Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697800089128.pdf (Liberia)
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services A model for Europe?

Editor: Aila-Leena Matthies TemaNord 2006:517 Nordic civic society organisations and future of welfare services A model for Europe?
Editor: Aila-Leena Matthies TemaNord 2006:517 © Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen 2006 ISBN 92-893-1289-0 Print: Elanders Gotab AB, Stockholm 2006 Layout: NMR/PUB Cover photo: Stefan Fallgren/Bildhuset Copies: 500 Printed on environmentally friendly paper This publication can be ordered on www.norden.org/order.
Other Nordic publications are avail- able at www.norden.org/publications Printed in Sweden Nordic Council of Ministers Store Strandstræde 18 DK-1255 Copenhagen K Phone (+45) 3396 0200 Fax (+45) 3396 0202 www.norden.org Nordic Council Store Strandstræde 18 DK-1255 Copenhagen K Phone (+45) 3396 0400 Fax (+45) 3311 1870 Nordic co-operation Nordic co-operation, one of the oldest and most wide-ranging regional partnerships in the world, involves Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland.
Co-operation reinforces the sense of Nordic community while respecting national differences and similarities, makes it possible to uphold Nordic interests in the world at large and promotes positive relations between neighbouring peoples.

Co-operation was formalised in 1952 when the Nordic Council was set up as a forum for parlia- mentarians and governments.

The Helsinki Treaty of 1962 has formed the framework for Nordic partnership ever since.
The Nordic Council of Ministers was set up in 1971 as the formal forum for co-operation between the governments of the Nordic countries and the political leadership of the autonomous areas, i.e.

the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland.


Content Preface.......................................................................................................................... 9 English Summary Report of the “state of knowledge” – project on research of third sector in the area of welfare services in Nordic countries Aila-Leena Matthies ................................................................................................... 13 1.
Introduction Aila-Leena Matthies (chapters 1–5) ........................................................................... 31 1.1 Welfare political and scientific contexts of the research project ................... 31 1.2 Research questions ......................................................................................... 39 1.3 Research process, methodology and material................................................. 40 2.
A comparative overview of the Nordic research .................................................... 45 2.1 The Nordic research profile of Third Sector................................................... 45 2.2 National Profiles of Research......................................................................... 48 2.3 Main issues of research: state relation at the top – gender and market relationship hardly thematised ................................. 49 3.
Evaluation of the research ...................................................................................... 51 3.1 Achievements of research in the European perspective ................................. 51 3.2 Un-researched topics and open questions: gender, citizens and conflicts................................................................................ 52 3.3 Quantity, composition and structure of the Nordic third sector in European context ............................................................... 54 4.
Selected aspects of the area of citizens’ organisations ........................................... 59 4.1 What we know about volunteering and memberships .................................... 59 4.2 Areas and fields of civic society activities in the welfare services ................. 68 4.3 Gender, services and third sector.................................................................... 76 4.4 Relationship to the public sector .................................................................... 82 4.5 Relationship to the market sector ................................................................... 88 5.
Civic society organisations and the challenges of welfare services........................ 95 5.1 Current tendencies.......................................................................................... 95 5.2 Social political and research political conclusions ......................................... 98 5.3 Civic Society Organisations in the Nordic welfare state – also a model for success?
..................................................................... 101 Appendices............................................................................................................... 111 Appendix 1.

Participants of the experts’ group interviews................................ 111 Appendix 2.
Lists of most central researches of each country .......................... 113 Denmark ................................................................................................. 113 6 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Finland.................................................................................................... 118 Iceland .................................................................................................... 129 Norway ................................................................................................... 136 Sweden ................................................................................................... 151 Appendix 3.
Nordic Bibliography of Third Sector Research in the Area of Welfare Services .............................................................. 155 6.
Analyses of the research in the five countries ..................................................... 157 6.1 Recent trends in Danish volunteering and the organization of voluntary action Ulla Habermann, Lars Skov Henriksen, Bjarne Ibsen and Inger Koch-Nielsen .......................................................................... 157 6.1.1 Civil engagement in organizational context................................... 158 6.1.2 Patterns in individual volunteering in Denmark............................. 161 6.2.3 Changing patterns – comparing 1990 and 1999 ............................. 164 6.2.4 Driving forces of volunteering: Recruitment, motives, and occasions to volunteer........................................................... 168 6.2.5 Recent trends in membership orientations ..................................... 177 6.2 Research Trends and Future Challenges in Finnish Third Sector – Examples of Voluntary Work and Self-Help Groups Marianne Nylund .................................................................................... 180 6.2.1 Current Discussions ....................................................................... 180 6.2.2 Research on Finnish Third Sector, Volunteering and Self-Help Groups .................................................................. 182 6.2.3 Some results of Finnish Third Sector and Voluntary Sector Research ........................................................................... 183 6.2.4 Participants’ Perspective ................................................................ 185 6.2.5 Future Research Needs .................................................................. 186 6.3 The Icelandic Voluntary Sector: Development of Research Steinum Hrafnsdóttir............................................................................... 194 6.3.1 Definitions ..................................................................................... 195 6.3.2 A Short historical overview ........................................................... 197 6.3.3 Development of Icelandic Voluntary Sector Research................... 202 6.3.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................... 207 6.4 The State and the Voluntary Sector in Norway: New Relations – New Challenges Sissel Seim, Marith Kristin Markussen and Bennedichte C. Rappana Olsen .............................................................. 211 6.4.1 Structural Changes within the Voluntary Sector ............................ 212 6.4.2 User– Participation: New relations – new challenges .................... 216 6.4.3 From disability-related Issues to user-related Issues: what are the consequences?
......................................................... 219 6.4.4 Organisations for poor people and claimant groups....................... 222 6.4.5 Difficult relations between user-organisations and the state .......... 224 6.4.6 Concluding remarks ....................................................................... 227 6.4.7 Questions for Further Research...................................................... 229 6.5 Swedish civil society and the provision of welfare – ideological visions and social realities Lars Svedberg and Johan Vamstad......................................................... 233 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 7 6.5.1 A sector of ideological investments ............................................... 234 6.5.2 Recent research on Swedish civil society....................................... 238 6.5.3 Civil society and welfare provision in Sweden .............................. 241 6.5.4 Stability, changes and political stagnation ..................................... 244 6.5.5 Conclusions.................................................................................... 246 7.
European perspective and future challenges of welfare services.......................... 255 7.1 Complementary and Conflicting.
The different meanings of ‘user involvement’ in social services Adalbert Evers ........................................................................................ 255 7.1.1 Different strands of thinking .......................................................... 256 7.1.2 Welfarism....................................................................................... 258 7.1.3 Professionalism .............................................................................. 260 7.1.4 Consumerism ................................................................................. 262 7.1.5 Managerialism................................................................................ 265 7.1.6 Participationism ............................................................................. 268 7.1.7 Conclusions: Reorganizing service-systems and user involvement.
“Mixed” and “mixed up” solutions................. 271 7.2 Comparing Nonprofit Embeddedness in the Nordic and East European Countries Anette Zimmer......................................................................................... 277 7.2.1 The Concept of Embeddedness ...................................................... 279 7.2.2 Models of Third Sector-Government Relations ............................. 281 7.2.3 Government-Nonprofit Sector Relations in Eastern Europe .......... 285 7.2.4 Conclusion: Comparing Nonprofit Embeddedness in Nordic and East European Countries ....................................... 292 7.3 The South European and the Nordic welfare and third sector regimes – how far were we from each other?
Silvia Ferreira ........................................................................................ 299 7.3.1 The Southern welfare regimes at the mirror................................... 300 7.3.2 On third sector regimes .................................................................. 304 7.3.3 The third sector regime in the South European countries............... 309 7.3.4 Traces of a path shift in the Portuguese welfare regime................. 313 7.3.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................... 318 7.4 What is the role of the third sector in Nordic care for elderly people?
Eva Jeppsson Grassman ......................................................................... 324 7.4.1 A multifaceted question ................................................................. 325 7.4.2 The third sector in a Nordic context – relational perspectives........ 326 7.4.3 A new construction of the third sector ........................................... 331 7.4.4 Concluding remarks ....................................................................... 337 7.5 Development and Perspectives of the Social Economy or Third Sector in Germany Karl Birkhölzer ....................................................................................... 343 7.5.1 Definitions and limitations............................................................. 344 7.5.2 Emergence and development of a growing sector.......................... 348 7.5.3 Relevance, impact and potential..................................................... 350 7.5.4 Internal and organisational structures............................................. 359 7.5.5 Perspectives and recommendations................................................ 366 8 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 7.6 Third Sector Organizations and Welfare Services.
How helpful are the Debates on Welfare Regimes and a European Social Model?

Adalbert Evers ........................................................................................ 371 7.6.1 An European social model?
........................................................... 372 7.6.2 European welfare models as “welfare regimes” – potentials and limits of a concept.............................................. 375 7.6.3 Traditional models and regimes, blurred by new challenges: marketization, new cleavages and forms of governance and networking................................................................................... 378 7.6.4 Conclusions: Welfare services and TSOs – in search for roles beyond traditional status-guarantees and across “welfare regimes” ..................................................... 382 Svensk sammandrag................................................................................................. 385 Authors..................................................................................................................... 403 Preface The area between state, market and private households has been given many names and much attention during the last fifteen years in most post- industrial societies.
Whether we call it voluntary sector, intermediating area, third sector, civic society organisations or non-profit-organisations, this field has become a promising object of various expectations.

For example, in most of the contemporary late-industrial societies, strong concern about the future of welfare services and growing awareness about the weakening of traditional democratic structures have emerged side by side.
In the political discourse, solutions for these troubles are increasingly hoped to be found in non-profit-organisations and active citizenship.

In the Nordic countries, this area remained in the shadow of the wel- fare state and was relegated to the forgotten fields of welfare research for a relatively long time.

However, since the 1990s, a research boom into the third sector can be observed in most Nordic countries.
In the framework of the Nordic Welfare Research Program of the Nordic Council of Minis- ters, it was acknowledged that a systematic overview about existing re- search of the civic society organisations is overdue.
The goal of this “state of knowledge project” called “Citizens’ intermediate organisations and governance of the challenges of welfare services in Nordic societies” has been to answer the question what we in fact know about the third sector in the area of welfare services on the basis of existing research.

The ob- jective of this report is, therefore, to give a systematic overview of the research.
The aim has been to find out whether and in which sense Nordic citizens’ organisations are different from others in a European compara- tive perspective.

Is there a particular connection between the assumed advance of the Nordic model of society and the Nordic area of citizens’ own organisations?

Particular attention is given to the participation of service-users, organisations of clients and marginalized groups.
The re- 10 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services port also provides a critical analysis of the research by enquiring which kind of aspects has not been focussed on by research.

The research overview provides a European perspective–a kind of “outsiders” view – on the civic society organisations in the Nordic wel- fare services.

The research overview was compiled at the University of Applied Sciences in Magdeburg by a third sector researcher with a Fin- nish background.
In order to achieve a comprehensive picture of all avail- able researches published in all Nordic languages, sub-contracts were made with the following Nordic experts as partners: • Steinunn Hrafnsdottir from the University of Iceland (Department of Social Work), • Inger Koch-Nielsen from the Danish Institute for Social Research, • Sissel Seim and Bennedichte Rappana Olsen from Oslo University College, (Social Welfare Research Centre) • Lars Svedberg from Sköndal’s Institute (Department of Social work).
Further external experts for the project were Professor Marianne Nylund from the University of Helsinki (Department of Social Policy) and Pro- fessor Adalbert Evers from the University of Giessen (Department of Comparative Social and Health Policy).

The partners were requested to provide a bibliography of each re- search area for their country.
Thanks to the brilliant work of the partners, a fairy comprehensive new Nordic data based bibliography of third sec- tor researches (see Appendix 3) can now be presented on the web-page of the Nordic Research council, comprising some 800 references!

A fur- ther task of the partners has been to provide a very useful list with ab- stracts of the 10–15 most central researches of the respective area in their countries (See appendix 2).
The following persons have given invaluable assistance in producing the bibliography: Marith Markussen (Norway), Riikka Westman (Finland), Johan Vamstad (Sweden) and Kaspar Olesen and David Rosenthal (Denmark).

In this report publication the results of the research overview are pre- sented in the chapters 1–5.

Most of the Nordic partners also provided contributions analysing the research area in their country or a particular dimension of the research in the chapter 6.
In the final chapter 7, selected experienced European experts of the research area contribute to this pub- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 11 lication, too.

Adalbert Evers develops a new exiting comparative typol- ogy of participatory discourses of the welfare service cultures.
Two au- thors enable – certainly as pioneers – new comparative views between the Nordic civic society organisations and other regions of Europe: Annette Zimmer from an East-European and Silvia Ferreira from South-European perspective.

Eva Jeppsson Grassman discusses the challenges of services for the elderly in the Nordic societies and Karl Birkhölzer concretises the opportunities of social economy on the base of German experiences.
Fi- nally Adalbert Evers discusses critically the usefulness of the heritage of welfare regimes and the comparison of third sector’s role, while facing the shared future challenges of welfare politics and services.

It has to be acknowledged, that 21 Nordic researchers participated in experts’ groups interviews in the frame of this study (see appendix 1).

Steinar Kristiansen from the Nordic Research Council has been extremely interested and supportive contact person of this project.
Stina Johansson and Päivi Turunen supported in controlling the Swedish language.

I would like to express my warmest gratitude to all the persons who gave their competent contributions, interviews, comments and research mate- rial to this project.

It has been a great pleasure and challenge for me to jump back into the Nordic discourses and research community!

It was not possible to go very deep into detail in this short analysis of existing research.
Still, it is my honest hope that this report as well as the accompanying bibliography will for their part make it possible that fur- ther development of the Nordic welfare service state can be based on the critical review of existing knowledge.

Further, the awareness of the par- ticular nature of Nordic civic society organisations should not hinder but enable active Nordic part in solving shared European challenges.
Finally I would like to point out that, although we have identified close to 800 Nordic pieces of third sector research, this research area is anything but completed – rather, we may consider it in a promising initial stage.
Jyväskylä and Magdeburg, February 2006 Aila-Leena Matthies Report of the “state of knowledge” – project on research of third sector in the area of welfare services in Nordic countries – English Summary Aila-Leena Matthies Introduction Welfare political and scientific contexts of the research project In times when the experience of a well functioning national welfare state is constantly shuddered, not only the tasks of the welfare state but also those of civic society, mutual responsibility and areas of citizens’ self help are frequently being re-defined.
Hence, the significance of the third sector in one of the most successful and stable circumstances of welfare states – in Northern Europe – is of great interest.

My hypothesis is that neither the Nordic public sector alone nor the third sector as such can explain the particular success of the Nordic mo- del, but it may be the particular relationship between the public and civic society sector, which has enabled a certain type of a society to develop.
The relatively near and open connections between citizens and municipal authorities, between voluntary organisations and public administration have led to a distinctive responsive manner of acknowledging mutual tensions, needs and interests (see also Sipilä 1997).

However, this particu- lar relationship of the public, third and market sector has changed quite rapidly in most Nordic countries during the last ten years.
14 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services The complexity of the social political debates and theoretical issues framing this research overview can be mapped out from the following four directions: 1.
The potentials and success of the Nordic welfare model in the European context assumed in the Nordic Welfare Research Programme.1 As shown in the table on the next page, the well-known welfare state models have differences also in their characteristics of services, gender model and the role of civic society organisations2.

The rate of child poverty is included as an example for the differences in success of the models.

2.
2.

The ongoing development of and debate on the European Social Model and the possible contribution that the Nordic model can make to it.

3.

The comparative study of the third sector and civic society, which has been growing fast during the last 20 years and has its own theoretical questions.

4.

The current changes in the area of welfare services in a broader sense and the non-profit sector’s changing role in it.
The research will target the new organisational diversity in producing welfare services in regard to the most recent development also generated by EU policies.

1 Unfortunately, it seems that under global economic pressures the Nordic countries them- selves are increasingly destroying exactly those elements for which they are praised abroad.

2 See also a new and exiting typologisation of the countries according to the third sector functions and funding, developed by Silvia Ferreira in this report.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 15 Table 1.

Welfare state models with gender, services and third sector Regime Welfare state Social security and gender model Role of the third sector Rationality of welfare services Liberal “Minimal state“ (e.g.

USA) Residual (social bene- fits for the poorest) Market oriented social security and 1,5- breadwinner model Conserva- tive (e.g.

Germany/ West) Latin Rim (e.g.


Spain) Corporative (labour mar- ket-and family based con- tracts) Fragmentary (traditional informal and church based structures) Nordic (e.g.
Sweden) Universal (modern, individual) Social security by corporate contracts and one- breadwinner model Agrarian-religious based communities with one- bread- winner model Formal equality and individual social security with two- breadwinner model Central role as service pro- vider, signifi- cance of civic society and private founda- tions Main estab- lished role as service pro- vider, financed by the state Central role of traditional communities and Catholic church Main role as interest organi- sations, com- pleting to the strong public service provi- sion Own responsi- bility of high- income citizens, means-tested access of low- income people Responsibility according subsidiarity, access into diversity Family and community responsibility, limited access Universal and equal access, tax-financed public responsi- bility (Esping-Andersen 1990; Lewis 1992; Anttonen /Sipilä 1996; Unicef 2005, modified by Matthies.
A success indicator: rate of Child poverty 21.9% 10.2% 13.3% 4.2% Research questions The aim of the research project is to analyse the state of the art of re- search-based knowledge concerning the third sector and civic society organisations connected to the welfare services in the Nordic countries.

The analysis is based on existing research from the Nordic countries, but it also aims to provide an “outsider’s view”, a distanced perspective on the Nordic model from a comparative European point of view.
The ques- tion concerns the role of the organisations in relation to the future of the special benefits of the Nordic model of a welfare state in the comparative European perspective.

The initial thesis has been that it is the special formation of the state/civic society relationship, the particular networking emerged between various local actors in developing needed services 16 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services which keeps the Nordic model running.
Further, the third sector organisa- tions act as an “experimental field” or as a flexible reserve of resources which enables the welfare state to survive also in hard times.

But it can also be argued that this significant role has been overlooked by the main- stream of welfare state research which has its focus on professional and public systems.
Research process, partners and material The idea of the “State of the Art”-projects of the Nordic Council’s welfa- re research program is to provide an overview of the research topic based on of the existing research, not running a new own empirical or theoreti- cal research.
The research task was handed out to a single scientist, but experienced partners (teams, see Table 3) were selected as subcontractors from each country to provide the bibliography of existing research of the area in concern in their countries.

The bibliography contains altogether 755 references from the respective countries given in the original langua- ge and accompanied by an English translation.

Most of the references also include a short English summary.
The bibliographies are documented in an EndNote data base and will be made accessible via the website of the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal via the link http://www.sgw.hs-magdeburg.de/projekte/nordic/.

Table 2.
Registration of research references on third sector and civic society in the area of welfare services in the Nordic countries Country Project team Number of references Denmark Finland Iceland Norway Sweden Total Inger Koch-Nielsen, Kaspar Olesen, David Rosenthal Danish Institute for Social Research Riikka Westman Jyväskylä (private contract to assist the coordinator) Steinunn Hrafnsdóttir University of Iceland Sissel Seim, Bennedichte Olsen, Marith Markussen Oslo University College Lars Svedberg, Johan Vamstad Sköndals Institute 60 291 38 71 295 754 The differences in the amount of catalogued researches do not have any influence on the research overview as such.
Then, the subcontractors Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 17 selected a list of 10 to 15 most important and thematically relevant re- searches of their country which built the core of the material used in the content analysis.

To round out the picture won by the textual analysis of the selected re- searches and to clear possible open questions, an experts’ group interview were conducted by the coordinator with 3 to 6 key researchers from each country.
In an European Workshop the results of the research overview were presented and communicated with participants of 12 countries in Magde- burg in November 2005.

A comparative overview of the Nordic research profile The Nordic research profile of Third Sector The nearly 800 references from the last 15 years give evidence about a new and rapidly growing research area in the Nordic countries.

The gen- eral profile of the research area is characterised by a large volume of research in various disciplines.
Since the 1990s in most of the Nordic countries there has clearly been growing political interest to develop and increase: 1.

2.

3. the volunteering impact in social services the role of civic organisations in the integration of various “socially excluded” groups the third sector’s employment capacity.

At the same time there has been serious political concern over the de- creasing of the traditional elements of democratic interest and participa- tion.
Correspondingly, rehabilitation programmes of democracy and civic society have been typical for most Nordic countries during the last ten years (Trägårdh, 1995: Amnå 1999; Repstad 1998; Østerud, 2003, Borg 2005).

Consequently, the position of the research of this area has gained a new value.

The division of the research approaches seems to follow roughly the typologisation of “ethical – economic“ rationalities of the third sector.
18 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services These also seem to correspond to certain gendered profiles of research approaches (Matthies 1998): Female researchers have mainly been focus- sing on the profile of volunteering, self help groups and the citizens’ level of civic society as well as particular fields of services3, while the male researchers have mainly directed their interest on the macro-level, as well as on the functional and economic role of the sector4.
On the Nordic level there have been a couple of efforts towards net- working in the area of voluntary sector research and also two joint publi- cations.

(Redaktionskommiteé 1999; Jeppsson /Habermann 1999; Henrik- sen/Ibsen 2001; Helander/Sivesind 2001).
On the international level there exists a picture of a certain “Nordic tradition” of third sector and civic society research and this region is actively presented on international forums (in publications, conferences, projects, and the International Soci- ety of Third Sector Research).
The joint presence of the Nordic third sector and civic society research in the international forums is frequently associated with more or less direct criticism of the dominating US-rooted theory of state failure as an explanation for the existence of the voluntary sector.

Nordic research is regularly showing empirical evidence for a very contrasting situation in the Nordic welfare state culture.

(Klausen/Selle 1996; Lundström 2004, 25–; Ibsen 1996; Henriksen 1996).
But it is to be underlined that the Nordic anti-thesis seems not to have had remarkable influence, since the state-failure theory is still alive and well on the inter- national level, and is still visible, for example, in the John Hopkins com- parative project.
The social economy approach is broadly noted and known among the Nordic researchers, but there is no systematic empirical equivalent to it or in the existing cases, it is mainly detached from the other types of third sector and civic society research (Pestoff 1991; Grönberg 2004).
3 Alm Andreassen 2004; Nylund 2000; Olsen 1994; Seim 1997; Habermann 2001; Jeppsson 1994; 2005; Fellesoe 2004; Halvorsen 2002; 2005; Hrafnsdottir 1998; 2005, Roivainen 2001; Turunen 2004 4 Helander /Sivesind 2001; Østerud/ Selle/ Engelstad 2003; Siisiäinen 2000; Lundström/ Svedberg 2003, Lorentzen 2004 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 19 National Profiles of the Research5 Iceland: Remarkable tradition of historical research on the impact of civic movements on the development of society, especially women’s move- ments.
Emerging research and consensus based discussion on the signifi- cance of current volunteering and the voluntary sector, together with the largest NGOs, connected to the promotion of volunteering in the practice.

No references of social economy.

Denmark: Research focussing on the voluntary sector as such, demon- strating the differences between its different fields.
The research on the state sector relationship reflects the pluralism in welfare services and the far developed decentralisation with participative decision making models.

Social economy debate is not very visible.

Finland: Interdisciplinary cross-over pictures of the sector since the 1990s.

Third sector boom at the end of the 1990s, followed by a prag- matic-strategic discourse of third sector’s role in partnership models and as competition agencies.

New vital research on volunteering since 2000.


Norway: Highly advanced theoretical debate and active international presence.

Strong emphasis on service users and citizens’ participation, absence of research on privatisation and social economy.

Several institu- tional focal points of research.

Sweden: Established research on popular movements.

Intensive re- search on volunteering and the voluntary sector on the one hand, and the social economy on the other hand, but hardly any links between them.
Research is concentrated in only few centres.

Growing research on local partnerships; strong ideological debate on the research object.

Main issues of the research: state relation at the top – gender and market relationship hardly thematised The research references are catalogued by means of the EndNote program in five national data bases.
While classifying the 755 references according 5 For more information about the third sector research profiles in the Nordic countries and in the respective countries, see Sivesind /Lorentzen /Selle /Wollebaek 2002, 115-; Nylund 1997; Svedberg 2001; Helander/Sivesind 2001; Lundström 2004, 25–; Juliusdottir 1999, 13; Halvorsen/Hvinden 1998 20 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services to the type of research, most of them can be regarded as “National over- views” (304).
Those aim to give a general macro-level description of the third sector or specific aspects of it.

Also quantitative surveys are quite frequent.

When selecting the most central research question, the majority of the publications discuss the relationship of the third sector/civic society organisations to the public sector, either on the national or local level.
Finally it is in deed surprising that in the countries said to be the most equal and women-friendly in the world, the gender aspects of the civic society activities and third sector are centrally referred to only in 26 out of 755 researches.
Table 3: Main issues of the registered researches Category /central issue Number of references Remarks National overviews Theoretical and/or conceptual debate Relationship to the state/local authority Various fields of services Motives of volunteering Gender aspects 304 232 162 47 36 26 Macro-level perspective, often with historical view about the role of the organisations or quantitative surveys Used concepts: Non profit, “ideelt” sector, civic society, social capital Role of the civic organisation in the context of welfare state/municipality Traditional and new fields Most advanced empirical and theorized single issue of research Mainly referring to gender of volunteers and/or to gendered tasks in volunteering (Total 755, nomination of several central issues was possible, here most frequently mentioned issues) Evaluation of the research Achievements of the research in the European perspective The achievements and the deficits of the Nordic third sector and civic society research can be summarised as follows: 1.
The research has succeeded during the last 10–15 years in making the sector visible nationally and internationally, bearing in mind that until 1990s there existed hardly any awareness of the activities related to welfare provision outside of the public sector.

Today, the Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 21 concept of third sector and the significance of voluntary organisations are established in the public domain in most of the Nordic societies.

2.
2.

The particularity of the functions of the Nordic voluntary organisa- tions and their particularity in international comparison are demon- strated with remarkable evidence: the organisations are multi-func- tional, with strong emphasis on “voice”, advocacy, expertise, avant- garde, togetherness, but a less strong orientation to service function.

3.

The particular relationship to the public sector is very broadly discussed.
It is characterised by complementing instead of challeng- ing, partnerships instead of competition, co-operation instead of contracting, acting as a “watchdog” instead of taking over tasks.

4.

The profile of volunteers, their motivations, status, age and gender are quite systematically and comparably researched in all of the countries.

5.
5.

These three topics (functions, state relationship,volunteering) also represent the strengths in the theoretical debate in this field of research in the Nordic countries.

6.

On the map of international research traditions, the European research tradition is shared and committed to by most of the research- ers.

However, this position is not systematically developed in the practice of research approaches nor made visible in the use of central concepts and demarcation of the research object.
Un-researched topics and open questions: gender, citizens and conflicts On the basis of analysing the entire material, it seems that there are several questions which have hardly been touched or have been raised only in some single studies.

Some of these questions are in fact vital in the European perspective and for the role the Nordic societies could play in it.

1.
1.

There is not yet sufficiently empirical evidence for the distinct character of the non-profit sector and its advanced potential in com- parison to public and private sectors.

In particular, we do not actual- ly know how this distinctiveness will be eventually affected by cur- rent processes of change and while facing new pressure from the en- vironment.
Or are the distinctions between the sectors disappearing 22 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services since all of them are shifted towards New Public Management in a similar way?

2.

The civic society organisations’ relation to the market and cross- border activities as well as the partnerships with business life have hardly been analysed in any of the respective countries (in spite of Finland).
This is really surprising since the majority of the research is repeatedly focusing on the state relationship.

Also the empirical systematic knowledge on social economy is very scarce (in spite of Sweden).

3.

The gender aspects are under-represented throughout the research.

What is the significance of the civic society organisations for the once so famous women-friendly model of the Nordic societies in the international perspective?

4.
4.

The citizens’ perspective is still very thin in the research (in spite of Norway) although the studies do speak of citizens organisations.

5.

There are not practically taken any conflicts between civic society organisations and welfare state visible in the field of welfare ser- vices.

In opposite, the research from the Nordic countries underlines the consensus-oriented cooperation between the sectors.
This is extremely surprising if taking into account that the main role of civic organisations is to be a voice, an interest organisation and to repre- sent civic society functions.

How to work effectively as “watch dog” without barking and biting?

Quantity of the Sector For a comparative quantitative view, the best source will be without doubt the up-dated results of the CNP-research6, where four of the Nordic countries have been involved in different phases, nowadays more than 40 countries (www.
Jhu.edu/%7Ecnp/).

The outcomes of this study surpris- ingly demonstrate that 6 It is to be noted that the religious worship organisations, which cover a significant volume of civic society activities in the Nordic countries, are not included in the study concerned.
It must also be acknowledged that the CNP-Research did not include the established forms of informal exchange-based welfare production between the citizens and in their communities, nor the informal care, which certainly would increase the figures from the so called “developing or transitional” countries.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 23 • • • even measured by the workforce the quantity of the third sector in the Nordic countries is larger than in most other developed countries the volume of volunteering is higher in the Nordic welfare states than the average in the other western type societies In a list of 36 countries according to the share of the economically active population involved either paid or unpaid in the civic society organisations, Norway ranks 8th, Sweden 9th and Finland 11th.
Table 4.
Civic society workforce share of the economically active population 7 Country Paid Staff Volunteers Finland Norway Sweden Average in developed countries Average in 36 countries 2.4% 2.7% 1.7% 4.7% 2.7% 2.8% 4.4 % 5.1% 2.7% 1.6% Total 5.3% 7.2% 7.1% 7.4% 4.4% Also in the table about private philanthropy – including volunteering and giving, but excluding donations and volunteering in religious congrega- tions – the three Nordic countries are among the top ten societies (2nd = Sweden; 4th = Norway; 8th Finland)8: 7 Source: John Hopkins Comparative Research (CNP) 2005. www.jhu.edu/~engp/pdf/table101.pdf.
(see also Helander 1998 and ; Sivesind /Lorentzen /Selle/ Wollebaek, 2002) 8 Source: (www.jhu.edu/~engp/pdf/comptable5_dec4.dpf.)

24 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Table 5.
Volunteering in the Nordic countries Percentage of volunteering adult inhabitants of total population Percentage of volun- teering directed to social welfare area Three main fields of civic society sector in FTE workforce 9 Denmark 10 35% 12% Iceland 11 40.3% 11% 13% 13 12.6%15 Finland 12 Norway 14 Sweden 16 Average in developed countries 33% 52% 52% 15% 1.

Sport/culture 2.

Housing/local community 3.

Social services 1.

Culture /sports 2.

Social services 3.

Humanitarian 1.

Culture /sports 2.


Civic society/advocacy 3.

Social services 1.Culture/ sports 2.

Social services 3.Professional org.

1.

Culture /sports 2.

Professional 3.

Social Services In the frame of the EU project “Third system and employment” (Pätti- niemi 2004) the effects of employment in the corresponding organisations were identified as follows: Also in the employment in social economy the Nordic societies seem to be close to the top or above the European average.
All in all, the available quantitative data about third sector and civic society organisations shake the dominating picture that a strong state would exclude civic society structures.

On the other side, the quantitatively oriented research of the sector concerned is in general extremely complicated due to the variety of definitions, mixes and cross-boarder activities.
Therefore, in my view, the 9 Data available only on volunteers, not on paid staff from Iceland and Denmark 10 Koch-Nielsen/Rosdahl 2005; Koch-Nielsen/Dalsgaard Clausen 5; also Habermann 2001; Socialforskningsinstituttet 2005 11 Hrafnsdottir 2005 12 Nylund (2000, 115) referring to Life condition survey of Finstat; but Yeung (2002) speaks about 37%, see also Helander 2004;.
However, in CNP-results Finland scores only 8% (see next note) 13 Helander/Sivesind 2001, 61 14 John Hopkins Comparative Non-Profit Project (CNP) 2005 www.jhu.edu/~cnp/pdf/table201.pdf; Jeppsson Grassman/Svedberg 1996 15 Sivesind & al 2002, 55 16 John Hopkins Comparative Non-Profit Project (CNP) 2005 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 25 outcomes of international quantitative comparisons cannot be regarded as absolute factual figures, but as very interesting and valuable indicators of the tendencies of the reality.
Table 6.

Employment in enterprises and organisations of third system (social economy) in the EU 1995–1997 Country Share of national employment in FTE 1.

Netherlands 2.

Ireland 3.

Denmark 6.

Finland 10.


Sweden EU average 14.69% 12.57% 12.56% 6.92% 5.15% 6.57% Civic society organisations and the challenges of welfare services Current tendencies Some of the essential tendencies of the current changes in the Nordic welfare politics are more or less directly connected to the field of welfare services and therefore, to the civic society sector, too.
Raija Julkunen (2001; see also Anttonen /Sipilä 2000) points out that the elementary shifts in the new welfare policy consist of reduced resources for public services and a silently advancing marketizing of services.

This means an increasing mixture of the private, third and public sectors, as well as stronger integration of informal care of family members into the entire system of services.
The new thinking is also establishing the tendency that the role of the voluntary sector, welfare organisations and the church is increasing in the politics for marginalized people, for those discrimi- nated and the minorities.

In the meantime, these task areas are increas- ingly run in a projectized manner instead of institutional structures, while the general, universal responsibility of the state is becoming distanced and more selective.
Wijkstöm (2001) describes the trend in the third sector/state relation as a “shift from subventions to contracts”, which has already changed the 26 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services manner of public support essentially.
The introduction of the EU concept of social economy has caused a trend, where the organisations working in this field (associations, cooperatives, foundations) are no more seen as instances intermediating between different fields but as something that is part of the public hand, as an instrument to implicate state politics under contracts (Wijkstöm 2001, 95).

The same discussion is taking place in Finland.


Möttönen and Nie- melä (2005, 18–) welcome and outline an enlarged and systematised co- operation between the municipalities and the voluntary organisations as the only way to safeguard the future of welfare services.

Kauppinen and Nuutinen (2005) just state the increase of non-profit and for-profit provi- sion of services, and they analyse the conditions without making norma- tive differences between the sectors.
Thirdly, Särkelä, Vuorela and Pelto- salmi (2005) take a critical view speaking from the point view of civic society organisations concerning the pressure to change their functional focus and to give up the autonomy.

As Halvorsen (2005, 239–240) has analysed, the EU demands from its members the involvement of marginalized people’s own organisations in welfare policies and in projects (for example National Anti-poverty Pro- grammes NAPs Evaluation).
Hence both civic society function and the service function of the third sector are becoming more important, and at the same time more regulated and connected in the frame of governmen- tal policies.

Through the new partnership programmes as the dominating approach of the EU, new options of co-operation have emerged.

But as Nordfeldt (2000, 164–166) analyses, the situation is ambivalent.
The voluntary organisations see that the questions of responsibility and indi- vidual’s rights can become unclear in a mixed economy (dropping be- tween the chairs).

By taking more responsibility for single groups, the organisations can legitimate the public sector’s withdrawal.

The changed economic situation of the voluntary organisations, with short-time con- tracting and higher amount of own financing, causes increasing difficul- ties in providing the needed services and a new financial dependency.
Many organisations already gave up their services in Sweden.

Also Lorentzen (1994, 38) resumes that voluntary organisations in- creasingly consist of institutions whose activities have become a regular part of the public service system.

Consequently it is difficult to see what their special character is as civic organisations, and how the organisa- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 27 tions’ own interests can be combined with the public demands.
Helander (2004, 71–) has discovered that the political civic society role of the vol- untary organisations is not very intensively in use.

Especially the service user organisations belong to the organisations which only in very few cases were consulted in political processes (Helander 2004, 72; also Ols- son & al 2005).
There emerges a deepening discrepancy between the expectation from the environment (towards contracted service production and governmen- tally regulated role as civic society agency) and the citizens’ organisa- tions’ own interest.
Siisiäinen (2003) points out just the statistical fact which is contrary to the expectations of the state: the quantitative growth of associations since the 1990s in Finland is very clearly directed to hobby- and expression-oriented new associations, but less to the field of social welfare or traditional political participation (also in Sweden, see Jeppsson and Svedberg 1999, 121–) According to Lorentzen (2004, 129–) civic engagement is not only under pressure of “colonisation” by the state, but also by scientification and professionalism.17 Further factors influencing civic engagement are commercialisation and consumerism: the new liberal utilitarianism seek- ing for “loensamme medlemskap” (profitable membership) as a slogan of the 1990s.
Social political and research political conclusions The third sector organisations are increasingly pushed by the current poli- tics to enlarge their service provision in the fields of standardised main- stream services, where they compete with the private agencies (see also Evers 2005).

Consequently the basic comparative picture of the welfare regimes given in table 2 will be changing.
To comprise it in one sentence: the current tendencies rather include more risks for the multifunctional, critical and spontaneous functions of the civic society organisations in the Nordic democracies than open new chances.

From the welfare service point of view, there is no evidence that the competitive contracting out 17 .

“Genom utdannigstilbud i kultur, naermiljö, idrett, ungdoms- och barnearbeid, fore- bygging, sang och musik, natur- och miljöarbeid, mv.
föregoer det en vitenskapligtgoering av handlingsfelt som tidligere var erfahringsbaserte og lokalt forankrede”.

(Lorentzen 2004, 159) 28 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services and the designed mixture – where all sectors try to offer the same type of services – would be very effective.
There is rather a risk that complexities of social problems and long-term processes of support to citizens turn out to be split into limited slices of contractual actions carried out by single agencies.

From the civic society functions and the welfare services’ points of view, another type of welfare mixture is needed.
Instead of a variety of agencies from three sectors running in competition with the same offers for the same demands, there should be – in an ideal case – an accurate analysis and open negotiation of distinguished tasks and competences.

We should ask: • Which kind of societal functions and services can be provided as best • when connected to the specific characteristics of civic society organisations?
In which fields of services is a market economy based rationality most functional for the society (not only for the profit)?

• Which parts of human and social needs should be left out of competition and kept in the public responsibility with comprehensive transparency and equal access to services?

I argue that this kind of strategy would distinguish between the conven- tional blind competition between service providers and a kind of knowl- edge-based and reflective welfare mixture.
The latter would rather strengthen the successful characteristics of the Nordic countries than the current tendency of blind repeating of the mistakes in a one-sided mar- ket economy and pushing the variety of agencies to a similar form of producers.

Civic Society Organisations in the Nordic welfare state – also a model for success?
The distinguished role of the Nordic organisations consists of their func- tion as interest organisations – enabling advocacy, pressure, participation – as well as innovation of services or providing services in a completing manner.

In these roles the organisations have surely contributed to the Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 29 successful type of an entire system of services, and to the ability to mod- ernise and advance oneself constantly.
The different welfare state models have been essentially based on cul- tural differences.

Thus, as Rieger and Leibfried constitute while referring to East Asian cultures, “(…) no type of social policy can survive without a cultural frame that pro- vides the central motives and the critical benchmarks for its actors” (Rieger/Leibfried 2004, 62).
Undoubtedly the civic society organisations in Northern Europe for their part have created a certain culture and traditions which have promoted the specific type of a universal and equality-oriented welfare state model.

But at the same time we must acknowledge that the cultural traditions rooted in the ideological and religious movements of the 19th and 20th century have lost vital parts of their power to influence the pluralistic society at the beginning of the 21st century.
In the Nordic countries most of the researchers underline the impor- tance of independency and autonomic development of the civic society organisations.

This means in most cases that the researchers are sceptical about the ongoing process of shifting from the function of interest organi- sation towards service function, which is automatically seen as a more or less hidden instrumentalisation for the demands of the welfare state.
In order to sustain the benefits of the Nordic welfare state, the particu- lar civic society and democracy roles of the third sector are surely of more importance than bonding them as publicly ruled agencies running mainstream welfare services or to transform them into for-profit compa- nies.

Furthermore, the deficits in democracy and deficits in services can- not be played off against each other.
Thus, without an active civic society, there might not be enough political pressure nor a source of solutions to address all the new challenges of the welfare services.

It is also apparent that the research of this area in the Nordic societies is fairly at the initial phase of drawing a general picture and making the sector visible.

For more distinguished knowledge about the potentials and conditions of the sector, an enlarged and well-coordinated research offen- sive is needed.
And, at least a critical research should be able and sensi- tive to identify the emerging conflicts in this area of forthcoming hard challenges, instead of repeating the theses of consensus and success.

1.
1.

Introduction Aila-Leena Matthies (chapters 1–5) 1.1 Welfare political and scientific contexts of the research project In times when the experience of a well functioning national welfare state is constantly shuddered, not only the tasks of the welfare state but also those of civic society, mutual responsibility and areas of citizens’ self help are frequently being re-defined.
As Adalbert and Jean-Louis Laville (2004b, 29) state, the future of the welfare states and that of the third sector – a societal area consisting of a variety of citizens’ organisations – seem to be highly interrelated18.

Also, Helmut K. Anheier (2001, 57) suggests that the strong hopes, expectations, and also apprehension, re- lated to the third sector are mirroring the changes in the other spheres of society, such as in economics, public services, family, traditional organi- sations and political parties.
Hence, the significance of the third sector in one of the most successful and stable circumstances of welfare states – in Northern Europe – is of great interest.
My hypothesis is that neither the Nordic public sector alone nor the third sector as such can explain the particular success of the Nordic mo- del, but it may be the particular relationship between the public and civic 18 In this research, third sector and civic society organisations are used as synonyms and they refer to the huge variety of organised networks and established organisations in the area between state, market and family /private households.
The organisations are also often considered as “non-profit” (NPO) or “non-governmental” (NGO).

Especially in the case of Nordic countries, however, I would prefer the European-directed concept of “intermediate area” (or intermediate organisations), since there are no clear borders of the area, but the relationships between the sectors are most exiting.

32 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services society sector, which has enabled a certain type of a society to develop.
The relatively near and open connections between citizens and municipal authorities, between voluntary organisations and public administration have led to a distinctive responsive manner of acknowledging mutual tensions, needs and interests (see also Sipilä 1997).

However, this particu- lar relationship of the public, third and market sector has changed quite rapidly in most Nordic countries during the last ten years.
The complexity of the social political debates and theoretical issues framing this research overview can be mapped out from the following four directions: the assumed success of the Nordic welfare state model, the process of creating the European Social Model, the comparative third sector research and the changes in the welfare services.

1.

The potentials and success of the Nordic welfare model in the Euro- pean context assumed in the Nordic Welfare Research Programme.
The current era is dominated by neo-liberal beliefs which claim that the spe- cial benefits of the Nordic model belong to the past, to a finished epoch of flourishing welfare states.

On the other hand, numerous hopeful views are directed at the Nordic model from various groups around the world, not least from areas of collective disappointment like Eastern Germany (compare Schubert/Martens 2005 and Priller/Zimmer 2001; Zim- mer/Priller 2004).
Over the recent years, while working as a social scientist outside the Nordic countries, I was frequently asked to explain the success of the Nordic model, which is especially seen in the mysteriously parallel co- existening contradictory factors: the most competitive economy but a relatively large public sector; high labour market participation and equal- ity of women but relatively high birth rates; world’s best outcomes of educational systems but integrative and non-selective access to education (s. www.oecd.org; World Economy Forum 2004; also in Matthies 2004).19 I am asking what is the impact of the third sector on the assumed success of the Nordic Welfare state model and what of this composition is worth disseminating also outside of the Nordic countries.
In the context of this study, the essential issues of success of the Nor- dic model are: the relatively comprehensive and well-functioning welfare 19 Unfortunately it seems that under global economy pressures the Nordic countries them- selves are increasingly destroying exactly those elements for which they are praised outside.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 33 services with a moderate level of costs, the progressed social and gender equality, the extent of civic society activities as well as the reasonably successful fight against dramatic risks like child poverty.

2.

The ongoing development of and debate on the European Social Model and the possible contribution that the Nordic model can make to it.
The European Union’s favourite slogan is to be a great model of society, where economic growth and social equality are in better balance than in the other parts of the world.

Undoubtedly in several dimensions, the Nor- dic countries can give an example.
However, it seems that although Europe aims to challenge the dominant models of US or Asia, which are considered as less social and equal, Europe is increasingly moving in the same direction as the competitive areas, due to the growing pressure of global market economy.

I am analysing how far civic society activities are reflected, regulated and enabled – or even overseen – in the debate about the special model of European societies in the global competition.
For this study, certain dimensions of the European Social Model and its implications are of high relevance, especially the aspects of citizens’ participation, the role of civic society and the future arrangements for the field of welfare services.

3.

The comparative study of the third sector and civic society.
Multi- disciplinary research on the area between the private, public and market sectors became a growing research interest also in most Western societies at the end of the 1980’s, and has been flourishing through the 1990’s.

The International Society of Third Sector Research (ISTR) was founded in 1992.

The largest single international research project in this field, the John Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project (CNP, see e.g.
www.jhu.edu/~cnp) also started in 1990 within 13 countries, and in 2004 provided empirical documentation from more than 40 countries around the globe.

Except for Iceland, all Nordic countries have become partners in this project.

In the intervening time, the discussion about the concept itself, i.e.

how the respective area ought to be called and defined, has constantly accompanied research, particularly as it has moved to a cross-national and cross-continental comparative level.
Helmut K. Anheier and Wolfgang Seibel (1990), who published the first significant comparative study in 34 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services this field, decided to use the concept “third sector” while referring to the “intermediate organisational universe” (ibid.

1) of non-profit organisa- tions, private voluntary organisations, and philanthropic and operating foundations.
However, they themselves admit that both the concept and the definition used have been influenced by the North-American organ- isational environment, to which they apply quite well, whilst they are not very helpful in distinguishing the same area in most European countries, where the respective organisations are not distinctly separable from pub- lic and market sectors (Anheier /Seibel 1990).
Despite awareness of this criticism, the concept “third sector” has become dominant and most use- ful in international comparisons.

Lester M. Salamon (2001), the leader of the John Hopkins Compara- tive Nonprofit Sector Project, has a euphoric view of the third sector and considers current global development as an “associational revolution”, to be explained with the failure and crisis of the state and the markets in most societies.
All over the world, politicians are seeking solutions be- yond the public and market players, and would like to strengthen the civic society components.

Salamon (ibid, 30) also believes that third sector organisations would be automatically more citizen-oriented and flexible and therefore offer an attractive “middle way” strategy for several spheres of society.

In all the 22 countries analysed, the third sector has become a significant and rapidly growing economic and labour market factor.
In some countries the volume of jobs in the third sector is already higher than in industrial production (Salamon 2001, 31).

If the unpaid work done in the third sector organisations in the 22 included countries is taken into account, the volume is even larger.

On average, 28% of the citizens in the countries analysed participate in the voluntary activities of third sector organisations.

The dominant operational area of third sector organisations is that of social services in most countries.
However, the CNP-survey comprises extremely different profiles and even opposite tendencies of the third sector in the countries included.

Even within Europe, Helmut K. Anheier (2001) identifies in this survey vastly different connotations and traditions concerning the third sector: e.g.

the French “economie sociale”, Italian “assosiationism”, British char- ity, Swedish “folksrörelse”, German subsidiarity.
I am analysing the directions of the Nordic third sector research with the distinction made by Adalbert Evers and Jean-Louis Laville (2004a) Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 35 between the US-led dominating comparative approach20 and the “Euro- pean way” of conceiving the same area.

Evers and Laville (ibid.)


emphasise that in many European countries there exist other historical heritages and conceptual labels for researching the field of citizens’ associations, including cooperatives, associations, movements, voluntary organisations or just civic society.

However, the research done on the third sector in Europe has been more directed to national contexts and could not really be used in European or global comparative discourse to the extent that might become necessary.
Nor has it had shared concepts or clear definitions of the area of society in ques- tion.

Consequently, the most recent interest in Europe on comparative third sector research has adopted the quite neutral sounding concepts of “third sector” and “non-profit”.

Furthermore, the political discourses and several foundation programmes in many European countries started to use these concepts in the assumption that they would refer to a clearly defined area (see e.g.

Delors, 2004).
Delors, 2004).

Evers and Laville (2004a) argue that taken literally, the US-influenced theoretical concepts neither correspond to contemporary European reality, nor to the historical development of the sector.

The emergence of the “third” sector as a result of the assumed failure of the two first sectors, market and state, does not fit in the mutual and interlinked history of civic society organisations and nation states of Europe.
In addition, there have never been unambiguous borders between the areas of civic organisations and the two other sectors.

Even the concept of non-profit organisation is empirically suspicious, because the organisations in Europe often in- cluded in the so-called social economy tradition have always allowed profit making.
The key differences between these two approaches can be roughly summarised as follows: 20 As a central example: John Hopkins University Comparative Non-Profit Research (CNP) 36 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Table 1.

Approaches in comparative third sector research 21.

US-led Third Sector Research 1.

Third sector formation benefited historically from… Charities, voluntary organisa- tions, foundations; failure of state and market provoked third sector organisations 2.
Definition of third sector Basic difference to state and market, “independent sector” European way of conceiving the third sector Mutual aid systems, coop- eratives, “social economy”, social movements; organisa- tions contributed to the birth of the welfare state No clear demarcation be- tween the sectors, interme- diary nature of the third sector 3.
Economic concept “Non-Profit” in comparison to market sector, “non- governmental” in comparison to state sector A plural set of market, public and moral economies, mixing and balancing various principles 4.

Relation to the welfare state “Civic society” as opposite of public sector Welfare mix/Pluralism In my research I would rather prefer to speak about the “intermediate area”, “intermediating organisations” or “intermediate instances”, as ma- ny German authors have started to do.
Intermediate refers both to the structural dimension of the sector being between various sectors and to the functional dimension of intermediating between various areas without demarcated borders.

In this sense it applies better to the Nordic organisa- tional circumstances than the term “third sector”.

However, the concep- tual discussion should not overtake a too big role in the project, and nei- ther should it become an exclusive factor for the selection of the research to be analysed.
Thus, the concept “intermediate area” is more hypotheti- cal at this point, and it is important to include all types of the conceptual and methodological orientation and rationality of existing research in the analysis.
The following figure maps out the area in concern but demon- strates in the meantime the rich variety of organisations in the intermedi- ate area as well as its blurred and dynamic borders to the other sectors: 21 Matthies, based on Evers/Laville 2004b, see also Salamon 2002 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 37 Figure 1.
Localisation of the research area in the welfare triangle: the area of citizens’ organisations between state, market and private households 22 While assuming that future welfare state development in all western so- cieties will be somehow re-directed in connection with the third sector, it is necessary to look carefully at the role of the civic society and the third sector in the Nordic model from a broad viewpoint.
To do this, the focus should not only be on the macro level comparison of welfare state models and the function and quantitative aspects of the third sector in Nordic countries.

Rather, it would be more useful to analyse research evidence on the meso- and micro-level of society, and to interpret the function of new movements with a bottom-up approach connected to the new chal- lenges of welfare states, and not only consider the administrative shift of the services to third sector organisations.
Does there exist, for example, a distinguishable way in which the public sector supports the civic society networks and vice versa?

Are the new civic society movements and groups phenomena, which can be identified as a modernisation factor?

4.

The current changes in the area of welfare services in a broader sense and the non-profit sector’s changing role in it.
The research will target the new organisational diversity in producing welfare services in 22 see also Pestoff 1998, Matthies 1994a 38 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services regard to the most recent development also generated by EU policies.

(Modifications of public ownership of common goods, supra-national third sector organisations, new areas of civic society’s self-organisation).
Consequently, research focuses on the assumed changing roles and func- tions of citizens’ organisations in comparison to their central historical roles as partners of the welfare state, as pioneers of new development and as interest organisations.

The adjustment from the organisations’ histori- cal roles towards a stronger role as service providers may not necessarily shake the base of the welfare state model as such.
But it might be a more significant question for the future of the welfare services whether the civic society organisations will still uphold the certain Nordic type of democratic culture.

For example, are the civic society organisations, once contributing to the growing up of the Nordic welfare state model, still able to mobilise and re-new the required support for the service standards and to fight against the cuts?
The particularly normative Nordic service culture of equal access, non-hierarchical structures, professional quality and transparency of decision making may still remain although the own- erships changes.

Although the civic society organisations have assumed many new functions and tasks during the welfare service crisis in the 1990s, they did not tend to replace the public responsibility.
The option to expand the third sector organisations’ profiles towards service providing companies is in high accordance with the global neo- liberal belief, which promises economic growth only through reduction of public tasks.

Furthermore, it has already been more or less silently ac- cepted that public institutions will no longer have enough capacity to cover all the new and emerging fragmented needs of a pluralistic society.
However, there is no empirical evidence for the assumption that privatisa- tion would enable lower costs and better quality of services, nor for a guarantee of citizens’ equal access to services under competition.

Hence we have to ask which roles the third sector organisations and citizens’ own networks already play in the late modern Nordic societies which are facing further modernisation challenges also beyond the existing response repertoire of welfare services.
In the following table, the characteristics of the well-known welfare state models are typologised, including the perspective of services, gender model and the role of civic society organisations.

The typologisation of welfare states can be criticised for several reasons.

But it still shows at a Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 39 very general level the obvious connections between the compared factors and the distinctiveness of the Nordic model23.

Table 2.
Table 2.

Welfare state models with gender, services and third sector 24 Regime Welfare state Social security and gender model Role of the third sector Rationality of welfare services Liberal “Minimal state“ (e.g.

USA) Residual (social benefits for the poorest) Market oriented social security and 1,5- bread- winner model Conservative (e.g.

Germany/ West) Latin Rim (e.g.

Spain) Nordic (e.g.
Sweden) Corporative (labour market- and family based con- tracts) Fragmentary (traditional informal and church based structures) Universal (modern, individual) Social security by corporate contracts and one- breadwinner model Agrarian- religious based communities with one- breadwinner model Formal equality and individual social security with two- breadwinner model Central role as service pro- vider, signifi- cance of civic society and private founda- tions Main estab- lished role as service pro- vider, financed by the state Central role of traditional communities and Catholic church Main role as interest organi- sations, com- pleting to the strong public service provi- sion Own responsi- bility of high- income citizens, means-tested access of low- income people Responsibility according subsidiarity, access into diversity Family and community responsibility, limited access Universal and equal access, tax-financed public respon- sibility A success indicator: rate of child poverty 21.9% 10.2% 13.3% 4.2% 1.2 Research questions The aim of the research project is to analyse the state of the art of re- search-based knowledge concerning the third sector and civic society organisations connected to the welfare services in the Nordic countries.
23 .

See also a new and exiting typologisation of the countries according to the third sector functions and funding, developed by Silvia Ferreira in this report.
24 Esping-Andersen 1990; Lewis 1992; Anttonen /Sipilä 1996; Unicef 2005, modified by Matthies, see also the comparison of third sector models of Ferreira 2005 40 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services The question concerns the role of the organisations in relation to the fu- ture of the special benefits of the Nordic model of a welfare state in the comparative European perspective.
The initial thesis has been that it is the special formation of the state/civic society relationship, the particular networking emerged between various local actors in developing needed services which keeps the Nordic model running.

Further, the third sector organisations act as an “experimental field” or as a flexible reserve of resources which enables the welfare state to survive also in hard times.
But it can also be argued that this significant role has been overlooked by the mainstream of welfare state research which has its focus on profes- sional and public systems.

The analysis is based on existing research from the Nordic countries, but it also aims to provide an “outsider’s view”, a distanced perspective on the Nordic model from a comparative European point of view.
Thus the main research aim is first of all to shape a general answer to the ques- tion of what we really know about civic society activities and organisa- tions in the welfare service field in the Nordic countries.

Further, the research questions to be analysed are logically conducted by the issues raised by existing research, i.e.

this report will summarise results of them in terms of an overview.
Nevertheless, this research will not only repeat the results but interpret on behalf of them what the (potential) roles and conditions of the citizens’ intermediate organisations are while facing the future challenges of the welfare services in the Nordic societies.
1.3 Research process, methodology and material The idea of the “State of the Art”-projects of the Nordic Council’s wel- fare research programme is to provide an overview of the research topic on the base of the existing research, not running a new and own empirical or theoretical research.

The methodology and process of the research consisted of following elements: 1.
February 05: Kick-off Meeting of the sub-contractors and the coordinator in Copenhagen in order to agree the criteria for material collection Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 41 2.

February – June 05: Collection of the bibliographies of the five countries of third sector and citizens’ organisations in the field of welfare services as well as listing 10–15 most relevant researches by sub-contractors 3.
June – September 05: Analysis of the research material and selected research of each country by the coordinator 4.

September – October 05: Group expert interviews of key researchers in each of the five countries25 5.

November 05: Concluding European Workshop in Magdeburg with participants from 12 countries 6.

December 05: Completing the final report including contributions from the sub-contractors and from the key note speakers of the Workshop.
The research task was taken by a single scientist, in contrast to the larger research projects of the same Nordic programme.

However, it was realis- tic and useful to cooperate with partners from each country, who are ex- perienced experts in the field.

The selected partners were found on the basis of existing contacts between the Nordic scientists of the area.
The aim was to have a balanced mixture between the participants of the John Hopkins – project and the other national research teams of civic society organisations or voluntary work in the field of social welfare.

The part- ners had the status of sub-contractors and the task to provide the bibliog- raphy of existing research of the relevant area in their countries.
At the kick-off-meeting of the partners in February 2005, the main task was to agree on the manner in which the bibliography was to be col- lected.

Due to the exceptionally fluctuating borders of the research area and the existing inexact definitions of the central concepts, it was impor- tant to agree on some basic issues in as much detail as possible before starting the data collection.

These included the following: 1.

What is meant by research in this case?
• we basically include all research that has been published in the area agreed upon • we exclude ordinary (self)reports and evaluations of organisations 25 The interview in Iceland was conducted in April 2005 42 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services • we exclude students’ pre-doctoral works unless published as a book or unless extremely unique and relevant • we include articles from scientific journals • we include proper external evaluation reports.

2.
2.

What is meant by third sector and civic society organisations?
• we include all used relevant concepts: Third sector, Civic society, voluntary sector, Non-Profit/NGO-sector, “ideélt sektorn” • we exclude the informal, non-organised area of family, relatives, neighbourhoods • we look at the research made on the borders/cross-overs to informal area, market area and the public sector • we include both macro-level (national, quantitative and functional aspects of the entire sector) and micro-level (local community level, single organisations, case studies, histories of movements) • we include research both on unpaid and paid work, volunteers and professionals.
3.

What is meant by area of social welfare services?

• we include the entire area of social welfare services and social efforts in the broader sense • we exclude the area of educational services in general, but include civic society-based cooperation in this area (i.e.
parents’ movements) and social services integrated to this (after-school arrangements of third sector organisations, special occupational education of young people as third sector based projects) • we exclude commercialised co-operatives and enterprises, but take third sector organisations co-operating with them • we include “new co-operatives”, social efforts of local church parishes and trade unions • we are interested in borders, co-operation and new emerging phenomena in the area in focus.
References were collected mainly from the time span between 1990– 2005.

This was not only a technical decision of “decennials”, but very clearly also theoretically founded.

The period in question corresponds with the enlarging of the third sector research (“boom”) in the respective Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 43 countries, as well as the changes in the welfare services and the “Europe- anisation” (Finland and Sweden entered the EU).
Furthermore, the idea is to view a very recent and updated picture of the research.

For this pur- pose, the analysis is even directed to some fresh research papers which are published after completion the bibliographies.

The following tables give the number of registered research references and the partners from each country.

Table 3.
Registration of research references on third sector and civic society in the area of welfare services in the Nordic countries: Country Project team Denmark Inger Koch-Nielsen, Kaspar Olesen, David Rosenthal Danish Institute for Social Research Finland Riikka Westman Jyväskylä (private contract to assist the coordinator) Iceland Steinunn Hrafnsdóttir University of Iceland Norway Sissel Seim, Bennedichte Olsen, Marith Markussen Oslo University College Sweden Lars Svedberg, Johan Vamstad Sköndals Institute Total Number of references 60 291 38 71 295 755 Although the criteria for collecting the bibliographies we agreed upon in advance, the results still show a considerable variation between the coun- tries26.
This may illustrate the differences in the research that has been done, or differences in the current thematic dominances.

It may, however, also depend on the interests of the persons doing the collection and their interpretations of what is relevant.

(FI: privatisation, NO: participation, SWE: popular movements, IS: historical view, DK: volunteering).
26 The significantly higher amount of researches from Sweden and Finland in comparison to the countries with similar size of population and research volume – Denmark and Norway – needs some explanation.

It is merely possible that these two countries have more research in the relevant areas.
But surely the most realistic explanation is the difference in applying the criteria of collection: in Finland and in Sweden, the subcontractors have followed criteria as extended as possible and included all the research which cannot be excluded.

In Denmark and Norway, criteria for the collection have been applied more strictly and only those researches are included which correspond the criteria in the narrowest sense.
The amount of research regarding Iceland is also comprehensive related to the size of population.

44 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services However, the differences in the amount of catalogued researches do not have any influence on the research overview as such.
Then, according to the methodological process of the project, the subcontractors have selected a list of 10 to 15 most important and thematically relevant re- searches of their country, which make up the core of the material used in the content analysis.
The lists of the most important researches nominated by the partners are given in Appendix 2 and are included as an electronic bibliography in EndNote- data base (See more in the Appendix 3.27) The bibliography contains altogether 755 references from all countries given in the original language and accompanied by an English translation.

Most of the references also include a short English summary.
To round out the picture won by the textual analysis of the selected re- searches and to clear possible open questions, an experts’ group interview were conducted by the coordinator with 3 to 6 key researchers from each country, completed by a telephone interview with some additional re- searchers who were not available for the group interview (See partici- pants in Appendix 1).
The group interviews were run as thematic inter- views and the lists of topics were sent out to the interview partners in advance.

The taped interviews were completely transcribed and used especially in questions focussing on the general overview of research, financing, main areas as well as the summarising evaluation of the re- spective research area in each country, presented in the chapter 6.
Finally in November 2005, the results of the research overview as well as focussed contributions from each of the five countries were presented in a European Workshop and communicated with participants of 12 coun- ties in Magdeburg.

27 The bibliographies are documented in an EndNote-data base and will be made available via the web-site of the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal via the link www.sgw.hs-magdeburg.de/projekte/nordic/.

2.
2.

A comparative overview of the Nordic research 2.1 The Nordic research profile of Third Sector The nearly 800 references from the last 15 years give evidence about a new and rapidly growing research area in the Nordic countries.

The gen- eral profile of the research area is characterised by a large volume of research in various disciplines.
At the same time, research is taking place in quite fragmented settings, having one or two leading centres and a lot of single, detached research projects and researchers in each country.

So far, national researches have not been very systematic and there seems to be a poor “sector awareness” of joint research area among the research- ers in various disciplines.
Since the 1990s, there has clearly been growing political interest to develop and increase - - - - the volunteering impact in social services the role of civic organisations in the integration of various “socially excluded” groups the third sector’s employment capacity in most of the Nordic countries At the same time, there has been serious political concern over the de- creasing of the traditional elements of democratic interest and participa- tion.
Correspondingly, rehabilitation programmes for democracy and civic society have been typical for most Nordic countries during the last 46 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services ten years (Trägårdh 1995: Amnå 1999; Repstad 1998; Østerud & al 2003, Borg 2005).

Consequently, the position of research of this area has gained renewed value.
In most cases, political enthusiasm remained yet on the rhetorical level and the research foundation has been still quite limited and unsys- tematic.

However, in all countries there has been a rapid enlargement of this research area since the middle of the 1990s more or less independent of political attention.

Until that time, the voluntary sector was neither generally identified as a relevant topic nor as a focus of practical devel- opment in the Nordic societies.
Hence, the first research publications in the 1990s aimed at clarifying what the area beyond the state and the mar- ket are about, defining the phenomena, discussing concepts and making the area visible.

In short, this area in the society has been re-constructed by the research.

The division of the research approaches seems to follow roughly the typologisation of “ethical – economic“ rationalities of the third sector.
These also seem to correspond to certain gendered profiles of research approaches (Matthies 1998): Female researchers have mainly been focus- sing on the profile of volunteering, self help groups and the citizens’ level of civic society as well as particular fields of services (e.g.
Alm Andreas- sen 2004; Nylund 2000; Olsen 1994; Seim 1997; Habermann 2001a; Jeppsson 1994; 2005; Follesø 2004; Halvorsen 2002; 2005; Hrafnsdottir 1998; 2005, Roivainen 2001; Turunen 2004), while male researchers have mainly directed their interest to the macro-level as well as to the func- tional and economic role of the sector (e.g.

Helander/Sivesind 2001; Østerud & al 2003; Siisiäinen 2000; Lundström/Svedberg 2003, Lor- entzen 2004).
On the Nordic level there have been a couple of efforts towards net- working in the area of voluntary sector research and also two joint publi- cations (Redaktionskommiteé 1999; Jeppsson/Habermann 1999; Henrik- sen/Ibsen 2001; Helander/Sivesind 2001).

Unfortunately, this tradition has not been continued and has remained on a very preliminary level, putting together national research overviews or contributions on occa- sional topics.
Not even the largest and most systematic international third sector research project, the John Hopkins Comparative Non-profit project (CNP), can provide systematic comparative material on the five countries.

Thus the participation of the four biggest Nordic countries in the project Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 47 has not been comprehensive in terms of time, nor has the project consid- ered Nordic countries theoretically as a distinct region.
However, on the international level there exists a picture of a certain “Nordic tradition” of third sector and civic society research, and this re- gion is actively presented on international forums (in publications, con- ferences, projects, and the International Society of Third Sector Re- search).
Even as early as 1996, a special issue of Voluntas – surely the most essential international journal of voluntary and non-profit sector research, – was dedicated to the third sector in Scandinavia, guest-edited by Kurt Klaudi Klausen and Per Selle.

Most Nordic researchers typically refer to the Nordic or Scandinavian frame of societies even when speak- ing about their nationally oriented research.
The joint presence of the Nordic third sector and civic society research in the international forums is frequently associated with a more or less direct criticism of the domi- nating US-rooted theory of state failure as an explanation for the exis- tence of the voluntary sector.

Nordic research regularly shows empirical evidence for a very different situation in the Nordic welfare state culture (Klausen/Selle 1996; Lundström 1996; 2004, 25–; Ibsen 1996; Henriksen 1996).
But it is also reacting to the blindness of Nordic welfare research, which overlooked this sector until the 1990s (Bondesen & al 2001; Lund- ström 2004; Matthies 1991; Meeuwisse 1999) But it must be underlined that the Nordic anti-thesis seems not to have had remarkable influence, since the state-failure theory is still alive and well on the international level, and is still visible, for example, in the John Hopkins comparative project.
In spite of the obvious criticism, research in the Nordic countries is also strongly influenced by the Anglo-American tradition.

Further references, for example to the French or German lan- guage traditions, are single exceptions.
The social economy approach is widely noted and known among the Nordic researchers, but there is no systematic empirical equivalent to it, and in the existing cases, it is mainly detached from the other types of third sector and civic society research (Pestoff 1991; Grönberg 2004).
In general it can be said that scientific research in the social economy tradi- tion – in my view on new or traditional co-operatives, foundation-based new service production as well as on the large number of new local part- nership projects and networks – is surprisingly scarce in relation to the 48 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services practical volume of the area.

Nevertheless, some of the Nordic countries are partners in the large European EMES Network on social economy.
Third sector and civic society research has been mainly funded by the conventional national research sources like National Research Councils (N, SE) or the Academy (FI).

But the Social Departments have continu- ously financed policy related research of the area (DK), too.
Interestingly, in Sweden, the umbrella organisation of the voluntary sector has financed part of the Sköndal Institute’s studies, and the Finnish contribution to the international CNP research was financed by the Federation of Municipali- ties (Kuntaliitto – Kommunalförbundet).

In Iceland, no foundation could be found for the CNP project, but a large survey on volunteering was financed together by the Icelandic Research Council, University of Ice- land and Reykjavik Red Cross.
2.2 National Profiles of Research 28 Denmark: Research focussing on the voluntary sector as such, demon- strating the differences between its different fields.

Research on the state sector relationship reflects the pluralism in welfare services and the ad- vanced decentralisation with participative decision making models.

Social economy debate is not very visible.

Finland: Interdisciplinary trans-sectional pictures of the sector since the 1990s.
Third sector boom at the end of the 1990s, followed by a pragmatic-strategic discourse of the third sector’s role in partnership mo- dels and as competition agencies.

New vital research on volunteering since 2000.

Iceland: Remarkable tradition of historical research on the impact of civic movements on the development of society, especially women’s movements.
Emerging research and consensus based discussion on the significance of current volunteering and the voluntary sector, together with the largest NGOs, connected to the promotion of volunteering in the practice.

No references to social economy.

28 For more information about the third sector research profiles in the Nordic countries and in the respective countries, see the detailed contributions of the researchers of each country in Chapter 6.
Also Sivesind/Lorentzen /Selle/Wollebaek 2002, 115–; Nylund 1997; Svedberg 2001; Helander/Sivesind 2001; Lundström 2004, 25–; Juliusdottir 1999, 13; Halvorsen/Hvinden 1998 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 49 Norway: Highly advanced theoretical debate and active international presence.

Strong emphasis on service users and citizens’ participation, absence of research on privatisation and social economy.

Several institu- tional focal points of research.


Sweden: Established research on popular movements.

Intensive re- search on volunteering and the voluntary sector on the one hand, and the social economy on the other hand, but hardly any links between them.

Research is concentrated in only a few centres.

Growing research on local partnerships; strong ideological debate on the research object.
2.3 Main issues of research: state relation at the top – gender and market relationship hardly thematised Research references are catalogued by means of the EndNote programme in five national data bases.

While classifying the 755 references according to the type of research, most of them can be regarded as “National over- views” (304) which aim to give a general macro-level description of the third sector or specific aspects of it.

Also, quantitative surveys are quite frequent.


Theoretical and conceptual debates as the main topic of re- searches form a remarkable category (169 references), too.

When selecting the most central research question, the majority of the publications discuss the relationship of the third sector/civic society or- ganisations to the public sector, either on the national or local level.
On the other hand, there are only few references analysing the relationship to the market sector, in spite of the Finnish catalogue.

Neither the new wel- fare service politics of the EU nor other tendencies of market orientation have been a target of active empirical or theoretical research yet.

What also would be interesting but practically impossible to indicate from re- search is the question of long-term tendencies in the fields of civic society organisations’ activities in social services.
Thus, initially I had the thesis that new civic society activities could be theoretically identified to be in relation to particular modernisation issues in Nordic societies (de- traditionalisation of family, gender, work, socio-cultural milieus and eth- nic structures).

However, references to this question are not actually sys- tematically visible.
50 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Finally, it is indeed surprising that in the countries supposed to be the most egalitarian and women-friendly in the world, the gender aspects of civic society activities and the third sector are at the core of only 26 out of 755 research efforts.

The available gender analyses mainly target the participation of men and women in voluntary activities.
But there is no research, for example, discussing the role of third sector organisations for the entire societal gender model.

Neither do we find answers to the ques- tion how non-profit services deal with men or women as service users nor how they influence the gender-segregated labour market in welfare ser- vices.
If we assume that welfare services are essential for the equal gen- der model in the Nordic countries and that there are radical changes hap- pening in this area, the lack of knowledge must be regarded as alarming.

Since welfare services are regarded as a female domain it would be of great interest to follow up this thesis in the services run by the third sec- tor, too.

Table 4.
Main issues of the registered researches Category /central issue Number of references Remarks National overviews Theoretical and/or conceptual debate Relationship to the state/local authority Various fields of services Motives of volunteering Gender aspects 304 232 162 47 36 26 Macro-level perspective, often with histori- cal view about the role of the organisations or quantitative surveys Used concepts: Non profit, “ideelt” sector, civic society, social capital Role of the civic organisation in the context of welfare state/municipality Traditional and new fields Most advanced empirical and theorised single issue of research Mainly referring to gender of volunteers and/or to gendered tasks in volunteering (Total 755, nomination of several central issues was possible, here: most frequently mentioned issues) 3.
Evaluation of the research 3.1 Achievements of research in the European perspective The achievements of the Nordic third sector and civic society research can be summarised as follows: 1.

Research during the last 10–15 years has succeeded in making the sector visible nationally and internationally, bearing in mind that until the 1990s hardly any awareness existed of the activities related to welfare provision outside of the public sector.
Today, the concept of third sector and the significance of voluntary organisations are established in the public domain in most of the Nordic societies.

There are hardly any new programmes in the societies which do not give voluntary organisations or civic society a significant – even overoptimistic – role.

2.
2.

The particularity of the functions of the Nordic voluntary organisations in international comparison are demonstrated with remarkable evidence: the organisations are multi-functional, with strong emphasis on “voice”, advocacy, expertise, avant-garde, togetherness, but a less strong orientation to service function.

3.

The particular relationship to the public sector is very broadly discussed.
It is characterised by complementing instead of challenging, partnerships instead of competition, co-operation instead of contracting, acting as a “watchdog” instead of taking over tasks.

4.

The profile of volunteers, their motivation, status, age and gender are quite systematically and comparably researched in all of the countries.
This is perhaps the only dimension where reliable quantitative comparisons between all the five countries can be made, 52 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services provided that some methodical adjustments and clarification are carried out.

5.
5.

These three topics - functions of the voluntary organisations, the state/civic society relationships and the characteristics of volun teering – also represent the strengths in the theoretical debate in this field of research in the Nordic countries.

Through these, a vital, highly comparable and relevant contribution to the international core discussions is possible.

6.

On the map of international research traditions, the European research tradition (See Tabel 1, in 1.1.)
is shared and committed by most of the researchers.

However, this position is not systematically developed in the practice of research approaches nor made visible in the use of central concepts and demarcation of the research object.

There is little research on local partnerships and multi-agency networks.
Finally: although Nordic research is highly visible in European and international forums and publications, it is not apparent how far the particular Nordic character of the sector has really been reflected in the international theorisation of the sector.
3.2 Un-researched topics and open questions: gender, citizens and conflicts On the basis of analysing the entire material and selected central re- searches, it seems that there are several questions which have hardly been touched or have been raised only in some single studies.

Some of these questions are in fact vital in the European perspective and for the role the Nordic societies could play in it.
Problems that seem to be important but have not been addressed by existing research include the following: 1.

There is not yet sufficiently empirical evidence for the distinct character of the non-profit sector and its advanced potential in comparison to public and private sectors.

In particular, we do not actually know how this distinctiveness will be eventually affected by current processes of change and while facing new pressure from the environment.
It is not clear which of the assumed characteristics have become myths and which are really working.

Or are the distinctions Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 53 between the sectors disappearing since all of them are shifted towards New Public Management in a similar way?

2.
2.

The civic society organisations’ relation to the market and cross- border activities as well as the partnerships with business life have hardly been analysed in any of the countries discussed (except Finland).

This is somewhat surprising since the majority of research repeatedly focuses on the state relationship.
What is missing, then, is an up-dated view of the situation on the services market as well as a view of the manner of adapting the de-liberalisation of services, which will also influence the third sector.

Also, empirical systematic knowledge on social economy is very scarce (in spite of Sweden).

3.

The gender aspects are under-represented throughout the research discussed.
What is the significance of civic society organisations for the once famous women-friendly model of the Nordic societies in international perspective?

Since the Nordic gender model was very much based on a certain type of service system, the current re- distribution of the service provision and of the corresponding labour market is of high significance.

We do not actually know what kind of gender differences exist between the various sectors of service providers.

4.
4.

The citizens’ perspective is still rather thin in research (Norway being a notable exception), although the studies do speak of citizens’ organisations.

The macro-level of the organisations is quite well- researched, but we do not know very much about the participation of citizens, users’ roles as co-producers and as different consumers in the different compositions.

These are discussed theoretically and normatively, but there are few studies on this subject.
We lack knowledge on what kind of service culture is needed to enable the citizens’ full role and a constant refreshment of democracy, especially regarding the groups of population in the periphery of political and social arenas.

5.

As remarked by Adalbert Evers during the project’s final workshop, there are practically no conflicts between civic society organisations and welfare state visible taken in the field of welfare services.
On the contrary, research from the Nordic countries underlines the consensus-oriented cooperation between the sectors.

This is extremely surprising realising that the main role of a civic 54 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services organisation is to be a voice, an interest organisation and to represent civic society functions instead of running services.

But then, how can a watchdog be taken seriously if it cannot bite or even bark?
How should we interpret the absence of conflicts in the research in ques- tion?

Possibly the particular responsive relationship between state and civic society actors is able to harmonise the conflicts and solve the emerging problems before an open conflict occurs – possibly the secret of the Nordic success.

A more sombre potential explanation for this may be that conflicts are not made visible or not favoured as research topics.
Thirdly, the most serious case for the democracy would be that Nordic civic society is not able to mobilise conflictual protests, particularly regarding the issues of the weakest in the society: those dependent on welfare services.

However, it seems that the very recent development of the market economy of services as well as the changes in the role of civic society organisations are also causing open conflicts.
The conflict line, however, is not emerging between the organisations and the state in general but between the political promoters of for-profit-privatisation (market) and the civic society organisations.
3.3 Quantity, composition and structure of the Nordic third sector in European context For a comparative quantitative view, the best source will be without doubt the up-dated results of the CNP-research29, where four of the Nor- dic countries have been involved in different phases, now more than 40 countries (www.

Jhu.edu/%7Ecnp/).
Jhu.edu/%7Ecnp/).

Surprisingly, the outcomes of this study demonstrate that • even measured by the workforce the quantity of the third sector in the Nordic countries is larger than in most other developed countries 29 It is to be noted that the religious worship organisations, which cover a significant volume of civic society activities in the Nordic countries, are not included in the CNP-survey.
It must also be acknowledged that the CNP-Research did not include the established forms of informal exchange-based welfare production between the citizens and their communities, nor the informal care, which certainly would increase the figures from the so called “developing or transitional” countries.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 55 • • the volume of volunteering is higher in the Nordic welfare states than the average in the other western type societies in a list of 36 countries, according to the share of the economically active population involved, either paid or unpaid, in the civic society organisations, Norway ranks 8th, Sweden 9th and Finland 11th.

Table 5.
Civic society workforce share of the economically active population 30 Country Paid staff Volunteers Total Finland Norway Sweden Average in developed countries Average in 36 countries included 2.4% 2.7% 1.7% 4.7% 2.7% 2.8% 4.4% 5.1% 2.7% 1.6% 5.3% 7.2% 7.1% 7.4% 4.4% Also in the table about private philanthropy – including volunteering and giving, but excluding donations and volunteering in religious congrega- tions – the three Nordic countries are among the top ten societies (2nd = Sweden; 4th = Norway; 8th = Finland)31: The empirical research of social economy is not entirely identical with that of third sector or voluntary/non-profit organisations, and it is simi- larly often connected to a promotion of social economy32.
In the frame- work of the EU project “Third system and employment” (Pättiniemi 2004) the effects of employment in the corresponding organisations were identified as follows: 30 Source: John Hopkins Comparative Research (CNP) 2005. www.jhu.edu/~engp/pdf/table101.pdf.

(See also Helander/Sundback 1998 and Sivesind /Lorentzen /Selle/ Wollebaek, 2002) 31 www.jhu.edu/~engp/pdf/comptable5_dec4.dpf.
32 The difficulty in the research of social economy is not only the definition but also the cross-border character and institutional networks as main elements of it (see also EMES- Network-publications.

Birkhölzer 2005) But this is exactly why information on social economy (community economy, “yhteisötalous”) and social entrepreneurship should be included in civic society volume statistics alongside volunteering and non-profit associations’ staff.
Thus, al- though being blurred, it embodies a vital aspect of a similar field.

56 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Table 6.
Volunteering in the Nordic countries Percentage of volunteering adult inhabitants of total population Percentage of volun- teering directed to social welfare area Three main fields of civic society sector in FTE workforce 33 Denmark 34 35% 12% Iceland 35 40.3% 11% 13% 37 12.6%39 Finland 36 Norway 38 Sweden 40 Average in developed countries 33% 52% 52% 15% 1.

Sport/culture 2.

Housing/local community 3.

Social services 1.

Culture /sports 2.

Social services 3.

Humanitarian 1.

Culture /sports 2.


Civic society/advocacy 3.

Social services 1.Culture/ sports 2.

Social services 3.Professional org.

1.

Culture /sports 2.

Professional 3.

Social Services Table 7.

Employment in enterprises and organisations of third system (social economy) in the EU 1995 – 1997 41 Country Share of national employment in FTE 1.

Netherlands 2.

Ireland 3.

Denmark –– 6.

Finland –– 10.


Sweden EU average 14.69% 12.57% 12.56% 6.92% 5.15% 6.57% 33 Data available only on volunteers, not on paid staff from Iceland and Denmark 34 Koch-Nielsen/Rosdahl 2005; Koch-Nielsen/Dalsgaard Clausen 5; also Habermann 2001; Socialforskningsinstituttet 2005 35 Hrafnsdottir 2005 36 Nylund (2000, 115) referring to Life condition survey of Finstat; but Yeung (2002) speaks about 37%, see also Helander 2004;.
However, in CNP-results Finland scores only 8% (see next note) 37 Helander/Sivesind 2001, 61 38 John Hopkins Comparative Non-Profit Project (CNP) 2005 www.jhu.edu/~cnp/pdf/table201.pdf; Jeppsson Grassman/Svedberg 1996 39 Sivesind & al 2002, 55 40 John Hopkins Comparative Non-Profit Project (CNP) 2005 41 Source: Vivet /Thiry 2000, according to Pättiniemi 2004, 25 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 57 With regard to employment in social economy as well, the Nordic socie- ties seem to be close to the top or above the European average.
All in all, the available quantitative data about third sector and civic society organi- sations disprove the dominating view that a strong state would exclude civic society structures.

Nordic countries very comprehensively demon- strate the opposite, even on the basis of data from an US-led survey.

On the other hand, quantitatively oriented research of the sector in question is generally extremely complicated due to the variety of defini- tions, mixes and cross-boarder activities.
Not even the same concepts are used in the same way in different cultural contexts.

Most of the defini- tions and criteria of the empirical material also bring their ideological or normative dimensions into the research.

