Full Description
The success of the Nordic welfare state is well known, but the key drivers of its remarkable expansion are not. This book explores the relationships between citizens that constitute the normative groundwork of Nordic societies, arguing that the quality of relations steers welfare development.
Chapters explore relations of reciprocity, trust and equality that characterize the relational Nordic welfare state. Through an interdisciplinary approach, expert contributors consider the establishment and growth of welfare institutions in Nordic countries and evaluate the neoliberal challenge that these institutions have faced since the 1980s. This book reveals how and why Nordic societies may find a path of balanced and sustainable development.
Timely and insightful, this book will be indispensable for scholars and students of social and political sciences, as well as jurisprudence, especially those interested in welfare states.
Contributors include: M. Berg, S. Blomgren, P. Borioni, S. Hänninen, M. Jokela, P. Kettunen, M. Kivipelto, T. Kotkas, P.H. Kristensen, K.-M. Lehtelä, K. Lilja, E. Moen, M. Perlinski, P. Saikkonen, S.F. Schram, K. Tuori, N. Witoszek
Contents
Contents:
Preface
Introduction: the Nordic welfare state as a state of civilisation 1
Sakari Hänninen, Kirsi-Marja Lehtelä and Paula Saikkonen
PART I AUTONOMY
1 Neoliberal relations of poverty and the welfare state 15
Sanford F. Schram
2 The Nordic welfare state and the challenge of difference 29
Sakari Hänninen
3 The profits and pitfalls of prosociality: cultural-evolutionary
perspectives on Scandinavia 50
Nina Witoszek
PART II PARTICIPATION
4 The Nordic model in ordo-liberal Europe: from welfare parity
to social hierarchy? 74
Paolo Borioni
5 The rise and fall of the Nordic utopia of an egalitarian wage
work society 95
Pauli Kettunen
PART III INCLUSION
6 Nordic welfare states, trust and the rights discourse:
the history of the children's day care system in Finland 120
Toomas Kotkas
7 A social constitution of Europe? 138
Kaarlo Tuori
PART IV SUSTAINABILITY
8 The eco-social Nordic welfare state - a distant dream or a
possible future? 162
Monika Berg and Paula Saikkonen
9 Social sustainability and the organization of social work from
the perspective of Finnish adult social work practitioners 184
Minna Kivipelto, Merita Jokela, Sanna Blomgren and Marek
Perlinski
10 Civilizing business enterprises: the search for a new Nordic
growth and development model 202
Peer Hull Kristensen, Eli Moen and Kari Lilja
Epilogue: the Nordic welfare state beyond ideology and utopia 224
Sakari Hänninen, Kirsi-Marja Lehtelä and Paula Saikkonen
Index 251
