The Collaborative Turn in the Nordic Welfare States

Zusatztext

This book offers a critical examination of the collaborative turn unfolding across the Nordic welfare states. Focusing on co-productionpartnerships between citizens, public authorities, and civil societythe volume explores how this approach is reshaping policies, institutional arrangements, and the role of civil society in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. While coproduction is increasingly promoted as a solution to persistent challengessuch as policy complexity, democratic deficits, and fiscal pressuresthe Nordic experience reveals important variations in its scope, forms, and implications. Is this shift a genuine transformation of the welfare state, or an adaptive strategy cloaked in collaborative rhetoric? Drawing on comparative perspectives, the book highlights how Nordic traditions of universalism, egalitarianism, and strong public institutions create distinct conditions for collaborationconditions that differ markedly from those in liberal or residual welfare regimes where coproduction theories have largely been developed. In doing so, it challenges dominant frameworks and argues for a reconceptualization of coproduction through a Nordic perspective. Aimed at scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, this volume offers a significant contribution to welfare state and civil society research and invites reflection on the promises and limits of collaborative governance in times of change.

Autorenportrait

Linda Lundgaard Andersen is Professor at the Department of People and Technology at Roskilde University, Denmark. Bernard Enjolras is Director in the Center For The Research On Civil Society and Voluntary Sector and Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research (ISF), Oslo, Norway. Ari Nieminen is Senior Lecturer at Diaconia University of Applied Sciences, Finland. Johan Vamstad is Associate Professor at the Center for Civil Society Research, Marie Cederschiöld University, Sweden.

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