It also should be kept in mind that the CNP-Research, which I only could use in the tables, has been heavily criticised for the problematic comparability of the data.
There- fore, in my view, the outcomes of international quantitative comparisons cannot be regarded as absolute factual figures, but as very interesting and valuable indicators of real-life tendencies.
For an international audience, Klausen and Selle (1996, 115) have summarised the distinctive characteristics of the Nordic voluntary sector which constitute the considerable difference to most other areas in the world as following: • historical rootedness in social movements • membership-based and democratically built organisation structure • linking the local and national level a strong voluntary tradition and a rather weak non-governmental tradition • pragmatism and consensus orientation (values shared cross the sectoral borders) close contact and integrated co-operation with public authorities institutionalised co-option into public decision-making an organisational autonomy.
• • • In contrast to the US-oriented notion the Nordic civic society sector has not been regarded as an counterpart to the state, which may be a indicator of and explanation for the sustained success of these societies.
However, attention must also be paid to the issues which are not easily visible in 58 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services research: the absence of conflicts and the fact that there isn’t much evi- dence for mobilisation of welfare service users or groups of most vulner- able people.
There are also findings which disturb the idealised picture of co- existence between the state and the third sector, identifying a strictly de- fined hierarchical relationship in the 1970s and 1980s.
During its expan- sion, the public sector allowed voluntary sector activities to be comple- mentary only under certain conditions, limiting them to qualitatively unique areas that were worked in tight cooperation with the public institu- tions (Matthies 1994b; see also Amnå 2005, criticising the Swedish phe- nomenon of harmonisation and “over-loving” of civic society).

The “tamed” position of the voluntary sector changed rapidly during the 1990s.
Voluntary organisations obtained a status of extremely important partners in several fields of new societal challenges.

Organisations be- came more and more an equal and independent partner in the negotiations with the public sector.

But at the same time, they may have lost some- thing essential of their authentic dimensions, as discussed in the final chapter of this report.
There also seem to be new qualitative analyses, such as those done by Marianne Nylund (2000), who demonstrates how new citizens’ mutual mode of helping is developing a more independent culture of mutual civic structures with its own subjective motivations and own dynamics (see also Berven 2000; Halvorsen 2002; Follesø 2004).
Therefore, it is very necessary to investigate whether the frequently quoted “mainstream” thesis about the historical co-existence and mutual support between the Nordic welfare state and the third sector is still valid and proved empiri- cally in regard to the current changes.

We especially need information on the question how the voice of those citizens, whose social rights and posi- tion are most in risk due to the current reduction and cuts in welfare poli- tics, is mobilised and given influence.

4.
4.

Selected aspects of the area of citizens’ organisations 4.1 What we know about volunteering and memberships In the entire area of Nordic research of the third sector, research on vol- unteering represents one of the most developed, extended single fields.

It seems also to be the only research issue which keeps its distance to the dominating welfare state point of view and develops its own debates (Ny- lund 2000, 26; Habermann 2001a).
Especially research on motives is theoretically and empirically desirable.

As already mentioned in the chapter about the quantity of volunteering in the Nordic countries, there are two common and internationally signifi- cant figures characterizing the Nordic voluntarism.

First, the extent of volunteering in the Nordic countries is, surprisingly, higher than in other kinds of welfare state with less state responsibility.
The share of citizens participating in voluntary action varies between 33% in Finland and 52% in Norway and Sweden, while the average in the developed countries reaches only 15%.

The second Nordic aspect, con- nected to the type of welfare state, is that volunteering doesn’t take place mainly in the area of social welfare but first and foremost in cultural, sport and leisure time activities.

(See table 5).
(See table 5).

How can this high level of volunteering in a highly-developed welfare state be explained and what are its characters in detail?

The early studies of Eva Jeppsson Grassman (1994) about volunteering in the third age in Sweden already discovered theses facts: almost half of the Swedish popu- lation aged 17–74 performed some voluntary work, but the dominating feature of volunteering was not in social care (1994, 59).
The situation appears to be similar in Norway, judging from Sivesind’s (& al, 2002, 54–55) findings: the share of paid staff is highest in the fields of educa- 60 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services tion and social services as well as in the vocational organisations (trade unions), but the share of unpaid staff and volunteers is highest in the field of culture (37%), followed by social services (12.6%).
Compared with other types of welfare states, welfare services in the Nordic countries employ much more paid labour but this does not exclude a reasonably high share of volunteers in the services, too.

Yeung (2004) considers that on average the Finns spend more in time for voluntary work than even people in the USA and Canada, and their rate of activity is higher than for example that in Germany, France, Ire- land and Japan (ibid.

89 ff.).
89 ff.).

Just as in the other Nordic countries, Finnish men and women volunteer equally in total number; however, women volunteer more in time (ibid.

123–).

Yeung also emphasises the impor- tance of religious motives and the variety of them in Finland.

Unlike Lorentzen (2004), Yeung (2004, 123) is not worried about the formalisa- tion of civic activities in the organisations.
On the contrary, she regards it as a proper post-modern phenomenon, where volunteering is as legitimate way of making contact and organisations are needed to enable this.

Accord- ing to Helander (2001, 62–72), in Finland most volunteers are, according to their own answers, involved in the associations for voluntary defence work, for international activities, and also in culture and hobby organisations.
However, according to the weekly hours of an average single volunteer, most volunteering in terms of time takes place in social service organisa- tions (3.95 hours/week) and in sports (3.79 h/w) followed by the same time spending of religious and political /advocacy organisations.

Habermann (2001a, 371, 375) identifies great impact of age and gen- der on volunteering by stating that young men volunteer in sports and old and middle-aged women in social work and patient associations.
There are also clear gender differences in tasks: men are over-presented on boards and committees, women in practical tasks, direct care and counsel- ling.

However, the mixture of motivations is uniform for men and women in spite of different areas and tasks (ibid.

376–378).

The volunteers them- selves name values as a motivation, but Habermann (2001a, 379–) prefers to interpret volunteering also as a part of life strategy, providing “content, something that holds daily life together”.
Volunteering contains options of identity and integration, and contributes to self-awareness.

Volunteers see themselves as active and committed persons, and the activities strengthen the feeling of community.

(See also Habermann, 2001b, 87– Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 61 103 and the categories of motivation: values, learning, identity, social responsibility and career.)

In her study among the Finnish Red Cross volunteers, Marianne Nylund (2000, 131 ff.)
compares various back- ground variables with the motivation structure.

She found out that for female volunteers, learning and esteem motives are more important than for men, learning and career motives are more important for younger volunteers, while elderly volunteers emphasise the social and helping motivations.

However, the labour market situation of volunteers had very little impact on the variety of motives.
Those who volunteered more than ten hours per month emphasised learning, esteem and career motives.

The motives are also connected to the different types of volunteering so that the will to learn new skills and to get experience correlated with group- oriented tasks, while “helping others” led to individual-oriented tasks like visiting people.
(Nylund 2000, 133–134) As shown by Marianne Nylund’s studies on Finnish association and self help groups of unemployed people (2000, 100–112), the objectives of voluntary activities vary considerably according to the life situation of the participants.

In contrast to Habermann’s studies in Danish general volun- teering, Nylund can identify a strong dimension of reciprocity among the participants in this particular type of volunteering.
However, she identi- fies the main motivation as “action and togetherness” (ibid.

108–109).

In general, as Sigrun Juliusdóttir (1999) has stated, classic forms of volunteering in Iceland are concentrated in few organisations; here, the Icelandic Red Cross runs most fields of voluntary activities.

Summarising the profile of volunteers in Iceland, she states that men and women volun- teer at quite a similar rate – younger people more than elderly ones, but mainly middle-aged citizens.
Those with families are more active than singles, and people with lower education more than those with academic rates.

Also, the Icelandic results on volunteering are, interestingly, very much in line with the other Nordic societies: high participation, but the main areas are sport and leisure time rather than social welfare.

Steinunn Hrafnsdottir (2005, 8–10) reports from a very up-to-date study that 42% of Islandic men and 39% of women volunteer.
However, men’s participa- tion is more directed at sports, recreation, rescue and relief services, while women are involved in parents’ organisations, charities and in religious communities.

Concerning the content of the tasks, voluntary work in committees is male-dominated, while visiting services and befriending 62 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services are female domains.
However, the gender differences are not as signifi- cant in Iceland than in the other Nordic countries (see.

Ibid.).

In another study, Hrafnsdottir, Júlíusdottir and Sigurðardottir (1998) analysed the motivations and other factors of volunteers for The Red Cross and the Association for the Elderly.

More than two thirds (68%) of them are women, but males participate more in terms of time spent (17 hours a month, women 11 hours).
Both sexes seem to contribute similarly in these organisations, while differences are mainly found between the age groups.

Young people under 24 years volunteer less (7%) than people between 35–54 years (27%), while the rate decreases in the age between 55–80 (22%) years.
Interestingly, Iceland clearly shows that education is a factor which influences the rate of voluntary participation in two direc- tions: the citizens with a technical-vocational education are most active, while those who have completed the compulsory level or less are partici- pating less, but still more than citizens with a university education – these have the lowest rate of volunteering.
Research classifies six different motives of volunteering which occur among the Icelandic participants of the two organisations mentioned in the following order: 1.

Personal val- ues (81%), 2.

Learning factors (72%), 3.

Identity and self evaluation (60%), 4.

Social expectations (30%), 5.

Status and Influence (13%) 6.

Career (11%).

The authors (ibid.)


conclude that the predominance of values like self-sufficiency and the strong role of the family in Iceland are largely responsible for the fact that volunteering plays not as large a role in the Icelandic life style as in the other Nordic countries.

Also, church- related charity tradition in Iceland has not been very significant histori- cally.
Still, voluntary organisations used to run most of the Icelandic wel- fare services, subsidised by public agencies, up until the 1940s.

After that, organisations systematically handed over these tasks to the state.

Hence, the influence of the voluntary sector on the welfare services has been substantial.
According to Jeppsson Grassman (1994), people in the third age are doing less voluntary work in Sweden than other age groups, but their voluntary impact is more directed at social care and has a larger extent than that of other age groups.

60–75 year-old women, mainly in tradi- tional organisations, perform the majority of voluntary social care.

She states that it is therefore pointless to expect this group to be growing re- sources since its members already work quite much in terms of time.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 63 Also, quality demands in volunteering are felt to be a hindrance to finding more volunteers from this age, although at the same time they regarded volunteering a very meaningful activity.

The author identifies a risk of exploitation especially among this group of elderly volunteers.

They themselves prefer to volunteer in a “members for members” setting.
Hence the social engineering types of plans to activate more volunteering in society – by initiating, co-coordinating and constructing programmes – are connected to hopes which might be unrealistic.

Knowledge about the own logic of their volunteering is missing.

People are also very concerned not to “help” the welfare state to be re-placed, Jeppsson Grassman states.
Furthermore, in her study of ten years later (Jeppsson Grassman 2005), she can conclude that research on volunteering among the elderly is still not regarded as a particularly important area in the Nordic countries42.

Nevertheless, based on the study of Inglehart (2004, according to Jeppsson Grassman 2005, 303) it is apparent that only a limited part of Nordic population direct their volunteering at elderly people (4–9.2%), and those doing so are frequently older than 65 years themselves.
Jeppsson Grassman and Svedberg (1999, 144–145) summarised their results of analyses on the composition and tendencies of citizens’ volun- tary activity.

They constitute that the activities follow quite stable models and that few changes are visible in long-term analyses.

Little growth in volunteering is noticeable in Swedish society, and the enlargement takes place mainly in women’s participation.

In Sweden, active citizenship in many fields is undergoing a certain “feminisation”.
Also the share of citizens with higher education is increasing among the participants.

In general, citizens who have access to informal social networks are also more active in volunteering.

Associations are still the main forums for increased volunteering.

Martti Siisiäinen (1996) has from a long-term perspective traced dy- namics and cycles of voluntary organisations.
Interestingly, he has ob- served a growth of the organisational form of associations already during the 1970s alongside the expansion of the Finnish welfare state, but also again around the turn of the millennium (Siisiäinen 2003).

In the top year 1997, twice as many associations were founded in Finland than in any of the top years of the 70s and the 80s.
Siisiäinen interprets this as some- 42 This can again be regarded as a demand to continue third sector research in Nordic coun- tries directed at various fields of welfare services.
64 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services thing demonstrating the continuity of voluntary association as a specific form of collective action in Finland (see also Jeppsson Grassman and Svedberg in Sweden, 1999, 144), although there are significant qualita- tive changes of the associations during the recent years (Siisiäinen 2003, 13).
He identifies new characters as follows: Individualisation of organisational structure, since new “clans” or consumer cultures are central and important, but the way of acting differs from traditional movements of associations.

The mediating interpretation level of organisations have gone, and the associations function as forums for individuals.
Isolated and single associations link individuals directly to the centers or elites of the culture without a larger intermediating struc- ture such as former mass movements (Siisiäinen ibid.

19).

The impor- tance of media, electronic communication and consumption is growing, while the importance of ideological action is falling.

Hobby associations become part of the life style, and the fragmentation and specialisation of interest becomes visible through the new associations.
The formation of new associations in 1997 mirrors the parallel ten- dencies of globalisation and individualisation (Siisiäinen 2003, 22–23).

Instead of systematic organisation culture, a certain “wildness” and light- ness of structures are in favour: new associations develop their own local ideas without networking from above and without contacts to similar central organisations.
This is accompanied by selected membership, less open call of members, direct decision making, small size associations (30 members maximum) and with particular commitment.

Internationalisation is perceptible already through the fact that hardly any of the new Finnish association has a Finnish name, but a nomination significantly referring to a global “place-free” culture.
It has been a very special phenomenon in the third sector development in most of the Nordic countries that so-called voluntary centers in various forms have been founded, mainly “from above”, by the state or the mu- nicipalities, but also by voluntary organisations of local parishes.

Unfor- tunately there is no systematic research of all these “Frivillihetscenters” or “vapaaehtoistoiminnan keskus”.
Nevertheless, the national report of the voluntary centres in Norway (Kloster, Lidén and Lorentzen (2003) certainly gives a good overall picture of the contents of the activities: Social care, service/counselling, self help activities, hobby/courses, local community-oriented projects/actions, oppfoelning/mobilisation.
Re- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 65 searchers identify a clear shift in content during the ten-year development and extension from the 90 centers at the beginning to more than 200 cen- ters today.

Although the Norwegian voluntary centers were paid for by the social and health department and, at the beginning, directed at these areas, a later shift towards more leisure time and the culture field took place.
Further tendencies were shifted from doing something to others to doing something for oneself, towards own activity and self-engagement.

Quite a critical conclusion of the research on voluntary centers is based on the quantitative information about the expected growth of vol- unteering in the social and health field.

In comparison to the entire volun- tary impact in Norway, the investment in the centers and their paid work- ers has not been very beneficial.
Only 12% of the entire volunteering in Norway takes place in the social and health field.

“The figures are able to illustrate that voluntary centers, with the structures and goals as they have until yet, in a large measurement hardly can be suitable for initiating new voluntary impact or to coordinate the existing.

This is a task what the voluntary organisations can better take in their own hands.” (Kloster & al, ibid.
80) However, the centers could have a meaningful role at the interface of civic and public welfare.

But then, they should rather be oriented to the local environment/community (närmiljöfeldet) in a coordinating role, than to the social and health field, or the mobilisation of voluntary staff for the weakest service users, the authors argue.
The phenomenon of membership is closely related to memberships of voluntary organisations of various types, although the main mode of be- ing a member might be a more or less passive one and does not automati- cally lead to active volunteering.

In international perspective, Nordic citizens are fairly frequently members of organisations, usually of several organisations at the same time.

Finland is counted to have 15 million memberships of voluntary organisations with a population of 5.1 million.
Norway has 8 million memberships at a population of 5.3 million, and Sweden has even 32 million registered memberships, with 9 million in- habitants (Helander/Sivesind (2001, 53; see also Svenska Kommunför- bundet 1999, S. 39–42).
Helander and Sivesind (2001, 57–) also presented the share of welfare organisations in a broader sense, including education, health care and 66 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services social services as following: in Finland 14.1%, in Norway 5.7% and in Sweden 0.3% of total memberships in voluntary organisations.

The large difference between these three Nordic countries is indeed interesting.
With a questionnaire that was sent to 3877 Finnish associations, He- lander (2001, 51–59) found that the culture and leisure-time organisations have the highest number of members, followed by sport organisations.

After these leisure and recreation oriented organisations comes the group of trade unions, vocational and business related organisations.

In the fourth position are organisations called “civic organisations” which also include patient organisations of numerous diseases.
Smallest in terms of membership are political associations, in this case basically youth and women organisations of political parties.

There are more organisations stating that they haven’t any female members than organisations without any male members.

Male-dominated organisations in terms of membership are the voluntary defence work organisations, sports, cultural and leisure organisations.
Women, in con- trast, usually own membership majority in health, religious, educational and social service organisations.

(Helander 2001, 58.)

Membership in voluntary organisations becomes the more multifac- eted, the deeper the analysis acknowledges different types of organisa- tions.

As studied by Hjemdal, Nilsen, Riiser and Seim (1996, see also Seim & al 1997) self-help group types of organisations in Norway have around 25,000 members, which belong to about 2 000 single self help groups.
However, membership in a self-help group is assumed to be more active and committed than membership in a general association.

The majority – about two thirds of members – are women, and the average age is slightly above 40 years.

Furthermore, members of self-help groups can be characterised by having a relatively good education, but incomes and employment rates are low.

Interestingly, members are socially active also in other fields.
Self-help groups cannot be regarded as a protest movement or an anti-professional movement, and even one third of the members were also users of professional services.

(Hjemdal & al 1996, xix–xxii).

Bennedichte Rappana Olssen (1994) studied the members and mem- bership of organisations of people with disabilities in Norway.
In these, three categories of members can be distinguished: 58% are themselves people with disabilities, 27% are parents of persons with disabilities and Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 67 15% supporting members.

Very clearly, most members in disability or- ganisations are female with the exception of organisations devoted to disabilities that affect mostly men.
Unfortunately, the area of social economy-oriented organisations in the Nordic countries has not been systematically researched, not even with view to membership and participation.

However, membership in co- operatives – including consumer and producer co-operatives – in Sweden was an issue in the social economy studies of Victor Pestoff (1991).

The- re are some vital differences in the composition of memberships of co- operatives.
Interestingly, in the co-operative type of civic society organi- sations, men are more active than women.

Members without children living at home are more active in consumer co-operatives than people with small children, which makes it different from other types of volun- teering.

Also, members from rural areas are more active than those from urban areas.

Active membership in a co-operative is often related to a membership of and participation in other types of voluntary associations, too.
Elderly people are more active than younger ones, people with a lower education are the most active group of co-operatives, and manual workers are more active than non-manual workers.

Also, members of the lowest income group are more often active participants of consumer co- operatives, while producer co-operatives are more attractive for people with medium income.
Pestoff (1991, 59–61) draws a characteristic picture of an active mem- ber of a consumer co-operative: “he or she is a pensioner, widowed or divorced, with no children living at home.

He or she has a low education, was a manual worker, lives in a rural area, belongs to several other volun- tary organisations (…) and has a low income, but lives in an apartment or house which he or she owns rather than rents” (ibid.

59).
59).

The unusual connection between low social status and membership in a co-operative is indeed interesting.
Instead of drawing a picture of co-operatives as attrac- tive and useful instruments of collective action of the poor, Pestoff ex- plains the high activity of people of low social status in co-operatives with their belonging to a certain generation in Sweden in which manual work, low education and low income as well as living in the country side are usual (If we note the year this study was made, we can see that in 2005, this generation is around 70 years or older.).
It is also worth atten- tion that the membership in co-operatives has often been related to the 68 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services (former) occupational culture of organisations.

Hence, also in the area of new types of social economy and new co-operatives, research on their structure of membership and active participation would be needed.
The picture we have of volunteering in the Nordic societies is as yet quite general; more detailed research in the single fields of welfare would be of more interest than very general surveys.

However, those surveys need to be repeated regularly since there appear to be ongoing changes in this area.

What is still missing is the perspective of the “users“, the re- ceivers of voluntarily run services.
What we know at present is that Nor- dic citizens volunteer to a larger extent than people in the other industrial societies; emphasis lies on culture, leisure time and sports rather than on social welfare.

Differences between women and men are not significant in the total rate but the area and content of voluntary activity does differ.

As stated by Ulla Habermann: volunteering women appear to be more mar- ginalised and drawn to invisible tasks than in other areas of the society.
All in all it seems to be unrealistic and complicated to make any future plans in a society which counts on citizens as a comprehensive and regu- lated resource of voluntary work in welfare services.

However, even cul- tural and leisure time-oriented volunteering can be important – not only for individual welfare but also for a societal climate which is needed for the sustainability of a welfare state.

The picture of membership of Nordic citizens’ organisations is only rather initial and fragmented.
We do not actually know very much about, why, with which mechanism and with which resonance people belong to associations, self help groups and other types of organisations in the Nor- dic countries.

Furthermore, the significance of memberships in the wel- fare-related organisations appears not to be very high.

However, it is still membership in citizens’ organisations that paints a certain rough picture of the myth of Nordic civic society and the culture of democracy.
4.2 Areas and fields of civic society activities in the welfare services Based on existing research, this chapter aims to give an overview about the areas and fields of welfare, where citizens’ organisations emerge in the Nordic societies.
If working in welfare services at all – which is not Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 69 the main area of volunteering in any Nordic country – the organisations are assumed to be found in selected functions: running complementary offers to public services or providing specialised expert knowledge and renewing impulses.
So far, knowledge about the service fields where voluntary organisations are most frequently occupied is vital for identify- ing the distinguishing potentials as well as the third sector’s limitations within the entire system of services.

There are no systematic analyses about the action fields of welfare or- ganisations in the Nordic countries.
What is available are either very gen- eral yet comprehensive macro-level investigations of the share of organi- sations between the welfare fields, or more focused studies on certain areas like the homeless (s. Northfeld 2000), as well as plenty of cases studies of individual organisations.
The systematic long-term study on the registration of new voluntary associations done in Finland by Siisiäinen (2005; also in Särkelä & al 2005, 21) makes visible how the emergence of associations in a certain area mirror the societal challenges in each era.

In the research period 1919–2002, Finland has established close to 10 000 welfare-related asso- ciations since its national independency.
During the first decennium (1919–1929), a strong majority (73%) of the 885 associations founded were directed towards temperance (teetotal movement), while family and child care were in second place with far less registrations (14%).

The predominance of anti-alcohol associations among new registrations con- tinued well into the 1950s, while in the 1960s the family and child wel- fare associations took the largest share of new associations.
However, most of the welfare associations founded in Finland are rooted in the 1970s (n = 1710), with a rapid growth of health- and patient associations as well as disability associations.
During the first two years of the current decennium, as many as 695 welfare associations were founded with the following distribution of fields: 30% health and patients associations, 24% family and children’s welfare associations, 10% temperance associa- tions, 6% disability associations, 4% elderly care associations and 26% other kinds of welfare organisations.
Due to a registration system, the pensioners’ and veterans’ organisations are not included in welfare or- ganisations, which otherwise would influence the picture of the area con- siderably.
70 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services The Finnish welfare organisations are most typical in the following fields: women’s shelters, mother and child homes, institutions for alcohol and drug abusers, service homes and group homes for various groups (people with mental or physical disabilities, elderly people).
In Finland, welfare organisations from the following fields currently provide various services with financial support of Finland’s Slot Machine Association (RAY): health promotion, child care, disabilities, elderly people, invalid- ity, youth education, life rescue, recreation and rehabilitation, and tem- perance.
The services provided can be categorised into the following settings: independent living with support, rehabilitation, civic society activities of associations, courses, holidays and camps, home services and support for caring relatives, meeting points, day centers and substituted work activities, crisis services, and further specialised tasks of organisa- tions.

(Särkelä & al 2005; Helander 2001, 9–11, 77 ff.).


More than 90% of Finnish municipalities already have service con- tracts with welfare organisations.

The Finnish welfare organisations are considered to be of vital importance among groups of the population which are increasingly suffering under the rapid social polarisation in Finland (Särkelä & al 2005).
Although the general standard of living of the Finnish population is reported to develop more and more positively, the differences between the groups of citizens are growing rapidly.

Espe- cially the situation of long-term unemployed people, people with mental disabilities, alcohol and drug problems is deteriorating, according to the Finnish Social Parameter (s. Särkelä & al 2005).
Also, the risk of social exclusion of children and young people is growing rapidly, in relation to the difficulties of families with partnership, drug, mental and unemploy- ment problems (ibid.

13–16).

The professional public services are still able to provide appropriate services in preventive tasks and to those who have no special problems, but find it increasingly difficult to support people whose life situation has been problematic for a longer time or with multiple problems.
Processes of social exclusion have actually become more common in Finland, and it seems that especially for the challenges mentioned the innovative role of welfare organisations of the civic soci- ety is called for.

However, for example in the area of employment, the local associations have not been very active or able to offer problem solv- ing although this function was strongly expected from them by the mu- nicipalities (Helander 2001, 77 ff.).
Unemployed people’s organisations, Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 71 their self-help groups and job work-operatives still play a vital role for every-day life of their members (s. Nylund 2000, also 1996).

Related to the welfare service area, during the last 15 years, so-called new co-operatives have been founded mainly as work-, service provider- and expert co-operatives.
But especially in the countryside, various local co-operatives have been founded with cross-sectoral tasks, encompassing home services and children’s afternoon clubs and cultural, ecological and tourist services.

(Asunta 2004, 61–64; also Larsson 1996).


New types of services users’ mobilisation during that period can be identified: self help groups for caring relatives (Nousiainen 1996), parents’ cafés and meeting points (Vanhanen-Silvendoin 1996), patients’ groups (Mikkonen 1996), unemployed persons’ initiatives and meeting points (Nylund 2001, Lehti- nen 1996).
In Norway, too, services run by NGOs in many areas are remarkable, especially those for child care, facilities for drug abusers, alcohol abusers, the mentally retarded and for old people.

Lorentzen (1993, 17–38) there- fore considers that it is not correct to speak about marginal contributions due to the broad spectrum of services.
Further areas in which the impact of voluntary organisations is remarkable and has been researched is that of women’s shelters (Jonassen/Stefansen 2003) and also the so-called “likemannsarbeid”, i.e.

peer work between people with similar experi- ences in social problems.

(Olssen 1994).

The research team of Sissel Seim, Ole Hjemdal and Sigrun Nilsen (1997, 258–259; also Hjemdal, & al 1996) in Norway started a larger research tradition of exploring the possibilities for mobilisation of clients’ movements.
Forms of mutual self-help among immigrants, unemployed people and released prisoners were studied in an action research setting.

Self help groups have a high significance for the individuals themselves, for the integration into society, the improvement of the social situation and the mastering of the marginalised situation, but are not suitable for all individuals.

Collective organising of the marginal groups also faces many obstacles as seen in the action research.
National and local support from the public sector is needed to initiate a group.

What is more, existing organisations for marginalised groups also need constant support.

How- ever, the support should not be used as a disciplinary instrument, but should be granted without any pre-conditions: it is to be accepted that members of the groups and organisations have critical or opposing posi- 72 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services tions to the public institutions.
It is significant that among marginal groups generally an increased and high commitment to self-help activities emerges.

Another new type of service users’ civic organisations is, for example, that for people who have been placed in childrens’ homes (“Barneverns- barn”, Follesø 2004).

In the organisation’s early phase, politicians, pro- fessionals, and the media regarded the members mainly as ‘narrators’ of stories from real life.
Today, members have become more conscious of what kind of knowledge they possess, and want be to be regarded as per- sons with a special knowledge in their field.

Follesø maintains that the organisation has managed to influence the attitudes of central politicians.

Today, the organisation is taken more seriously by other organisations, politicians and professionals.

Representatives from the association are invited to forums, where their competence is regarded as important.
Follesø argues that it seems that the organisation has obtained a more secure position as a user group in Norwegian child welfare.

Tone Alm Andreassen (2004) has studied user organisations of people with disabilities, and her study reveals that although the state influences the organisations of civil society through political and economic condi- tions, there are still strict limits to what extent the state can intervene in the activities of those.
At the same time, self-organisations mainly rely on internal forces between the participants themselves.

Participation in civil organisations is not primarily a social or social political activity – above all it is a question of identity.

“Through participating we do not only demonstrate certain interest, we show who we are” (ibid.)

Rune Halvorsen (2005), too, has conducted research on social move- ments of social security claimants’ risk to be misused in many directions.
In general, claimants’ organisations enjoy a high media profile, make unsolved problems visible, place new needs and demands on the welfare agenda and produce alternative interpretations of the social world and re- definitions of social problems.

However, the new groups are often still dealt with as objects by the mass media and other critics of the social democratic welfare state model, and the media also reproduce the victim- image of the claimants.
Similar to Follesø, Halvorsen also underlines the importance of symbolic participation, which is seen as an achievement as such: being part of negotiations within the political system, having the right to receive information, express opinion and give voice.
However, Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 73 the dominant welfare policy makers (in the projects) were too much fo- cused on ultimate goals of higher employment and did not value other areas of participation or more flexible measures of active citizenship.

This prevented a more vital participatory democracy.
Self-help initiatives of claimants are still extremely important for the following purposes: • rather conversation partners and advocates than professional helpers; this increases the self-confidence of the participants • promote the development of the welfare system by giving articulated and systematic feedback from the users.

(Halvorsen 2005).

In Sweden, the logic of completing areas has been quite clear.
Some spe- cialised organisations like that for sight-impaired people (Synskadades Förbundet) offer the entire training and education for the population group concerned.

As in the other Nordic countries, women shelters are operated on a non-profit basis in Sweden, too.

(Chartrand 2004, 55–57.)


One of the greatest growth areas, however, is the traditional field of pub- lic and mainstream type of services, like child day care, where parents’ co-operatives have emerged during the last decades, probably more than even in other Nordic countries (see also Pestoff 1998).

Also, schools as parents’ co-operatives are most typical for Sweden (Trygged 2000).

In Sweden, Marie Nordtfeld (2000) has made research on homeless people and voluntary organisations.
She critically indicates a two-fold contradiction in the function of voluntary organisations work among homeless people.

On the one hand, they succeed in reaching people who had negative experiences from contacts with authorities, and so these organisations perform intermediating tasks between individuals and pub- lic authorities.

On the other hand, voluntary organisations can be seen as something enabling the public sector to withdraw itself from their respon- sibility for the homeless (ibid.

151–152).
151–152).

But the NGO’s function of de- veloping alternatives in demanding areas of welfare, like in youth care or drug abuse is also clear in Sweden (for instance Basta Arbetskooperativ, Hansson/Wijkström 2001).

The Swedish Association of Municipalities (Svenska Kommunalför- bundet 1999, 42) highlights the central role of living area committed local welfare organisations as “schools of democracy”, enabling direct and indirect influence.
Both high unemployment and migration have aggra- 74 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services vated the segregation of living environments, especially in the large Swedish cities.
Great – or only – hope is placed on development projects in these environments; however, as was realised very soon, the projects might not be successful without strong participation of civic organisa- tions: the citizens themselves instead of “top-down”-programmes (Sven- ska kommunalförbundet 1999, 44; see also Turunen 2004 and Matthies & al 2000).

After all, the basic question of the living areas with social risks is a question of a functioning civic society.
Jegermalm (2002, 50) has identified the variety of support to caring relatives provided by the municipalities and by voluntary organisations.

The analysis demonstrates that the need for support for the caring rela- tives is regarded as a joint task of both sectors.

However, on the practical level there is confusion about the “how, who and in what” to cooperate.

Instead of a new wave of contracting out, the municipalities and organisa- tions offer different types of support and thus complement each other.
Ultimately, the caring relatives themselves need to coordinate the variety of support.

Municipalities still provide paid carers (vårdare) in permanent positions as public tasks to support caring relatives as well as to stand in for caring relatives.

Also, the municipalities generally run day centers used by the persons in family care and their caring relatives.

Support groups, training and information materials are mainly provided as shared co-operative tasks of both municipalities and NGOs.
However, there are forms of voluntary organisations’ own activities such as visiting services or a mutual security circle of caring relatives.

Hence, voluntary organisa- tions focus mainly on complementing forms of support, which has a char- acter of volunteering or mutual support (visiting, security ring, groups) or specialised knowledge (Jegermalm 2002, 42).

Still, high flexibility is required and there is the constant need for situative negotiation between the various providers and the users.
As in the most other Nordic countries, the historical impact of volun- tary organisations has been researched quite broadly in Denmark, too (see Bundesen, Henriksen, Joergensen 2001; Habermann 2001a; also Ibsen 1996, Jonasen 2002), but systematic analysis of voluntary organisa- tions’ contribution in various fields of welfare services is not yet avail- able.

Ibsen (1996, 166) has analysed the organisational share of cultural and social associations in sixteen Danish municipalities.
Besides the strong predominance of sport, leisure time and culture organisations Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 75 (61%), the children and youth organisations (12%) consisted of scouts, recreation and youth clubs as well as from religious organisations for children and adolescents.
The organisations categorised under “Social problems, illness/sickness and humanitarian” had a share of 13% and con- sisted of patients organisations, social self-help groups, international hu- manitarian organisations and clubs for old people.

Ibsen counts under “po- litical” (13%) the following organisations: clubs of political parties, envi- ronmental organisations and religious organisations.
He concludes that through this rich structure of local associations, a particular mixture emerges consisting of specialised interest organisations and strong feeling of local community, which do not exclude each other as orientations (Ibsen 1996, 167).

Henriksen (1996a, 1996b) emphasised the particular, decentralised structure of the Danish welfare state and its way of providing welfare services, especially since the mid-1980s.
This has promoted the creation of many-faceted local arrangements of welfare mixes, which characterises Denmark among the Nordic welfare states’ service cultures.
This also makes it impossible to draw clear demarcation lines between public, pri- vate and third sector run services – more typical are the organisations in the grey zone (Ibsen/Habermann 2005): free schools, cooperatives, church organisations, non-profit or co-op based housing companies, inde- pendent yet public organisations and foundations as well as self help groups paint a faceted picture of the area between state and market, clas- sic associations, autonomous institutions and foundations (ibid.).
Also, the case study of Henriksen (1996a) about youth work in a city demon- strates a rather flexible and local cross-border mixture of various organi- sations and public agencies, but also the open question of working condi- tions of volunteers in such a mixture.

As Lars Skov Henriksen concludes, (1996a, 172) due to the variety of organisations, there is not a one- dimensional or simple form of voluntary organisations which would fit into the dominating institutional environment.
However, the integration and professionalisation processes are going to homogenise the variety of organisations.
The Danish ministry of Social Affairs (2001, 12–13) divided the ac- tivities of voluntary social work into three groups: person-oriented activi- ties such as advice and counselling, information and awareness-raising activities which are also related to political and educational offers, and 76 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services finally, the operation of various institutions like shelters, cafés and cen- ters.
As in Norway, local volunteer bureaux support the Danish voluntary sector organisationally (ibid.).

The Icelandic voluntary sector developed, as in the other Nordic countries, through the mass movements in the areas of temperance, co- operatives, youth, labour and women’s issues (Hrafnsdottir 2005, 5; also Hakonsdottir 2000; Jónsson 2001).
Today, the main voluntary contribu- tion in the field of welfare is found in the areas of parental associations, charities, rescue and relief services, youth work and health related asso- ciations.

However, these figures (ibid, 8) inform only about the citizens’ volunteering in organisations, while there is no information available describing the fields of services operated by the hands of the third sec- tor.43 (See also Broddadóttir & al 1997.)
Although the picture describing the areas of voluntary organisations in the field of welfare services is anything but systematic and comprehensi- ble, available research knowledge brings strong evidence for the thesis of the sector’s complementary and specialised functions.

There is, as yet, no updated research knowledge on expanding service areas in which the voluntary organisations’ capacity would be enlarging.
Nor could system- atic evidence be found whether and in which fields the non-profit organi- sations would shift in the mainstream services.

4.3 Gender, services and third sector As research in all Nordic countries demonstrates, it has been women’s civic organisations which have historically significantly fought for and achieved a particular type of societal gender model in all the Nordic countries.
Although it still does have serious deficits, this model can be regarded as the most advanced gender equality system in the world on the grounds of many factors: female employment, individuals’ independent social security and professionalised social services, a high rate of educa- tion of both genders etc.

(See several authors since end of 1970s, most recently Hrafnsdottir 2004).
43 As mentioned in the expert’s interview in Iceland, in the area of nursery homes there are some non-public agencies, but mainly the welfare services are in the public hand in Iceland.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 77 Therefore, it is indeed astonishing that there is no appropriate research of the internal gender structure of the civic society sector and neither of the external impact of the voluntary organisations on the gender structure of the society.
Whether civic society is still building something which promotes the progresses in gender equality within society cannot be an- swered on the basis of existing research.

But it is safe to assume that the voluntary sector belongs to the last bastions of fairly strong gender ine- quality in the Nordic countries: it appears to rather sustain the traditions of unequal gender and power structures than to offer a gender sensitive estate of equal activities of men and women within society.
As already mentioned, gender perspective is one of the central aspects which is underrepresented in third sector research in the Nordic societies.
Gender seems also to influence research interests and approaches, as shown in the chapter about the profile of the Nordic third sector research: male researchers have been rather interested in macro-level, quantitative and structural issues, while female researchers tend to focus on micro- level, qualitative aspects as well as on motivations and contents of action.
Furthermore, if we review the historical development of the voluntary sector research it is fairly obvious that most male researchers entered the area only at a time when the area had become a target of political interest and enlarged research funding, while female researchers of voluntary work already had started before that, even at the Nordic level (Matthies 2000).
Finally, it is remarkable that gender research as such, not only perceived as women’s studies but studies which include men’s studies and increasingly the gender main stream perspective, has not yet system- atically arrived in the field of third sector research in the Nordic coun- tries.

For example, we don’t have research on the question whether there are new civic organisations reflecting the men’s movement or men’s re- search – nor that of “new fathers” – in the field of welfare.
The existing men’s organisations which are mentioned in third sector research seem to be rather oriented to the “old” model of masculinity (defence, sports, business, rescue, fire guard).

The only gender issue for which attention has been systematically paid to is the gender division of people participating in voluntary activities and members of civic society organisations.
Even by these factors, the tradi- tional gender inequality seems to be rather established than challenged (Yeung 2004, Habermann 2005).

As already reported in the chapter about 78 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services volunteering, in all Nordic countries volunteering of men and women happens to a fairly similar extent, but takes place in gender differentiated fields, at a different time volume and also in different tasks.
To summa- rise this according to Yeung (2004, 89–90), men’s and women’s volun- teering seems to be equal, but only in the overall quantity.

Women spend more time for volunteering than men (Iceland being an opposite, Hrafns- dottir 2005).

Furthermore, the hierarchical task division as well as the fields of interests follow the traditional gender model even more openly than in the rest of the society.

Basically, researchers (e.g.


Helander 2004, 39) have observed a ten- dency towards full equality in the membership of Nordic civic society organisations: the former predominance of male membership is over and today women are members in associations as often as men.

Among the youngest groups of population, young women even have higher rates of memberships than young men.

In Finland, there are slightly more exclu- sively women’s associations than those of men only.
Furthermore, there are more associations with a mixed-gender membership that are more female-dominated rather than the other way round.

Female membership is lowest in fire guard-, veteran-, sport- and business-related organisations, but highest in vocational, pensioners, social welfare and users’ organisa- tions.

Membership is quite gender equal in political organisations, living area associations, and in cultural and youth organisations (Helander 2004, 40).
Bennedichte Olssen Rappana (1994, xvi) has discovered that the ma- jority of members in disability organisations are women with the only ex- ception in organisations dedicated to disabilities which chiefly affect men.

One of the big exceptions concerning the gender sensitivity of third sector research is the publication of Nina Berven and Per Selle (2001).

In this book, Dag Wollebaek and Per Selle (2001) discussed the changes in the value basis of civic society organisations and its impact on gender.
The organisations in general are increasingly becoming leisure time ori- ented rather than labour related, more internal orientated than political or external orientated.

Secondly, the organisations can lose their intermedi- ating role between individuals and the political system.

Also, the organi- sations’ role of being corrective to state and market as well as enabling critical publicity are weakening due to the changing emphasis of the or- ganisations.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 79 The organisations’ growing focus on leisure time makes them less re- levant for creating identity since in society in general an individual’s identity is more and more related to education and work, especially among women.
The same phenomenon was also discovered by Nina Ber- ven (2000) in her research on women’s organisations: while becoming more general instead of focussing on certain women’s issues, the organi- sations have lost their ability of creating and strengthening identity.

Since women’s interests in society are increasingly getting similar to that of men, the significance of women’s organisations is diminishing.
Although women are increasingly active in gender-general political and vocational organisations, they cannot exert the same power as men or that which women would have within women’s organisations (Wollebaek /Selle 2001, 248).

In joint organisations, women are also increasingly distancing themselves from traditional tasks and working towards the same power arenas in which men are dominant.

However, for various reasons women have not yet gained similar positions with similar resources like men.
Furthermore, women have actually become more active in local leisure time and cultural organisations without national links.

However, locally oriented individual organisations will not be able to exert similar political influence on a national level like the former national women’s move- ments and their structures of local–national organisations did.

(ibid.

249).
(ibid.

249).

Therefore, the authors constitute that the reduced power of classic wo- men’s organisations indicate inevitably reduced power of women through civic society.

It seems that civic society in the Nordic countries doesn’t contain (any more) particular “power centers of women’s networks for political engagement and influence”.

On the contrary, civic society’s organisational culture is strongly male dominated, both in horizontal and vertical sense (ibid, 250–251).
The assumed tendency to increase voluntary organisations’ involve- ment in welfare services since 1990s has been faced with high confusion among the women’s Nordic social political research community, although research evidence connecting gender, services and third sector is ex- tremely scarce.
In Finnish social political women’s studies (Julkunen 1992, 1994, also Anttonen 1994; referred by Matthies 1996, 15–17), there has been fairly strong scepticism against pluralistic welfare models and the increasing role of the voluntary sector.
The main argument is that the women-friendly character of the Nordic welfare model has essentially 80 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services been based on welfare services, which are both supporting the everyday life of women and offering quite safe and professionalised working places for women.
The welfare mixes are regarded to contain too much insecu- rity, non-continuity, occasional randomness as well as too much volun- teering and unpaid work by the classic state feminist perspective.

Lena Sommerstad (1995, 231–242) discusses the issue under the head- ing “civic society – a utopia of middle-class man”, and fears that the Nor- dic model will fall into a backward development towards a family- oriented model of US and Germany.
Also, more progressive visions of civic society mainly ignore that participation in it requires money, time and resources, which are not equally given to both genders and all classes (ibid.

234).

Therefore it would be fatal if the state’s role of the re- distributor of life options – also those for participation in civic society – would be reduced and eventually left to the market.
Much as most women in the Nordic countries during the 1990s, Sommerstad advocates sustain- ing and developing the Nordic model with its existing possibilities for local participation, care taking and equality in solidarity, which even now represent the value-basis of civic society.

In short: civic society is not seen as trustworthy an ally of women as the welfare state – until recently.
On the other side, however, throughout the development of civic soci- ety organisations, there is evidence that citizens’ own organisations offer vital options for women to articulate their interests and to develop their own solutions.

It can also be argued that research on voluntary activities has made women’s invisible work outside of the public domain more visible.

The changes in welfare services might also offer new options for both genders.
It can bring more men into the field of social welfare and it can enable women to work within more independent and autonomous structures (Matthies ibid.).

However, these are options for which system- atic evidence is still lacking.

Recent studies from Finland, for instance, report about mothers’ “virtual sandpits” (Munnukka/Kiikkala/Valkama 2005) or about the vital empowering impact of mutual support groups of women with disabilities (Wilska-Seemer 2005).
However, it might be too optimistic to believe that the opportunities of the third sector for women and for the welfare services would compensate the obvious failures of gender equality in civic society due to the increas- ing role of third sector organisations in the field of services, as well as due to the cuts in public services.
Existing research rather indicates that Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 81 expectations of gender sensitive and gender equal Nordic society have not been responded to by the current development both in welfare service and in the area of civic society.

In spite of the opposite historical role, the current structures of voluntary organisations and voluntary sector is rather disappointing than promoting the promise of Nordic gender equality.
Knowing this, one can either become even more pessimistic or more optimistic in regard to the European Union development of welfare ser- vices.
Ursula Rust (2005) constitutes that the European gender standards can even advance the gender equality in welfare services since: • • social services as employers of women and men will be committed to the equality standards of the EU civic society organisations can become service providers in European programmes which are gender mainstream proved • non-governmental organisations as welfare service providers can influence the gender sensitive goals of the EU while participating in the dialogue for promoting equality (Rust 2005, 133) This optimistic legal standpoint of the author demonstrates that her socie- tal background clearly differs from that of the Nordic societies.
She – and the EU in general – seems to hold the following beliefs: • • • civic society organisations will be predominantly service providers, equality standards will be applied in practice if ordered so by the EU all citizens’ organisations have equal resources to enter the European dialogue on equality.
The arguments above make it very clear that the particular characteristics of the Nordic model in all the three components discussed here – welfare services, gender dimension as well as the role of civic society organisa- tion – are somewhat different to those in the rest of Europe.

Therefore it is highly important to make the differences visible by research, too, if there is the political will to sustain the Nordic advances and even to trans- fer them to other regions.
82 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 4.4 Relationship to the public sector The particular historical relationship between the state and the civic soci- ety in the Nordic countries has been a target of research since before the current “boom” of the third sector and also constitutes one of the central theoretical debates in the research area.
In this chapter, I am going to reduce the focus mainly to the area of welfare services; however, a broader framing of the cultural context of state-civic society relationships is crucial for understanding the area.

Bodensen, too, (& al, 2001) states that the contemporary social political debate about the third sector has to be seen in a comprehensive historical context.
The development is quite similar in all the five countries but has taken place at different times due to the differences in economic and political development.

In general, the time scales follow the logic that at the beginning, voluntary organisations and popular movements had a strong role in developing the welfare state – in many countries even in starting, innovating and running welfare ser- vices.
Later on, the majority of the services were taken over by public agencies, and their services were established by law as social rights of citizens.

In some of the countries, like in Sweden and Denmark, this took place fairy early – starting in 1930s –, but in Finland and Iceland this happened as late as in the 70s.
In Norway, the Nordic welfare state model started in the post-war period; here, however, the voluntary sector has kept a comprehensive part of the services in its hands during the entire development of the welfare state compared to the other Nordic states.
Critical debates on welfare state run services and on the importance of citizens’ own activities came about at different times, too: in Sweden und Denmark as early as in the 1970s, in Norway and Finland at the begin- ning or at the end of the1980s – and in Iceland not before the 1990s.44 Interestingly, the criticism directed at the welfare state in the Nordic countries seems to be strongly influenced by international debates trans- mitted by social scientists – not actually by an internal need in the ser- vices nor through pressure from civic society.
However, in most of the Nordic countries, different types of self-help and alternative movements emerged in the 1980s, while the traditional welfare organisations were 44 See historical descriptions, Bodensen & al 2001, 356–, 402–405; Habermann 2001a; Lundström /Svedberg 2003; Trägårdh 1995; Sivesind & al 2002; Lorentzen 2004; Siisiäinen 1996; Matthies 1994a; Johnson 2001.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 83 given an integrated complementing place in the entire public system (Sivesind 2002, 109–).

In most cases, alternative movements in the wel- fare area have also been integrated as important impulse-givers for cor- rections of the public system (Matthies 1990).

The Nordic partnership culture between civic society and local de- mocracy appears to be based on certain elements which look rather par- ticular in international comparison.
It might also be explained by the clo- se connection between the local state and civic society, which is probably rooted in the small populations of Nordic municipalities.

In the most re- cent study of Finnish voluntary organisations and municipalities, He- lander (2004, 71–) states that the personnel relation between local poli- cies and organisations is very thigh.
In his questionnaire-based study in Finland, 29% of the organisations have members of their boards in the municipal council, and 15% of the organisations have their board mem- bers even in the local government.

Furthermore, 45% of the organisations have members of their board in municipal committees and 10% of the organisations have persons on their boards who hold leading positions as municipal authorities at the same time.
One can even ask critically, whether voluntary associations better integrate local politicians and au- thorities than for example service-users or marginalized groups in their prominent functions.

There are some differences between the areas of organisations, so that the user-organisations of services in deed have similar contacts to local power structures in fewer cases (6–15%) (Helander 2004, 70).

Helander also questioned the organisations’ assumed function as “voice” of the citizens.
He asked the organisation directly: “Do the municipal decision makers ask the position of your organisations to issues which are con- nected to the area of your organisation?

“ Only one tenth of the organisa- tions could give the positive answer that decision makers regularly con- sult the organisations because of their competence.
For our perspective it is interesting that the service user-organisations are among those organi- sations which only in very few cases were asked to give their position (Helander 2004, 72).

Lorentzen (1994, 38), too, stated even back in the mid-1990s that the main type of voluntary organisations in Norway consists of institutions which have become a regular feature of the public service system.
The cooperation is well established but it is hard to make out what the special 84 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services characters of the institutions as civic organisations actually are and how the organisation’s own interests can agree with public demands.

The current situation of the relationship between welfare state and vo- luntary organisations is a target of ideological debates and practical changes.
In most countries it is correct to speak about a paradigmatic change.

To give an example from the experts’ interviews: “I have a feeling that for about twenty years ago it was often the Red Cross that took the initiative to do good things and open new projects.

And then the Red Cross went to the government or to municipalities and asked them to co- operate.

And very often they accepted that, and wanted to do that.
But I have the feeling that for the last eight years it is more difficult for the Red Cross to go the municipalities.

It seems that it is more the other way around that the municipalities or the state are coming to the NGO and are asking them to do some things”.

(Experts’ group Interview in Iceland) The dynamics of current changes in that relationship are clearly coming from the side of public sector.
The changing direction and shifting line of the welfare state affects the voluntary sector often in a way which is not expected nor wished for by the organisations.

As Raija Julkunen (2001) describes, in Finland, the welfare mix is now very rapidly pushed for- wards by politics.

One of the central aims of the new strategy is to estab- lish the role of welfare organisations and the church in the politics for caring for marginalised people.
Anneli Anttonen and Jorma Sipilä (2000, 274–) put it even more radical and state that Finland is shifting from the universal Nordic type of welfare politics towards the model of marginal- ised welfare politics.

One of the central indicators is the increasing role of voluntary organisations and private enterprises in the fields of childcare, elderly people’s care and home services.
The changes in the relationship in question seem to be the most dra- matic in Finland (Helander 2001, 97–102: Särkelä & al 2005).

The central thesis of Sakari Möttönen and Jorma Niemelä (2005, 5–7) is that a real need for developing a new cooperation between municipalities and the third sector has emerged.

Otherwise, there is no way to guarantee the survival of services, and to deal with the contradictional challenges caused by globalisation and market mechanisms.
However, they conclude that there have to be rules as to how these two sectors should cooperate in order to maintain the original roles of both sectors.

Civic society, then, Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 85 ought still to be based on citizen’s own activities and the absence of pub- lic power.

Municipalities are to be regarded as agencies of the welfare state, which is responsible for organising and to producing services nee- ded by the citizens.
Svenska Kommunalförbundet (Union of Swedish Municipalities, 1999) published an assessment of the situation between the voluntary sector and the municipalities.

The report analyses the new debates around the welfare mix, the changing roles of the voluntary organisations, their significance for democracy and also the situation in some other countries.

However, the conclusion is that most of these debates are more or less theoretical with few practical implementations.
The main reason for this debate has been the changed financial situation of the municipalities, which has also influenced a new way of thinking about more pluralistic ways of producing services.

However, in Sweden, the only areas in which clear changes have taken place are the new cooperative forms of child day care and some so-called free schools.

There is, however, no evidence or tendency that responsibility and production would be shifted between the sectors during the next then years.
There also seems to be a contin- uum of the consensus between the political parties that the voluntary sector should constitute a complementation to the welfare state, not a replacement.

This consensus is said to be both ideological and rhetorical, but it is very difficult to apply it in political decisions about the concrete areas of activities of voluntary sector and their required pre-conditions (ibid.

51).
51).

Especially in the municipalities, the chasm between the needs and the expectations on the one hand and the resources on the other is quite evident.

The demand to find a good solution for the future role of the voluntary organisations is becoming a serious issue.

One example is the change of public institutional support for the associations for the pro- duction of certain “products”.
The real risk of the ongoing economisation of the state-voluntary sector relationship particularly concerns the motiva- tion for volunteering.

There is no research available on the consequences for the specific character of the voluntary organisations as to what hap- pens if these are shifting to become service companies (ibid.

1999, 52).
1999, 52).

But here I can make a comparison with the situation in Eastern Germany: low social capital, low civic society role of the organisations which were (re-)started as service companies after the German unification.

Also the Nordic municipalities have to find a balance between economic efficiency 86 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services and the open approach to the special immaterial value of voluntary sector.

The Svenska Kommunalförbundet (ibid.)


also recognises the importance that the municipalities develop ways how to cooperate with new type of associations but also with the enterprises (social sponsoring).

Local development groups and village associations are growing areas of new types of cooperation between municipalities and civic society structures in the living environment.
Also, the development of free schools is one of the most successful areas of co-operatives and user- based service provisions in Sweden (Trygged 2000).

Marie Nordfeldt (2000, 164–166) discovered the change in the state – third sector relationship in the field of homelessness in Sweden.

There is firm belief in society that voluntary organisations would be best for han- dling the problem of homelessness.
However, the situation is quite am- bivalent for the voluntary organisations in the field: through new partner- ship programmes as the dominating approach of both EU and communi- ties to face the problem, new options of co-operation emerged.
But the organisations can also see various new problems coming: • • • the question of responsibility and rights of individuals can become unclear in a mixed economy of acting (neither fish nor fowl) if organisations take more responsibility for single groups, the public sector can legitimate its withdrawal from the tasks concerning this group a changing economic situation of voluntary organisations, involving short-time contracting, higher amount of own financing, causes increasing difficulties to provide the required services • dependency on the relation with the public sector.
At the same time, the organisations can see that the public sector does not simply invite the organisations to cooperate, but rather would like to withdraw altogether.. Nordfeldt also reports about the concern that the “watchdog” (“vak- thund”) role of interest representation can get lost while organisations are more and more bound to the public sector with partnerships and contracts.
She considers that the public sector’s will to focus on the voluntary sec- tor’s impact is based on a more or less ideological dimension.

She refers to the implicit assumption that voluntary organisations would have char- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 87 acteristics which make them better in the work with homeless and so- cially excluded.

In the short term, close cooperation with the public might be a benefit, also for individuals.
However, in the long-term development there is the risk that the avant-garde and voice role – the role of civic society – will get lost (Nordfeldt 2000, 151–152, 160–161).

Pål Repstad (1998) summarises from his study of five cases of volun- tary organisations that there is a variety of models after which the rela- tionship to and cooperation with the public is constructed rather than standardised models.
In many cases, the practice of cooperation is built upon personal relationships, interests and commitments rather than on formal agreements.

There are many examples of what he calls integrated autonomy and critical cooperative relations.

Because of this variety of existing models, cooperation in general is better promoted by given enough space for the variety of cooperation instead of regulating the rela- tionships with standardised models or even with pressure to cooperate.
While having studied user involvement in Norwegian welfare ser- vices, Tone Alm Andreassen (2004, 173–) finds that user involvement created public discourse, in turn causing changes in professional practice.

In the project observed meetings were organised in which representatives of the users told the professionals about their experiences of living with a certain problem.

This provoked a change in the helping relation from an expert-client model to a model based on collaboration.
Later on, former users gathered information on the experiences of users of local mental health services.

User involvement in this project ensued public attention to the practices in the health and rehabilitation services.

This created an awareness of the users’ perspectives among the professionals.

The study reveals that although the state influences the organisations of civil society through political and economic conditions there are still clear limits as to which extent the state can intervene.
At the same time as self-organisation often depends on the state’s contributions, those organisations mainly rely on internal forces among the participants themselves.

Participation in civil organisations is not primarily a social or social political activity – above all it is a question of identity (Alm Andreassen 2004).
The studies quoted in this chapter bear evidence for the fact that the relationship between the Nordic welfare state and civic society organisa- tions in the welfare sector are currently at the centre of manifold changes and debates and even now targets of paradigmatic reforms.

In the mean- 88 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services time, it seems that the contemporary development is bringing the five Nordic welfare states apart from one another.
While Finland is applying a radical course of marketisation, Iceland is just starting to open the debate on voluntary organisations’ possibilities to widen their activities.

Den- mark has maintained the reform with similar content rather in the way of strong decentralisation and users’ participation as well as an enlargement of the systems in the grey zone (cooperatives, partnerships).
In Norway, almost all critical researchers indicate a strong integration of civic organi- sations into the public service system.

On the other hand, the voice of critical users movements seem to be more heard and reflected in Nor- way’s public service system.

In Sweden, the relationship between civic society and welfare state appears not to be radically changing, but the negotiation of voluntary organisations’ roles is running in a way, where their particularity is acknowledged.
Throughout the Nordic societies, historical changes in the established relationships and task division be- tween the two sectors are regarded with hesitation rather than enthusiasm.

4.5 Relationship to the market sector “I think that it is one of the challenges of the welfare state: not to reduce the costs down but to create some kind of “freedom of choice”.

I think, the more the income differences are increasing the more people are looking at alterna- tives.
And that is really the point in the Nordic welfare systems, which are public systems that have been too dominant model of similar services.

But I think this would not last because people want freedom of choice.” … “But the market is as a model, as a way of governance, it is very dominant even in the collective things and co-operatives.

And I mean also in the public sector.

We know, they create, they think in markets.


(…) That is the problem, what is the point in having cooperatives, if they act similar to the market or to the enterprises?

They have in a way lost their of distinctiveness” (Quotations of the experts group interview in Norway) Since research on the border between third sector and the market is very scarce, this question was one of the topics in the experts’ group inter- views in the five countries.
Already at the beginning of the 1990s, the area between “markets and politics”, to use these words, was researched only in the field of co- operatives (Pestoff 1991).

Also Lorentzen (1994, 17–38) theorised the Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 89 variety of organisational forms between voluntary (“ideel”) organisations and income-based organisations which can be applied either in a competi- tive or regulated form.
But current research on the relationship to the market is largely insufficient in regard to the contemporary lively devel- opment around the borderline between market and third sector.
The fol- lowing research issues would be, for instance, worth a systematic analy- sis: comparison between voluntary organisations and welfare service enterprises, analysis of sponsoring and donations from the business sec- tor, long term development from non-profit towards for-profit, and a gen- eral quantitative overview of the share of all the three sectors in welfare services in the Nordic countries.
Finally, these would make an answer to the question possible what the distinctiveness of the sectors indeed is, or whether the introduction of new market management models in all sectors will balance the differences.

Karl Sivesind (& al 2002) identifies phenomena which mirror the new type of marketisation emerging in Norway.

First, the sponsors of the vol- untary sector increasingly consist of the rapidly growing lottery market and the stakes of gamblers.
Private lottery firms improve their image through sponsoring associations for social purposes and have enlarged the income of associations (Sivesind & al, 2002, 105–108).

Secondly, due to the increasing competition of income and members, associations have started to regard their members or participants as “customers”, for whom attractive offers have to be made.
The offers but also the profile of the associations have to fit into the expectation pattern of individual custom- ers, which has already lead to a discrepancy between the ethical and the economical rationalities (see Matthies 2000).

One solution applied by paid staff has been to disconnect the commercial and democratic struc- tures from one another.

Customers are not expected to be interested in democratic participation.
In the meantime, the civic society characteris- tics of the organisations – volunteering, unmediated communication and reciprocity – will be weakened.

The third form of commercialisation is indirectly caused by the logic of public financial support to large organi- sations, which is oriented according to the number of members.

This motivates the associations to recruit new members by “selling” certain rebates and benefits of membership.
Furthermore, the authors also discuss the growing number of commercial for-profit activities run within the organisations especially in the fields of sports, culture and leisure time.

90 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Many members even prefer buying for-profit services instead of feeling obligations to participate or volunteer.

Consequently, more paid staff, professionalisation and commercialisation follows.
Although the volun- teering rate in Norway is still fairly high a gradual shift from volunteering and participating in membership-based democratic organisations towards a market place for consumer-membership is an evident trend in several types of third sector organisations in Norway (Sivesind, ibid.).

It is very likely that a similar development is imminent in all Nordic countries al- though organisations might not like to speak about it.
In the survey of private service provision in health and social care in Finland, Sari Kauppinen and Tapani Niskanen (2005) give a fairly com- prehensive and updated picture.

Their results also bring evidence for the rapid growth of services outside of the public domain.

However, in con- trast to Sweden, it seems that Finnish privatisation consists more of growth in these services in general and not of a reduction of municipal services or services in total.
In social services, the share of third sector organisations grew from 12 to 18% in the time period of 1995–2002.

The share of for-profit enterprises at the same time grew from 1.6 to 4.5%.

In the health services, there is no significant increase of non-profit services, which is still around 5%.

The for-profit agencies, however, had an in- crease from 9% in 1995 to 12% in 2002 in Finnish health care services.

(Kauppinen /Niskanen 2005, 5–6).


Most of the growth of non-profit run social services took place in housing services (care homes), daytime ac- tivities (meeting points, day centres) and in child day care.

In parallel, the growth of for-profit run services is focused in housing services, home services, family and institutional care of children and young people, as well as day time offers and child day care.
According to these statistics, for-profit and non-profit based service provision are in competition with fairly similar service offers in Finland.

In the current tough political debate about welfare services in Finland there are two paradigms in competition with each other.

One concerns the area of welfare service from a perspective of free competition and as a growing field where to develop new business and the local structure of enterprises.
This appears to supplant the former social politically oriented paradigm of providing sufficient and equal services for all citizens as their basic social rights.

Möttönen and Niemelä (2005, 131–148) already take it for granted that the trend towards multi-agency and pluralistic Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 91 models will be continuing very rapidly in the Finnish municipalities.
Although the authors acknowledge certain problems in the trend – like efficiency replacing equality and social justice as dominating values – they encourage the voluntary organisations to enter the service market in cooperation with the municipalities.

The demarcation line between non- profit activities and for-profit type of service provision (in competition with private providers) has been made mandatory by the Finnish tax law.
This is set to become an immense problem for the multi-functional civic society organisations (Särkelä & al 2005).

One suggestion in Finland has been to separate the functions from each other but still keep them in the same unit.

However, the public or sponsored support for voluntary non- profit activities cannot be used for for-profit and trade law-controlled ser- vice provision of the unit.

These kinds of complicated future designs have already led to a reduction of non-profit-based services.
Small associations are not allowed any longer to run services with the support of RAY, since this would influence the free competition demanded by the EU.

However, as analysed by Särkelä (& al 2005, 74–) the problematic Finnish situation of more competition is “home-made”.

Finland – as one of the few over-disciplined EU-members – has even tightened the EU- directive and has not made use of the national right to leave welfare ser- vices out of the application area of the EU-competition directive.
In most of the EU-states, the directive is limited to more general services like water, energy and communications.

The welfare organisations and the Union of Finnish municipalities are now trying to reduce the national over-interpretation of the EU-service directive.

According to the interpre- tation of the Finnish Ministry for industry and trade, practically all ser- vices have to be put on the market and opened for the complicated proc- ess of competition (open call for service providers).
Furthermore, compe- tition has to be carried forth on a regular basis even over existing service contracts; in the worst cases, services users have to change the provider yearly.
Further, due to the new thinking of a “free market” without privi- leges to any service providers, the Finnish Slot Machine Association (RAY) is retreating from the financial support of non-profit run ser- vices.45 An interviewed Finnish expert formulated the situation thus: 45 In February 2006 it seems that the EU will finally not include welfare services into the service directive.
92 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services “The marketisation of services in Finland has progressed even further and the welfare organisations are pulled and drawn like donkeys on ropes by the poli- ticians.

The organisations don’t want it, the citizens don’t want it, the compe- tition, but public services for the taxes.
For this purpose they pay taxes with- out claiming.”46 Due to increasingly complicated conditions, many organisations are now thinking about leaving the task of service provision and returning to the civic society functions.

However, this would squarely hit the most vul- nerable groups of citizens and the largest service-user groups of voluntary organisations (92–93).
The contradiction is fairly deep, given the parallel expectation that civic society organisations at the same time are expected to take more responsibility of marginalised groups and offer them activat- ing options.
There appears to be a wide gap between the two paradigms in the cur- rent debate in Finland .The social political paradigm implies that the mar- ketisation will not only threat the welfare services as such but will destroy large parts of the welfare organisations and the basic distinctiveness of the organisations.

The other paradigm expects considerable success of Finnish service providers in the European market place of welfare ser- vices.
Without doubt, it is of high importance that a systematic follow up of this development is provided by research beyond quantitative labelling and ideological positions.

The study “välfärdtjenster till salu”,(welfare services for sale) carried out by Gun-Britt Trydegård (2001), gives a comprehensive quantitative overview of the progress of the privatisation of welfare services in Swe- den.

Some figures are indeed interesting.


Between 1993 and 2000, the number of alternatives to public sector as service providers grew from six to thirteen%.

Growth has been strongest in the care for elderly, but the rate of privatisation is highest in the field of dental medicine and para- medical health services.

It is also high in the field of institutional care for children and young people as well as for abusers the non-public services in Sweden.
The most typical new service providers are for-profit enter- prises, especially privately owned incorporated companies (AG).

It is also worth mentioning that the increase of privatisation correlates with the 46 “Palvelujen pano markkinoille on Suomessa edellä, järjestöjä viedään kuin ”pässiä narus- sa” poliitikkojen toimesta.
Kuitenkaan järjestöt eivät halua, kansalaiset eivät halua kilpailutusta, vaan julkisia palveluita verorahoilla, tässä toivossa on maksettu napisematta veroja” Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 93 reduction of municipality’s social costs.

The author concludes that mu- nicipalities which invest less in child care, schools and elderly care, choose to hand over the services to other players at a higher rate.
In child- care, the most frequent (two thirds) form are non-profit organisations including economic associations, voluntary associations and foundations (Trydegård 2001, 93).

Also in the area of schools, the most frequent al- ternative to public are non-profit based foundations and associations (four fifths).

(ibid.100).
(ibid.100).

Care services for elderly and for persons with disabili- ties are – if not in municipal hands – mainly (seventy%) run in for-profit settings, mostly private owned incorporated companies (Ltd).

Finally, of the so-called care homes (hem för vård eller boende) in non-public hands, two thirds are run by for-profit forms of service providers, mainly incor- porated companies.

(ibid.123).

The overall share between public and non- public differs a lot between the fields.
While in dental medicine one half of the services are private, the private share of care homes makes up one third of the volume.

In the field of school and childcare, only three% are in non-public hands, mainly in non-profit cooperatives.

However, is has to be acknowledged that the given figures refer to the number of employ- ees in the services and that the figures are taken from the statistics of 1999.

Hence, rapid growth after that might be indicated.


Edelbalk and Svensson (2005) have analysed the state of knowledge on the effects of customer-choice systems in Nordic care services for elderly people and for people with disabilities.

For the study of the third sector the mentioned analysis is, however, not very useful, since the au- thors don’t explicitly discuss who or which institutions provide the ser- vices to be chosen from.
They define: “customer-choice is a system in which user is free to choose one of at least two providers, one being run by the local authorities and other/others by private enterprise(s).” (ibid.

98).

The authors don’t mention the third option of civic society organisa- tions, or they regard them as a sub-category of private providers.

It is evident, however, that the analysed models of customer-choice which are already in use in the Nordic countries indeed affect the third sector or- ganisations, too.
Customer-choice is already made possible in personal assistance for individuals with disabilities and by vouchers in the care for the elderly.

A problematic effect discovered is the large amount of infor- mation of service providers which needs to be absorbed by the customers.

In many cases, this was not possible without extra assistance.
94 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Taking the research overview as a basis, we can see that the differ- ences between the Nordic countries on the broader line in the relation between voluntary organisations and market are increasing and very visi- ble.

Finland seems to be quickly heading for the European service market, even accepting shock reactions and dismantling in the field of voluntary organisations in the process.
Norway, being outside of the EU, is criti- cally analysing the consequences of various aspects of marketisation in voluntary organisations and appears to accept the demand of “freedom of choice”.

In Sweden, privatisation seems to take place at a rather moderate pace; the share of private organisations is growing rather than that of voluntary sector.
Denmark and Iceland seem to represent the most ex- treme ranges of development, which is visible in the following quotation from the experts’ group interviews: “I mean comparing the Danish society with the EU, we are much further in the development of adapting to the market economy.

(…) And we have al- ways been much more market-oriented than Sweden, we have been much clo- ser to the Anglo-Saxon model that Sweden has.

We have been in that perspec- tive a big deal different.
We have never had this overall state as they have had there.” (Quote from the experts’ interview in Denmark) “Actually we have private play schools, but they are not so many (…).

We have several private play schools, in the hands of third sector organisations”.
“But we have to accept that there is a huge difference between outsourc- ing services, or contracting (…) but compared with privatisation, where the services are just put in on the market, – the government is just heavily stop- ping the increase of government’s paid jobs”.

(Quotation to the Icelandic experts’ group interview) In short: the Nordic model includes privatisation moves which exceed EU requirements and those which are starting to prevent the enlargement of the public sector.
Consequently, the role of the voluntary sector varies considerably – not only as service provider but also as a civic society– oriented forum in which the current development of service marketisation can be debated.

5.
5.

Civic society organisations and the challenges of welfare services 5.1 Current tendencies Some of the essential tendencies of the current changes in the Nordic welfare politics are more or less directly connected to the field of welfare services and therefore, to the civic society sector, too.
Raija Julkunen (2001; see also Anttonen/Sipilä 2000) points out that the elementary shifts in the new welfare policy consist of reduced resources for public services and a silently advancing marketisation of services.

This means an increasing mixture of the private, third and public sectors, as well as stronger integration of informal care of family members into the entire system of services.
The new thinking is also establishing the tendency that the role of the voluntary sector, welfare organisations and the church is increasing in the politics for marginalised people, for those discrimi- nated and for minorities.

In the meantime, these task areas are increas- ingly run in a projectised manner instead of institutional structures, while the general, universal responsibility of the state is becoming distanced and more selective.
In the welfare services, the share of the private sector in Sweden has more than doubled during the last ten years, while that of the non-profit sector has reduced in percentage and numbers.

The question is whether the Nordic model is automatically and basically ending by this factor (as assumed by Anttonen and Sipilä 2000).

Figures on this share could be found from Sweden and Finland only: 96 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Table 8.
Share of employees in social welfare services provided by various agen- cies in the Nordic Countries 47 Public providers Non-profit Organisations For-Profit enterprises Total In numbers Finland (2002)* Sweden (2000)** *) Kauppinen /Niskanen 2005, 27–30 **) based on Trydegård, 2001, 133–134 Wijkstöm (2001) describes the trend in the third sector/state relation as a “shift from subventions to contracts”, which has already changed the manner of public support essentially.
At the same time, the purchasing and financing process is delegated from the central level to the munici- palities (ibid.

94).

Connected to this, in most of the Nordic countries there has been a significant functional shift of the civic society organisations “from voice to service” function.

Many new organisations are founded for the service function from the outset (s. quasi-NGOs).
The introduction of the EU concept of social economy has caused a trend; the organisations working in this field (associations, cooperatives, foundations) are no lon- ger regarded as instances intermediating between different fields but as something that is part of the public hand, as an instrument to implicate state politics under contracts (Wijkstöm 2001, 95).

The same discussion is taking place in Finland.


Möttönen and Nie- melä (2005, 18–) welcome and outline an enlarged and systematised co- operation between the municipalities and the voluntary organisations as the only way to safeguard the future of welfare services.

Kauppinen and Nuutinen (2005) just state the increase of non-profit and for-profit provi- sion of services, and they analyse the conditions without making norma- tive differences between the sectors.
Thirdly, Särkelä, Vuorela and Pelto- salmi (2005) take a critical view speaking from the point view of civic 47 Also in this table the data is not entirely comparable.

One has to notice that the definition of the welfare services (welfare domain/social services) might not be identically used in Sweden and Finland.

Thus, it is not to be taken for granted that the total staff of the area in Sweden is smaller than in Finland, which has less population.
But what might be correct but still surprising is that the number of staff was reduced in Sweden but considerably increased in Finland during the 1990s.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 97 society organisations concerning the pressure to change their functional focus and to give up the autonomy.
As Halvorsen (2005, 239–240) has analysed, the EU demands from its members the involvement of marginalised people’s own organisations in welfare policies and in projects (for example in the evaluation of the Na- tional Action Programs’ (NAPs) of the EU Anti-Poverty Program).

Hence, both civic society function and the service function of the third sector are becoming more important, and at the same time more regulated and connected in the framework of governmental policies.
Through the new partnership programmes as the dominating approach of the EU, new options of co-operation have emerged.

(See also Halvorsen/Hvinden, 1998).

But as Nordfeldt (2000, 164–166) analyses, the situation is am- bivalent.

The voluntary organisations see that the questions of responsi- bility and individual’s rights can become unclear in a mixed economy.

By taking more responsibility for single groups, the organisations can legiti- mate the public sector’s withdrawal.
The changed economic situation of voluntary organisations, with short-time contracting and a higher amount of own financing, causes increasing difficulties in providing the required services and a new financial dependency.

Many organisations have al- ready given up their services in Sweden.

Lorentzen (1994, 38), too, concludes that voluntary organisations in- creasingly consist of institutions whose activities have become a regular part of the public service system.
As a consequence, it is difficult to see what their special character is as civic organisations, and how the organi- sations’ own interests can be combined with public demands.

Henriksen (1996b, 172) concludes that there is no one-dimensional or simple form of voluntary organisations which would fit into the dominating institu- tional environment, but the integration and professionalisation processes are going to homogenise the variety of organisations.
Andreassen (2004, 173–) has demonstrated that in the state relation- ship to users’ movements, the state still leaves some room to autonomy and criticism.

Helander (2004, 71–), in contrast, has discovered that the political civic society role of the voluntary organisations is not used par- ticularly intensively.

Especially the service user organisations belong to the organisations which only in very few cases were consulted in political processes (Helander 2004, 72; also Olsson & al 2005).
There emerges a deepening discrepancy between the expectation from the environment 98 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services (towards contracted service production and governmentally regulated role as civic society agency) and the citizens’ organisations’ own interest.
Siisiäinen (2003) points out just the statistical fact which is contrary to the expectations of the state: the quantitative growth of associations since the 1990s in Finland is very clearly directed to hobby- and individual- identity-oriented new associations, but less to the field of social welfare or traditional political participation.

Jeppsson and Svedberg (1999, 121–) discuss the figures of the Swedish voluntary sector also as a reflection of active civic society.
However, as Svedberg (2001, 173) states, the signifi- cance and limits of the voluntary inputs in Sweden consist of their orien- tation towards leisure time activities rather than social services.

According to Lorentzen (2004, 129–), civic engagement is not only under pressure of “colonisation” by the state, but also by scientification and professionalism.
The broad wave of education and specialisation has meant that citizens’ activities are becoming more and more formalised and problems become defined by the occupational view (2004, 155).

New vocational schools try to distinguish themselves with offering education for leisure time activities, empowerment, local community, and participa- tion competencies48.
Further factors influencing civic engagement are commercialisation and consumerism: the new liberal utilitarianism seek- ing for “loensamme medlemskap” (profitable membership) as a slogan of the 1990s.

Lorentzen (2004, 182) also refers to the new phenomena discussed in Great Britain called QUANGOS, Quasi Autonomous Non-governmental organisations.

(Wolfenden 1978).
(Wolfenden 1978).

The state criteria for financing influ- ence the organisations and de-form them in order to conform to the crite- ria for the financial options.

(See also Freise /Pajas (2004).


5.2 Social political and research political conclusions The changing conditions for non-profit welfare are pointed out by Jo- hansson (2005, 35–40, focussing on Sweden) as follows: 48 “Genom utdannigstilbud i kultur, naermiljö, idrett, ungdoms- och barnearbeid, fore- bygging, sang och musik, natur- och miljöarbeid, mv.

föregoer det en vitenskapligtgoering av handlingsfelt som tidligere var erfahringsbaserte og lokalt forankrede”.
(Lorentzen 2004, 159) Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 99 • • • municipalities have increasing expectations towards NPOs also as unpaid complementation or as paid competitor to the market.

increased cooperation can be a risk if it is mainly initiated by the authorities who have a need to cooperate for their interests and under their conditions increasing emphasis on the service function: the municipalities are not looking for “watch dog critics” but for more services.
increasing economic regulation and control, which means more financial dependency on the state than it is the case at the moment.

“Municipalities perhaps are building more ballast for themselves if they try to regulate the civic power too much” (ibd.).

Increasing complexity of the environment and shifting from the Nordic models towards the central European model.
• • The third sector organisations used to offer services with a certain charac- ter: either directed to special groups of users (members, participants, marginalised groups, minorities in supra-regional settings) as a comple- mentation to the municipal main stream services.

Or they focussed on experimentally developing new problem solution – offering avant-garde services and reacting to emerging problems before the legal public system comes into the picture.
Consequently, the advantages and strengths of third sector organisations are paradoxically at the same time – but in dif- ferent fields – built on non-professionalism in the sense of spontaneous amateurism and high expertise in specialised professional issues (s. Char- trand 2004, 184–).

Both aspects are valuable for society; however, also at risk of disappearing.

These demarcation lines of functions are now in a rapid process of changing.
Third sector organisations are increasingly pushed to enlarge their service provision in the fields of standardised mainstream services, where they compete with the private agencies (see also Evers 2005).

Alternatively, they are pressed to separate their civic society and service functions in order to fit in new directives of service competition and taxes (Särkelä & al 2005).

Consequently, the basic comparative picture of the welfare regimes given in table 2 will be changing.
To comprise it to one sentence: the current tendencies rather include more risks for the multifunctional, criti- cal and spontaneous functions of the civic society organisations in the Nordic democracies than open new chances.

100 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services From the welfare service point of view, there is no evidence that the competitive contracting out and the designed mixture – where all sectors try to offer the same type of services – would be very effective.
Rather, there is a risk that complexities of social problems and long-term proc- esses of support to citizens turn out to be split into limited slices of con- tractual actions carried out by single agencies.

From the civic society functions and the welfare services’ angles, an- other type of welfare mixture is needed.
Instead of a variety of agencies from three sectors running in competition with the same offers for the same demands, there should be – in an ideal case – an accurate analysis and open negotiation of distinguished tasks and competences.

This proc- ess has to be directed at the distinctive advantages of each sector and the different demands of service fields on the local level.
In order to move towards this, a new type of research is needed which focuses on the micro-level of civic society organisations and their inside life, which better takes into account the gender mechanisms of welfare service politics as well as the differences between the fields.

We should ask: 1.

Which kind of societal functions and services can be provided as best 2. when connected to the specific characteristics of civic society organisations?
In which fields of services is a market economy based rationality most functional for the society (not only for the profit)?

3.

Which parts of human and social needs should be left out of competition and kept in the public responsibility with comprehensive transparency and equal access to services?

I argue that this kind of strategy would distinguish between the conven- tional blind competition between service providers and a kind of knowl- edge-based and reflective welfare mixture.
The latter would rather strengthen the successful characteristics of the Nordic countries than the current tendency of blindly repeating the mistakes of a one-sided market economy and pushing the variety of agencies to a similar form of produc- ers.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 101 5.3 Civic Society Organisations in the Nordic welfare state – also a model for success?
Finally it is necessary to return – with a few words – to the basic question of this research: the state of the art of knowledge concerning the (future) role of third sector and civic society organisations in the field of welfare services.

It is quite evident that the particular role has until recently been significantly a more indirect one instead of broad service production.
As mentioned already, the Nordic distinguished role of the organisations consists of their function as interest organisations – enabling advocacy, pressure, participation – as well as innovation of services or providing services in a complementary manner.

In these roles, the organisations have surely contributed to the successful type of an entire system of ser- vices, and to the ability to modernise and advance them constantly.
However, I would like to point out the perhaps even more essential indirect cultural impact on the entire civic society, not only on welfare organisations.

The different welfare state models have been essentially based on cultural differences.

Consequently, the globalisation of culture and the loss of the significance of regionally homogeneous socio-cultural milieus will also influence the welfare state’s cultural base.

On the other hand, new interesting analyses (e.g.


Rieger/Leibfried 2004) argue that it is exactly the regional cultures that embody (the only) mechanisms which are hindering and disturbing the “international governance” and the ex- pansion of global market economy.

Both the survival of social policy and its absence in a society are highly culture-bound.
Thus, as Rieger and Leibfried constitute while referring to East Asian cultures, “(…) no type of social policy can survive without a cultural frame that provides the central motives and the critical benchmarks for its actors” (Rieger/Leib- fried 2004, 62).

Undoubtedly, civic society organisations in Northern Europe for their part have created a certain culture and traditions which have promoted the specific type of a universal and equality-oriented wel- fare state model.
At the same time, we must acknowledge that the cultural traditions rooted in the ideological and religious movements of the 19th and 20th centuries have lost vital parts of their power to influence the pluralistic society at the beginning of the 21st century.

102 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services In the Nordic countries, most of the researchers underline the impor- tance of independency and autonomic development of the civic society organisations.
This means in most cases that researchers are sceptical about the ongoing process of shifting from the function of interest organi- sation towards a service function, which is automatically seen as a more or less hidden instrumentalisation for the demands of the welfare state.
In order to sustain the benefits of the Nordic welfare state, the particu- lar civic society and democracy roles of the third sector are surely of more importance than bonding them as publicly ruled agencies running mainstream welfare services or to transform them into for-profit compa- nies.

Furthermore, the deficits in democracy and deficits in services can- not be played off against each other.
Thus, without an active civic society, there might not be enough political pressure and neither a source of solu- tions to address all the new challenges of the welfare services.

It is also apparent that research of this area in the Nordic societies is still in the initial phase of drawing a general picture and making the sector visible.

For more specialised knowledge about the potentials and condi- tions of the sector, a broadened and well-coordinated research offensive is needed.
And, last but not least, critical research should be able to and sensitive to identify the emerging conflicts in this area of forthcoming tough challenges instead of repeating the theses of consensus and success.

References Anttonen, Anneli (1994) Hyvinvointival- tion naisystävälliset kasvot.

In.

Antto- nen, A.

/Henriksson, L. & Nätkin, r.

(toim.)

Naisten hyvinvointivaltio.

Vas- tapaino.

Tampere.

S. 203–226.

Anttonen, Anneli /Sipilä, Jorma (1996) European social care services.
Is it possible to identify models?

Journal of European Social policy 6: 2, 87–100.

Anttonen, Anneli /Sipilä, Jorma (2000) Suomalaista sosiaalipolitiikkaa.

Vasta- paino.

Tampere.

Alm Andreassen, Tone (2004) Bruker- medvirkning, politik og velferdsstat.

Arbeidsforskningsinstituttets skriftse- rie 13.

Oslo Amnå, Erik (1999) Civilsamhället.

Demokratiutredningens forskarvolym VIII.

