Book Review: Changing Social Equality. The Nordic Welfare Model in the 21st Century
| Date | 01 June 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271201400205 |
| Published date | 01 June 2012 |
| Author | Mikko Kautto |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
European Jour nal of Social Secu rity, Volume 14 (2012), No. 2 147
BOOK REVIEWS
Jon Kvist, Johan Fritzell, Bjørn Hvinden and Olli Kangas (eds.) Changing Social
Equality. e Nordic Welfare Model in the 21st Century, Bristol: Policy Press,
2012, 320 pp., ISBN 978–1-84742–659–8 (paperback), ISBN 978–84742–6 60–4
(hardcover)
Changing Social Equality is an edited volume containing eight articles, an introduction
and a short conclusion. e bo ok is part of the activities of R EASSESS, a virtua l Nordic
centre of excellence activity funded by Nordforsk. is book is certainly at the core
of REASSESS’ act ivities, in the sense that its main stated aim is to reassess (literally
mea n ing to ass es s a ga in, or re- ev al uat e) w hat is le of t he so c al le d No rd ic w el far e m ode l.
With this broad aim, t he editors position the book on a continuum that started
at the end of the 1980s with books on the Scandinavian welfare model (Erikson et
al.19 87, Ha n s en et al. 1993) and continued in the late-1990s with empirical a ssessments
on its development (Kautto et al.1999 and 2001). A er a decade, a stock-taking task
is legitimate and needed.
Whether one can spea k of a continuum, and to which genre of research, can
of course be debated. e simi larities wit h earlier collections stem from getting a
large number of contributors, experts in their elds of research, together to produce
something more tha n individual articles could ever reveal about the Nordic model.
e other red thread is the i nvolvement of a collective of editors, coming from di erent
Nordic countries. A thi rd uniting feature is the stress on empirica l assessment.
On the other hand, over the years t he task of the books and ambition levels have
changed. Most visibly, this book li s up an area that has not been much addressed in
earlier collections, that is ethnicity and immig ration. Not less than four of the eight
substantive chapters explicitly add ress this issue.
e Nordic countr ies have become increasingly heterogeneous. If there was a
folkhemmet (people’s home), it is now inhabited not only by Scandic aborigi nals, but
also by others from diverse origins, w ith di erent values a nd beliefs, and ways of life.
Old principles and means of solida rity, aspects related to nancing the welfare state,
and redistribution mechanisms have become targets of debate and criticism. New
public management has replaced old paternal steeri ng of services. New tensions and
cleavages have arisen a er old ones were solved. Indeed, and as t he speci c chapters
show, the issues are cross-cutting a nd merit even more attention, especially in the
context of ageing societies where resources for redistribution appear scantier than
earlier.
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