Nordic Journal of Social Research最新文献

{"title":"Sickness presenteeism in Norway and Sweden","authors":"Vegard Johansen","doi":"10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.265","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: Sickness presenteeism (SP) refers to the practice of going to work despite illness. This article describes the distribution of SP in Norway and Sweden. It also discusses relations between SP and various work characteristics and personal factors in the two countries. Methods: More than 2500 Norwegian and Swedish workers between 20 and 60 years of age answered a postal questionnaire. The Norwegian and Swedish samples are weighed and representative with regard to both variables of regional background and demography, but the response rate was low. The distribution of SP is measured by frequency (episodes in the previous year) and by length (total days of SP in the previous year). This study employed binary and multinomial logistic regression to detect which factors influence the frequency of SP. Results: Fifty-five per cent of the respondents in Norway and Sweden practised SP in the previous year. The frequency of SP episodes is similar in the two countries. Further, respondents with low/medium income, physical work, and managerial responsibilities report SP more often in both countries. Non-western immigrants, the less educated, and those employed by others are overrepresented with SP in Norway. Neither gender nor age had any particular influence. Discussion: In accordance with previous studies, this study among Norwegian and Swedish workers suggests that some SP during a working year may be more common than no SP. Our analyses of determinants of SP present some previously undocumented differences. Divisions between sedentary versus physical work and management versus non-management were important for SP in Norway and Sweden. Moreover, non-western immigrants are overrepresented with SP in Norway, but this pattern does not prevail in Sweden. Some possible causes for non-western immigrants to report more SP are suggested in the article, but we need more research to follow up on the missing correlation between ethnic background and SP in Sweden.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122312601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation of quality in social-work practice","authors":"B. Blom, S. Morén","doi":"10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.205","url":null,"abstract":"This theoretical article describes and discusses the concept of quality in relation to the evaluation of social-work practice. Of particular interest are the difference between quality of services and quality of life and the importance of balancing the stakeholders’ different interests in order to make a sound judgement of quality in social work possible. This article begins with presenting some basic perspectives on quality as well as the transference of the concept of quality from manufacturing industry to social-work practice. Thereafter the two main issues are discussed: the concepts of quality of service and of quality of life and the importance of balancing different stakeholders’ perspectives in the evaluation of quality in social-work practice. This article concludes that: 1) it is crucial to be aware of and to consider the distinction between quality of service and quality of life; 2) clients’ perspective on quality of life is an aspect of outcome that currently receives insufficient attention; 3) clients’ subjective experiences of welfare of well-being deserve greater attention for ethical as well as methodological reasons; and 4) judgement of quality in social work are inevitably dependent on different stakeholders’ perspectives.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"156 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133304663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The transfer of knowledge and the problems of identity in a managed and online context","authors":"Inge Hermanrud","doi":"10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.107","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this article is to look into the social aspect of learning, and in particular how the construction of identity influences the transfer of knowledge in a managed and online context. The relationship between the ‘old-timer’ and the ‘newcomer’ is given special consideration through a qualitative study of the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority. The study shows that inspectors construct their identity and categorize others in a way that creates barriers to the transfer of knowledge, constructions that are influenced by managerial participation. This article contributes to our understanding of how social aspects influence the transfer of knowledge between old-timers and newcomers in a managed and online context.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132985415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Occupational Health Services and the Socialization of the post-Fordist Employee","authors":"Christian Maravelias","doi":"10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.207","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.207","url":null,"abstract":"Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ \u0000 table.MsoNormalTable \u0000 {mso-style-name:\"Vanlig tabell\"; \u0000 mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; \u0000 mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; \u0000 mso-style-noshow:yes; \u0000 mso-style-priority:99; \u0000 mso-style-qformat:yes; \u0000 mso-style-parent:\"\"; \u0000 mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; \u0000 mso-para-margin:0cm; \u0000 mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; \u0000 mso-pagination:widow-orphan; \u0000 font-size:11.0pt; \u0000 font-family:\"Calibri\",\"sans-serif\"; \u0000 mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; \u0000 mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; \u0000 mso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \u0000 mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; \u0000 mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; \u0000 mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; \u0000 mso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \u0000 mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} \u0000 There is a heightened interest in the health of employees among scholars, employers, legislators, and employees themselves. The concern for employees’ health is not a new phenomenon. It has held a central position in political and economic discourses throughout most of the twentieth century. The central argument of this article, however, is that the economic and political changes of the last three decades – the neo-liberal turn – have played a part in altering the very notion of health so that the healthy individual is now a person who not merely passes bio-medical tests, but a person who also leads a particular life and possesses particular skills, namely, those of the active, positive, and self-governing individual. By means of a qualitative study of the sector for occupational health services (OHSs) in Sweden, this article will show how an active lifestyle has become a defining criterion of health. Furthermore, it will describe how health thereby becomes a question of choice and responsibility and how the healthy employee comes across as morally superior to the unhealthy employee. In this connection, this article shows how health experts such as therapists, health coaches, physicians, and so on become important points of authority in the fashioning of the new healthy, active employee.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128428241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Why do administrators employ or not employ support contacts? A Norwegian qualitative study","authors":"A. Johannessen, A. Möller","doi":"10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.213","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.213","url":null,"abstract":"This is a qualitative study based on statements by administrators in the dementia sector in Norwegian local authorities. The aim of the present study is to investigate the arguments for and barriers to the allocation and organization of support contacts for people with dementia and their families. Various services are needed to help these families from being isolated. ‘Support contacts' can be one such service, yet the local authorities rarely use them in the Norwegian dementia-care sector and little is known about why that is so. Support contacts are ‘paid friends' and their tasks can be compared to respite carers or volunteers in other Western countries. The data was gathered from interviews with 35 informants (34 women and one man, aged 35-66 years) during 2011, from 32 local authorities in Norway. The analysis of data involved a qualitative content analysis. Three main categories emerged: ‘knowledge', ‘accessibility', and ‘management'. ‘Knowledge' describes the range of an administrator's familiarity both with dementia and with the legislation concerning the offering of a support contact to families with dementia, and it has two subcategories: ‘formal knowledge' and ‘experiential knowledge'. The category of ‘reaching out' describes the circumstances that lead families with dementia to apply for help and contains the subcategories of ‘supplying information' about the service and ‘characteristics of target group' receiving a support contact. The category of ‘management of services' describes the various ways in which a supporter service may work satisfactorily and contains the subcategories ‘recruitment' and ‘organization'. In conclusion, the administrators consider support contacts to be a valuable service. The authors conclude that managers of local authorities need to organize their departments in a way that administrators will have sufficient knowledge about making the service available and supporter contacts will receive the necessary guidance and knowledge to maintain the service effectively.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126734492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Politicians' priorities and the determinants of priorities in the Swedish social services","authors":"Marie Wörlén","doi":"10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.137","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15845/NJSR.V3I0.137","url":null,"abstract":"The setting of priorities is an integrated part of social-work politics in Sweden as well as internationally. This article explores Swedish social services and how politicians on the political boards wish to make priorities and what these priorities involve. The use of regression analyses also reveals which circumstances are of importance for allocative precedence and the impact different distributive principles have. It is hard to detect clear-cut patterns of circumstances that guide the judgements in any one direction. The results show that political affiliation overall is not a determining factor for attitudes towards how priorities are made. Another result is a manifest area bias, suggesting that respondents tend to see to the interests of their own professional domain, a result most visible among the politicians involved with Care for the Elderly and Disabled (CED). Yet, with regard to allocative principles, political colour seems to matter. Conservative politicians, as expected, agree with the principles of economy and of capacity to benefit, while the socialist block, less expectedly, seems to embrace the principle of deservingness.