Statens offentliga utredningar, 1999:84, Stockholm Amnå, Erik (red.)

(2005) Civilsamhället.

Några forskningsfrågor.


Riksbankens Jubileumsfond i samarbete med Gid- lunds förlag.

Södertälje.

Anheier, Helmut K. (2001) Der Dritte Sektor in Europa: Wachstum und Strukturwandel.

In: Priller, Eck- hard/Zimmer, Annette (Hrsg.)

Der dritte Sektor international: mehr Markt – weniger Staat?

Edition Stigma.

Ber- lin.

57–74 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 103 Anheier, Helmut/Seibel, Wolfgang (eds.)
(1990) The Third Sector: Comparative Studies of nonprofit Organisations.

Walter de Gruyter.

Berlin/ New York Berven, Nina (2000) Fra legitimitet til gammeldagshet.

En analyse av det skiftende politiske rommet for brede helse- og verferdsorganisasjoner.

LOS- sentrer Rapport 0005.

Bergen Berven, Nina/Selle, Per (red.)

(2001) Svekket kvinnemakt?

De frivillige organisasjone og velferdstaten.

Gyl- dendal Norsk Forlag.


Oslo Bondesen, Peter/Henriksen, Lars Skov/Joergensen, Anja (2001) Filant- ropi, selvhjaelp og interesseorganise- ring.

Frivillige organisationer i dansk socialpolitik 1849–1990’erne.

Odense Universitetsforlag Borg, Sami (2005) Kansalaisena Suo- messa.

Kansalaisvaikuttaminen Pohjoismaissa ja European Social Sur- vey 2002.

Oikeusministeriö.
Oikeusministeriö.

Julkaisu 2005 : 3 Broddadóttir, Ingibjörg /,Eydal, Guðný/Hrafnsdóttir, Stei- nunn/Sigurðardóttir, Sigurdveig H. (1997) The development of local authority social services in Iceland.

In: Sipilä, Jorma (ed.)

Social Care Ser- vices: The key to the Scandinavian welfare model Avebury.

Aldershot.

51–76.

Chartrand, Sébastien (2004) Work in Voluntary Welfare Organisations.

A sociological Study of voluntary welfare Organisations in Sweden.

Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis.


Stock- holm studies in sociology, N.S., 21 N.S.

21, Almqvist & Wiksell Interna- tional.

Stockholm Edelbalk, Per Gunnar/Svensson, Marianne (2005) Kundval för äldre och funktionshindrade i Norden.

TemaNord 2005:507.

Nordiska minis- terrådet.

Copenhagen Esping-Andersen, Gøsta(1990) The three worlds of capitalism.

Cambridge: Polity Press.

Evers, Adalbert/Laville, Jean-Louis (2004a) The Third Sector in Europe.

Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.


Cornwall Evers, Adalbert/Laville, Jean-Louis (2004b) Defining the third sector in Europe.

In Evers, A./Laville, J- L(2004) The Third Sector in Europe.

Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

Cornwall.

11–42 Evers, Adalbert/Lange, Chris (2005) Freie Wohlfahrtspflege und Europäi- sche Integration.

Auf der Suche nach Identität und Anerkenung.

In: Linz- bach, Christoph/Lübking, Uwe/Scholz, Stephanie/Schulte, Bernd (Hrsg.)
Die Zukunft der sozialen Dienste vor der Europäischen Herausforderung.

No- mos.

Baden-Baden,155–182.

Follesø, Reidun (2004) Bruker eller brukt?

Landsforeningen for barne- vernsbarn – analyse av interesseorga- nisation i moete med dagens barne- vern.. NTNU.

Dr.polit.-avhandling 2004.

Institutt for socialt arbeid og hel- sefag.

Trondheim.

Freise, Matthias /Pajas, Petr (2004) Organisational and Legal Forms of Nonprofit Organisations: Government – Nonprofit Relationship.
In Zimmer, Annette/Priller, Eckhard (Eds.)

Future of Civic Society.

Making Cent- ral European Nonprofit-Organisations work.

Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Wiesbaden.

129–146.

Habermann, Ulla (2001a) En postmo- derne helgen?

– om motiver til frivil- lighed.

Lund Dissertation in social work.

Lund Universitet.

Lund Habermann, Ulla (2001b) En nordisk frivillighed?

Om motiver til frivillig- hed i fem nordiske lande.

In: Henrik- sen, Lars Skov/Ibsen, Bjarne (red.)


Frivillighedens udfordringer – nordisk forskning om frivilligt arbejde of fri- 104 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services villige organisationer.

Odense Univer- sitetsforlag.

87–106 Habermann, Ulla (2005) Volunteering in Denmark with a focus upon the social field.
Paper presented in the European workshop of the research project Citi- zens’ intermediate organisations and governance of the challenges of wel- fare services in Nordic societies.

Mag- deburg, 24th–25th of November 2005.

Hakondottir, Inga Huld (2000) Philan- thropy, Politics, Religion and Women in Iceland before the Modern Social Welfare system, 1895 – 1935.

In: Markkola, Pirjo (ed.)

Gender and Vocation.

Women, Religion and Social Change in the Nordic Counries, 1830 – 1940.

SKS-FLS.

Helsinki.
SKS-FLS.

Helsinki.

177–210.

Halvorsen, Rune (2002) The paradox of Self-Organisation among Disadvan- taged People: A Study of Marginal Citizenship.

Norges teknisk- naturvitenskapelige universitet Trond- heim.

Diss.

Trondheim.

Halvorsen, Rune (2005) The emergence of social movements by social security claimants.

In Andersen, Joergen Paul/Guillemard, Anne-Marie/Jensen, Per H./Pfau-Effinger, Birgit (eds.)

The changing face of welfare.

Conse- quences and outcomes from a citizen- ship perspective.
Policy Press.

Bristol.

239–254) Halvorsen Sander, Rune/Hvinden, Bjo- ern (1998) Collective Action by Cli- ents and Claimants in Norway.

In: van Berkel, Rik /Coenen, Harry/Vlek, Ruud (Eds.)

Beyond Marginality?

So- cial movements of social security claimants in the European Union.

Ashgate.

Aldershot.

177–202 Hansson, Jan Håkan/Wijstöm, Filip (2001) Civilt samhälle, social economi eller nonprofit?

Fallet Basta Arbetsko- operativ.

Slutrapport från ett forsk- ningsprojekt.


Sköndals institutets skriftserie Nr.

19.

Sköndal Helander, Voitto/Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2001) Frivilligsektorns betydelse i Norden.

In: Henriksen, Lars Skov/Ibsen, Bjarne (red.)

Frivillighe- dens udfordringer – nordisk forskning om frivilligt arbejde of frivillige orga- nisationer.

Odense Universitetsforlag.

Odense.

49–65.

Helander, Voitto (2001) Paikallisyhdis- tykset lähikuvassa: yhteydet, rakenne ja toiminta.

Sosiaali- ja terveysturvan Keskusliitto ry.


Helsinki Helander, Voitto/Sundback, Susan (1998) Defining the Nonprofit Sector; Finland.

John Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project.

John Hop- kins University.

Institute for Policy Studies.

Working Paper Number 34.

Baltimore Helander, Voitto (2004) Paikallisyhdis- tykset kunta-areenalla, KuntaSuomi 2004-tutkimuksia nro 45.

Suomen Kuntaliitto.

Helsinki Henriksen, Lars Skov (1996a) Lokal frivillig organisering i nye omgivelser.

Forlaget ALFUFF.
Forlaget ALFUFF.

Aalborg Universi- tet.

Forskningsgruppen Arbejds- og Levemiljoer.

Forskningseniheden Dif- ferentieret Social Integration.

Aalborg Henriksen, Lars Skov (1996b) Voluntary organisations and local government: lessons form a Danish case study.

In: Voluntas vol 7, Nr 2.

177–194.

Henriksen, Lars Skov /Ibsen, Bjarne (red.)

(2001) Frivilligheds ut- fordringer.

Nordisk forskning om friv- illigt arbejde of frivillige organisa- tioner.

Odende Universitetsforlag.

Odense.


Henriksen, Lars Skov /Ibsen, Bjarne (2001) Inledning: Utfordinger for friv- illigheden.

In: Henriksen, Lars Skov /Ibsen, Bjarne (red.)

(2001) Frivilligheds utfordringer.

Nordisk forskning om frivilligt arbejde of friv- illige organisationer.

Odende Univer- sitetsforlag.

9–22 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 105 Hjemdal, Ole K./Nilsen, Sigrun/Riiser, Bjoern/Seim, Sissel (1996) Kunsten å loefte seg etter håret!
– om selvhjelp i Norge.

Hoegskolen i Oslo.

HiO-rapport 1996 nr 3.

Oslo Hrafnsdottir, Steinunn (2004) The Mo- saic of Gender.

The working environ- ment of Icelandic social service man- ager.

Diss.

University of Iceland Press.

Hrafnsdóttir, Steinunn (2005) The Ice- landic Voluntary Sector: Development and Research.

University of Iceland.

Faculty of Social Sciences.

Paper presented at the First European Con- ference EMES – ISTR Concepts if the third-sector.

Paris 27–29.

May 2005.


Hrafnsdóttir, Steinunn/ Júlíusdóttir, Sigrun/Sigurðardóttir, Sigurveig H. (1998) Selfsufficiency and solidarity.

Unpublished manuscript on motiva- tions of Volunteering in Iceland in a Nordic comparison.

Ibsen, Bjarne (1996) Changes in local voluntary associations in Denmark.

Voluntas, Vol 7, Nr 2, 160–176.

Ibsen, Bjarne/Habermann, Ulla (2005) Definition af den frivillige sektor i Danmark.

Frivillighedsundersoegelsen – en kortlägning af den frivillige sektor i Danmark.
Temahaeftet af Frivillig- hedsundersoegelsen.

www.frivillihedsus.dk Jegermalm, Magnus (2002) Anhörigstöd.

En uppföljningsstudie av kommuners och frivilliga organisationers stöd till äldres anhöriga.

Sköndal institute working papers No 25.

Sköndals- institutet.

Stockholm.

Jeppsson Grassman, Eva (1994) Third Age Volunteering in Sweden.

Skön- dals institutets skriftserie nr 2.

Sköndal Jeppsson Grassman, Eva (2005) På jakt efter den frivilliga sektorns roll inom nordiskt äldreomsorg.
Forskning, Ge- staltningar och perspektiv.

In: Szebe- hely, Marta (red.)

Äldreomsorgsforsk- ning i Norden.

TemaNord 2005: 508.

Nordiska ministerrådet.

Copenhagen.

281–320 Jeppsson Grassman, Eva/ Habermann, Ulla (1999) Ideologie og kritisk udsyn – femten års Nordisk forskning i frivil- ligt arbejde.

Redaktionskommiteé Al- ström, Annika/Buch, Ulla- Britta/Habermann, Ulla/Nylund, Mari- anne/Olsen, Bennedichte R/Sigurdaarsdóttir, Sigurveig H (Red.)
Frivilligt arbete, forskning och förmed- ling – en nordisk konferens I Reykja- vik augusti 1998.

NOPUS-rapport 1999:13.

Göteborg.

37–50 Jeppsson Grassman, Eva /Svedberg, Lars (1999) Medborgarnaskapet gestalt- ningar.

Insatser i och utanför före- ningslivet.

In: Amnå, Erik (red.)

Civilsamhället.

Demokratiutredning- ens forskarvolym VIII.

Statens ofentli- ga utredningar SOU 1999: 84.

Stock- holm.

121–180 Jonasen, Viggo (2002) Non profit or- ganisations in the Danish welfare state system.
An introduction to the 3rd sector in Denmark.

European Social enterprise Training modules.

The Na- tional Danish School of Social Work.

www.dsh-aa.dk Johansson, Staffan (2005) Kommunalt stöd till sociala ideella organisationer.

Omfattning, utveckling och former.

Socialstyrelsen.

Stockholm Jónsson, Gudmundur (2001) Agent and Institutions in the Creation of the Ice- landic Welfare State, 1880–1946.

In: Christensen Roemer, Hilda /Lundberg, Urban/Petersen, Klaus (red.)

Frihet, lighed of tryghed.


Velfaerspolitik I Norden.

Skrifter udgivet af Jysk Sel- skab for Historie nr 48.

Arhus.

Juliusdóttir, Sigun (1999) Humanism – voluntarism – professionalism – Om frivilligt arbeite i Island.

In: Redak- tionskommiteé Alström, Annika/Buch, Ulla-Britta/Habermann, Ulla/Nylund, Marianne/Olsen, Bennedichte 106 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services R/Sigurdaarsdóttir, Sigurveig H (Red.)
Frivilligt arbete, forskning och förmed- ling – en nordisk konferens I Reykja- vik augusti 1998.

NOPUS-rapport 1999:13.

Göteborg.

11–17.

Kauppinen, Sari/Niskanen, Tapani (2005) Yksityinen pavleutuotanto sosi- aali- ja terveydenhuollossa.

Stakes.

Raportteja 288.

Saarijärvi Kloster, Elizabeth/Lidén, Hilde / Lorentzen, Håkon (2003) Frivillihets- sentralen.

Resultater, erfaringer, forandringar.

Institutt for samfunns- forskning.

Rapport 2003:4 Oslo.


Koch-Nielsen, Inger/Rosdahl, David (2005) Frivilligt arbejde, pengegaver og uformelle hjaelpeaktiviteter I den danske befolkning.

Frivillighedsunder- soegelsen.

Socialforskningsinstituttet 2005. www.sfi.dk/arbejdpapirer.

Larsson, Teija (1996) Uusosuustoiminta sosiaalipalveluissa.

In: Matthies, A-L./ Kotakari, U./Nylund, M.

(toim.)

(1996) Välittävät verkostot.

Vastapaino.

Tampere.

139–150.

Lehtinen, Riitta (1996) Työttömät ja vapaaehtoistoiminta.
In: Matthies, A- L./ Kotakari, U./Nylund, M.

(toim.)

(1996) Välittävät verkostot.

Vastapai- no.

Tampere.

107–120.

Leibfried, Stephan (1990) Towards an European Welfare state?

Working Paper.

Center for Social Policiy Re- search.

University of Bremen.

Lewis, Jane (1992) Gender and the development of welfare states.

Journal of European Social policy.

2:3, 159–173.

Lorentzen, Håkon (1994) Frivillighetens integrasjon.

Universitetsforlaget.

Oslo Lorentzen, Håkon (2004) Felleshapets fundament.
Sivilsamsfunnet og indi- vidualismen.

Pax Forlag A/S, Oslo Lorentzen, Håkon/Enjolas, Bernard (2005) Civic society and the tools of government.

Paper to the first Euro- pean Conference of ISTR and EMES, Paris, April 27–29.2005–11–14 Lundström, Tommy (1996) The state and voluntary work in Sweden.

In Voluntas vol 7, No 2.

123–146.

Lundström, Tommy (2004) Teorier om frivilligt socialt arbeite.

En diskussion om forskningens läge och organisatio- nernas framtid.

Sköndals Institutets skriftserie nr 22.


Stockholm Lundström, Tommy/Svedberg, Lars (2003) The Voluntary Sector in a So- cial Democratic Welfare State – The Case of Sweden.

Journal of Social policy Vol 32, Nr 2.

217–238 Matthies, Aila-Leena (1990) Kapinasta muutoksen malliksi.

Vaihtoehtoinen sosiaalityö Suomessa.

Hanki ja Jää Oy.

Helsinki.

Matthies, Aila-Leena (toim.)

(1991) Valtion varjossa.

Katsaus epävirallisen sektorin tutkimukseen.

Sosiaaliturvan Keskusliitto.

Helsinki.


Matthies, Aila-Leena (1994a) The in- formal sector and the welfare state: contemporary relationships.

Diss.

Uni- versity of Jyväskylä.

Jyväskylä Studies in Education, Psychology and Social Research.

Jyväskylä.

Matthies, Aila-Leena (1994b) Subsidia- rität auf dem Kopf?

Der Stellenwert des freiwilligen Sektors im Kontext finnischer Sozialpolitik.

Journal für Sozialforschung.

Vol 34, Nr, 2.

173–195.


Matthies, Aila-Leena (1996) Hyvinvoin- nin sekatalous ja suomalaiset välittävät organisaatiot.

In: Matthies, Aila- Leena/Kotakari, Ulla/ Nylund, Mari- anne (toim.)

Valittävät verkostot.

Vastapaino.

Tampere.

S. 11–32.

Matthies, Aila-Leena (2000) The Need for Plurality and the Finnish Third Sector Research.

In:Siisiäinen, Martti/Kinnunen, Petri/ Hietanen, Elina (Eds.)

The Third Sector in Finland: Review to Research of the Finnish Third Sector.
Finnish Federa- tion for Social Welfare and Health.

Helsinki.

207–220.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 107 Matthies, Aila-Leena/ Järvelä, Marja /Ward, David (eds) (2000) From So- cial Exclusion to Participation.

Explo- rations across Three European Cities.

University of Jyväskylä.

Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy.

Working Papers no 106.

Jyväskylä Meeuwisse, Anna (1999) Debatten om välfärdsstaten och det civila sämhället.

Sköndal Institute.
Sköndal Institute.

Working papers No 11.

Stockholm.

Mikkonen, Irja (1996) Sairastuneiden vertaisryhmät ja terveydenhoidon ammattilaiset.

In: Matthies, A-L./ Ko- takari, U./Nylund, M.

(toim.)

(1996) Välittävät verkostot.

Vastapaino.

217–226.

Ministry of Social Affairs Denmark (2001) Voluntary social work in Den- mark and public policy towards the voluntary social sector.

Ministry of Social Affairs in cooperation with the Volunteer Centre in Denmark.
www.sm.dk Munnukka, Terttu/Kiikkala, Irma/ Valkama, Katri (2005) Vertaiset ver- kossa.

Nettiäidit virtuaalihiekkalaati- kolla.

Teoksessa: Nylund, Marian- ne/Yeung, Anne Birgitta (toim.)

Va- paaehtoistoiminta.

Anti, arvot ja osalli- suus.

Vastapaino.

Tampere.

236–254.

Möttönen, Sakari/Niemelä, Jorma (2005) Kunta ja kolmas sektori.

Yhteistyön uudet muodot.

PS-Kustannus.

Jyväsky- lä Nordfeldt, Marie (2000) De frivilliga organisationernas roll för de hemlösa.

In: Runquist, Weddig/Swärd, Hans (red.)


Hemlöshet.

Om olika perspektiv och förklaringsmodeller.

Carlsson Bokförlag.

Stockholm.

151–167 Nousiainen, Tuula (1996) Kuinka omaishoitajien tukiryhmä käynnistyi.

In: Matthies, A-L./ Kotakari, U./ Nylund, M.

(toim.)

(1996) Välittävät verkostot.

Vastapaino.

207–216.

Nylund, Marianne (1996) Suomalaisia oma-apuryhmiä.

In: Matthies, A-L./ Kotakari, U./Nylund, M.

(toim.)

(1996) Välittävät verkostot.

Vastapaino.

193–206.


Nylund, Marianne (2000) Varieties of mutual Support and Voluntary Action.

A Study of Finnish Self-Help Groups and Volunteers.

Diss.

The Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health.

Helsinki Olsson, Lars-Erik/Nordfeldt, Marie/Larsson, Ola /Kendall, Jeremy (2005) The Third sector and policy processes in Sweden: A centralised horizontal third sector policy commu- nity under strain.
Third Sector Euro- pean Policy Working Paper 3. www.lse.ac.uk/collections/TSEP Olsen, Bennedichte C. R. (1994) Man- fold og muligheter?

En brukerstudie av funsjonshemmedes organisasjoner.

NKSK-Rapport Nr.

94:5.

Oslo Østerud, Øyvind/Selle, Per/Engelstad, Fredrik (2003) Makten og demokratiet: en sluttbok fra Makt- og demokratiut- redningen.

Gyldendal akademisk.

Oslo Pestoff, Victor (1991) Between markets and politics: co-operatives in Sweden.
European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Serie Public pol- icy and social welfare, 7, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main Pestoff, Victor (1998) Beyond the mar- ket and state : social enterprises and civil democracy in a welfare society.

Aldershot.

Ashgate Priller, Eckhard/Zimmer, Annette (2001) Wohin geht der Dritte Sektor?

Eine Einführung.

In: Priller, Eck- hard/Zimmer, Annette (Hrsg.)

Der dritte Sektor international: mehr Markt – weniger Staat?

Edition Stigma.

Ber- lin.


9–26 Redaktionskommiteé Alström, Anni- ka/Buch, Ulla-Britta/Habermann, Ul- la/Nylund, Marianne/Olsen, Benne- dichte R/Sigurdaarsdóttir, Sigurveig H (Red.)

(1999) Frivilligt arbete, forskning och förmedling – en nordisk 108 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services konferens I Reykjavik augusti 1998.

NOPUS-rapport 1999:13.

Götegorg Repstad, Pål (red) 1998) Den lokale verferdsblanding.

Når offentlige og frivillige skal samarbeide.


Universi- tetsforlaget.

Oslo Rieger, Elmar/Leibfried, Stephan (2004) Kultur versus Globalisierung.

Edition Suhrkamp.

Frankfurt am Main.

Roivainen, Irene (toim.)

(2001) Yhteisöt hyvinvoinnin tuottajina.

Uusi Yhteis- työ –projektin loppuraportti.

Kolmen settlementin kokemuksia.

Suomen Settlementtiliitto ry.

Settlementtijul- kaisuja 10.

Helsinki Rust, Ursula (2005) Gleichstellung von Mann und Frau.
In: Linzbach, Chris- toph/Lübking, Uwe/Scholz, Stephanie/Schulte, Bernd (Hrsg.)

Die Zukunft der sozialen Dienste vor der Europäischen Herausforderung.

Nomos.

Baden-Baden 133–152 Rymsza, Marek/Zimmer, Annette (2004) Embeddedness of Nonprofit Organisa- tions: Government – Nonprofit Rela- tionships.

In Zimmer, Annette/Priller, Eckhard (Eds.)

Future of Civic Soci- ety.

Making Central European Nonpro- fit-Organisations work.

Verlag für So- zialwissenschaften.

Wiesbaden.

169– 198.


Salamon, Lester M (2001) Der Dritte Sektor im internationalen Vergleich.

Zusammenfassende Ergebnisse des John Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project.

In: Priller, Eck- hard/Zimmer, Annette (Hrsg.)

Der dritte Sektor international: mehr Markt – weniger Staat?

Edition Stigma.

Berlin.29–56 Schubert, Carlos Buhigas/Martens, Hans (2005) The Nordic Model: A recipe for European Success?

Conclusions.
Conclusions.

European Policy Centre Working pa- per No 20. www.THEEPC.be Seim, Sissel/Hjemdal, Ole K./ Nilsen, Sigrun (1997) Selvhjelp blant mar- ginale grupper – alternative strategier.

.

Hoegskolen i Oslo.

HiO-rapport 1997 nr 1.

Oslo Siisiäinen, Martti (1996) Yhteiskunnalli- set liikkeet, yhdistykset ja hyvinvointi- valtio.

In Matthies, A-L./Kotakari, Ul- la /Nylund, Marianne (toim.)

Välittä- vät verkostot.

Vastapaino.

Tampere.

33–48.


Siisiäinen, Martti (1999) Sosiaalinen pääoma, valta ja kolmas sektori.

In Hokkanen, Liisa/Kinnunen, Petri/ Siisiäinen, Martti (toim.)

Haastava kolmas sektori.

Pohdintoja tutkimuk- sen ja toiminnan moninaisuudesta.

Sosiaali- ja terveysturvan Keskusliitto.

Helsinki, 10–39.

Siisiäinen, Martti (2000) Social Capital, Power and the Third Sector.

In: Siisiäinen, Martti/Kinnunen, Petri/ Hietanen, Elina (Eds.)
The Third Sec- tor in Finland: Review to Research of the Finnish Third Sector.

Finnish Fed- eration for Social Welfare and Health.

Helsinki.

7–35 Siisiäinen, Martti (2003) Vuoden 1997 yhdistykset.

In: Hänninen, Saka- ri/Kangas, Anita/Siisiäinen, Martti (toim. )

Mitä yhdistykset välittävät.

Tutkimuskohteena kolmas sektori.

Atena-Kustannus Oy.

Jyväskylä Siisiäinen, Martti/Kinnunen, Petri/ Hie- tanen, Elina (Eds.)

(2000) The Third Sector in Finland: Review to Research of the Finnish Third Sector.


Helsinki Szebehely, Martha (2005) (red.)

Väl- färdstjenster I omvandling.

Statens offentliga utredningar, 2001:52.

Stockholm.

http://social.regeringen.se/ propositionermm/sou/pdf/sou2001_ 52a, b, c.pdf.

Sivesind, Karl Henrik/Lorentzen, Håkon/Selle, Per/ Wollebaek, Dag (2002) The Voluntary Sector in Nor- way.

Composition, Changes and Cau- ses.

Institutt for samfunnsforskning.

Report 2002:2.


Oslo Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 109 Svedberg, Lars (2001) Spelar ideella och informella insatser någon roll för svensk välfärd?

In Szebehely, Marta (red.)

Välfärdstjenster I omvandling.

Statens offentliga utredningar, 2001:52.

Stockholm.

141–188 http://social.regeringen.se/propositione rmm/sou/pdf/sou2001_52a.pdf.

Svenska Kommunlförvundet (1999) Välfärd I samverkan.

Om kommunerna och frivilligsektorn.


Rapporten I: A. Kommentus Förlag Ab.

Stockholm.

Särkelä, Riitta/Vaarala, Marja/ Peltosalmi, Juha (2005) Sosiaali- ja terveyspalvelujen mahdollisuudet pal- velujen tuottamisessa.

Sosiaali- ja ter- veysturvan Keskusliitto ry.

Saarijärvi.

Trägårdh, Lars (ed) (1995) Civilt sam- hälle kontra offentlig sektor SNS (Stu- dieförb.

Näringsliv och samhälle); Centrum för forskning om offentlig sektor (CEFOS) Univ.
Stockholm Trydegård, Gun-Britt (2001) Välfärds- tjänster till salu – privatisering och al- ternativa driftformer under 1990-talet.

In: Szebehely, Marta (red.)

Välfärds- tjänster i omvandling.

Statens offentli- ga utredningar, 2001:52.

Stockholm.

77–140 http://social.regeringen.se/ propositionermm/sou/pdf/sou2001 _52a.pdf Trygged, Sven (2000) Från fristugan till friskolan.

Ett förändrakooperativ I för- ändring.

Sköndal Institute.

Working paper No 16.

Stockholm.


Turunen, Päivi (2004) Samhällsarbete i Norden.

Diskurser och praktiker i om- vandling.

Diss.

Acta Wexionensia Nr 4/2004.

Socialt arbete.

Växjö Univer- sity Press.

Göteborg UNICEF (2005) Child poverty in rich countries 2005.

Report Card No.

6.

UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.

Florence www.

unicef.org/irg Vanhanen-Silvendoin, Sari (1996) Äitien vuorovaikutusryhmät.

In: Matthies, A- L./ Kotakari, U./Nylund, M.

(toim.)

(1996) Välittävät verkostot.

Vastapai- no.


227–239.

Wijkström, Filip (2001) Neue Schwer- punkte oder neue Rolle?

Der schwedi- sche Nonprofit-Sektor in den 90er Jah- ren.

In: Priller, Eckhard/Zimmer, An- nette (Hrsg.)

Der dritte Sektor interna- tional: mehr Markt – weniger Staat?

Edition Stigma.

Berlin.

77–99 Wilska-Seemer, Kati (2005) Voimaan- tuminen vammaisten naisten vertais- ryhmissä.

Teoksessa: Nylund, Marianne/Yeung, Anne Birgitta (toim.)

Vapaaehtoistoiminta.

Anti, arvot ja osallisuus.


Vastapaino.

Tampere 255–273 Wollebaek, Dag/Selle, Per (2001) Svek- ket kvinnemakt?

Frivillige organisjo- ner i endring 1980–2000.

In: Berven, Nina/Selle, Per (red.)

Svekket kvinnemakt?

De frivillige organisasjo- ne og velferdstaten.

Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.

Oslo.

216–250 Zimmer, Annette/Priller, Eckhard (Eds.)

(2004) Future of Civic Society.

Mak- ing Central European Nonprofit- Organisations work.

Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Wiesbaden.


Yeung, Anne Birgitta (2002) Vapaaeh- toistoiminta osana kansalaisyhteiskun- taa – ihanteita vai todellisuutta?

Sosi- aali- ja terveysjärjestöjen yhteistyöyh- distys YTY ry.

Helsinki Yeung, Anne Birgitta (2004) Individual- ly together.

Volunteering in Late Mod- ernity: Social Work in the Finnish Church.

Diss.

The Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health.

Helsinki.

Appendices Appendix 1.
Participants of the experts’ group interviews49 Denmark • Ulla Habermann, Southern University of Denmark, Center for Research of Sport, Health and Civic Society • Bjarne Ibsen, Southern University of Denmark, Center for Research of Sport, Health and Civic Society Inger Koch-Nielsen, Danish National Institute of Social Research • Iceland • Steinunn Hrafnsdottir, University of Iceland, Department of social work • Omar H Kristmundsson, University of Iceland, Department of political science • Sigurveig H Sigurdardottir, University of Iceland, Department of • social work Jonas Gudmunsson, financial director of Health Care Services, Reykjavik City • David Lynch, Director International of Icelandic Red Cross Finland • Voitto Helander, Åbo Akademi, Department of Public Administration (emeritus) • Marianne Nylund, University of Helsinki, Department of social policy • Martti Siisiäinen.
University of Jyväskylä, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy 49 Some further experts who could neither take part in the group interview nor in individual or telephone interview, provided literature and comments per E-mails.

My best acknowledge- ments also to them.
112 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services • Anne Birgitta Young, University of Helsinki, Collegium for Advanced Studies Norway • Tone Alm Andersson: Norwegian Institute for labour market research • Nina Berven, University of Bergen, The Rokkan Centre/Department of comparative politics • Marith Markussen, Oslo University College • Benedichte Kappana Olsen, Oslo University College • Sissel Seim, Oslo University College • Karl Henrik Sivesind, Norwegian Institute for Social Studies Sweden • Marie Nordfeldt, Ersta University collage/Sköndal Institute • Eva Jeppsson Grassman, University of Linköping • Lars Svedberg, Ersta University collage/Sköndal Institute • Victor Pestoff, University of Mid-Sweden Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 113 Appendix 2.
Lists of most central researches of each country Denmark Researches nominated and overview worked out by Inger Koch Nielsen, assisted by Kaspar Olesen and David Rosenthal 1.

Bjarne Ibsen og Ulla Habermann (2005) Definition af den frivillige sektor i Danmark.

(Defining the voluntary sector in Denmark).

Center for frivilligt socialt arbejde.

www.frivillighedsus.dk.

Copenhagen.


46 Pages The paper brings a short analysis of the background of the voluntary sector in Denmark and tries to define and delineate the sector according to the criteria in the Johns Hopkins Non-Profit Sector Project that this study is a part of.

The main organisational forms of the voluntary sector in Denmark are the associations, the self-governing institution and the charities.

The paper covers the whole sector, not only the social sector.
The analysis shows that it is difficult to compare with other countries as many problems have arisen during the analysis: 1) It is difficult to draw the line between the informal sector (networks, self-help groups) and the voluntary sector.

2) It is difficult to draw the line between the non-profit and the for profit sector, as with the cooperatives that have here been kept outside.
3) In some cases it is also difficult to draw the line between the voluntary and the public sector, as with the Danish Church that has been kept outside the voluntary sector.

2.

Inger Koch-Nielsen og David Rosdahl (2005) Frivilligt arbejde, pen- gegaver og uformelle hjælpeaktiviteter i den danske befolkning.

(Volunta- ry work, donations and informal help activities in the Danish population).

Danish National Institute if Social Research.

Copenhagen www.frivillighedsus.dk.


28 Pages This paper is the first report from the Danish population survey about volunteering that is part of the Danish Johns Hopkins project.

The survey has been based upon interviews with 3100 persons in 2004.
The study covers all kinds of volunteering not just in the social field, and it is found 114 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services that 35% of the adult Danish population had carried out some kind of voluntary work within the last year, only 3% in the social field.

Com- pared to a previous survey from 1993 (Anker & Koch-Nielsen, 1995) an increase from the level of 25% is found to have taken place.
Close to 70% have offered donations and close to 50% have been engaged in informal help to relatives and neighbours.

The importance of many background variables has been studies and the results show, that those engaged in the social field differ from the other volunteers being older, less educated and more church-oriented.

3.

Lars Skov Henriksen (1995) Frivillige organisationer i den decentrale velfærdsstat.
(Voluntary Organiszations in the Decentralized Welfare State) Institut for sociale forhold og organisation, Aalborg Universitet.

Aalborg.

287 Pages This dissertation deals with the changing position of voluntary organi- zations in the decentralized Scandinavian welfare state within the field of social policy.

The dissertation has a double purpose.

First, it is a critical exploration into the theory of voluntary organizations and welfare state theory.
Second, it is an empirical enquiry into the interplay between vol- untary organization and local government in one Danish municipality, Aalborg.

The study counts seven organizations primarily chosen to obtain the greatest variation possible.

Three ideal-type patterns of interaction are extracted from the organizations’ co-operation with local government: the contractual, the critical and the closed self-legitimizing.
The dissertation also contains an analysis of the public arguments of seeking a close co- operation with voluntary organizations.

These arguments are divided into two: the ideological type underlining the special values and qualities of the organizations and more pragmatic arguments underlining the eco- nomic, political and administrative flexibility that may be obtained from the voluntary organizations.
The analysis indicates that voluntary organi- zations are becoming integrated in the local service provision, and on the micro level voluntary work is seen as a specific method in social work.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 115 4.

Lars Skov Henriksen og Bjarne Ibsen (2001) Frivillighedens udfor- dringer (Challenges to voluntary action) Odense Universitetsforlag.

Odense.
Odense.

221 Pages This book is a Nordic anthology with contributions from the most prominent researchers within this field.

The aim of the book is to strengthen the dialogue between research and the voluntary sector through disseminating relevant and recent research and debate.

The aim is to mirror the development in research within this sector through more critical analyses at a time where the political rhetoric only stresses the blessings of the voluntary sector.
Part 1 brings an analysis of the volun- tary sector in the Nordic countries with different perspectives upon con- cepts, figures and motives.

Part 2 brings contributions about democracy and the potentials for integration with contributions about the popular anchoring of the organisations, social capital in the Nordic countries, and forms of management.
Part 3 discusses new conditions for voluntary action brought about by changes in the greater societal structure as priva- tisation, commercialisation and the new management ideology.

5.

Peter Bundesen (m.fl) (2001) Filantropi, selvhjælp og interesseorgani- sering.

Frivillige organisationer i dansk socialpolitik 1849–1990´erne.

(Philantrophy, Self-help and Interest Groups in Danish social policy 1849–1990) Odense Universitetsforlag.

Odense.

447 Pages.
Odense.

447 Pages.

This is a study of the development in the role and importance of vol- untary social organisations.

The aim is to put the present role attributed to voluntary action and the voluntary sector into a broader historical context in order to describe and discuss the ongoing debate on the characteristics of the voluntary organisations and the relation to the welfare state.
The study has been based upon 13 case studies within social organisations grouped into the main types of organisations: Philanthropic organisations, mutual self-help organisations and member-based interest groups.

The first period from 1848 until the end of the century was character- ised by a sharp division between the public system of poor relief and the voluntary initiatives of many different kinds.
The partnerships between the public and the voluntary sector around bringing assistance to those in need starts at the beginning of 1900, but as the role of the public sector expands after the second world war, the importance of the voluntary or- ganisations as welfare providers is diminishing, while at the same time 116 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services the role as an advocate for different groups is gaining importance.
But as the critic of the welfare state increases from the 1970s and onward the voluntary sector is seen as an important and necessary actor in the social field as it is conceived as a challenge to the established system.

6.

Ulla Habermann (2001) En postmoderne helgen – om motiver til frivil- lighed.

(A post-modern saint – about motives for volunteering).

A disser- tation in social work.

Socialhögskolan i Lund.

Lund.


382 Pages The theme of the dissertation is motives for voluntarism – with par- ticular focus on social work compared to voluntary work in sports clubs and patient association.

The question is why people commit themselves to voluntary work and what voluntarism means to people in our day and age.
In the first part of the dissertation motives are discussed and de- fined in the context of the study as “consciously formulated answers to “why” questions.” Then follows a historical part that focuses upon three traditions in the Danish voluntary sector in the 20th century: !)

the so- operative tradition , 2) the popular education tradition, and the philan- thropic tradition.

In the last parts of the dissertation the methodology and data are pre- sented.
The dissertation is based upon a questionnaire study among 2500 volunteers in social and health organisations and 1165 volunteers in sport organisations about values, 288 letters from volunteers and literature studies.

The questionnaire is based upon the so-called Volunteers Func- tion Inventory.

The study shows that the motives are mixed, that the ac- tivities performed by men and women are different but that the motives are uniform also between young and old.

The motive hierarchy is as fol- lows.


1) values, cause, 2) learning, 39 identity, 4)comradeship, 5) influ- ence, 6) social expectations and 7) career motives.

There are differences between the way the motives are perceived in the different types of or- ganisations.

7.

Villadsen, Kaspar (m.fl.)

(1998) Socialpolitiske strategier – på tværs af frivillige og offentlige organisationer.

(Social policy strategies across voluntary and public boundaries) Socialforskningsinstituttet.

Copenha- gen. 180 Pages.


The aim of this report has been to describe and discuss some of the stereotypes of social work in voluntary organisations in contrast to public Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 117 organisations?

Is it based upon different rationalities, or can the same rationalities or discourses be traced across the sectors, and are the applied social techniques as different as is often assumed in the public debate?
The study focuses upon three strategies in different periods: the strategies applied towards the youth narcotics in the beginning of the 1960s, the strategies applied in the 1980s re.

different socially vulnerable groups, and finally the strategy of the competent user that evolved in the 1990s.
Based upon reading of documents from the private and public services it is described how the techniques vary between periods in time, between the different target groups and between different kind of institutions, and it is claimed that those differences are as least as important as those be- tween public and voluntary/private services.

8.

Koch-Nielsen, Inger & Clausen, Jacob Dalsgaard (2002) Værdierne i det frivillige arbejde.

(Values in voluntary work).

In: Gundelach, Peter (ed.)

Danskernes Værdier.


Hans Reitzels Forlag.

Copenhagen.

Pages 232–259 This article has been based upon the European Value Survey, and compares the level of volunteering in five countries: Denmark, France, UK, The Netherlands, Italy and Germany.

The number of respondents was approx.

1,000 in Denmark, UK and The Netherlands, 1600 in France and approx.

2,000 in Germany and Italy.


The focus of the article is not upon the overall volunteering rate but upon sector specific volunteering within the social field, the political field and the field of sports and cul- ture.
The article describes the many different determinants of volunteer- ing for all the countries and for each country taking into account not only socio-demographic factors but different value factors as political interest, tolerance, trust, attitudes towards the role of the welfare state, religious- ness and church going.

Voluntary social work is less frequent in Denmark than in UK and The Netherlands, but more frequent than in Germany and France – differences that are not easily explained.
But the social volun- teers in Denmark don’t differ from the social volunteers in the other countries.

118 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Finland Researches selected by Riikka Westman and Aila-Leena Matthies, over- view worked out by Riikka Westman 1.

Grönberg, Ville (2004) Yhteisötalous ja sosiaalinen yrittäjyys (Social economy and social enterprise).

STAKES.

Helsinki.

175 Pages.


This publication is an important output of Social enterprises and social economy -project.

The aim of the book is to describe social economy and its activators and inform about social enterprises and their development in Finland.

The main headings of the publication are: Social economy and social enterprise, Activator of social economy, Experiences of the devel- opment projects and Social enterprises in Finland.
In the first part of the publication the aim is to deliberate basis of so- cial entrepreneurship, explain the concept of social economy and survey social capital.

Minister for employment, Tarja Filatov, handles in her article why social enterprises have been raised in employment policy.

Research leader Pekka Pättiniemi defines in his article social economy and its associated activators.

The second part of the publication intro- duces the activators of social economy in Finland.
The first three articles handle organisations, which have had traditionally a strong position in Finnish voluntary work and service production (especially social and health services).

The third part of the book handles the operations models, which improve entrepreneurship.

The models are developed in the Equal- project called ‘Social enterprises’.

The last part of the book inspects so- cial enterprises in accordance with new law and their operation conditions in Finland.
The law of social enterprises came into force in the beginning of 2004.

The group of questions followed the law, which are deliberated in the articles.

2.

Helander, Voitto (2001) Paikallisyhdistys lähikuvassa (Local associa- tions: connections, structure and activity) Sosiaali- ja terveysturvan keskusliitto (Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health) Helsinki.

109 Pages.

Organisations of citizens are in the middle of public sector and civil society.
They have a role of service producers and employers in addition to civil society.

Associations have got more and more attention also as a complementary activator of representative democracy.

The book concen- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 119 trates on the activity, organizing and significance of local associations in Finnish society.

The research is based on extensive and comprehensive empirical material.
This research report is mainly based on an extensive questionnaire, which was directed to local organisations.

The need for the inquiry came up from the international third sector research project – Johns Hopkins -project.

This publication is based on the project’s re- search material of local organisations.

The resources, connections, characters and members of associations are described in the publication.
In addition, the book describes contribu- tion of associations in voluntary action, employment and partnership with other activators.

Organisational activities, which are composed of tens of thousands of units, are known quite poorly until now.

This concerns espe- cially local associations in grass-root level.

Finnish associations are main- ly culture, club or leisure-time associations, but there are also a lot of social and health care associations as well.
Characteristic for the Finnish association is multi-functionalism.

This concerns especially social and health service providers.

Social and health care associations conceive as service providers and emphasize they need to profile themselves as non- profit voluntary organisations.

Differentiation of Finnish municipal struc- ture comes quite strongly out in the structural and functional feature of local associations.
The size of the municipal affects on the size, structure, resources and financing of the associations.

Excluding the paid work, the local associations produce almost alone the human resources, which are in use of third sector in Finland.

The economy of associations is two-fifth of the third sector economy.

3.

Kauppinen, Sari/Niskanen, Tapani (2005) Yksityinen palvelutuotanto sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollossa (Private provision of social and health services) STAKES.
288 Pages This report of STAKES on the Private Provision of Social and Health Services is intended to be a basic report on private social and health ser- vices, published at regular intervals (start 2003).

The share of private provision in social and health services as a whole can best be evaluated on the basis of personnel and expenditure.

As both of these involve their own particular uncertainty factors, this publication incorporates details of both for calculating the private sector’s share.
The fairly large regional variation in the private sector share can only be examined on the basis of 120 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services personnel.

The development trend in the private sector’s share, too, can only be described on the basis of personnel.

The number of private social service providers has clearly grown in the 1990s.

Service units have more than quadrupled; there were 750 units in 1990, while the corresponding figure was 3,000 in 2002.
Just over half the units are maintained by wel- fare organizations.

Based on the number of service units, sheltered hous- ing and group homes comprise the most significant field of activity; they were the main service provided by a third (1,168) of the units in 2002.

This was followed by 690 children’s daycare providers and then by 360 home-help service providers.
Recent years have seen a rise in housing and home-help services, residential and family care for children and young people, day activities and children’s day care centre services.

Or- ganizations have mainly established units to cater for housing services, day activities and home-help, while the most common areas of activity for new company set-ups include housing and home-help services, resi- dential and family care for children and young people and children’s day care centres.
Private social and health service providers serve both the public (local authorities, joint municipal boards, the Social Insurance Institutions (SII) and the State Treasury) and private customers (for example households and employers).

Purchasing private social and health services is reim- bursed from public funds.

SII’s sickness insurance is the most important and longstanding form of support.
Finland’s Slot Machine Association’s (RAY) support for social and health organizations is the most significant form of support.

Also local authorities grant support to the private service providers.

In addition, the Ministry of trade and Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry are able to grant support to companies in the industry via Employment and Economic Development Centres for the purpose of investing, research and development.

4.
4.

Kinnunen, Petri/Laitinen, Raimo (1998) Näkymätön kolmas sektori (The invisible third sector) Sosiaali- ja terveysturvan keskusliitto.

Helsin- ki.

189 Pages The Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health has published a book introducing the Finnish third sector and its role in Finnish society, containing comprehensive articles written by the third sector researchers in Finland.
The position and role of the third sector is currently disputed Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 121 in many ways.

Some experience the third sector as an opportunity and others see it as an unfulfilled wish.

What third sector really is?

Why its social status has risen?

The publication answers to the question why the debate of the third sector begun in the end of 1990s and what opportuni- ties it has in this time.
The publication ties also to increase knowledge of Finnish social and health care organisations.

General picture of the third sector is still unshaped in many easy.

Per- ceiving the view is a lengthy process and progress only in stages.

In this publication the articles try to bring new subjects to the discussion.

The two main themes of the publication are discussion and evaluation of re- search approaches of the third sector.
For the first time the social and health care organisations, which receive financial support of the Finnish Slot Machine Association, are described.

The publication brings also a governmental view to the inspection.

In addition, the position and histori- cal context of the social and health care organisations are analysed.

The book includes the following articles of several autors: 1.

Possibility of the third sector (discussing theses of J. Rifkins’ ‘The end of work’; 2.

Wel- fare and the third sector.


(Wherefrom the new expectations of the third sector rise?)

3.

The voluntary organizations and fight of the classes.

(about voluntary organisations and new formation of movements).

4.

From the forgotten sector to the rescuer of the unsuccessful time.

(the basis of the third sector, research and deliberation of third sector).

5.

The volume of the social and health care organisations’ economy and struc- tures of the activity.
(empirical survey of the social and health care organi- sations receiving support of the Finnish Slot Machine Association).

6.

Third sector – side conditions of the employment.

(how financing the new work assignments crashes into conditions of open economy).

7.

Econ- omy, democracy and the third sector.

(economic and social perspective joint into development of democratic society).

5.
5.

Laamanen, Elina/Ala-Kauhaluoma, Mika/Nouko-Juvonen, Susanna (2002) Kuntien ja kolmannen sektorin projektiyhteistyö sosiaali- ja ter- veydenhuollossa: kokemuksia ja kehittämisajatuksia (Project cooperation between local authorities and the third sector regarding social affairs and health care) Suomen Kuntaliitto (The Association of Finnish Munici- palities) Helsinki.
117 Pages 122 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services The study compares the experiences of actors in local authorities and the third sector (associations, foundations) gained from social affairs and health care projects.

The experiences of the partners are studied from the point of view of joint operations across organisational borders.
The objec- tive of the study is to produce information for increasing the municipali- ties’ and the third sector’s readiness to cooperate and for developing a productive project cooperation.

Fifteen municipalities and dozens of third sector organisations were chosen for the study.

The chosen organisations carried out development and service projects aimed at promoting welfare or preventing exclusion together with the studied municipalities.
The study was based on surveys and complementing thematic interviews car- ried out with those who were involved.

The questionnaire was also sent to the directors of social affairs and health care in the studied municipalities and to the chairmen and deputy chairmen of committees for social ser- vices and health and to other similar committees.
The most positive experiences of the cooperation are related to com- petence and motivation of those involved in the project cooperation, the open atmosphere for discussion and the consensus on the objectives.

Ac- cording to the representatives of the municipalities and the organisations, insufficient financial and human resources were the weakest link in the cooperation.
The organisations have somewhat more initiative and they are more efficient than the municipalities in informing on cooperation possibilities.

A number of the organisations’ representatives are of the opinion that there should be more cooperation between their own munici- pality and the third sector.
Nine respondents out of ten found that the cooperation has improved the capacity for identifying the citizens’ service needs, for promoting the availability of welfare services and for improv- ing the position of citizens at risk of exclusion.

Especially the organisa- tions’ representatives underlined the importance of ‘strategic inclusion’, they want to increase joint planning and cooperation in the preparation of welfare programmes.
Both parties underlined the need to strengthen ini- tiative and communication in view of realising cooperation possibilities.
The major development needs in the project cooperation between local authorities and organisations regarding social affairs and health care are related to (1) contract models, cost monitoring and development of qual- ity management and directives, (2) communication between partners and joint planning at project level and regarding strategic dialogue and (3) Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 123 solutions related to the division of work between municipalities and or- ganisations and resources in relation to social policy.
6.

Matthies, Aila-Leena (1994) Epävirallisen sektorin ja hyvinvointival- tion suhteiden tarkastelua (The informal sector and the welfare state: contemporary relationships) University of Jyväskylä.

63 Pages.

(direct quotation of the Abstract of the dissertation) This research aims to discuss how the relationships between the informal sector and the welfare state vary in different welfare state constellations and in different stages of modernization.
On the one hand I approach it from an interna- tional comparative perspective of informal (third, non-profit, non- governmental, voluntary) sector in various types of welfare states.

On the other hand I analyze the research target on the level of activating citizens’ participation, especially on the field of social work.
By analysing the Finnish 1980s debate on voluntary activities, I show that the expanding systems of public social services and social work do not necessarily re- duce the scope but mould the contents of the voluntary sector.

The special definition of the position and tasks of voluntary activities allowed for a consensus between the state-dominated Nordic system of social policy and a modern active civil society.
The different stages (or types) of rela- tionships between the informal sector and the welfare state can be inter- preted through ideal-typical categories of the premodern, modern and reflexive modern.

The institutionally organised modern Finnish informal sector is closely integrated to public institutions through systematic coop- eration.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the economic depression influences the relationships and questions anew their stability.
A more self-organised type of citizen’s activities is emerging and the overloaded professionals are more pleased than reserved about it.

The new, shared predicament gives way to a more egalitarian (reflexive) cooperation between the actors from both sectors.

The combined resources in the intermediate area be- tween the sectors seem to respond to the complex challenges at its best.

However, due to uncertainty and shifts, the relationships can also develop in a more diffuse direction.
124 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 7.

Matthies, Aila-Leena/Kotakari, Ulla/Nylund, Marianne (1996) Välittä- vät verkostot (Caring/Intermediating Networks).

Vastapaino.

Tampere.

276 Pages The aim of the book is to describe changes, which affect Finnish mixed economy of welfare and force labour market, business enterprises and professionals of welfare state to change their usual roles.

The main headings of the publication are: What exists between the sectors?
In her contribution, Aila-Leena Matthies gives an introduction to the theoretical basis of the concept of intermediate networks and analyses its current Finnish situation.

This article assortment analyses the intermedi- ate area theoretically and perceive its operational content in Finland.

Martti Siisiäinen analysis in his article the relationships of organized citizens and welfare state The interesting result is that protest waves have increased the amount of associations in Finland.
Ilkka Sipiläinen writes about the challenges of Lutheran church.

It has been characteristic to the Finnish church to support the main responsibility of the state.

However, since the depression of 1990s the church has admitted and enlarged its social responsibility.

Merva Mikkola describes how the development of community work has increased the resident associations.

Jouko Nätti writes about differentiation and risk exposure labour market.

He congre- gates the entire inspection of labour market crisis.
Leila Simonen analyses the care entrepreneurs in the countryside.

Riitta Lehtinen describes her case study about the voluntary activity of unemployed people.

Ulla Sa- lonen-Soulié describes the alternative labour market in Nordic countries, which aims at opening the impasses of traditional labour markets.

The flea markets are analysed as part of intermediate area in the article of Päivi Lamponen.
Teija Larsson deliberates new cooperative operations as part of social services and the cooperative stores are analysed by Kaj Ilmonen in his article.

The article of Kotakari and Rusanen introduces the research results, which have been got of citizen’s readiness of participation and willing- ness to turn to civil activity and informal networks in difficulties of life.

Marianne Nylund writes in her article about self-help groups in Finland.
The support group of Care Giving Relatives is analysed by Tuula Nousia- inen.

The peer support group of the diseased and health care professionals is an article written by Irja Mikkonen.

In addition Vanhanen-Silvendoin writes about the interaction groups of young mothers.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 125 8.

Nylund, Marianne (2000) Varieties of mutual support and voluntary action.

The Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health.

Helsinki.
Helsinki.

166 Pages Abstract of the dissertation (direct quotation): My study builds a con- ceptual framework of phenomena mutual support and voluntary action.

I describe how self-help groups and volunteering are organised, what kinds of tasks are performed, by whom and for whom.

In addition, mutual sup- port and voluntary action will be located in the Finnish society according to their relation to other sectors (public sector, market sector, and house- holds).
Goals of self-help groups and motives of volunteers are studied with a variety of data (questionnaires, documents, articles).

The study consists of five articles and a summary article.

In the first article “Voluntary Social and Health Organisations: Finland in the Eu- ropean Context” the organisations are examined in relation to the public sector in four countries Finland, Germany, Sweden, and the United King- dom.
Article two “The Role of Self-Help Groups in the Finnish Welfare State” describes the structure and activities of self-help groups, and arti- cle three “Action and Togetherness: Volunteers in Associations of Unem- ployed People” illustrates how self-help groups and voluntary activities are combined in the associations of unemployed.
In article four “Volun- teering in Finland – Volunteers Involved in Helping and Learning”, the volunteers’ altruistic and individualistic motives are analysed, and in article five “Mixed Motives of Young Nordic Volunteers”, young volun- teers’ motives are compared in five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden).

In the summary article, the results are discussed in their historical, conceptual, and societal context.
The results clearly indicate that self-help groups, volunteers, and voluntary associations neither can be defined as one phenomenon in voluntary sector, nor can they be located in one spot in a societal framework.

Historically, self-help groups are based on the ideologies of self-help and mutual support (mutualism), and voluntary action on Christian charity and philanthropy.
The Finnish voluntary sec- tor in the 1990s can be described by a mixture of motives (individualistic- altruistic- togetherness), various voluntary activities (individual, group, organisational), hybrids of associations (‘we-for-us’, ‘I for-you’) and self- help groups (citizen, associational, public, mixed; personally oriented, empowerment-oriented).
Self-help groups and voluntary associations are 126 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services characterised by innovations and evaluations of public services.

Through mutual support and voluntary action, citizens acquire experimental know- ledge that could be useful in planning and implementing social and health services.

9.

Siisiäinen, Martti/Kinnunen, Petri/Hietanen, Elina (2000) The Third Sector in Finland: Review to Research of the Finnish Third Sector.
Fin- nish Federation for Social Welfare and Health, Helsinki, 224 P. The Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health in co-operation with the University of Lapland has published this book in English intro- ducing the Finnish third sector.

The book contains comprehensive articles written by the famous third sector researchers in Finland.

The book is the first and largest debate on the Finnish NGO-sector written in English.

The book includes the following articles: 1.


Social capital and power (Martti Siisiäinen).

2.

Arenas for civic action (Anneli Pohjola).

3.

Social back- ground of the rise of the Finnish third sector (Raija Julkunen).

4.

Diver- sity and new communality in the third sector (Leif Rönnberg).

5.

The social welfare support of citizens and the third sector (Petri Kinnunen).

6.

Labour market subsidy and people employed in the third sector (Liisa Hokkanen/Petri Kinnunen).

7.
7.

Peer support as paid work (Liisa Hok- kanen).

8.

Unofficial aid as a shaper of relations between the third sector and the state (Jouko Karjalainen).

9.

The economic nature of the Finnish third sector (Jukka Ohtonen).

10.

Employment relations in the third sector (Seppo Koskinen).

11.

The need for plurality of the third sector research (Aila-Leena Matthies).

10.
10.

Södergård, Hans (1998) Sosiaali- ja terveysala käännekohdassa (So- cial and health field in turning point: private and third sector analysis and tendencies of development).

Taloustieto.

Helsinki.

170 Pages The publication describes private and third sector in social and health care.

The perspectives of the book are market and competition circum- stances in social and health care market.
The aim of the analysis is to find answers how the resources of the sectors could be exploited in the situa- tion when public resources will not increase.

The base of the analysis is a wide source and interview material.

The main purpose of the analysis is to clarify the effects of these challenges and possibilities.

The analysis is based on three main parts.


First part includes aims and basis, inspection Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 127 of change strength and analysis of customers, service producers and fi- nanciers in social and health care.

The central theme of second part is the effects of market growth in social and health care and circumstances of competition.

Third part includes development ideas and suggestions.
The main results of the research are suggestions for development.

The author points out, that public sector has a possibility to develop its role as regula- tor and creator of activity conditions.

The third sector should be seen as wider totality and its activity should be developed.

Third sector could develop its role both as service producer and customer.

Also the whole private sector should find itself a functioning role in the change.
The author suggests that the support of the society should be clarified.

Also other suggestions are presented.

The research tries to find the directions of development.

11.

Yeung, Anne Birgitta (2002) Vapaaehtoistoiminta osana kansalaisyh- teiskuntaa – ihanteita vai todellisuutta?

Tutkimus suomalaisten asennoi- tumisesta ja osallistumisesta vapaaehtoistoimintaan (Voluntary activity part of civil society – ideals or reality?
(Attitudes and participation in voluntary activity of Finnish people) Sosiaali- ja terveysjärjestöjen yh- teistyöyhdistys YTY.

Helsinki.

85 Pages In Finland, voluntary activity, neighbourly help and caring of fellow- man have traditionally been part of the daily life.

In the stable time of economic growth those were not noticed.
The situation is now changing: after the economic recession of last decade public government has trans- ferred the expectations and the obligations of welfare society more and more to the voluntary sector.

Voluntary activity has formed in one of the foundation columns of civil society.

Every third Finnish person is volun- tary.

What kind of activity and arenas Finnish voluntary persons operate?

How the citizens’ activity vary regionally, by age group and by educa- tional background?
What kind of motives lead the Finnish people in vol- untary activity?

These are some questions, which the research answers to.

The Finnish people are active in participating in voluntary activity.

Near- ly two of five (37%) has participated this or recent year in some voluntary activity.

The most popular (30%) areas of Finnish voluntary activity are sports and exercise.

Next mostly people participate in social and health care (25%).
The most important motive to voluntarism is willingness to help other people (41%).

Half of the Finnish people would be willing to 128 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services participate in voluntarism, if they would be asked to.

On the whole, the research findings draw a positive picture of both the participation of the Finnish people in voluntary activity and willingness to do so.

This means mutual participation and confidence.


Voluntary activity is one dynamic base for social capital and civil society.

It can be said that voluntary activ- ity as building material of Finnish civil society is not only idealism but also reality and potential.

12.

Yeung, Anne Birgitta (2004) Individually together: volunteering in late modernity: social work in the Finnish church.

The Finnish Federati- on for Social Welfare and Health, Helsinki, 170 Pages.
Present-day individuals are both freer from the cohesion of traditions and traditional social networks and more tied to new kinds of networks and bonds.

The broad theoretical framework of the present study concerns the late modern dimension of independence versus dependence.

The ob- jective of this research is to understand the phenomenon of church volun- teering in the dynamic interplay between social independence and de- pendence, particularly in relation to social ties and religiosity.
This aim has been realized by an empirical inquiry focusing on social ties, altruism and helping, and motivation of volunteering.

The motivation for the re- search lies in the question of what is happening to communal church vol- unteering in our times of individualistic ethos.

The study consists of four articles and an introductory essay.

The arti- cles pose five specific questions on church volunteering under the cover- ing theme of late modern changes.
First, taking social work as an indica- tor, how has the status of the church altered during the 20th century, and what are the particular effects of the recession of the 1990s?

Second, is the relation between social capital and religion and churches relevant, and what is the meaning of the social capital framework for actual church volunteering?

Third, how does church volunteering promote social cohe- sion, societal social capital?
Fourth, what characterizes the religiosity, altruistic willingness and social ties of church social work volunteers?

Fifth, what motivates church volunteers to engage in such activities and to remain committed, and what role is played by social ties and religios- ity?
Along with empirical survey and interview data, the four articles utilize secularization, social capital, and motivation theories to answer these questions, which all reflect the larger dimension of independence Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 129 versus dependence in late modern social ties and religiosity.

The intro- ductory essay brings together the findings in the four articles in order to see the linkages between them and explore the main research objective.
This exploration is constructed around the overall questions concerning societal ties: whom does church volunteering bond and why (chapter 4) and does it bond society (chapter 5)?

Prior to answering this question, it is necessary to explain the phenomenon of church volunteering in the intro- ductory essay by looking at its context, historical origin and the character- istics of the Finnish case as well as the recent challenges it has faced (chapter 3).
Altogether, the results draw a picture of complementary polarities of volunteer work.

Volunteerism includes moves along the late modernity processes, such as individualization, yet also indications of its counter- moves.
More than many other forms of social action, volunteering is an arena for both ends of the dimension from independence to dependence: change, personal search, individualistic wishes and individuality, as well as continuity, everyday life activities, collectivistic wishes and communality take place in volunteering.

The results altogether suggest novel conceptualizations in the late modernity perspective: overall selv- ing, altruistic individualism, as well as religious altruism, and altruistic religiosity.
Iceland Researches nominated and overview worked out by Steinunn Hrafnsdóttir 1.

Hrafnsdóttir, Steinunn and Bergsdóttir, Hildur (2003) Rannsókn á framlagi og efnahagslegu mikilvægi sjálfboðastarfa (The Volunteer In- vestment and Value Audit –VIVA-study on the contribution and economi- cal value of volunteering in the Icelandic Red Cross).

University of Ice- land: Department of Social Work and the Icelandic Red Cross.

Reykjavik.

26 Pages.


This report presents the findings from a research on the extent of vol- unteers’ contribution and its economical value within the Icelandic Red Cross.

The Icelandic Red Cross and The University of Iceland Research Fund financed the research.

The aim of the VIVA research in Iceland is to estimate the extent of volunteers’ contribution and its economical value 130 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services within the Icelandic Red Cross for the year 2002.
The research was car- ried out by the initiative of the Icelandic Red Cross.

A special method, Volunteer Investment and Value audit, developed by the National Centre for Volunteering, UK is used to calculate the value and cost related the work done by volunteers.

Data was collected through a questionnaire that was sent to all the 51 districts in the Icelandic Red Cross.

In whole 21 districts of the 51 or 41.2% responded to the research.
In addition to the questionnaires, re- searchers used annual report of 2002 and the Icelandic Red Cross data bank of volunteers for further information.

Besides, telephone contacts were used to get further information.

In the study the focus is put on the type of work that volunteers carry out.

Therefore it was decided to use different reference pay for different kinds of voluntary work, instead of using a minimum standard salary for all kinds of voluntary work.
By doing that the researchers wanted to ob- tain a more realistic outcome of the volunteers´ financial value.

The re- searchers tried to match what volunteers did with equivalent paid work.

The volunteers´ work was classified as follows: Management and com- mittees, care work, services, emergencies help and first aid, fundracing, training, collecting and sorting clothes.
Participants were also asked about investment involuntary work, for example by training the volunteers, travelling, advertisement, supplies and equipment for the volunteers etc.

Total investment for voluntary work in the year 2002 was 38,720,600 millions Icelandic kronur.

Total value of the volunteers work this same year was 112,329,600 millions Icelandic kronur.

By comparing volun- teers´ investment and value as the VIVA method suggests it is revealed that the VIVA ratio is 3.
That means that every Icelandic krona that is put in voluntary expenditure triples its value.

The findings reveal that the volunteers worked 66,411 hours in 2002 in all kinds of assignments such as caring, management, first-aid, training and services.

The findings indi- cate that volunteers are a valuable asset for the Icelandic Red Cross.

2.

Júlíusdóttir, Sigrún., Sigurðardóttir, Sigurveig H. (1997).

Hvers vegna sjálfboðastörf?

Um sjálfboðastarf, félagsmálastefnu og félagsráðgjöf (Why volunteer work?
About volunteering, social policy and social work).

Reykjavík, University of Iceland Press.

75 Pages Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 131 This book is about volunteering, charity and professionalism.

The main emphasis is on Icelandic results from a Nordic comparative research on motives and some comparison is made with the other Nordic coun- tries.

The research was funded by The Icelandic Red Cross and The Uni- versity of Iceland Research Fund.
The analysis is based on answers from totally 575 respondents and the response rate is 57%.

The data was proc- essed statistically through frequency lists and cross-reference tables.

Sig- nificance levels was decided at 0.05 and factor anlyses was done to make sure that the theoretical motive dimension also generated similiar empiri- cal motive circles.

The factor analyses confirm that there are six basic factors or dimen- sions of different importance.
The ranking of the six basic factors are as follows: 1.Value weighs the most, or 81%.

Personal values are the most important factor that motivates people.

2.

Learning factors namely to gain an understanding of the circumstances under which other live, 72%.

3.

Identity or the need to improve self evaluation, 60%.

4.

Social expecta- tions, which includes the need for social recognition that meets the expec- tations of the immediate environment, 30%.

5.

The desire for influence consists of 13%.

6.


Career is the least important motive in volunteer work or 11%.

The great majority of volunteers at The Red Cross and The As- sociation for Elderly people are women (68%).

Men on the other hand render more hours compared to the women (17 hours per month com- pared to 11 hours by women).

When a comparison is drawn between the Icelandic results and those of the other Nordic countries it is clear that volunteers seem to be driven by similar motivations.
The value dimension is once again the most im- portant factor and factors based upon individualistic motivations are less important.

The Icelandic research confirms that the Icelanders are mainly driven by the same motivations as other nations, namely that the same basic factors form the basis for volunteer work here as elsewhere.

3.

Hrafnsdóttir, Steinunn (2005) Sjálfboðaliðastarf á Íslandi (Voluntee- ring in Iceland).

Reykjavík, University of Iceland, IMG Gallup: 1–61.
This report presents the first results of a comprehensive research on the scope, structure, contribution and role of the Icelandic voluntary sector.

The survey is based on a random sample of adults aged 18–80 years old.

The population is 1500 and the final response rate is 58%.

The data was gath- 132 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services ered by telephone interviews by IMG Gallup in Iceland.
In the survey re- spondents are asked various questions about formal volunteering.

It is most common to volunteer for Sports organizations, charities, Parents associations and/or schools and church and religious groups.

There seem to be little gender differences in overall levels of volunteering in Iceland or 42% of men compared to 39% of women.
However, it is more common that men volunteer in sports, recreation and rescue and relief services and women in parents associations, charities and in church and religious work.

Women and men also seem to participate in different kinds of activities.

It is more common for men to be involved in commit- tee work 81% versus 71% of women and less likely to be engaged in befriending and visiting activities 22% versus 31%.

In most other volun- teer work men and women participate similarly.
Volunteering seems to increase with the amount of higher formal education and it is most com- mon that married people in the age group 35–44 years old volunteer com- pared to other groups.

When asked about reasons for volunteering, cur- rent volunteers give a mixture of altruistic and self-interested reasons, including personal reasons (38.2%), I wanted to help (23%) and because of interest of the issue (16.9%).
When asked why people did not volun- teer most responded that they did not have time (38.5%) and that they had never been asked (28%).

It seems to be that volunteer participation in Iceland is similar to the other Nordic countries which all have a high degree of volunteer activity.

4.

Guðmundsdóttir, Margrét.

Aldarspor.

Hvítabandið 1895–1995.

(The History of the White Ribbon 1895–1995).

Reykjavík.

Skákprent.

299 Pa- ges This is a book on the History of the Icelandic White Ribbon.
It is pub- lished to celebrate the 100 years anniversary of the movement.

The main themes in the book are: The establishment and formation of the Icelandic White Ribbon Movement, Leadership and entrepreneurs, The Interna- tional White Ribbon Movement.

The ideology and assignments of the White Ribbon Movement.

The author also relates the history of the Ice- landic White Ribbon to the development of the Icelandic society, the welfare state and the role of women in society.
Methodologically the book is based on analysis of various documents.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 133 The Icelandic White Ribbon Movement is the second oldest women’s organization in Iceland.

The movement was originally a temperance mo- vement, but began early to run extensive charity services in Reykjavík such as home nursing and home-help services, giving food and clothes to poor people and establishing a hospital, which they later gave to the Reykjavík city.
The history of the Icelandic White Ribbon throws light on the role of women in the establishment of social and health services in Iceland.

The author emphasizes how the struggle of the women in the White Ribbon made a decisive difference for the Icelandic welfare sys- tem.

Guðmundsdóttir also relates the history of the White Ribbon to the country’s social circumstances, development of the welfare state and social policy.
The author also describes the development of charity and philanthropy in other countries.

This research is the first to analyze the work of Icelandic women in Philanthropy and how women used informal power to fight for justice and rights of excluded groups.

5.

Broddaóttir, Ingibjörg, Eydal, Guðný B. Hrafnsdóttir, Steinunn Si- gurðardóttir, Sigurveig H. (1997).

The Development of Local Authority Social Services in Iceland.

In: Sipilä, Jorma (ed.).


Social Care Services: The Key to the Scandinavian Welfare Model.

Aldershot, Avebury: 51–76.

This book chapter constitutes the Icelandic part of a Nordic research project about social care services.

The book is a product of a two-year research project in which five Scandinavian teams participated.

The Ice- landic part is a study on the development of local authority social care services in Iceland.
Specific attention is paid to three fields: a) children’s day care, b) institutional care of the elderly and c) home help services.

The progress and history of the services are described and an attempt is made to answer the question whether the development is similar to the other Scandinavian countries.

The main findings are the following: The development of social ser- vices in Iceland differs in some respect from the other Nordic countries, but on the whole it has been similar to the Scandinavian model.
The ide- ology behind the social care services in Iceland has been based on uni- versalism, although in reality that aim has not in general been reached.

Development of institutions began later in Iceland compared to the other Scandinavian countries.

This might be explained by the fact that industri- alization and urbanization reached Iceland relatively late.
Another charac- 134 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services teristic of this development is the relatively large role of private and vol- untary organizations.

Until the 1970s, all day care institutions and major- ity of the institutions for old age care were run and owned by such or- ganizations.

The state and local authorities subsidized those organizations considerably; therefore this development cannot only be due to a weak public sector or political resistance.
Although it is likely that welfare services would have developed differently if the political landscape in Iceland had been comparable to that in the other Scandinavian countries.

With regard to the development of institutional care for the elderly, Ice- land differs from the other Nordic countries.

The main characteristics are a solid private/voluntary sector and the fact that in Iceland one finds the largest number of institutions both hospitals and old age homes.
It is con- cluded that Iceland belongs the Scandinavian welfare model.

The devel- opment in the areas of child day care and services for the elderly has in main features been similar to what we find in the other Scandinavian countries.

The ideology and framework are similar but Iceland lags be- hind in implementing and financing the services.

6.

Hrafnsdóttir, Steinunn.


(2003) Tengsl sjálfboðasamtaka og obinberra aðila í velferðarþjónustu (The relations between voluntary organizations and the state/local authorities in welfare services).

In: F.H.

Jónsson (Ed.)

Rannsóknir í félagsvísindum IV (Research in Social Sciences IV.

Confe- rence proceedings).

Icelandic University Press and The Social Sciences Research Institute.

IV: Reykjavík 235–243.

This article concerns the relations between the third sector and the go- vernment.
These relations are analysed from a broad perspective.

The main objective of the article is to give an overview of the complex rela- tions between the third sector and government.

Hrafnsdóttir tries to clar- ify the development in other countries, what challenges voluntary organi- zations are facing and how this is related to Iceland.

In the theoretical section Hrafnsdóttir discusses the concepts voluntary organizations, third sector and volunteers.
She compares definitions that are used in this field and discusses advantages and disadvantages of each concept.

She points out that researchers have emphasized the importance of finding coherent definitions so that comparative international research can be carried out.
It is concluded that in Iceland, there have until recently been no attempts to define in an organized way a terminology to describe the group of Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 135 organizations that are non-profit distributing and that different terms are used interchangeably by different authors.

In the article it is discussed that in the other Nordic countries and Eu- rope increased interest have been in the role of non-profit organizations as welfare producers.
This discussion is related to the welfare state and the establishment of The New Public Management reform.

Accordingly more emphasis has been put on cooperation between the state/local authorities and non-profit organizations.

The main challenges of this cooperation are discussed and three models of relations between voluntary organizations and the state/local authorities are introduced: The Entrepreneur/producer model, The Advocate model and The Network model.
In the last part of the article it is pointed out that no research and minimal political debate has been about these relations in Iceland.

It is concluded that the govern- ment has hardly any policy making about these relations and the need for such a policy is emphasized.

7.

Haraldsdóttir, Huldís (1995) Hlutverk sjálfboðastarfs í þágu fé- lagslegrar velferðar (The Role of voluntary work in social welfare).

BA thesis Faculty of Social Sciences.

University of Iceland.

Reykjavik.

90 Pages.


This is a BA thesis submitted to the Department of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Iceland.

This is the first thesis at the University of Iceland that addresses social voluntary work and therefore it is included.

(Direct quotation of the author’s abstract:) This thesis is about the role of voluntary work in social welfare.
It is based on foreign publications of the voluntary sector and material and publications of vari- ous Icelandic voluntary organizations in social welfare.

Besides, defini- tions of main concepts, the author discuss generally the development and scope of voluntary work in social welfare.

The historical development of Icelandic voluntary work is dealt with.
The question is answered whether there is a need for voluntary work in modern welfare society and the rela- tions between voluntary organizations and the government is also men- tioned.

The relations between the social voluntary sector and profession- als are explored and what motivates people to go into voluntary work.
The main findings are that voluntary work is diverse in the Icelandic society and it is difficult to measure its contribution, because no organ- ized registration of such work is available.

Voluntary work in social wel- 136 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services fare began to develop in Iceland in the late 19th century and in the thesis examples of the activities of voluntary organizations are shown.
In the beginning, the main aim of the voluntary organizations was to assist dis- advantaged groups especially around issues of poverty and health and other social needs.

Later interest organizations and self-help groups began to develop.

The author concludes that there seems to be an increased interest in the social voluntary sector now when there are financial cuts in public welfare.
Haraldsdóttir, discusses that research indicate that people have various motivations for doing volunteer work and that some conflict seems to be evident between volunteers and professionals.

Norway Researches nominated and overview worked out by Marith Markussen, Sissel Seim and Bennedichte Olsen 1.

Andreassen, Tone Alm (2004) Brukermedvirkning, politikk og velferds- stat.

(User involvement, policy, and welfare state) The Work Research Institute’s publication series 13.

Oslo.

477 Pages.
Oslo.

477 Pages.

This is a dissertation for a doctorate, submitted to Department of So- ciology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, and published as a publication by The Work Research Institute.

This is a study of user in- volvement of persons with disabilities in Norwegian health and rehabilita- tion services.

The aim of the study is to understand the phenomenon user involvement.

In the theoretical section, Alm Andreassen discusses how to conceptualize user involvement as a societal phenomenon.
She attempts to analyze the empirical material by employing perspectives from differ- ent theoretical traditions.

Methodologically, the dissertation is based on investigation of public documents.

Qualitative method is employed in the form of interviews with key persons in policy formation.

She has conducted long-term case studies of two processes of user involvement.

Alm Andreassen finds that user involvement created public discourse, in turn causing changes in professional practice.
In The Competence Project user involvement was organized as meetings where representatives for the users told the profes- sionals about their experiences of living with brain injuries.

This pro- voked a change in the helping relation from an expert-client model into a Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 137 model based on collaboration.

Before the project started, many of the injured persons were unorganized.
The project led to the establishment of an association among the injured.

In The Feedback Project, former users gathered information on the experiences of users of local mental health services.

User involvement in this project implied public attention onto the practices in the health and rehabilitation services.

This project was initiated by an existing association of users of mental health services.
The project was established as a result of a change in the association’s ap- proach, an approach more in line with the new political climate.

Alm Andreassen’s study reveals that although the state through political and economic conditions influences the organisations of civil society, there are still clear limits to what extent the state can intervene.
At the same time as self-organization often depends on the state’s contributions, those organizations mainly rely on internal forces among the participants them- selves.

Participation in civil organizations is not primarily a social or social political activity- above all it is a question of identity.

2.

Berven, Nina (2000) Fra legitimitet til gammeldagshet: En analyse av det skiftende politiske rommet for brede helse- og velferdsorganisasjoner.
(From being legitimate into being old-fashioned: An analysis of the changing political space for broadly oriented health- and welfare organi- zations).

LOS-senteret – Norwegian Research Centre in Organization and Management.

Bergen.

134 Pages This report is a part of the LOS – project Demokrati og nye styrings- former (Democracy and new types of government).

It analyzes changes in the political and ideological area vis-à-vis voluntary organizations.

The analysis is comparative and historically based.
It focuses on two broadly oriented health and welfare organizations: The Norwegian Women’s Public Health Association (Norske Kvinners Sanitetsforening/NKS) and The Norwegian Health Association (Nasjonalforeningen for Folkehelsen.

The central research question concerns whether the historical marginali- zation of these organizations is mainly a theoretical hypothesis, or if they actually have been marginalized.
Berven maintains that corporative theo- ries consider broadly oriented health- and welfare organizations as mar- ginal.

She criticizes such corporative theories for not taking into account that power also can be exercised outside of institutional frames.

Berven presents an alternative theoretical perspective based on contributions 138 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services from relational, contextualized, and organizational perspectives.
She ar- gues in favour of a perspective based on a political space for manoeu- vring, claiming that such a perspective can act as a device for an analysis of why and how one organization manage to present and carry through an issue at a certain period of time.

Berven claims that even though major societal changes have taken place in the past decades, the broadly oriented health- and welfare organi- zations have not changed accordingly.

Berven denotes them as culturally outdated.


This conclusion strengthens her hypothesis that continuity within the organizations, combined with great societal changes, can ex- plain why the organizations are being marginalized.

Berven found that both organizations thought that in order to improve their situation, they had to formalize their contact with public institutions, and try to become more noticeable and ‘modern’.
She maintains that today such organiza- tions experience a larger degree of formal representation.

However, Ber- ven claims that these organizations exercised more power earlier, despite the fact that their representation at that time was mainly informal.
Berven argues that her perspective shows that broadly oriented health and welfare organizations had greater influence during the period when they had a limited ideological space, but that they paradoxically have had less influ- ence during a period where the ideological space for voluntary organiza- tions has increased.

3.

Follesø, Reidun (2004) Bruker eller brukt?

: Landsforeningen for bar- nevernsbarn : analyse av en interesseorganisasjon i møte med dagens barnevern (User or used?
The organization for youth in care: An analysis of an interest organization`s encounter with the present child welfare).

Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet/NTNU (Norwegian Uni- versity of Science and Technology).

Trondheim.

205 Pages.

The dissertation gives a historical account of the activities of The or- ganization for youth in care (Landsforeningen for Barnevernsbarn/LFB) from 1996–2002.
Formed in 1997, this user organization for children who were or who had been under the care of the child welfare wanted to col- laborate with the child welfare in order to improve its services.

A central question in this study is whether the organization has been an acting agent presenting its own opinions, or whether the organization has been used by politicians and professionals in order to legitimate their opinions.
The Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 139 organization is a pioneer in that it is the first organization which has man- aged to establish a stable user association composed of children under the care of the Child Welfare.
However, the study finds that this would not have been obtained without support from two other organizations: Norsk Fosterhjemsforening (Norwegian Foster Home Association), Voksne for Barn (Adults for Children), and with the assistance from Ministry of Children and Family affairs.

Follesø argues that The organization for youth in care has had some impact in several ways.
The organization has contributed to the passing of a law of aftercare for children under the care of the Child Welfare up to the age of 23.

Moreover, the organization has obtained government sub- sidies.

In the organization’s early phase, politicians, professionals, and the media regarded the members mainly as ‘narrators of stories from real life’.
Today members have become more conscious of what kind of knowledge they possess, and want be to be regarded as persons with a special knowledge in their field.

Follesø maintains that the organization has managed to influence the attitudes of influential politicians.

Follesø asserts that today the organization is taken more seriously by organiza- tions, politicians and professionals.

Representatives from the association are invited to forums where their competence is regarded as important.
Follesø argues that it seems that the organization has obtained a more secure position as a user group in Norwegian child welfare.

4.

Halvorsen, Rune (2002) The paradox of self-organisation among di- sadvantaged people : a study of marginal citizenship.

Norwegian Univer- sity of Science and Technology, Trondheim.

362 Pages The dissertation is a comparative study of self-organization among Travellers (a Romani people) and among social-security claimants.
These two social categories of people, Halvorsen claims, have represented con- trasts to the social democratic ideal of citizenship in Norway.

Halvorsen aims at explaining why some self-organizational efforts among marginal- ized groups have made substantial achievements in the field of welfare- policy, in spite of subjective and objective barriers to self -organization.
The main research objective is to analyze under which conditions self- organization may contribute to fuller citizenship among disadvantaged groups of people.

The dissertation is based on qualitative research meth- ods, and a comparative case-oriented approach.

He discusses different 140 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services theoretical perspectives on marginality and social mobilisation.

Pierre Bourdieu’s theory about conversion of capital is central.
Halvorsen finds that the self-organization projects were met with ap- proval from the society.

He maintains that they were relatively successful in attaining attention from the rest of society, and obtained considerable media coverage, especially from the local press.

This way, Halvorsen argues, they contributed to make visible marginalized groups in society.
Through negotiations with the local and/or central authorities, some of the organizations obtained more financial support and/or specific services and projects.

To a certain extent, the groups were invited to attend consul- tative processes, and did therefore, Halvorsen claims, play a role in changing the policy agenda.

Halvorsen finds that disadvantaged people can convert one type of ca- pital into another in order to obtain results in the welfare-policy area.
Halvorsen discovers that bureaucratic capital was another important re- source for the organizations.

Despite the self-organization organizations’ achievements, their internal life was often characterized by a high degree of turnover among the members, and ambivalence to self-organization.

Halvorsen finds that the Travellers were more united as a group than the social security claimants, whose groups were more heterogeneous and fragmented.
He argues that it seems like the participants had greater diffi- culties in collaborating within the organizations, than in achieving results in relation to the rest of society.

5.

Hjemdal, Ole K., Sissel Seim, Sigrun Nilsen, and Bjørn Riiser (1996) Kunsten å løfte seg etter håret!

– om selvhjelp i Norge (The art of pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps!

– on self help in Norway) Oslo University College.

Oslo.

292 Pages 6.
Oslo.

292 Pages 6.

Selvhjelp blant marginale grupper: alternative strategier (Self-help among marginal groups: alternative strategies) Oslo University College.

Oslo.

272 Pages.

Seim, Sissel, Sigrun Nilsen, and Ole K. Hjemdal (1997) This is an abstract of the research project Studiesenter for Selvhjelp (the Study Centre for Self Help).

For this reason we have chosen to write one abstract of the two reports, comprising the project as a whole.
These two reports from Studiesenter for Selvhjelp (the Study Centre for Self Help) present the results from studies of self-help activities in Norway.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 141 Central research questions are: What should be understood as self-help?

