Book Review: A Care Crisis in the Nordic Welfare States? Care Work, Gender Equality and Welfare State Sustainability by Lise Lotte Hansen, Hanne Marlene Dahl and Laura Horn (eds.)
| Author | Jörgen Lundälv |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13882627221128841 |
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews
Lise Lotte Hansen, Hanne Marlene Dahl and Laura Horn (eds.), A Care Crisis in the Nordic Welfare States? Care
Work, Gender Equality and Welfare State Sustainability, Policy Press, Bristol University Press: Bristol, 2022; 207
pages: ISBN 978-1-4473-6134-3.
Reviewed by: Jörgen Lundälv ,Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
DOI: 10.1177/13882627221128841
We are all ageing and will sooner or later be faced with the question of caring,support and solidarity. In
the future, more people will be in need of care, while at the same time, a growing amount of the limited
welfare resources is needed for pre-school care. Is there a care crisis in welfare states? What will the
future look like? In the book A Care Crisis in the Nordic Welfare States? Care Work, Gender Equality
and Welfare State Sustainability, various questions about caring are discussed from several welfare
perspectives. The focus is on the Nordic welfare regimes, and the intention is not to make comparisons
between the countries. Notwithstanding this Nordic perspective, the book will also be of great interest
to readers from other countries. The authors from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland represent
different disciplines, including political science, social science, social work, sociology, labour market
studies, childhood education, ageing and care and entrepreneurship. The eleven chapters deal with
issues such as care crisis theories, working conditions for professionals, economisation and technolo-
gisation, neoliberalism and financialisation. Care is discussed in a broad manner, considering chal-
lenges in three areas: pre-school care, elderly in need of care (the oldest in the population) and care
of the sick in hospitals. Several cross-cutting issues are raised in the book, including conditions for
good care, working conditions for care workers and caring on market terms.
The Nordic Welfare models are based on a political commitment to public-funded care services
but also to universalism. Social services are designed for all inhabitants. As one manifestation of the
care crisis, the authors discuss the worsening working conditions for care workers, care-givers and
their organizations, looking at, for example, low wages, the shift system, long working hours, stress
and the shortage of skilled workers. In the book, the ‘care crisis’is linked with ‘inadequate
resources’for care and the fact that ‘unpaid care work in particular is silenced’. Many care
workers face stress as fewer care workers have to provide services to more people in society.
Women are particularly vulnerable because it is women who do most of the care work and
perform most unpaid work. Care work is considered to be a field ‘enabling women to be daugh-
ters/daughters-in-law and mothers, while earning their own living in the paid labour market’.
The book’sfindings reflect the authors’discussions in the interdisciplinary Nordic Care Crisis
Network (NCCN). The authors state that when the care crisis is the subject of political debate
today, the discussions are mostly limited to the financial burden (expenditure) or social investment,
Book Reviews
European Journal of Social Security
2022, Vol. 24(4) 387–394
© The Author(s) 2022
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