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114291633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A walk in the woods: the effects of ethnicity, social class, and gender among urban Norwegian adolescents","authors":"T. Bjerke, Olve Krange","doi":"10.15845/NJSR.V2I0.101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15845/NJSR.V2I0.101","url":null,"abstract":"Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ \u0000 table.MsoNormalTable \u0000 {mso-style-name:\"Vanlig tabell\"; \u0000 mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; \u0000 mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; \u0000 mso-style-noshow:yes; \u0000 mso-style-priority:99; \u0000 mso-style-qformat:yes; \u0000 mso-style-parent:\"\"; \u0000 mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; \u0000 mso-para-margin:0cm; \u0000 mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; \u0000 mso-pagination:widow-orphan; \u0000 font-size:11.0pt; \u0000 font-family:\"Calibri\",\"sans-serif\"; \u0000 mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; \u0000 mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; \u0000 mso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \u0000 mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; \u0000 mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; \u0000 mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; \u0000 mso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \u0000 mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} \u0000 Objectives: The main objective was to study the influences of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic factors on a popular Norwegian outdoor activity: walking in the woods. Design: Data from the large Young in Oslo 2006 (YiO 2006) youth survey is used to investigate the relationship between ethnic and class background and gender in relation to hiking in the woods. In the representative survey sample, 11 529 adolescent respondents aged 16 to 19 were asked how often they participated in hiking in the woods during the season.  Results : Analyses show that more girls than boys are active hikers and that fewer descendents from non-western immigrants and working-class youngsters are active compared to ethnic Norwegian and middle-class adolescents, respectively. Furthermore, cultural aspects of class seem to be more important than economic ones. A logistic regression analysis shows that the relationship between country of origin and hiking is significantly reduced when class measures are introduced into the model, which implies that the initial difference between ethnic minorities and ethnic Norwegians to some extent can be considered to be a class phenomenon.    Conclusion: Norwegian authorities express great concern over health issues among the large group of non-western descendents in Norway, pointing to the Nordic tradition of outdoor recreation as one means of being physically active. This paper concludes that in the effort to recruit ‘immigrant' youngsters to outdoor activities, one should keep in mind that a large proportion of the minority population also belongs to the working classes. Normal 0 21 false false false NO-BOK X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 \u0000st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } \u0000 /* Style Definitions */ \u0000 table.MsoNormalTable \u0000 {mso-style-name:\"Vanlig tabell\"; \u0000 mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; \u0000 mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; \u0000 mso-style-noshow:yes; \u0000 mso-style-priority:99; \u0000 mso-style-qformat:yes; \u0000 mso-style-parent:\"\"; \u0000 mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; \u0000 mso-para-margin:0cm; \u0000 mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; \u0000 mso-pagination:widow-orphan; \u0000 font-size:11.0pt; \u0000 font-family:\"Calibri\",\"sans-serif\"; \u0000 mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; \u0000 mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; \u0000 mso-fareast-f","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116404335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The understanding of Norwegian women’s sickness absence: towards a holistic approach?","authors":"Liv Johanne Solheim","doi":"10.15845/NJSR.V2I0.131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15845/NJSR.V2I0.131","url":null,"abstract":"Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ \u0000 table.MsoNormalTable \u0000 {mso-style-name:\"Vanlig tabell\"; \u0000 mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; \u0000 mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; \u0000 mso-style-noshow:yes; \u0000 mso-style-priority:99; \u0000 mso-style-qformat:yes; \u0000 mso-style-parent:\"\"; \u0000 mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; \u0000 mso-para-margin:0cm; \u0000 mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; \u0000 mso-pagination:widow-orphan; \u0000 font-size:11.0pt; \u0000 font-family:\"Calibri\",\"sans-serif\"; \u0000 mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; \u0000 mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; \u0000 mso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \u0000 mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; \u0000 mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; \u0000 mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; \u0000 mso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \u0000 mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} \u0000 Background: In Norway men's sickness absence from work has been stable or reduced over the last decades while women's sickness-absence ratio has increased, but the reasons for these developments are complex and unclear. There have been considerable efforts introduced and implemented to reduce sickness absence, but they have not succeeded. One reason for this may be the insufficient knowledge about the reasons for sick leave, and especially for women's sick leave. The aim: This article aims to examine how social factors influence sickness absence and how long-term absentees interpret and explain their ill health and sickness absence. Method: In one Norwegian county in 2010 we performed individual in-depth interviews with 20 women and ten men between the ages of 25-60 years who had been or were sick-listed for more than 30 days during the last year with a mental illness or musculoskeletal diagnoses. Results: The study illustrates how social factors influence sickness absence in different ways. The women indicated complex causes for their sickness absence, and often described an interaction between work-related and domestic-related aspects. Some accounts illustrate that their ill health might have roots in life occurrences from childhood and adolescence that have made them vulnerable to domestic and work-related strains during their adult years. The study also indicates that women, especially single mothers, seem to be especially vulnerable to domestic strains, and that these strains may lead to a paradoxical pattern of women's sick leave: they take sick leave in order to deal with domestic strains along with the intention of prolonging their presence at the workplace in the longer term. Thus, these periods of sickness absence appear to be a necessary accompaniment of a high rate of participation among vulnerable groups in the labour market. Conclusion: Women's ill health and sickness absence should be understood as a manifestation of an interplay of the strains found at both the workplace and the home. A successful effort to reduce sickness absence in Norway, therefore, requires a holistic perspective that accounts for both the work and the domestic spheres. Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121190903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Guest Editorial: Welfare-state change, the strengthening of economic principles, and new tensions in relation to care","authors":"B. Pfau-Effinger, T. Rostgaard","doi":"10.15845/NJSR.V2I0.128","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15845/NJSR.V2I0.128","url":null,"abstract":"Care work is still to a substantial degree provided in private households in unpaid or paid informal forms of care work, but many welfare states in Europe have extended financial support and public provisions in the field of childcare and elderly care, and have established new social rights for care recipients (Anttonen & Sipilä 2005; Kröger & Sipilä 2005; Rostgaard 2002). Pay for family care in the framework of parental-leave schemes and elderly care has been introduced (Pfau-Effinger 2007). This measure implies that care work produced within the private household by family members or relatives is to an increasing extent organized as semi-formal care. Such policies have contributed to diminishing the tensions between family and employment that had been developing as a consequence of the increase in labour-force participation rates of women. However, in many European countries, these tensions between care responsibility and employment still exist.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"126 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122290653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Care as you like it: the construction of a consumer approach in home care in Denmark","authors":"T. Rostgaard","doi":"10.15845/NJSR.V2I0.110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15845/NJSR.V2I0.110","url":null,"abstract":"Normal 0 21 false false false NO-BOK X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ \u0000 table.MsoNormalTable \u0000 {mso-style-name:\"Vanlig tabell\"; \u0000 mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; \u0000 mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; \u0000 mso-style-noshow:yes; \u0000 mso-style-priority:99; \u0000 mso-style-qformat:yes; \u0000 mso-style-parent:\"\"; \u0000 mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; \u0000 mso-para-margin:0cm; \u0000 mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; \u0000 mso-pagination:widow-orphan; \u0000 font-size:11.0pt; \u0000 font-family:\"Calibri\",\"sans-serif\"; \u0000 mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; \u0000 mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; \u0000 mso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \u0000 mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; \u0000 mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; \u0000 mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; \u0000 mso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \u0000 mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} \u0000 Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ \u0000 table.MsoNormalTable \u0000 {mso-style-name:\"Vanlig tabell\"; \u0000 mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; \u0000 mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; \u0000 mso-style-noshow:yes; \u0000 mso-style-priority:99; \u0000 mso-style-qformat:yes; \u0000 mso-style-parent:\"\"; \u0000 mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; \u0000 mso-para-margin:0cm; \u0000 mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; \u0000 mso-pagination:widow-orphan; \u0000 font-size:11.0pt; \u0000 font-family:\"Calibri\",\"sans-serif\"; \u0000 mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; \u0000 mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; \u0000 mso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \u0000 mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; \u0000 mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; \u0000 mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; \u0000 mso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \u0000 mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} \u0000 The free choice of a home-care provider was introduced in Danish home care in 2001. This article discusses the overall premises for the introduction of free choice in home care and how it constitutes an overarching response to the crisis of the welfare state. The government at that time intended free choice to lead to more user-led services, more cost-efficient services, and the development of a care market, all in line with its ideology. The article argues that to achieve these ambitions, the government introduced many new but implicit assumptions about the role and the responsibilities of the user of care. On the basis of qualitative interviews with elderly users, care workers, and care assessors, the article examines these assumptions and their implications for the user. The findings show that most users desire continuity in care more than the opportunity to ‘exit' a care relationship. Moreover, users do not rate quality any higher in the private for-profit sector than in the public. The article concludes that consumerism is in Denmark now part of the logic of governance, thereby changing the conditionality of the welfare state and its subjects, and creating new forms of risks, responsibilities, and dependencies.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114578549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}