What kind of self-help activities exist in Norway?


Important data was collected through qualitative research methods in the form of interviewing and participant-observation based on participa- tory action research strategies.

(researchers collaborated with organiza- tions and groups of people in initiating and coordinating self-help efforts, and in disseminating information about self-help, mainly through the project’s own local TV-broadcasts).
The first report is also based on quantitative data in the form of two important surveys on the Norwegian self-help field.

The report estimates that there were about 2000 self-help groups at the present time (1996), consisting of about 25,000 participants.

The re- searchers found that the majority of the members in the self-help groups which were surveyed were middleaged women.

Most of the self-help efforts were organised around individual problems.
Almost one third of the groups in the survey were initiated by a public agency, a Voluntary Centre or a parish organisation, and nearly 40% of the groups were closely affiliated to a public agency, mainly municipal health institutions.

Moreover, about 40% of the groups received funding from public institu- tions, and just as many regarded themselves as complementing, not sub- stituting, public help measures.
Concerning the central research topic, whether self-help groups may be employed in order to improve the situation of marginalized groups of people towards society, the report concludes that engaging in collective action and in the public discourse, made these groups more visible and opened up for contact with representatives from the local and central public agencies and politicians.
A result of the project was that a work group was formed, with the aim of creating a network of joint action among self-help groups for claimants and unemployed.

The researchers regard this as an important arena for these groups for gaining influence on political institutions.

7.

Jonassen, Wenche and Kari Stefansen (2003) Ideologi eller pro- fesjonstenkning?

En statusrapport om krisesentrene (Ideology or profes- sionalism?

A progress report on the women’s shelters).

Oslo University College.

Oslo.


233 Pages.

142 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services This report concerns the women’s shelters in Norway.

The aim of this report is to obtain updated information on the shelters as organizations and as helping measures.

The report documents how the women’s shelters are organized and administered.

Moreover, it describes the development of the women’s shelters since the first survey in 1986 and until 2002.
The women's shelters in Norway have emerged as a result of local initiatives.

The number of centres does not correspond with the size of the popula- tion in many areas.

The study shows that the number of women's shelters is almost unaltered since the mid 1980s, and the type of services they offer have not changed to any great extent.

The major changes concern the type of users and the structure of these shelters.

Today one third of the users are women with a non-Norwegian ethnic background.
Moreover, the study reveals that many of the centres have changed from organizations with horizontal structures into institu- tions with a hierarchical administration.

Today, many of the centres are no longer based on membership, and have become workplaces with a permanently employed staff.

The number of employees has been reduced, and so has the number of voluntary workers.
Jonassen and Stefansen make an analytical distinction between traditional and professional cen- tres, where the traditional centres use many voluntary workers, whereas the professional centres employ hired staff.

The authors argue that the original feminist objectives of the women shelter movement to a large extent have been overridden by professional working methods.

They find that the movement’s original feminist ideology has a stronger position in the so-called traditional centres.
The government wants to change the financing of the women’s shel- ters from earmarked contributions into a municipal frame financing.

Ac- cording to Jonassen and Stefansen, this can produce major negative con- sequences if these services are not established by law.

The authors assert that if these services are established by law, this will result in a claim of a minimum standard, which again will cause increased expenses.
From a user’s perspective, Jonassen and Stefansen argue, the present situation with great differences in access to women’s shelters, is intolerable.

How- ever, they maintain that the best solution is not necessarily to decide to upgrade all the existing centres to a minimum standard.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 143 8.
Kloster, Elizabeth/Lorentzen, Håkon/Lidén, Hilde (2003) Frivillighets- sentralen: resultater, erfaringer, forandringer (The Volunteer Centers: results, experiences, changes) Institutt for samfunnsforskning.

Oslo.

80 Pages.

(Direct quotation of the authors own abstract) The report presents re- sults, experiences, and changes characterizing Norwegian volunteer cen- tres throughout the period of 1993–2003.
Beginning with the ideological and political climate preceding the initial establishment of centres in 1991, it goes on to discuss the role that volunteer centres have had in the welfare landscape.

Voluntary initiatives organizing under the sector for health- and social affairs have always been a central pillar in the work done by volunteer centres.
In the late half of the 1990s, however, there seems to have taken place a shift, where the care-perspective became somewhat downplayed, and a broader community-perspective was introduced.

Today the centres may be organized along three activity profiles, according to where they have their field of gravity.

The care-centre has a relatively narrow orien- tation towards practical and social tasks.
The meeting-place centre, con- stituting the majority of the volunteer centres, is characterized by a broad selection of social care-activities, supplemented with spare-time and community activities.

The community centre, least represented among the centres, sees the centre as a driving force in building active neighbour- hoods, directing its efforts towards the local community as a whole.
The report also discusses some factors that have been influential in the development of volunteer centres; ownership, partners, and education of leaders.

In conclusion the report discusses how some centres have be- come local coordinators within the voluntary field, functioning as coordi- nating buffers between local authorities, organisations and other local voluntary influences.

9.
9.

Lorentzen, Håkon (1993) Frivillighetens integrasjon: staten og de frivillige velferdsprodusentene (The integration of voluntarianism: the state and the voluntary welfare producers) Institute for Social Research.

Oslo.

369 Pages.

This dissertation is a result of the project Offentlig styring av frivillige velferdsprodusenter (Public administration of voluntary welfare produc- ers).
The aim of this study is to obtain knowledge about the relation be- 144 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services tween the authorities and the voluntary welfare producers in social- and health politics.

The focus is on the often antagonistic intertwining – inte- gration – between the state and the voluntary welfare producers.

This is both a theoretical and empirical study.

Lorentzen discusses theoretical approaches to antagonism and integration.
He presents three case-studies of the development of integration processes between governmental bodies and voluntary welfare producers, including the interest organization Nor- wegian association of the Blind and Partially Sighted (Norges Blindefor- bund), the humanitarian organization the Norwegian Red Cross, and the religious organization the Church City Mission Oslo (Kirkens bymisjon Oslo).

The study includes a historical and political comparison between Norway and England.
Lorentzen wants to find out whether Norway, as a representative of the Scandinavian welfare state model, has treated volun- tary welfare producers differently than England, a representative of the social-liberal model.

Through the three case studies, Lorentzen finds that the voluntary or- ganizations and the state either break off the collaboration, or they engage in a comprehensive cooperation.
Lorentzen maintains that the entry of the social – and health professions in the voluntary organizations may con- tribute more to institutional isomorphism than governmental control.

He argues that if the organizations do not have an own clear ideology, they easily adapt to the professionals way of thinking and working.

Lorentzen elaborates on DiMaggio and Powell’s theory institutional isomorphism.
These hypotheses applied on Lorentzen’s cases, produced several results that did not concur with the theory’s predictions.

Lor- entzen argues that the processes of institutional isomorphism are more complex than assumed.

Lorentzen argues that members can act strategi- cally in order to promote or protect these values.

Organizations can act strategically towards public regulations, and does not adapt unconsciously to the surroundings.
Concerning the differences between England and Norway in the treatment of voluntary welfare producers, Lorentzen finds that Norwegian authorities have not had a clear understanding of voluntary organizations as welfare producers.

Lorentzen asserts that these differences partially are the result of historical conditions.
The English philanthropy is grounded in the fortunes of the church and the upper class, whereas the Norwegian Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 145 organizations historically have been financed through support from the grassroots.

10.

Lorentzen, Håkon (2004) Fellesskapets fundament : sivilsamfunnet og individualismen (The foundation of community: the civil society and indi- vidualism).

Pax Forlag AS.

Oslo.

220 Pages.


The Research Council of Norway’s program Welfare and Society fi- nanced the project Integration and exclusion of the civil society, which was the precursor of this book.

With this predominantly philosophical text, Lorentzen wants to discuss how traditional civil organizations are being threatened by an increasing individualization.
The book is divided into three main sections: one which deals with clarification of concepts, a second section where different perspectives on participation in the civil society are being discussed, and a third section where he debates contem- porary changes in the civil society.

Lorentzen discusses the concepts civil engagement, civil communities, and civil society.

He then enters into discussion about which characteristics civil organizations must have in order to form people’s identity and moral.
Lorentzen calls attention to some features of the altering processes characterizing the civil society of today.

Central concepts are colonization and professionalization.

Colonization refers to the state undertaking civil obligations and dispersing civil communities, without creating new ones.

Professionalization refers to that local, amateur- and voluntary based knowledge is replaced by professional knowledge.
Lorentzen asserts that the existence of civil society is based on a moral foundation of commit- ment for “a good case”.

Moreover, he claims that there are tensions in- herent in the three value systems between individual freedom and collec- tive obligations.

He maintains that identity-formation, social integration, and political commitment are created through engagement in voluntary organizations.

He argues that today, the civil commitment is being threat- ened by an increasing individualism.
People prefer to create a good life for themselves before participating in collective movements.

In line with the communitarian tradition, and inspired by among others Amitai Etzi- oni, Alan Wolfe, and by Jürgen Habermas, Lorentzen argues that the social rights of the welfare state have contributed to an undermining of collective engagement, which in turn has accelerated the individualization 146 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services process.
He also blames neo liberal market ideology for contributing to this ‘atomizing process’.

11.

Olsen, Bennedichte C. Rappana and Per Inge Langeng (1994) Mang- fold og muligheter?

En brukerstudie av funksjonshemmedes organisasjo- ner.

(Diversity and possibilites?

A user study of the organisations of people with disabilities).

Norges kommunal- og sosialhøgskole.

Oslo.


314 Pages This report is a study of the organizations of people with disabilities and the central research questions have been: Who are the members of these organizations?

Why did they choose to become members?

How do they use the organization?

What is the importance of peer work (like- mannsarbeid)?
Based on the members’ interests and their actual use of the organization, it is possible to speculate on the potential utilization the organization can make of the members.

Method: The report is based on a survey of 2,444 members from 44 organizations.

In addition 55 members from 9 organizations have been interviewed.

The organizations of the persons with disabilities constitute a con- glomerate of big, medium and small-sized units.
Three representative categories can be distinguished from the sample survey of the members, i.e.

58% constitute the persons with disabilities, 27% constitute the par- ents of the persons with disabilities and the balance of 15% constitutes the supporting members.

The utilization potential of the members to the organizations has been studied, based on the members’ interests and their actual use of the organization.

The organization also forms a social arena for its members.
The members’ actual use of the organisation in general is closely related to the possibilities they have in getting help and support elsewhere.

The less the medical understanding is of the diagnosis, the greater is the importance of the organization to the member.

Within small organisations with often limited resources and members with rare handi- caps, their importance to the members is generally greater than in larger organisations.
The study focused specifically upon peer work (likemannsarbeid) among the members.

The study shows that peer work is of importance but this importance varies.

As a whole the importance of peer work is based upon common experiences among people with disabilities and their rela- tives.

Peer work is important as psychosocial support.


The study reveals Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 147 that the smaller the organization is, the more prominent is the importance of the help from peers.

The general importance of the organization to its members varies between the different types of organizations and also within each organisation, from one branch to another.
A combination of the characteristics of the diagnosis and the size of the organization seems to determine the importance of the organization to its members.

12.

Repstad, Pål (ed.)

(1998) Den lokale velferdsblanding: når offentlige og frivillige skal samarbeide (The local welfare mix: when civil servants and voluntary workers shall collaborate) Universitetsforlaget.

Oslo.

268 Pages.
Oslo.

268 Pages.

The study has to main objectives: to look at local collaboration meas- ures between public agencies and voluntary organizations, and to focus on the different integration strategies of marginalized people these meas- ures employ.

The case studies are projects where collaboration between public authorities and voluntary organizations is close, including more than public financial support of voluntary organizations.
The book con- sists of 13 articles, and it is structured as follows: The first and second article gives an introduction and a general background for the study, arti- cle three to nine are case-studies where the majority focuses on collabora- tion between local municipalities and voluntary organizations at the local level, and in article 10 to 13 findings and recurring patterns are analyzed.

Some of the most relevant articles are presented separately in this bibliog- raphy.
Repstad sums up some main conclusions based on the results from the case-studies.

He claims that formalization of collaboration between public and voluntary sector in the form of written agreements is not regarded as important by the participants.

The most crucial factor deciding whether a project is successful or not, is that specific persons collaborate well and have a close verbal communication.

Good relations are thus found to be more valuable than written agreements.
Many of the measures are built up around certain key figures.

Repstad concludes that the projects func- tion well where the partners feel unrestricted and are free to act in the way they feel is best.

The study indicates that the social sector to a certain extent is less positive to collaboration with voluntary sector than the culture- and health sectors.
However, there are exceptions - collaboration between public 148 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services agencies and voluntary organizations is to a large extent characterized by the important role of key figures.

Great differences are found within the same professions and within the same public departments regarding their willingness to collaborate with voluntary sector.
Repstad argues that such internal differences are due to the fact that collaboration between the public and the voluntary sector is institutionalized only to a limited ex- tent.

Concerning collaboration with religious organizations, the study finds that the local municipalities do in general tolerate a discrete reli- gious profile, and the importance of flexibility in this matter is an opinion shared by the voluntary organizations.
Repstad argues that a historical compromise between the state and the civil society is taking place, where the state tolerates organizations to have a religious profile, as long as the users do not have to share their faith in order to utilize the services.

Rep- stad claims that in general, collaboration between local governments and voluntary organizations is characterized by creativity and willingness to reach compromises.

13.
13.

Sivesind, Karl Henrik, Håkon Lorentzen, Per Selle, and Dag Wolle- bæk (2002).The Voluntary Sector in Norway – Composition, Changes, and Causes.

Institute for Social Research.

Oslo.


141 Pages (Partly direct quotation) The Johns Hopkins Comparative Non-profit Sector Project is a systematic effort to analyze the scope, structure, fi- nancing, and role of the private non-profit sector in a cross-section of countries around the world in order to improve our knowledge and enrich our theoretical understanding of this sector, and to provide a sounder basis for both public and private action towards it.

In this report, we have two main intentions.


The first is to unfold the history and content of the non-profit sector in Norway.

Our historical roots look different than those reflected in the Anglo-American literature of voluntary and non-profit associations.

The second intention of the report is to find out what are the characteristics of the voluntary sector in Norway.
The report involves six sections in Statistics Norway that produced relevant data and recoded existing registers and statistics in accordance with CNP’s definitions.

Statistics Norway did also conduct additional surveys.
In addition, to complete the data set in some subfields, the Norwegian CNP team had to collect information directly from voluntary organisations, national um- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 149 brella organisations, and from publications by Norwegian ministries, governmental agencies, and others.
The Norwegian NPO-characteristics reflect a non-profit sector rooted in historical traditions, closely related to social and political movements, with democratic membership and extensive voluntary efforts.

These find- ings take us to our second intention: How can the emergence and charac- teristics of the sector be explained in the light of theoretical models?
Starting with the arguments of heterogeneity, trust, and interdependence that can be found within the non-profit literature, we find that, as explana- tions, these models leave important Norwegian development trends unan- swered.

Consequently, we move on to the historical-institutional “social origins” model.

Several implications of this model suit the case of Norway rather well.

However, we find that fees and charges represent a larger share of reve- nues than expected.
Large parts of the Norwegian voluntary sector are more financially independent of public transfers than one would assume.

The main reason is that voluntary efforts in arranging lotteries, jumble sales, and the like are transformed into income for the association.

In addition, it is also difficult to explain the extensive number of members and volunteers in Norway from a social origins perspective.

Thus, we suggest an alternative, a modification of the social origins explanation.
Here, we relate the case of Norway to the social movement tradition with strong cultural norms of voluntary effort for the public good.

Until now, these traditions seem to have survived, and the willingness to do volun- tary work is still high.

But this could change in the future, as individuali- zation and general modernization may undermine the normative founda- tions for voluntary work.

14.

Selle, Per and Dag Wollebæk (2001) Svekket kvinnemakt?
Frivillige organisasjoner i endring 1980–2000 (Weakened female power?

Volunta- ry organizations in transition 1980–2000) in: Berven, Nina and Per Selle (ed.)

Svekket kvinnemakt?

De frivillige organisasjonene og velferdsstaten (Weakened female power?

Voluntary organizations and the welfare state) .

Gyldendal akademisk.

Oslo.

Pp.

216–250 The research project Power and Democracy started in 1998 and was concluded in 2003.
Its main themes are the conditions for popular politi- cal participation in Norway, and changes in these conditions.
The aim of 150 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services the article is to look at shifts between and changes within organizations with different gender structure: all women’s organizations, organizations where more than 2/3 of the members are women, mixed organizations where there are more than one third of both sexes, organizations where more than 2/3 of the members are men, and all men’s organizations.
The study gives a historical account of the developments in the organizational society from 1945 until 1990.

From 1945 till the 1960s traditional humanitarian organizations with a female majority, like public health associations, the Red Cross, house- wives’ associations, missionary societies for women, and farmer women’s unions, experienced a growth simultaneously with the expan- sion of the welfare state.
A common opinion has been that women’s or- ganizations dominated ‘less important’ areas including health and wel- fare, and that men has dominated in political and economical areas where the real power have been exercised.

Wollebæk and Selle argue that the view on women’s organizations as apolitical and preservers of status quo, conceals these organizations’ societal and political influence and impor- tance.
Wollebæk and Selle argue that traditional women’s organizations have had major impact on social, health and school policies.

But from the 1960s, a shift has taken place concerning both the gender and the activity profile of voluntary organizations.

Organizations based on complemen- tary gender roles, including the traditional humanitarian organizations dominated by women, have seen a dramatic decline in membership.

The local branches have become more independent from the national level.
Wollebæk and Selle find that an increasing number of women are rep- resented in traditionally male-dominated organizations, including sports-, culture-, and leisure organizations, and in economic organizations and political parties.

They assert that this is important for women’s direct political influence.

However, they find that in all these organizations, women are a minority both as members and leaders.
Women as a social category, Wollebæk and Selle argue, have lost in- fluence and power due to the weakening of the organizations dominated by women.

They argue that organizations dominated by women func- tioned as schools in democracy, and they maintain that today this political infrastructure is disintegrating.
Wollebæk and Selle find that today, all men’s or all women’s organizations recruit members of both sexes, indi- cating that the organizations adapt to a larger degree than the theoretical Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 151 perspective of generation assumes.

However, they argue that the gender complementarity continue to exist within the new organization society as strict gender hierarchies where women are under-represented as leaders.
Sweden Researches nominated by Lars Svedberg and Johan Vamstad, research overview worked out by Johan Vamstad.

1.

Amnå, Erik (ed.)

(1999) Civilsamhället (Civil Society) Statens offentli- ga utredningar 84.

Fakta info direkt.

Stockholm.

472 Pages.

This book is one in a series of thirteen books that constitutes the ex- tensive democracy study ordered by the Swedish government in 1997.

This particular book deals with the role of civil society in the Swedish democracy.
The aim of the book is to define contemporary civil society as well as analyse its role in a future Swedish welfare state.

It is also a stated purpose to clarify and develop the defition and terminology of the civil society in Sweden.

The book collects contributions from a wide range of researchers and academic disciplines.

2.

Lundström Tommy and Svedberg, Lars (2003) The voluntary sector in the social democratic welfare state.
Journal of Social Policy Nr 2, Pages 217–238 The purpose of this paper is to capture a few vital features of the Swe- dish voluntary sector and to place them in an institutional perspective.

The size and composition of the Swedish voluntary sector are discussed against the background of dominating theories in voluntary sector re- search.

Special attention is also given to the role of the sector in the field of social welfare.
The authors present results from comparative research projects on the voluntary sector carried out in the latter part of the 1990s.

It is shown that the size of the Swedish sector is as large as in other indus- trialised countries, although the composition and the form of the sector differs when compared to many other countries.
In weighing the impor- tance of the sector, the authors point out that voluntary organisations make a crucial contribution in certain areas and combining work for in- terest and values with contributions for members and others.

The charac- teristics of voluntary organisations and new trends within the field of 152 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services social welfare are presented with the help of three ideal types.
Finally, the authors discuss some conceivable scenarios for the future of the Swedish voluntary sector.

3.

Lundström Tommy, Wijkström Filip (1997) The non-profit sector in Sweden.

Johns Hopkins nonprofit sector series, No11.

Manchester Uni- versity Press, 345 Pages Within international research Sweden has often been described as a country with an extremely small nonprofit or voluntary sector.

In this book such a viewpoint is subject to in-depth questioning.
Based on a comprehensive set of first hand empirical data, Tommy Lundström and Filip Wijkström provide the first systematic, consolidated account of the sector’s development and current position in Sweden.

The authors begin by defining the Swedish nonprofit sector and then outline its history and legal framework.

The overall composition and structure of the sector, its resource bases as well as the relations between the nonprofit sector and the state are presented and analysed.
The book concludes with a discus- sion of policy issues, including the crucial question of the future role of nonprofit organisations in society.

4.

Micheletti Michele (1995) The civil society and state relations.

Avebu- ry.

Aldershot.

200 Pages.

Michele Micheletti writes in the preword: “This book is an abridged version of the Swedish volume Det civila samhället och staten ... Stock- holm: Publica, 1994”.

Sweden is currently reconsidering its national ob- jectives, as are many other countries.
The social democratic hegemony has been undermined and emerging political powers are shedding new light on past political developments.

Swedish history is being re-written.

Det civila samhället och staten examines this process by analysing the significance of civic society from the mid 18 hundreds to the 1990s.

The purpose of this study is to bring clarity to the issues on the role of interest groups, popular movements and action groups.
The old, traditional, popu- lar social movements are compared to modern movements.

The conse- quences of corporative system, the growth of the welfare state and the dismantling of the corporative system is particularly closely studied, along with internationalisation and the emergence of a voluntary sector.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 153 5.
Olsson, Lars-Erik (1999) Från idé till handling: en sociologisk studie av frivilliga organisationers uppkomst och fallstudier av Noaks Ark, 5i12- rörelsen, Farsor och morsor på stan.

Doctoral dissertation.

Almqvist & Wiksell International.

Stockholm.

185 Pages.

6.

Pestoff, Victor (1998).

Beyond the market and state – social enterprises and civil democracy in a welfare society.

Aldershot Ashgate.

300 Pages.


This book explores the concept of civil democracy in Sweden and how it ties into social enterprises and the “new” cooperatives in the social service sector.

Pestoff provides a theoretical account of the link between social enterprises and civil democracy as well as an analysis of an exten- sive empirical study of social enterprises in the field of childcare services.
The purpose of the book is to provide a richer understanding of the poten- tial for civil democracy among social enterprises.

Pestoff also ponder the importance of such civil democracy in contemporary Sweden, suggesting a stronger civil democracy through social enterprises might not only im- prove work environment and gender equality but also work to empower citizens in general in a time of faltering interest in traditional democratic institutions.

7.
7.

Rothstein, Bo (2003) Sociala fällor och tillitens problem.

SNS förlag.

Stockholm.

326 Pages A mainly historical account of the development of the “Swedish mo- del” and the corporatist state.

8.

Frivilligt socialt arbete: kartläggning och kunskapsöversikt.

Statens offentliga utredningar 1993:82.

Edited by Lars Svedberg.

308 Pages.

This is the earliest official publication on the subject, published in 1993, when the governmental committee evaluated the Social Services Act from the early 1980s.
This became one of the very first real attempts on the part of the Swedish state to map and evaluate social services pro- duction outside the public sector.

It is the very first publication to exclu- sively study the social work and support performed in the voluntary sec- tor.

The committee report is the result of a multi-disciplinary research team that broke new ground in several respects, not least in developing the core concepts for the Swedish context.
It is the first publication to specifically address the developing co-operation between municipalities 154 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services and voluntary organizations, and it is also one of the first to provide a Swedish history of ideas in the research field.

This government publica- tion represents more than any other the new research that emerged in this area during the early 1990s.

9.

Trädgårdh, Lars 1995 (ed).


Civilt samhälle kontra offentlig sektor SNS (Studieförb.

Näringsliv och samhälle).

Stockholm.

244 Pages.

10.

Wijkström, Filip (1998) Different faces of civil society.

Doctoral dis- sertation.

The Economic Research Institute Stockholm School of Econo- mics.137 Pages.

This is a dissertation in two.

In addition to the four papers found in this volume, Different Faces of Civil Society, the major publication is a book entitled The non-profit sector in Sweden.
(see number 3 in this list) Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 155 Appendix 3.

Nordic Bibliography of Third Sector Research in the Area of Welfare Services The research team has produced a comprehensive bibliography of re- search on civic society organisations in the area of welfare services in the five Nordic as an on-line database.

The bibliography contains 775 refe- rences, which are given in original language and in English.
The most central references are provided with list of keywords and with an English summary.

The complete bibliography is accessible as an EndNote data- base at the Web Page of the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg- Stendal via the link http://www.sgw.hs-magdeburg.de/projekte/nordic/.

To be able to view and explore the bibliography, the EndNote 8 software application of Windows is needed.

6.
6.

Analyses of the research in the five countries 6.1 Recent trends in Danish volunteering and the organization of voluntary action Ulla Habermann, Lars Skov Henriksen, Bjarne Ibsen and Inger Koch-Nielsen Introduction In the Nordic countries – as in the rest of Western Europe – the interest in the so-called voluntary or third sector and voluntary organisations has grown – almost dramatically – since the mid-1980s.
Especially focus on the voluntary social sector has increased, and at the same time doubts has been raised about the efficiency of the welfare state model.

In the poten- tial scenarios proposed for the welfare state of the future, voluntary ef- forts play an important role and voluntary organizations are attributed greater significance as “welfare producers”.

So – the supposed decline of the welfare state and the voluntary sector as a welfare producer is one reason for the interest in the third sector.
But there are other reasons.

They are concerned with democratic processes in society and with citizens social and human rights.

This has to do with the so-called civic-ness and civil engagement in society, or as The World Commission puts it “a culture of citizenship and participation in the civil society is a part of the democratizing process” (World Commission Re- port.

p. 272 (1996).
p. 272 (1996).

The Swedish social scientist, Erik Amnå, sees it this way that now everyone seems to have fallen in love with volunteers and voluntary organizations.

May be not as much for what they are – but for 158 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services what they ought to be.

They serve as a “dream-sector” that can solve financial, political and moral problems (Amnå 2000).
During the years several national surveys have been carried out – as shown later with slightly different results – but the optimistic trend is that we can observe more and more volunteering, higher amounts of giving and still more voluntary organisations The latest Danish national survey was carried out in 2004–2005 as part of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Non-profit Sector Project.
The Danish John Hopkins-Study (DJHS) consists of three parts: 1. a population study based on telephone interviews – the sample was 4000 persons aged 18–85 years – the response rate 75%.

2. an organisational study based on postal questionnaires – N = 4795 local organisations and 2500 national organisations – response rate app.

50% 3. a macro economic analysis of the voluntary sector based on data from Statistics Denmark (not completed).
This paper gives a short outline of dimensions and recent trends in Danish volunteering and voluntary organisations, and takes up a discussion of motives for volunteering.

The DJHS makes it possible to look into indi- vidual volunteering as well as voluntary organisations as well as to com- pare the different fields of the volunteer sector.
6.1.1 Civil engagement in organizational context In Denmark the concept of the “voluntary sector” is rather new, but it has eventually found a place in political rhetoric.

Also in the public admini- stration and in research – especially within social sciences – the idea of the “voluntary sector” is now commonly used describing activities which cannot be attributed to the public sector, the market or to the family.

The- re is, however, no unambiguous understanding of the components of the voluntary sector.
And in the many different “branches” of the sector, there is seldom a unique consciousness of “belonging” to this same sec- tor as can be found within the public sector or the market sector.
Rather, the idea of the voluntary sector seems to be a new construction, created to give an overall and unifying explanation or a “junction box” for different Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 159 types of organisations traditionally well known in Denmark but not usu- ally reduced to a common denominator.
In the Danish (and Scandinavian) setting voluntary organisations – and especially associational life – have been regarded as a small scale realisation of the ideals of democracy.

The Danish constitution of 1849 gave the citizens a right “to form associations for any lawful purpose”.
The association became the dominant organisa- tional form for the transformation of modern society throughout the last century, and associations have been regarded as “schools of democracy” and “cradles for civil engagement” (Gundelach 1996, Habermann and Ibsen 1997) Therefore, in order to understand the development of the voluntary sector in Denmark one has to look at three historical factors: The adoption of a democratic constitution (in the year 1849), the emergence of the popular movements (from 1880 and onwards), and the formation of the Welfare State (from 1930–).
These factors are of course intimately connected as well as overlapping in time, but in outline their significance for the volun- tary sector can be summarized in this way: The democratic constitution constitutes the foundation, the popular movements give life and contents, and the Welfare State defines a division of labour.

Likewise volunteering and civil engagement can only be fully com- prehended if seen in its historical and structural background.
Therefore we need to look at the organisations of the voluntary sector, where the main part (82%) of the volunteering is carried out.

In this section a short presentation of the recent DJHS organisational study is given.

Defining voluntary organizations The definition used to select the organizations in the DJHS is based on the following five characteristics (Salamon and Anheier1996).
1. the organization must be a formal/institutionalised entity and have some kind of juridical status the organization must be private/nongovernmental the organization must be non-profit the organization must be self-governing 2.

3.

4.
3.

4.

5. participation and membership in the organization must be non- compulsory 160 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Forms of voluntary organizations In a Danish context the definition of the voluntary sector includes three main forms of organizations: 1.

2.

3. the association the “self-governing” institution the charitable foundation.

The association is normally regarded as a union of individuals (or of or- ganizations) with a common aim or a common interest.
Characteristic is a relative harmony between the aim of the association and the motivation and interests of its members.

The association is organised and managed by ordinary democratic rules and procedures, has a democratic decision structure, membership is voluntary and in principle open to everyone, and the association has an obligation of interest towards its members.

An estimate gives the number of local associations in Denmark to 65,000– or about one association for every 82 citizens.
To this must be added app.

3000 national organisations (Habermann 1995; Goul Ander- sen, Torpe & Andersen 2000, Ibsen 2005).

The concept “self-governing institution” is a Danish peculiarity not well known in other countries.
These institutions, which are quite numer- ous, are a kind of foundations or charitable trusts especially found within the social field (kindergartens and nursing homes) or in the educational sector (schools).They differ from the public sector because they are typi- cally based on special values – political or religious.

There are no mem- bers but a board of trustees to govern the institution.
In practical life it is often difficult to distinguish between public and self-governing institu- tions – especially since user committees have been established in many public institutions.

In 2004 the Danish Statistical Bureau stated that there are 2535 so-called self-governing institutions in the social and educa- tional field.
Charitable foundations are defined as a private fortune transferred to an independent board of directors with the aim to care for one or several specific purposes according to the will of the founder.

Foundations flour- ished in the end of the 1800s as a part of the national-democratic move- ment.

But not until the middle of the 20th century the foundation became the instrument we know today.
The total number of charitable founda- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 161 tions in Denmark is estimated to around 12–14,000, most of which have very small assets (Habermann 2004).

In addition we find several forms of organizations in a “grey” zone be- tween the voluntary sector and the public sector – or between the volun- tary sector and the market.

These organizations cannot be placed in the voluntary sector as it is defined in the definition above.
Nevertheless they are most often characterised by several of the criteria and are therefore difficult to place.

Examples of these “grey zone” organisations are The Danish Church, Housing Cooperatives, Unemployment Founds, and The Home Guard.

(for a further discussion se Ibsen & Habermann 2005).
6.1.2 Patterns in individual volunteering in Denmark As mentioned the most recent figures concerning volunteering in the Danish population originate from a population survey carried out as part of the Danish Johns Hopkins-project (DJHS) in 2004.

The survey is based upon a random sample of 4.200 persons aged 16–85, drawn from the Central Population Register.

The response rate was 75% and interviews were obtained through phone interviewing.
The pre-coded questionnaire applied, was constructed in accordance with the Johns-Hopkins manual50.

Also the European Value Study (EVS) contains a few questions about volunteering, but the questions are rather different from those of the DJHS-study.

In this paper the description of the present situation will be based upon the figures from the DJHS, while changes are found compar- ing the EVS 1990 and 1999.
In the DHJS volunteering was explicated in the questionnaire in the following way: Here come some questions about voluntary, unpaid work.

Voluntary unpaid work can be carried out within many fields; frequently it will be for voluntary associations and organisations, but it can also be within a governmental or business organisation.
Unpaid, voluntary work can consist of many different activities: you can be a coach of a football team, be a guard at a museum, collect money, sit on a committee for house-owners association, the local school, and volunteer in a day-shelter and many other activities.

Voluntary work is not assistance given to family and close friends.
50 The Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project: Key Population Survey Mod- ule on Giving and Volunteering 162 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services According to DHJS a little more than 1/3 of the adult Danish population has carried out some kind of voluntary work within the last year – within different fields and as different kind of activities (Koch-Nielsen, Henrik- sen, Fridberg & Rosdahl 2006).
The field of leisure is the most popular field for voluntary activities, and within this field sport is the most fre- quent.

Then follow housing and local community, whereas voluntary activities within the field of health and social activities are relatively rare, in spite of this being the field that is very often thought of as the core of voluntary work.
When voluntary work is at the political agenda it is due to a wish of increasing volunteering within the social sector and not the others, although they are apparently more popular in the population.

The men are a little more active than the women in the fields of leisure (due to sports) and policy, while women are a bit more active within the health and social field, but the differences are small.

(Table 1).

Table 1.


The proportion of the Danish population who has volunteered within the last year within different fields.
2004 (%) 51 Fields Men Women Whole population Leisure: Culture, sports, leisure 21 15 18 Social and Health, including advocacy (advice) Politics: Vocational, political parties, international Teaching and education Housing and local community Other: Environment, religious, other 4 6 3 8 5 7 4 4 4 5 6 5 3 6 5 N= 1502 1632 3134 The activities carried out within the voluntary sector are also not those that politicians have in their minds, when they want to supplement the effort of the public sector by voluntary effort.
The dominating activities are those closely connected to the work of the voluntary organisation as such: committee work, administrative work, applying for money and support.

(Table 2).

There are no substantial differences between men and women apart from the fact that more men are involved in committee work and in teaching, education, and coaching, probably because coaching is widespread within the field of sports.

51 Source: DHJS, The Danish National Institute of Social Research, 2004.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 163 This pattern – with most of the volunteering taking place within the leisure field and during activities closely related to the running of the organisation – has been observed in an earlier study (EUROVOL), (Anker & Koch-Nielsen, 1995; Gaskin & Davis Smith and Gaskin, 1995).

In the following we will give a brief overview of selected socio- demographic variables correlated with voluntary work.

Table 2.
Table 2.

The proportion of the Danish population, who has volunteered within the last year within different activities.

2004 (%) 52.

Activities Men Women Committee, council etc.

Administration, secretarial, other practical Information, political activities, campaigning Teaching, education, instruction (coaching) Contact person within the social field Contact person within other fields Legal and other advice Applications, collecting money etc.
N= 21 25 13 13 1 13 4 9 1502 16 22 11 8 2 9 3 8 1632 Whole population 18 24 12 10 1 11 4 8 3134 The activity-rate is at its highest among those aged 30–49 and at its low- est among those aged 65 and above.

However, there are interesting differ- ences between the fields of activities: in the field of leisure the activity- rate of the young (16–29) correspond to the rest of the population, and in the social field the activity-rate increases among those 65 years and above.
(Table 3) Looking at gender we find that men are over represented in sports and leisure whereas more women are found in the social and health field.

(Table 4) Table 3.

Danish Volunteers according to age and different fields.

2004 (%) 53.

Age 16–29 30–49 50–65 66– N Culture Sport Leisure Health Social 14 38 30 18 106 21 54 21 4 359 18 48 23 11 146 18 40 35 7 92 7 41 28 24 97 all 20 40 26 15 3134 52 Source: DHJS, The Danish National Institute of Social Research, 2004.
53 Source: DHJS, The Danish National Institute of Social Research, 2004.

164 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Table 4.

Danish Volunteers according to gender and different fields.

2004 (%) 54.

Culture Sport Leisure Health Social Men Women N 49 51 106 58 42 359 54 46 146 37 63 92 28 72 97 all 48 52 3134 To summarize: Families with children are more active than those without, due especially to a high activity-rate within the fields of leisure and edu- cation.
Being single or cohabiting does not seem to play any role.

There is a strong positive correlation between vocational education and volun- teering, a correlation that is, meanwhile, not found within the social field.

The voluntary activity rate is higher among those that are active within the labour-market than among those outside.
For those inside, the activ- ity-rate is highest among the self-employed and the white collar workers and at its lowest among the blue collar workers with no vocational train- ing.

Those under education and living on a pre-retirement pension have an activity rate close to the average.

The more working hours the higher the activity-rate, and therefore it is not surprising that the higher income the higher activity rate, but this does not hold for the social field.
The general picture offered by those figures is that volunteering is most fre- quent within these groups in society that hold most resources.

However, it has also been shown that this doesn’t hold true for the social field.
6.2.3 Changing patterns – comparing 1990 and 1999 Volunteering has been the subject of different Danish surveys from 1990 and onwards, most of which have only had a simple battery of questions to cover the subject (table 5).The questions about volunteering have not been phrased in the same way, apart from the two European Value Stud- ies (EVS) in 1990 and 1999.
Neither have the age delimitations of the samples been the same, nor the time perspective (in the questions) related to what period within which the volunteering should have taken place.

54 Source: DHJS, The Danish National Institute of Social Research, 2004.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 165 Table 5.

The proportion of the Danish population, who has volunteered according to different surveys.

(%) 55.

Year Study Proportion volunteering.

%.


Age- delimitation Time perspective 1990 1993 1996 1997 1998 1999 2004 EVS * EUROVOL ** Citizens re.

welfare society Solidarity study Cultural and leisure activities EVS * DJHS ****** 26 25 45 44 34 37 35 18 + 16+ ?
18+ 16+ 18+ 16–85 “carry out” Within the last year Spend time upon Within the last 12 months Spend time upon “carry out” Within the last year Apart from the two surveys from 1996 and 1997 the figures seem to indi- cate an increase in participation from approx.

one fourth in the beginning of the 1990s to approx.

above one third in 1999 and 2004.


Such an in- crease questions the theoretical assumption of an increasing individualisa- tion in society, and the corresponding decrease in the cohesion of (civil) society – that is, if we can take the amount of volunteering as an indicator of an active civil society.

Apparently people don’t choose to “bowl alone” or follow their own individual path – at least not more than they did 10– 15 years ago.

The figures seem to indicate an active Danish civil society.
It should be noted, however, that the average number of hours spent in volunteering is no more than 15 per month.

But this was also the case in 1993 (Anker & Koch-Nielsen, 1995).

In the following section we will only analyze the figures from the two EVS surveys to see whether the same patterns can be observed within the two different years, but also to see whether the increase that has been observed at the overall level is the same within the socio-demographic groups mentioned above.
The overall picture is that the pattern as such has not changed from 1990 to 1999, implying that in both years men are more active than women, those aged 30–65 more than the younger and the older, those with a vocational training and at work more than those without vocational training and those out of work.

But when we take a closer look at the changes, an interesting picture emerges.
55 Sources: *Koch-Nielsen, Inger & Jakob Dalsgaard Clausen (2002, 2004); ** Anker, Jør- gen & Inger Koch-Nielsen (1995); Gaskin, Kathrine & Justin Davis Smith (1995); *** Koch- Nielsen, Inger (1996); ****Juul, Søren (2002); *****Fridberg, Torben (2000); ****** Koch- Nielsen, Henriksen, Fridberg, Rosdahl (2006) 166 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Table 6.

The Danish population distributed by age and volunteering in 1990 and 1999.

(%) 56.
(%) 56.

Age 1990 N 1999 N %-difference %-increase 18–29 30–49 50–65 66+ All N= In 1990 as well as in 1999 the most active group is the age-group 30–49 while the least active is the age-group 66 +.
The increase in participation can be found in all age groups, but especially among those aged 66 and above, who are probably most of them retired from the labour-market, where the increase is 160%, which is significantly different from those aged 49 and below, and that the increase among those aged 50–65 is not significantly different from the older group.

Table 7.

The Danish population distributed by vocational education and volun- teering in 1990 and 1999.

(%) 57.
(%) 57.

Vocational education None Practical Theoretical All 1990 N 1999 N %-difference % increase 18 27 43 26 359 468 174 1001* 28 40 42 37 283 434 41 973 10 13 -2 973 ** 65 48 0 42 Also concerning men and women the pattern is the same in the two years, but the increase is somewhat higher among women (53%) than among men (40%).
The picture is the same as far as vocational education is con- cerned (table 7): in both years the most active are those with a theoretical education and the least active those without any education.

But the in- crease is significantly higher among those either without or with a practi- cal vocational education, meaning that the group with the lowest activity rate has the highest rate of increase, and there is even a slight decrease among those with the highest activity rate.
This picture also repeats itself when we look at the importance of attachment to the labour-market: the least active group – those out of work – have the highest increase of 94%, 56 Source: European Value Study 57 * 29 missing; ** 48 missing.

Source: European Value Study Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 167 while the most active group – those who work more than 30 hours a week – have the lowest increase of only 35%.
In regard to geographical region there seems to be changes as well as shown in table 8.

From this table it looks as if the increase is mainly due to the Greater Copenhagen area – and also to Jutland.

But the highest increase is in the capital itself, where the activity rate was rather low in 1990.

Table 8.

The Danish population distributed by region and volunteering in 1990 and 1999.

(%) 58.
(%) 58.

Region 1990 N 1999 N %-difference %-increase The Capital The suburban municipalities of Copenhagen Seeland and small islands Funen Jutland All Different surveys seem to indicate an increase in the amount of volunteer- ing in Denmark within the last 10–15 years.
While the overall pattern of volunteering seems to have remained unchanged (with the most privi- leged groups in society still being most active – this includes the middle aged, the well educated and the well-to-do) there seems to be some evi- dence that the increase in participation is at its highest among those groups that had the lowest rate in 1990.

Volunteering seems to have be- come an activity that is more widely practised in the population.
One might say that the norm of those most active seems to have spread to other groups.

Two general policies may have influenced this pattern: 1) the early re- tirement pay that has caused an increasing part of those aged 60 and above to retire, 2) the introduction in many public institutions (day-care, schools, centres and institutions for the elderly) of user committees.
58 Source: European Value Study 168 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 6.2.4 Driving forces of volunteering: Recruitment, motives, and occasions to volunteer In order to further characterize patterns of volunteering in Denmark we will take a look at the driving forces behind what we might call civil en- gagement.

As the previous tables indicate there is no reason to believe that Danes are volunteering less today compared with 10 or 15 years ago.
However, it could be that the amount of volunteering was rising, but that the qualitative nature of voluntary action was undergoing transformation along with wider societal changes.

One such idea was presented by Hustinx and Lammertyn (2000) in an interesting paper titled “Solidarity and volunteering under a reflexive- modern sign: Towards a new conceptual framework”.
Here they pursue the idea that a new type or style of volunteering is emerging where the individual’s motives reflect an individualized and reflexive conscious- ness.

Personal interest and needs, weak ties, and short term commitment replace the classical volunteerism characterized by organizational loyalty, long term commitment and altruistic values.
If it is actually a true diagno- sis, that late modern society is undergoing rapid transformation character- ized by such factors as more flexible labour markets, changing family bonds, do-it-yourself biography, individualization and so on it would seem a good idea to pursue this in empirical analysis, since voluntary action does not take place in a social vacuum.

Unfortunately, we don’t have data that are very well suited to measure this distinction between “new” and “classical” styles of volunteering.
However, what we can do is to take a closer look at some of the measures we do have of how and why people became active volunteers (or not) and see if some sort of relationship between reasons for volunteering and the individual’s socio-economic and socio-cultural position can be revealed.

One common way of observing motives behind volunteering is the Volunteer Functions Inventory developed by Clary, Snider and Ridge (1992).
This method has been applied to Denmark and the other four Nordic countries (Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland) by Habermann (2001) in a survey of volunteers within organizations for unemployed, pensioners, and social work, and to Norway by Wollebæk et al (2000) in the Norwegian Johns Hopkins general population study.

Both surveys indicate that volunteers in the Nordic countries resemble volunteers in other countries when motives are measured with this instrument.
They Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 169 tend to rank motives measuring values, learning and identity at the top – whereas motives measuring social expectations, influence and career tend to be ranked at the bottom.

This indicate that volunteers tend to be driven by altruistic and idealistic motives – and that they tend to see voluntary action as a result of their own free will, rather than a result of coercive factors operating in their social environment.
However, one should notice that this is but one way of measuring the driving forces of volunteers’ involvement and commitment.

One critical point might be the tendency of respondents to overemphasise the cultur- ally valued motives of altruism, and underestimate their personal interest in the particular activity in question.

Another weakness is the risk of ig- noring the significance of the social position and situation leading to par- ticipation in some form of voluntary organized activity.
A working hy- pothesis would be that volunteering is embedded in the individual’s bio- graphical experience (self), the dynamics of face-to-face interaction (situ- ated activity), the immediate environment of social activity (setting) as well as larger macro social structures (values, class, gender etc.)

(Layder 1993).

However, most often volunteer’s motives are seen as either a result of individual actor’s preferences and interests (micro) or a reflection of societal values (macro).
It might be important to note that this is not the old question of altruis- tic values versus self interest.

Obviously there are values at play.

We see e.g.

in the DJHS data a strong correlation between variables such as po- litical interest, church attendance, and trust in other people and the level of volunteering.

People, who take interest in politics, regularly go to church and generally trust other people have a higher propensity to volun- teer than the average individual.
Values count but the question is whether they also decide?

(or maybe how they come into play together with other social factors and forces).

Occasions to volunteer In the DJHS we have asked a different set of questions than those used in the Volunteer Functions Inventory.

These are attempts to measure the actual occasion leading to volunteering.

Hence, the focus is on “situated activity” and the “setting”.
It is important to note that we have asked about the respondents’ situation at the outset of their “career” as a volun- teer.

In the analysis we compare this with their present characteristics 170 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services (age, education, income, job etc.)

which, for many, will be different from their initial situation.

Interpretations, therefore, should be taken with cau- tion.

Table 9 gives an overview of the findings.


What we see, gives us a some what different impression of the dynamics of volunteering.

Table 9.

Occasions to start volunteering within different fields, 2004.

(%).
59 Occasion Had a request or was elected Originated out of own interest or relative’s situation Originated out of membership Had to react A wish to socialize with others Originated out of workplace or educa- tion centre Had extra time A coincidence or other Saw an announce- ment Sports, culture and leisure Social and health Politics: vocational, political parties and interna- tional Housing and com- munity Education and teaching Other (envi- ronment, religion, other) All volun- teers 58 ** 59 53 56 57 ** 72 56 55 51 * 65 19 19 11 20 ** 24 * 17 13 23 13 ** 14 3 ** 15 ** 21 ** 10 15 13 5 4 4 18 14 7 5 4 6 5 * 8 3 2 * 1 * 8 4 4 4 3 ** 2 ** 8 * 6 62 52 15 14 12 8 58 54 17 17 13 6 5 4 3 N 570 183 82 193 109 157 1090 First, the vast majority of all volunteers say that the immediate occasion leading to volunteering either was a request to do so (e.g.
to become elec- ted to a board or become a coach) or originated out of their own interest (e.g.

in a particular activity) or their relatives’ situation (e.g.

a child who- se football team was in need of a coach or an old mother whose interests should be taken care of at the home for elderly).

More than half of all volunteers say that their career as a volunteer originated out of one of 59 Source: DHJS, The Danish National Institute of Social Research, 2004.
*: Indicates a level of significance between ‘all volunteers’ and the specific area of volun- teering of 0,05.

**: Indicates a level of significance between ‘all volunteers’ and the specific area of volun- teering of 0,01.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 171 these two (or both) occasions.60 The next occasions such as “had to react” or “originated out of membership” was chosen by a much smaller share of the volunteers – only about 17% say that one of these occasions trig- gered their volunteer career.

There are small differences between the different fields of volunteer- ing.

Within housing and community a very large share of the volunteers says they have been requested to volunteer.
This is probably due to a rather classical organizational model within this field.

Within sports and leisure and within teaching and education more volunteers than average say that their volunteering originated out of their own interest or because of a relative’s situation.

We would argue that because these two areas have a rather clear activity orientation most of the volunteers here proba- bly have started their volunteering because they took interest in a particu- lar activity.
We find these rather unambiguous results interesting.

That so many volunteers are elected or recruited by request can be interpreted in at least two different ways: one is that volunteers to a high degree feel some kind of social obligation or responsibility (even solidarity) to contribute when they are asked, i.e.

when their “resources” are sought after or demanded.
Another is that volunteers take the election or request as an opportunity to pursue some kind of personal or collective goal through some kind of voluntary association.

In both cases the immediate social environment – friends, networks, schools, work place, family etc.

– as well as the dy- namics of face-to-face interaction – e.g.

the mild pressure from a group of peers to do the job etc.

– most likely play a key role.


Volunteers are also driven by some kind of individual interest in a par- ticular activity or a cause they want to work or fight for.

This may seem less surprising and it is found in other studies as well.

Most often this is interpreted as a value motive because it is operationalized in questions like “I want to do something for a cause that I am concerned about”.
Ho- wever, this study suggests that volunteers are also simply driven by a sheer interest in the particular field or activity in question.

Thus, it seems that volunteers display individualized traits as well as signs of obligations and solidarity.

Instead of focusing solely on values, idealism and altruism we would suggest that scholars also look for social expectations, obligations and interests when they study volunteering.
60 Respondents could give more than one answer 172 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Furthermore, we would suggest that one should pay careful attention to the immediate social environment in which the volunteer is embedded (along with more abstract “background values”).
We have some possibilities to further investigate this by looking at the relationship between the two most important occasions and respon- dents’ socio-economic background such as age, gender and labour mar- ket position.

Tabel 10.

Two most important occasions to volunteer by age, gender, and labour market position, 2004.

(%).
(%).

Had a request or was elected Originated out of own interest or relative’s situation N 16–29 30–49 50–66 + 66 Men Women Student/vocational training Blue collar White collar Independent or self-employed Pensioner/early retirement Unemployed Other All volunteers Taking at look at age it is obvious that there is a reverse relationship be- tween the two occasions.
The proportion of respondents who have been requested to volunteer gradually increases with age.

Nearly 70% of the age group +66 have been requested or elected, whereas this is case for only about 47% in the group aged 16–29 years.

The most obvious inter- pretation is that the older one gets, the higher is the probability that one is in a position where friends, colleagues, and others can pull one into vol- unteering.
The same pattern is also found to some degree in relation to the respondents’ labour market position.

Those in the best positions have the highest propensity to have become requested.

With respect to age it is also possible that we have some kind of generational effect where the older age groups to a larger extent belong to a traditional volunteering culture where one takes a turn when they are asked to.

When it comes to interests and relatives’ situation a different picture emerges.
The younger age groups and those in the best positions tend to Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 173 be more driven by interests than the older age groups and the pensioners and those outside the labour market.

That people up to 49 years and the better educated tend to be more driven by interest may be seen as a sup- port of the “reflexive volunteering hypothesis”.
However, it may also simply be that these groups – covering such diverse life situations as stu- dying, forming families, starting job careers etc.

– find themselves in situations where they take interest in their children’s school, sports as well as their own hobbies.

Reasons for not volunteering That social position and social context is important is also reflected when we look at the group of non-volunteers in the DJHS data.
Often the driv- ing forces behind volunteering are researched by looking at volunteers – however, it may be just as valuable to look at those parts of the popula- tion who are not integrated into the voluntary sector.

We have done so by asking non-volunteers what were the main reasons for not volunteering.

Table 11 summarizes the answers.

Tabel 11.

Reasons for not volunteering.

All non-volunteers.

2004.

(%) 61.


Reason for not volunteering Proportion of all non volunteers Do not have time/do not give priority to volunteering No interest Has not been asked or requested Illness or handicap Other Rules or requirements prevent me Bad experience with volunteering N = 1733 66 17 11 9 8 2 1 The main reason for not volunteering is lack of time or that people rather would spend their time doing something else.
More than 65% of all non-volunteers say that they don’t have time for volunteering.

As the second most important reason we find “no interest”, and as the third most important reason that people “have not been asked”.

Further down the list we find reasons like illness or handicap and bad experience with volunteering.
If we look closer at time in relation to socio-economic position we find important differences between age groups, education, 61 Source: DHJS, The Danish National Institute of Social Research, 2004.

174 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services income, children and weekly working hours.

Table 12 summarizes the results here.

Table 12.

Do not have time to volunteer by age, gender, labour market position, education, income, children, and weekly working hours.

2004.

(%) 62.
2004.

(%) 62.

Do not have time N 16–29 30–49 50–66 + 66 Men Women Student/vocational training Blue collar White collar Independent or self-employed Pensioner/early retirement Unemployed Other No education [specialarbejder] Practical Short theoretical education Medium long theoretical educ.

Long theoretical educ.
0–10.000 10.001–20.000 20.001–30.000 +30.001 Children living at home No children living at home Do not work Up till 34 working hours per week 35–40 working hours per week More than 40 working hours per week All non-volunteers We see that lack of time especially is a problem for those between 30–49 years, those with longer education, higher income, children and long working hours.
In short, for those groups in our society with a compara- tively surplus of resources, the tight time structuring of modern every day life seems to pose a problem.

Jobs, career, dual bread winner model etc.

might be a better explanation for not volunteering than “values”.

From table 13 we see that in general very few are actually not inter- ested in volunteering.
Although there are important differences between socio-economic groups here as well, the main impression is that – when 62 Source: DHJS, The Danish National Institute of Social Research, 2004.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 175 asked – a surprisingly small proportion of the population say that they simply are not interested.

Table 13.

Do not have interest in volunteering by age, gender, labour market position, education, monthly income and children.

2004.

(%).
2004.

(%).

63 Do not have interest N 16–29 30–49 50–66 + 66 Men Women Student/vocational training Blue collar White collar Independent or self-employed Pensioner/early retirement Unemployed Other No education [specialarbejder] Practical Short theoretical education Medium long theoretical educ.

Long theoretical educ.


0–10.000 10.001–20.000 20.001–30.000 +30.001 Children living at home No children living at home All non-volunteers What should be noticed in particular is that there are no significant differ- ences between the age groups.
Apparently, young people are not less interested in volunteering than their elder fellow citizens.

The age group between 30 and 49 are slightly more disinterested, but this might be due to their work and family obligations (dual commitment).

What seems to count more is gender, education, labour market position and children living at home.

Finally in table 14 we look at those who have not been asked or re- quested to volunteer.
Age, education, labour market position, and income are the main discriminatory factors here.

63 Source: DHJS, The Danish National Institute of Social Research, 2004.

176 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Table 14.

Has never been asked to volunteer by age, gender, labour market position, education, and monthly income.

2004.

(%).
2004.

(%).

64 Not asked N 16–29 30–49 50–66 + 66 Men Women Student/vocational training Blue collar White collar Independent or self-employed Pensioner/early retirement Unemployed Other No education [specialarbejder] Practical Short theoretical education Medium long theoretical educ.

Long theoretical educ.


0–10.000 10.001–20.000 20.001–30.000 +30.001 All non-volunteers In the youngest age group, those between 16 and 29 years, more than 20% have not been asked, whereas this percentage is only around 10 for the other age groups.

Again this illustrates the importance of being in an integrated position in society to become a volunteer.
This is also reflected in labour market position where one third of those outside the labour market have not been asked to volunteer whereas this only goes for 6– 10% of white-collar workers and independents [self employed].

The same pattern is found with education where only about 3–4% of those with a long theoretical education have not been asked whereas 15% of those with no education have not been asked.
To summarize: For the most privileged groups in society the main rea- son for not volunteering is lack of time.

To a large extent they show inter- est in voluntary work and they receive quite often requests to become active volunteers.

For the least privileged groups in society the situation is the reverse.

They have the time, but they more seldom receive requests and they also more often seem to lack the interest that is a prerequisite.
64 Source: DHJS, The Danish National Institute of Social Research, 2004.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 177 Maybe they also lack the resources, e.g.

educational skills, which are sought after by the voluntary organizations.

This group also seems to be less in contact with the arenas and social settings from which voluntary action originate.
Thus, although this paper showed that there might be changes in Danish volunteering towards more integration of the groups that traditionally are less integrated in the voluntary sector, we also find indications that there is still relatively unequal access.

Non-volunteers’ status and position in social structure measured by education, labour mar- ket position, income, and age is decisive for their relative chances to be- come active volunteers.
Besides, we have seen that also the immediate social environment must be taken into account.

Thus, the question of recruitment and motives behind volunteering is indeed a complex one that must refer to structuring social mechanisms and forces as well as abstract values.

6.2.5 Recent trends in membership orientations Membership has always been the basis for civil engagement and volun- teering in Denmark as well as in the other Nordic Countries.
The DHJS shows that about 80% of the volunteers are also members of the organisa- tion(s) in which they volunteer.

Membership has traditionally been asso- ciated with social solidarity and civic-ness.

But as recent trends in research have shown membership orientation and personal interests have taken a lead in voluntary organisations.
Also it is said that young people are no longer interested in volunteering, and the picture is furthermore complexed by the fact that women apparently chose care-work instead of leadership positions (Habermann et al 2005).

We should, however, be careful not to skate along with these “trends”.

Changes in society are always reflected in the voluntary organisations, but these changes can be interpreted in several ways.
Even if the positive development concerning the growing number of voluntary organisations and memberships can be related to the need for protecting (own) interests or for carrying out specific activities (sports, arts, music etc.

), also organisations working for social rights and humani- tarian causes have in recent years increased their activities.

And even if globalisation makes (local) networks difficult, people still have a need for solidarity and fellowship.
An answer might simply be that people join the 178 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services voluntary organisations for both reasons – values as well as interests.

And this places a demand on the voluntary organisations to make clear what their values are – not only what benefits they can give their members.

References Amnå, Erik (2000): Volunteerism and culture in the Nordic welfare states.

In: Three Essays on Volunteerism and Voluntary Organisations.

Stockholm.
Stockholm.

Sköndalsinstitutets arbetsrapportserie.

Anker J. og I. Koch- Nielsen (1995) Det frivillige arbejde.

Socialforskningsin- stituttet.

København Clary, E. G., M. Snyder and R. Ridge (1992): Volunteers’ Motivations.

Non- profit Management and Leadership, Vol.

2, No.

4 Fridberg T. (2000) Kultur – og fritidsva- ner 1975 – 1998.

Socialforskningsin- stituttet.

København Gaskin K. og J. Davis Smith(1995): A new civic Europe.

Volunteer Centre.

UK Goul Andersen, J.; Torpe, L. & Ander- sen, J.


(2000): Hvad folket magter – demokrati, magt of afmagt.

Køben- havn: Jurist- og Økonomforbundets Forlag.

Gundelach, P.(1996): Foreninger, socia- le bevægelser og ideen om den tredje sektor.

I: Toft Rasmussen, E. og Koch Nielsen, I (red): Den tredje sektor un- der forandring.

Antologi.

København Socialforskningsinstituttet.

96:15 Habermann,U.

& Ibsen B.

(2006): Kultur i lyst og nød – om det frivillige arbejde i amatørkulturen.
Center for Forskning i Idræt, Sundhed og Civilsamfund, Syddansk Universi- tet/Kulturministeriet.

Habermann, U, Ottesen, L. Skristad, B.

(2005): It will solve itself(?)

– on the attitudes of Scandianvian sports man- agers towards equal opportunities.

In Hofmann&Tangbæk(eds.

): Interna- tional Perspedtives on Sporting Women in Past and Present.Institute of Exercise and Sports.

University of Copenhagen.

Habermann,U.

& Ibsen B.

(2005): Guf og gab – frivillige foreninger i Køben- havns kommune.
Center for Forskning i Idræt, Sundhed og Civilsamfund, Syddansk Universitet/Københavns Kommune.

Habermann, U.

(2004): Where money meets visions.

Foundations in Euro- pe:Denmark.

København.

Institut for idræt.

Københavns universitet.

Habermann, U.

(2001): En postmoderne helgen?

– om motiver til frivillighed.

Lunds Dissertations in Social Work.

Lunds University Press.

Habermann, U.

(2001): En nordisk frivillighed.

In: Skov Henriksen, L. & Ibsen, B.


(red): Frivillighedens udfor- dringer – nordisk forskning om frivil- ligt arbejde og frivillige organisationer.

Odense.

Odense Universitetsforlag.

Habermann, U.

& Ibsen, B.

(1997): Den frivillige sektor i Danmark – 150 års historisk udvikling.

I: Frivilligt socialt arbejde i fremtidens velfærdssamfund.

Bet.

Nr.

1332. bIlagsdel.

København.

Socialministeriet.

Habermann, U.

(1995): Kommuneprofi- ler.

Odense.

Center for frivilligt socialt arbejde.


Hustinx, L. and F. Lammertyn (2000): Solidarity and volunteering under a reflexive modern sign: Towards a new conceptual framework.

Paper pre- sented at the ISTR conference, Dublin.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 179 Ibsen, B.

& Habermann.

U.

(2005): Defining the voluntary non-profit sector in Denmark.

Frivillighedsunder- søgelsen.dk.

www.frivillighedus.dk Ibsen, B.

(2006): Foreningslivet i Dan- mark.


Center for forskning i Idræt, Sundhed og Civilsamfund.

Syddansk Universitet.

Juul S. (2002) Modernitet, velfærd og solidaritet.

Hans Reitzels forlag.

København.

Koch-Nielsen I.

(1996) Den personlige indsats lever og har det godt.

I Borger- ne om velfærdssamfundet.

Social- forskning.

Socialforskningsinstituttet.

København Koch-Nielsen I. og J. Dalsgaard Clausen (2002) Værdierne i det frivillige arbej- de i Gundelach (red) Danskernes vær- dier 1981–1999.
Hans Reitzels forlag.

København.

Koch-Nielsen I. og J. Dalsgaard Clausen (2004) Frivilligt arbejde i Gundelach (red) Danskernes særpræg.

Hans Reit- zels forlag.

København.

Koch-Nielsen, Inger, Lars Skov Henrik- sen, Torben Fridberg & David Ros- dahl (2006): Frivilligt arbejde.

Frivillig indsats i Danmark.

Socialforskningsin- stituttet.

Rapport 05:20.

Layder, D. (1993): New Strategies in Social Research.

Cambrigde: Polity Press Rothstein, B.

(1998): Social capital in the Social Democratic State.
The Swe- dish Model and Civil Society.

Paper at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association.

Boston, sept. 1998.

Salamon, L.M.

& Anheier, H. (1996): Defining the non profit sector: a cross cultural analysis.

Manchester: Man- chester University Press.

Selle, P. & Øymyr, B.

(1995): Frivillig organisering og demokrati.

Oslo.

Det Norska Samlaget.

Torpe.

L. (2001): Folkets foreninger?

De frivillige organisationers folkelige forankring I Skandinavien.
I: Skov Henriksen, L. & Ibsen, B.

(red): Frivil- lighedens udfordringer – nordisk forskning om frivilligt arbejde og fri- villige organisationer.

Odense.

Odense Universitetsforlag.

Wollebæk, D. & Selle, P. (2000) Partici- pation in voluntary Associations and the formation of social capital.

Paper presented at the ARNOVA conference, New Orleans, nov. 2000.

Wollebæk, D et al (2000) Frivillig inn- sats.

Fagbokforlaget.

World Commision Report.

(Swedish version): Vår skapande mångfal.

1996.

Stockholm.
1996.

Stockholm.

Norstedts.

180 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 6.2 Research Trends and Future Challenges in Finnish Third Sector – Examples of Voluntary Work and Self-Help Groups65 Marianne Nylund 6.2.1 Current Discussions Voluntary sector and third sector66 research is connected to many current societal discussions and development projects in Finland.
During the last ten years, the Finnish third sector, including voluntary work and citizen action, has been discussed by citizens, volunteers, and professionals in social fields and deacon work, politicians and researchers.

Debates have concerned practical issues of division of work by volunteers and profes- sionals: what kinds of tasks belong to whom, what are the obligations and responses of volunteers.
Moreover, political and societal discussions are concerned with many other issues, such as, citizens’ right to participate, to belong to some community, to be heard, and to have a good life (Kohti aktiivista kansalaisuutta 2005, 39–43; Nylund & Yeung 2005, 19).

Politicians and other decision makers have also been interested in vol- unteering as a potential offered by citizens to increase the social capital67.
Consequently, Citizen Participation Policy Programme was launched by the Finnish government in 200468.

Its purpose is to strengthen Finnish 65 This article is based on author’s presentation “The Development of Third Sector and Civic Society Research in Finland” at the European Research Workshop of Third Sector and Civic Society Research in Magdeburg, Germany 24 November.2005.

In addition, it is based on an article by Marianne Nylund and Anne Birgitta Yeung (2005).
66 In this article, concepts of voluntary sector and third sector will be used interchangeably.

However, I prefer to use the concept of voluntary sector while referring to research on volunteer- ing, voluntary work and self-help groups.

Third sector concept often refers to structures, organi- zations, economic aspect of the sector, for example, from the viewpoint of employment (Nylund 2000/19).
67 See also debate on social capital in an empirical study by Yeung (2003; 2004, 107–118) concerning church volunteering in Finland.

68 Citizen Participation Policy Programme is one of the four policy programmes adopted by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen's Government during 15 April 2004–31 December.2005.

“Within the frame of the Policy Programme different development processes have been launched in the fields of education for active citizenship, social participation and civic activity.
At the moment around 20 different projects and operational ensembles have been started.” (http://www.om.fi/29378.htm).

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 181 democracy from its basis through the co-operation between several Min- istries (http://www.om.fi/29378.htm69; Harju 2004).
The Policy Program- me aims to support several projects by promoting research regarding changing challenges of citizenship, social capital, indicators of citizen participation and the state of democracy.

It is important to notice that it also promotes further research in social participation in addition to en- couraging public discussion on citizen action issues.70 Volunteering and citizen action have been seen as a solution in a so- cietal situation where public services need to be decreased.
It seems obvi- ous that public social and health services will not be able to serve all Fin- nish citizens in the future.

Therefore, there is a need to find other solu- tions, for example, by increasing cooperation and partnership between public sector, market sector and voluntary sector (Möttönen & Niemelä 2005).
In these public and political discussions, the voice of volunteers have been very minimal except of some opinion writings in newspapers (Ny- lund & Yeung 2005, 14), narratives of volunteers (Historier fra det frivil- lige Norge 1999), and scientific anthologies (Henriksen & Ibsen 2001).

However, the United Nation’s year of volunteers in 2001, made the voice of volunteers more heard also in Finland.
Another sign of citizen action is a remarkable increase of different forms of informal and formal peer support in Finland during the last ten years.

The increase of peer support indicates that citizens are willing to find their own solutions to everyday concerns, and share experiences with people in similar life situations.

At the same time, there is a lack of and decrease in public social and health services.
In many occasions, Finland is often considered a country with high public services (Nordic welfare state) and with minimum of volunteers and voluntary work.

However, national and international research indi- cates that volunteering activity in Finland is on average the same or higher (37.9% in 2000) than in many other European countries (Yeung 2004, 9271).

For example, church volunteering (e.g.

evangelic Lutheran church) has continuously increased in Finland (Yeung 2004, 91–92).
According to recent studies, willingness to help (altruism) has not disap- 69 You can find a Swedish summary from this address: www.om.fi/uploads/7rnnmqd_1.pdf 70 http://www.om.fi/29378.htm 71 The data is from European Value Study (Yeung 2004, 91–92).

182 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services peared from Finland.

Finland and many other Western countries have been claimed to become more individualized.
Especially, altruism seems to be one of the highly valued principles in the Finnish society (Puo- hiniemi 2002), and according to statistics it is one of the ‘top’ motives of Finnish volunteers (Yeung 2002, 2004).

In this article, I will shortly summarize research conducted in the third sector mainly during the last decade in Finland.
Furthermore, I discuss what types of research will be needed in the future to create a broader and deeper picture of Finnish third sector, for example, by including partici- pants’ perspective.

6.2.2 Research on Finnish Third Sector, Volunteering and Self-Help Groups The Finnish third sector has been rather widely studied from a histori- cal perspective (Nylund 2000b, 14).
Some examples of these studies are charity associations (Ramsay 1993), social movements and voluntary associations (Siisiäinen 1992; Stenius 1987; Toikko 2005), labour move- ments (Kettunen 1986), women’s movements (Jallinoja 1983; Markkola 1994), Settlement movement (Roivainen 2001; 2004), co-operatives (Il- monen 1985; Köppä 1993), mutual aid societies (Jaakkola 1996), and Alcohol Anonymous and self-help movements (Mäkelä 1998).
Historical studies were conducted by a variety of disciplines including history, soci- ology, political science, social history, social policy, and social work.

Research on third sector and volunteering was scarce and marginal du- ring the expansion of the Finnish welfare state in 1960s–1980s (Matthies 1994).
The interest to third sector research arose again during the eco- nomical recession in the early 1990s mainly by researchers in disciplines of sociology, social policy, and social work (Matthies, Kotakari & Ny- lund 1996; Nylund 2000b; Siisiäinen, Kinnunen & Hietanen 2000).

Both historical and societal perspectives are important in mapping and researching contemporary third sector and volunteering.
Entering the 2000s, research interests focus more on individual experiences and per- spectives (Eskola & Kurki 2001; Yeung 2004).

This illustrates that we are searching the meaning of our life and action from the every day life ex- periences.

This research tendency opens up several questions: should volunteering and self-help groups be studied only from the experiential Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 183 point of view or should we go deeper in the theoretical view?
(Nylund & Yeung 2005, 22).

According to earlier Finnish studies (Lähteenmaa 1997; Nylund 2000b; Yeung 2004), it is obvious that only quantitative data and questionnaires do not give a complete picture of volunteers’ own views and experiences.

The main critique is that research design and definitions of concepts are made by researchers about what they think is important and central in volunteering and self-help groups.
Thus, actors (volunteers and self-help groups members) themselves seldom can influence the re- search designs.

Luckily, there are signs of different types of research approaches that are discussed in the chapter entitled Participant’s Per- spective.

In Finland, there is a lack of research with qualitative approach on vo- luntary sector.

For example, there is a need to study how volunteering is constructed as part of life cycle (Nylund & Yeung 2005, 22).
However, it is important to recognize that if we only concentrate on qualitative re- search, we will loose the overall picture of Finnish voluntary sector: how large is it, how many volunteers there are, in what ages, what are the larger trends, changes and continuity of volunteering.

To sum up, it is crucial that different kinds of research approaches (historical, societal and individual) will be recognized in the third sector/ voluntary sector re- search.
6.2.3 Some results of Finnish Third Sector and Voluntary Sector Research Finnish third sector has some special characteristics according to several studies (Helander & Sivesind 2001; Nylund 2000b; Yeung 2004).

For example, one of the main result of Johns Hopkins comparative study is that Finnish third sector is smaller than that of other Nordic countries but still characterized as very Nordic (Helander 2005).
Furthermore, accord- ing to Helander (2005) voluntary work is quantitatively strong and it is meaningful both to volunteers, help receivers, and local communities.

Finnish third sector is exceptionally self-sustaining and independent from the state.

Third sector organizations act near the public sector but not interweaved with each other.

It is complementing public services but not replacing them.

Third sector has weak connections to the for-profit sector, but this is changing in 2000s (Helander 2005).
184 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services One of the problems with Johns Hopkins study was that it excluded self-help groups, cooperatives and church’s voluntary work.

Thus, the results of the Finnish third sector activities in Johns Hopkins’ study do not show the whole picture.

However, this picture is completed by other research of self-help groups, volunteers’ motives (Nylund 2000b), coop- eratives (Pättiniemi 2006), and church volunteering (Yeung 2004).
Concepts of voluntary work and mutual support were analysed by Ny- lund (2000b, 28–38; also Nylund 2005b).

The conceptual analysis indi- cated that both phenomenon of voluntary work and mutual support can be traced to several historical traditions (Nylund 2000b, 50–51).

The data received from self-help groups, voluntary organizations and volunteer were categorized by ideology, help orientation, and type of knowledge.
Self-help groups are based on ideology of mutual support and reciprocity, experiential knowledge.

Moreover, self-help groups act horizontally and bottom-up as ‘we-for-us’ groups or organizations (Nylund 2000b, 35–36), while voluntary organizations are based on the ideology of altruism and lay knowledge combined with professional knowledge.

Voluntary organi- zations’ help orientation is often ‘I-for-you’ or ‘we-for-you’ but they involve also ‘we-for-us’ actions (Nylund 2000b, 36–37).
Consequently, the Finnish voluntary sector in the 1990s can be described with variety of volunteer motives, various voluntary activities, hybrids of associations and self-help groups (Nylund 2000b, 50).

Research on cooperatives has also received new interest in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

There are studies on, for example, voluntary or- ganizations and cooperatives (Pättiniemi, Kostilainen & Nylund 2001) and social enterprises (Pättiniemi 2006).
This study area represents the borderline between third sector and market sector.

Most of social enter- prises (about 200) are established by unemployed people.

Voluntary work is a rather broad area in Finland.

For example, people volunteer on the average 18 hours a month (Yeung 2005).

This has not been recognized enough in earlier studies or in public and political dis- cussions.

There would be much more potential to recruit volunteers.
Ac- cording to Yeung (2002, 2004), many people say that they would partici- pate if someone would ask.

Several studies show that Finnish volunteers’ motives are more characterized by altruism than their counterparts in other Nordic countries (Habermann 2001; Nylund 2000b, 38–39, 123– 124; Yeung 2004, 75, 127–130).

At the same time, these studies indicate Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 185 that motives are mixed between giving, self-development and together- ness.
To sum up, the following are some special characteristics of Finland and third sector research.

Finnish social and economical development differs somewhat from other Nordic countries.

Some societal processes, for example, industrialization, are more recent in Finland (Yeung 2004).

The 1970s and 1980s were the time for development of strong welfare state (Julkunen 2001; Matthies 1994).
One of the crucial turning points, inspiring third sector research, was deep economical recession in the early 1990s (Nylund 2000b, 13).

The unemployment rate rose rapidly from 4% to 18% only in three years in 1990–199372 (Julkunen 2001, 60–64).

Many people loosing their jobs during recession have not returned to labour market but some of them have found other solutions, such as, social en- terprises, co-operatives or volunteering (Pättiniemi 2006; Pättiniemi, Nylund & Kostilainen 2001).
Finnish society in early 2000s has been illustrated as a welfare society where responsibility has dispersed to sev- eral actors in public sector, market sector, and third sector (Möttönen & Niemelä 2005, 3).

Moreover, citizens are assumed to have more responsi- bilities of their individual well-being (ibid.)

compared to early strong welfare state model where public sector was assumed to take care of citi- zens.
The ideas of new public management have also affected the roles of voluntary associations (Möttönen & Niemelä 2005, 4–5).

6.2.4 Participants’ Perspective One possibility to develop voluntary sector research is, for example, par- ticipatory (action) research (Nylund & Yeung 2005, 22).
It would offer volunteers and other actors in the sector a possibility to be part of the research team, for example, by planning and testing interview questions and questionnaires or interview each other (peer interviews) (e.g.

Clarke 2003; Lindqvist 2004).

This type of approach will give voice to people who often are only targets of research.

Furthermore, researchers them- selves could be more open-minded about how they decided to study vol- untary sector.
A researcher who has personal experience of voluntary sector should be aware of a too positive or negative perspective on the theme (Nylund 2000b, 15–16).

72 In Sweden from 4% to 8% during 1990-1993 (Julkunen 2001, 64).
186 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Some challenges for participatory research approach would be to stu- dy personal changes in life situation and identity, individual experiences, for example “politicization of experiences” (Hyväri 2001), experiential expertise in challenging professional knowledge (Munnukka, Kiikkala & Valkama 2005), or elements of individual and societal empowerment in self-help groups (Nylund 2000a).
On the other hand, there are also traps beside challenges in researching voluntary work and self-help groups.

These phenomena are difficult to describe and analyse only with tradi- tional research methods (Nylund & Yeung 2005, 23).

Thus, experiential knowledge should be more transparent in research designs (Hyväri 2005).
Presently, researchers in practice-oriented research in social work dis- cuss how practice and research can be combined, and how different types of knowledge are not hierarchial to each other (Satka, Karvinen- Niinikoski, Nylund & Hoikkala 2005).

Also in voluntary sector research theoretical, experiential and professional knowledge are interweaved and combined (Nylund & Yeung 2005, 23).
To illustrate, mothers in Internet discussion groups (Munnukka, Kiikkala & Valkama 2005) combine smoothly different types of knowledge, for example, experiential knowl- edge from earlier generations, relatives, and other mothers; theoretical knowledge from research publications; and professional knowledge from staff at maternity and health services.

Thus, various types of knowledge can exist side by side and complement each other.

This does not mean that they cannot be criticized or evaluated.
Voluntary action and mutual support are examples of every day life arenas where various types of knowledge can be interweaved in several ways (Nylund & Yeung 2005, 23).

One of the research challenges in third sector research is to capture up these nuances.

6.2.5 Future Research Needs Finnish Citizen Participation Policy Programme suggests that a university level education should be started to promote knowledge and expertise on citizen action issues (Kohti aktiivista kansalaisuutta 2005).
The pro- gramme committee proposes that this should be developed in a network model with several Finnish universities (Kohti aktiivista kansalaisuutta 2005, 18).

It is a good signal and encouraging gesture from the govern- ment to support financially teaching and research.
However, it is impor- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 187 tant to keep in mind that the research should be open to all kinds of is- sues, not only those that are mentioned in the agenda of the report (Kohti aktiivista kansalaisuutta 2005).
In the near future, there is a need to study the following issues and themes: participation and volunteering at different ages; gender aspect in volunteering; immigrant and refugee participation to third sector activi- ties; experiences of citizens who “receive” help and support from volun- teers; changing roles, relations, and responsibilities between public sector, market sector and third sector actors.

I will discuss some of these themes more closely below.
Participation and volunteering at different ages.

In Finland, the main age group studied is people in ages 25–64, concentrating on people in their middle age (Yeung 2002) participating in voluntary work.

Presently, there are some studies on young people volunteering (Lähteenmaa 1997; Nylund 2001; Yeung & Grönlund 2005) but further research with various methods is needed.
It is interesting that elderly people (people in their third age) are very scarcely researched in Finland (Hartikainen 2006) but also in other Nordic countries (Jeppson-Grassman 2005).

Assumingly, increase in elderly population will also increase interest in studying how and why people in the third and fourth age volunteer.
One interesting study on this topic is in progress: Anne Hartikainen (2006) is examining with ethnographic methods how third age volunteers meet third and fourth age people at long term care institutions.

The research involves interviews with nine volunteers who are mainly retired.

In addition, the research involves participative observation.

Gender aspect in volunteering.

The role of women is significant, for example, in social sector and church volunteering (Yeung 2004).
How- ever, the gender or female perspective is almost invisible in Finnish third sector studies except for some historical studies (Jallinoja 1983; Markkola 2002; Ramsay 1993).

In the Finnish welfare state, voluntary work has been considered something negative, some remain of charity work that should be replaced by professional paid work (Matthies 1994; Nylund & Yeung 2005, 19–20).

It could be interpreted that the controversy between “women friendly Nordic welfare state” 73 (Anttonen et al.
1994; Julkunen 73 For example, Finnish women were the first ones in Europe to receive the right to vote in 1906.

Indicators, such as, women’s education, participation in labour market, percentage of female members’ of parliament, Finland is one of the countries (similarly to other Nordic coun- tries) where gender equality is high (Julkunen 2001, 373–374).
188 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 2003) and church based, unpaid charity work has not inspired enough researchers.

On the contrary, it should be very challenging to study why Finnish women participate in volunteering while they have possibilities to do the same type of work as paid employees.

For example, Kaarina Kailo (2001) has written about the potentials of female and women studies to analyze and make visible some myths of voluntary work performed by women.
Kailo (2001, 163–166) points out that there is too little research about power relations between men and women in the society, how we tend to “take for granted” that women take care of unpaid care at home, voluntary work in the community, and also paid professional work in the fields of health care and social services.

Immigrant and refugee participation in the Finnish third sector.
The number of immigrants and refugees is still rather small in Finland (about 2%: 108,300 people74) compared to other Nordic countries.

One of the main reasons to move to Finland is marriage or dating with a Finn, a job offered by an international employee, studying, being a refugee or apply- ing for an asylum (Pehkonen 2006).

Thus, people with non-Finnish back- ground are a heterogeneous group.
During the last ten years, the number of immigrant associations and meeting places has increased but there is still lack of research in this area.

Consequently, it is important to study what different cultural ways and motives people have to participate in the Finnish society that may differ significantly from their countries of origin.
The Citizen Participation Policy Programme suggests that there should be more education for immigrants and refugees about Finnish society and ways to participate (Kohti aktiivista kansalaisuutta 2005, 69–70).

As mentioned earlier, people studied should be part of the research process because they often have relevant questions concerning the research topic.

Experiences of citizens who receive help and support from volunteers.
Motives to volunteer and reasons to participate in voluntary organizations have been studied rather widely in Finland.

However, there is an obvious lack of research on experiences of people who receive help and interact with volunteers (Hartikainen 2005).

For example, reciprocity and mutual sharing are studied more often in self-help groups (Hyväri 2001, 2005; Nylund 2000b) than in volunteer settings.

Potentials and problems with Internet and other technologies in third sector.
One of the big issues is how different types of technologies are 74 Statistics Finland: http://tilastokeskus.fi/til/vaerak/index.html Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 189 used in the third sector, voluntary work and self-help groups.

There are some Finnish studies about third sector and information society (Kopo- maa 2005), Internet discussion groups (Munnukka, Kiikkala & Valkama 2005), and mutual support in Internet (Nylund 2005c).
Changing roles, relations, and responsibilities between public sector, market sector, and third sector actors.

This topic is one of the core issues on macro and meso level research on third sector.

Previous studies in the Finnish context have mainly concentrated on relations and cooperation between the third sector and the public sector (Matthies 1994; Möttönen & Niemelä 2005; Siisiäinen, Kinnunen & Hietanen 2000).
Nevertheless, there are both political and scientific demands to widen research to con- cern also relations between third sector and market sector.

Moreover, relations and roles between third sector and fourth sector (family, house- holds, friends, neigbourhood) need to be analyzed more closely.
There is also need to study how national and local voluntary social and health organizations are altering their mission and services because of economic and social changes in the society (Möttönen & Niemelä 2005; Vuorinen et al.

2005).

In this chapter, I have suggested some issues and groups to study in the near future.

