal to the spread of a neoliberal agenda and the subsequent marketisation of the sectors ( Sandberg, 2016 ). These processes are said to have permeated welfare services, and govern institutional practices and interactions between professionals and citizens. Clearly, the Danish and Nordic welfare states have been permeated by a much more entrepreneurial discourse and practice than previously ( Andersen, 2018 ; Kamali and Jönsson, 2018 ). However, the rationalities of self-optimisation and consumerism are also met and challenged by meaning making at inter
