Citizenship in Nordic Welfare States ─ Dynamics of Choice, Duties and Participation in a Changing Europe

European changes in relationships between the provision of income security and promotion of employment, between public and private responsibility for social risk protection, between rights to receive and duties to participate, between social redistribution and social regulation, between benefit rights and the right to equal treatment, and between national and supranational influences on social protection, suggest to Hvinden (sociology and political science, Norwegian U. of Science and Technology, Norway) and Johansson (Växjö U., Sweden) that traditional understandings of social citizenship are no longer valid. In recognition of this, they seek to understand whether policy makers and welfare reforms are giving a stronger emphasis to "active citizenship," whether understood in socio-liberal ("fulfilling duties"), libertarian ("expressing choice and self-responsibility"), or republican ("participating in deliberation and decision-making") senses. They further wish to investigate the complexities and interactions between these different models of citizenship in the context of changing welfare policy and what impact the changing relationships between national and supranational forms of governance are having on understandings of citizenship. These questions are explored through the presentation of case studies looking at a variety of policy areas, primarily in the Nordic context. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Bjorn Hvinden is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.

Hakan Johansson is Researcher and Lecturer in Social Work at the School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Vaxjo University, Sweden.