I have discussed the lack of research analyzing how eld- erly people, women and immigrants volunteer and participate in the third sector.
I want to emphasize that I do not suggest that these groups of peo- ple should be “obliged” to volunteer.

The main idea is that it is important to know how citizens at different ages, backgrounds and ideas participate in the society.

How do they see volunteering, to listen to their opinions and voice (not only those who are in power), how and to what kinds of tasks and issues people should participate.
It is crucial to make visible power relations, (in)equality, and discrimination issues in the third sector (Kailo 2001; Katsui 2005; Nylund 2005a) to avoid people disappearing from voluntary action or being burned out with too many tasks and de- mands.

190 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services References Anttonen, Anneli & Henriksson, Lea & Nätkin, Ritva (eds.)

(1994) Naisten hyvinvointivaltio.

Tampere: Vastapaino.

Citizen Participation Policy Programme.


Ministry of Justice, Finland.

http://www.om.fi/29378.htm Clarke, Kris (ed.)

(2003) Welfare Re- search into Marginal Communities in Finland: Insider Perspective on Health and Social Care.

Research Reports, Series A, No, 8.

Tampere: University of Tampere, 11–30.

Eskola, Antti & Kurki, Leena (2001) Vapaaehtoistyö auttamisena ja oppimi- sena.

Tampere: Vastapaino.

Habermann, Ulla (2001) En nordisk frivillighed?

Om motiver til frivil- lighed i fem nordiske lande.
In Lars Skov Henriksen & Bjarne Ibsen (eds.)

Frivilleghedens udfordringer: nordisk forskning om frivilligt arbejde og fri- villige organisationer.

Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag 87–103 Harju, Aaro (2004) Aktiivisten kansa- laisten Suomi.

Keskustelunavaus jär- jestöllisen koulutuksen tehostamisesta.

Oikeusministeriön julkaisu 11/2004.

Helsinki: Oikeusministeriö.

Hartikainen, Anne (2005) “Löytää se jokin, mikä koskettaa.” Kohtaamisia vanhusten pitkäaikaishoidossa.
In Ma- rianne Nylund & Anne Birgitta Yeung (eds.)

Vapaaehtoistoiminta – anti, ar- vot ja osallisuus.

Tampere: Vastapai- no, 143–166.

Hartikainen, Anne (2006) Ikääntyvät vapaaehtoisina – vapaaehtoisten ja vanhusten kohtaamisia vanhusyhteisön arjessa.

Unpublished manuscript.

Helander, Voitto (2005) A Group Expert Interview with professor emeritus Voitto Helander, professor Marianne Nylund and post doc researcher Anne Birgitta Yeung by professor Aila- Leena Matthies, Helsinki 13.9.2005.
Henriksen, Lars Skov & Ibsen, Bjarne (eds.)

(2001) Frivillighedens udfor- dringer – nordisk forskning om frivil- ligt arbejde og frivillige organisationer.

Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag.

Historier fra det frivillige (1999) Norge.

Oslo: FRISAM.

Hyväri, Susanna (2001) Vallattomuu- desta vastuuseen.

Kokemuksen politii- kan sankaritarinoita.

Vankeinhoidon koulutuskeskuksen julkaisu 3.

Vam- mala: Tietosanomat Oy.

Hyväri, Susanna (2005) Vertaistuen ja ammattiauttamisen uudet suhteet.
In Marianne Nylund, & Anne Birgitta Yeung (eds.)

Vapaaehtoistoiminta – anti, arvot ja osallisuus.

Tampere: Vas- tapaino, 214–235.

Ilmonen, Kaj (1985) Uusi osuustoiminta, osuustoimintaliike ja yhteistoiminnan kapitalisoituminen.

In T. Kyntäjä (ed.)

Talouden kahtiajako.

Mykät pakot ja vapauden visiot.

Jyväskylä: Tutki- jaliitto, 137–156.

Jaakkola, Jouko (1996) Mutual Benefit Societies in Finland during the Nine- teenth and Twentieth Centruries.

In M. van der Linden (ed.)

Social Security Mutualism.


The Comparative History of Mutual Benefit Societies.

Bern: Pe- ter Lang, 501–525.

Jallinoja, Riitta (1983) Suomalaisen naisasialiikkeen taistelukaudet.

Nais- asialiike naisten elämäntilanteen muu- toksen ja yhteiskunnallis-aatteellisen murroksen heijastajana.

Porvoo: WSOY.

Jeppson-Grassman, Eva (2005) På jakt efter den frivilliga sektorns roll inom nordisk äldreomsorg.
Forskning, ge- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 191 staltning, perspective.

In Szebehely, Marta (ed.)

Äldreomsorgsforskning i Norden – En kunskapsöversikt.

Te- maNord 2005:508.

Köpenhamn: Nor- diska Ministerrådet, 281–320.

Julkunen, Raija (2001) Suunnanmuutos.

Tampere: Vastapaino.

Julkunen, Raija (2003) Naiset ja miehet.

In Tuula Helne, Raija Julkunen, Jouko Kajanoja, Sini Laitinen-Kuikka, Tiina Silvasti & Jussi Simpura.

Sosiaalinen politiikka.


Helsinki: WSOY, 363–387.

Kailo, Kaarina (2001) Naistutkimus ja naisten vapaaehtoistyö – hoivatyöstä sukupuoliroolien murtamiseen.

In Ant- ti Eskola & Leena Kurki (eds.)

Vapaa- ehtoistyö auttamisena ja oppimisena.

Tampere: Vastapaino, 157–175.

Katsui, Hisayo (2005) Towards Equality.

Creation of the Disability Movement in Central Asia.

Helsinki: University of Helsinki & Kynnys ry.

Kettunen, Pauli (1986) Poliittinen liike ja sosiaalinen kollektiivisuus.
Tutki- mus sosiaalidemokratiasta ja ammatti- yhdistysliikkeestä Suomessa 1918– 1930.

Jyväskylä.

Kohti aktiivista kansalaisuutta.

Kansa- laisyhteiskunta 2006-toimikunnan ra- portti (2005).

Oikeusministeriön jul- kaisuja 2005:14.

Helsinki: Oikeusmi- nisteriö.

(see also: http://www.om.fi/ 34782.htm) Kopomaa, Timo (2005) Etäauttaminen, kolmas sektori ja tietoyhteiskunta.

In Timo Kopomaa & Tero Meltti (eds.)

Kaupunkisosiaalityötä paikantamassa.

Helsinki: Palmenia-kustannus, 123–140.


Köppä, Tapani (1993) Hyvinvointivaltio riutuu – osuustoiminta ja yhteistoimin- tatalousko avuksi?

In Riitta Granfelt et al.

(eds.)

Tulevaisuus nykyisyydessä – Framtiden i nuet.

Helsinki: HY/Lahden tutkimus- ja koulutuskeskus & Svens- ka social- och kommunalhögskolan vid Helsingfors universitet, 104–114.

Lindqvist, Ann-Marie (2004) Att ha något nyttigt att göra.

Brukarperspek- tiv på den dagliga verksamheten för personer med utvecklingsstörning.
Pro gradu arbete i socialt arbete.

Helsing- fors universitet, samhällspolitiska in- stitutionen.

Unpublished.

Lähteenmaa, Jaana (1997) Youth, Vol- untary Work and Postmodern Ethics.

In Helena Helve & John Bynner (eds.)

Youth and Life Management.

Helsinki: Yliopistopaino.

Markkola, Pirjo (1994) Työläiskodin synty.

Tamperelaiset työläisperheet ja yhteiskunnallinen kysymys 1870- luvulta 1910-luvulle.

Helsinki: Suo- men historiallinen seura.

Markkola, Pirjo (2002) Synti ja siveys.


Naiset, uskonto ja sosiaalinen työ Suomessa 1860–1920.

Helsinki: Suo- malaisen kirjallisuuden seura.

Matthies, Aila-Leena (1994) Epäviralli- sen sektorin ja hyvinvointivaltion suh- teiden tarkastelua.

English summary: The Informal Sector and the Welfare State: Contemporary Relationships.

Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.

Matthies, Aila-Leena & Kotakari, Ulla & Nylund, Marianne (eds.)

(1996) Välit- tävät verkostot Tampere: Vastapaino.


Mäkelä, Klaus (1998) Alcoholics Ano- nymous in Finland.

In I. Eisenbach- Stangl & P. Rosenqvist (eds.)

Diver- sity in Unity.

Studies of Alcoholics Anonymous in Eight Societies.

Hel- sinki: Nordic Council for Alcohol and Drug Research (NAD), 91–112.

Munnukka, Terttu & Kiikkala, Irma & Valkama, Katri (2005) Nettiäidit vir- tuaalihiekkalaatikolla.

In Marianne Nylund, & Anne Birgitta Yeung (eds.)

Vapaaehtoistoiminta – anti, arvot ja osallisuus.


Tampere: Vastapaino, 236–254.

Möttönen, Sakari & Niemelä, Jorma (2005) Kunta ja kolmas sektori.

Yhtei- styön uudet muodot.

Jyväskylä: PS-kustannus.

192 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Nylund, Marianne (2000a) The Mixed- Based Nature of Self-Help Groups in Finnish.

Groupwork – An Interdisci- plinary Journal for Working with Groups 2(12), 64–85.
Nylund, Marianne & Yeung, Anna Birgitta (2005) Vapaaehtoisuuden anti, arvot ja osallisuus murroksessa.

In Marianne Nyealund & Anne Birgitta Yeaung (eds.)

Vapaaehtoistoiminta – anti, arvot ja osallisuus.

Tampere: Vastapaino, 13–38.

Nylund, Marianne (2000b) Varieties of Mutual Support and Voluntary Action – A Study of Finnish Self-Help Groups and Volunteers.

Helsinki: Finnish Fed- eration for Social Welfare and Health.

Nylund, Marianne (2001) Mixed Motives of Young Nordic Volunteers.
In Helena Helve & Claire Wallace (eds.)

Youth, Citizenship and Empowerment.

UK: Ashgate Publishing, 91–109.

Nylund, Marianne (2005a) Osallisuus ja osallistuminen kansalaistoiminnassa.

In Timo Kopomaa & Tero Meltti (eds.)

Kaupunkisosiaalityötä paikantamassa.

Helsinki: Palmenia-kustannus, 141–156.


Nylund, Marianne (2005b) A Group Expert Interview with professor emeri- tus Voitto Helander, professor Marian- ne Nylund and post doc researcher Anne Birgitta Yeung by professor Ai- la-Leena Matthies, Helsinki 13.9.2005.

Nylund, Marianne (2005c) Vertaisryh- mät kokemusten ja tiedon jäsentäjinä.

In Marianne Nylund, & Anne Birgitta Yeung (eds.)

Vapaaehtoistoiminta – anti, arvot ja osallisuus.

Tampere: Vas- tapaino, 195–213.


Pehkonen, Aini (2006) Maahanmuutta- jan kotikunta.

Helsinki: Kunnallisalan kehittämissäätiö.

Puohiniemi, Martti (2002) Arvot, asen- teet, ajankuva.

Espoo: Limor.

Pättiniemi, Pekka (2006) Social Enter- prise as Labour Market Measure.

Ku- opion yliopiston julkaisuja E 130.

Ku- opio: University of Kuopio.

Pättiniemi, Pekka & Kostilainen, Harri & Nylund, Marianne (2001) Finland: Voluntary Organisations and Co- operatives for Socio-economic Reinte- greation in Finland.
In Roger Spear Jacques Defourny, Louis Favreau & Jean-Louis Laville & (eds.)

Tackling Social Exclusion in Europe.

The Con- tribution of the Social Economy.

Ash- gate, 93–110.

Ramsay, Alexandra (1993) Huvudsta- dens hjärta.

Filantropi och social för- ändring i Helsingfors – två fruntim- mersföreningar 1848–1865.

Ramsay: Finska Vetenskaps-Societen.

Roivainen, Irene (2001) Setlementtityö sosiaalisen työn toteuttajana.

In Irene Roivainen (ed.)

Yhteisöt hyvinvoinnin tuottajina.


Settlementtijulkaisuja 10.

Helsinki: Suomen Settlementtiliitto ry, 9–21.

Roivainen, Irene (2004) Yhteisöt ja yhteisösosiaalityön lähtökohdat.

Tam- pere: Tampere University Press (elec- tronical book).

Satka, Mirja & Karvinen-Niinikoski, Synnöve & Nylund, Marianne & Hoikkala, Susanna (eds.)

(2005) Sosi- aalityön käytäntötutkimus.

Helsinki: Palmenia.

Siisiäinen, Martti (1992) Social Move- ments, Voluntary Associations and Cycles of Protest in Finland 1905–91.
Scandinavian Political Studies 15(1), 21–40.

Siisiäinen, Martti & Kinnunen, Petri & Hietanen, Elina (2000) The Third Sec- tor in Finland.

Review to Research of the Finnish Third Sector.

Helsinki: The Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health; Rovaniemi: University of Lapland.

Stenius, Henrik (1987) Frivillig – jämlikt –samfält.
Föreningsväsendets utveck- ling i Finland fram till 1900-talets bör- jan med speciell hänsyn till massorga- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 193 nisationsprincipens genombrott.

Eng- lish summary: Voluntarily – Equally – Mutually.

A History of Voluntary As- sociations in Finland until the Early 20th Century.

Helsinki: Svenska littera- turskällskapet i Finland.

Toikko, Timo (2005) Sosiaalityön ideat.

Johdatus sosiaalityön historiaan.


Tam- pere: Vastapaino Vuorinen, Marja & Särkelä, Riitta & Perälahti, Anne & Peltoniemi, Juha & Peisa, Leena & Londén, Pia & Eronen, Anne (2005) Vertaansa vailla.

Ajan- kohtaiskuva sosiaali- ja terveysjärjes- töistä.

Helsinki: Sosiaali- ja terveys- turvan keskusliitto ry.

Yeung, Anne Birgitta (2002) Vapaaeh- toistoiminta osana kansalaisyhteiskun- taa – ihanteita vai todellisuutta?

Tut- kimus suomalaisten asennoitumisesta ja osallistumisesta vapaaehtoistoimin- taan.
Helsinki: YTY ry.

Yeung, Anne Birgitta (2003) Social Capital in Church-Related Voluntee- rism.

In Seven Essays on Scandinavian Civil Society.

Stockholm: Handel- shögskola, 141–172.

Yeung, Anne Birgitta (2004) Individu- ally Together.

Volunteering in Late Modernity: Social Work in the Finnish Church.

Helsinki: The Finnish Federa- tion for Social Welfare and Health.
Yeung, Anne Birgitta (2005) A Group Expert Interview with professor emeri- tus Voitto Helander, professor Marianne Nylund and post doc re- searcher Anne Birgitta Yeung by pro- fessor Aila-Leena Matthies, Helsinki 13.9.2005.

Yeung, Anne Birgitta & Grönlund, Henrietta (2005) Nuorten aikuisten arvot, asenteet, osallisuus.

In Marianne Nylund & Anne Birgitta Yeung (eds.)

Vapaaehtoistoiminta – anti, arvot ja osallisuus.

Tampere: Vastapaino, 167–191.


194 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 6.3 The Icelandic Voluntary Sector: Development of Research Steinunn Hrafnsdóttir Introduction While there is a long established and deeply embedded tradition of volun- tary action and nonprofit organizing in Iceland, there has been very lim- ited research on the role of the voluntary sector in the Icelandic society (Hrafnsdóttir, 2005a).
Internationally and in the other Nordic countries research on the voluntary sector has been developing fast over the last few years (See i.e.

Salamon & Anheier, 1998; Salamon, Anheier, List, Toepler, Sokolowski et al, 1999; Wijkström & Lundström, 2002; Haber- mann, 2001; Henriksen & Ibsen, 2001; Sivesind, Lorentzen, Selle & Wol- lebæk, 2002).

There is an increased interest in democratic processes in societies and also with citizens social and human rights.
This has to do with the so-called civicness in society or as the World Commission puts it: “A culture of citizenship and participation in the civil society as a part of the democratizing process” (The World Commission Report, 1996, 272).

At the same time questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the Nordic welfare model.

Research and debate often goes hand in hand.


Because of this the focus in the other Nordic countries has been on the social voluntary sector as a potential welfare producer in the welfare state of the future.

Researchers generally agree that Iceland belongs to the Nordic welfare model although it deviates in some important aspects from it (Broddadóttir, Eydal, Hrafnsdóttir, Sigurdardóttir, 1997; Sipila, 1997; Ólafsson, 1999).
However, theoretical as well as professional dis- cussions about the role and importance of the third sector have not been high on the agenda in Iceland and Iceland’s role in volunteer research has been minimal up to this time.

However, a research project on the volun- tary sector in Iceland is now in it’s beginning phase.

The major research objectives are to describe the scope, structure, contribution and role of the voluntary sector in Iceland.
Identification of the societal and historical factors that encourage or retard the development of voluntary organiza- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 195 tions is important, and to gain a clearer understanding of the evolving role and influence that voluntary organizations have in Iceland.

The paper briefly discusses the concepts that are used to describe the Icelandic voluntary sector.
This is then followed by a short overview of the historical development of the voluntary sector in Iceland.

In the final section the development of research in Iceland is discussed, and finally some research findings will be presented.

6.3.1 Definitions In recent years there has been much discussion about the role and influ- ence of social institutions that operate outside the confines of the market and the state.
There are various words that are used to describe such or- ganizations such as: The third sector, non-profit organizations, non gov- ernmental organizations, civil society, the voluntary sector and the inde- pendent sector.

Many scholars have in different ways tried to capture the complex world of definitions and concepts of such organizations (See i.e.

Kendall & Knapp, 1995; Lundström & Wijkström, 1997; Salamon & Anheier, 1996).
In Iceland, there have until recently, been no attempts to define in an organized way, terminology to describe the group of organi- zations that are non-profit distributing and it seems that different terms are used interchangeably by different authors.
However, it is clear that the few who have written about this sector are trying to describe organizations that are not part of the state or local au- thorities and are not-profit distributing and relying to some extent on voluntary work (Júlíusdóttir & Sigurðardóttir, 1997; Björgvinsdóttir, 1999; Hrafnsdóttir 2003).

In Icelandic legal terminology, the term general associations (almenn félög) is used to describe organizations that are not profit distributing (Björgvinsdóttir, 1999).
This concept includes all kinds of organizations, from popular mass movements to most small or large voluntary or non- profit organizations such as: associations in sport and recreation, chari- ties, cultural associations, labor unions or employer’s associations, inter- national relief activities and advocacy.

However, it is common in Iceland to name these entities “free associations” (frjáls félagasamtök).
This is comparable with the Nordic concept “frivillig organization” where em- phasis is put on people´s participation in these kinds of organizations by free will.

The concepts voluntary sector (sjálfboðageirinn) and volunteer- 196 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services ing (sjálfboðastörf), are used to describe people who give their time with- out pay to these kinds of associations (Júlíusdóttir & Sigurðardóttir, 1997).
In a forthcoming book on the third sector in Scandinavia, Haber- mann (unpublished manuscript) argues that the terms voluntary work and voluntary organizations seem to fit well with empirical findings in the Scandinavian countries.

Then the term voluntary work is used to describe two activities: A.

Unpaid activity performed by individuals.

• unconditioned (voluntary) • • formally organized and carried out outside the closest family B.
Social welfare work (paid or unpaid) being performed through volun- tary organizations.Voluntary organizations are defined as: autonomous from government/state • Private and self-governing • • non-profit • membership not conditioned • volunteer participation to some degree.

This definition is similar to the definition that has been used in the Com- parative Non-profit Sector Project by the John Hopkins Center for Civil Society.
According to the John Hopkins classification the third sector/non profit organizations share five common features: A.

Organizations i.e.

they have an institutional presence and structure B.

They are organizationally separate from the state C. Not profit distributing.

i.e.

they do not return profits to their managers or to a set of owners.

D. Self-governing i.e.

they are fundamentally in control of their own affairs E. Voluntary i.e.
membership in them is not legally required and they attract some level of voluntary contribution of time or money (Salamon & Anheier, 1996).

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 197 Scholars have not made any serious attempts in Iceland to define and categorize these organizations.

However, in teaching and writing about voluntary organizations Haberman´s definition and the JHU framework seem in many ways to suit Icelandic circumstances.
In Iceland there is very limited systematic information on these organizations.

For example no statistical office collects data on volunteering as part of its regular, ongoing reporting.
However voluntary organizations can register in the Registration of Enterprises and there they are categorized according to ÍSAT (The Icelandic classification of economic activities), which is based on NACE (Nomenclature general des activitées economique dans les communautés Européennes) and ISIC (International standard classifica- tion of all economic activities).

According to the registration of enterprises there were 17,000 associa- tions and foundations registered in Iceland by the end of 2003.
6.3.2 A Short historical overview To be able to understand voluntary work in Iceland it is important to consider the links between the development of the voluntary sector, the welfare state and historical circumstances in Iceland.
Although, little research has been carried out on the history of the Icelandic voluntary sector, it is evident from the literature about the development of the Ice- landic welfare state, legislation and histories of different voluntary or- ganisations that volunteer work has its own historical roots.

These have been woven together with the country’s social circumstances, develop- ment of the welfare state and social policy.
The Icelandic welfare state It is generally agreed that the Icelandic welfare state belongs to the Nor- dic welfare model, although it deviates from it in important aspects.

The legal framework and ideology is similar, but the Icelandic welfare system provides less public support compared to the other Nordic countries (Broddadóttir et.

al.

1997, Eydal, 2000, Social security in the Nordic countries 1998).
The reasons for this are difficult to account for, but some theories have been put forward to explain this.

Ólafsson (1990) has ex- plained the exceptionalism by a different political landscape from the other Nordic countries.

The Social Democrats in Iceland never had strong political power.

Indeed the political power of the right wing Independ- 198 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services ence Party has been the strongest in Iceland.
Others have proposed that the value of self-sufficiency and the support role of the family have been very strong in the Icelandic society (Júlíusdóttir, 1993, Sigurðardóttir, 1993, Rafnsdóttir, 1995).
Rafnsdóttir (1995) has suggested that if the culture of the nation is characterized by accepting problems privately without complaining, it is not capable of placing strong demands on the public welfare state and Eydal (2000) has proposed that these “cultural obstacles” can explain to some extent, the relatively low political interest in more comprehensive public support.

The value of self-sufficiency and the strong role of the family can be related to the history of the Icelandic welfare state.
Since the Settlement of Iceland some 1100 years ago the country was divided into administra- tive units, which were named municipalities (hreppur).

The main respon- sibilities of these units were to provide for the poor and prevent them from becoming paupers.

Since that time legislation has existed about the matters of the needy, but a general co-ordinated legislation about social affairs was not promulgated before 1991.
Up to that time it was taken for granted that the support obligation lay within the family itself.

Only when relatives were unable to support the poor did the district provide care.

This was emphasised clearly in the old lawbook Grágás and in the law- book Jónsbók in 1280.

Intrestingly, the church played a minor or no role in organizing for the provision of the poor during the early stages of the settlement in Iceland.
This is in contradiction with the development in the other Nordic countries and in Mid-Europe (Broddadóttir et al.

1997).

The reasoning behind the emphasis on the family´s support obligation seems to have been that the authorities attempted to secure themselves against the obligation to provide support while at the same time attempt- ing to ensure that people have some sort of financial standing, or to res- cue those from misfortune who cannot support themselves (Gunnlaugs- son, 1983).
This was originally done, for example, by the exclusion of the needy from districts, and through provisions that limited their freedom, among other things, to form a family.

This led to a belief that it was a disgrace to be dependent on others for any form of help.

To receive help was not only seen as an injury to one’s reputation but it actually lead to an exclusion from normal life.

In this way the idea of being self sufficient found its roots early in the Icelandic culture.
The role of central govern- ment in executing social policy was much limited until 1946, when com- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 199 prehensive social insurance system was applied in Iceland.

Jónsson (2001) suggests that local authorities and voluntary organizations (for a brief period of time) before that time had much greater say in provision of such services.
Voluntary work began to develop in Iceland in the late 19th century and free citizens associations started to be formed.

In 1874 formal free- dom of asssociation was granted by the constitution.

The associations that were established before the middle of the nineteenth century were mainly book publications, work projects and leisure clubs in Reykjavík.

Many of these clubs were formed by people that were very high in authority and some were formed in the parliament of Iceland.
After the middle of the nineteenth century the number of voluntary organizations increased rap- idly.

Initally the general public did not have access.

In Reykjavík it was generally the more educated people, intellectuals and the upper-layers of society that had access.
Mass movements did not begin to develop until the end of the 19th century and the early twentieth century, for example the temperance movement, the cooperative movement, youth asssocia- tions, the labor movement and women´s associations (Róbertsdóttir, 1990; Jónsson, 2001).

The prerequisties for the participation of the gen- eral public in voluntary organizations have probably been that various reading clubs were formed in the end of the 19th century where the gen- eral public received informal education.
However, informal education was also part of the program in various associations such as women´s associations, youth associations and the temperance movement.

(Sigurðs- son & Guttormsson, 2003).

It can be concluded that in this period organi- zations were formed around cultural, leisure and social activities.

The movements based their work on voluntary work and democracy.
Jónsson (2001) has suggested that these movements were the first agents to change Icelandic social politics in the direction which later came to be known as the welfare state, at a very similar time as in the other Nordic countries.

Philantrhophic movements in Iceland grew steadily in this perod.

The aim of these organizations was to assist disadvantaged groups especially around issues of poverty, health and other social needs.
These voluntary organizations were entrepreneurs in various social and health services (Júlíusdóttir & Sigurðardóttir, 1997).

200 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Ragnarsson (1999) discusses that in the 1930s voluntary organisations ran most of the institutions and establishments in social-and health ser- vices in Iceland.

The activities of the voluntary organisations were di- verse and many associations ran various services.
These services were subsidised by the state and/or the local authorities.

It is important to men- tion that it was mostly women and their associations who were the entre- preneurs in establishing welfare services in Iceland.

Philantrophy made an important base for the women´s movement providing grounds for women to get out in the public sphere.
The aims of many of the women´s asssociations were at the same time to fight for their own rights in the society, and to provide better conditions for underpriviledged groups in the society such as the poor, old and the ill.

When legislation on financial support was establised in 1947 the gov- ernment took some of these assignments over from the voluntary organi- zations.

It must be emphasized that the voluntary organizations them- selves pressed for the government to take over these services.
However, many of them still retained their practices.

For example all day care insti- tutions and the majority of the institutions for elderly people were run by voluntary organizations until the 1970s with subsidaries from the state.

In the 1960s voluntary associations and various interest organisations in- creased in number in Iceland.

These organisations were mainly estab- lished to fight for the interests of their members such as disabled people and the elderly.
The history of voluntary organizations in Iceland after 1980 has not been written about in any coherent manner.

It is although clear that after 1980 there was an increase in the number of voluntary organizations in Iceland, especially self-help groups and small interest groups in health care, this is shared by the other Nordic countries (Hrafnsdóttir, 2004a; Haraldsdóttir; 1995: Jónsson, 2001).
It can be concluded that the history of the voluntary sector in Iceland seems to be similar to the other Nordic countries, although it must be emphasized that it´s development occured later in Iceland.

This is probably due to the fact that the welfare state in Iceland developed later compared to the other Nordic countries.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 201 Short remark on the cooperation between state and social voluntary organizations The cooperation between the state and the voluntary sector in Iceland has not yet been researched.

However, it is possible to see from the history of the Icelandic welfare state that the cooperation between the social volun- tary sector and the state has been close.
Voluntary social organizations especially in elderly care have always been seen as important for the pro- vision of welfare in Iceland.

As an example in the year 2003 only 5 insti- tutions for the elderly were run by state/municipialities.

15 were run by non-profit organizations (Heilbrigðis-og tryggingamálaráðuneytið, 2003).

Another example is the treatment for Alchol and drug abusers, where a non-profit organization runs the largest facility in contract with the Minis- try of Health.
There is also a long history of state subsidies to the non- profit sector.

However, the relations are complex and there seem to be variations in the relationship between the state and different kinds of voluntary organizations.

Research in this field is minimal and we are in the beginning phase of research and political interest.

Political debate about the voluntary sector has not yet started in Iceland as it has in the other Nordic countries.
However, it is possible to see a trend towards more formal contracts with voluntary organizations and the hope that some of the welfare issues can be solved by the voluntary sector.

This is related to the development of NPM (New Public Management) which has been high on the agenda during the nineties.

The Ministry of Finance launched the state sector modernisation program in 1993 and the Gov- ernment adopted a comprehensive public sector modernisation policy statement in 1995.
In Iceland, as in other OECD countries, some of the key goals of this reform were outsourcing, privatization, and deregulation initiatives (Kristmundsson, 2003).

There has also been some legal initiatives with regard to the voluntary sector.

In the Local authority social service Act (1991) it is specifically stated that the municipialities should have cooperation with the voluntary associations to improve the social situation and environment (11 gr.

3 chapter).
3 chapter).

However it is not mentioned how this cooperation should be.

There is also a long tradition that citizens and voluntary organizations are consulted on relevant issues and it is quite common that representatives from voluntary organizations have a seat in governmental committees.

It is even stated in legislation that some committee members should be from 202 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services voluntary associations (See f.e.
legislation of the disabled from 1992).

However, there is no special policy regarding this relationship.

6.3.3 Development of Icelandic Voluntary Sector Research In this section the development of Icelandic research will be discussed briefly and some research findings will be presented.

Lastly, preliminary findings from new research on volunteering in Iceland will be presented.
This research is a part of a larger research project about the extent, scope and contribution of the voluntary sector in Iceland.

There is a lack of research on the Icelandic voluntary sector and the data that is available is relatively new.

However, research and knowledge has increased with the linking between this research field and the Department of Social Work at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Iceland.
In historic and women´s studies the histories of various voluntary or- ganizations have been written about.

Often these books have been pub- lished in relation to the voluntary organizations anniversaries.

In a few cases the authors relate the history of the voluntary organization to the development of the Icelandic welfare state and the role of women in soci- ety (Guðmundsdóttir, 1995; Einarsdóttir, 2002).
Others have written about the development and constructiont of the Icelandic welfare state and discussed the role of voluntary organizations (Broddadóttir, Eydal, Hrafnsdóttir & Sigurðardóttir, 1997; Jónsson, 2001).

The first book about volunteering, social policy and social work was published in Iceland 1997 by Sigrún Júlíusdóttir and Sigurveig H. Si- gurðardóttir.
In the book the Icelandic results from a Nordic comparative research on motives is presented and the history of the Icelandic volun- tary sector is discussed.

The Volunteer Functions Inventory, VFI is used to evaluate the mo- tives of volunteers in the Red Cross and the Association for Elderly Peo- ple.

The analysis is based on answers from a total of 575 respondents, the response rate was 57%.

Respondents scored the value motive highest (81%).


Other motives ranked from the next highest to the lowest: learn- ing (72%), identity (60%), social expectation (30%), desire for influence (13%) and career (11%).

When a comparison is drawn between the Ice- landic results and those of the other Nordic countries it is clear that volun- teers seem to be driven by similar motivations.
The value dimension is Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 203 once again the most important factor and factors based upon individualis- tic motivations are less important.

One BA thesis in social work has been written about the history of so- cial voluntary work and its role in social welfare (Huldís Haraldsdóttir, 1995).

This was the first attempt to analyse the history of social voluntary work periodically.
Research was done 2003 on the extent of volunteers’ contribution and its economical value within the Icelandic Red Cross for the year 2002.

The Volunteer Investment and Value Audit (VIVA), de- veloped by the National Centre for Volunteering, UK was used to calcu- late the value and cost related to the work done by volunteers.

This method has been used by voluntary organizations in Europe, North Amer- ica and by the Red Cross in Denmark and Finland.
A special VIVA ratio is calculated which is the relationship between investment in volunteer work (expenses) and calculated value of voluntary work.

The findings revealed that the VIVA ratio was 3.

That means that every Icelandic krona that is put in voluntary expenditure triples its value.

The findings also revealed that the volunteers worked 66.411 hours in 2002 in all kinds of assignments such as caring, management, first-aid, training and ser- vices.
The findings also suggest that the Red Cross invests in volunteers by providing training, supervision, consultation, support and motivation.

The findings indicate that volunteers are a valuable asset for the Icelandic Red Cross.

The research can be used to emphasize how important volun- teers are for societies and they can also be used for voluntary organiza- tions to review their practices (Hrafnsdóttir, 2004b).
Research was carried out in 2004 on the tax environment of Icelandic non-profit organizations with comparision to other countries.

A special emphasis was on charity organizations (Guðmundsson, 2004).

As mentioned earlier, no comprehensive research on the voluntary sector has been carried out.

However, valuable information is available on the extent of volunteering and membership in Icelandic society from the Icelandic section of the World Values survey.
The survey was carried out by the Institue of Social Sciences at the Unviersity of Iceland in 1984, 1990 and 1999.

The findings indicate that in 1999 the average memeber- ship rate was 2.21 compared to 1.62 in 1984 and 1.85 in 1990.

In 1999, approximately 37% said that they had volunteered for all kinds of asso- ciations.
It was most common for Icelandic people to volunteer in clubs and associations connected to sport or hobbies, and secondly in charity 204 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services and/or welfare organizations (Halman, 2001, Félagsvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands, 1999).

Another study also gives information about the extent of Icelandic people´s membership in various associations (Kristinsson, 2001).
The aim of the research is to investigate the aims and efficiency of Icelandic local authorities from the viewpoint of Putnams theory of social capital.

One characteristic of this concept is the participation in associations as well as interest in public affairs and trust in social relations.

The survey consists of two randomly chosen samples of 1500 people from the whole country and 500 people from local authorities with less than 2500 inhabitants between the age of 18–75.
The response rate is 68.6% or 1371 answers.

Only the results in regards to membership in associations will be discussed here.

About 61% of the respondents are members in associations and 33% are members in more than one.

Approximately 33% of the respondents are members in various charity and welfare organisations.

29% are members in cultural and/or recreational associations, 17% are members in political parties and 15% in educational and research organisations.
As discussed in the beginning of this section, the first comprehensive research on the voluntary sector in Iceland is in it´s beginning phase and some preliminary results are available (Hrafnsdóttir, 2005b; Hrafnsdóttir, in print).

The research is carried out by a team of researchers at the Fac- ulty of Social Sciences at the University of Iceland and has been sup- ported by the Icelandic Research Council, the University of Iceland Re- search Fund and the Icelandic Red Cross.
The main research objective is to increase understanding of the nature, scope, structure, roles and fi- nances of the Icelandic non-profit sector, and the contribution of volun- teers in Iceland.

In the last section, findings from a survey on volunteering in Iceland which is a part of this research project will be presented.

The survey was carried out in 2005 and was based on a random sample of adults aged between 18–80 in Iceland.

The participants totalled 1500 and the final response rate was 58%.
The data was gathered by telephone interviews by IMG Gallup in Iceland.

In the survey, respondents were asked various questions about formal volunteering such as: extent of volunteering, vol- untary activity by field of interest, the kind of volunteer work carried out, hours of volunteering and motives of volunteering.

Only a small part of the findings will be presented here.
In 2005, 40.3% of the Icelandic popu- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 205 lation had volunteered in the last twelve months an average of 215 hours.

Table 1. presents the kind of organizations that the respondents had vol- unteered for in the last 12 months.
Table 1: Organizations volunteered for (%) Sports organizations Parents associations Charities Rescue and relief services Church and religious groups Political organizations Trade unions and professional associations Youth work/hobbies Culture and art Voluntary organizations concerned with health Human rights, peace and, third world development Environment 18.0 14.5 11.0 7.7 6.9 6.3 5.5 5.2 5.0 4.2 4.2 3.0 As is evident, it is most common to volunteer for Sports organizations, Parents associations and charities.
There seem to be little gender differ- ences in the overall levels of volunteering in Iceland, 42% of men com- pared to 39% of women.

However, it is more common that men volunteer in sports, recreation, rescue relief services and women in parents associa- tions, charities, church and religious work.

Women and men also seem to participate in different kinds of activities.
It is more common for men to be involved in committee work 81% versus 71% of women and less like- ly to be engaged in befriending and visiting activities 22% versus 31%.

In most other volunteer work men and women participate similarily.

Age also has an influence on the level of volunteering (See figure 1).
206 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Figure 1: Age of Volunteers e g a t n e c r e P 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 51 47 42 38 30 25 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-80 Age It is most common that people in the age group 35–44 volunteer, 51% compared to 30% in the age group 18–24.

Looking at education, volun- teering tends to increase with the amount of higher formal education.
49% with University education, compared to 28% of those with only primary school education (See figure 2).

Figure 2: Volunteer Educational Level 49 43 35 28 Compulsory education Occupational education Upper secondary school University education e g a t n e c r e P 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Level of education Volunteering is more common among higher and middle socio-economic groups than any other groups and volunteering contribution is seen to increase with higher income.
In figure 3 the household composition of the Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 207 volunteers can be seen.

Married couples with children are more likely to volunteer than other groups.
Figure 3: Household Composition of Volunteers e g a t n e c r e P 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 40 32 52 44 Single without children Married/cohabiting without children 22 Single with children Household composition Married/cohabiting with one child Married/cohabiting with two or more children When the results from this new Icelandic study are compared to findings from the Icelandic part of the world value survey (1999), the profile of volunteers and their contribution is quite similar.
6.3.4 Conclusion Compared to different European countries (Gaskin & Smith, 1995; Sala- mon and Sokolowski 2001; Halman, 2001) it seems clear that volunteer participation in Iceland is similar to the other Nordic countries which all show a high degree of volunteer activity and membership in associations.
In Iceland as in the other Nordic countries, volunteering is most frequent in the field of sport and recreation, wheras in many other European coun- tries, the majority of volunteer activities are found within social welfare.

Indeed, when the findings are compared to other Nordic countries the profile of volunteers and volunteering is alike.

Men and women in the Nordic countries participate to a similar degree in volunteering.
However, men and women work in different fields and it is more likely that people over 30 years volunteer (Habermann, 2001).
It is tempting to suggest that there exists a specific Nordic voluntary sector, although it must be emphasized that there are differences among the five countries and each country has it’s own cultural history and spe- cial national traits, that probably influence the structure and scope of the 208 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services voluntary sector.

However, common cultural heritage and cooperation between the countries are also very important in this regard.
Although little research on the voluntary sector has been carried out in Iceland, it can be concluded that Iceland seems to have a lively voluntary sector with a high level of volunteering.

However it seems clear that the voluntary sector varys considerably depending for example: on history, contextual factors and different welfare models.

Iceland is in the early stages of researching the voluntary sector.
The research that is now ongo- ing is linked with the Department of Social Work, at the University of Iceland and it is hoped that with further research in this field, a full pic- ture of the Icelandic voluntary sector will be gained.

References Björgvinsdóttir, Á.

(1999) Félagaréttur.

Ritröð 1.

Reykjavík: Bókaútgáfa Orators.

Broddadóttir,I., Eydal, G., Hrafnsdóttir, S. & Sigurðardóttir, S.H.

(1997) The Development of local authority social services in Iceland.

In J. Sipila, (ed.
In J. Sipila, (ed.

), Social Care Services: The Key to the Scandinavian Welfare Model (p. 51–77).

Aldershot: Avebury.

Einarsdóttir, B.

(2002) Hringurinn í Reykjavík: stofnaður 1904: Starfssaga.

Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bók- menntafélag.

Eydal, G. (2000) Nordic child-care policies and the case of Iceland.

In A. Pfenning and T. Bahle (eds.

), Families and family policies in Europe.

Com- parative perspectives (p. 104–126).

Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.


Félagsvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands (1999) Lífsgildi: Félagslíf.

Saman- burður 1985, 1990 og 1999 og bak- grunnsgreining fyrir árið 1999.

Reyk- javík: Félagsvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.

Gaskin, K. og Smith, J.D.

(1995) A New civic Europe?

A study of the extent and role of volunteering.

London: Vo- lunteer Centre.

Guðmundsson, J.

(2004) Skattaumhverfi félagasamtaka á Íslandi og í öðrum löndum með sérstöku tilliti til góð- gerðarsamtaka.
Reykjavík: Samvinnu- hópur ABC-barnahjálpar, Barnaheilla, Hjálparstarfs kirkjunnar, Rauða kross Íslands og SOS barnaþorpa.

Gunnlaugsson, G.Á.

(1983) Löggjöf um fátækraframfærslu og stjórn fátæk- ramála á Íslandi á 18. öld.

Saga 21, 39–72.

Habermann, U.

(Unpublished manu- script).

The Third Sector in Scandina- via: History, Policy and Structure.

In Habermann, U.

(ed).

Volunteer Motives in Scandinavia.

Habermann, U.

(2001) En postmodern helgen?

Om motiver til frivillighed.


Lunds dissertations in social work.

Lund: Socialhögskolan Lunds Universitet.

Halman, L. (2001) The European Values Study: A Sourcebook based on the 1999/2000 European Values Study Surveys.

Tilburg: EVS.

Tilburg: University Press.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 209 Haraldsóttir, H.S.

(1995) Hlutverk sjálf- boðastarfs í þágu félagslegrar vel- ferðar.

Unpublished BA thesis.

Fac- ulty of Social Sciences: University of Iceland.
Heilbrigðis- og tryggingamálaráðuneytið (2003) Skýrsla stýrihóps um stef- numótun í málefnum aldraðara til ársins 2015.

Reykjavík: Heilbrigðis- og tryggingamálaráðuneytið.

Henriksen, L.S.

og Ibsen, B.

(2001) Frivillighedens udfordringer.

Nordisk forskning om frivilligt arbejde og fri- villige organisationer.

Odense: Center for frivilligt socialt arbejde.

Hrafnsdóttir, S. (2003) Tengsl sjálfboða- samtaka og opinberra aðila í vel- ferðarþjónustu.

In Jónsson, F.

(ed.).

Rannsóknir í Félagsvísindum IV.


(p. 235–243).

Reykjavík: Félagsvísin- dastofnun & Háskólaútgáfan.

Hrafnsdóttir, S. (2004a) The Mosaic of Gender.

The Working Environment of Icelandic Social Service Managers.

Reykjavík: University of Iceland Press.

Hrafnsdóttir, S. (2004b) Rannsókn á framlagi og efnahagslegu mikilvægi sjálfboðastarfa.

Í Ú. Hauksson (ed.

), Rannsóknir í félagsvísindum V. (p. 361û371).

Reykjavík: Félagsvísindast- ofnun Háskóla Íslands og Háskólaút- gáfan.
Hrafnsdóttir, S. (2005a) Sjálfboðaliðas- tarf.

Viðhorfsrannsókn.

Reykjavík: IMG.

Gallup.

Hrafnsdóttir, S. (2005b) Sjálfboðaliðar á Íslandi.

In Ú. Hauksson (ed.

), Rann- sóknir í Félagsvísindum VI (p. 221– 229).

Reykjavík: Félagsvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands og Háskólaútgáfan.

Hrafnsdóttir, S. (In print).

Sjálfboðastörf á Íslandi.

Þróun og rannsóknir.

Tímarit íslenskra félagsráðgjafa.


Hrafnsdóttir,S.,Júlíusdóttir, S. & Si- Jónsson, G. (2001) Agents and institu- tions in the creation of the Icelandic welfare state, 1880–1946.

In H.R.

Christensen, U. Lundberg and K. Pe- tersen, K.

(eds.).

Frihed, lighed og tryghed (p. 61–89).

Velfærdspolitik i Norden, 48, AArhus: Jysk Selskap for Historie.

Júlíusdóttir, S. & Sigurðardóttir, S.H.

(1997) Hvers vegna sjálfboðastörf?

Um sjálfboðastarf, félagsmálastefnu og félagsráðgjöf.

Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan.


Kendall, J.

& Knapp, M. (1995) A loose and baggy monster: boundaries, defini- tions and typologies.

In J.D.

Smith, C. Rochester and R. Hedley (eds.

), An Introduction to the Voluntary Sector (p. 66–95).

London: Routledge.

Kristinsson, G.H.

(2001) Staðbundin stjórnmál.

Markmið og árangur svei- tarfélaga.

Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan.

Kristmundsson, Ó.H.

(2003) Reinventing government in Iceland.

A case study of public management reform.


Reykjavík: University of Iceland Press.

Lundström, T. & Wijkström, F. (1997) The Nonprofit Sector in Sweden.

Man- chester and New York: Manchester University Press.

Ólafsson, S. (1999) Íslenska leiðin.

Almannatryggingar og velferð í fjölþjóðlegum samanburði.

Reykjavík: Tryggingastofnun Ríkisins.

Ólafsson, S. (1990) Lífskjör og lífshættir á Íslandi.

Meginniðurstöður úr lífskja- rakönnun 1988.


Reykjavík: Félagsvís- indastofnun Háskóla Íslands, Hagstofa Íslands.

Rafnsdóttir, G.L.

(1995) Kvinnofack eller integrering som strategi mot un- derordning.

Diskussion kring kvinnliga fackforeningar pa Island.

Lund: Lund University Press.

gurðardóttir, S.H.

(Unpublished manu- script).

Selfsufficiency and Support.

In Habermann, U.

(ed.).

Volunteer mo- tives in Scandinavia.

Ragnarsson, S. (1999) Sögulegt yfirlit félagsþjónustu.
Erindi á ráðstefnunni Félagsþjónusta á nýrri öld.

Viðhorf, ábyrgð, framtíðarsýn.

210 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Róbertsdóttir, H. (1990) Reykjavíkurfé- lög.

Félagshreyfing og menntastarf á ofanverðri 19. öld.

Ritsafn sagnfræðis- tofnunar 26.

Reykjavík: Sagnfræðis- tofnun Íslands.

Salamon, L.M.

& Anheier, H.K.

(1996) The Emerging Nonprofit Sector.

An overview.

Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.

Salamon, L.M.

og Anheier, H.K.


(1998) Social origins of civil society: Explain- ing the nonprofit sector cross- nationally.

International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organiza- tions, 9, 213–248.

Salamon, L.M., Anheier, H.K., List, R., Toepler, S., Sokolowski, W.S.

and as- sociates.

(1999) Global civil society.

Dimensions of the nonprofit sector.

Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies.

Salamon, L.M., & Sokolowski, S.W.


(2001) Volunteering in cross-national perspective: Evidence from 24 coun- tries.

Working Papers of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sec- tor Project, no.40.

Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies.

Sigurðardóttir, S. (1993) Islandska livsloppsformer.

in K. Wærness, J.E.

Ruth & L. Tornstam (eds.

), Livslöp blant gamle i Norden.

Oslo: Norsk Ge- rontologisk Institutt.

Rapport 2.

Sigurdsson, I.

& Guttormsson, L.

(eds.)


(2003) Alþýðumenning á Íslandi 1830– 1930.

Ritað mál, menntun og félagsh- reyfingar.

Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan.

Sipilä, J.

(1997).

Introduction in J. Sipilä (ed.)

Social Care Services: The Key to the Scandinavian Welfare Model (p. 1– 8).

Aldershot: Avebury.

Sivesind, K.H., Lorentzen, H., Selle, P. & Wollebæk, D. (2002) The Voluntary Sector in Norway- Composition, Changes, Causes.

Norway: ISF Rapport, 002.


Wijkström, F. & Lundström, T. (2002) Den Ideella Sektorn.

Organisationerna I det civila samhallet .

Stockhoms: So- ber Förlag.

The World Commission Report, (1996).


Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 211 6.4 The State and the Voluntary Sector in Norway: New Relations – New Challenges Sissel Seim, Marith Kristin Markussen and Bennedichte C. Rappana Olsen Introduction Voluntary organisations in Norway have played a decisive role in the development of social welfare provision.
Despite their important contri- bution, their role in the welfare state was not recognized as a significant one in either the discourse of social research or in political discussions until the 1980s.

Following in the heels of this much belated acknowledg- ment came a decade replete with signs, signals and echoing calls for po- litical change, including reductions in public spending, more effective use of public funds and new priorities for using the resources that are ear- marked for the public sector.
Long-term planning programmes that were produced by top-level state institutions underscored the new creed; that voluntary organisations and civil society could be relied upon to contrib- ute to the solutions for the future welfare needs of society.75 In addition to propounding this new creed, other matters were placed upon the political agenda, including the rights of consumers and the utility of allowing users of public services to influence their provision (White paper no.

4 1987/88).
4 1987/88).

Much of the organisational research in Norway has focused upon an analysis of the co-operative processes that have taken place between vol- untary organisations and public authorities.
There are 70 studies within this field listed in the Norwegian bibliography addressing relationships between non-profit voluntary organisations (sometimes referred to as the third sector), civil society, and the provision of welfare services.76 The authors of this article have used several approaches to find the relevant literature search engine research.
One starting point was www.bibsys.no, which encompasses all publications found in Norwegian the 75 Norwegian Government Long-term Planning Documents1982–85, 1986–89, 1990–93.

76 The bibliography is to be found in the final section of this report.

212 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services libraries.

A second approach accessed the contacts the authors have in the field, and several relevant studies were discovered by talking to and ques- tionning colleagues.
Using the so-called “snow ball method”, other stud- ies were found by looking at the reference lists of a variety of research papers deemed to be central to the field of organisational studies in Nor- way.

It is important to note that the catalogue is not a comprehensive bibliography of Norwegian studies on civil society.

Three topics will be particularly addressed in this article.

First, struc- tural changes within the organisation of society will be identified.
Sec- ond, gender will be mapped in third sector organisations.

Third, the topic of user-participation will be specifically emphasised.

We found that user- participation was a prevalent focus in recent studies of organisations for the disabled and claimant groups.

In our view, when user participation is incorporated into government policies, one invariably discovers a number of dilemmas when those policies are put into practice.
This insight is an important one when discussing relationships between civil society and the welfare state.

6.4.1 Structural Changes within the Voluntary Sector 6.4.1.1 Changes in the Organisation of Society Several Norwegian studies have discussed changes in the quantity, com- position, and structure of the voluntary sector in Norway.

The majority of these studies have noted changes in the organisation of society.
Wollebæk and Selle (2002) maintain that the broad-based organisations are on a decline, and that there is an increase in the number of organisations that have less formal membership and less binding activities.

Moreover, the studies seem to confirm that there is a growth of organised activities in other fields, such as sports, cultural activities, and social services (Sive- sind et.

al.

2001, Wollebæk and Selle 2001 and 2002).


Several authors have reported that voluntary organisations are changing from being con- flict-oriented and oriented towards the society as a whole, into consensus- oriented service organisations that are primarily occupied with specific causes, and with the welfare of members (Wollebæk and Selle 2002).
Democratic and geographically hierarchical structures have been changed, as the local branches have become more independent from the national level (Wollebæk and Selle 2001).

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 213 Several researchers claim that the professionalisation of voluntary or- ganisations has taken place.
They point to the processes that have pre- empted local, amateur and other kinds of knowledge, which are based upon the experience of voluntary participants, and to the processes that have replaced the aforementioned knowledge with professional knowl- edge (Lorentzen 2004, Wollebæk and Selle 2002).

Lorentzen (2004) calls attention to another feature of the altering processes that characterise contemporary civil society, namely colonisation.
He claims that the state is encroaching upon the responsibilities of civil society and that the state has taken actions which have destroyed civil communities, without creat- ing new ones.
He argues, in line with the communitarian tradition, and inspired by the reasoning and the writings of Amitai Etzioni, Alan Wolfe, Jürgen Habermas and others, that the social rights of the welfare state have helped to undermine the spirit of collective engagement within civil society, which in turn has accelerated the process of individualisation.

He also blames neo- liberal market ideology for contributing to this ‘atomis- ing process’.
Many social researchers that study civil society share the opinion that modernisation and individualisation undermine collective engagement (Sivesind et al.

2002, Wollebæk and Selle 2002).

Another assertion is that voluntary organisations have become less important as agents for socialisation and democracy (Wollebæk and Selle 2002), and that they, to a great extent, simply reflect the attitudes and concerns that already dominate the existing society, and have little or no interest in generating changes.
6.4.1.2 Mapping gender in the voluntary organization sector Only a few studies focus upon gender distinctions within the voluntary sector in Norway.

The following discussion identifies tendencies found in the existing studies.
Broad-based and broadly oriented health and welfare organisations, whose members were predominantly female, were pioneers and played a vital role in the problem-solving process, in the identification of health and social needs, and in the provision of care in many areas within the welfare field (Berven 2000, Selle and Berven 2001).
A common prejudice has been that such organisations dominated ‘less important’ areas, even though these have included health and welfare, and that men have domi- nated in political and economic arenas where ‘real’ power has been exer- 214 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services cised (Selle and Berven 2001, Wollebæk and Selle 2001).
However, Ber- ven, Selle and Wollebæk argue that traditional, humanitarian organisa- tions dominated by women have had major impact upon social, health, and school policies.

Participation in the humanitarian health and welfare organisations has, since the later part of the 19th century, provided women with a very real channel for the exercise of political influence and power.
Despite these efforts, women, and the humanitarian organisations they dominated, are not usually considered to be an important factor in the development of the welfare state.

Selle and Berven (2001) claim that the efforts of women in the voluntary organisations they dominated, have been ignored because civil society has not received the same attention or equal status in analyses of society that privilege the state and the market.
Moreover, they claim that the efforts of women are neglected when civil society is studied because most researchers employ a corporative analyti- cal approach, neglecting efforts on the local organisational level and in- formal channels in the exercise of political power and influence.
From 1945 and continuing until the early 1960s, traditional humanitar- ian organisations, that had a female majority in their membership lists, experienced growth simultaneously with the expansion of the welfare state, but since then these organisations have had a decline in membership (Berven 2000, Wollebæk and Selle 2001).
Since the 1980s, these organi- sations have been acknowledged as being influential actors in the welfare field, however, paradoxically, these same organisations have since then experienced less room to maneuver (Berven 2000).

Berven argues that at present, these same organisations experience a greater degree of formal representation, but, they exercised more power in earlier years, despite the fact that their representation at that time was, for the most part, an informal one.
Since the 1960s, an increasing number of women are represented in traditionally male-dominated organisations, including sports, cultural and leisure-time organisations, and in economic organisations and political parties (Wollebæk and Selle 2001).

Wollebæk and Selle assert that this is important for the direct political influence that is exerted by women.

Ho- wever, they find that in these organisations women are under-represented both as members and leaders.
They claim that the traditional humanitarian organisations were vital centres for female networks and their exercise of political influence.

They argue that this political infrastructure is disinte- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 215 grating at the present time.

As a consequence, these authors question how much real power women have gained from the increased representation in traditionally male-dominated organisations.
The perspectives presented above help to make the power women ex- ert in civil society more visible, particularly by focussing upon the en- gagement and efficacy of that power in traditional health and welfare oriented voluntary organisations.

These researchers challenge the general view that women have gained power by increasing their membership in organisations that have traditionally been dominated by men.
They ask whether or not the new structure of organisations in civil society has less- ened the power that women are able to wield.

The authors of this article question whether Berven, Wollebæk, and Selle have overestimated the influence and power wielded by women in civil society by their engage- ment in traditional, humanitarian organisations.
Wollebæk and Selle ad- mit that the entry of women into organisations that were formerly com- pletely dominated by men is significant for the direct political influence that is exerted by women.

Their argument rests upon the claim that the entry of women into these other organisations may not be able to make up for the loss of power women suffer due to the reduced efficacy of the humanitarian organisations that women have traditionally dominated.
Line Nyhagen Predelli (2003) has questioned Selle and Wollebæk’s (2001) hypothesis that female power in the voluntary sector has deterio- rated due to the impaired effectiveness of traditional health and welfare organisations as channels for female influence on public policies.

She argues that women today participate in many other public arenas and that there is reason to believe that the greater participation of women in the labour market has led to new types of citizenship.
Moreover, Predelli asks whether it is analytically fruitful to analyse women as a group when stu- dying the workings of civil society.

She claims that by employing this approach, differences between groups of women are neglected.

Predelli argues that the book entitled Svekket kvinnemakt?

(Weakened Female Power?

), which is a report from the research project Power and Democracy 1998–2003, completely ignores immigrant women.
She points out that a serious study of the significance of civil society in the develop- ment of the welfare state must also include the study of the efforts immi- grants have exerted in the voluntary sector.

She questions the validity of Wollebæk and Selle’s (2001) assertion that the power and influence of 216 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services humanitarian organisations dominated by women is disappearing, when immigrant women are included in the analysis.
She holds that in contrast to the trend among ethnic Norwegian women, immigrant women form their own all-women groups and organisations.

She finds that the words ‘minor- ity’ and ‘ethnicity’ are often missing in studies of civil society.
6.4.2 User– Participation: New relations – new challenges We found that user-participation was a central theme for several studies, particularly for studies of organisations of disabled persons, for marginal- ised groups of people who use child welfare services, and other claimant groups (Seim, Hjemdal and Nilsen 1997, Halvorsen 2002, Alm Andreas- sen 2004, Olsen 1994, Follesø 2004).
The idea and practice of user- participation in state health and welfare services appears to imply new relationships between the users of public health and welfare services and the providers of those services.

To what extent do we find these new rela- tions and what kinds of new challenges emerge when users and providers attempt to fulfil their new roles?
6.4.2.1 User-Organisations as Participants in the Voluntary Sector and in Civil Society The term civil society is an ambiguous concept; it mixes formal and in- formal relations and has no clearly fixed boundaries.

It is a concept that must always be understood in context, i.e.

in light of the social and politi- cal structures that characterise a particular society.

In western countries, the concept developed as a response to the exercise of state power in society.
Civil society is often understood as the third sector – marking the boundaries between state authorities and economic market forces.

User- organisations are a part of this third sector.

They are interest organisations that aim at obtaining collective goods in society.

They promote the inter- ests of all people in the same situation, not only the members of their organisation.

There are no strict boundaries between forms of collective action and user-organisations.
The difference in this respect lies in the formalisation of the action and activities.

User-organisations are interest groups that distinguish themselves from other interest groups that act on behalf of others, as church or religious organisations often do, or as or- ganisations like The Red Cross or Save the Children always do.
Organisa- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 217 tions of poor people, unemployed people and claimant groups often em- phasise the fact that they are struggling on their own behalf to realise their own interests.

It has been so important for some of these groups to distin- guish themselves from organised charities that act on behalf of others that they began to describe their position as the fourth sector.
They wanted to be empowered and have others acknowledging their role as citizens and users fighting for their own interests and not being represented by others (Johannessen et al.1997).

6.4.2.2 Increased Interest in User-Participation Since the early 1990s, public health and welfare authorities have increas- ingly invited users to participate individually and collectively to help form and improve the provision of services.

The trend to invite user- participation is strong and it is still growing.
User-participation is part of the modern rhetoric used in official and legal documents (White paper.

no.

35:1994–1995, and White paper no.

6: 2002–2003).

Userorganisa- tions are invited to participate in different ways, including participation in hearings and conferences, participation as user-representatives on boards, and participation as experts when public health and welfare authorities develop new policies.

To an extent, government helps to finance user- organisations.
The background circumstances that have led to increased user- participation have been understood in different ways.

One perspective claims that user-participation is the result of demands made from the ‘bottom-up’, from the users of health and social services to their provid- ers.

Several researchers have asserted that modern social movements have contributed to the increased democratisation of society (Tarrow 1994, Tilly, 2004, Williams 2001).
These movements have led to the recogni- tion that all citizens should be autonomous and actively involved in the decisions that affect their lives.

As a consequence of this recognition, groups of claimants and poor people, who were formerly seen as being passive victims, are now demanding the right to exercise their civil and political rights through collective action and through organisations that promote their self-interests (Beresford & Croft 2004, Hjemdal et al.

1998; Halvorsen 2002).


Citizenship, in this sense, does not simply reflect a person’s formal status; it implies that every citizen in society has the right to actively participate in decision-making processes.

218 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Another perspective emphasises the influence and force of ‘top-down’ demands in explaining the acceptance and growth of user-participation in the workings of public health and welfare agencies.
Here, user- participation is seen as being the implementation of New Public Man- agement, as a model or paradigm for the modernisation of the public sector.

New Public Management is a model appropriated from economic market ideology, stressing consumer choice and participation (Christen- sen and Lægreid 1999, Koht 2003).

The focus on increasing user-participation has been welcomed by a variety of user groups and their organisations.
The trend has created pos- sibilities for participation in diverse decision-making bodies in the public sector, and that, in turn, has appeared to open the door to increased influ- ence and to opportunities for user-organisations to promote their interests.

Still, there may be dangers concealed in the invitation to participate.
Par- ticipation is not the same as power, and as Sherry Arnstein pointed out in her article almost 40 years ago: Citizen participation without redistribu- tion of power is an empty and frustrating process for the powerless (Arn- stein, 1969:216).

Some researchers maintain that the concept user should be substituted with the concept citizen.

User-organisation and user-participation are less desirable as concepts than citizen organization and citizen participation (Jensen 2002).
At present, the organisations in question continue to use the concept user in order to underscore the special stake they have in their interests as users of health and welfare services.

These organisations also insist upon exercising their rights as citizens, but they do so in other re- spects and in other circumstances.

The authors will discuss some of the pros and cons of user- participation by focussing upon two groups, as examples.

The first group encompasses organisations of disabled people.
These organisations have a long tradition of organising and fighting for their rights in Norway.

The second group includes various organisations that promote the self- interests of claimants and poor people in Norway: These are organisations of “people who are involuntarily dependent upon public assistance” – the phrase they use as a common denominator to describe their condition.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 219 6.4.3 From disability-related Issues to user-related Issues: what are the consequences?

Any observer who has followed the developments in organisations of the disabled during the last three or four decades will have noticed the fol- lowing trends: First, there has been an explosive rise in the number of organisations representing disabled people.
This trend exists in other countries, too, and in Norway, the rise has been from 38 organisations in 1984, to 76 organisations in 1993, to 115 organisations at present.

Sec- ond, there has been a systematic shift in focus from disability-related issues to user-related issues.

This strong focus upon user-related issues has affected the general understanding of what is meant by participation.
The authors will highlight a few matters of importance in the recent his- tory of these organisations before providing the reader with more infor- mation about user-organisations, the new rhetoric within disability policy, and the challenges that follow from these developments.
In 1970, one of the largest associations of disabled people (Norwegian Association of Heart and Lung Patients, LHL)) proclaimed, in a statement to the government, that organisations of disabled people should have the right to participate in all political matters that affected the lives of dis- abled people.
The organisation pointed out that a large number of deci- sions within welfare policy and within welfare service provision was undertaken by the authorities without securing knowledge of the opinions of those people who were most directly affected by the decisions (Alm Andreassen 2000).

The ideas of participation and close involvement in decision-making were, to a large degree, influenced and inspired by the demands raised by labour unions in the work place and in the labour mar- ket.
It was quite common to hear members speak about their organisation as a union for disabled people.

In the 1970s, political participation was an important goal for the dis- ability movement.

The idea was to ensure real political influence for or- ganisations of disabled people.

Enlarging democratic participation was a demand resulting from the lack of influence experienced by different groups in society and women and disabled people were prominent amongst those groups.
How can one secure a more just distribution of political and economic resources?

This question was often raised in the 1970s, and the first White Paper on disabled people in Norwegian society (St. meld.

Report the the Storting/ Parliament no.

34 (1977–78) recog- 220 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services nised that organisations of disabled people were something different from humanitarian organisations.
The (White Paper – report to the Parliament) pointed out the distinction between humanitarian organisations that work for others and interest organisations that have members who fight for their own rights.

The right of citizens to be heard on issues that directly affect them was seen as being a democratic right that encompassed or- ganisations of the disabled.
In the beginning of the 1980s, however, the general role of interest or- ganisations was questioned by the committee report on power within Norwegian society (Maktutredningen).

This report claimed that too heavy representation from interest organisations would have negative implica- tions for the effectiveness of state bureaucracy.

According to the commit- tee report, there was not enough distance between state bodies and inter- est organisations.
Labour unions were particularly in focus in this report, but interest organisations of the disabled were also looked upon with a certain degree of scepticism.

Rewarding those groups that clamoured most was a practice labelled decibel-democracy by many critics.

In the 1980s, another trend emerged that resulted in greater public scrutiny of the welfare state provision of services.

A distinction was made between demands for greater efficiency and demands for greater efficacy.
Welfare state provisions were seen as being too costly, because they were inefficiently administered.

At the same time, it was argued that some welfare state provisions were a waste of money, because the services were not efficacious, i.e.

they did not solve the problems they were meant to solve.

The question of priorities within social services became central.
Voices argued that public authorities were incapable of meeting all of the demands made by citizens and that it was necessary to include the private sector and the voluntary sector in the provision of health and social ser- vices.
In the 1970s, voluntary organisations were often overlooked or looked down upon by public authorities, whereas in the 1980s, both hu- manitarian organisations and organisations of the disabled were valued, because of their abilities to engage people and because of their moral commitment (Olsen 1991).

In the 1980s and the 1990s, disability policy underwent several re- forms which were based upon the ideas expressed in the keywords: de- centralisation, normalisation, and integration.
From a political and eco- nomic point of view, decentralisation was ideologically connected to Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 221 concerns about efficiency, efficacy and democracy.

Responsibility for the care of disabled people was placed in the same public agencies that were responsible for providing care to the general public.

Local politicians were now responsible for implementing the political and administrative changes.
The users of publicly provided services were now referred to as users rather than clients, and the expectation existed that users of public services should have a say in all matters affecting service delivery.

The decentralisation of public services that were provided for the dis- abled greatly changed the financial relationship between state bodies and local municipalities.

The changes completely altered the landscape for organisations of disabled people.
Formerly, these organisations could exert pressure upon one or a few government departments.

Now, they had to promote the interests of their members in more than 400 municipali- ties.

To improve services and service delivery now meant gaining influ- ence over political and administrative processes at regional and local levels.

The reform process revealed the weaknesses of organisations of disabled people (Lorentzen og Olsen 1991).
Many of these organisations were created to be parliamentary lobbyists with an elite secretariate in Oslo.

They were unable to cope with the new situation because the politi- cal resources of their members were very limited.

It was much easier to function as a social policy catalyst and pressure group at the national level, than to fill that function at the local municipal level for a large number of these organisations.
In her study of user involvement of disabled people in Norwegian health and rehabilitation services, Tone Alm Andreassen (2004) found that the state can and does influence the organisations of civil society by addressing the political and economic conditions within which these or- ganisations operate, however, there are severe limits to the extent that the state can or will intervene.
Organisations that promote the self-interests of disabled people usually depend upon state funding, but they also rely upon their own internal forces for effective participation.

Participation is not primarily seen as being a social or social political activity, where particular interests are voiced or demonstrated.

Above all, participation in these organisations is seen as being a question of identity.
222 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 6.4.4 Organisations for poor people and claimant groups Organisations that promote the self-interest of poor people and claimant groups do not have a long tradition in Norway, although there were some organisations for unemployed people in the 1930s, and again, in the1980s (Andenæs 1992, Halvorsen 1995).
In the 1990s, several new groups were initiated that made attempts to protest and act against what they experi- enced as being social injustice.

This was particularly true for groups of economically deprived people.

By and large these groups have been small and short-lived.
Around 1995, several of these groups made attempts to join forces in protest actions, demonstrations and campaigns, and in 1998, they created a network or umbrella organisation called The Welfare Alli- ance, which now claims to represent 25 organisations with 50,000 mem- bers (www.velferdsalliansen.no).

A main goal for these organisations is to secure concrete welfare reforms, including higher pensions and in- creased social welfare benefits.
They have also worked to promote the idea of a state financed guaranteed income for all citizens.

These groups, and particularly The Welfare Alliance, aim at becoming the voice or spokesperson for their constituencies.

They want the power to influence the welfare policies for poor people in Norway.

These groups also fight for changes in the ways in which the general public views poor people and claimant groups.
They struggle for a new identity for themselves, one that includes the respect of others, inclusion in public forums where social and economic conditions are discussed, the exercise of citizen rights and, what is sometimes called the politics of identity.

The dominating public discourse places primary responsibility for the status and the standard of living enjoyed by the individual on the individual and on his or her own efforts.
As a consequence, claimants groups have a forceful opposition to contend with.

These organisations are very much dependent upon govermental sup- port to finance their operations.
They have primarily used non-disruptive strategies to gain recognition and to reach their goals, strategies which include broader media attention to the plight of the poor, greater access to parliamentary channels in order to promote their interests, direct dialogue with politicians at the national level, and increased public opportunities to lobby for their cause.
Halvorsen (2002) found that organisations that promote the self- interest of its members among the marginalised groups he studied, which Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 223 include The Romani People`s National Association, The National Asso- ciation for Justice for Losers in Society, and three claimant organisations; The Poor House, Fredrikstad Client Action and The Job-seekers Organi- zation, had achieved considerable success.
All of these groups were rec- ognised and accepted by private organisations and public agencies.

All received considerable media coverage.

All had obtained financial support from, and hearings with state authorities.

All had been able to get impor- tant issues for their organisations on the political agenda.
Two of the organisations, The Romani People`s National Association and The Na- tional Association for Justice for Losers in Society, had managed to ob- tain collective benefits for their constituencies.

The activities of the claimant groups and organisations did not result in better living condi- tions for their constituencies.
Halvorsen described it as a paradox that the organisations he studied had managed to achieve such good results, when the internal conditions within those organisations were often character- ised by instability and conflict.

He argued that participants had greater difficulties in co-operating within their organisations than they had in achieving results in their relations to the rest of society.

Reidun Follesø had similar findings in her study of an organisation for children that had grown-up in care, i.e.
under the provisions and respon- sibilities of municipal child welfare agencies.

Her report,77 (Follesø 2004), is the first extensive research study to look at user-participation in child welfare that includes work done at the organisational level.

She found that members had severe problems maintaining a stable organisa- tion, but that the organisation had achieved rather good results.
The or- ganisation was recognized as being a legitimate spokesperson for child- and youth user-groups within municipal child welfare services.

The or- ganisation is now taken seriously and is seen as possessing a unique form of expertise.

She found that the organisation had secured considerable media coverage and financial support.

The organisation also claimed to have achieved legislative results by managing to influence the attitudes of influential politicians.
An interesting question, raised by Follesø, is whether this organisation has been successful in representing member interests as users, or if politicians have used the organisation to legitimate 77 Bruker eller brukt?

Landsforeningen for barnevernsbarn: en analyse av en interesseorga- nisasjon i møte med dagens barnevern (User or used?
The organisation for youth in care: An analysis of an interest organisation`s encounter with the present child welfare) 224 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services their own proposals.

She found this question difficult to answer and left the question open (Follesø 2004).

For a great number of the organisations that fight for the interests of their own members, a common dilemma has been identified and recog- nised.
These organisations all get media attention, they are all acknowl- edged by public bodies, they all receive funding from public bodies, and they all get their concerns addressed on the public agenda.

Still, they fail to achieve significantly better living conditions for their members.

Even though a few of these groups have obtained collective goods for their constituencies, for the most part, these are marginalised groups that are unable to secure substantial economic changes.
To highlight another kind of dilemma related to strategies for user- participation, we will present an example that depicts a recent state gov- ernment strategy to involve user- organisations in fighting poverty in Norway.

6.4.5 Difficult relations between user-organisations and the state In 2002, the Norwegian government launched a plan to fight poverty in Norway (Report to the Parliament; no.

6: 2002–2003).

This White Paper pointed out that only a small part of the population was poor.
Poverty was understood as being the consequence of individual factors.

Particular attention was paid to the fact that poor people have a marginal position in the labour market.

Paid work was seen as being the best remedy to reduce poverty.

As a result of these interwoven understandings, the government proposed workfare as its solution to the problem of poverty, and not im- proved and universal welfare benefits.

As a matter of fact, legislation was adopted that reduced welfare benefits.
The government and its supporters argued that lower benefits were incitements that would make it easier to bring people back into the work-world and thus reduce poverty.

The government called upon different actors to participate in this strategy for fighting poverty.

There was a role to play for institutions of the state, local municipalities, the market, and voluntary organisations.
Voluntary organisations were given a crucial role, because they were expected to activate the unemployed and to provide them with work- training programmes.

Voluntary organisations were expected to provide the public with information in annual hearings about poverty and to con- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 225 tribute to reports that would gauge the efficacy of various programmes that were designed to reduce poverty.
In addition, the government de- cided to establish a service-centre for user-organisations and self-help groups.

This part of the plan was also implemented and the service- centre, the Battery, was established in co-operation with The Norwegian Church’s City Mission in Oslo (Stjernø and Markussen 2006).

State officials wanted the voluntary organisations to actively partici- pate in the implementation of workfare.
The state prefers to co-operate with the established humanitarian organisations because they are formally organised, with streamlined organisational structures and transparent book-keeping practices.

As these organisations invariably seek public- funding whenever they create projects to solve or ameliorate social prob- lems, they are eager to conform to these standards.
The objective for the Battery service-centre is to help groups to organise in this same way, to “promote targeted, stable and effectively run organisations that fight pov- erty” (www.bymisjon.no).

Obviously, the government strategy for fighting poverty created seri- ous contradictions in the relationships between the government and the claimants’ organisations.
At one and the same time the government re- duced welfare benefits that had been created to ameliorate the sub- standard living conditions of unemployed and poor people and supported and financed organisations of unemployed and poor people who were opposed to the welfare benefit cuts.

The new user-organisations received money from the state and invitations to participate in the new strategy to eliminate poverty.
User-organisations were recognised and their problems were put on the national political agenda.

This was viewed as a very good sign that might pave the way for real advantages for poor people in the future.

The new policy seemed to open-up possiblilities in civil society for the par- ticipation of marginalised groups and for the identification of a new social agenda in Norwegian society.
After all, each new user-organisation would be able to give voice to its own concerns and participate in public debate.

The interests of marginalised groups would no longer be spoken for by others, by professional social workers, or by social researchers, or by the established charity organizations.

User-organisations would speak on their own behalf and actively make use of their rights as citizens.
226 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services On the other hand, it is hard to deny that the state and, particularly, aspects of state policies are the main target for the user-organisations in the welfare state.

These organisations are dependent upon the good will and the financial support provided by state institutions.

At the same time, these organisations must find ways to (argue against and) counter state policies.
They need to find strategies that can successfully work against some of the state’s policies without angering or alienating the administra- tors of state institutions or the politicians that are responsible for directing policies that guide those institutions.

This is a social and political feat that can only be compared to the balancing performance we might expect from the most able and most highly skilled rope-walking acrobat.
Is it fair to expect that user-organisations will be able to effectively fight for the interests of unemployed and poor people by fighting against state poli- cies, and still remain in a constructive dialogue with the authorities?

Several factors may contribute to the danger of co-optation.

Using the parliamentary channel creates possibilities for dialogue.
Lobbying creates (and is dependent upon) frequent and close relationships between repre- sentatives of the lobbying organisation and politicians and state officials.

Participating in hearings and conferences may advance the professional performances of user-organisational spokespersons and the bureaucratisa- tion of user-organisational practices.
Learning and adapting to the lan- guage and habits of the governing elites may affect lobbyists by increas- ing their identification with those governing elites and by decreasing their identification with the marginal groups they are there to represent.

Collec- tive forms of social action and spontaneous protests are practices that are frowned upon by state officials and by local municipalities.
Their occur- rences will reduce the likelihood that the authorities will maintain good will and financial support.

Collective forms of social action and sponta- neous protests are troublesome practices from the perspective of public authorities, who are charged with the responsibility to maintain order.

The danger of co-optation is a well-known one whenever a stronger party creates the framework for a relationship with a weaker one.
Not surprisingly, Welfare Alliance leaders have chosen less disruptive tactics.

They have busied themselves by building their organisations and by be- coming good spokespersons.
Their strategy has been to learn the language and the habits of the governing elites and to become proficient partners in Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 227 dialogue with politicians and governmental officials, as they lobby for those policies they see as being in the interests of their constituencies.
The difficulties that present themselves for organisations of poor peo- ple and for claimant groups have been well known in the theories and in the research studies of social movements.

This does not mean that the difficulties are always interpreted in the same way.
In presenting a broad outline for the evaluation of results, Gamson (1975) maintained that or- ganisations may succeed by winning concrete gains and by being ac- cepted as the legitimate spokespersons for the groups they represent and that these achievements may create possibilities for better results in the future.
Piven and Cloward (1979, 1993), on the other hand, argued that the formalised contacts between the authorities and these organisations would hinder results: “Organisational activities tended to draw people away from the streets and into the meeting rooms” (Piven og Cloward (1979:xxii).

These two researchers argued that formal organisations may hinder changes because they hinder disruptive tactics that might have led to better results.
Questions of tactics and strategy continue to be interesting ones and they will undoubtedly be raised in further studies that focus upon user- organisations, user-participation, collective social action, civil society and the relationships between the organisations within civil society and public authorities.

At this moment in time the authors of this article can only raise the following questions: Is user-participation a political strategy designed by those in power to legitimate state policies?
Does user- participation embody the potential for more efficacious political action by marginal groups of citizens?

Will user-participation serve to increase the welfare of citizens by helping to reduce poverty?

6.4.6 Concluding remarks There has been a shift in the administration of social policy and the re- sponsibility for the delivery of public services has been removed from central government and it has been given to local government.
These changes will require new relationships and new practices, including user- participation at the local municipal government level.

Is there a problem with this new political landscape?

What happens when organisations of disabled people are confronted by this new paradigm?

Are there social 228 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services and ethical costs incurred when a society’s apparent efforts at co- operation result in co-optation?
Should disabled people in society and claimant groups be satisfied that their organisations are able to meet with governmental officials and receive a hearing?

Perhaps the answers lie in a paradox.

Vegheim has argued that the perspective of user-involvement is both very broad and very narrow (Vegheim 2002).

There can be no doubt that disabled people and claimant groups are users of the public and private services that are provided by a large number of agencies in society.
They need a variety of services and help to be able to have anything approaching a good standard of living and a dignified life.

In this respect they are all users of public and private services and from that point of view their organisations can be defined as user-organisations.

At the same time the concept of user casts a shadow over other interests and other qualities of life which need to be seen and faced.
In particular, matters of solidarity are at issue and practice that value and enhance social engagement and active citizenship.

The interests of a group in society can never be adequately understood as the aggregate of the individual interests of the members of that group.

The group itself, because it is a group, acquires interests that are above and beyond the interests of the individual.

These are the kinds of interests that can be addressed by the politics of identity.
Even though most of the disability organisations and claimant groups now describe themselves as user-organisations, they still iterate their principal goal demanding full participation in society and equality of social status.

The questions these organisations face are how to articulate that goal in practice and how to fight for that demand as a user- organisation.
The nomenclature that defines these organisations as user- organisations narrows their perspectives, and there is a danger that the general public will, in practice, reduce disabled people and claimant groups to simply being users of public services and everything else over or beyond that category may be overlooked.

What are the consequences for identity politics?

Identity politics refers to the struggle for recognition as a political group with experiences that are different from the dominant ones.
It refers to struggles that incorpo- rate and integrate redistribution and recognition.

Will labelling a group of people as users, help or limit their possibilities for recognition as a politi- cal group?
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 229 First and foremost, the user-involvement perspective focuses upon in- dividual rights.But the discrimination that far too many disabled people experience can hardly be dissipated by limiting concern to the involve- ment of individual users.
The lack of participation in the work-force, the lack of full participation in other societal activities, and the disrespectful attitudes that are expressed by many citizens who are not disabled or poor or claimants are all matters that need to be addressed by collective action.

All of these concerns should make it quite clear that the ordinary user- involvement practices cannot adequately address or mount pressures against the ongoing discrimination.
User-related issues have to do with efficiency and efficacy within the services that are provided in society to ameliorate health and social prob- lems, and, as such, those issues and that perspective is a very important one.

But people are much more than simply users of public and private services.

They are fully human beings and their needs, interests and de- sires cannot be attended to solely by referring them to health and social welfare authorities.
For that reason, the claims that require full social and political participation and the equality that can only be derived from the status of fully empowered citizen, are still of the utmost importance.

If the user-involvement perspective is allowed to cast a shadow over princi- pal and democratic rights, the organisations will suffer and society will lose all hope of oneday becoming a community of equals.
6.4.7 Questions for Further Research After having reviewed the research on civil society in Norway, the au- thors of this article suggest that future research should focus upon specific areas that have been overlooked or that need further attention.

We doubt that the decrease in the number of members participating in the traditional voluntary organisations necessarily means that people today are less in- terested in contributing to the common good by engaging in voluntary work.
Perhaps civil engagement is taking new forms and contemporary members of Norwegian society are engaging in new and different kinds of voluntary work?

It is not unlikely that new forms for civil engagement have been overlooked if social researchers have solely focused upon ac- tivities within, or sponsored by, the traditional voluntary organisations.
We argue that there is a need for a broader focus in the research that scru- 230 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services tinises the workings of civil society in Norway.

We do not believe that the contemporary scene can fully be grasped by drawing conclusions that are based upon membership lists in the established voluntary organisa- tions in Norway.
Nor do we believe that it can be fully grasped by discus- sions of the voluntary community work that is exercised when neighbours provide a helping hand to maintain or improve property they hold in common (dugnad).

We believe that further research that focuses upon gender and gender differences in the workings of civil society is justified, and that priority should be given to this important theme.

We need to know more about the role of women in civil society.
What differences do we find, not only between men and women, but also between groups of women when we study organisational patterns, motives for voluntary engagement, and the objectives of the organisations we find in civil society?

Moreover, there is a specific need to study the activities within civil society that are performed by immigrants – both men and women – since this is a neglected area within the social research conducted in Norway.
Some important questions to ask are: What kind of activities do immi- grants engage in and perform within the various organisations in which they participate within Norwegian civil society?

What are their motives for engaging in these activities?

What are the aims of the organisations and what issues are important for their members?

Do their organisations have influence?

If so, in which areas of life are they influential?
The discussion concerning the relationship between the state and the organisations found in civil society discloses the need for more knowl- edge about the results that are due to user-organisation participation.

Timely questions that should be asked are: Have the co-operative activi- ties user-organisations have participated in led to more influence, more active citizenship and greater empowerment for these groups?

How can we explain that the effects of user-participation are still unclear?
Recent social research has examined the way in which public health and social services are formed and organised, but the effect of user-participation does not seem to be a very great one.

Recent social research has looked for but not found changes in the standards of living for user-groups.

Nor- wegian authorities have, over a rather long period of time, emphasised the importance of user-participation.

Does recognition and acceptance for these groups and organizations mean participation without power?
We are Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 231 reminded of Arnstein’s critical words that user-participation is a frustrat- ing and not an empowering process.

References Andenæs, Kristian (1992) Sosialomsor- gen i gode og onde dager.

Oslo: Tano Andreassen, Tone Alm (2004) Bruker- medvirkning, politikk og velferdsstat.

Oslo: The Work Research Institute.

