Abstract
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 technologisation, neoliberalism and financialisation. Care is discussed in a broad manner, considering challenges 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 daughters/daughters-in-law and mothers, while earning their own living in the paid labour market’.
The book's findings 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, while a broader perspective is required. The book presents four main concepts: care, neoliberalism, care crisis and gender equality, which the authors define and present extremely clearly. For example, they explain the difference between the concepts of neoliberalism and New Public Management (NPM), which is rarely clarified in the literature. While neoliberalism takes a holistic view of the state and its effects on the economy and civil society, NPM focuses on various reforms and on how, for example, efficiency can be increased. In the neoliberal care model, the caring services are outsourced to the market and organised in accordance with market values. Both management and ‘technological fixes’ are described as solutions to different problems in care.
An important conclusion in the book is that the care crisis in the Nordic countries exists and has been implemented through neoliberal reforms. Another conclusion is that care professionals experience disrespect and suffer from lack of recognition in society. The authors suggest further research in the area so that the care crisis can be resolved. They suggest that more comparative research is needed, to pinpoint both similarities and differences between the Nordic countries but also between other welfare states. They also suggest more research concerning welfare state sustainability and the relationship with both care and social reproduction.
The researchers in the book take different intersectional perspectives involving gender, ethnicity and social class. However, the intersectional perspectives have not been applied systematically in all sections. Moreover, the book lacks the perspective of people with various disabilities in the Nordic care crisis. Persons with disabilities find it more difficult than others to get a job on the regular labour market, while young people with disabilities often retire early. This raises several urgent questions for further social policy research. The book could also have contained a special chapter with discussion questions. It would have been good to collect together all the questions arising in the separate chapters into one section.
The book combines empirical research, theoretical perspectives, reflections and experiences. It can be read not only by researchers but also by students on various courses. But in order to be able to look ahead, it is important to have historical knowledge and awareness of, for example, the development of feminism, neoliberalism and welfare policy. This book has created a good basis for continued conversations and further research in the field. It is highly recommended for those readers who wish to discover more about the care crisis and care work in different welfare regimes.
