Velferdsstatens transformasjoner

Overview & Synopsis

Through the Norwegian welfare state, public authorities have taken responsibility for citizens’ lives and well-being. Schooling and education are guaranteed for each individual, and if one becomes ill, needs help, or otherwise cannot manage on one’s own, the risk to the individual is reduced. All citizens are guaranteed benefits, services, and a certain security through the safety net that the welfare state constitutes. Reducing social inequality is also a welfare-policy goal. But the Norwegian welfare state as we know it is undergoing dramatic change. This book is about which changes stand out as among the most central, why they emerge, and what consequences they may have. The book alternates between analyses of overarching patterns, the drivers behind these patterns as they are created across fields at the welfare state’s ground level, and rich descriptions of how services, professional roles, and users are given new conditions and thus transformed. The book’s themes are wide-ranging, and its contributors seek to shed light on the common features within the great variation that characterizes what we call the transformations of the welfare state.