Arnstein, Sherry R. (1969) A Ladder of Citizen Participation.
Journal of the American Institute of Planners, July 1969, Vol.35: 216–224 Beresford, Peter & Suzy Croft (2004) Service Users and Practitioners Re- united:The Key to Component for So- cial Work Reform.

British Journal of Social Work 34, pp 53–68.

Berven, Nina (2000) Fra legitimitet til gammeldagshet: En analyse av det skiftende politiske rommet for brede helse- og velferdsorganisasjoner.

Ber- gen: LO-senteret.


Christensen, Tom og Per Lægreid (1999) “New public management – design, resistance, or transformation?

A study of how modern reforms are received in a civil service system”.

Public Produc- tivity and Management Review, vol.

23, no.

2: 169–193.

Follesø, Reidun (2004) Bruker eller brukt?

Landsforeningen for barne- vernsbarn: en analyse av en interesse- organisasjon i møte med dagens bar- nevern.

Trondheim: Norwegian Uni- versity of Science and Technology.

Gamson, William A.
Gamson, William A.

(1975) The Strat- egy of Social Protest.

Homewood, Illi- nois: The Dorsey Press Halvorsen, Knut (1995) “I ditt ansikts sved skal du ete ditt brød”: Om arbeid og velferd.

I Lars Gunnar Lingås (red.)

Myten om velferssaten – 25 år etter.

Oslo: Pax forlag Halvorsen, Rune (2002) The paradox of self-organisation among disadvan- taged people: A study of marginal citi- zenship.Trondheim: Norwegian Uni- versity of Science and Technology.
Hjemdal, Ole K., Sigrun Nilsen og Sissel Seim (1998) Selvhjelp: kunsten å løfte seg etter håret.

Oslo: Cappelen aka- demisk forlag Jensen, S., (2002) Fornyelsen av offent- lig sektor, hvor blir det av borgerrol- len?

Tidsskrift for Velferdsforsk- ning.vol.5, nr.1, s.41–50 Johannessen, Roger, Håvard Enberg, Bengt Scheldt, Dag Westerheim og Ola Ødegaard, (1997) Jakten på den fjerde sektor.
Oslo: Klientaksjonen i Fredrikstad, Fattighuset, Gjeldsofferal- liansen, Arbeidssøkerforbundet og Landsforeningen Rettferd for Taperne.

Lorentzen, Håkon (2004) Fellesskapets fundament: Sivilsamfunnet og indivi- dualismen.

Oslo: Pax Forlag AS.

Lorentzen, Håkon (1994) Frivillighetens integrasjon: Staten og de frivillige vel- ferdsprodusenten.

Oslo: Universitets- forlaget.

Piven, Frances Fox og Richard A. Cloward (1979) Poor Peoples Move- ments.

Why They Succeed, How They Fail.


New York:Vintage Books Piven, Frances Fox og Richard A. Cloward (1993) Regulating the Poor:The Functions of Public Welfare New York:Vintage Books Predelli, Line Nyhagen (2003) Uformelle veier til makt: Om minoritetskvinners politiske innflytelse.

Oslo: Makt- og demokratiutredningens rapportserie, i samarbeid med Unipub, rapport nr.

60.

232 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Repstad, Pål (ed.)
(1998) Den Lokale velferdsblanding: Når offentlige og frivillige skal samarbeide.

Oslo: Uni- versitetsforlaget.

Seim, Sissel, Ole K. Hjemdal, og Sigrun Nilsen (1996) Selvhjelp blant margina- le grupper – alternative strategier.

Os- lo: HIO-rapport 1997:1 Selle, Per and Nina Berven (ed.)

(2001) Svekket kvinnemakt?

: de frivillige or- ganisasjonene og velferdsstaten.

Oslo: Gyldendal akademisk.


Sivesind, Karl Henrik, Håkon Lorentzen, Per Selle, and Dag Wollebæk (2002) The Voluntary Sector in Norway – Com- position, Changes, and Causes.

Oslo: Institute for Social Research.

Stjernø, Steinar and Marith Markussen (2006) Evaluering av “Batteriet – ser- vicekontor for selvhjelp”.

Report from Research Group for Inclusive Social Welfare Policies, Centre for Social Welfare Research, Oslo University College Tarrow, Sidney (1994) Power in Move- ment.
Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics.

Cambridge Uni- versity Press Tilly, Charles (2004) Social Movements 1768–2004.

Boulder, London: Para- digm Publishers Williams, Fiona (2001) Posisjonering av velferdsbrukeren innen forskning: Fra passiv mottaker til velferdsaktør.

I Mona Sandbæk (red.)

Fra mottaker til aktør.

Brukernes plass i praktisk sosi- alt arbeid og forskning.

(s. 72–89).
(s. 72–89).

Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk Wollebæk, Dag and Per Selle (2002) Det nye organisasjonssamfunnet – demo- krati i omforming.

Bergen: Fagbok- forlaget.

Wollebæk, Dag and Per Selle (2001) “Svekket kvinnemakt?

Frivillige orga- nisasjoner i endring 1980–2000” In Selle, Per and Nina Berven (ed.)

Svek- ket kvinnemakt?

De frivillige organi- sasjonene og velferdsstaten.

Oslo: Gyldendal akademisk.

NOU (2001) Norges offentlige utred- ninger 2001:22 Fra bruker til borger.
En strategi for nedbygging av funksjonshemmende barrierer.

Sosial- og helsedepartementet.

Oslo.

White paper.

no 34 (1977–1978) White paper no.

35 (1994–1995) Vel- ferdsmeldingen.

Det kongelige sosial- departement.

Oslo: Departementet.

1995 White paper no.

6 (2002–2003) Tiltaks- plan mot fattigdom.

Det kongelige so- sialdepartement.

Oslo: Departementet.
2002 www.bymisjon.no (Batteriet) www.velferdsalliansen.no Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 233 6.5 Swedish civil society and the provision of welfare – ideological visions and social realities Lars Svedberg and Johan Vamstad Introduction The purpose of this paper is to acknowledge the role of civil society in the Swedish welfare society, which is a scarcely debated, yet ideologically charged field of study in Swedish social science.78 The paper will espe- cially emphasize the level of knowledge and the role of politics in this area.
The title of this paper contains two contested concepts.

The concept of ‘welfare’ might have a reasonably universal understanding even though it can and should be theorized upon.

Civil society is here under- stood to cover voluntary organizations and their actives but also informal help and care provided by neighbors, friends, colleagues and relatives outside their own household.
Included in the civil society concept are also the informal networks in which people participate (Meeuwisse, 1999; Trägårdh, 1999; Jeppsson-Grassman & Svedberg, 2005; Lindberg, 2005).

The emphasis in this paper is on the process, the actual efforts or actions performed.

Yet the actor perspective, – the importance of organizations and individuals as representatives and opinion leaders – is not disregarded.
This paper is partly based on the Swedish findings of the Nordic re- search overview presented in this publication in concern,79 and will ad- dress the questions at hand through a dual approach.

One of the two ap- proaches is a history of the civil society debate from the 1980s to the present day, where some special characteristics will be identified in the general description.
The second approach is more directly based on the 78 In official publications great care appeared to be taken to avoid mentioning civil society and all activities therein , including effort by relatives, at all, as demonstrated for example in the Welfare Commision SOU 2000:3 and SOU 2001:79 79 See describtion of the methods and criteria of collection by Matthies in this publication.
In Sweden, four different but overlapping methods were used for assembling publications: 1) A snowball method where one publication led to several new ones through the list of references.

2) Complete surveys of certain pinpointed sources, such as some governmental agencies and aca- demic institutions.

3) Regular library searches.

4) Circulation of early results among academic colleagues.

The Swedish overview will be published in Vamstad 2006.
234 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services literature review, where tendencies in the database material as well as the produced scientific knowledge are discussed in correlation with the his- tory of the debate on civil society.

The two approaches are mutually rein- forcing and work jointly in the text to arrive at the conclusions presented here about both the political and the academic debate on civil society80.
6.5.1 A sector of ideological investments A state welfare society such as the Swedish one has proved apt to over- look social services efforts produced outside the state sector.

Popular descriptions of the Nordic welfare states and even research in the field often simply overlook services and support provided by the voluntary sector.
This has much to do with the very special characteristics of the Nordic research tradition in the welfare area, but also with underlying yet seldom openly displayed ideological standpoints (Svedberg, 2001, 2005).

Another reason is historical.

The publicly produced social services of the Nordic welfare states have been looked upon as a positive development from the non-public, philanthropic social services of earlier times, often described as highly paternalistic charity (Qvarsell, 1993; Gustavsson, 1988).
In the post-war era’s almost unconditional trust in all forms of social service professions, voluntary activities came to be looked upon as a remnant from the past, a remnant that should rightfully be replaced by professionals (Stensöta, 2004).

In addition, the voluntary sector itself came to hold a low profile bordering on the invisible and knowledge of civil society was generally low during the height of the Nordic welfare model (Nord & Pettersson, 1994).
Seen from a more general perspective, the voluntary efforts and the in- formal care/helping, discussed in this paper have had and still have a somewhat unclear position and an often limited but above all uncertain reach.

This means that they generally fall outside the grasp of understand- ing in the traditional Swedish welfare context.
The above-mentioned special circumstances in the Swedish welfare state clouded an understanding of social services diversity but also of the obvious limitations that existed and still exist with the system already in place.

This, in turn, suggests that the civil society organizations and their services and the efforts provided informally by individuals and networks 80 Parts of this article was previously published in Svedberg (2005).
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 235 easily could become a breeding ground for ideological positions lacking substantial knowledge as a foundation.

A newfound interest in civil engagement in general arose towards the end of the 1980s, especially in the form of socially oriented voluntary organizations and the informal efforts of individuals and networks that are the focus of this paper.
One of the first positions put forward was that the by now well expanded welfare states of the Nordic countries had crowded out what is known as the civil society (Zetterberg, 1995; Zetter- berg & Ljungberg, 1997).

This specific argument as well as most of the discussions and positions in the civil society debate of the late 1980s and early 1990s only helped to illustrate the general lack of well founded arguments or any real body of knowledge upon which to base such argu- ments (Svedberg, 1996).
Rather, the debate was based on ideological and political but also economic motives.
An integral part of the debate in this era was the fact that the Swedish welfare state was coming to a critical point when decades of expansion in traditional areas as well as into new ones had spurred constant claims from the general public for new bene- fits, at same time as economic expansion had slowed and was threatening to turn into a recession, which finally arrived in the early 1990s, leading to cuts in the social welfare system (Kommittén välfärdsbokslut (The Welfare Commission), SOU 2000:3).
The newfound interest in the civil society, in spite of its weak founda- tions, stirred a modest but growing attention within the academic com- munity.

The literature review research project recognized a few pioneer- ing works of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Micheletti’s (1988) book on interest organizations can be seen as the result of this greater recognition of the civil society even though neither her work nor any other publica- tion of this time in the database entered the ideologically highly charged area of social services.

Most publications on the civil society in those days concerned the traditional co-operative movement, a research branch that had existed almost as long as the co-operative movement itself in Sweden.
Works like Böök (1990), Bergström (1989) and Holmberg (1992) provide illustrations of this research tradition.

Co-operative mo- vement research was one of several departures into the studies of civil society in the social service area.
The publication Kooperativ årsbok (Co- operative Yearbook), an annual volume in a series of co-operative re- search publications since 1980, started to elicit contributions on the new 236 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services co-operative movement that in many cases included studies of co- operative provision of social services.
Pestoff (1991), Stryjan (1992) and Petersson (1991) are examples of such research, both showing a special interest in parent co-operative childcare, which had had a significant pe- riod of growth since around 1985.

Pestoff also published a full-length book in the same year on the special position of civil society and its con- ditions for the provision of social services (Pestoff, 1991A).

The other traditional popular movements also had their share of researchers in the academic community.
The religious movements are represented in the database by researchers like Ljung (1993) and the sobriety movement by Gustavsson (1992).

A substantial body of research concerns the powerful labor movement, including studies of the Social Democratic Party (Wör- lund, 1990), the Swedish model (Pestoff, 1991A) and the labor unions (Carlqvist, 1993).
The co-operative movement stands out among the popular movements in the database as the one providing the most sub- stance to the emerging civil society research.

Other publications of this time find their origin in such traditions as organization theory, business administration and political science.
The earliest official publication in the database is from 1993, when the governmental committee evaluating the Social Services Act from the early 1980s published a scientific study of voluntary social work (SOU 1993:82).

This became one of the very first real attempts on the part of the Swedish state to map and evaluate social services production outside the public sector.

It was, in fact, the very first publication to exclusively study the social work and support performed in the voluntary sector.
Previous writings on the voluntary sector had primarily dealt with topics like the labor movement, the sobri- ety organizations and so on.

The committee report (Svedberg, ed.)

was the result of a multi-disciplinary research team that broke new ground in several respects, not least in developing the core concepts for the Swedish context.
It was the first publication to specifically address the developing co-operation between municipalities and voluntary organizations, and it was also one of the first to provide a Swedish history of ideas in the re- search field.

The government publication SOU 1993:82 represents more than any other the new research that emerged in this area during the 1990s.
The debate on the civil society and social services soon became di- vided into what was called a “proponent group”, an “opposition group”, Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 237 and a “third position group”.

The lack of real knowledge in the area that still prevailed at this time made it easy for the neo-liberal elements among the “proponents” to ascribe to the civil society unfounded prospects that lacked both substance and public support.
The shortage of knowledge also allowed, however, the “opponents” in a similar but directly opposed manner to produce public images of the civil society that was purposely, overly negative.

The “opponents” arguments were well in line with tradi- tional social democratic reasoning on the welfare state that did not recog- nize the new circumstances that had arisen during the late 1980s and early 1990s, mainly in terms of economic challenges.
These arguments reso- nated especially well with middle aged and elderly Swedes who remem- bered or had become personally aware of the significant economic ine- qualities and lesser living conditions of prewar Sweden.

In Sweden before the welfare state, paternalistic charity played an equally unwanted but unavoidable part in many peoples lives (Antman, 1993; Svedberg, 1996).
An often-heard argument in the Swedish debate was that social service production outside of professional working life would “trap” women within their families and not allow them equal possibilities for a career.

This argument appeared early in the civil society debate and is still used regularly (Sommestad, 1995; Stark & Hamrén, 2000).
The early debate mainly concerned the ideologically charged field of service provision and not as much mutual social support, which is a significant factor in the social part of the voluntary sector.
An example of a “proponent” in the debate is sociologist Zetterberg (1995), while a typical “opponent” would be someone like the public intel- lectual Greider (1992, 1994, 2003).81 The “proponent” side in the debate made ideologically motivated attempts to create an oppositional relation- ship between public welfare and the type of voluntary social services that are discussed in this paper.82 They were initially quite successful in estab- lishing such a relationship but the lack of substance made their attempt to define the relationships seem less than credible over time.
There are several 81 Zetterberg and Greider represent different spheres of the political debate, Zetterberg is an academic scholar and Greider is a journalist often heard in the Swedish political debate.

82 The ”proponent group” was split into several different fractions, where one suggested that the professional services of the public sector could and should be replaced by unpaid voluntary efforts (Ljungberg, 1992).
Another fraction forwarded the view that the public social services could be replaced by professional services in the civil society, notably under the management of the Swedish Church (Zetterberg 1995).

238 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services reasons for this.

The Swedish people have a strong belief in the funda- mental characteristics of the Swedish welfare model, which makes the existence of conflict between sectors seem unlikely (Svallfors, 1996; 1999).
In addition, the Swedes share a widespread recognition of the value of an independent voluntary sector and do not even consider that it might be something that should be related to other societal sectors or the services produced therein.

These where quite clear conclusions made by social scientists when the first empirical studies where performed in the early 1990s (Jeppson-Grassman & Svedberg, 1995; 1996).
6.5.2 Recent research on Swedish civil society The wave of scientific, empirical work that began to appear in the first half of the 1990s in many cases showed that a large civil society was compatible with a strong and far reaching welfare state, a result that went against the assumptions of many, both in Sweden and in the international academic community.
The special characteristics in Sweden that allowed this coexistence was that the majority of all services in the civil society was provided by volunteering individuals and not professionals in an otherwise voluntary organization, as is often the case in other countries.
Another special characteristic is that the type of services provided is not primarily in the core areas of the welfare state but in such less conflicting areas as sports and leisure, church, culture and housing (Jeppsson- Grassman & Svedberg, 1996; Lundström and Wijkström, 1997).
Several factors help to explain these special circumstances in the Swedish case, such as the stable democratic traditions, a long history of civic engage- ment, the influence from the large popular movements on the foundation of the voluntary sector and its organizations, and of course the existence of a functioning public sector providing universal, high quality social services in the core areas of the welfare state.
It is, in addition, probably safe to say that Sweden, on a more general level, has a tradition of relying on and keeping trust with the state itself and almost all its organizations (Lundström & Svedberg, 2003).83 The literature review of Swedish civil society research is rich in ex- amples of those early 1990s publications that describe the coexistence of 83 Also see Meeuwisse & Sunesson (1998), Olsson (1999; 2000), Johansson (2005), and Pestoff (2005) for a further discussion on the subject.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 239 the large civil society and the universal welfare state.

Political scientists like Rothstein (1992) and Micheletti (1994) wrote significant works on the political importance of the voluntary sector in the welfare state and the studies of voluntary organizations within and outside the welfare state’s core social just grew in numbers.
The research studying the civil society’s provision of social services was of course especially ground- breaking, in the literature review represented by works such as Nordfeldt (1994), who studied voluntary organizations working with homeless peo- ple, and Lejring (1993), who wrote about handicap organizations.
The specific issue of whether or not the civil society could coexist with a uni- versal welfare state was most conclusively addressed by Lundström and Wijkström in “The NonProfit Sector in Sweden 1997”.

Wijkström and Lundström wrote the Swedish contribution to the extensive international Johns Hopkins Comparative Non-profit Sector Project led by Salomon and Anheier.
They convincingly showed that not only was there a civil society presence in many or most areas of society, but that some areas, like sports and leisure, were even dominated by the civil society, while others, like the social services, had a more modest number of civil society actors (Lundström & Wijkström, 1997).

A more recent work making much the same conclusion is Lundström and Svedberg’s publication (2003) on the voluntary sector in the Swedish social democratic welfare state.
The division between “proponents”, “opponents” and “third way” can to some extent be seen even in the more serious research beginning to be produced in the mid 1990s.

One milestone publication covers all of these positions in one volume, the Trägårdh edited book on the Swedish civil society (Trägårdh, 1995), which includes both Zetterberg’s favorable account of the role of civil society and Dahlkvist’s article challenging even the concept of a civil society itself.
The “third way” is represented by several contributors to the book, among them Rothstein, who studies the role of civil society in the Swedish welfare state through a survey of its historical and ideological origin.

The work of the mid 1990s was clearly much more academic in nature and more scientifically researched than the early, ideologically motivated writings of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The increase in both quantity and quality of the research on the civil society during the 1990s came to be of some importance for the public debate.

It is certainly true that debate in a democratic system has no obli- 240 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services gation to base all claims on relevant research.
On the contrary, it is essen- tial that political issues can be discussed openly by everyone, even when the scientific community has not yet produced a body of knowledge in the issue area.

The argument here, however, is that the “opponents” and “proponents” of the early 1990s were in fact not debating the civil society at all, but merely using the civil society as a ‘tool’ in forwarding their respective ideological positions.
This would have been a lot more difficult to do had it been a more thoroughly researched area, where certain core understandings would have had to be taken into consideration.

The now existing body of knowledge on the civil society did indeed stem in part from sources other than strictly scientific ones.
The civil society organiza- tions themselves helped to bring the debate from the level of ideological arguments to a more factual exchange by making it clear that their aim was not to replace the public sector as the main service provider.
This view of a co-operative relation between the sectors is exemplified by the work of Forum för frivilligt socialt arbete (Forum for voluntary social work), itself a voluntary organization that tries to provide a unified voice for the social expressions of the civil society.
6.5.2.1 A special note on informal care It should be noted that during the late 1980s and early 1990s the greatest source of social services in the civil society, the informal care and help performed outside the own household, was even less discussed than the organized voluntary work.
Just as with organized voluntary work, informal care giving and helping was long looked upon with suspi- cion and sometimes even considered a hindrance to the professionaliza- tion of the welfare state.84 The low interest in informal care in the public debate was matched by an equally low interest in the area within the sci- entific community; the database on civil society research illustrates this by lacking any significant numbers of publications on this subject – teo exceptions are Johansson (1991) and Sundström (1994).
The studies of informal care seem especially controversial in the Nordic context.

Not least, gender researchers pointed out that this kind of research is better suited for welfare states based on a corporatist model, as is the case in most of continental Europe.

Informal care giving was not considered a 84 For illustration of the process of modernization and professionalization through growing reliance on social services provided by the public sector, see Gustavsson (1988).
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 241 relevant field of research in a welfare state of the Swedish model, which is based on universal access to publicly produced social services (Esping- Andersen, 1990; 1999).

This stance resulted in the peculiar circumstance that the actual provision level of social services was not studied at all, regardless of the organizational form.
Not only informal efforts were considered irrelevant objects of study in the Swedish welfare model, even the measurement of professional efforts became a largely disregarded level in the highly centralized Swedish welfare state, with a few excep- tions (Anttonen & Sipilä 1996).
When, as an exception from the rule, the level of provision was in fact studied, these studies helped to reinforce the pervasive view that the social services in Sweden were almost completely produced by the tax financed public sector (Huber & Stephens, 2001).

6.5.3 Civil society and welfare provision in Sweden This chapter will describe in a little more detail recent developments in civil society in the field of welfare provision.
An overview of the civil society research performed during the 1990s lends itself to some further conclusions.

The growing quality and quantity of civil society research helped to alter some basic conceptions about the Swedish welfare state.

Voluntary work in the social sector turned out to have a broader and greater signifi- cance for the welfare of certain groups than was previously thought.
The work was directed to such varied tasks as opinion making, preventive efforts and of course actual welfare provision.

Several organizations, like the women’s support groups, fulfilled all these tasks, providing services as well as representing their clients and advocating their causes.

The dif- ferent tasks performed by the voluntary organizations were in several cases shown to be mutually reinforcing.
A good example of this, collected from the civil society database, is the Swedish AIDS awareness organiza- tions, which not only provided support for those suffering from the dis- ease but also helped to spread awareness of it, so helping to bring about recognition and an understanding that could slow the spread of the dis- ease.
The AIDS organizations are now accredited with having contained the epidemic in Sweden, keeping it at a relatively low number of infected, compared to many other European countries (von Walden Laing & Pestoff, 1994; Johansson, 1995).
It should be noted, however, that although 242 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services the voluntary social sector was larger than previously understood, it is still relatively small in comparison to other European countries, at least if one considers voluntary work in a more narrowly defined, traditional social service perspective.
A newfound understanding from the empirical research of the 1990s was that the most significant voluntary work was in the loosely organized or spontaneous social work that evolved within the voluntary organiza- tions, and which is performed by hundreds of thousands Swedes annually.

Social activities and mutual help efforts are all more or less integrated into the organizations’ official activities and are almost always non- professional.
These activities are labeled “popular movement social work” in research and can be said to serve as both complements and al- ternatives to public sector and household services but are best understood as a category in its own right (Jeppsson Grassman & Svedberg 1995; 1996; 2005; Svedberg & Jeppsson Grassman, 2001).

In what type of organization are the above-mentioned social services performed?
Svedberg (2000) and Lundström & Svedberg (2003) suggest that the most significant type of organization is non-professional, democ- ratically run, and often seen as typical for Sweden and to some extent the other Scandinavian countries.

This type of organization centres around a special interest within a democratic structure known from the traditional popular movements.

The organizations build on ideological awareness and are mainly sustained by unpaid voluntary work.
Formal activities are aimed outward and the ideology assumes change in the system as a whole.

In conclusion, the existing research shows that civil society organiza- tions perform services in certain specific areas and that some of the char- acteristics of these services make them difficult or impossible to replace with services in any other sector.

One such characteristic is the experi- ence-based mutual support that develops in these organizations.
Another feature that paradoxically separates some of the civil society organiza- tions from the public sector is the continuity and availability of caretakers and having the time when a need for them emerges.
The traditional Swed- ish and Scandinavian welfare research, as well as the research on public social services, failed to recognize the importance of these characteristics, especially their importance for establishing the welfare of the least privi- leged in Swedish society (Nordfeldt, 1994; Svedberg, 2001).

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 243 These rudimentary findings from the research on the civil society pro- vide some new information on voluntary organizations.
However, some- thing should, also be mentioned about the position of informal care, which is crucial for maintaining the welfare of the elderly and also other groups of the ill and the disabled.

This sort of informal care is tradition- ally only rarely studied and almost never in any substantial scientific manner.

The surge in empirical research during the 1990s did, however, help to shed some light on this area.
The findings in the new research generally showed that the importance of the informal care were greater than previously known (Jeppsson Grassman, 1993; Busch Zetterberg, 1994; Sundström, 1994; Jegermalm & Whitaker, 2000; Jeppsson Grass- man & Svedberg, 1999; Svedberg, 2001).
The research also showed that this specific type of informal care and help appears in what must be con- sidered a societal sphere of its own and working according to its own logic, compared with professional services in the public or any other sec- tor (Forssell, 2004; Whitaker, 2004; Jeppsson Grassman & Svedberg, 1999).
The unique nature of these informal services naturally makes them difficult to replace with professional services and the limited research at hand dealing with this issue seems to indicate that the availability of pro- fessional social services does not affect the availability of informal care/helping and vice versa, at least when considering the welfare society as a whole (Lingsom, 1998; Dahlberg, 2004)85.
The example of the uni- versal Swedish welfare state certainly indicates that this is the case; the use of informal social care is vast and apparently growing in Sweden.

There is no indication that the Swedish welfare model crowds out this aspect of the social service sector.

The wider informal networks between non-related persons are still a relatively unknown factor in knowledge of the Swedish welfare state.
What can be said, however, is that individuals who are civically engaged tend to have greater access to these networks and that there is a general connection between welfare and access to informal networks (Jeppsson- Grassman & Svedberg, 1999).

85 In specific cases of cuts in professional services, however, some correlation can be ex- pected.

See for example Szebehely 1999.


244 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 6.5.4 Stability, changes and political stagnation As described above, the quantity and quality of the research increased considerably during the 1990s.

This is not to say, however, that the in- creasing knowledge on the subject has led Swedish politics to greater insight into the matter.

Political positions on the role of civil society in the welfare state were somewhat normalized.
Both the previously as- sumed “dangers” and “benefits” of civil society social services were toned down and rationalized.

The most significant development in Swed- ish politics on this subject was that both the “opponents” and the “propo- nents” of voluntary work and informal social care/help slowly realized the great strength of the Swedish political path dependency in welfare policy (Pierson, 2001; Hacker, 2004).
The limited impact on Swedish political life by the polarized public debate helped in time to quiet down many of the liveliest voices in the debate and the neo liberal branch of the “proponents” practically melted away.

The most devoted “opponents” and “proponents” dug in at their respective, fixed positions, not apt to be moved by any of the new research being produced in the 1990s.
The con- clusion to be drawn from the fact that these ideologically defined posi- tions have in many cases remained unchanged in spite of the scientific progress in the area is that knowledge is less demanded than one would assume and the chances that growth in knowledge might change the po- litical reality of the Swedish welfare state a lot less than might be ex- pected.
Lundström and Svedberg (1998) describe the political context of the voluntary sector in the following manner at the end of the 1990s: We can in this context conclude that the dominating party, the Social Democ- rats, has not contrived or wanted to develop any coherent policy for the non- profit or voluntary sector during the 1990s.

The hesitant Conservative initia- tives from the early 1990s were swiftly and efficiently terminated but were not replaced by any new, long term program.
Nor has the Social Democratic gov- ernment devoted any resources to research in the field, although prompted by the suggestion in one of its own investigations (Amnå, 1995).
This stance separates the Swedish Social Democrats from the Danish and Norwegian So- cial Democrats but is more than anything an illustration of a wider Swedish context that includes the liberal-conservative political block and where volun- tary work has hardly even gained a place on the political agenda or in the pub- lic debate towards the end of the 1990s.
(Translation: Svedberg and Vamstad 2006) Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 245 The silence surrounding the voluntary efforts and informal care/help has settled while the factual conditions for the civil society and the welfare state is changing at a rapid and accelerating pace.
The most significant such change is of course the stagnation in funding of the public sector and the ever growing demands for social services from the public, but also the growing expectations of being able to choose the form of service and in some cases the growing needs for these social services (SOU 2004:19; Johansson, 2003; Johansson, 2005).
Yet some changes can also be seen in how the informal care system is viewed, especially with regard to care for relatives but also efforts aimed at recipients outside the household.

Some political attention has been directed in the 1990s to easing the work of those related to care recipients.

This could possibly be seen as a change in the trend, or at least a temporary one.
The political agenda is still clear on the fact that the provision of social services like elder care is a task for the public sector, however, and that informal social work should be seen as a complement to the services provided by the public sector.

Yet the term complement is misplaced in this example, since the amount of work pro- duced informally is so vast that the public sector social service is the provider that should be labeled as the complement.
The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare produced more than 3000 reports between the years of 1990 and 2005.

Only nine of these could be included in the database of civil society research.
The most tel- ling conclusion from the database is that the earliest of those nine reports was published as late as the year 2000 and that four of the reports are from the year 2004.86 At the same time as an ideological or a knowledgeable discussion of any substance has failed to emerge at the national level, especially within the ruling Social Democratic Party but also to a large extent in the liberal- conservative political block, some tendencies in the practical politics towards the civil society can be observed.
These tendencies are reinforc- ing the traditional Swedish welfare model’s preference for centralized, professionalized social service provision performed by the public sector 86 The reports from the National Board of Health and Welfare reflect and to some degree de- fine the ongoing debate on health and welfare.

It is therefore noticeable that there were no re- ports on the civil society in the years 1990-1999 and only one or two a year in the years 2000- 2003.
The – in relative terms – great increase in the number of reports in 2004 might be coinci- dental, but it seems that the leading governmental agency on the subject of social services has recognized the civil society as a relevant entity from the year 2000 onwards.

246 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services and in certain cases for-profit, as seen, for instance, in the case of the maxtaxa (ceiling on fees) in the childcare sector (Vamstad, 2005).
The maxtaxa and other, similar social reforms during the late 1990s and early 2000s are generally motivated with references to an overarching concern for the state of the universal Swedish welfare state (SOU 1998:38).
The discrepancy between the rudimentarily phrased ideals for the voluntary organizations and informal care as complementary to the traditional wel- fare model, and the actual role of informal care and parts of voluntary work, together with the practical politics favoring the traditional welfare model based on professional services in the public sector all add up to a significant credibility deficiency for Swedish national politics in the so- cial service sector.
6.5.5 Conclusions This paper has shown that the civil society plays a significant but often neglected role in the Swedish welfare state.

A fair understanding of the different sectors’ importance is essential for analyzing the welfare society and not least for addressing some of the challenges that lie ahead for the Swedish welfare society.

No one benefits from an underestimation of civil society, just as no one benefits from an idealizing description of it.
Dahlkvist (1995) points out a tendency among those who are here labeled “proponents” to simply define civil society by all the good characteristics they can come up with.

The description of the civil society was idealized simply because the term and concept civil society was defined by exclu- sively positive characteristics that were contrasted with directly opposed, negative characteristics ascribed to the public sector.
Such an idealizing definition is not only useless academically; it is also in the longer term politically unfavorable for those relying on informal care and voluntary efforts.

If there is one thing that the database overview and this paper has shown, it is that a constructive approach to welfare and social services issues needs a firm empirical base, both in the political and in the aca- demic sphere.
The question of whether the demand for civil society services is grow- ing deserves to be addressed with some of the conclusions from this pa- per.

A point made here is that the services and voluntary efforts produced by the civil society might not be manipulative or transferable to any other Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 247 sector.

Especially the here described informal care is unlikely to be re- placed by professional services in the public sector.
The answer to the question therefore is that there is a lot less one can do to control the amount of unpaid, social work than is sometimes assumed.

The size of the civil society and its provision of unpaid social efforts remain unal- tered by both the universal availability of public social services and an increase in demand of civil society services.
The limited means to control the civil society is not least due to the fact that its service production is based on many people doing little rather than a few professionals doing a lot.

The civil society has a firm base that is not easily altered by political means, in either direction.

What are then the prospects for continued popular involvement in vol- untary organizations and informal social care?
There is good reason to believe that citizens of all classes will continue to produce unpaid volun- tary work and social care/help, since little change in this production can be seen even in the period studied here with a relatively high level of political change.

The structure of work and family life in the future will eventually decide in a very general manner how civil society social ser- vices will develop.
A reasonable expectation is that the elderly and the young will volunteer a bit more and the age group in between a bit less, considering the present development.

There is, however, no reason to believe that the interest in unpaid, voluntary efforts as a whole will chan- ge drastically in any direction.
Certain groups and individuals might take their involvement to new areas and the voluntary engagement might be expressed in new forms, but the development since the 1980s tells us that the sum is relatively constant.

A suggested trend in the material on volun- tary work is a growing individualization.

Research presented in this paper points to the possibility that the voluntary work of the future will be sev- eral single efforts limited in time and directed to a single specific task.
The research presented here provides a description of the civil society and its different forms of voluntary efforts and informal care/help as gen- erally stable and consistent in shape and form.

This seems to apply to both voluntary organizations and the informal social care offered by indi- viduals.

A conclusion of this paper is that the civil society tradition pro- vided by the popular mass movements has to a large extent contributed to shaping the civil society of today.
Given the high level of continuity in the Swedish welfare state, it is reasonable to assume that the structures 248 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services provided by the popular mass movements will continue to shape the civil society for years to come, at least in terms of general structure although less, perhaps, in terms of content.
The largely unconstructive division between “opponents” and “proponents” in the civil society debate was the result of an lack of empirical research but also the failure to recognize the path dependence at the structural level.

Much of the arguments presented in the late 1980s and early 1990s where based on new theories about the civil society and to a much lesser degree on the long term structural con- ditions in place in the Swedish context.
This is not to say, of course, that there are not significant changes occurring within this context.

An exam- ple of this is the voluntary organizations providing care for and represent- ing the disabled, which have been very successful in promoting aware- ness of the needs and rights of the disabled both as individuals and as a group.

Similarly, civil society child- and eldercare organizations have managed to yield some influence on both legislation and conventions in their area.
There is also, however, a counterworking development towards favoring professional provision of social services over informal provision, which is here understood as a reinforcement of the traditional Swedish welfare model.

There is reason to recall that one of the trademarks of the Nordic model for the voluntary sector is that the voluntary organizations have both been a voice for several marginalized groups and at the same time organizers of the individuals in these groups themselves.
The Nordic organizations are “voice” organizations based on the voluntary, unpaid involvement of the group the organization is voicing concerns for.

This is a point where the Nordic and Swedish voluntary organizations stand out in a European comparison.

The Swedish organizations are still to a large extent self organized and run by the concerned parties themselves, partly or completely without contributions from paid, professional staff.
The Swedish tradition of mass-mobilizing organizations involving members from all social classes has, however, come under internal as well as ex- ternal pressure in recent years.

The internal pressure can be seen in the lack of special competence in a few specific tasks in the grassroots movement, which is often treated with the introduction of professional specialists.

The external pressure is the more general market orientation and greater reliance on formal qualification rather than ‘amateurism’.
The class and gender cleavages that run through society as a whole can also be Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 249 found in the voluntary organizations.

The developments for class and gender seem, however, to be going in opposite directions.
The voluntary organizations are becoming more defined by class, as noted above, while the gender distribution is becoming more equal in civil society provision of social services, just like the gender distribution is becoming more equalized in for example the civil society sports organizations.

The Swedish welfare state was built on an elaborate vision of justice and equality under the best of intentions.
The Swedish vision for the wel- fare society, in Swedish often called folkhemmet or “the people’s home”, was one of universally available, high quality health and social care whe- re both the universality and the quality was guaranteed by gainfully em- ployed professionals in the public sector.

The unpaid voluntary efforts and in some cases informal care of the civil society appeared to be an anomaly in a society striving for and to a great extent fulfilling such a grand vision.
The Swedish welfare state has grown to favor centralized, large, uniform and universal provision of welfare, which made the multi- faceted, difficult to grasp and value based civil society activities an unli- kely significant contributor to the social service sector in Sweden.

There is simply no way that the civil society can provide a uniform service pro- vision when the civil society itself is so diverse.
The individual citizen’s informal efforts had similarly great difficulty in finding its place as a recognized source of welfare in the Swedish welfare state.

Yet another effect on the clash between the principles of the welfare state and the civil society’s ideals is that welfare production in the welfare state is highly politicized, which calls for all provision of social services to be controlla- ble, if not in day-to-day business then at least politically.
All provision outside the public sector thereby complicates the running of the welfare state, since it needs control over service production in order to function.

This paper has shown that, in spite of everything, voluntary efforts keep being made in the civil society.

The aim of this article is to give an insight into how the voluntary efforts and informal care/help are per- formed, the extent of the voluntary work and informal care performed, its possibilities and its obvious limitations.
The limited knowledge in the area calls for further empirical and theoretical work on the subject of civil society and provision of welfare.

A hope for future research is that it will be performed in the tradition of critical social scientific ethics that does not primarily favor any one version of the welfare state but instead looks 250 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services to the needs of the citizens in general and the disadvantaged citizens in particular.
References Antman, Peter (ed.)

(1993) Systemskifte.

Fyra folkhemsdebatter.

Stockholm: Carlsson bokförlag.

Anttonen, Anneli & Sipilä, Jorma (1996) “European Social Care Services: Is It Possible to Identify Models?” in Jour- nal of European Social Policy, No 6, pp 87–100.

Bergström, Sören (1989) Den tredje vågens strategi: Kooperativ företags- ledning på nygammalt vis.

Stockholm: Rabén och Sjögren Busch Zetterberg, Karin (1996) Det civila samhället i socialstaten.
In- komstkällor, privata transfereringar, omsorgsvård.

Stockholm: City University Press.

Böök, Sven-Åke (1990) Cooperative development and change.

Stockholm: Föreningen för kooperativa studier Carlqvist, Knut (1993) Åt envar efter arbete: om fackets förlorade rötter.

Stockholm: Timbro Dahlberg, Lena (2004) Welfare relation- ships.

Voluntary organisations and local authorities in supporting rela- tives of older people in Sweden.
Docto- ral dissertation, Department of Politi- cal Science, Stockholm University Dahlkvist, Mats (1995) “Det civila sam- hället i samhällsteori och samhällsde- batt.

En kritisk analys” in Trägårdh, Lars (ed) 1995, Civilt samhälle kontra offentlig sector.

Stockholm: SNS förlag Esping-Andersen, Gösta.

(1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism.

Cambridge: The Polity Press.

Esping-Andersen, Gösta (1999) Social Foundations of Postindustrial Econo- mies.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.


Forssell, Emilia (2004) Skyddandets förnuft.

En studie av anhöriga till hjälpbehövande äldre som invandrat sent i livet.

Doctoral Dissertation.

In- stitutionen för socialt arbete, Stock- holms universitet.

Greider, Göran (1992) “Moralisk elit vädrar morgonluft” in Dagens Nyheter 1992–12–24.

Greider, Göran (1994) Det levande löftet.

Stockholm: Bonniers.

Greider, Göran (2003) Kritik av en utopi.


Det frivilliga arbetet bekämpar bara symptomen – inte krisen i sig in Jubileumstidskrift 2003, Forum för frivilligt socialt arbete.

Stockholm: Forum för frivilligt socialt arbete.

Gustavsson, Bo (1988) Den tysta revolu- tionen.

Hedemora: Gidllunds förlag Gustavsson, Anders (1992) Nykterhets- rörelsens människor i Valla: föreställ- ningsvärld inom en folkrörelse på lokal nivå.
Uppsala: Etnologiska institutionen Hacker, Jacob S. (2004) “Privatizing risk without privatizing the welfare state: The hidden politics of social policy retrenchment in the United States” in American Political Science Review, No 2, p.243–260 Hammare, Ulf (2004) Kompetens i de sociala professionerna – en pilotstu- die.

Stockholm: Socialstyrelsen.

Holmberg, Per (1992) Kooperationens bidrag till den svenska modellens upp- lösning.
Stockholm: Föreningen för kooperativa studier Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 251 Huber, Evelyn & Stephens, John (2001) Development and Crisis of the Welfare State Parties and Policies in Global Markets.

Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Jegermalm, Magnus and Whitaker.

Anna (2000) Upptäckten av anhöriga?

kommuners och frivilliga organisatio- ners stöd till äldres anhöriga i Stock- holms län.
Sköndal: Sköndalinstitutets arbetsrapportserie nr 17 Jeppsson Grassman Eva.

(1993) “Frivil- liga insatser i Sverige.

En befolknings- studie” in SOU 1993:82 Frivilligt so- cialt arbete kartläggning och kun- skapsöversikt.

Stockholm: Fritzes förlag Jeppsson Grassman, Eva (2001) Med- människa och anhörig.

En studie av informella hjälpinsatser.

Sköndal: Sköndalsinstitutets skriftserie nr 17, Ersta Sköndal högskola.

Jeppsson Grassman, Eva (red.)

(2003) Anhörigskapets uttrycksformer.


Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Jeppsson Grassman, Eva & Svedberg, Lars (1995) Frivilligt socialt arbete i Sverige – både mer och mindre in Amnå E (red), Medmänsklighet att hy- ra?

Åtta forskare om ideell verksam- het.

Örebro: Libris.

Jeppsson Grassman, Eva & Svedberg, Lars (1996) “Voluntary Action in a Scandinavian Social Welfare Context: The Case of Sweden” in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 25, 415–427.
Jeppsson Grassman, Eva & Svedberg, Lars (1999) “Medborgarskapets ge- staltningar” in SOU 1999:84 Civil- samhället.

Demokratiutredningens for- skarvolym 8.

Jeppsson Grassman, Eva & Svedberg, Lars (2005) “Civic Participation in the Welfare State: Patterns in Latemodern Sweden” in Trägårdh, Lars (ed.)

The State and Civil Society in Northern Europe: The Swedish Model Reconsid- ered.
New York: Berghahn Books Johansson, Göran (1997) Möta hiv, möta sig själv – en studie av arbetet vid stiftelsen Noahs Ark – Röda korset.

Sköndalsinstitutets skriftserie nr 5, Evsta Sköndal högskola Johansson, Lennarth (1991) Caring for the next of kin.

Doctoral dissertation.

Department of Social Medicine, Upp- sala University Johansson, Staffan (2003) Stöd eller styrning?

En utvärdering av statsbi- dragsmodellen till ideella organisatio- ner inom det sociala området.
Stock- holm: Socialstyrelsen Johansson, Staffan (2005) Ideella mål med offentliga medel.

Stockholm: Sober förlag.

Lejring, Lars (1993) Blommor, bullar och glada jyckar : om folkbildning och kooperativa lösningar för människor med handikapp.

Göteborg: Folkuniver- sitetet Lindberg, Elisabet (2005) Vad kan med- borgarna göra.

Fyra fallstudier av samarbetsformer för frivilliga insatser i äldreomsorg och väghållning.

Doc- toral dissertation, Sociologiska institu- tionen, Stockholms universitet.
Lingsom, Susanne (1998) The Substitu- tion Issue.

Care Policies and Their Consequenses for Family Care.

Docto- ral dissertation.

Oslo: NOVA.

Ljung, Jörgen (1993) Idébaserad verk- samhet: en studie av frikyrkan som verksamhet.

Doctoral dissertation.


Linköping University Ljungberg, Carl Johan (1992) “Ny syn på frivilliga insatser” in Uppsala Nya Tidning 1992–12–24 Lundström, Tommy & Svedberg, Lars (1998) “Svensk frivillighet i interna- tionell belysning – en inledning” in Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift, 5, 106–127.

Lundström.
Lundström.

Tommy & Svedberg, Lars (2003) “The voluntary sector in a so- 252 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services cial democratic welfare state – The case of Sweden” in Journal of Social Policy.

Nr 2 p.217–238 Lundström, Tommy & Wijkström, Filip (1997) The Nonprofit Sector in Swe- den.

Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Meeuwisse, Anna (1999) Debatten om välfärdssamhället och det civila sam- hället.
Sköndal: Sköndalsinstitutets arbetsrapportserie nr 11 Meeuwisse, Anna & Sunesson, Sune (1998) “Frivilliga organisationer, soci- alt arbete och expertis” in Socialveten- skaplig tidskrift, 5, 172–193.

Micheletti, Michele (1988) “De svenska intresseorganisationerna – i går, i dag, imorgon” in Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift, No.

1, pp 41–54.

Micheletti, Michele (1994) Det civila samhället och staten: medborgarsam- manslutningarnas roll i svensk politik.
Stockholm: Fritzes förlag Nord, Sture & Pettersson, Lars (1994) Den ideella sektorn.

Hot eller möjlig- het?

Stockholm: Röda korset.

Nordfeldt, Marie (1994) Frivilliga orga- nisationers insatser för hemlösa.

Sköndal: Sköndalinstitutet Olsson, Lars-Erik (1999) Från idé till handling.

En sociologisk studie av fri- villiga organisationers uppkomst och fallstudier av Noaks Ark, 5i12-rörelsen samt Farsor och Morsor på Stan.

Doc- toral Dissertation, Sociologiska institu- tionen, Stockholms universitet.
Olsson Lars-Erik (2000) På olika villkor – samverkan mellan kommun och fri- villig-organisation.

Sköndal: Skön- dalsinstitutets arbetsrapportserie nr 12 Petersson, Berit (1991) En föräldrakoo- perativ vision.

Stockholm: Föreningen kooperativa studier.

Pestoff, Victor (1991) Social service i kooperativ regi.

Stockholm: Förening- en kooperativa studier den.


Frankfurt am Main: Campus verlag Pestoff, Victor (2005) Democratizing the Welfare State – Revisiting the Third Sector and State in Democratic and Welfare Theory (forthcoming).

Pierson, Paul (2001) The new politics of the welfare state.

Oxford: Oxford university press.

Qvarsell, Roger (1993) “Välgörenhet, filantropi och frivilligt socialt arbete – en historisk översikt” in SOU 1993:82 Frivilligt socialt arbete.

Kartläggning och kunskapsöversikt.


Stockholm: Fritzes förlag Rothstein, Bo (1992) Den korporativa staten : intresseorganisationer och statsförvaltning i svensk politik.

Stock- holm: Norstedts juridik Rothstein, Bo (1995) “Svensk välfärds- politik och det civila samhället”in Trädgårdh, Lars (ed) 1995, Civilt sam- hälle kontra offentlig sektor.

Stock- holm: SNS förlag Socialstyrelsen (2003) Socialtjänsten i Sverige.
Stockholm: Socialstyrelsen Sommestad, Lena (1995) “Civilsamhäl- let – en utopi för medelklassens män?” in Trägårdh, Lars (red.)

Civilt samhälle kontra offentlig sektor.

Stockholm: SNS förlag SOU 1993:82.

Vad får vi för pengarna?

– Resultatstyrning av statsbidrag till vissa organisationer inom det sociala området.

Stockholm: Fritzes förlag SOU 1998:38.

Frivilligt socialt arbete : kartläggning och kunskapsöversikt: rapport.

Stockholm: Fritzes förlag SOU 2000:3.

Välfärd vid vägskäl.


Ut- vecklingen under 1990-talet.

Delbe- tänkande av Kommittén Välfärds- bokslut.

Stockholm: Fritzes förlag SOU 2001:79.

Välfärdsbokslut för 1990- talet.

Slutbetänkande från Kommittén Välfärdsbokslut.

Stockholm: Fritzes förlag Pestoff, Victor (1991A) Between mar- SOU 2004:19.

Långtidsutredning kets and politics: cooperatives in Swe- 2003/04.
Stockholm: Fritzes förlag Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 253 Stark, Agneta & Hamrén, Robert (2000) Frivilligarbetets kön.

En översikt in Àjour nr 5, Svenska Kommun- förbundet.

Stensöta, Helena (2004) Den empatiska staten.

Göteborg: Statsvetenskapliga institutionen vid Göteborgs universitet.

Sundström, Gerdt (1994) “Care by fami- lies: An Overview of Trends” in Car- ing for Frail Elderly People, Social Policy Studies No 14, OECD.
Svallfors Stefan (1996) Välfärdsstatens moraliska ekonomi.

Välfärdsopinionen i 90-talets Sverige.

Umeå: Boréa Bokförlag.

Svallfors Stefan (1999) Mellan risk och tilltro in Umeå Studies in Sociology No 114.

Sociologiska institutionen, Umeå universitet.

Svedberg, Lars (1996) “Frivillighet som ideologiskt slagträ och faktisk verk- samhet” in Ojämlikhet från vaggan till graven, på väg in i 2/3-samhället.

FKF Fakta.
FKF Fakta.

Svedberg, Lars (2000) “A Scandinavian Voluntary Tradition in Transformation – The Case of Sweden” in Amnå, Erik Tommy Lundström & Lars Svedberg, Three Essays on Volunteerism and Vo- luntary Organisations.

Sköndal: Skön- dalsinstitutets arbetsrapportserie nr 9 Svedberg, Lars (2001) “Spelar ideella och informella insatser någon roll för svensk välfärd?” in Szebehely, Marta (red.)

SOU 2001:52.

Välfärdstjänster i omvandling .

Forskarantologi från Kommittén Välfärdsbokslut.


Stock- holm: Fritzes förlag Lars Skov Henriksen (ed.

), Antologi om frivilligt arbejde.

Odense: Odense universitetsforlag.

Stryjan, Yohanan (1992) Personalkoo- perativ eller brukarkooperativ – ett framtida vägskäl.

Stockholm: Före- ningen kooperativa studier Szebehely, Marta (1999) “Omsorgsarbe- tets olika former.

Nya klasskillnader och gamla könsmönster i äldreomsor- gen” in Sociologisk forskning, nr 1, p.7–32.
Trägårdh, Lars (1995) Civilt samhälle kontra offentlig sektor.

Stockholm: SNS förlag Trägårdh, Lars (1999) “Det civila sam- hället som analytiskt begrepp och poli- tisk slogan” in SOU 1999:84 Civil- samhället.

Demokratiutredningens for- skarvolym 8.

Stockholm: Fritzes förlag Vamstad, Johan (2005) The third sector and the challenges to the Swedish wel- fare state.

Östersund: Mid-Sweden University Vamstad Johan (2006) A literary over- view of the Swedish civil society re- search.
Sköndal: Sköndalinstitutets arbetsrapportsserie No 40. von Walden Laing.

Dagmar & Pestoff, Victor (1994) The role of non-profit organizations in managing HIV/AIDS in Sweden.

Stockholm University: School of Business Whitaker, Anna (2004) Livets sista boning – Anhörigskap, åldrande och död på sjukhem.

Doctoral Dissertation, Institutionen för socialt arbete, Stock- holms universitet.
Svedberg, Lars (2005) “Det civila sam- Wörlund, Ingemar (1990) Kampen om hället och välfärden – ideologiska öns- kedrömmar och sociala realiteter” in Amnå, Erik (2005).

Civilsamhället – några forskningsfrågor.

Hedemora: Gidlunds förlag Svedberg, Lars & Jeppsson Grassman, det ideologiska rummet – en studie av variationer i SAP:s regionala väljar- stöd 1921–1940 mot bakgrund av par- tiorganisatorisk aktivitet och lokal or- ganisationsmiljö.
Umeå: Umeå universitet Eva (2001) “Frivilliga insatser i svensk välfärd – med utblickar mot de nordis- ka grannländerna” in Bjarne Ibsen & Zetterberg, Hans (1995) “Civila samhäl- let, demokratin och välfärdsstaten”in Trägårdh, Lars (red.)

Civilt samhälle 254 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services kontra offentlig sektor.

Stockholm: SNS förlag Zetterberg, Hans & Ljungberg, Carl Johan (1997) Vårt land – den svenska socialstaten.

Stockholm: City University Press.

7.


European perspective and future challenges of welfare services 7.1 Complementary and Conflicting.

The different meanings of ‘user involvement’ in social services Adalbert Evers Introduction Getting users more involved in social services is something that across political and ideological cleavages most people would acclaim.
Similarly as with respect to other catch words (“strengthening democracy”), the issue to be debated is not whether to opt for a “yes” or a “no”; rather, discussions centre on the different meanings and impacts of “user in- volvement”, depending on the broader conceptions for the future of mar- kets, politics and social services that set the framework for the respective notions of user involvement.
It is the aim of this paper to present what can be seen as major strands of thinking on welfare and social services.

In each of them user involve- ment is valued to some degree, but it is seen differently.

It will be shown that user-involvement is not a concept that can be monopolised by one strand of thinking (e.g.

the participationist one); a call for upgrading the role of users may find positive links with various traditions and strands of thinking.
After an analytical overview, in its concluding remarks, the author will argue, that in reality we will find various ways in which ele- ments of these different strands coexist or mingle, something that gives to real social service policies and service providing institutions a mixed and 256 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services sometimes “mixed up” character, depending from the degree in the coex- isting different logics can complement or do contradict each other.
The main aspects that this paper takes into regard when sketching the different strands of thinking are the guiding rationales and the specific forms and tools of user involvement; however, other elements that are relevant for the organisation of service-fields and systems and which have important by-effects for user involvement (such as, for example, concepts about the educational level of professionals) will be taken into account as well.
The notion of user involvement that is dealt with here includes both, the role of the individual and of user-groups and -organisations; likewise different levels of operation have been taken into regard, the agency level as well as the level of decision making in policy fields on the local, re- gional or national level.
Finally, the author will operate in the following with a definition of social services that includes all services that are (a) considered to be of special importance for society on the whole and where (b) personal inter- action between providers and users has a key role.
Using such a broad definition, health, education, occupational integration and cultural ser- vices become as well part of the picture beyond the usual three fields of child day care, care services for the elderly and various small areas of services for problem groups.

7.1.1 Different strands of thinking The five strands to be sketched in the following (see table on page 2) cannot be considered, strictly speaking, as being on the same level.
While labels like “welfarism” and “consumerism” are pointing to widespread ideologies which refer to society as a whole, professionalism can be seen as a more limited and specific hallmark that has been brought about along with the development of the welfare state; the same may be said about managerialism and its link to consumerism: the extension of market- based concepts and thinking has changed the vocabulary and points of reference within the administration of social services.
Finally, what will be summed up in the following under the clumsy term “participationism” can be seen as a set of beliefs that can to some degrees overlap both with more traditional welfarist concepts (that give a strong role to politics and Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 257 thereby to users as citizens) and with consumerist concepts (that want to upgrade the role of markets and thereby the role of users as consumers).
Behind all this there are some major tendencies: 1.

The field of social services has gradually ceased to be a world of its own, financed and provided by state institutions, municipalities and voluntary agencies; market logics and commercial providers as well as new initiatives from the civil society have gained importance, and along with them different practices, belief systems and priorities; this makes diversity and pluralism of orientations and practice increase.
In all highly developed countries a search for more efficiency and effectiveness makes itself felt – especially in areas where public funding and scarce finances play a role; this is a major factor behind the rise of managerial concerns.

2.

Table 1.

User involvement in social services.

Various strands of thinking, elements and tools.
welfarism Professionalism Consumerism Managerialism participationism • hierarchical governance of service systems • full coverage/ uniform services • equal standards • boards and commissions for corporate governance • case manage- ment • upgrading of educational levels • upgrading pro- fessional advice and consultancy • quality control through profes- sional self control • quality control by state inspection • public service ethos • social rights and patients' charta • competition • managed care • individual choice • target setting • market research • vouchers • customer orienta- tion • consumer lobby- ing • consumer protec- tion • upgrading mana- gerial and eco- nomic concerns • external quality management • complaint man- agement • collective self help • volunteering • strengthening user and commu- nity based service providers • strengthening local embedded- ness • orientation towards empower- ing users • more service dialogues • more user control in designing and running services 3.
Social services form a part of the welfare state that has expanded relatively late but often over-proportionally; having become in many respects mainstream services, their traditional blueprints of caring for the poorest and most dependent are often not tuned with the needs of the majority of citizens in a society that is characterized by plurali- 258 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services sation and polarisation, increasing levels of social competence but as well new forms of marginalization; this makes user involvement such an important but at the same time difficult issue, because the needs of various user groups as well as their abilities to make an own contri- bution are in various ways very uneven; some may be illiterate and unable to communicate with service professionals while others may be well educated and smart consumers; both groups, however, may call for a high-quality service that is tailor-made for their needs and wishes.
Therefore, finding an agreed profile for the role of users is not only de- pendent on compromises between different views, but it also calls for differentiated solutions across and within various service fields.

7.1.2 Welfarism This label is used here in order to mark an area of “old style” convictions concerning welfare and social services that most people will probably dissociate themselves from nowadays.
It is however a set of beliefs that has built up over decades and which is de facto still going strong (Fer- rera/Rhodes 2000).

In the author’s country, for example, first steps have only just been taken to change “old style” social services in the area of labour market administration or in the school system, which are both representing ideal types of hierarchical governance: all practices and tasks, curricula, formulas etc.
are decided top down with little room to manoeuvre in the local agencies (schools or labour offices).

Nevertheless, the quality-related idea behind that was to guarantee full access to every- body throughout the country and to assure the same quality levels by uniform service-approaches.

Obviously, within such concepts, a participatory user involvement did not have much of a role.
Today’s customers were at that time people in need with little competences who required to be educated for learning and working; hence these welfare strands of conceiving social services set tight limits to a participatory concept of user involvement.
There are ho- wever two exceptions: First of all, to various degrees hierarchical steering mechanisms have been tempered by mechanisms of corporate governance, that is, by creat- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 259 ing bodies where (at regional or national levels) representatives of social and professional groups had a saying: for example the trade unions (which had e.g.

taken the initiative for building up a labour market ad- ministration); or e.g.
the union of teachers in a school system, or volun- tary agencies which provided services that had been made part of the “subsidiaristic” welfare systems.

Yet these forms of indirect “corporate participation” of groups from society usually excluded the users them- selves.

In many countries even today, commissions, round tables and similar institutions which include professionals organizations as well as members from groups such as the chamber of commerce, the trade un- ions, third sector providers etc.
do not consider a participation of users, their advocacy organizations and NGOs.

In the corporate governance of the German health system, the existing national interest organizations, for example those representing the interests of people with disabilities and special diseases, have no or little access to to the respective centers of decision-making.
Widening corporate governance towards more coopera- tive and networked forms of governance and upgrading the role of users in central bodies of advice and decision-making is an issue where a bridge can be built between welfarist traditions of corporate governance and more recent consumerist or participationist strands.
Secondly, with respect to the role of users one of the strong points of traditional service systems has been that uniform and routinized services can well be combined with a set of clear cut basic social rights, for exam- ple the right to a place in school, the right to unemployment allowance or the right to medical treatment.
Despite its limits (that will be discussed later) this language of rights can be a platform for further developing a kind of Charta of Rights in various service areas (Fallberg, 2000); often these are “soft” rights, that cannot be turned into guaranteed rights; this concerns, for example, the way people are addressed in a labour office or a hospital.
Here, at least a number of “rules of conduct” can be estab- lished – a kind of service culture that is expressed in such a charta –, which may help to create or cultivate an atmosphere of unwritten de facto rights that are favourable to the users.

This is a second point where welfa- rism can be linked with consumerist convictions.
All in all, however, it must be said that old style welfarism, to the degree that its institutions still mirror: 260 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services • • the former times of unquestioned professional and administrative authority, taylorism and standardization, but as well a concept of equality that gives little room for diversity, represents more barriers than potentials for individual and agency-related user involvement.
On the other hand, more room is given to their indirect representation in collective bargaining, for example by the advocacy role of professional organizations.

7.1.3 Professionalism The traditions of professionalism in social services cannot be thought of without taking into account both the strong impact of state-welfarism and the often modest competences of the bulk of clients to whom social ser- vices were addressed to.
Given that tradition, professionals, such as doc- tors, teachers or nurses, often up until today see service quality and the quality of their individual work as being synonymous.

Insofar as the task was more one of working for the clients than of working with them in partnership, calling for “compliance” rather than “negotiating” over ser- vices appeared plausible.
Instead of the traditional “strong” paternalism today’s relations be- tween social service providers and their clients are mostly characterized by “mild” paternalism that is expressed in the ethical codexes of social service professionals, regulating the way they should act in favour of their clients (McCullough/Wear 1985).
This attitude of being client-centred (which is in contrast to the managerial concerns prevailing in many ser- vice organizations) can be a good point of reference for users and groups that call for an upgrading of their status in a system or an institution.

Since caring for quality was by and large identified as a matter, the professional organizations had to push for, a great deal of the quality control was in fact professional self-control: doctors supervised doctors.
This important long-standing dimension of “quality management” by professional self-control should not be forgotten in times where quality control is seen as something entirely new and something to be managed mainly by people outside the professions in the respective field (quality managers with possibly little understanding of pedagogic or care or health tasks).
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 261 Apart from the fact that professional traditions can entail egotism, ri- valry to other professions and other selfish attitudes, they can also pro- vide point of reference for user involvement .

There is still a widespread “public service ethos” according to which one is not only “in it for the money” but, for example, for the sake of a municipality that cares.
This is the idea that was behind what is expressed by the term “civil servant”.

In favourable situations, professional ethos and public servant ethos can meet and reinforce each other (Foster/Wilding 2000) – low paid personal does good work and is attentive.
A fourth point which may have a positive impact on user involvement is the professionals’ readiness to extend professional advice and consul- tancy; most professionals worship the chance to have a dialogue with their clients and reject rationalization concepts that skip the possibility of personal dialogue.

And an up to date concept of professionalism is usu- ally about to give as much as possible information and skills to clients as co-operators and co-producers of services.
One of the limits of professionalism is the fact that many of the stan- dards cultivated inside the professional communities sometimes lose the link with the public and the outer world; the fact that in most cases pro- fessionals consider a better education (and pay) and more resources for their work as a panacea for all problems of a service branch reflects their limited abilities to respond to welfare dilemmas in times of rising de- mands, stagnating resources and problems that are linked as well with governance and management .
Finally there is a fifth point which is of special importance for the ex- tension of user involvement.

However, unlike all the other points that the author sees as being of immediate importance for upgrading user in- volvement, this particular point has not been marked in the table due to its ambiguity.

This point is case management (Wendt 2001).


The concept of case management seeks to individualize services, giving a central role to a case manager who takes responsibility for a whole bundle of services and who also monitors this service bundle over time.

One of the impor- tant things about case management is that it calls for a very high level of cooperation between both sides, the manager and the client.
While case managers have a central decision-making role, the care plan will only work if the clients trust in them and if they accept the service contract with its support for the user but as well with its obligations for coopera- 262 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services tion on both sides.

While there is always a strong user involvement in practices of case management, its quality can differ.
The style may be more managerial or more paternalistic, or it may aim at strengthening the chances for a kind of user involvement that is empowering.

Since case management is put into practice mostly for people who are in various ways dis-abled and very much in need, a more enabling style of user in- volvement can often only come over time.
Another problematic side of case management is the fact that it increases the power of professionals at the cost of secured rights; while in simple mechanic procedures rights are mostly simple as well (e.g.

conditions for getting social assistance), in case management procedures users must show their willingness to a high- level of involvement if they want to avoid being rejected due to missing willingness for cooperation.
This is a problematic issue, for example, in/when case management is implemented in workfare schemes where much is requested from the unemployed.

Summing up one can say that professionalism has two sides: one side may be the often complained arrogance of power while the other side is the burden of responsibility taken.

The latter side can be a good point of reference for those who strive for a better user involvement.
To the degree that professionalism puts clients’ interests first it can be a strong antidote against old and new ways of putting the interest of au- thorities, business and providers ahead of the concerns of users and citizens.

Finally, one should as well be cautious not to simply condemn the paternalism of professionals.
“Mild paternalism” may often be a better concept than a cool partnership with low responsibility taken by the professional; this should be kept in mind, especially with regard to all those users, that are weak and rather incompetent when they enter into a service relationship.
7.1.4 Consumerism The basic promise of consumerism is that by giving users choice and exit options and by establishing competition among providers this kind of consumer power will be more effective in making services user-centred than any other policy direction.

In the controversy of “markets against politics” the former are given clear priority (Potter 1988).
From the per- spective of consumerism, the regulation of service systems by political Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 263 and administrative means as well as by alternative ways of upgrading the power of users (by collective “voice”, for example through participation) are characterized by tight limits.
Yet politics have a role to play in such concepts, but they are rather conceived as “trade and industry” policies, that is, restricted (like in other areas) to the usual task of regulating a social service sector which ought to become more business-like (with standard setting, control, legislative frameworks etc.

promoting this).

However, in reality it is difficult to shift issues of public goods and of personal services so near to private markets (6, 2003).
Special issues already arise insofar as the users as consumers cannot pay themselves.

These issues concern, for example, “third party” payment (by public au- thorities, insurances etc.)

or the search for other means to guarantee a consumer power that (for common goods like health, care or education) needs to be more egalitarian than for other goods.
Therefore, an often debated tool in upgrading user involvement in terms of creating more consumer choice is to envisage income-related subsidies to problem groups or to argue for vouchers; another option considered is to create client budgets where the use is combined with advice or case manage- ment mechanisms.

Each of these solutions entails different degrees of choice.
The critiques of the shortcomings of consumerist concepts and prac- tices are well known: • • • first of all, there are unequal effects depending on class and edu- cation: even if financial differences are evened out (e.g.
by vouchers) there remain segregative effects, with some providers concentrating on the better off; furthermore problems of asymmetrical information (the providers know the markets much better than the potential con- sumers can) restrain consumer impact and have as well selective side effects; secondy, not all competitive arrangements automatically lead to more consumer choice; where public authorities pay, arrangements like “competitive tendering” may well end up in choosing the best offer for the public authorities which is not necessarily the best for the users; thirdly, some personal and collective services are “trust goods”; people have to learn to trust providers, which is critical when it 264 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services • • comes to establishing the readiness to look for professional help outside the family (see: elderly care); fourthly, many social services have strong collective side effects or are, like community services, aiming at such goals; therefore deba- ting them with an eye on individual choice can be too narrow a concept right from the start (Jordan 2006) finally, there is the problem that the concept of the “competent consumer” can not or only to a very limited degree be transferred to many user groups and the respective services (Baldock 1998): (a) when the users belong to problem groups like drug addicts; (b) wherever the service relationship does not allow to operate with the “easy exit” assumption (e.g.
in long-term elderly care) and (c) wherever the issues at stake must first of all be clarified through collective deliberation and participation (e.g.

in city areas that need urban regeneration and community development).

In spite of these criticisms it has to be pointed out that many of the limits for making users act as consumers who make their own choices can be moved.
Governments and NGOs can provide them with various kinds of possibilities to learn that role (consultancy, marketing the services etc.).

Furthermore, the most basic effect of introducing performance mecha- nisms, for example simply by making payments to providers dependent on the outcome, will be that providers and personal are motivated to really “work for customers”; market research to find out about the indi- vidual wishes and priorities can be a central element of more consumer orientation.
So there is little doubt that introducing consumerist elements can contribute towards upgrading the role of users.

What is especially tempting in this model is the fact that it cultivates the idea of the quick and full service known from other consumer markets and that it aims at establishing a better role for the user mainly in indi- vidualistic terms.

Customers can save time, and since the concept concen- trates on the individual it suggests that cooperating with others will play little role.
However, in view of the consumerist promise to create services that minimize user involvement while simultaneously maximizing the user’s autonomy, it should not be forgotten that personal services and their quality and outcome will continue to depend on the involvement of the users as co-producers, on decisions by the professionals and on inter- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 265 relationship between users and professionals over time.
All these are at once binding ties and time-consuming factors.

On a more global and collective level of user involvement, there is a complementary point to be observed which nowadays all parties, but as well international organizations like the EU, agree on– especially to the degree that they favour the upgrading of market elements in social ser- vices: the role of strengthening consumer protection and giving consumer groups more saying in the governance of service systems (EC 2000).
As it is known from other market areas, the legal protection of consumers’ rights is difficult.

Passive protection only works in conjunction with the customers’ ability to actively use such rights.

Challenges of getting to the right legal frameworks increase to the degree that providers have no own intrinsic interest in upgrading the role of the users they address (in con- trast to commercial providers, municipal and third sector providers may have such an intrinsic interest).
In this context, however, “size” seems to be a more important factor than “sector”.

Those service providers that are not embedded in social and local obligations but act as “big business” may often be more difficult to be governed both by state regulation and forms of user control than smaller providers, irrespective of which sector they belong to.
Summing up one can say that while consumerism as a total concept is denying many specificities of personal services, of public goods and of the needs of special groups of users, it may contribute significantly to upgrade the users’ role wherever they can learn to become – and are en- abled to act as – informed and autonomous consumers.

Therefore, con- sumer policy in the field of social services must specify its tasks.
Overall, consumer lobbying and protection can be seen as a shared issue for con- sumerist orientations and welfarist traditions, an issue which is gaining importance to the degree that social services are getting more business- like.

7.1.5 Managerialism This strand of thinking and the corresponding set of practices have been pushed both by the tendency to view the public services as potential mar- ket areas and by the need to find established schemes for economizing the use of public funds.
The general message is that managers of public ser- 266 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services vices should learn from private management.

Administrators and policy makers who are responsible for a whole service field might learn from those managers who have to govern wide and diversified branches of commerce in the private sector.
The “New Public Management” seeks to introduce the respective mechanisms for more effectiveness and effi- ciency on all levels of public services, in order to manage them similarly to modern forms of commercial provision.

Here the focus is obviously not on the user but on the interest of the provider, the political administration or the citizen (in economic terms the voter and taxpayer) who aims at getting in return for his taxes the best possible results in a public social service.
Introducing such a sense of “economy” into public organizations, and thereby turning them into pub- lic enterprises, is relatively new in many areas.

It changes the whole con- text for issues of user involvement.

It is no longer only the professionals and the state regulations that matter, but the management rules.
The new managerialism has led to- wards upgrading and expanding the role of a new professional class: ma- nagement professions sometimes have become more influential than pro- fessionals such as doctors, social workers, nurses etc.

The key problem is that by the new ways of striving for efficiency a much stronger intertwining gets established between economic considera- tions and arguments on the one hand and arguments concerning profes- sional aims and aims of social justice on the other.
For instance, in an old- fashioned NHS hospital financial limits are “only” the limiting outside- factors for professionals’ decisions over intake and treatment of patients.

In contrast, in a hospital of a commercial HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) in the US, the doctors are obliged to follow the corridors of evidence-based medicine wherein medical but as well cost-limiting eco- nomic concerns are integrated (Kühn 1997).
The concept of “managed care” is defined by merging socio-economic considerations (how to deal with the funds available) and professional considerations.

Finally, mana- gerial concerns are often paralleled by a new way to integrate economic concerns into social policy at large.

The budgeting of social services and priority targets are sometimes to a lesser degree a matter of protective rights and more an issue of the right “social investment”.
This also raises questions about the remaining impact of social concerns, for example Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 267 about the status of those groups of users (elderly people in health), with respect to whom investments possibly do not pay.
It is however not the task of this paper to judge economic and mana- gerial concerns (Pollitt 2000) and the various ways they become inter- twined with the classical viewpoints of (a) professional correctness and (b) social justice and with the ethics behind them.
The point to be under- lined here is that managed care sets a new context for user involvement which implies above all more top down regulation and a questioning of the “old fashioned” trust-based personal social service relationship (Eme/Laville 2000).

The process of central decision-making concerning the rules of the game and the role given to collective user organizations, is then all the more important.
• decisions are taken concerning new remuneration mechanisms that • • pay for outcome; there is a general quest for making personal services and their costs and qualities as calculable and standardized as the production of other consumer goods (see, for example, diagnosis-related renumeration in hospitals) a top down approach in public services which is not using the old mechanisms of welfarism but new forms of target setting that “cascade” downwards, linked with all kinds of (self)evaluation, reporting, quality management, data collecting and processing.
These processes of bringing social service areas nearer to the ways other commercial products and systems are managed (for example electronic media and communication systems) imply a corresponding transforma- tion of the role of users – in the positive as well as in the negative sense.

For example, individual complaint loses its impact while systems of com- plaint management in call centres gain more relevance.
Furthermore, such tools of user involvement as advice and consultancy increasingly become a matter of website information and service packages which substitute personalized dialogue.

To the degree that service delivery is standardized, the repertoire for diversity is standardized as well.
Sometimes this can lead to potentially innovative local practices being abolished, sometimes the users get additional services (like, for example, in managed care of diabetics by competent networks of centres, clinics and specialists rather 268 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services than by a single general practitioner whose possibilities are wide in prin- ciple but very limited in practice).
All in all, one can say that managerialism is making the role of or- ganizations that represent the interests of users and facilitate their partici- pation in complex service systems much more important.

This does not only concern the ways services are organized but especially the “soft- ware” of concepts and philosophies used, and the impact given to human versus economic and instrumental concerns.
So far in most concepts of managed care the individual users have a very limited impact, beyond those aspects of active contribution that are functional for the service targets set.

Within such limits, managed care may, however, quite often offer more than traditional practices: in terms of making information accessible, offering courses etc.
7.1.6 Participationism The author suggests this rather clumsy label to be used for all those strands of thinking and practices that call for cultivating or bettering va- rious forms of direct and at-place participation of users – in addition to their indirect involvement by taking part in broad public debates and by collectively participating in decision-making processes via NGOs.
Especially the debates about civil society (Arato/Cohen 1995) and the communitarian debate (Etzioni 1995) have built a basis for these old and new strands in service development.

First of all, both of these debates are underlining the impact of the individuals’ bonds and interrelationships.

Therefore personal service-relations that are based on trust and responsi- bility are especially valued.
Secondly, the communitarian debate as well as the “social capital” debate on the role of (local, ethnic, life-style based a.o.)

communities has led to favouring direct and practical forms of par- ticipation.
Communitarianism, the social capital debate and other similar strands of thinking however point to the impact of such forms of individ- ual and collective participation as exemplified by the role of informal carers in service arrangements, of self help groups, volunteering, associa- tion building, cultivating social support networks and of other forms of community building and involvement (Hirst 1998).
These forms of user- participation are not comprised in those more “classical” concepts of civil society that conceive citizens as a public of strangers who participate “by Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 269 mouth” only – by taking part in debates, voting or becoming member of a consumer lobby-group.

In the more recent participatory perspective, the central organizing of aggregate “interests” in the form of consumer or- ganization is likewise seen as positive.
The argument is, however, that without a participative culture of personal social services that allows for various forms of local and decentralized cooperation, co-production and personal involvement, the participative capability and motivations of users and citizens may dry out and these latter turn from active supporters of such central lobbies into spectators who delegate issues they know little about and/or they feel they have no means to influence themselves (Putnam 2000).
The specific point of participationism is then the belief that people should also engage personally in the shaping of services.

One can find these days a multitude of ways and tools to do so (Flösser/Otto1998; Barthélemy 2000; Beresford 2002): creating third sector organizations as service providers can be one way to upgrade the role of users; in a ser- vice-unit created by an AIDS-organization the user- and provider-roles widely overlap.
Working class organizations have been and religious or life-style communities still are the key actors when it comes to “invent” new needs and services; this shows today in self-organized crèches or in self help groups in psychosocial services.

Such community based pro- vider-organizations can be best suited to follow the needs and wishes of their members.

Obviously, there is much interaction between political participation and concern on the one hand and practical cooperation on the other.
Es- pecially in fields like culture one finds local firms, citizens, associations a.o.

that sponsor by donations, support associations a.o.

etc.

“their” local theatre or museum.

Their support is not only a material resource but as well a “symbolic” gesture that counts for the public debate.

In some areas like urban renewal, work integration enterprises a.o.
there is a tendency to create public third sector service organizations with a multi-stakeholder background: different sides with different concerns join in designing and providing a service (Pestoff 1998).

Such an endeavour not only shows a broad spectrum of what the civil society can do, but it illustrates as well the need of support from governments.

State action and civic action should be by no means seen as mutually exclusive or simply substitutive.
270 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services There is a general tendency in participationism that runs counter to the dominating strands in most of the other currents.
It emphasizes, for ex- ample, the impact of localism and diversity (Montin 2000) rather than centrally managed uniform services or services as prefabricated mass- products; it is based on a very demanding concept of the user as co- producer in contrast to the welfarist promises to provide full supply and the consumerist ones of giving a “quick fix”.
Furthermore, the sensitivity for people’s bonds and relationships leads to concepts of upgrading types of user involvement that do not only con- sider the client in his or her role as an individual but look for ways of intertwining social support networks with service systems, conceiving mixed bundles of support made up of professional advice and the integra- tion of informal social support (as for example in elderly care).
Obvi- ously, such orientations come to their own conclusions about the roles of professionals, underlining tasks of monitoring and mediating like in case management.

The “active” and “empowered” user is spelt out differently here as compared to the consumerist perspective (a less individualistic picture that values more the user’s abilities to act as well as a citizen and to take co-responsibility together with others).
Yet there are shared con- cerns for policies of empowering and as regards the professionals, there is then as well a joint question for both, the consumerist and participationist perspective: Where are the limits for users as “equal partners” of profes- sionals (Le Grand 1997)?

Obviously, what has been shortly sketched here can best be illustrated in all those areas where services are taking shape bottom up and where money and law, business and administration have less interest or (yet) a minor role.
Accordingly, only few of the elements of participationism can be found in “grown up” complex mainstream services like the hospital system or the labour market administration (Kemshall/Littlechild 2000).

With respect to the school systems, one can find a more mixed picture.

On the one hand there are strong etatistic traditions to be found here, while on the other hand there are as well tendencies running counter to this: This gets visible when it comes e.g.
to issues such as the degree of community support for schools, to community control or to the involve- ment of a school in the community – issues where the user’s role is seen as a part of a wider picture of groups and citizens concerned.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 271 It has to be taken into account that the legitimacy and chances of such participationist concepts depend as well on the overall degree, a society can become a more “civic” society.
Such concepts are quite demanding.

In contrast to consumerist visions the upgrading of the role of the users here calls for considerable time and qualifications on their part (Robson a.o.

1997).

There is much evidence that these resources belong to the better off classes and/or to lifestyle patterns which are less dominated by paid work and consumer issues (for example the traditional family).

Fur- thermore, there is the risk of identifying social embeddedness with local- ism and consumer control.
Progress in social services like in other areas needs innovation-impulses that come from outside.

In a negative context more “local” and “direct” control may weaken representative democratic control mechanisms, strengthening the impact of corporate groups and a non-transparent network of lobbies and groups with little accountability.
Summing up one can say that participationism offers a rich manual for a concept of user involvement that that gives users the promise of gaining a lot of impact but also requires them to give a lot in return.

By highlight- ing people’s role as citizens and members of communities beside their sole roles as workers, consumers and private (family) beings, it runs counter to a society where everyone specializes on his very personal in- terest and tasks.
This may be seen both as the strong and/or the weak element of this strand of thinking.

7.1.7 Conclusions: Reorganizing service-systems and user involvement.

“Mixed” and “mixed up” solutions The five strands sketched above actually exist in reality, but probably nowhere the whole reality of personal social services or of a single field of services is exclusively dominated by one of them.
Rather, the simulta- neous presence of elements from these different strands can be observed in many fields of social services.

• This coexistence can be one of rivalry where, for example, a decision has to be made whether vouchers should be introduced in education or not, whether local community groups as service providers should be funded or not.

272 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services • There can also be a rather relaxed pluralism and diversity.
In Germany, in the sector of child care, for example, a good way has been found to assure a co-existence of municipal kindergardens, facilities run by parent associations and child care offered by the local organizations of the big nationwide voluntary agencies.

Each of them represents a different culture of services and of user- involvement.

The municipality guarantees a special kind of pluralism that entails variations of what user involvement can mean (Evers/Lewis/Riedel 2005).
• • Different elements with their particular implications for users can be found in one service unit: a local hospital may have installed a very user-friendly philosophy and practice in its childbearing department only (rooming in, preparation courses for parents etc), while in other departments the users are still treated in traditional ways.

In all countries, more historical elements of welfarism will coexist with more recent ones, e.g.
managerial reforms, and there are lively debates inside professional organizations on how to define their tasks and responsibilities.

It should be mentioned that these forms of tensions play a special role in the Eastern European countries (Széman 2003).
Finally it is worthwhile to look beyond the limits of the world of social and welfare services and to acknowledge the various ways markets sphe- res and the consumer on the one and welfare services and the citizen on the other hand are coexisting and intermingling, creating consumer- citizens or citizen-consumers (Baldock 2003, Evers 2004; Lamla 2004).
They represent on the one hand some skills in orientating on service mar- kets at large but on the other hand as well a mentality, that is less pre- pared to opt for “collectivist” solutions.

Beyond such “de facto blends” of mentalities and service landscapes in “mixed economies of welfare” (Johnson 1998), what might be called “mixed governance” can, however, as well be understood as a conscious task and program.
One can look for concepts – on the level of systems and of single organizations – where different principals from different strands are consciously intertwined.

This means to search for a balance of (a) state, (b) market and (c) participatory elements, with all the conse- quences this has for the professions, managerial concerns and concepts of Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 273 governance (Klijn/Koppenjan 2000).
Newman (2003) e. g. analyses the recent concepts for welfare and social service reforms in England as an exercise in linking hierarchical steering, market elements and elements of self organisations, like community participation or deliberative forums in a kind of “collaborative governance” With respect to user involvement, this may mean to combine to some degrees concepts that address the users’ role as (a) citizens with entitle- ments, (b) as consumers to be empowered and protected and (c) as co- producers who take up their civic roles and their concerns as members of communities in cooperating with service managers and professionals or by building their own services.
On the level of service – organisations, mixing these elements would mean to conceive them as a (potential) “hybrid” organization, shaped simultaneously by market elements, state funding and regulation and the participation of the users and local community (Evers 2005).

The in- volvement of the users will usually mirror these dimensions.
Accordingly, in schools and child care, for example, the role of users as consumers could be strengthened by the fact that the parents can choose the school to which they send their children and that there is competition among schools, with each of them being eager to develop its own attractive pro- file; the users’ role as citizens could be strengthened by a well working central inspectorate; a funding system that takes account of varying abili- ties of support by the parents at different schools and places could then be a new way to support equal quality in schools; finally, mechanisms such as school boards, support associations and joint projects with the local business community (as potential future employers of the pupils) and various associations in the areas of sport and culture could be means to make local social capital work – for the school service and its direct and indirect users.
Obviously, this would entail consequences for profession- alism and management.

For example, building community awareness would be part of the qualification requested from teachers.

And the man- agement staff of a school should know something about possibilities of volunteer management and funding arrangements that include donations and sponsorships.

Most readers will probably know such organisations and service pat- terns.
But they will know as well that all too often they are associated with instabilities, contradictions and disappointments – of the promoters, 274 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services the wider public of citizen-consumers and the individual users.

The vari- ous logics and elements are too contradictory to go together well enough o, some logics are much more powerful than others.
Participative ele- ments may be used just for legitimating market oriented turns; effective leadership seem to be at odds with too much debate; the controlling atti- tude of top-down evaluation and standard-setting may decourage local initiativesand self-governed networks; the mixes of market elements and state- control may end up as a marriage of the worst elements of both worlds, bureaucratization and commercialism.
Thereby traditional service systems and forms of governance, instead of being transformed towards new balances, including various types of user-involvement, end up as “mixed up” and dis-organized systems (Newmann 2006) where user in- volvement works badly in either way.

Facing such negative results can not mean to go back to antagonistic concepts where either democratic participation, market choice or state- based decision making is made to blame and the “true“ user involvment requested once again.
Nor should it mean to look only for more refined mixes of logics in services and the respective better blueprints for their management.

What is true in societies at large when it comes to balance state, market and the civil society should be acknowledged as well on the micro-level of reforming services and service-systems: Making various logics and the respective (public, private, user, and owner) agents and powers more other-regarding, ready for compromisesand convivial.
That is a matter of power, politics and policy learning.

References 6, P. (2003) Giving Consumers of Brit- Baldock, J.

(2003) On Being a Welfare ish Public services More Choice: What can be Learned from Recent History?, in: Journal of Public Policy 32 (2), pp.

239–270.

Arato, A./Cohen, J. L. (1995) Civil society and political theory, MIT Press, Cambridge/Massachusetts.

Baldock, J.
Baldock, J.

(1998) Old Age, Consumer- ism and the Social Care Market, in: Brunsdon, E./Dean, H./Woods, R.: So- cial Policy Review 10, pp.

165–182.

Consumer in a Consuming Society, in: Social Policy & Society (2) 1, 65–71 Barthélemy, M. (2000) Associations: un nouvel âge de la participation ?, Pres- ses de Sciences Po, Paris.

Beresford, P. (2002) User Involvement in Research and Evaluation: Liberation or Regulation?, in: Social Policy and Society, 1 (2), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp.
95–105.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 275 EC: The Commission and Non- Governmental Organisations (2000) Building a Stronger Partnership .

Dis- cussion Paper, Brussels.

Eme, B./Laville, J. L. (2000) L’enjeu de la confiance dans les services relation- nels, in: Orillard, M.

(ed.

): La con- struction de la confiance, L’Harmattan, Paris, pp.

281–322.

Etzioni, A.


(1995) The spirit of commu- nity: Rights, responsibilities, and the communitarian agenda, Fontana Press, London.

Evers, Adalbert (2005) Mixed Welfare Systems and Hybrid Organisations.

Changes in the governance and provi- sion of social services, in: International Journal of Public Administration (28) 3, 737–748 Evers, A./Lewis, J./Riedel, B.

(2005) Developing child-care provision in England and Germany: problems of governance, in:: Journal of European Social Policy 15 (3), pp.
195–209 Fallberg, L. (2000) Patients’ Rights in Europe .

Where do we stand and where do we go?, in: European Journal of Health Law 7, pp.

1–3.

Ferrera, M./Rhodes, M (eds.)

(2000) Recasting European Welfare States, Frank Cass, London.

Flösser, G./Otto, H.-U.

(1998) Towards More Democracy in Social Services.

Models and Culture of Welfare, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin.

Foster, F./Wilding, P. (2000) Whither Welfare Professionalism?, in: Social Policy and Administration 34 (2), pp.

143–159.
143–159.

Hirst, P. (1998) Social Welfare and Associative Democracy, in: Ellison, N./Pierson, C.: Developments in Brit- ish Social Policy, Macmillan.

Johnson, N. (1998) Mixed Economies of Welfare .

A Comparative Perspective, Prentice Hall Europe, London.

Jordan, B.

(2006) Public Services and the Service economy: Individualism and the Choice Agenda, in: Journal of Social Policy 35 (1) 143–162 Kemshall, H./Littlechild, R.

(eds.)

(2000) User Involvement and Partici- pation in Social Care .
Research In- forming Practice, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London/Philadelphia.

Klijn, E. H./Koppenjan, J. F. M. (2000) Public management and policy net- works .

Foundations of a network ap- proach to governance, Public Man- agement 2 (2), pp.

135–158.

Kühn, H. (1997) Managed Care.

Medi- zin zwischen kommerzieller Bürokra- tie und integrierter Versorgung, Wis- senschaftszentrum Berlin, WZB papers, Nr.

97–202.

Lamla, J.

(2005) Zivilität und Konsum.


Die Bürgerkultur im Prozess gesell- schaftlicher Vermarktlichung, in: Cor- sten, M.. u. a.

(Hg.)

Die Gerechtigkeit der Gesellschaft.

Verlag für Sozialwis- senschaften, Wiesbaden, pp.

281–308 Le Grand, J.

(1997) Knights, Knaves or Pawns?

Human Behaviour and Social Policy, in: Journal of Social Policy 26 (2), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp.

149–169.
149–169.

McCullough, L./Wear, S. (1985) Respect for Autonomy and Medical Paternal- ism Reconsidered, in: Theoretical Medicine 6, pp.

295–308.

Montin, S. (2000) Between fragmenta- tion and co-ordination: The changing role of local government in Sweden, in: Public Management 2 (1), pp.

1–23.

Newman, J.

(2006) Modernising Gov- ernance.

New Labour, Policy and So- ciety, London: Sage.

Newman, J.

(2006) Modernisation and the Dynamics of Governance – To- wards Coherence or Dis-organisation?, in: Evers, A.
(guest editor) “Regieren in der Sozialpolitik”, Zeitschrift für Sozialreform/Journal of Social Policy Research 52 (2) (to appear in May) Pestoff, V. A.

(1998) Beyond the market and state .

Social enterprises and civil 276 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services democracy in a welfare society, Ashgate, Aldershot.

Pollitt, C. (2000) Is the emperor in his underwear?

.

An Analysis of the im- pacts of public management reform, Public Management 2 (2), pp.

181–199.

Potter, J.


(1988) Consumerism and the Public Sector .

How well does the coat fit?, Public Administration 66, pp.

149–164.

Putnam, R. D. (2000) Bowling Alone .

The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Simon and Schuster, New York.

Robson, P./Locke, M./Dawson, J.

(1997) Consumerism or democracy .

user in- volvement in the control of voluntary organisations, Policy Press, Bristol.

Széman, Z.
Széman, Z.

(2003) The Welfare Mix in Hungary as a New Phenomenon, in: Social Policy and Society, 2 (2), Cambridge University Press, Cam- bridge, pp.

101–108.

Wendt, W. R. (2001) Case Management im Sozial- und Gesundheitswesen .

Eine Einführung, 3.

Auflage, Lamber- tus, Freiburg.


Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 277 7.2 Comparing Nonprofit Embeddedness in the Nordic and East European Countries Annette Zimmer Introduction Are there signs of convergence with respect to the nonprofit sector in the Nordic and East European countries?

There are good reasons why it ma- kes sense to take a closer look at the convergence thesis by comparing the nonprofit sectors in the Scandinavian and East European countries.
The two regions both look back upon traditions of encompassing welfare sta- tes in the sense that neither the market nor the nonprofit sector used to play a significant part in providing welfare and social services.

Until re- cently, government has been perceived as the most prominent provider of welfare services in the North as well as in the East of Europe.

However, times are changing.


Since the early 1990s, those countries once belonging to the so-called Eastern bloc have undergone a dramatic period of politi- cal, social and economic transition.

Today, East European countries are, by and large, market economies and democratic member states of the European Union.
The political and economic transition in these countries was paralleled by a thorough restructuring of their welfare states in which, after a long period of state dominance, nonprofit organizations have been discovered in the meantime as social service providers.

But also in the Scandinavian countries, policy advisors are turning more and more to the nonprofit sector and its organizations for social service provi- sion.
Given fiscal constraints and heterogeneous consumer demands, in the Scandinavian countries and elsewhere in Europe welfare pluralism, encompassing commercial, nonprofit and government providers of social services, has also been more and more valued as an appropriate way out of the so-called welfare state crisis.

Furthermore, according to the results of the Johns Hopkins Compara- tive Nonprofit Sector Project (Salamon et al.

1999; Salamon et al.


2003), the third sectors in the Scandinavian and East European countries seem to share many features.

Compared to West European countries the nonprofit 278 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services sectors of the Nordic and the East European countries stand out for a rather small nonprofit labour force.
In the Scandinavian and East Euro- pean countries, the nonprofit labour force, measured as a percentage of overall employment, is relatively much smaller than in any West Euro- pean country that took part in the Johns Hopkins Project.

Furthermore, the revenue structure of the sector in the North and in the East features common characteristics.
In both regions, NPOs rely heavily on private contributions, setting the third sectors in the North and East of Europe clearly apart from the revenue structure of their equivalents in West Eu- rope, which draw heavily on public funding, government grants and re- imbursements of social security funds.
Moreover in both regions, there is a growing tendency among advisors and government officials to incorpo- rate nonprofit organizations into policy strategies aiming at the diversifi- cation of welfare service provision.

And finally in the Nordic as well as in the East European countries, welfare service delivery does not constitute the focus of nonprofit activity.
On the contrary, nonprofit organizations are primarily engaged in the areas of sports and culture and hence in rec- reational or expressive activities.

Despite these commonalities the following article does not support the convergence thesis.

Instead it argues that, due to fundamentally dissimilar historical developments giving way to two thoroughly different structures of nonprofit embeddedness, there are striking differences between the third sectors in the Nordic and East European countries.
In the context of an outline of the concept of “organizational embeddedness”, the conver- gence thesis will be ruled out by drawing primarily on the results of the “focs-project”, which is the outcome of a scientific network of more than 40 scholars and researchers analyzing the development of the third sector and its civil society organizations in the Viségard countries – Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia – as well as in Germany and Austria (Zimmer/Priller 2004).87 The article will be rounded up by a comparison of the development of the third sector as a vital part of civil society in the North and in the East of Europe.
87 The acronym “focs” stands for the volume “Future of Civil Society.

Making Central European Nonprofit-Organizations Work”.

The project was made possible through a grant from the German Bosch-Foundation.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 279 7.2.1 The Concept of Embeddedness The term embeddedness, introduced by Granovetter (1985), highlights interconnections and linkages between organizations and their environ- ments.
Providing resources, granting legitimacy and offering windows of opportunity, the environment is of pivotal importance for the survival and well being of organizations.

Environments are shaped by the history and culture as well as by the economic and political situation of the respective country in which the organizations are operating.
Although any organiza- tion is embedded and thus dependent on its environment, the topic of embeddedness is of particular importance for nonprofit organizations because there is a very close nexus between revenue and legitimacy and therefore between the societal embeddedness and the organizational well being of NPOs.

Unlike enterprises or bureaucracies, NPOs are highly embedded in societal structures.
As such, they are dependent on voluntary input in terms of volunteering, private giving or membership dues.

If their constituency does not appreciate their work, the organizations and the sector as such suffer from a crisis of legitimacy, which might translate directly into difficulties in securing funds, private giving, volunteering, and membership dues.

However, the same holds true for NPOs engaged in service provision.
If the NPO does not represent a certain societal group or constituency supporting a particular organization due to its spe- cific service-providing function, the government would likely see no legitimate rationale for funding the NPO instead of either setting-up a public institution or buying the service on the market by contracting a business enterprise.

In sum, whether, to what extent and for which function the third sector enjoys legitimacy highly depends on its political and societal embedded- ness.
Hence legitimacy and embeddedness are closely interrelated, both constituting key issues for nonprofit organizations.

However, due to the multi-functional character of nonprofits (see Zimmer/Priller 2004) the topic of whether and to what extent the third sector enjoys legitimacy is analyzed in the social sciences from very different perspectives.
Research conducted in the tradition of political culture and/or interest representa- tion primarily focuses on the advocacy function of nonprofit organiza- tions.

According to this line of argumentation the sector’s prime function consists in giving voice to the citizenry.
Against this background, the legitimacy of the sector is closely connected to high rates of participation 280 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services of the citizenry, which, measured quantitatively, serves as an indicator for the strength of the sector’s societal embeddedness.
By contrast, research taking a closer look at the embeddedness of the sector in welfare state arrangements aims at analyzing whether and to what extent government and public administration cooperate with nonprofits as producers of social services at the various governmental levels.

This line of argumentation builds heavily on the results of welfare state research.
Thus nonprofits are perceived as social service providers and as such as functional equiva- lents of social service provision by either public institutions or private enterprises.

From a social policy perspective the question of whether the sector enjoys legitimacy is primarily addressed by referring to the degree of its embeddedness in the welfare arrangement of the respective country.
Again, the strength of the embeddedness and thus the legitimacy of the sector are measured by applying quantitative indicators, of which the size of the nonprofit labour force employed in the core welfare domain counts most prominently.

Due to its closeness to policy science, nonprofit research highlights the service production function of nonprofits while downplaying the ad- vocacy role of the sector.
By contrast, studies analyzing the advocacy function of the sector do not take into account that many of these organi- zations are simultaneously engaged in the production of goods and ser- vices in addition to their lobbying activities.
There are only few examples of nonprofit research (see Anheier/Salamon 1997; Evers/Olk 1996; Zim- mer 2004) acknowledging the multi-functional character of these organi- zations due to the fact that multifunctionality also provides a challenge for nonprofit theory and methodology.

Models and theoretical approaches trying to capture the very nature of the sector analyze its societal or po- litical embeddedness by focusing on the advocacy or on the production function of NPOs.
But for drawing a picture of the “real world” of the nonprofit sector, it is necessary to take both functions into account in investigating the embeddedness of the sector as an outcome of historical developments in a particular country or region.

Under the umbrella of nonprofit research, distinctive frameworks try- ing to capture the embeddedness of the sector by applying an “ideal type” approach in the sense of Max Weber have been developed.
Despite the fact that these “model types” focus primarily on the embeddedness of the third sector in the welfare mix and thus on the service-providing function Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 281 of its organizations, the “models” developed by Najam (2000), Young (2000) and Salamon/Anheier (1997) nevertheless offer a useful point of reference for a comparative analysis of the sectors in the Nordic and East European countries.
In the following, these “models” are characterized by giving a special emphasis on the embeddedness of the sector in Nordic countries.

Against this background, the embeddedness of the sector in the East European countries will be analyzed by referring to the history of the third sector in East Europe as well as to its current societal and political function.
Finally, the question whether there are signs of convergence with respect to the nonprofit sector in the Nordic and East European countries will be taken up again.

7.2.2 Models of Third Sector-Government Relations The following briefly summarizes the “models” of third sector- government relations developed by Dennis Young (2000), Adil Najam (2000) and Lester Salamon/Helmut Anheier (1997).
Whereas Najam and Young provide descriptive typologies of third sector-government rela- tions, Salamon and Anheier build on the regime approach of Barrington Moore and Gøsta Esping-Andersen to present an analytical framework that takes the embeddedness of the sector into account.
7.2.2.1 Young’s and Najam’s Typologies Young builds his analysis of government-nonprofit relationships on the micro-economic assumption that output improvement, particularly of social service delivery, constitutes the core rationale for government-third sector relations.
Referring to different strands of economic theory (see Hansmann 1987), he develops a typology of three models of nonprofit- government relationships: • • In the supplementary model, nonprofits provide those services which are left unsatisfied by government; In the complementary (or co-operative) model, nonprofits are working on par with government helping to carry out the delivery of public goods largely financed by government; and 282 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services • In the adversarial model, nonprofits try to force government to make changes in public policy and to maintain accountability to the public (Young, 2000: 150f).
Young makes clear that these models are not mutually exclusive.

Gov- ernment-third sector relations might differ significantly depending on the policy field.

Even in a single country, there might be different patterns of NPO-government relations in place.

It might also be difficult to distin- guish between government and the nonprofit sector due to long-standing relationships of a complementary (or co-operative) fashion.
In these cases the emergence of “hybrid organizations”, i.e., organizations that are high- ly integrated into the public domain, is very likely.

Finally, according to his analysis, even the model that perceives government and nonprofits as adversaries might nevertheless also be judged though a complementary lens because in many cases government and nonprofits are collaborators in passing legislation or changing public attitudes.
As Young outlines, nonprofits might work as advocacy groups pressing government to more adequately serve the interests of their constituencies.

“Voters may pro- mote the idea through advocacy and demonstrate its efficacy with volun- tary contributions...

Eventually the concept may be proven and receive the support of the majority, at which point government may undertake full-scale provision” (Young 2000: 156).
Najam’s typology, building on Young’s approach, includes a further “model” of government-nonprofit relationships and adds a variation on the confrontational model.

According to Najam’s analysis, there is also the possibility of a co-optive government–nonprofit relationship in which nonprofits serve as a tool for implementing public policy.

In this case, government makes use of the nonprofit organizational form for policy implementation, while neglecting the specific character of nonprofit or- ganizations.
Furthermore, Najam draws attention to the fact that there are policy environments where an adversarial government-nonprofit relation- ship is not possible.

Instead, as Najam describes, there exists a confronta- tional relationship, in which government does not acknowledge any kind of opposition or any antagonistic point of view that is not in accordance with its own.
In other words: Each side, government as well as the non- profit sector, neither appreciates the political goals nor tolerates the strategies of its counterpart.

Together, the typologies developed by Young Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 283 and Najam identify four distinctive types of government–nonprofit rela- tionships that they characterize as being supplementary, complemen- tary/co-operative, adversarial/confrontational, or co-optive.
7.2.2.2 The Social Origins Theory The “Social Origins Theory” developed by Salamon/Anheier is closely related to the concept of organizational embeddedness focusing explicitly on broader social and political relationships.

Hence differences in size, composition and function of the sector can be explained by referring to the social and political development of the sector over time.
Accordingly, what we see as today’s embeddedness of the sector in a particular country is the outcome of social and political forces, which link or embed the sector in between market, state and society.

Drawing on the work of Bar- rington Moore (1969) and Gøsta Esping-Andersen (1990), Salmon and Anheier identified specific “routes” of third sector development leading to four distinctive models of nonprofit embeddedness: liberal, social de- mocratic, corporatist, and statist.
According to their line of argumenta- tion, the models of nonprofit-government relationship differ in terms of two key dimensions: a) the extent of government social welfare spending and b) the scale of the nonprofit sector.

Figure 1.
Figure 1.

Models of Third-Sector Embeddedness88 Government Social Welfare Spending Nonprofit Scale Low High Low Statist Japan High Liberal USA Social Democratic Sweden Corporatist Germany Using the database of the Johns Hopkins Project, Salamon and Anheier tested the defined models by proving that they exist in the real world.
According to their analysis, the liberal model, defined as an embedded- ness of the sector where low government social welfare spending is asso- ciated with a relatively large nonprofit sector, is very much in place in the 88 Source: Salamon/Anheier 1997: 228 284 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services United States.
In contrast, Sweden provides a textbook example for the social democratic model, where state-sponsored and state-delivered wel- fare services leave relatively little room for nonprofit service-providing activity.

The corporatist model, which is in place in Germany and Aus- tria, results in a nonprofit sector of respectable size despite extensive government welfare spending.
Finally, Japan proved to be a textbook example of the statist model, where government maintains the say in social welfare issues without, however, providing room for either non- profit or business activities in the welfare domain.

Drawing on the work of Barrington Moore and Gøsta Esping-Andersen, Salamon and Anheier put forward an explanation why and how these models of embeddedness came into being in the particular countries.
The two models that are the outcome of European historical develop- ments, i.e., the corporatist and the social-democratic models, are of par- ticular interest with respect to the further line of argumentation and the comparison of the embeddedness of the third sector in the Nordic and East-European countries.
According to Salamon and Anheier, the social underpinning of the social-democratic model consists of a strong working class being able to exert effective political power, albeit in alliance with other social classes.
While social welfare delivery falls under the realm of the state, leaving little space for nonprofit activity, the third sector never- theless plays a significant role in society – not as a service provider, how- ever, but as a vehicle for the expression of political, social and recrea- tional interests.

Thus the social-democratic model translates into a sector characterized primarily by club life, voluntary engagement, representation of interest, and advocacy.
Using the terminology of Dennis Young, the social-democratic model describes a nonprofit sector serving a comple- mentary function towards government in the sense that third sector activi- ties are highly appreciated and thoroughly acknowledged by government and the general public, even when nonprofits criticize public policy and press for an alteration or significant change.
Using Sweden as a point of reference, Salamon and Anheier identified the driving forces of the so- cial-democratic model of nonprofit sector embeddedness to be a strong labour movement and a social-democratic party that fosters civic activity and an egalitarian approach.

The rationale of the corporatist model is the struggle of the traditional elite to remain in power and not lose its societal status.
According to Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 285 Salamon and Anheier a central characteristic of the corporatist model consists of the use of nonprofit organizations by government to calm the demands of the working class.

The embeddedness of the nonprofit sector in Germany provides a textbook example for the corporatist model.
In Germany as well as in Austria, the state, backed by a powerful landed elite who was afraid of losing political power and societal influence, and who managed to co-operate with a relatively weak urban middle class, responded to the threat of the developing social-democratic workers’ movement by forging an agreement with the major churches in the late 19th century to create a state-dominated social welfare system that, never- theless, maintained a sizable religious, and hence nonprofit presence.
This agreement was ultimately embodied in the concept of “subsidiarity” as these countries (Sala- the guiding principle of social policy mon/Anheier, 1997: 242).

Referring to the terminology of Dennis Young, today the corporatist model translates into a complementary or co- operative nonprofit-government relationship, in which the churches, via their social service units, still maintain a powerful position and a signifi- cant say with respect to social policy.
in The corporatist model is of particular interest in analyzing the Eastern European countries since during the 19th century major territories of East Europe were under the dominance of the German, Austrian or Russian Empire.

Against the background that today’s embeddedness of the non- profit sector is an outcome of former societal and political developments, history definitely has to be factored in by analyzing patterns of nonprofit- government relationships.
Hence the following chapter will take a closer look at the historical heritage of the third sector and civil society in the East European countries.

7.2.3 Government-Nonprofit Sector Relations in Eastern Europe 7.2.3.1 The Legacy of History In East Europe like elsewhere, the charitable activity of church institu- tions, such as monastic orders, brotherhoods and local parishes, predated the appearance of secular charities and public social policy.
However, in accordance with the corporatist model, the role played by the churches and their organizations in the provision of social services continues to be quite significant, particularly in Poland and in the areas of education and 286 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services of social care.
To put it differently, the corporate model – including the subsidiarity principle – serves as a point of reference for social policy planning at least in those regions of East Europe where the churches tra- ditionally have been influential.

In some parts of Eastern Europe, there is still a legacy of the former Habsburg Empire whose corporate model of nonprofit embeddedness continues to have an impact on the shape, image and mission of the nonprofit sector.
Furthermore, the societies of Eastern Europe unanimously have spent long years under conditions of outright colonization or of limited state- hood; as a consequence, nonprofit or civil society activity was often fused together with the pro-independence struggle.

This phenomenon was par- ticularly manifest during the second half of the 19th century.
As de- scribed by Mate Szabo, an expert of civil society development in East Europe, “civil society went underground staging opposition against pow- erful states” (Szabo 2004: 79) that were hindering democratization and obstructing civic participation.

Hence the countries of Eastern Europe look back upon a history of straightforward confrontational government- nonprofit relationships.
Particularly in the second half of the 19th century, the small bourgeoisie in the cities of Eastern Europe used civil society organizations as vehicles and tools in order to build an alternative cultural identity, thus distancing themselves from Austrian or Prussian domi- nance.

There is a still strong tradition in place depicting civil society as being thoroughly adversarial towards government.
Moreover, East European countries have all passed through a period of socialism and of quasi-independence within the Soviet sphere of influ- ence.

This resulted in the virtual marginalization, if not liquidation, of nonprofit activities particularly in the social welfare domain.

According to the judgment of Mate Szabo, during this period civil society again had to go underground, facing the threat of the concentration camps reserved for the “enemies of socialism” (Szabo 2004: 84).
Under the socialist re- gimes there was no legal framework for organising nonprofit activities.

In other words, there was no chance for complementary government- nonprofit relationships, neither with respect to social service provision nor with regard to advocacy activities of NPOs trying to influence public policy by pressing government in favour of the demands of their constitu- encies.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 287 7.2.3.2 Countries in Transition The East European countries regained their independence by the early 1990s and embarked on a course of political, economic, and societal transformation.

Again, at the very beginning of the transition period in East Europe, civil society was, using Young’s and Napalm’s terminology, in a confrontational or adversarial relationship towards government.
In- deed the sector and its organizations perceived themselves as the prime alternative against state socialism.

At that time, political dissidents and local activists alike perceived civil society as a political project and an island of utopia providing an alternative to the greedy socialist state.

In the early 1990s, the reconstruction of civil society ranked prominently among the goals for societal transformation.
The further development of the nonprofit sector, particularly its re-structuring and deepening, was given high priority by politicians and policy experts alike in East Europe at the early stage of the period of transformation from post-communism to democracy (Arato, 1992; Deakin, 2001).

This is clearly indicated by the numbers of registrations of nonprofit organizations.

Civil society blossomed particularly in the first three to four years after 1989.
Figure 2: Foundation Boom of Associations 89 period of steep growth period of flat growth s n o i t a i c o s s a f o .

o N 50.000 45.000 40.000 35.000 30.000 25.000 20.000 15.000 10.000 5.000 0 1989 1990 1991 1992 Czech Republic 1993 1994 1995 Poland 1996 1997 1998 Hungary 1999 2000 2001 Slovakia There is no question that the burgeoning of associations has been impres- sive in the aftermath of socialist rule.
According to the focs project, be- 89 Source: Mansfeldova et al 2004: 103 288 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services tween 1989 and 1999, the numbers of incorporated associations multi- plied by a factor of 123 in Slovakia, 81 in the Czech Republic, 14 in Po- land, and three in Hungary.
It has to be mentioned that the association founding boom was made possible due to the fact that in the majority of Eastern European countries legal frameworks for nonprofit activity were introduced right after the non-violent revolutions had taken place.

At the same time, citizens made use of the new opportunity to get involved and to legalize the organizations they were already affiliated with.

However, already in the second part of the 1990s, the growth rate of associations slowed down significantly.
Currently, there is a more stable development with even some indicators that the number of organizations might be reduced.

This decline has to be interpreted against the background of the economic situation of the citizenry in East Europe.

There is no doubt that the transition of the economy is in full swing; nevertheless, with respect to productivity the countries of the former Eastern bloc still rank at the lower end of the European scale.
Whereas with respect to the gross do- mestic product, the Nordic countries – particularly Norway and Denmark – range among the European leaders, while the Eastern European coun- tries are placed next to Turkey and thus at the far end of the productivity scale in Europe (Globus 2005).

However, civic activity characteristically constitutes a middle-class feature.
As Bernhard Weßels outlined recently (Weßels 2004), an increase in societal wealth has a significant impact on the level of civic participation and nonprofit activity.

In a nutshell, afflu- ent societies generally express a higher degree of civicness than poor societies whose members have to struggle to make a living.

In terms of wealth distribution, the countries of the East are unequal and rather poor compared to those in the North of Europe.
7.2.3.3 Public Policy Towards the Sector Against the legacy of several decades of socialist rule suppressing civil society, it is not surprising that the boom of civicness that took place in East Europe right after the breakdown of the former regimes did not con- tinue.

Instead there were significant changes with respect to public policy towards the sector.
The literature differentiates between three distinct periods in each of which government took a very different stance towards the sector (for further information see Fric 2004; Szabo 2004).

In a nut- shell, the era of confrontation before the breakdown of the former social- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 289 ist regimes was followed by a relatively short period of intensive co- operation, which came to an end already around the mid 1990s.
During the era of co-operation a significant brain drain from the nonprofit sector to the public sector and particularly into politics took place.

Vaclav Havel represents just one, albeit a very prominent, example for this change of sides.

The second period starting in the mid 1990s was characterized by a so-called clash of paradigms between neo-liberalism and the traditional state-centered approach supported by the former socialist elites.
With either neo-liberals or traditionalists coming to power in many former socialists countries, the nonprofit sector and its organizations were mar- ginalized.

There was no coherent policy towards the sector at best; some- times government met the sector with increasing skepticism and unfriend- liness.

Representatives of public institutions started to criticize nonprofit organizations for what they saw as bad management and misappropriation of funds.
In sum, the public mood that had been very much in favour of the nonprofit sector right after the breakdown of socialism started to shift towards the opposite.

At the end of the 1990s, public opinion turned again as the sector was increasingly acknowledged as a partner in policy implementation.

All over Eastern Europe governments issued new sets of privileges for non- profits.

A case in point is the one-percent tax law, which emerged in Hungary but has since been copied in several countries.
The 1%Law translates into a situation where taxpayers may indicate that one% of their taxes be paid to designated nonprofit organizations.

The taxpayer decides individually by naming the organizations on its tax return (Simon 2004).

However, the earlier period of confrontational government-nonprofit relationships was by no means thoroughly replaced by a co-operative relationship.
On the contrary, nonprofit organizations in Eastern Europe are treated currently by government on very different terms depending on the purpose of the organization and on its main stakeholders.

Nowadays, supplementary and co-optive relationships co-exist.
Interestingly enough, those organizations that are newcomers, i.e., founded after 1989, are – using the terminology of Dennis Young - in a supplementary relationship with government, thus providing social services that government is reluc- tant or does not want to provide.

Those services refer particularly to cer- tain groups, such as gays or lesbians, or to specific topics such as the environment that are not catered to by government.
By and large the ac- 290 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services tivities of the nonprofit newcomer being engaged in these aforementioned areas are tolerated but not welcomed or highly appreciated by govern- ment officials.

The organizations complain about a lack of legitimacy and public awareness.
Against the difficult economic background in many Eastern European countries, particularly these nonprofits are currently facing serious economic problems due to the fact that they were hard hit when foreign foundations, first and foremost the Soros Foundation, drew back from supporting Eastern European initiatives generously.

However the “newcomers” represent just a small percentage of the nonprofit uni- verse in East Europe.
There are also those nonprofits that are in a com- plementary or even co-optive relationship with government.

These or- ganizations are by and large privatized public entities or quangos whose governing boards are staffed by members of the former socialist elite.

These organizations are working on par with public social services pro- viders, their leadership enjoys easy access to politicians, and they are hardly perceived as private nonprofit organizations by the general public.
The “hybrid character” of these organizations is clearly depicted in the Czech Republic where these organizations are officially titled “public nonprofit organizations”.

In other words, the way that the complementary model is put into practice in the Eastern European countries translates into a situation in which nonprofit organizations become extensions of the public administration apparatus.
Or to put it differently, the sector as such is still suffering from a lack of legitimacy, particularly due to the fact that the nonprofit legal form is highly utilized by government in order to put its policies of privatization and decentralization of social service provi- sion into practice (Freise/Zimmer 2004).
7.2.3.4 East Europe Between Models of Government-Nonprofit Relationships Does the embeddedness of the sector in East Europe correspond to one of the models of government-nonprofit relationships described and analyzed by Salamon and Anheier?
For sure the embeddedness of nonprofit or- ganisations in Eastern Europe has very little in common with the social- democratic model since governments restrain from engaging heavily in financing social services and tend toward reducing rather than expanding the welfare state.

However, there is definitely a strong influence of the liberal model.
Currently in the former socialist countries, as elsewhere in Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 291 Europe, the private sector is on the rise, gaining an increasing share of the social and health service markets.
At the same time, policies of decen- tralization and privatization set into motion by using third sector organi- sations point in the direction of the corporatist model, albeit in a changed and straight-forwardly state-centered approach resembling a co-optive relationship.

However, neither the liberal nor the corporatist model is thoroughly put into practice in the Eastern European countries.
Even when government embarks on a policy of co-operation with nonprofit organisations, thus acknowledging their supplementary and complemen- tary functions in social service provision, relations are organized in ac- cordance with business-like techniques that are characteristic of the lib- eral model.
Simultaneously, however, in an approach more characteristic of the corporatist model, government grants preferential treatment only to certain nonprofits, particularly to those that are “public nonprofit organi- sations”, by providing them access to infrastructure and financial re- sources.

There are good reasons for granting them special treatment, mainly because government heavily uses those nonprofits (quangos) for their decentralization and privatization policies.
It is questionable whether these organisations feature true characteristics of nonprofit organizations.

For sure they lack a solid societal embeddedness.

To sum up, the short overview of the current state of affairs of non- profit organisations in East European countries provides a complex and multi-faceted picture.

Without doubt the neo-liberal Zeitgeist has strongly impacted the structuring of nonprofit-government relationships.
The tools and instruments of new public management, particularly contract man- agement and competitive tendering, are well known and widely practiced in Eastern Europe.

At the same time, the legacy of history is still very much in place.

Some countries, most prominently Poland, show signifi- cant traits of the pre-socialist era as they increasingly give preference to religious and thus Catholic nonprofit service providers.

A common feature of many East European countries is a so-called di- vided sector.
Whereas some nonprofit organisations active in the social welfare domain are entangled in a supplementary relationship with gov- ernment, thus providing services that the state is not willing to offer, oth- ers are in a more privileged situation working on par with government and thus being in a complementary or even co-optive relationship with the state.
As already outlined, the privileged organisations tend to be 292 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services quangos that are either founded by government or highly embedded in governmental arrangements.

The “others” are by and large newcomers that came into being after 1989 and grew out of civic activities.
7.2.4 Conclusion: Comparing Nonprofit Embeddedness in Nordic and East European Countries The comparison of the embeddedness of the sectors in the Nordic and East European countries began with the question whether there are signs of convergence.

It was argued that, from a superficial point of view relat- ing to the quantitative findings of the Johns Hopkins Project, there seem to be common trajectories.
However, comparison of the political and particularly the societal embeddedness of the sectors in these two Euro- pean regions brings striking differences to the fore.

First, the sectors in the two regions look back upon a thoroughly different historical devel- opment that still today affects the general understanding of nonprofit organisations and thus their legitimacy.
Whereas in East Europe civil society looks back upon a tradition of being in a confrontational relation- ship with government, and thus being deprived from legitimacy and in- corporation into the policy process, in the Nordic countries nonprofit activity has been a driving force in the development of both the Scandi- navian type of consensual democracy and the Nordic welfare state.
Refer- ring to the particular embeddedness of the sector in Scandinavia, Klausen and Selle argue that this “has to do with the way in which this sector his- torically grew out and was itself part of broad and politically significant social movements”.

At the same time, it became close to, and an inte- grated part of the development of, the welfare state, making the Scandi- navian countries the prototypical “state-friendly” societies (Klausen/Selle 1996: 100).
Due to these very different historical backgrounds, nonprofit organisations are thoroughly incorporated into the policy decision-making process in Scandinavia and have a legitimate role in policy formulation.

In contrast, in East Europe nonprofit organisations are not perceived as having a legitimate role in the policy process due to the anti-government and thus adversarial understanding of the role of civil society.
The strug- gle for legitimacy has become even more difficult due to the fact that in many East European countries nonprofits are increasingly in a co-optive Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 293 relationship with government and are thus instrumentalised for purposes of privatisation and decentralisation.
Striking differences also come to light through the comparison of the political environment and thus the political embeddedness of the sectors in the North and East of Europe.

The majority of the Scandinavian coun- tries look back upon a long tradition of democratic rule.

They are by and large parliamentary systems, or more precisely representative monarchies, modeled after the British example.
Furthermore, they are consensus de- mocracies as characterized by Lijphardt (1999), which means that their relatively small government bureaucracies rely on the incorporation of associations in the decision making process.

Finally the Nordic countries look back upon a strong tradition of local government that is first and foremost responsible for social service provision.

In East Europe, democ- ratic rule is a fairly new experience for the majority of the countries.
They are in the meantime perceived as consolidated democracies in the context of the European Union.

However, besides a few exceptions, semi- presidentialism is the preferred institutional framework in the majority of the countries, which are still very much in the process of decentralising their public administration by delegating power to lower levels of gov- ernment, the regions and local communities.
Whereas in the Nordic coun- tries, the political environment, particularly the consensus orientation of policy making as well as the tradition of local government, works very much in favour of an incorporation of nonprofit organisations into the policy process, in the East European countries, the sector and its organisa- tions do not face a comparative beneficial political environment.
On the contrary, semi-presedentialism combined with a political culture that favours a “strong leader” as against consensual bargaining stands heavily in the way of the nonprofit sector to become a legitimate partner of public policy making.

Finally, the societal embeddedness of the sector and its organisations differs significantly in the Nordic and East European countries.

The Scandinavian countries are nations of joiners.


Deeply embedded in the political culture of Scandinavia is the tradition of being engaged in nu- merous voluntary/nonprofit organisations.

With respect to any indicator measuring civicness (membership, volunteering, serving on boards of NPOs, private giving) the Nordic countries are the shooting stars in Euro- pe.
Compared to any other European nation, the Nordic countries rank 294 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services first with respect to the citizenry being affiliated with a volun- tary/nonprofit organisation.

Scandinavians are heavily engaged in volun- teering as clearly documented by the data of the European Social Survey as well as by the findings of the Johns Hopkins Study (Salamon et al.

2003: 41).
2003: 41).

Scandinavians like to serve on boards of voluntary organisa- tions, and are furthermore very generous givers.

Compared to the North, the East European countries are just the opposite.
As outlined earlier, due to striking differences with respect to the historical development of the countries, their economic situation, and their democratic traditions, East European countries are situated at the low end of the ranking scale group- ing European nations according to the degree of civicness expressed by their citizenry.

In other words, compared to any other European region, East European citizens are far less engaged in volunteering and giving.
It is very unlikely that East Europeans serve on boards of nonprofit organi- sations.

Moreover, unlike citizens in the North, East Europeans are also very reluctant with respect to membership affiliation.

After many years of government control, citizens of East Europe enjoy the freedom of not being forced into membership.
Against this background, the question asked at the beginning, i.e., whether there is a tendency toward convergence with respect to the non- profit sector in the North and East of Europe, can be answered with a straightforward “no”.

There is no tendency toward convergence since the starting points and thus the embeddedness of the sectors in the North and East of Europe are fundamentally different.

In the East European coun- tries the so-called legitimacy question has not yet been answered.
Non- profits are still struggling to be accepted and appreciated by the general public, as reflected in the very limited support of the organisations in terms of volunteering and private giving by the general public.

At the same time, the sector in the East European countries tries to become at least a legitimate partner of government.

However, in many countries government-nonprofit relations are still in a situation of flux.
It has not yet been clarified whether the sector serves a supplementary or a com- plementary function in social service provision.

Whereas the supplemen- tary function would be more in accordance with the liberal model of em- beddedness, the complementary function would point in the direction of the corporatist model of embeddedness, as defined by Salamon and An- heier.
But there are even signs that governments in the East European Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 295 Figure 3: Civic Engagement in European Countries, in%90 Sweden Norway Netherlands Finland Austria Belgium Germany United Kingdom Ireland France Spain Italy Hungary Poland Voluntary work Partici- pated Donated money Mem- ber Per- cent 6 0 7 0 8 0 9 0 10 0 6 1 4 1 1 5 6 9 1 1 1 2 5 1 0 0 90 Source: Priller/Zimmer 2005: 139 296 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services countries favour a co-optive relationship towards the sector that, however, will definitely alienate the sector and its organisations even further from the support of the general public.
In sum, the most striking difference between the sectors in the East and North of Europe concerns the legiti- macy question.

In the North, the sector is in a “marble cake fashion” highly integrated into the policy process.

The sector serves a complemen- tary function in the sense of providing expertise and guidance in contro- versial issues of policy making in the social welfare domain.

On the con- trary, the sector in the East enjoys appreciation neither from the general public nor from government.
Against the background that the sector lacks societal embeddedness in the East European countries, its organisations turn to the government, which increasingly becomes the sector’s point of reference while struggling for legitimacy.

According to the results of the focs-project, there is a growing ten- dency among nonprofit organisations in East Europe to prove that they are eligible partners of co-operation particularly in social service provi- sion.
“The nonprofit sector has embarked on a re-evaluation of its rela- tionship to the state administration, seeking means for creative coopera- tion” (Juros et al: 595).

In other words, the sector and its organisations try to use service provision as a door-opener not only for getting access to the policy process but also for proving its reliability and thus its legitimacy towards the general public.
According to the judgment of East European nonprofit researchers, “the politically motivated renaissance of the volun- tary sector can hardly be followed and consolidated by steady growth without significant development of nonprofit service provision” (Kuti/Sebestény: 677).
Thus, in East Europe service provision of non- profit organisations is judged as providing an avenue for improving its societal legitimacy, whereas in the Nordic countries service provision is seen as constituting a deviation from the legitimate function of the sector, which is perceived as giving “voice” to the needy and pressing for socie- tal change.
In other words, while the shift from „Voice to Function“ is highly welcomed in the East European countries as a successful strategy to increase the sector’s legitimacy, the very same development is looked upon through a completely different lens in the Nordic countries and thus assessed quite negatively.
The reason a similar development is assessed very differently in the Nordic and East European countries is closely Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 297 linked to the historic legacy and the traditionally very different em- beddedness of the sector in these two regions.
References Arato, Andrew (1992) Revolution, Res- toration, Legitimation: Ideological Problems of the Transition from State Socialism, New York: New School for Social Research Deakin, Nicolas (2001) In Search of Civil Society.
London: Routledge Esping-Andersen, Gøsta (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Princeton: Princeton University Press Evers, Adalbert/Olk, Thomas (1996) Wohlfahrtspluralismus, Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag Freise, Matthias/Zimmer, Annette (2004) Der Dritte Sektor im wohlfahrtsstaatli- chen Arrangement der post- sozialistischen Visegrád-Staaten, in: Croissant, Aurel et al (Eds.
): Wohl- fahrtsstaatliche Politik in jungen De- mokratien, Wiesbaden: vs-verlag: 153–172 Fric, Pavol (2004) Political Develop- ments after 1989 and their Impact on the Nonprofit Sector, in: Zimmer, An- nette/Priller, Eckhard (Eds.

): Future of Civil Society.


Making Central Euro- pean Nonprofit-Organizations Work, Wiesbaden: vs-verlag: 217–240 Globus (2005) Statistische Angaben OECD (12.12.2005) Granovetter, Mark (1985) Economic Action and Social Structure: The Prob- lem of Embeddedness, in: American Journal of Sociology, Vol.

91: 481–510 Hansmann, Henry (1987) Economic theories of non-profit organization, in: Powell, Walter W.

(Ed.

): The Non- profit Sector: A Research Handbook.

New Haven: Yale Univ.


Press: 27–42 Juros, Andrzey et al (2004) From Soli- darity to Subsidiarity: The Nonprofit Sector in Poland, in: Zimmer, An- nette/Priller, Eckhard (Eds.

): Future of Civil Society.

Making Central Euro- pean Nonprofit-Organizations Work, Wiesbaden: vs-verlag: 557–599 Klausen, Kurt Klaudi/Selle, Per (1996) The Third Sector in Scandinavia, in: Voluntas, Vol.
7, No 2: 99–122 Kuti, Eva/Sebestény, Istvan (2004) Boom and Consolidation: The Non- profit Sector in Hungary, in: Zimmer, Annette/Priller, Eckhard (Eds.

): Future of Civil Society.

Making Central Eu- ropean Nonprofit-Organizations Work, Wiesbaden: vs-verlag: 655–679 Lijphardt, Arend (1999) Patterns of Democracy, New Haven/London: Yale University Press Mansfeldova, Zdenka et al.
(2004) Civil Society in Transition: Civic Engage- ment and Nonprofit Organizations in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989, in: Zimmer, Annette/Priller, Eckhard (Eds.

): Future of Civil Society.

Making Central European Nonprofit- Organizations Work, Wiesbaden: vs- verlag: 99–127 Moore, Barrington (1969) Soziale Ur- sprünge von Diktatur und Demokratie, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag Najam, Adil (2000) The Four-C´s of Third Sector-Government Relations.
Cooperation, Confrontation, Comple- mentary, and Co-optation.

In: Non- profit Management and Leadership, Vol 10.

No 4: 375–396 Priller, Eckhard/Zimmer, Annette (2005) Ein europäischer Vergleich von Dritte- 298 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Sektor-Organisationen, in: Archiv für Wissenschaft und Praxis der sozialen Arbeit, Vol.
36, No 4: 128–144 Rymsza, Marek/Zimmer, Annette (2004) Embeddedness of Nonprofit Organiza- tions: Government – Nonprofit Rela- tionships, in: Zimmer, Annette/Priller, Eckhard (Eds.

): Future of Civil Soci- ety.

Making Central European Non- profit-Organizations Work, Wies- baden: vs-verlag: 169–197 Salamon, Lester et al (2003) Global Civil Society.

An Overview, Balti- more: Center for Civil Society Studies Salamon, Lester et al.

(Eds.)

(1999) Global Civil Society.


Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector, Baltimore: Cen- ter for Civil Society Studies: 99–118 Salamon, Lester/Anheier, Helmut (1997) Der Nonprofit-Sektor: Ein theoreti- scher Versuch, in: Anheier, Hel- mut/Priller, Eckhard/Seibel, Wolfgang (Eds.

): Der Dritte Sektor in Deutsch- land, Berlin: edition sigma: 211–246 Simon, Karla (2004) Tax Laws and Tax Preferences, in: Zimmer, An- nette/Priller, Eckhard (Eds.

): Future of Civil Society.


Making Central Euro- pean Nonprofit-Organizations Work, Wiesbaden: vs-verlag: 147–167 Szabo, Mate (2004) Civic Engagement in East-Central Europe, in: Zimmer, Annette/Priller, Eckhard (Eds.

): Future of Civil Society.

Making Central Eu- ropean Nonprofit-Organizations Work, Wiesbaden: vs-verlag: 77–98 Weßels, Bernhard (2004) Die Entwick- lung der Zivilgesellschaft in Mittel- und Osteuropa: intermediäre Akteure, Vertrauen und Partizipation, in: Gose- winkel, Dieter et al (Eds.
): Zivilgesell- schaft – national und transnational, Berlin: sigma-verlag: 173–198 Young, Dennis R. (2000) Alternative Models of Government–Nonprofit Sector Relations: Theoretical and In- ternational Perspectives, in: Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol.

29 No.1: 149–172 Zimmer, Annette (2004) Civil Society Organizations in Central and Eastern European Countries: Introduction and Terminology, in: Zimmer, An- nette/Priller, Eckhard (Eds.)

Future of Civil Society.


Making Central Euro- pean Nonprofit-Organizations Work, Wiesbaden: vs-verlag: 11–27 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 299 7.3 The South European and the Nordic welfare and third sector regimes – how far were we from each other?

Silvia Ferreira Introduction In this text I try to account for the South European countries welfare re- gimes main features in reference to the Nordic countries.
I use the typology of Esping-Andersen (1990; 1999) on welfare regimes as a point of depar- ture to discuss the particularities of the Southern European model, as well as Salamon and Anheier (1998) identification of third sector regimes.
This means to imply that there is a connection between the type of welfare and the main characteristics of the third sector and its role in it, as it is also suggested by the underlying premises of the project on “Citizens’ Interme- diate Organisations and Governance of the Challenges of Welfare Services in Nordic Societies” (Matthies, 2005a).

Thus, the concept “regime” is used considering wider sources, actors and locus of social welfare and their spe- cific constellation in a given society.
The concept of third sector is used because it is the most commonly used internationally and broader in its meaning, including the wide range of otherwise called non-profit, volun- tary, intermediate, and civil society organisations that are neither govern- mental nor private for profit.
I acknowledge that even the idea of a “sector” does not go without contestation given the highly hybrid character of these organisations and the way they express the influences and relate to the different modes of coordination of state, market and community, and other organisations in the public sphere (Evers, 1995; 2004).
In addition to the literature identifying the characteristics of the Southern European regimes, I use data from the “Johns Hopkins Com- parative Nonprofit Sector Project” in order to, in exploring the idea of third sector regimes, identify the places occupied both by the Southern European countries and other developed countries.

This is done by dia- loguing with the information collected by the Project to reflect upon dif- ferences and similarities between the Southern and the Nordic regimes.
300 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services A discussion of the specific trajectories of the welfare state in South- ern European countries, as well as of the third sector, its insertion in wel- fare and its relationship with the state, is made by trying to explain the main reasons why this model and the social democratic model seem to be in the exact opposite sites.
There is an underlying hierarchy that relates the welfare regimes to specific outcomes and important pre-conditions where Southern European countries seem to fail given their late process of welfare state building.

Moreover, the place occupied by third sector organisations is also a result of this trajectory.
Once made the distinctions between welfare and third sector regimes I will look at the contemporary changes and trends referring a set of com- mon influences that are affecting qualitatively welfare regimes and the third sector insertion in them.

Specifically, I will refer to recent changes in social policy and impacts of the European Union in Portugal, mainly looking at those that seem to have greater impact in third sector regimes, and consequently in welfare regimes.
I identify recent changes in Portugal as meaning a path break of its ideal-type model, even if having implied before that the Portuguese welfare model is somewhat an hybrid between the three (or four) ideal types.
Some of the most structural and permanent features, as the place occupied by the third sector in welfare and the overall relationship between civil society and the state, are being fundamentally challenged as we go through the seem- ingly common to all European countries trends of: territorialisation and supra-national regulations, workfare or active labour market policies, safety nets and positive discrimination principles in place of the previous equali- tarian principle, and partnerships in policy development.
7.3.1 The Southern welfare regimes at the mirror The Southern European welfare model seems to be on the other end of the ideal type that the Scandinavian countries seem to materialise, according to the well-know typology of welfare states, now welfare regimes.
In terms of a compromise with equality and the commitment to give to their citizens some autonomy from the market laws, the countries of the social democratic model perform better than the countries of the liberal and of the conservative/corporatist models (Esping-Andersen, 1990; 1999).

The reason for this may lay in the expectations of each welfare regime (Goodin, 1999).
That is why, in accounting for the features of the Portu- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 301 guese welfare state, Santos (1990) considered it a quasi-welfare state in terms of the typical patterns and trajectories that characterise the Keynes- ian welfare state as defined by Esping-Andersen and others inspired by the Marshallian social citizenship tradition (Wincott, 2001).
According to Santos, four conditions were missing in the building of the Portuguese welfare state: the possibility for a social pact between capital and labour, given the highly fragmented social structure; a balance between accumula- tion and legitimating tasks of the government, with clear dominance of the former after the 1980s; a high level of social expenses; and a state bureauc- racy that internalized the notion of social rights as citizenship (Santos, 1990).
Besides, this building came only in the mid seventies, after the De- mocratic Revolution of 1974, when the intention to create a social protec- tion system based in the premises of the welfare state was stated.

Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Greek welfare systems share a common set of features and trajectories that point to the existence of a specific welfare regime, although Esping-Andersen (1999) reinforced the idea that these countries belong to the conservative-corporatist model.
Indeed, like the countries of the latter model, they are social insurance based, with the most of the social security systems providing benefits that are based on previous contributions and shaped by the participation in the labour mar- ket.

In addition, welfare is largely dependent on the social reproduction work done in the household, mainly by women.
Nevertheless, there are important features that stress distinctiveness such as: a) the existence of national health systems (although underdeveloped); b) the subsistence of a particular private-public mix, including the state, the market and the community, and non-profit organisations in several fields, such as health and social services; c) important gaps of protection for those outside the core labour market and peaks of generosity for some groups (Ferrera, 1996); d) residual social protection for those outside the social insurance schemes which depend of eligibility criteria and benefits designed in a fashion not to discourage participation in the labour market (Leibfried, 1992); e) a passive subsidiarity principle, since there are no active state policies to promote the role of the family like those existing in continental Europe (Andreotti et al., 2001)91.
Thus, contrary to the social democratic 91 This feature is also coincident with the classification of Trifiletty (1999) for these coun- tries as being those where women are seen as mothers although special provision for the family is inexistent.

Here, Portugal is the exception, as women are seen as workers and there are no special provisions for the family relating to care work.
302 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services welfare model, benefits are at a low level and highly ineffective in reduc- ing poverty and inequality, pensions occupy an important share of ex- penses while expenses related to the fight against poverty and social ex- clusion are very low, and social services provision is very limited.

The different outcomes of the several models can be illustrated using the Laeken indicators of poverty and inequality.
As can be seen in the follow- ing table, the countries from Southern Europe are those where poverty is higher as against those countries on the opposite side of the picture, be- longing to the social-democratic model.
The same could be said concern- ing inequality, where Portugal performs the worst score as the total in- come received by the 20% of the population with the highest income (top quintile) is 7.2 times higher than that received by the 20% of the popula- tion with the lowest income (lowest quintile).

Table 1.
Table 1.

Effectiveness of social transfers in reducing poverty and fighting inequa- lity in some European countries (2004) 92 Countries Poverty risk before social transfers (a) Poverty risk after social transfers (b) Difference (a)–(b) Inequality s80/s20 (2004) Social democratic model countries Sweden Finland Norway Denmark Conservative/ France Corporatist model countries Liberal model coun- tries Southern European model countries * data for 2003.
Netherlands Germany Belgium UK Ireland Italy Spain Portugal Greece 43 42 32* 39 44 37* 24 42 43* 39 45 41 42 40 11 11 11* 11 14 12* 16 15 18* 92This data is part of the Laeken indicators of Eurostat and can be accessed from the Eurostat webpage (http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/portal/page?_pageid=0,1136184,0_45572595&_dad= portal&_schema=PORTAL).
It includes measures of at-risk-of-poverty rate, before and after cash social transfers, whose threshold is set at 60% of the national median equivalised income.

The measure on inequality is related to the inequality of income distribution s80/s20 income quintile share.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 303 Considering the socio-historical features, the Southern European countries have also much in common: they went through important waves of migration of young workers to other European states, thus discourag- ing investment in professional training and labour market policies for the young (Andreotti et al., 2001); they are marked by a weak process of industrialization with a transition from pre-industrial to post-industrial based mainly in high-service activities, like financial enterprises, and low-technology industries and low-service activities employing the ma- jority of the population (except for North Italy) (Kurth, 1993); many of their welfare structures were built before democratisation and thus with- out the participation of civil society, and specially labour unions (An- dreotti et al., 2001); there is a strong weight of social Catholicism in Italy, Spain and Portugal (Leibfried, 1992), being the privileged status of a single Church (in the four cases) crucial in shaping social policies and the role of the state in welfare.
Furthermore, other characteristics were identified in these countries, such as strong primary solidarity networks based on kinship and commu- nity ties, that Santos called ‘welfare society’, a low state capacity to regu- late large spheres of social life (despite being widely present), due to a combination of heterogeneity and fragmentation of social interests with the relative autonomy of communities vis-à-vis the state and the market enabling them to subvert state intervention through particularism (Santos, 1990), absence of a strong modern state bureaucracy, prominence of po- litical parties as aggregators of social interests and weakness of civil soci- ety (Rhodes, 1997).
Portugal, Spain and Greece had authoritarian regimes until the mid- 70s93.

The authoritarian past that is common to these countries is both a symptom and a cause of these features.

It is significant that in all of them a similar rhetoric about organising the society into a corporatist state existed.
Nevertheless, as Kurth mentions, “the social significance of these regimes, however, lay not in the formal corporate organisations that they 93 Indeed, the four countries share more than its authoritarian past.

According to Kurth, they had similar trajectories and common political situations through history.
The most contemporary and significant coincidences are the fact that by 1914 all countries enjoyed a parliamentary system and a “considerable realm of meaningful civil liberties” and a dozen years latter all of them were under authoritarian regimes: Mussolini in Italy since 1922, Primo de Rivera in Spain in 1923, after years of alternation between civilian and military rule, in 1926, in Portugal, a military coup lead to the ascendance of Salazar, a similar situation of political unrest lead to the ascendance of Metaxas in Greece in 1936 (Kurth, 1993: 42).
304 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services created, but in the traditional corporate interests that created them.” Among them: agricultural and industrial elites, the church and the mili- tary (Kurth, 1993: 42).

Thus, the weakness of the political forces typically associated to the Keynesian welfare state expansion is partially an expla- nation for the specificities.
7.3.2 On third sector regimes Drawing on a power resources perspective and considering the specific political trajectories, Salamon and Anheier proposed an explanation to account for the diversity of the third sector internationally.

According to them, third sector and welfare state have grown together and are both a result of “complex interrelationships among social classes and social institutions” (1998: 228).
They propose a social origins theory and refer to third sector regimes as being characterized not only by a particular state role but also by a particular position for the third sector; and, most importantly, each also reflecting a particular constellation of social forces.

They build these ideal-types comparing the extent of government social welfare spending, and the size of the non-profit sector.
As a result, the authors identify four regimes: the “social democratic regime”, including Sweden and Italy, is characterised by high governmental social spending, low size of the non-profit sector in services provision but high in other fields, with high reliance on fees as a funding source, and whose origins are explained by the political power of the working class in coalition with other classes; “the continental regime”, represented by Germany and France, also portrays high public social spending, a considerable impor- tance of the non-profit sector mainly funded by the government, function- ing as one of the ‘pre-modern’ state mechanisms to ensure elites support and avoid radical demands, and with its basis in the existence of key so- cial elites supporting the state; the “liberal regime”, of the USA and the UK, includes low governmental social spending, an important role of philanthropy and nonprofits as the preferred alternative to governmental social provision.
This regime is explained by the power of middle classes with low opposition from the traditional landed classes or the working class.

Finally, a “statist regime”, exemplified by Japan, with low govern- mental spending, reduced non-profit sector, funded mainly by fees, and Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 305 being explained by the high level of state autonomy towards middle classes and working classes, or its capture by business and economic elites.
There are some difficulties with the examples chosen by the authors, especially with the inclusion of Italy and France in the social democratic and conservative regimes, respectively94.

Nevertheless it is useful here to retain the ideal types of third sector regimes and the underlying explana- tions.
For instance, in accounting for the third sector in the United States, Salamon uses the concept of “third party government” (Salamon, 1987) to explain the context of a society where, first, state and civil society are seen as two separate spheres and, secondly, this society is not too enthu- siastic of state intervention.

Thus nonprofits are used to perform state tasks, transferring the public money to them.
Regarding the corporatist model, I quote Anheier e Seibel mentioning that “the German welfare state is not a state affair at all” (1997: 136).

They refer to the high degree of autonomy from the government in the areas of social insurance and social services provision, the former governed by tripartite self-regulated bodies and the latter provided by social welfare associations.
In this case, instead of a separation between state and civil society, there is an empha- sis on intermediate, organized bodies between society and the state that are attributed public responsibilities and authority by the state.
Streeck and Shmitter (1985) call it “private interest government”, emphasising that, instead of competition and private interests (as we would identify in a liberal background), devolution of public responsibility to these bodies happens because they are supposed to serve the general interest.
Finally, referring to the social democratic regime, Pestoff points out that since the 1930s nonprofits in the Nordic countries have been playing a fundamental role in the welfare state, identifying the problems and public responsibili- ties and having a positive effect in terms of contributing to the social and political project of “state-friendly societies” (Pestoff, 1998: 36).

This same idea is prevalent in the papers of the present publication95.
The paper by Bennedichte Olsen and Sissel Seim about the relationship be- tween the state and users’ organisations gives a good illustration of the social movement basis and role of these organisations in the Norwegian welfare regime.

This could not be more different than the liberal model, 94 These remarks were made in papers appearing in Voluntas in the same issue as Salamon and Anheiers’s article.
95 The discussion of Annette Zimmer and her proposed typology of “nonprofit embedded- ness” also identify coherence in the places nonprofits occupy in different welfare states.

306 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services since instead of contributing to a minimum state, they press for the state to take up social services in order to generalise it to the entire population as a matter of rights under a politics of identity.
In order to delve deeper into the Southern European third sector re- gime, I analyse the Johns Hopkins data considering the relative weight of services provision and expressive activities as well as the dominant logics of funding and volunteering.
I separated organisations that are mostly producers of services (education, health, social services, local develop- ment and housing) and organisations that we might call expressive, in- cluding here cultural and recreational and advocacy organisations96, in order to relate the former more closely with welfare services.

Thus, we can identify four clusters in developed and transition coun- tries.
One cluster is made of those countries where expressive activities are dominant, government funding is less important than fees, and the work of volunteers is very important, such is the case of Finland, Norway and Sweden.

These are the countries mostly associated with the social democratic model of welfare.

Another cluster is composed by those coun- tries where social services dominate, and funding is predominantly go- vernmental.
These are often associated with the corporatist-conservative model (France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium), but also include the United Kingdom and Ireland, more often regarded belonging to the liberal model.

The third group is composed of those countries where expressive activities have a reduced weight and services provision is very important.
Despite this, governmental funding is relatively low and fees have a sig- nificant role, thus indicating an important degree of commercialization of the sector.

Another significant feature is the low level of volunteer work in the total workforce of the sector.

This group comprises the South Eu- ropean countries (Portugal, Italy, Spain) and the typical liberal model countries, United States and Australia.
Finally, the fourth cluster is com- posed by the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, where the most noti- ceable feature is the very low weight of the sector measured in terms of the percentage of its workforce in the total population, and although ha- 96 I understand that this distinction is getting more difficult and less legitimate these days as organisations are increasingly hybrid, with service producers getting more involved in advocacy activities and advocacy organisations more concerned with providing services for their constitu- encies (Minkoff, 2002).
Nevertheless, this distinction may still be valid for the majority of organisations.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 307 ving significant weight in expressive activities, it has a reduced voluntee- ring, being philanthropy a very important source of funding.

Table 2.
Comparisons between activities, funding and workforce in the third sector in developed and transition countries 97 Country France UK Germany Nether- lands Belgium Ireland US Japan Spain Australia Italy Portugal Finland Norway Sweden Czech Rep. Poland Slovakia Important Services provision; Important Govern- ment funding Important services provision; Important commercial activities Mostly expressive; Funding commercial Reduced sector weight; Services and ex- pressive educ, health, soc service, develop.
and housing Culture, advocacy, environment Govern.

FUNDS Phil.

Fees Workforce as% econ.

active.

pop.
Volunteers as% of workforce Although some general conclusions can be made through the observation of the Project data, such as, for instance, that the third sector is larger in those countries where a welfare state was developed, there is no exact 97 This table was elaborated from the data made available by the Johns Hopkins Compara- tive Nonprofit Sector.
Data on activities was drawn from the table 3, (http://www.jhu.edu/ %7Ecnp/pdf/table301.pdf), data on sources of funding without volunteers is transcribed from the table 4, (http://www.jhu.edu/%7Ecnp/pdf/table401.pdf), and data on third sector workforce and volunteers is drawn from the table 1, (http://www.jhu.edu/%7Ecnp/pdf/table101.pdf).
Data on Portugal was collected from the recent study made within this international project and can be found in the National Report (http://www.jhu.edu/%7Ecnp/pdf/Portugal_Nat_Rpt.pdf).

308 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services correspondence with Esping-Andersen typology or even with Salamon and Anheier third sector regimes.

Nevertheless, I consider that the main rationales remain valid98.
I will highlight some aspects that are more striking in analysing the South European and the Nordic countries’ third sector regimes.

The available data provide evidence of the particular place occupied by the Southern European countries since their third sector regimes fit better in the general characteristics of the third sector in countries of the liberal model.
It is only at the level of the organisation of the sector, and its relationship with the state, that they get closer to the corpora- tist/conservative model.

These data also show that South European coun- tries specificity is not related to any special weight of the third sector when compared to other developed welfare states; neither does state fund- ing play a particularly significant role.
Instead, it can be said that their specificities lay in the fact that there is a strong reliance on fees as a source of funding, which means that it is a form of privatization of social services.

If we take the Johns Hopkins project data for Portugal, we will even see that the social services organisations are funded by fees in a very high percentage (66%), while government funding only represents 26%.
It is only in health and education that government funding has an important role (82% and 66%, respectively).

Private philanthropy is contributing mostly to expressive activities (Franco et al., 2005).

Despite of govern- mental underfunding of social services organisations, their importance is very high in social welfare as only 2.5% of social welfare services are publicly managed.
The share between non-profit and for-profit managed social services is 73% and 25%, and the trend is for an increase in the number of these services (they grew almost 40% since 1998), as well as for an increase in the number of for-profit providers (its share was 20% in 98 Another problem related to this data is the fact that they correspond to different time peri- ods and not allow for an analysis on changes in the sector.
Since the beginning of the project, in 1990, only some of the countries were updated in 1995.

Other countries, like Portugal, have much more recent data (2002).

The updated data for some countries, in 1995, showed some changes in terms of weight of funding, for instance, in the case of Germany, US and France there was a reduction in the amount transferred by the government with an increased reliance in com- mercial activities (in Germany the change represented 4%).
In the UK and Japan there was an important raise in the percentage of governmental funding (7% and 5%).

This suggests that the countries are moving closer in terms of the relative weight of public funding and commercialisa- tion.

See http://www.jhu.edu/%7Ecnp/pdf/ct11.pdf.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 309 1998).
Although the public discourse prefers to associate non-profit pro- viders with public providers in a so called “solidarity network” versus a “profit network”, the costs of services for the users, if they don’t fall in- side the income levels giving access to the state subsidies, are the same in the non-profit and the for-profit sectors (DGEEP, 2004).
This gives us a completely different picture as that of social welfare services in Finland and Sweden, as well as of the typical relationship of the Nordic voluntary organisations with the state, namely acting as watchdog instead of assum- ing state functions and as partners instead of being contracted by the state to perform these tasks (Matthies, 2005b).
The distinctive feature in the Nordic countries seems to be not only the particular role third sector organisations play in welfare, but also the weight of expressive activities and volunteering.

The account made on the national profiles of the research in the Nordic countries demonstrates the importance of this issue, as opposed to the attention dedicated to the same subject in Portugal, where the percentage of volunteers in the organisa- tions workforce is also reduced.
Furthermore, the report shows that there is consensus around the particularity of their functions, stated as giving emphasis to voice, accountability, expertise, avant-garde and togetherness (Matthies, 2005b).

This idea of the third sector organisations as a place where people meet seem to be absent from most of the sector in Portugal, particularly in those organisations where professionalism plays the fun- damental role.
Although not exclusively, this is also connected to the prevailing values in the Portuguese society.

A brief exercise looking at the European Values Survey tells us that Portuguese tend to spend more time with colleagues from work or profession or at church and spend less time in sports clubs or voluntary organisations99.
7.3.3 The third sector regime in the South European countries The most important specificity in the Southern European third sector might be the fact that the official recognition of these organisations as integrated in a specific sector and of its role played in welfare occurred very lately and it is not even totally accomplished100.

This seems to be 99 See World Values Survey database in www.worldvaluessurvey.org/services/index.html.
100 See account for different degrees and ways of recognition of the sector in European coun- tries in CIRIEC (2000).

310 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services more related to the particular nature of politics and society in the South- ern European countries, namely the fact that state responsibility for a modern welfare and the constitution of a social sphere of civil society separated from the state occurred very late.
Not alien to this were the last longing authoritarian political regimes in these countries.

Portugal and Spain resemble in the particular way the state delegated to church-related organisations the provision of welfare during their dicta- torships, together with repression of autonomous organisation by civil society.

State responsibility for social welfare in modern terms, i.e.
guar- anteeing social rights, appeared only in the seventies (1976 in Portugal and 1978 in Spain) and for the following decade it was visible in both countries the reshaping of the relationship between the state and civil society organisations.

In the case of Spain, this happened since 1985, mainly at the local level, with nonprofits creation being promoted by local authorities to contribute to service delivery.
This is the decade of the sector expansion as more than half were founded after 1986, against only 16% before 1975.

Then, in 1988, a National subsidy programme for so- cial action NGO was created opening the possibility to assign 0.52% of the personal income tax for a chosen catholic or social action organisation (Montagut, 2005).
This was highly relevant as it provided a source of funding relatively independent from the government as well as promoting the visibility (and public accountability) of organisations.

Especially when the relations established at the local level generated clientelist rela- tionships (Montagut, 2005: 26).

In Italy, the tradition of the relationship between the state and the third sector also seemed to be marked by clientelist relations.
In the absence of sector federations, and in the background of the domination of the public sphere by parties and labour unions and the important weight of the Catholic Church, third sector organisation interests in social policy- making were represented through these agencies.

This led to “hierarchical subordination of non-profit organisations to these political-institutional agents” (Ranci et al., 2005: 3).
The panorama that only changed in the 1990s was of contracts between public agencies and nonprofits being awarded through private negotiations and no national uniform policy towards the sector, whether in their role as service providers or in their participation in policy decisions.
Nevertheless, public funds accounted for 75% of organisational resources in the fields of social services (Ranci et Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 311 al., 2005), thus implying a strong dependency of organisations from par- ticular relationships.
In Portugal, it happened in a slightly different way, as social services nonprofits (under the statute of Instituições Particulares de Solidariedade Social – IPSS) were recognised in the democratic Constitution of 1976 as contributing to the aims of the public system of social security101.
A Na- tional Statute (1979), the IPSS Statute, was negotiated between a newly created peak organisation of Misericórdias and the Catholic Church or- ganisation that governs church welfare organisations (Conferência Epis- copal Portuguesa).

Similarly to the British charity law, the statute recog- nised special status to non-profit organisations pursuing a given set of activities.
This statute, that came to be changed in 1983, considered non- profit organisations as part of the social security system and, in line with this, they had a role as partners in a permanent commission set out to articulate the relationship between the state agencies and non-profit or- ganisations (Ferreira, 2000).

However, since the early 1980s, the neo- liberal discourse against state expansion and for devolution to civil soci- ety became dominant in social policy-making102.
Similarly to Spain, but with different consequences, since it occurred at the national level, third sector organisations were seen as an instrument to save public resources while still responding to the demands for the expansion of the welfare state.

Then, organisations’ claims for more autonomy and withdraw of state regulations over their services coincided with governmental objec- tives.
Several instruments were designed at the national level to regulate the relationship between the state and social service nonprofits, such as the cooperation agreements, consisting of contractual agreements for the provision of services, which created a stable source of governmental 101 It was stated in the constitution: “the organisation of the social security system will not affect negatively the existence of non-profit private institutions for social solidarity, that will be allowed, regulated by law and monitored.
102 We might ask what civil society was there then after the 48 years of authoritarian regime, where even the corporatist organisation of society failed (Schmitter, 1999).

Indeed, what we witness in the 80s is that this devolution to civil society is made at the same time as the building of a civil society.

The fact that this is a very productive decade in terms of legislation creating all sorts of statutes for private bodies (from cooperatives to private pension funds) is good evidence (Ferreira, 2000).
Identifying this fabric of civil society, Santos proposes the concept of secondary civil society, where the state has an active role in creating selectively the social actors of civil society that are relevant for the pursue of its politics.

This selective creation of a civil society has as a counterpart the blockage of the organisation of other interests not promoted by the state (Santos, 1990).
312 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services funding and, at the same time, worked as another strong source of institu- tional isomorphism (DiMaggio and Powell, 1991).

These agreements were framed by a national level protocol (cooperation protocols enacted since 1992), signed periodically between the Ministry of Social Affairs and the three peak associations representing the sector103.
These peak organisations have been playing a very important role in policy-making at the national level, participating in a wide range of consultative and even in policy development bodies, including the Economic and Social Coun- cil (since 1991) the national consultative body of the social security sys- tem, together with the government and social partners.

They are also among the advisors in ministerial advisory bodies for particular subjects (disabilities, drug prevention etc.
), participate in a more informal way in the technical commissions and are co-producers with the public admini- stration of norms and technical indicators that softly regulate the provi- sion of social service (Ferreira, 2000).

In Portugal there is no umbrella organisation encompassing these so- cial services federations and the other existing organisations of the third sector, such as local development initiatives, advocacy organisations, cooperatives, and so on.
Instead, there is mutual unawareness and/or competition and organisations do not speak a common language or have a common agenda towards the government.

It seems not to be far from the corporatism referred by Zimmer (1999) in the case of Germany, charac- terised by the important role played by traditional peak organisations in terms of reinforcing exclusionary strategies inside the sector.
However, in the case of Portugal, there is the dominance of a discourse about the rela- tionship between the state and the third sector and each other’s role in social welfare, coincident with the subsidiarity principle.

However, it is not a modernised subsidiarity principle as it does not translate a concep- tion of a general interest founded on the idea of social citizenship.
It is interesting to notice that while in the 1980s the German non-profit sector went through major changes and traditional peak organisations 103 The three peak associations represent the whole sector in the social services industry, all of them being IPSSs.
One represents mutual associations that develop activities complementary to social security (pensions), and also social services; other represents Misericórdias – a catholic inspired, although quite autonomous organisation founded in the XV century through a special permission of the Pope to the Portuguese queen D. Leonor –, to which was attributed public authority in provision and regulation of social services even during the dictatorship; a third one, representing the remaining IPSSs, the largest one, includes a wide variety of organisational forms, traditions, philosophies and is normally ran by a priest.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 313 monopoly was challenged with the introduction of competition principles (Zimmer, 1999) the opposite happened in Portugal in this same decade.
The story of the exclusionary strategies can be illustrated by the case of social solidarity cooperatives, formerly Cooperatives for the Education and Rehabilitation of Disabled Children, which were only fully given a statute similar to that of IPSSs in 1996, even though they were operating side by side with associations in the same field to which the statute was recognised.

Differently from Portugal, in Spain and Italy the third sector is now organised through encompassing confederations.
This step was taken in Spain in 1998, through the Platform of Social Action NGO, promoted from the initiative of the government, and including a wide range of fed- erations of several sub-sectors, such as patients organisations, ecology, immigrants, rural development, disability, women, Red Cross, and so on.

This is the representative body of the sector before the government (Mon- tagut, 2005).
In 2001, a State Council of Social Action was created in order to promote participation and cooperation in the development of social welfare policies within the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs.

In Italy (Ranci et al., 2005), the third sector also came to be recognized dur- ing the 1990s, with the creation of a legal status for services provision, tax concessions, identification of forms and channels for state funding.
This change came along with the leading role of new organisations, such as volunteers’ organisations and social cooperatives that have been shap- ing the discourse about the third sector in Italy.

In 2000, a national law on social services abandoned the idea that the third sector performed a sup- plementary role to state services and these organisations gained access to planning and policy-making.
The first umbrella organisation for the sec- tor was created in 1997 (Third Sector Forum) and recognised as the sector representative for dialogue with the government.

In 2000, this organisa- tion was included in the National Council for Economy and Labour.

7.3.4 Traces of a path shift in the Portuguese welfare regime Until now I have been emphasising differences between the countries and mainly between the South European welfare regimes and the social democ- ratic ones.
Nevertheless, looking at recent changes, an important conver- gence seems to be happening.

I will focus on both the most general level of 314 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services changes in developed societies and on changes and conditions for change happening in Portugal.

The emphasis on the Portuguese case is justified by its own specificities104 and the peculiarities this created to the corporatist arrangements between the state and the third sector.
This makes the com- parison with the changes in the Nordic countries and the discussion of cur- rent trends even richer in terms of questioning the outcomes.

There is an important amount of literature about changes in European welfare regimes105, and the use of the concept “regime” is already an important change from the previous focus on the state welfare.

Three phenomena seem to be happening simultaneously.
One is a change of scholarly focus on the several sources of welfare besides the state, includ- ing the market, the family and the third sector.

One of the moments for this change of focus might be traced back to theories of welfare pluralism (Johnson, 1999), on the mixed economy of welfare.
Another change is in the political and normative discourse that came with the end of the so called “social democratic consensus” and the challenges posed to the role of the state in welfare and in society by a wide range of political perspec- tives.
Finally, a third change is related to a greater tendency towards more hybridism in welfare provision and governance, being the growing prominent role played by the third sector one of its aspects, but also the role played by the market, with examples such as the introduction of quasi-markets, market principles and market expansion in the provision of welfare.

This means that there is a growing set of institutions and forms of coordination governing social welfare (Evers, 2004).
Besides, a wide range of social policies and parts of social welfare are now fre- quently – but not exclusively – organised by the state, through private- public partnerships and networks of actors and institutions, in a move from government to governance and meta-governance (Jessop, 2002).
Thus, even if in quantitative terms we are not witnessing welfare re- trenchment or there seems to be no fundamental changes in the paths followed by the states of the ideal types drawn by Esping-Andersen 104 Some of them more shared with the Nordic countries than with the other Southern Euro- pean, such as the high centralization of the welfare administration and policies.

For an account of the specificities of the Portuguese welfare state building see Ferreira, 2005.
105 Esping-Andersen defines regimes in the following way: “‘Regimes’ refers to the ways in which welfare production is allocated between state, market, and households” (1999: 73).

Ac- cording to Wincott (2001), this is a major change in Esping-Andersen framework that goes almost unnoticed in Esping-Andersen’s book.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 315 (Powell and Barrientos, 2004), qualitative changes seem to be happening as it is very well illustrated in the case of the Nordic societies in the dis- cussions of this Project.
Some of these features seem to bring Nordic third sector regimes closer to the Southern European ones such as: the increas- ing mixture of the three sectors, private, public and non-profit in social services, the growing weight of the for-profit sector in this field, the shift towards contractualisation as the preferable relationship between organi- sations and the state, the increasing weight of service activities in detri- ment of the “voice” functions of organisations, integration of organisa- tions in welfare systems and homogenisation, growing financial (and regulatory) dependency upon the state, professionalisation and formalisa- tion in organisations and emergence of privileged relationships between umbrella organisations and government (Matthies, 2005a).
Although not the only one, the European Union is a considerable source of change in welfare regimes affecting member-states, thus creat- ing a more complex framework to understand policy change in a given society.

Since the adhesion date to the, then, European Economic Com- munity, in 1986, and even during the accession phase, this supranational institution has been crucial in influencing the Portuguese welfare regime.
This, along with the structural features we have been describing, help to explain the seemingly permeability to the influence of different policy models in the Portuguese welfare regime106.

Therefore, I will now iden- tify some changes in Portuguese social policies and welfare since 1996, tracing the picture of what we could consider a path break in the typical characteristics associated with its welfare model, including the place oc- cupied by the third sector in it.
Strikingly, some of these changes echoes those changes also identified in the Project reports.

• Programs and projects became an important instrument to address social problems.
This was already diagnosed in the policies to fight poverty and social exclusion as it meant a short term strategy to address structural problems of Portuguese welfare state, since it did not lead to any permanent commitment by the state on improving the welfare rights of those typically excluded or with insufficient social 106 Guibentif (1997) refers to the influence of the German and English models at the begin- ning of the twentieth century, the Italian model in the 1930s, the French model in the 1960s and the European model in the 1980s.
316 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services protection (Rodrigues, 1999).

A considerable number of these programs are financed by programmes and initiatives of the European Social Fund and thus framed by new governance mechanisms and institutions.
In these projects a much larger number of sources for regulation emerge with its specific rationalities: evaluation indicators and procedures, prioritization of issues, partners and partners’ roles, accountability procedures and relevant stakeholders, concepts and cultures.

This same trend is mentioned for the case of the Nordic welfare state, inserted in a trend towards a greater selectivity by the state towards citizens (Matthies, 2005b).
• European funded programmes are having an important impact on the third sector.

Through projects financed and framed by European programmes and initiatives, third sector organisations, that are the main actors in their implementation, have new sources of funding and regulations besides the existing ones at the local and national levels.

This means that they are less dependent (although not totally independent) of particular relationships, including clientelist and corporatist arrangements.
On the one hand, this created a more pluralist civil society as it can be seen by the strengthening or even the emergence of an important set of organisations as the result of some European programs.

One example is the case of the local development initiatives created under the aegis of LEADER.

On the other hand, new philosophies, methods and resources have been incorporated in these organisations.
Here I would mention as an example the strong potential normative impact of the EQUAL initiative for producing the guiding principles of projects activities and their operationalisation through public-private partnerships and trans-national networks.

Finally, another possible impact is in terms of the pressure for professionalisation of organisations as a basic condition for being able to apply and run these highly complex projects in terms of operation and accountability procedures.
• As an aspect of the growing importance of networks substituting the previous dominance of hierarchy, the government created a wide range of partnership bodies at the national and local level that, more than being just consultative or dedicated to policy implementation, are policy development bodies.
Among these I can name the national body aimed at creating opportunities for the inclusion of Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 317 disadvantaged groups and people without employment in the labour market, the so called social employment market (Comissão para o Mercado Social de Emprego).
At the local level I would mention, as an example, the same logic in the Local Commissions of the Minimum Income Guaranteed107, composed of public bodies, third sector organisations, labour unions, local government and others (except for beneficiaries representatives, which do not exist).

These Commissions are responsible for negotiating, evaluating and contracting social insertion programs with each beneficiary.
• Another significant change, in a context of a highly centralised government and system, is the attempt to transfer to the local government, mainly municipalities, the responsibility for the organisation of welfare.

This territorialisation of social protection policies is exemplified in the innovative “social network” program, aimed at fighting poverty and social exclusion.
This network is supposed to be composed by all social actors who can contribute to the identification of local needs and solutions in a given territory and to be organised by the local government.

Hence, they are composed by a very wide range of public agencies (including those of the national administration, such as social security, education, justice, health etc.)
and public institutions such as schools, health centres, the police etc., and a wide range of third sector organisations, from social services to advocacy organisations and cultural organisations.

Since it involves two levels, the first being the parish and the second being the municipality level, potentially all social actors from all levels will participate in this network.
A national framework for the social diagnosis and functioning of these social networks is provided by the Social Security administration.
Given the picture sketched of the existing corporativism in the Portuguese third sector, this can be easily understood as a path breaking measure regarding the 107 The Minimum Income Guaranteed programme is another path break in the Portuguese welfare model, as it introduces, in the social security system, a social right to a minimum income for all residents as a safety net.
Nevertheless, it is important to notice that this benefit is marked by a workfarist philosophy as it is dependent of means test, of a level under the poverty line and dependent of a contract where the candidate commits to enter a social insertion program.
This benefit that lacked wide political consensus and even popular support was explicitly justified, in the Portuguese Parliament, in 1996, with the Recommendation 92/441/CEE of the Council of Ministers of Social Affairs referring to common criteria related to resources and benefits in the social protection systems.

318 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services relationship between the state and the third sector.
Interestingly, this same trend to municipalisation, that is shared by the Nordic countries, also seems to imply a shift in the traditional functions of third sector organisations as they are asked to work more as providers than watchdogs at the local level (Matthies, 2005b).

In terms of welfare state reform, the second half of the 1990s was sup- posed to be the frontier that marked a new relationship between the state and the third sector in Portugal.
In 1996, the national government, local government representatives, and the three peak organizations representing IPSSs signed a “Cooperation Pact for Social Solidarity”108.
This Pact, and the commission it created was supposed to became the framework gov- erning the relationship between state and IPSSs and included five princi- ples for this relationship: autonomy of organisations, recognition of the nature and objectives of organisations, subsidiarity, planning in coopera- tion with public administration (central and local) and participation of all in the design, planning, execution and evaluation of social policies at national, regional and local level.
Besides that, other initiatives were en- visioned such as the revision of the IPSSs statute, the legislation on the contractualisation with the state and the inspection powers of the state.

The fact that the fundamental issues addressed by the pact are still under negotiation is evidence of the difficulties of changing the existing rela- tionship.
7.3.5 Conclusion This text was built with the underlying assumption that there are funda- mental differences separating the Nordic societies from the Southern European societies.

I departed from the typologies of welfare regimes and third sector regimes to underline these differences and used mostly the discussions in Portugal and in the South European countries to contrast the discussions on the Nordic societies.
In these two cases some of the changes in welfare systems and in the third sector demonstrate path- breaking trends.

108 This pact was initially a proposal by the Confederation of IPSSs to solve problems of the existing contractual arrangements and legal framework.

The government accepted the proposal of a pact but included the local government in its ambit.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 319 In assuming these differences, a double perspective was taken consid- ering both the empirical differences between these societies and their modernisation processes and the theoretical standpoints underlying the way we select which parts of reality to pick up and the way we evaluate these differences.
This double approach is very well illustrated in the results of this Project showing that the same issues that are said to consti- tute the specificities of the Nordic societies are also those that are more studied.

Interesting would be to do the same exercise in the Southern European countries as there is a deep general unawareness of the research taking place in these countries.

It would certainly deepen considerably the knowledge we have on these societies as they are normally said to be specific.
However, the features under which they are characterised are more usually stated in negative terms, related to other societies or ideal- typical models.

This does not mean that the ideal-types are not an impor- tant instrument against which we can study ongoing changes and measure the large range of possible outcomes.
A striking conclusion from this exercise is the realisation that socie- ties, even if so different, are undergoing similar processes of policy re- form and even through very similar policies: emphasis on the third sector as provider, multi-sectoral partnerships, projects instead of policies, mu- nicipalisation of policies, contractualisation, and introduction of market logics or market competition.
Nevertheless, we should not immediately conclude that a process of homogenisation is going to occur as structural, institutional, organisational and cultural differences are going to remain.

Thus, we still need to work on the existing differences, as well as on the theoretical models we are using to evaluate changes.

Finally, one issue that still needs to be assessed and is increasingly ab- sent from the discussions on recent changes in welfare and welfare poli- cies is the nature of the providers.
Research on the Portuguese case has showed that there are regulatory issues concerning the nature of services being provided by third sector organisations, not only due to their specific nature but also to the complex relationship between these organisations and the state (Hespanha et al., 2000, Ferreira, 2000).

They are not only provid- ers; they maintain an unclear statute of representatives of particular groups or are seen as experts on the needs of these groups.
The balance between these two roles and the outcomes of trying to balance these roles in differ- ent arrangements and in different societies has numerous expressions and 320 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services raises numerous questions and discussions that are also illustrated in this Project and in the discussions of the research seminar.
In Portugal, and confirming what Salamon (1987) stated about volun- tary failure, there are problems with private organisations providing pub- lic services, especially if public regulation is not prevailing.
When “priva- tisation” occurs in the context of state dismissal of public responsibilities, as in the Portuguese case it did (regarding what was stated even in the Constitution), the outcomes can be selection of clienteles, lack of quality in services and lack of public accountability, all of these not acceptable under public services logic.
In this case, professionalisation creates the possibility for raising the quality of services (especially if professionals are socialised under a public service culture) and the creation of competi- tion between providers may reinforce the regulatory capacity of the state.
This sounds paradoxical under the discussions we are having on the role of the third sector, but it intends to illustrate the attention we must give to particular contexts and the permanent tensions existing inside the third sector organisations, as mixes in the welfare mix (Evers, 1995).
On the other hand, we cannot deny that in Portugal, and in the case of social services, third sector organisations have been making a constant pressure upon the national state, for instance, to finance much needed social services for families (mainly child care and old aged social ser- vices).

This is very important as women participation in the labour market is very high; closer to that in the Nordic countries.
It is curious to realise that these achievements are not made by women organisations, but, in- stead, they develop from the internal logic of social services organisations not particularly concerned with women situation.
Still missing are, in general terms, the features that usually define the services and agendas provided by third sector organisations such as greater adequacy to peo- ple’s needs and special attention to the needs of the most marginalised groups, being the case of the disability movement probably the exception.
These voices are almost totally absent from the public arena, for lack of mobilisation capacity but mainly for the existing barriers to their entry, to which the existing corporatist arrangements within the third sector also contributes.

Clearly, there is a tension between a role for third sector or- ganisations as expression/carers of the most marginalised or specific groups or as expression/carers of society as a whole.
Once more, this is Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 321 very much the result of the way the third sector is embedded in a particu- lar society.

Finally, considering the conditions for change, the Portuguese peak organisations in the field of social services resist path breaking changes as they will certainly undermine their power structures, organised at the national level with a privileged relationship with the government.
For instance, the municipalisation of policies is seen as creating concurrence between third sector organisations and the local government, if not open- ing possibilities for more clientelist and particularistic relationships through deepening the dependency from local government.
On the other hand, any attempt by the state to take up as public responsibility part of the services that are being provided, almost exclusively, by third sector organisations can be seen as a threat to the survival of the sector, thus resisted.

Indeed, we could not think of anything more different than the role of advancing social citizenship rights that third sector organisations in the Nordic countries are said to be performing.
It is thus this role we must keep highlighted when talking about the third sector.

References Andreotti, A., Garcia, S., Gomez, A., Hespanha, P., Kazepov, Y., and Min- gione, E. (2001) ‘Does a Southern Eu- ropean model exist?’, Journal of Eu- ropean Area Studies, 9 (1): 43–62.

Anheier, H.K.

and Seibel W. (1997) “Germany”, in Salamon, L.M.

and Anheier, H.K.

(orgs.

), Defining the Nonprofit Sector: A cross-national analysis, Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Sector Series.
Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 128–168.

CIRIEC (2000) The Enterprises and Organizations of the Third System: A Strategic Challenge for Employment.

Liège: CIRIEC.

DGEEP (2004) Carta Social – Rede de Serviços e Equipamentos: Relatório 2003, Ministério da Segurança Social, da Família e da Criança/Direcção- Geral de Estudos, Estatística e Plane- amento (http://www.dgeep.
mtss.gov.pt/estudos/cartasocial/csocial 2003.pdf) DiMaggio, P. J., and Powell, W. W. (1991) The Iron Cage Revisited: Insti- tutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality, in DiMaggio, P. J.; Pow- ell, W. W.

(eds.

), The New Institution- alism in Organizational Analysis, Chi- cago: University of Chicago Press: 63–82.

Esping-Andersen G. (1990) The Three Worlds Of Welfare Capitalism.

Cam- bridge: Polity Press.

Esping-Andersen G. (1999) Social foun- dations of post-industrial economies.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Evers, A.

(1995) “Part of the welfare Mix: The Third Sector as an Interme- diate Area”, Voluntas, 6 (2), 159–182.

322 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Evers, A.

(2004) “Mixed Welfare Sys- tems and Hybrid Organisations – Changes in the Governance and Provision of Social Services”, Paper presented at the Sixth International Conference of the International Soci- ety for Third-Sector Research, To- ronto, July 11–14.

Ferreira, S.M.D.
Ferreira, S.M.D.

(2000) O papel das organizações do terceiro sector na reforma das políticas públicas de pro- tecção social, dissertação de mestrado, Coimbra: FEUC.

Ferreira, S. (2005) “The Past in the Present: Portuguese Social Security Reform”, Social Policy & Society 4:3, 331–338.

Ferrera, M. (1996) “The ‘Southern Model’ of Welfare in Social Europe”, Journal of European Social Policy, 6 (1), 17–37.

Franco, R.C., Sokolowski, S. W., Hairel, E.M.H., Salamon, L.M.
(2005) The Portuguese Non-profit Sector in Com- parative Perspective, Universidade Católica Portuguesa/Johns Hopkins University (http://www.jhu.edu /%7Ecnp/pdf/Portugal_Nat_Rpt.pdf).

Goodin, E.E., Headey, B., Muffels, R. and Dirven, H. (1999) The Real Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press.

Guibentif, P. (1997) ‘The transformation of the Portuguese Social Security Sys- tem’, in M. Rhodes (Ed.
), Southern European Welfare States: Between Crisis and Reform, London: Frank Cass, pp.

219–239.

Hespanha, P., Monteiro, A., Ferreira, A.C., Rodrigues, F., Nunes M.H., Hespanha, M.J., Madeira, R., Hoven, R.V.D.

and Portugal, S. (2000) Entre o Estado e o Mercado: As Fragilidades das Instituições de Protecção Social em Portugal.

Coimbra: Quarteto.

Jessop, Bob (2002) The Future of the Capitalist State, Cambridge: Polity.
Johnson N. (1999) Mixed Economies of Welfare: a comparative perspective, London: Prentice Hall.

Kurth, J.

(1993) “A tale of four coun- tries: parallel politics in Southern Europe, 1815–1990”, in Kurth, J. and Petras, J.

(eds.

), Mediterranean para- doxes: politics and social structure in Southern Europe, Oxford: Berg Pub- lishers, 27–66.

Leibfried, S. (1992) “Towards a Euro- pean Welfare State?

On Integrating Poverty Regimes into the European Community”, Ferge Z. and Kolberg (orgs.
), Social Policy in a Changing Europe.

Boulder, CO: Campus/Westview.

Matthies, A.

(2005a) “Citizens’ interme- diate organisations in the Nordic Countries – an answer to the chal- lenges of the Welfare State Model?”, paper presented at the First European conference of EMES and ISTR, Concepts of the third-sector, The European debate, Paris, April 27–29.

Matthies, A.
Matthies, A.

(2005b) “Citizens’ interme- diate organisations and governance of the challenges of welfare in Nordic societies – comparative analysis of focussed aspects of the research pro- ject”, presented at the European Work- shop Citizens’ intermediate organisa- tions, Magdeburg, 24–25 November.

Minkoff, D.C. (2002) “The Emergence of Hybrid Organizational Forms: Combining Identity-Based Service Provision and Political Action”, Non- profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 31 (3).
Montagut, T. (2005) “The third sector and the policy process in Spain”, Third Sector European Policy Working Papers, 2, LSE.

Pestoff, V.A.

(1998) Beyond the market and state: social enterprise and civil democracy in a welfare society.

Alder- shot, Hants, England; Brookfield, Vt., USA: Ashgate Pub.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 323 Powell, M. and Barrientos, A.

(2004) “Welfare regimes and the welfare mix”, European Journal of Political Research, 43 (1): 83–105.
Ranci, C., Pellegrino, M. and Pavolini, E. (2005) “The third sector and the policy process in Italy: Between mu- tual accommodation and new forms of partnership”, Third Sector European Policy Working Papers, 4, LSE.

Rhodes (1997) “Southern European welfare states: identity, problems and prospects for reform”, in M. Rhodes (Ed.

), Southern European Welfare States: Between Crisis and Reform, London: Frank Cass, pp.

1–22.
1–22.

Rodrigues F. (1999) Assistência Social e Políticas Sociais em Portugal, Lisboa: ISSScoop/CPIHTS.

Salamon, L.M.

(1987) “Partners in Pub- lic Service: the Scope and Theory of Government-Nonprofit Relations”, in Powell, W.W., (org.)

(1987), The Non- profit Sector: A Research Handbook.

New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 99–117.

Salamon, L.M.

and Anheier, H.K.

(1998) “Social Origins of Civil Society: Ex- plaining the Nonprofit Sector Cross- Nationaly”, Voluntas, 9(3), 213–248.
Santos, Boaventura de Sousa (1990) O Estado e a sociedade em Portugal (1974–1988).

Porto: Edições Afronta- mento.

Schmitter, P.C.

(1999) Portugal: do Autoritarismo à Democracia.

Lisboa: Instituto de Ciências Sociais.

Streeck, W. and Schmitter, P.C.

(1985) “Community, market, state – and asso- ciations?

The prospective contribution of interest governance to social order”, Wolfgang Streeck and Philippe C. Schmitter (orgs.

), Private Interest Government: Beyond Market and State.

London: Sage, 1–29.
London: Sage, 1–29.

Trifiletty, R. (1999) “Southern European welfare regimes and the worsening position of women”, Journal of Euro- pean Social Policy, 9 (1): 49–64.

Wincott, D. (2001) “Reassessing the Social Foundations Welfare (State) Regimes”, New Political Economy, 6(3): 409–425.

Zimmer, A.

(1999) “Corporatism Revis- ited – The Legacy of History and the German Nonprofit Sector”, Voluntas, 10(1), 39–49.
324 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 7.4 What is the role of the third sector in Nordic care for elderly people?

Eva Jeppsson Grassman Introduction Does the third sector have a role in care for elderly people in the Nordic countries?

If it does, how can this role be described and understood?

These questions formed the point of departure for a literature review con- ducted for the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2005 (Jeppsson Grassman 2005).
They are, however, also time-bound questions, to be interpreted within a context of welfare changes in the Nordic countries going on since 15–20 years, entailing a search for new solutions but also new re- search interests.
“Welfare states in transition” has become a key element in a rhetoric implying that the welfare regimes in advanced Western societies face important challenges today: such as needs for national adaptation to glob- alisation, and not least to the current demographic situation with ageing populations and low fertility rates, in fact challenges related to with the very fundaments of the welfare states (Esping Andersen 1996).
Whatever welfare solutions have been chosen – and they vary in the different Euro- pean countries – many countries have, in the past 10–15 years, seen not only cuts in public expenditure, stricter welfare priorities, etc.

as ways to face current pressures on the welfare systems, but also a new interest in the potential of alternative actors as welfare providers.
“The welfare state in transition” discourse does not only concern the financing of the welfare state but also the organisation of it as well as the provision of welfare services (Jeppsson Grassman 2004b).

Hence, the question concerning the role of the third sector in elder care in the Nordic countries seems per- fectly relevant at this time in history.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 325 7.4.1 A multifaceted question However, there is no simple answer and the question in focus is multifac- eted, this is a conclusion to be drawn from the results of the extensive literature review which was performed (Jeppsson Grassman 2005).
In the Nordic countries there is definitely, by tradition, care for old people in various forms within the sector of society which is neither the state, nor the market or the family but that “space of many meanings” in between these sectors (Amnå 1995) and which is called the third sector.

This sec- tor, however, has not had a clear cut role in Nordic welfare provision the way it does in many countries in Continental Europe.
This may be one reason why the possible welfare aspects of the third sector have generally been neglected in Nordic welfare research (Kuhnle & Selle 1992) while, at the same time, Nordic research on the third sector traditionally has not taken an interest in the welfare aspects of the sector.

This has left an empty space – a “terra incognita”109 – which only in the past two decades gradually has been explored, parallel to transitions in the welfare state.
It is not surprising, then, that the research concerning the role of the third sector in the welfare and care for elderly people has not been par- ticularly developed in any of the Nordic countries (Jeppsson Grassman 2005).

As a consequence of this, there is no academic “state of the art” to use as a point of departure in research concerning this question.
Rather, in order to get a grip on the issue, it has been necessary to examine several of the research discourses on the third sector in the Nordic countries and from them derive questions and conclusions which specifically concern care for the elderly (cf Habermann & Jeppsson Grassman 1999).

With care for the elderly as “conceptual grid” there are various entries into this field which are possible and relevant.
These are, for instance, the tradi- tional organisational characteristics of the Nordic third sectors and the division of responsibilities between different sectors of society, the popu- lar movement tradition, the relationship between paid and unpaid work as well as international comparisons.
An important entry, furthermore, is the new public interest in the third sector and its possible care potential, which has been seen in all Nordic countries, not least in areas which con- cern old people and the increasing need for elderly care.

Some of these entries will briefly be addressed in this chapter: First the more traditional 109 Expression used by for instance Archambault (1997) and by Salamon & Anheier (1996) when describing the state of the art in third sector research.
326 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services characteristics of the sector and their relevance for elder care will be de- scribed, followed by a presentation of the more recent trends in the Nor- dic countries, with relevance for elderly people, and the kind of third sector research that this has entailed.
7.4.2 The third sector in a Nordic context – relational perspectives The third sector – it is all those associations which we have so many of in the Nordic countries, as well as cooperatives and foundations.110 This means that we encircle a phenomenon which includes everything from, for instance, a hospital where the Red Cross is a provider of health care to a small local sports association for senior citizens.

Furthermore, we have to include paid as well as unpaid work.
Contrary to common views and assumptions proclaimed internationally, rooted in various theories as well as in more internal national ideological debates,111 implying that coun- tries with an extensive public sector, as in the Nordic welfare states, could not have a well developed third sector, broad international comparisons carried out in the past 10–15 years have given a different picture.
These studies demonstrate quite clearly that the third sector is extensive in all Nordic countries, in spite of the “state character” of the Scandinavian model of welfare.

This has been one of the discoveries of the 1990s within international third sector research and this has brought about a need for revision of previous assumptions (Salamon et al 1999).
The Nordic countries are dense in third sector organisations, but the responsi- bility not only for financing but also for organising and providing health- and social care as well as other welfare services still mainly remains that of the public sector, in spite of recent trends.
The intensified researching of the third sector in the Nordic countries which has been taken place in the past 10–15 years, has, furthermore, entailed a new and vivid interest in clarifying and pin-pointing the boundaries and relationships between the different sectors of society in order to understand the complex interdependence between them.
Here, the Norwegian scholars Kuhnle & Selle (1992) have been pioneers through their studies of the consequences of the interdependence between 110 For definitions based on the Nordic countries, see for example Lorentzen & Selle (2000); Helander & Sundback (1998); Lundström & Wijkström (1997).

111 Zetterberg, H. & Ljungberg, C. J.

(1997); James (1989); Boli (1991); Svenska Dagbladet (1991) cf.

Lundström & Svedberg (1998).


Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 327 the sectors of society and the impact of this in a Nordic context.

This relational perspective has had paradigmatic importance for Nordic third sector research in so far that it has pointed out that, in order to understand the shape of one sector of society, you have to include the other sectors in the analysis.
The shape of the welfare state, for instance, helps us under- stand why the third sectors in the Nordic countries have their main focus on activities such as sport, leisure and culture rather than on health and welfare.
One important empirical base for the discussion has been the comprehensive Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Study in which around 35 countries have participated.112 This study has validated the relational paradigm and brought the contours of the third sector of the Nordic countries into light.
The results of these studies indicate that, in comparison with other European countries the Nordic countries113 have third sectors which in economic terms are not unimportant, equivalent in size with those in, for instance, France and Germany.

However, even if the Nordic countries have large third sectors they are much less “professional in character” than in other European countries.

Employment in the third sector is lim- ited, Sweden being the extreme case here.
The major part of all work is carried out by volunteers.

Particularly the third sectors in Sweden and Norway stand out as “popular” and their activities are carried by massive volunteer work.

This, in turn, illustrates what has already been pointed out: in the Nordic countries the third sector does not have responsibility for areas which necessarily demand extensive professional, paid work, such as health- and elder care.
As demonstrated in Table 1 in Sweden those employed in third sector organisations in health- and social care constitute only 17% of all those employed in the sector,114 while the equivalent share in for instance Germany is 68%.
There are, however, also variations between the Nordic countries in this respect.115 A point to be made is that care for elderly people that actually does take place in the third sector must, to a great extent, be understood in a grass-root context where care is based on unpaid, volunteer work.

112 See for instance Salamon , Sokolowski & List (2003).

113 Results from the Danish study have, to date, not been reported, Iceland has not yet par- ticipated in the study.
114 Calculated as full time jobs 115 Norway scores relatively high on social care, mainly due to the important role that the third sector plays in child care (Sivesind et al.

2002).

328 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Table 1.
The third sector in seven European countries, by share of GDP, employ- ment, volunteering and share of employment in health- and care organisations The Third Sector Sweden Norway Finland GB France Germany NL % Economic turnover in the third sector as share of GDP Share of employed in the third sector in relationship to total employment* Share of total work in the third sector carried out in the form of volunteer work Share of employed in third health organisations in relation- ship to all employed in the voluntary sector Share employed in third social care organisations in relation- ship to all employed in the voluntary sector Sources: Lundström & Wijkström (1997); Salamon et al (1999); Salamon, Sokolowski & List (2003) *Calculated as full-time employment 7.4.2.1 Care in a popular movement-context The shape of the welfare state helps us understand not only why the third sectors in the Nordic countries have their main focus on activities such as sport, leisure and culture associations rather than health and welfare, but also why the “welfare activities” that do take place in the Nordic third sectors are shaped the way they are.
This has great relevance for the un- derstanding of the issue of elder care.

Instead of being contracted “pro- vider organisations”, most Nordic organisations in welfare and care are membership-based associations, that operate mainly through volunteers who work for the welfare of their co-members.

They are “we for us”- organisations, inspired by the Scandinavian popular movement tradition, stressing common interests and self-help (Habermann 2001; Meeuwisse & Sunesson 1998).
Jeppsson Grassman & Svedberg (2001, 1996, 1995) found that in these “we for us-organisations” (patient organisations, or- ganisations for disabled people, pensioners organisations, etc.)

mutual care and support seemed to grow out of the membership, the common problem or identity, as well as out of the participation.

Caring seemed to be more or less integrated with the associative activities.

Concepts such as “social service” or “client” do not seem relevant in this context.
Nei- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 329 ther do these care activities fit very well the traditional categories with which social care is normally captured in welfare research and in com- parative third sector research.

A more relevant approach to the theoretical understanding of this type of care might be within a context of networks and social capital (Jeppsson Grassman & Svedberg 2006; Jeppsson Grassman 2004a).
Many of the associations which provide this type of care were created during the “Golden Age of the welfare state”,116 and many focus on older people and their membership.

The question concerning the role of the third sector in Nordic care for older people cannot be answered unless these features of the third sector are included.
Exempt from the main responsibility of providing professional care, these associations can func- tion as a “complement” to the public sector, for members that have heart- or lung disease, are disabled, suffer from cancer, are informal carers to people suffering from dementia, etc – populations in which the share of older people is important.

The many large organisations for pensioners add to this panorama.
Older adults not only receive care within this par- ticular context of organisations, they also often offer care themselves as volunteers and on a mutual basis.

7.4.2.2 Older volunteers Implicit in this reasoning is the fact that the activities in these organisa- tions are carried by volunteers, not least older volunteers.
National sur- veys in the Nordic countries indicate that retired people are not only gen- erally quite often involved in volunteering, they are often specifically focused on volunteering in organisations which are motivated by welfare goals (Habermann 2001; Wollebæck, Selle & Lorentzen 2000; Jeppsson Grassman & Svedberg 1999; Anker & Koch Nielsen 1995).
This point is further elucidated by results from the World Values Study which regu- larly maps the extent of volunteering in different countries in their sur- veys.117 One category of volunteering concerns volunteer work in organi- sations working for the welfare of elderly people.

The extent of volun- teering in such organisations vary somewhat between the Nordic coun- 116 The “Golden Age” often implies the 1960s and 1970s, in a Nordic context.
117 For the World Values Study, which regularly collects data on beliefs and values, surveys were conducted in 81 countries in 1999-2002 (Inglehart et al.

2004).

330 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services tries, as indicated by Table 2,118 as it does between other European coun- tries.

More interesting is perhaps the age pattern: Table 2.

Share of population volunteering in organisations for elderly people, total and among those who are 65+.
Eight European countries (year 2000) Share of population volunteering in org.

for elderly people Total (%) Share of population 65+ volunteering in org.

for elderly people (%) BASE Based on Inglehart et al 2004.
Denmark Finland Iceland Sweden GB France Germany NL 4 19 7.2 18 8.7 22 9.2 13.5 4.1 26 18.6 5.5 1.9 2.7 9.3 18.4 1023 1038 968 1014 995 1615 2035 1002 With the exception of Denmark, the Nordic countries have volunteer work in organisations for elderly people of the same magnitude as the Netherlands (a country which has extensive volunteering, generally speaking), and it is by far more common than in France and Germany.
The age pattern has the same direction in all countries: Those 65 years or older dominate this type of volunteer work.

Older people volunteer for older people in organisations which, in various ways are motivated by the welfare of older people.

This pattern goes for all studied countries.

The pattern is, however, particularly striking in the Nordic countries.
This confirms the overall patterns: these countries have extensive third sectors but they have a limited importance in professional care provision.

Rather, they are “popular” in character, with few employed and many volunteers, an important share of which are older people.

7.4.2.3 Traditional niches It is, however, worth noting that the Nordic countries, to varying degrees, actually also do some have provider organisations in welfare which le- gally are third sector organisations.
This is not least true concerning care for the elderly.

Many of these organisations are old, a fact that illustrates that some of them have been able to keep their “niches” within welfare, through the phases of successive public “taking over” during the devel- opment of the welfare state (Bundesen, Skov Henriksen & Jørgensen 118 Norway did not include this question in their survey.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 331 2001; Lundström & Wijkström 1997).
There are several voluntary or- ganisations which run institutions or special housing for old people in the Nordic countries.
In Finland, they play an important role within institu- tional care for old people (Södergård 1998), In Iceland, third sector or- ganisations dominate the institutional care (Björk Eydal & Sigurardadót- tir, 2003; Broddadottir et al 1997) and in Denmark “the independent or- ganisations” have, by tradition, been important in elderly care, although some of them, today, are fighting for their survival (Syberg Henriksen 2003).
The historical development of some of these organisations have been explored in research, for instance in Denmark (Bundesen, Skov Henriksen & Jørgensen 2001) and in Sweden (Leis 2004).

7.4.3 A new construction of the third sector The ways in which the third sector has been invested with interest in the Nordic countries vary over time.

In the past 15 years the political interest in the sector has increased considerably and it is no longer only its impor- tance for democracy which has been underlined.
This “new” interest could first be seen in Denmark and Norway, later followed by Sweden, Finland and Iceland (Habermann & Jeppsson Grassman 1999).

In a cer- tain sense, it is a new construction of the third sector that is being made, where the potential of welfare provision of the sector is placed more in the centre.

This is in line with a general tendency in the Western world (Jeppson Grassman 2004b).
Often this new orientation seems to parallel processes of increased decentralisation and/or general privatisation (Eikås, 2001; Harris, Rochester & Halfpenny, 2001; Trydegård, 2001 Archambault, 1997).

The new way of focusing on the third sector has followed rather similar paths in the Nordic countries.
The background, albeit certain national variations, has to do with strained national budgets and the economic “crisis” of the welfare state, but also new ideological orientations which include criticism of the traditional Nordic welfare state (Habermann & Jeppsson Grassman, 1999; Jeppsson Grassman & Sved- berg, 1999; Helander & Laksonen, 1998; Lundström & Wijkström, 1997; Lorentzen, 1995;).
“Other welfare providers” apart from the public sector, in fact more welfare pluralism, were asked for, particularly in the begin- ning of the 1990s, and on a national as well as on a local level (Jeppsson Grassman 2001; Ibsen 1995; Lorentzen 1995).

Often this debate was held 332 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services in general terms.

However, whenever it took on a more specific character older people and their care needs were often referred to.
A retrospective view on the past 15 years indicates three main areas in which this new interest in the welfare potential of the third sector in the Nordic countries specifically has relevance for the question of older peo- ple and their care needs.

These areas are: The third sector as “alternative professional provider” in elder care, increasing demands for volunteer work at the local level and new forms of collaboration between voluntary organisations and local authorities.
7.4.3.1 The third sector as an alternative professional provider in elder care In Sweden, the 1990s are said to be the decade of market and privatisa- tion.

The same pattern can be seen in the other Nordic countries, but have, according to Selle (2001) who reviewed the issue, expanded most rapidly in Sweden.

A market discourse, not heard before, took an impor- tant place in the debate on welfare.
The concept of privatisation generally implies that services, earlier provided by the public sector, have come to be “taken over” and provided by the market, i.e.

by for-profit actors.

Trends of privatisation in this sense can be seen in various forms in sev- eral European countries, the Nordic countries included, mainly dated to the 1990s.

The concept of privatisation is, however, multifaceted and rather ambiguous.
Privatisation can in fact include an increased focus on contributions (in the form of financing, organisation and provision) from all agencies/sectors who are not the public sector, that is to say the vol- untary sector, church, family as well.

It may also concern market-oriented forms of management in the public sector.
Principals of New Public Management have in fact been introduced in management systems in municipalities in all Nordic countries in the 1990s, to various degrees (Szebehely 2005; Vabø 2005).

Most often, however, privatisation is discussed with reference to the type of provider and with the transference of provision from the public to the private sector.

Contracted services, i.e.


publicly financed and regu- lated care services provided by other actors than the municipalities them- selves became a common feature during the 1990s.
Trydegård (2001), who within the Governmental Commission of “the Balance Sheet of Wel- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 333 fare”119 analysed the development of privatisation of welfare provision (in the mentioned sense) in Sweden, looked into child care, schools, health care and care for disabled and elderly people, showed that within the welfare sector employment in private organisations had more than doubled in the 1990s.
The overall picture of the development was that it was the for-profits that had expanded their “market shares” to the detri- ment of the expansion of voluntary organisations and co-operatives.

This is interesting to note, not least since the public discourse about welfare pluralism, at the beginning of the 1990s, actually, at least initially, was mostly focused on the potential role of voluntary organisations in service provision.
In Finland, on the other hand, the privatisation of elder care has entailed a more important share of the “market” for voluntary organisa- tions (Szebehely 2005).

This pattern is well illustrated by the privatisation processes in the Swedish care for the elderly.

This welfare area is the one in which priva- tisation has accelerated the most.

Publicly financed but privately provided care for the elderly quadrupled in the 1990s.

The proportion of employees in private employment increased from 2.5 to 13%.
The voluntary organi- sations did in fact double their share of contracted provision in elder care during this decade in Sweden.

The for-profits, however, increased their share by more ten times.

The majority of these providers in the care for the elderly were large for-profit companies, where the four largest ones accounted for half of the contracted operations (Trydegård 2001).
The evaluations of the for-profits in this sector give a many-facetted picture with positive as well as negative components.120 The proliferation of private providers in elder care has been most rapid in the larger cities.
At the same time, there has been a certain growth in care services for the elderly in the form of co-operatives in scarcely populated parts of Swe- den, particularly in the North, as a way to address the need for jobs as well as the need for care services in these parts of Sweden (Svensson 2000; Björklund 1996).

It is not quite clear to what extent this trend exists in the other Nordic countries.

Helander & Sundback (1998) report an expansion of new co-operatives in Finland.
These are, however, mainly 119 This is a broad research project that, for the Government in Sweden, evaluated the ef- fects of the economic crisis in the 1990s in terms of livings conditions and welfare systems.

120 Andersson (2002), who evaluated the effects of the introduction of market models in the Swedish municipalities, argues that it is within the area of elder care that the for-profit rationale has had the most negative consequences.
334 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services work co-operatives, created in response to unemployment.

Sätre Åhlander (2003) who compared local development projects in Sweden and Norway concludes that the new co-operative movement has less importance in Norway; this also goes for co-operative elder care.
7.4.3.2 Increasing focus on volunteer work at a local level As seen in the previous section, it is the for-profits rather than the non- profits that, in the past 10–15 years, have gained market as actual provid- ers in welfare, not least in elder care, in spite of the prevalent discourse.

In fact, the emphasis on the importance of the voluntary organisations often seems to have functioned as an “ideological mantra” brought out by politicians off and on, depending on circumstances.
The contrast is strik- ing when this situation is compared to that at a local level.

Here, the new interest in the third sector has remained steady and beyond rhetoric.

Ho- wever, it is most often not primarily the voluntary organisations as poten- tial contracted providers of professional services that attract attention.
Rather, the focus is on one particular aspect of welfare provision and care, namely on unpaid volunteer work and the potential of this locally at a time of cut backs and new priorities in welfare allocation.

This particu- larly pertains to older people and to elder care.

This type of local interest can be seen in all Nordic countries (Lorentzen, Andersen & Brekke 1995; Norlin & Olsson 2000; Habermann, 2001 Olby 2001).
Local authorities often seem to have become dependent on these volunteer resources to “top up” care in various situations.

Therefore, volunteering needs to be “supported” and collaboration between voluntary organisations and the municipality needs to be “promoted”.

This can be read in innumerable municipal documents, programs, etc.

from all the Nordic countries ex- plored for the literature review and spanning the past ten years (Jeppsson Grassman 2005).
Volunteer work as a “complement” to public home care for elderly people has existed for many years, and it is managed by local voluntary organisations and churches.

What is new in this situation is that this type of work has been more clearly articulated during the past 15 years, from the organisations, but just as much from the local authorities, often with quite instrumental ambitions and demands.
A debate which started in the 1990s has from time to time questioned whether local volunteer work really functions as a “complement” to paid work they way it is supposed Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 335 to.

In practice, does it not often function as a replacement for paid work, particularly in areas where the scarcity of resources is more or less per- manent, as in elder care?
Critical voices in this debate have been certain voluntary organisations as well as representatives of trade unions and also scholars.

This sort of debate also goes on in other European countries (Jeppsson Grassman 2005).

Volunteer activities, in the form of visiting service, in order to create togetherness and to fight loneliness is a very common form of local vol- unteer activity in all five Nordic countries.

Often it is managed by The Red Cross or the Church.
Just as often, however, it is an activity within the very large and important pensioners´ organisations which exist in these countries.

Furthermore, Jeppsson Grassman (1994) found that many organisations for immigrants organised visiting services for their older members.

The most common “user group” of this type of volunteer ser- vices in all organisations are older, often frail, people.
It is interesting to note that, regarding the role of the third sector in elder care, it is the visit- ing service carried out by volunteers that is the aspect which has been researched most extensively in the past few years (Jeppsson Grassman 2005).121 A common finding is that, in this type of activity, not only the recipients of service are old people; the same goes for the volunteers, according to a pattern of “old people helping those who are even older” (Bonde Nielsen & Holst 1999).
Jeppsson Grassman (1994) conducted a series of case studies of Swedish organisations which focus on older peo- ple (in a broad sense).

She found that, even if the type of visiting service carried out by volunteers was similar in different organisations, the ideo- logical and values-based context in which this volunteer work was “em- bedded” varied considerably.
Another form of visiting service and volunteer work for ill and frail people which is “new” and rooted in the 1990s, is volunteering in institu- tions, such as hospitals, day centres, in hospices or in special housing for old people.

This type of activity has been inspired by Anglo-Saxon volun- teer movements (Whitaker 1999; Ternestedt & Westman 1995).

Even if, to date, it is rather restricted in scope in the Nordic countries, it has at- tracted interest from politicians as well as from scholars.
This particularly pertains to volunteer participation in palliative care (Whitaker 1999).

121 In Jeppsson Grassman 2005 this research is presented more in detail.

336 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 7.4.3.3 New forms of collaboration between local authorities and voluntary organisations Another feature in the local arena since the beginning of the 1990s has been the intensified focus on collaboration between local authorities and voluntary organisations.
This collaboration has gradually been made visi- ble, stressed and developed along somewhat varying patterns in the Nor- dic countries.

In most cases elderly people are a target group in these projects.

It is a new form of collaboration in the sense that it is often the public authorities, which take the initiative and see roles for themselves roles in steering functions, in ways which are foreign to Nordic traditions.
In Denmark, as well as in Sweden, this type of collaboration has been inscribed and is stipulated in the Social Services Act122 in recent years.

A specific form of collaboration which is a good illustration to the devel- opment in the 1990s is the creation of volunteer bureaux.

These are mod- ern “ad-hoc organisations”, often initiated by municipal actors in order to create local volunteer agencies with the aim of facilitating matching of volunteers with users who have various needs (Sivesind et al 2002).
Such bureaux have been established in all Nordic countries but it is in Norway that they are most common due to a broad state-initiated and partly state- financed project.

In 1997 there were 167 volunteer bureaux in Norway.

In 2001, people aged 60 or older constituted 65% of the users of the volun- teer services (Kloster, Lidén & Lorentzen 2003).
Another illustrative example where collaboration is a key word – in governmental texts and instructions – is the broad three year program launched by the Government in Sweden concerning support to informal care givers, 1999–2001.

As a part of its national governmental program for elder care123 the Government decided to invest 300 million Sv.kr.

in order to stimulate public support for those who are informal caregivers to frail old relatives in the municipalities.
Collaboration between local au- thorities and voluntary organisations was stipulated as a requirement in order for the municipality to obtain governmental funding for their pro- jects.

To link voluntary organisations to public services in this very pre- cise manner is a new phenomenon in Sweden (Jeppsson Grassman 2003; Trydegård 2003).
A great number of projects were launched in various parts of the country and they gave rise to various research projects, nota- 122 For further detail, see Jeppsson Grassman (2005).

123 Government Bill 1997/98:113.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 337 bly some in which the role of voluntary organisations in supporting care givers was specifically made visible (Dahlberg 2004; Jegermalm 2002; Jegermalm & Whitaker 2000).
7.4.4 Concluding remarks Does the third sector have a role in care for elderly people in the Nordic countries?

Hopefully the presentation in this chapter has validated the point made at the beginning of the chapter: The third sector does have a role in care for elderly people, but is it not clear a cut one as provider of professional services and the involvement of the sector in this task has different expressions and meanings.
“The welfare production” of Nordic third sectors is multi-facetted and not always easy to capture.

The care for elderly people is one illustrative example of this.

On the one hand, there are by tradition smaller niches of professional elder care in the third sec- tor, especially in the form of institutional care.
On the other hand, a very prominent feature of third sector care is shaped by and must be inter- preted within the Nordic welfare model: It is care within grass-root or- ganisations, carried out mainly by volunteers, many of them older volun- teers, and in the form of mutual support and where the care is embedded into participation in the activities of the association.
This presentation indicates that the core of the research question here – the concept of care – needs to be problematised if the elder care carried out in Nordic third sectors is to be made comprehensible and “done jus- tice”.

Nordic research on social care has earlier pointed out the fluid boundaries between the “essence” of formal and that of informal care, not least when it comes to rationality and reciprocity (Szebehely 1996; Wærness 1984).
In an equivalent way, associative, volunteer-oriented care in the third sector could be analysed and problematised (cf Jeppsson Grassman 2005).

Further research concerning the meaning of the concept of care in “we for us”-organisations could definitively add further knowl- edge to the care concept and thereby contribute to elucidating the overall question of the role of the third sector in elder care.
The new political, as well scholarly interest that has been seen in the Nordic countries in the past 15 years concerning the third sector has been parallel to transitional processes of the Nordic welfare states.

The dis- course on the benefits of welfare pluralism, from the beginning of the 338 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 1990s, seems definitely to have left marks, to various degrees, on welfare arrangements in the Nordic countries.
Privatisation seems to have come to stay.

It is interesting to note, however, that it is the market rather than the third, the non-profit sector that seems to have gained terrain as provider of welfare.

This is true for elder care, and particularly in Sweden, but to various degrees in the other Nordic countries as well.
It is, on the other hand, also interesting to note that the political interest at the local level has persistence when it comes to another aspect of the activities of the third sector: It is from in the local grass root activities of organisations, carried out by volunteers that the resources from the third sector are sought.
An illustrative pattern is the increased focus on volunteer partici- pation in care, particularly for elderly people, mainly in the form of visit- ing service from volunteers representing various organisations and churches.

Volunteer work as a “complement” to public care has existed for many years.
What is new in this situation is that this type of work has been more clearly articulated during the past 15 years, not least from the local authorities, and with new, quite instrumental ambitions and de- mands.

Local authorities see themselves in steering roles in relation to third sector projects much more clearly than earlier.

Good examples are the volunteer bureaux and the Swedish Governmental project concerning support to informal caregivers.
There has definitely been an increase in care carried out by the third sectors in the Nordic countries for elderly people, in the past 15 years.

Yet, one must remember that it still represents a minor part of all elder care produced.

The public sector still plays a heavy role in the Nordic countries as care provider.

However, it is in yet another sector that most of the elder care is produced: the family.
The major part of all helping and care in the Nordic societies is carried out on informal basis, just like in other European countries.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 339 References Amnå, E. (1995) Det mångtydiga mel- lanrummet.

I Amnå, E. (red), Med- mänsklighet att hyra?

Åtta forskare om ideell verksamhet.

Örebo: Libris.

Andersson, F. (2002) Konkurrens på kommunala villkor.

Stockholm: Svenska Kommunförbundet.

Anker, J.

& Koch Nielsen, I.


(1995) Det frivillige arbejde.

Köpenhamn: Social- forskningsinstitutet.

Rapport 95:3.

Archambault, E. (1997) The Nonprofit Sector in France.

Manchester: Man- chester University Press.

Björk Eydal, G. & Sigurđardóttir, S. (2003) Äldreomsorgen i Island – utveckling och framtidstendenser.

Nordiskt Sosialt Arbeid, 3, 162–171.

Björklund, E-M. (1996) Äldreomsorg och lokal utveckling: ömsesidighet som medel.

Umeå: Umeå universitet, Insti- tutionen för socialt arbete.
Boli, J.

(1991) Sweden: is there a viable third sector?

I Wuthnow, R. (red), Between States and Markets: the Vol- untary Sector in Comparative Perspec- tive.

Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Bonde Nielsen, E. & Holst, C. (1999) Ældre hjælper ældre.

Köpenhamn: Ældremobiliseringen.

Broddadóttir, I., Eydal, G., Hrafnsdóttir, S. & Sigurđardóttir, S. (1997) The de- velopment of local authority social services in Iceland.

I Sipilä, J.
I Sipilä, J.

(red), Social care Services: The Key to the Scandinavian Welfare Model.

Aldershot: Ashgate.

Bundesen, P., Skov Henriksen, L. & Jørgensen, A.

(2001) Filantropi, selvh- jælp og intresseorganisering.

Frivil- lige organisationer i dansk social- politik 1849–1990’erne.

Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag.

Dahlberg, L. (2004) Welfare Relation- ships: Voluntary Organisations and Local Authorities Supporting Relatives of Older People in Sweden.
Stock- holm: Stockholms universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen.

Eikås, M. (2001) New Public Manage- ment og restruktureringen av de nor- diske velferdsstatene – Endrede roller og relasjoner for de frivillige organisa- sjonene?

I Skov Henriksen, L. & Ib- sen, B.

(red), Frivillighedens udfor- dringer – nordisk forskning om frivilligt arbejde og frivillige organisa- tioner.

Odense: Odense Universitets- forlag.

Esping-Andersen, G.

(ed.)

(1996) Welfa- re States in Transition.


National Adap- tation in Global Economies.

London: Sage.

Government Bill 1997/98:113 Nationell handlingsplan för äldrepolitiken.

Habermann, U.

(2001a) En nordisk frivillighet?

Om motiver til frivillighed i fem nordiske lende.

I Skov Henrik- sen, L. & Ibsen, B.

(red), Frivillighe- dens udfordringer – nordisk forskning om frivilligt arbejde og frivillige orga- nisationer.

Odense: Odense Universi- tetsforlag.

Habermann, U.

(2001) En postmoderne helgen?


Om motiver til frivillighed.

Lund: Lunds universitet, Social- högskolan.

Lund Dissertation in Social Work 3.

Habermann, U.

& Jeppsson Grassman, E. (1999) Ideologi og kritisk udsyn – femten års nordisk forskning i frivilligt arbete.

I Frivilligt arbete, forskning och förmedling – en nordisk konferens i Reykjavik augusti 1998.

Göteborg: NOPUS.

NOPUS-rapport 1999:13.


340 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Helander, V.& Laaksonen H. (1999) Suomalainen kolmas sektori.

Helsinki: Sosiaalija terveysturvan keskusliitto.

Helander, V. & Sundback, S. (1998) Defining the Nonprofit Sector: Finland.

Abo Academy, Institute of Public Administration.

Working papers of the Johns Hopkins Compara- tive Nonporift Sector Project.
Harris, M., Rochester, C. & Halfpenny, P. ( 2001) Voluntary organisations and social policy: Twenty years of change.

In Harris, M. & Rochester, C. (eds) Voluntary Organisations and Social Policy in Britain.

Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Ibsen, B.

(1995) Forandringar i den frivillige organisering i den kulturelle og sociale sektor i Danmark.

I Frivillig organisering i Norden.

Bergen och Odense: TANO och Jurist- og Økonomiforbundets Forlag.
Inglehart, R., Basáňez, M., Diéz- Medrano, J., Halman, L. & Luijkx, R. (2004) Human Beliefs and Values.

A cross-cultural sourcebook based on the 1999–2002 values surveys.

Mex- ico: Siglo veintiuno editors.

James, E. (1989) The private provision of public service.

A comparison of Sweden and Holland.

In James, E. (red), The Nonprofit Sector in Interna- tional Perspective.

New York: Oxford University Press.

Jegermalm, M. (2002) Anhörigstöd.


En uppföljningsstudie av kommuners och frivilliga organisationers stöd till äld- res anhöriga.

Stockholm: Ersta Skön- dal högskola.

Sköndalsinstitutets ar- betsrapportserie, nr 25.

Jegermalm, M. & Whitaker, A.

(2000) Upptäckten av anhöriga?

Kommuners och frivilliga organisationers stöd till äldres anhöriga i Stockholms län.

Stockholm: Ersta sköndal högskola.

Sköndalsinstitutets rapportserie nr 17.


Jeppsson Grassman, E. (2005) På jakt efter den frivilliga sektorns roll inom nordisk äldreomsorg.

Forskning, ge- staltningar och perspektiv.

In Szebehe- ly, M.

(ed.

), Äldreomsorgsforskning i Norden.

En kunskapsöversikt.

Köpenhamn: Nordic Council of Ministers.

TemaNord 2005:508.

Jeppsson Grassman, E. (2004a) Makt, socialt kapital och hjälpgivande.

Om kvinnor och män i civilsamhället.

I Blennberger, E., Habermann, U.


& Jeppsson Grassman, E. Genus och ci- vilt samhälle.

Stockholm: Social- styrelsen.

Jeppsson Grassman, E. (2004b) Welfare in Europe: New trends and old re- gimes.

I Edgardh Beckman, N. (red) (2004) Welfare, Church and Gender in Eight European Countries.

Uppsala: Diakonivetenskapliga Institutet.

Work- ing Paper 1 from the project Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective.

Jeppsson Grassman, E. (2003) Anhörig- insatser och medborgarengagemang.
Inriktning och profiler.

In Jeppsson Grassman, E.

(ed.

), Anhörigskapets uttrycksformer.

Lund: Student- litteratur.

Jeppsson Grassman, E (1994) Third Age Volunteering in Sweden.

Stockholm: Sköndalsinstitutet.

Sköndalsinstitutets skriftserie nr 2.

Jeppsson Grassman, E. & Svedberg, L. (1995) Frivilligt socialt arbete i Sveri- ge – både mer eller mindre.

I Amnå, E. (red), Medmänsklighet att hyra?

Åtta forskare om ideell verksamhet.

Örebro: Libris.
Örebro: Libris.

Jeppsson Grassman, E. & Svedberg, L. (1996) Voluntary action in a Scandi- navian welfare context: the case of Sweden.

Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

25, 415–428.

Jeppsson Grassman, E. & Svedberg, L. (1999) Medborgarskapets gestaltnin- gar.

Insatser i och utanför föreningsli- vet.

I Amnå, E. (red), Civilsamhället.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 341 SOU 1999:84.

Demokratiutredningens forskarvolym nr 8.


Oslo: Institute for Social Research.

Report 2000:14.

Jeppsson Grassman, E. & Svedberg, L. (2001) Frivilliga insatser i svensk väl- färd – med utblickar mot de nordiska grannländerna.

I Skov Henriksen, L. & Ibsen, B.

(ed), Frivillighedens udfordringer – nordisk forskning om frivilligt arbejde og frivillige organisa- tioner.

Odense: Odense Universitets- forlag.


Jeppsson Grassman, E. & Svedberg, L. (2006) Civic participation in the wel- fare state: patterns in late-modern Sweden.

In Trädgårdh, L. (ed), The State & Civil Society in Norhern Europe: The Swedish Model Reconsid- ered: New York: Berghans books.

Kloster, E., Lidén, H. & Lorentzen, H. ( 2003) Frivillighetssentralen.

Resultat, erfaringer, forandringer.

Oslo: Insti- tutt for samfunnsforskning.

ISF rapport 2003: 004.


Kuhnle, S. & Selle, P. (1992) Govern- ment and voluntary organizations: a relational perspective.

I Kuhnle, S. & Selle, P. (red), Government and voluntary Organizations.

Aldershot: Avebury.

Leis, A.

(2004) Den kyrkliga diakonins roll inom ramen för två välfärdsstys- tem.

En jämförande fallstudie av två diakoniinstitutioner i Sverige och Tyskland.

Uppsala: Diakonivetenskap- liga Institutet.

Diakonivetenskapliga Institutets skriftserie, nr 7–2004.
Lorentzen, H. (1995) Frivillighet i vel- ferdsstaten.

I Klaudi Klausen, K. & Selle, P.

(eds.

), Frivillig organisering i Norden.

Bergen och Odense: TANO och Jurist- og Økonomiforbundets Forlag.

Lorentzen, H., Andersen, R.K. & Brek- ke, J-P. (1995) Ansvar for andre.

Fri- villighetssentralen i norsk velferdspoli- tik.

Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Lorentzen, H. & Selle, P. (2000) Nor- way: Defining the Voluntary Sector.
Lundström, T. & Svedberg, L. (1998) Svensk frivillighet i internationell be- lysning – en inledning.

Socialveten- skaplig Tidskrift, 5, 2–3, 106–127.

Lundström, T. & Wijkström, F. (1997) The Nonprofit Sector in Sweden.

Man- chester: Manchester University Press.

Meeuwisse, A. Sunesson, S. (1998) Frivilliga organisationer, socialt arbete och expertis.

Socialvetenskaplig Tidskrift, 2–3, 172–193.

Norlin, L. & Olsson, L-E. (2000) Part- ner sökes ─ Samverkan mellan kom- muner och frivilliga organisationer.
Stockholm: Sköndalsinstitutet.

Skön- dalsinstitutets metodbokserie, nr 1.

Olby, B.

(2001) Väntjänst och välfärd.

Ett brukarperspektiv.

Stockholm: Sköndalsinstitutet.

Sköndalsinstitutets arbetsrapportserie nr 22.

Salamon, L.M., Anheier, H.K., List, R. Toepler, S. Sokolowski, W. & Associ- ates (red) (1999) Global Civil Society: Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector.

Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Centre for Civil Society Studies.

Salamon, L. M., Sokolowski, S. W. & List, R. (2003) Global Civil Society .
Baltimore: Center for Civil Society Studies.

Selle, P. (2001) Privatisering som tidss- kel?

I Skov Henriksen, L. & Ibsen, B.

(red) (2001) Frivillighedens udfordringer – nordisk forskning om frivilligt arbejde og friv- illige organisationer.

Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag.

Sivesind, K.H., Lorentzen, H., Selle, P. & Wollebaek, D. (2002) The Voluntary Sector in Norway.

Composition, Changes and Causes.

Oslo.

Institutt for samfunnsforskning.

Report 2002:2.


Svenska Dagbladet (1991) Series of articles 1/12–21/12 1991 discussing the theme of charity.

342 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Svensson, L. (2000) Äldreomsorg i glesbygd.

Stockholm: Socialstyrelsen.

Äldreuppdraget 2000:12.

Syberg Henriksen, C. (2001) Selvejende institutioner på det sociale området: Aktuelle problemstillinger.

Köpen- hamn: Center for Alternativ Samfund- sanalys (CASA).
Szebehely, M. (2005) Nordisk äldreom- sorg – en sammanfattande diskussion.

In Szebehely, M.

(ed.

), Äldreomsorgs- forskning i Norden.

En kunskapsöver- sikt.

Köpenhamn: Nordic Council of Ministers.

TemaNord 2005:508.

Szebehely, M. (1996) Om omsorg och omsorgsforskning.

In Eliasson, R (ed.

), Omsorgens skiftningar.Lund: Student- litteratur.

Sätre Åhlander, A-M. (2003) Är väl- färdsstaterna Sverige och Norge på väg åt olika håll: om den nationella politikens roll i glesbygdens utveck- lingsprocess.
Stockholm: Arbetslivs- institutet.

Södergård, H. (1998) Sosiaali- ja terve- ysala käännekohdassa.

Helsinki: Sitra Ternestedt, B-M. & Westman, A.

(1995) Volontärverksamhet inom offentlig vård.

Från idé till verklighet.

Örebro: Centrum för vårdvetenskap.

Rapport- serie 1995:1.

Trydegård, G-B.

(2003) Swedish care reforms in the 1990s.

A first evaluation of their consequences for the elderly people.

Revue Francaise des Affaires Sociales.

57,4, 443–460.

Trydegård, G-B.


(2001) Välfärdstjänster till salu – privatisering och alternative driftformer under 1990-talet.

I Väl- färdstjänster i omvandling.

Kommittén Välfärdsbokslut/SOU 2001:52.

Stock- holm: Fritzes.

Vabø, M. (2005) New Public Manage- ment i nordisk äldreomsorg – hva forskes det på?

In Szebehely, M.

(ed.

), Äldreomsorgsforskning i Norden.

En kunskapsöversikt.

Köpenhamn: Nordic Council of Ministers.

TemaNord 2005:508.

Wærness, K. (1984) The Rationality of caring.


In Söder, M.

(ed.

), Economic and Industrial Democracy.

5, 2, 185–211.

Whitaker, A.

(1999) I livets slutskede: Frivilligmedverkan i vården.

Stock- holm: Socialstyrelsen.

Wollebæk, D. Selle, P. & Lorentzen, H. (2000) Frivillig innsats.

Social inte- grasjon, demokrati og økonomi.

Ber- gen: Fagbokforlaget.

Zetterberg, H. & Ljungberg, C. J.

(1997) Vårt land – den svenska socialstaten.
Stockholm: City University Press Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 343 7.5 Development and Perspectives of the Social Economy or Third Sector in Germany Karl Birkhölzer Introduction The following presentation is based on a joint research project on “Eco- nomic, Organisational and Social Aspects of the Third Sector in Ger- many”, which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Re- search, carried out between 2000 and 2002 by the Interdisciplinary Re- search Group “Local Economy” together with the International Institute for Empirical Socio-Economic Research (INIFES) and the Munich Insti- tute for Social Science Research (MISS) (Birkhölzer/Kistler/Mutz 2004).
Although the subject of this presentation – the social economy or third sector – seems to be widely acknowledged, in scientific terms it is still – at least in Germany – a widely unknown territory.

On the one hand, the sector is challenged with high expectations of integrating socially ex- cluded people, creating new and additional jobs as well as involving citi- zens in a more democratic way.
On the other hand, there is no adequate evidence from empirical research which could verify, differentiate or falsify these expectations.

This contradictory situation results in an un- foreseeable amount of work for further research and development, but we – at least in Germany – are still at the very beginning.
In developing adequate structures for social economy or third sector research one of the big difficulties is the fact that we can not built on a common or widely accepted understanding of terms, limitations or under- lying concepts.
To the contrary, the public as well as the political debate is dominated by a confusing variety of partly overlapping, partly contra- dictory terms like third sector or system, social, solidaric and/or commu- nity economy and so on, a problem which becomes even more compli- cated if we try to translate these terms into different languages.

Therefore, one of our first tasks was to sort out the different meanings and clarify the definitions and limitations we wanted to use.
Although this seems to be a very special German attitude, and in danger of fulfilling this prejudice once more, we felt the necessity to create at least a minimum of common understanding of what we are talking about.

344 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 7.5.1 Definitions and limitations One of the reasons to start with this problem was the fact that there was nothing like a special German social economy or third sector research tradition.
Even the terms were not used or put in totally different contexts which led to a lot of misunderstandings.

The most common were to iden- tify the “third sector” with the “service sector” or mix it up with the po- litical notion of a “third way”.

In a similar way the term “social econ- omy” was identified with “social services” or mixed up with the German post-war terminology of the “social market economy” or even with a renewed form of the old fashioned “socialist economy”.
Therefore, the issues of social economy and third sector have been in- troduced into German research more or less only by transnational re- search projects, but here again we have to distinguish between a more American dominated approach and a more European one, more or less derived from French taxonomies.

The first has been introduced by the well-known Johns Hopkins non-profit-sector comparative project.
This approach is deeply rooted in the typical american tradition of philan- thropic and civil society commitment under the conditions of a strong economic liberalism with the absence of a welfare state or at least very weak social welfare regulations.

Accordingly, the research activities are based on more societal or political questions, focussing on the “civil soci- ety” as counterpart to the liberal state.
Its main elements are named “non- governmental organisations/NGOs” and/or “nonprofitorganisations/ NPOs”.

Although these NGOs and NPOs have a strong economic impact, their motivation and activities are understood as more or less non- economic.

As in (neo-)liberal economics economic activities are always understood as “for-profit”, the alternative can only be understood as “non-economic”.
One of the consequences of this approach was that f. i. co-operatives, community development corporations and other collective economic activities have not been taken into consideration rsp.

included in the “third sector”.

This problem marks the main difference to the French-European ap- proach, represented f. i. by CIRIEC and others.

Their understanding of the “third sector” is basically economic, the elements of the sector are consequently called (social, community, collective) “enterprises” (f.i.
Borzaga/Defourny 2001; European Network 1997; Pearce 2003).

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 345 The alternative to traditional economic activities is not “to make a profit”, but “what happens with the profit” or “what is the profit for?”.

In this approach the underlying concept of economics is a pluralistic one arguing that there is more then just one (neo-liberal) economy.
This is a special European tradition which goes back to the movements for eco- nomic self-help in the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

Of course, these movements have very often changed their character, according to the political developments in the various countries, but they have defi- nitely influenced the concept of the European social welfare state or other forms of social contracts and partnerships.
In some countries, for instance in Germany, they have become a part of the public economy with the effect that economic self-help movements and activities seemed not to be necessary anymore and fell into oblivion.

But the recent crises of these European welfare states together with an increasing hegemony of neo- liberal concepts of globalisation brought the economic self-help move- ments and with them the concept of a “social economy” back on the agenda.
Germany is one of the countries where this happened rather late, and it is interesting to notice that the American third sector approach is much better known and more accepted than the social economy approach developed and practised by our European neighbours.

Things may change, but Germany in this respect is still a “developing country”.
This statement may sound strange to those who know that Germany up to the thirties of the last century was a country with probably one of the most developed co-operative sectors, but this traditions have been almost submerged on one hand in the period of nazi-dictatorship and on the other hand in the long period of economic prosperity in post-war Germany, reaching its climax in the breakdown of the trade union led “Gemeinwirtschaft” under dubious circumstances.
Finally, co-operatives and other collective forms of economic activities have been almost dis- credited by the way how collectivism has been installed and imposed from above in Eastern Germany and Eastern Europe.

Nevertheless, as we will point out later in more detail, a lot of these initiatives have survived on a grass roots level without any acknowledgement in the public or po- litical sphere as well as in the academic world.
It was the antiauthoritarian movement in the late sixties which gave way to the rise of “new” social movements in the seventies and eighties in Germany.

Some of them re- discovered submerged traditions, but the majority tried to reevent the 346 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services wheel.
This led to a paradox phenomenon that the “real existing” social economy sector in Germany is quite big in numbers (organisations as well as employees), but is split up in dispersed “milieus” which do not see each other as belonging to a coherent “sector”, with the result that they do not work together or even talk to each other.
Again, things are changing slowly, but so far only very few (out of the much bigger potential spec- trum) accept that there is something like a “third sector” or “social econ- omy” in Germany which needs to be explored, developed and organised as well as supported by scientific research, education and training and other intermediary services.

In achieving this we need to agree (not only in Germany) on a com- mon understanding what we mean by these terms.
In 2002 a first sympo- sium on this questions was held in Berlin; the debate and the results will be published soon (Birkhölzer/Klein/Priller/Zimmer 2005).

At this symposium it was pointed out that the existing approaches mentioned above have to be integrated; the civil society aspect and the socio-economic aspect are two sides of the same coin.
Taking this into consideration we proposed for the purpose of our survey on size and qual- ity of the third sector or social economy in Germany the following set of terms and limitations: • The term “third sector” will be understood as the wider term, include- ing all civil society organisations (CSOs), the economically active as well as the non-economic ones.
• The term “social economy” (as well as the sometimes used term “third system”) focuses on the explicitly economic active parts of the “third sector”, but includes – according to the European tradition – also hybrid structures combining elements from the third and the first, private sector (for instance in the co-operative sector) as well as between the third and the second, public sector (for instance in the welfare and/or social services sector).
• The term “social enterprise” will be understood as the overall term for all economic units out of which the “social economy” (or “third system”) is composed.
• Accordingly with the term “social enterprise culture” shall be iden- tified the special “mode of production” (or economic rational) in which the “social enterprises” operate, together with their specific Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 347 environment of support structures, intermediaries and political frameworks.

The research we started in 2000 focused mainly on the explicitly eco- nomic active part of the “third sector”, i.e.
the “social economy”, because we were convinced that the most innovative potential of the sector is to be found in its economic activities.

This “third (economic) system” can be delimited from the “first sector”, i.e.

the private, profit-oriented economy, and from the “second sector”, i.e.

the state-governed, public economy, by the following criteria: • • • • It is a private economic activity (according to private law) to achieve social and/or community-oriented objectives.
It emerges from voluntary initiatives and organisations of citizens which feel affected from and organise around conflicts and/or unmet needs in the social, ecological, cultural and/or economic sphere.

Its economic objectives are subordinated (or at least secondary) to its social and/or community-oriented objectives.

Its economic activities are based on collective, co-operative or com- munity-oriented entrepreneurship.
In other words, the “social economy” (“third system”) could be character- ised by the following cornerstones: civil society based entrepreneurship, • Priority of social and/or community-oriented objectives, • • profits for the common good and • co-operative structures.

We have tried to find a new methodology avoiding to delimit the sector alongside institutional criteria or legal structures, as it seems to be still the case in European institutions.
The traditional subdivision of the “social economy” into the four pillars of co-operatives, mutual organisations, associations and foundations, in short CMAF, created a lot of confusion, because the institutional regulations and legal structures in the various countries of the European Union are very much different and not compa- rable.
To achieve real comparability on a European level it would be 348 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services necessary to identify criteria which could be applied irrespective of the political, juridical and cultural specialities of the various countries.

On the other hand, this methodological approach causes some problems, because we will not find these criteria in the official statistics.
Therefore, any quantitative measurement and especially comparative analysis are up to now very difficult, and – from a scientific point of view – we have to be very careful with already existing data.

7.5.2 Emergence and development of a growing sector Having said that, we can nevertheless draw the conclusion from the exist- ing research that we talk about – a sector of the economy with above- average growth rates, concerning the number of enterprises as well as jobs.
This has been proved not only by the Johns Hopkins project for America and a lot of other countries, but also within the EU-community initiative “Third System and Employment” for the European Union in general (CIRIEC 2000; see also Birkhölzer et al.

1998 and 1999).

This could be also confirmed by our recent research for Germany where we could identify a growth rate in employment of up to 4% (between 1999 and 2000 only).
Furthermore, within the EU-programme “Third System and Employment” it became very clear that the employment potential within the sector is not exhausted at all but seems to be blocked by a number of bureaucratic and other obstacles (Campbell 1999), of which the most important in our opinion seems to be a lack of understanding of the special nature of the social economy, how f. i. social enterprises func- tion, how they can be run successfully and what they need for further development.
This remarkable growth potential is based on the ability of social en- terprises to open up new market opportunities by serving unmet needs in the environmental, social and/or cultural sector.

Although the survey showed a concentration of activities in these three fields, it became also evident that social enterprises are by no means restricted to these fields of activity.
To the opposite, social enterprise activities were discovered in almost all sectors of the economy, from agriculture and food production up to industrial manufacturing and high-tech services.

The second and probably more important growth factor is the ability of social enterprises to cope with limited markets in socially or regionally Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 349 disadvantaged areas.
They emerge – like the early co-operative and self- help movement in the 19th century – as instruments of economic self-help against economic and social decline, mainly in times, sectors or regions in which the traditional economic forces, the private economy and/or the state for whatever reasons retreat or failed (Birkhölzer 1999a and 1999b).

Therefore, social enterprises are very much related to the emergence and development of social movements which organise around unsolved conflicts or unmet needs.
Taking this into consideration, the social econ- omy sector is deeply rooted in a history of more then 150 years, in which new forms of crises, conflicts or unmet needs have always given rise to new types and forms of social enterprises.

In this respect, we felt that the best way to map the social enterprise culture was to start with the questions of who, where and when has started economic self-help initiatives, and why and under what circum- stances they have been developed.
Starting from this historic-dynamic approach we could establish not only a chronology but also a typology of the social enterprise culture in Germany (and probably beyond): In Germany we are able to distinguish between two periods.
For the first there is a group of elder social economy movements, consisting of • • • • co-operatives (“Genossenschaften”), charities (“Wohlfahrtsorganisationen”); foundations (“Stiftungen”) and traditional associations (“ideelle Vereinigungen”), and which date back to the early stages of industrialisation and have, of course, changed its character several times since then.
Secondly, there is a group of younger social economy movements which emerged in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century (in other European countries often much ear- lier) alongside the new phenomena of crises caused by the transformation processes to a post-industrial society.

We can count to them: • integration rsp.
insertion enterprises for and/or of disadvantaged groups (“Integrationsbetriebe”), • volunteer services and agencies (“Freiwilligendienste und – agenturen”), 350 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services • self-managed enterprises of the alternative, women’s and environmental movements (“selbstverwaltete Betriebe”), self-help initiatives (“Selbsthilfebewegung”), socio-cultural enterprises (“sozio-kulturelle Zentren”), • • • work integration enterprises (“Beschäftigungs- und • Qualifizierungsgesellschaften”), local exchange and trading systems (“Tauschsysteme auf Gegenseitigkeit”) and • neighbourhood and/or community economy initiatives (“Nachbarschafts- und Gemeinwesenökonomieinitiativen”).
Some, of course, have taken up submerged traditions of the elder social economy movements and have – to some respect – also contributed to their revitalisation rsp.

modernisation.
modernisation.

Within this process of setting up new social enterprises we could iden- tify three types of motives which followed each other more or less from one decade to the next: • • • social enterprises as a practical tool for societal change (“alternative economy”), social enterprises as a response to mass unemployment, social enterprises as an instrument for local economic and/or community development.
7.5.3 Relevance, impact and potential 7.5.3.1 Economic development Within the EU-initiative “Third System and Employment” the size of the third sector was estimated up to 8.88 million jobs (in full-time equiva- lents), as part of it in Germany up to 1.86 million (CIRIEC 2000).

Al- though these estimations are rather cautious, the figures show that we are not talking about a “niche economy” rsp.

a marginal phenomenon.


To the opposite, we can identify an already well established sector of consider- able economic importance.

Furthermore, it is remarkable that this was achieved with socially or economically disadvantaged groups and/or within disadvantaged communities.
In East Germany f. i. social economy organisations are often the biggest employers in areas of economic crisis Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 351 as well as some of the most important customers for the local industry (Birkhölzer/Lorenz 1998 and 2001b).

In fact, in almost all European cri- sis regions social enterprises are one of the most important actors for local and/or regional economic development.
Therefore, in terms of eco- nomic development as well as social cohesion the significance of social enterprises for keeping such a locality or community alive can hardly be overestimated.

As social enterprises produce goods and services for unmet needs, they contribute, of course, in macro-economic terms to the gross national product.

Unfortunately, we are not able to present exact figures, mainly because the necessary data are not available in the national statistics.
All quantitative measurements of the sector are therefore (at least in Ger- many) rather difficult and the data had to be collected from dispersed sources.
Besides the data produced and published by the social economy organisations themselves there is, on national level, only one regular panel of the performance of all enterprises in Germany carried out by the Institute for Labour Market Research of the Federal Employment Agency (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung der Bundesagentur für Arbeit), but there was so far no distinction between social and other en- terprises.
To identify relevant data for social enterprises by secondary analysis was therefore a rather difficult and time-consuming task, and introducing this category in the panel (as well as in other national statis- tics) is definitely necessary for further analysis.

Another problem was that not all information which seemed to be relevant for the performance of social enterprises was collected in the panel.
For instance, the figures for the turnover per year and capita were only available from a limited number of enterprises.

From that social enterprises showed an average turnover per capita of 102.000 DM (nearly 50.000 Euro) which was achieved mostly in health and social services, culture, sports as well as leisure.

These figures seem to verify the hy- pothesis that social enterprises are rather labour then capital intensive.
On the other hand, average figures as well as a purely quantitative ori- ented analysis are by no means appropriate, regarding the variety and diversity within the social enterprise culture, nor sufficient enough to clarify the real achievements and economic impact of social enterprises.
For that we would need to introduce qualitative indicators, f. i. in the way 352 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services of the social audit measurements as already introduced and tested in some European countries (Pearce 1996 and 2003).
For example, one big deficit in measuring the economic impact is that the contribution of volunteer or unpaid work is not taken into account at all, although it plays a significant role in the social enterprise culture: The charitable welfare organisations estimate the number of citizens which are voluntarily committed or working as volunteers in their organisations up to 2.5 to 3 million, i.e.

twice or three times the amount of their paid staff.
In sports and cultural activities as well as generally spoken in all self-help initiatives the contribution of volunteer or unpaid work is even higher: f.i.

the National Federation of Sports (Deutscher Sportbund) reports the number of 2.6 million volunteer workers estimating the monetary value of their unpaid working hours up to nearly 9 billion DM in 2000 (i. e. appr.

4.5 billion €).
4.5 billion €).

Furthermore, a general survey on volunteer work in Ger- many, asked for by the Federal Ministry for Families, Women and Youth, finally reported that up to 22 million rsp.

24% of the German population are engaged in volunteer work in one way or the other.

Most of this work is, of course, spent in the third sector in the wider sense, i.e.

in economic activities as well as in non-economic ones.
The contribution of all this volunteer work to the production of wealth as well as the national gross product is nevertheless not taken into account, although it seems that its significance will grow in the future as a national enquete commission on the future of civil society commitment (Enquête-Kommission 2002) has recently pointed out.
Indications for this hypothesis are at present the growing number of agencies for volunteer workers in Germany (nearly 200 in 2001) as well as a growing number of enterprises which are set up and run by volunteer workers only, like village co-operatives, co- operatives of senior citizens as well as local exchange and trading sys- tems.
7.5.3.2 Labour market and employment The German Johns-Hopkins-study identified already in 1995 the number of 1,44 million jobs (in full-time equivalents) as well as the number of overall employed (full-time as well as part-time) up to 2.1 million rsp.

4.9% of the total workforce in Germany (Priller/Zimmer 2001).
But, ac- cording to the methodology of this study, the considerable amount of explicitly economically active social enterprises has not been taken into Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 353 consideration.

With a different approach focussing on the economically active the German CIRIEC-study in 1997 ended up with 1.86 million jobs (in full-time equivalents) rsp.

6.5% of the overall workforce (CIRIEC 2000).


Our own analysis, based on the already mentioned IAB-enterprise panel could more or less verify these figures, arguing that there is a minimum of at least 1.9 million jobs in social enterprises.

Furthermore, we could identify a growth rate in employment of up to 4% between 1999 and 2000, mainly in health and social services, culture, sports and leisure.
Besides its remarkable above-average growth rates in employment and its estimated hidden potential for even more employment the sector is in fact the main actor in active labour market policies, especially in interme- diate labour market programmes.
Although these programmes suffer from bad reputations and financial constraints it has to be pointed out that with- out this so-called “secondary labour market” (“zweiter Arbeitsmarkt”) the number of registered unemployed in Germany would increase about nearly half a million124.
Of course, this type of a job rotation market does not lead to sustainable employment, but this is the result of a misconcep- tion in these programmes which tries to keep unemployed in a kind of a parking space or reservoir for to re-integrate them in the existing, but limited or even shrinking labour market, instead of focusing on widening the existing labour market by the creation of new and additional job op- portunities.
So, all the money was invested in temporary employment, not long enough to turn it into a permanent job, and it was invested in virtual employability instead of real employment in sustainable enterprises.

This led to the paradox situation that social enterprises on the one hand were very much involved in these programmes but could not benefit from it.
Together with financial and other restrictions using these programmes became even contra-productive, the more social enterprises got involved, the more uncertainties and dependencies increased, and a considerable number was in risk to close down recently.

Therefore, changing the existing framework of labour market and em- ployment policies seems to be one of the preconditions to unlock the hidden employment potential within the social enterprise culture.
The argument is nothing new: There is no lack of work, but only a lack of 124 Which happened at the beginning of 2005 as a consequence of the so-called „Hartz- Reforms“ when the number of registered unemployed reached its post-war climax of over 5 million 354 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services reasonable solutions to organise and finance it.
Social Enterprises are already a part of the solution, but they could perform much better, if they could benefit from an appropriate and supportive environment.

Several research and development projects on European level have identified the local level as the most important and verified the principle of “local work for local needs” (Kommission der Europäischen Gemein- schaften 1993, 1995 and 1996; see also Douthwaite 1996; Technologie- Netzwerk/European Network 2001).
The fields of activity with a growing employment potential are therefore well-known: food and housing, • • decentralised technical systems for energy, transport, water supply and disposal, community-oriented social as well as productive services, local culture, leisure and recreation, environmental prevention as well as repair, • • • • • municipal infrastructure.
Social enterprises in Germany could be identified as active in all these fields but with a majority working in health and social services, culture, sports and leisure, while in the other fields there seems to be a potential for further development.
Social enterprises are not only relevant as an instrument to increase job opportunities in general, but also for socially and/or economically disadvantaged people: • Social enterprises offer more job opportunities for women: 72% of the employees in social enterprises are women, compared with an average of 43% in all enterprises of the panel.

• They offer more job opportunities for the elderly: 52% compared with an average of 42%.
• They offer more opportunities for part-time work, not only for women: 40% compared with an average of 20%.

• They offer finally more further education and training opportunities for these groups (see below).
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 355 Although social enterprises employ a high percentage out of the so-called “target groups of the labour market”, the qualification standards of their workforce are relatively high, but their salaries sum up to only 90% of the average.
The reasons for this are not fully understood, but social enter- prises on one hand do have less jobs with high or very high salaries, and on the other hand employees supported by active labour market schemes have by law to be paid less than others.

7.5.3.3 Social policy Social economy movements and initiatives emerged – as already pointed out – as a practical attempt of citizens to react to societal challenges and intervene directly in the economic sphere.
This is demonstrated by the fact that their respective social or community-oriented objectives have been officially declared as overall objectives of their enterprises (f.i.

Birkhölzer et al.

1997), usually written down in their constitutions where you can find f.i.
the objectives of fighting poverty and social exclusion, • • offering socially useful and/or ecologically sound workplaces, • integrating long-term unemployed or otherwise socially disadvantaged, • developing a sustainable local or regional economy.

If and to what extent such objectives could be achieved, will finally de- pend on the professionalisation within the sector as well as on the devel- opment of a supportive environment.
Nevertheless, up to now we are already able to verify that social enterprises • offer a considerable and increasing amount of new and additional • • jobs, carry the main load of active labour market policies, act as main agencies and intermediaries for local and/or community development in crises areas, • offer target groups of the labour market and otherwise socially disadvantaged (the often one and only) economic chance for real integration and 356 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services • contribute to equal opportunities by offering more jobs for women as well as the elderly (i.e.
over 50 year old workers).

Furthermore, social enterprises contribute to the improvement of socially and/or locally restricted markets, i.e.

they offer mainly goods and services which otherwise would not be available either because of a lack of profit- ability for private enterprises or because of restricted financial capacities within the public sector.
In this context the public debate in Germany (as well as in other Euro- pean countries) is heavily dominated by the argument that the level of welfare services and social security can not be financed any longer and therefore has to be decreased, usually accompanied by the famous phrase: “There is no alternative!” The argument is not only used in the debate about social justice against trade-unions and other civil society move- ments, it was also raised against the concept of social enterprises, starting from the misconception that social enterprises are predominantly depend- ing on public money.
But, the motivation of founding a social enterprise is exactly the opposite: becoming more independent from public subsidies by starting economic activities in the market, redistribute the profits and refinance the costs of the overall social and/or community-oriented objec- tives.

In Germany today, the percentage of public money within the budget of social enterprises is, of course, still relatively high, especially within the traditional charities and welfare organisations.
On the other hand there is a increasing number of social enterprises, mainly initiated from the new social movements, which finance its activities to a great extent (some even predominantly) from private sources.

But more or less all social enterprises use a specific financial mix of income from market activities, from public services and/or subsidies and last, but not least from private donations either of money or – increasingly – of working time.

From this point of view the social economy rsp.


the social enterprises contribute actively to the financing and keeping of quality standards of public services, especially in the field of social and/or community- oriented services.

In the light of increasing financial restrictions and fiscal crises the social enterprise strategy offers a real alternative for the future of the public sector provided that the social economy sector is seen as a real partner and not as a marginal or subordinate dependent.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 357 7.5.3.4 Education and training Regarding the performance of social enterprises in education and training we could identify differences between East and West Germany: While in West Germany the contribution of social enterprises to formal vocational training (“Berufsausbildung”) was more or less corresponding to the av- erage of all enterprises, but with a higher percentage of young women, the number of places for formal vocational training in East Germany was considerably higher.
But even more relevant is the contribution of social enterprises in further education and training.

The percentage of Social Enterprises which support actively further education and training for their workers is up to 45% (compared with an average of 36%) in West Ger- many and up to 47% (compared with an average of 40%) in East Ger- many.
But most important in our point of view seemed to be the qualitative aspects of capacity building within social enterprises like encouraging entrepreneurship, fostering social competences, participative learning in a social context as well as learning by doing in rather unusual or innovative projects.
To get more information about these qualitative aspects of work in social enterprises we have – in parallel to quantitative analysis – car- ried out a series of case studies representing all types out of the above identified “milieus”.

In almost all interviews with representatives from the management it was pointed out that social enterprises depend heavily and much more than traditional companies on the motivation, the com- mitment and competences of their workers.
Correspondingly the inter- views with employees highlighted the opportunities for personal as well as social capacity building, based on a participative management together with a more flexible division of labour system (see below).

7.5.3.5 Handicaps and prejudices One of the most important impediments for developing their full potential is the lack of acceptance of social enterprises in the public and political arena.
Although there is a considerable amount of knowledge from recent research on European level, this is only very slightly adopted in German research and academic teaching and finds hardly its way into the public or political debate.
Especially the progress which has been achieved during the last decade in other European countries like France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain and the UK where we can find well established research 358 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services institutes for the social economy on national level as well as political supports structures on government level has been almost neglected in Germany.
The public debate in the media is still occupied by the cliché of a mar- ginal and heavily subsidised sector with unrealistic pretensions and eco- nomic incompetence.

But our empirical data – from the quantitative analysis as well as from the case studies – show that social enterprises are in the long run much more sustainable than comparable small and me- dium size enterprises.
And again, regarding the dependency on public money, what is often overlooked, is that Social Enterprises very often take over responsibilities from the public sector and/or which are at least for the common good.

But the public authorities still act in a way as if the payments for these services would be a kind of a grant, donation or sub- sidy and not equivalent for work delivered in the framework of an ordi- nary contract.
It is strange that this relates more or less only to social and community services.

F.i.

construction companies building roads or public housing which also depend heavily on public money have never been seen as subsidised entities.

Therefore, social enterprises in Germany are still far away from being accepted as real enterprises in their full right.
To the opposite, prejudices still dominate the debate: Employers’ associations from the corporate sector f. i. complain about “unfair” competition arguing that social enter- prises take away job opportunities from “real” enterprises.

Even trade- unions suspect social enterprises to be the gateway for precarious work- ing conditions and the establishment of a low pay sector.

But the argu- ment mixes up cause and effect.


Precarious working conditions and low pay are already in existence for long in the first, private as well as the second, public sector, and need not to be introduced by the third sector.

Of course, precarious working conditions also exist in social enterprises, but they do not necessarily have the freedom of decision-making as f. i. employees supported by active labour market schemes – as already men- tioned – are underlying certain legal restrictions.
The working conditions of all other employees are – according to the IAB-panel – dominated by so-called “normal” contracts according trade-union standards.

The reason behind is that in a lot of social enterprises good working conditions be- long to their quality standards, often written down in their constitutions.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 359 Finally, the social economy in Germany still suffers from the negative image caused by the breakdown of the trade-union owned co-operative sector (“Gemeinwirtschaft”), but the acceptance of social enterprises within trade-unions is growing recently.
There are also currently changes in the attitude of public authorities, but acceptance does mostly exist on local level, and is decreasing from lower to higher levels, from East to West and from crisis areas to prosperous regions.

For the future we are somewhat optimistic that the social economy in Germany will be able to overcome these reservations and prejudices.
But there is still one handicap caused by the sector itself which is still sepa- rated in different sections or “milieus” and does so far not have a com- mon understanding of belonging to an independent social economy sec- tor.

7.5.4 Internal and organisational structures 7.5.4.1 Legal forms As there is nothing like a formalised social economy in Germany, social enterprises are not restricted to any legal form.

To the opposite, almost all existing legal structures are used.
The reasons for choice are usually very pragmatic as the character of a Social Enterprise does not depend on the legal form in itself, but on the respective regulations within their statutes or constitutions, regarding the overall aims and objectives of the enter- prise as well as the utilisation of profits, especially the prohibition (or at least restriction) of private profit acquirements.
The most often used legal structures are the co-operative (“ein- getragene Genossenschaft/eG”), the limited company (“Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung/GmbH”) and the association (“eingetragener Ver- ein/e.V.”), while the association is on the top, used by nearly three quar- ters of the existing social enterprises.
The reason is that its foundation and handling is relatively easy which is why almost all social economy initia- tives start with the foundation of an association and decide later to reor- ganise themselves or add other legal entities.

Therefore, within the devel- opment process of such an initiative rather complex combine structures have been established, existing f.i.

out of an association, a co-operative, a limited company, a foundation etc.
360 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services It is interesting to mention that the association (according § 21 “Bür- gerliches Gesetzbuch/BGB”) was originally restricted to so-called “ideal- istic” and not meant for economic activities (Münkner 2000).
In fact, during history the opposite has happened, but this basic assumption is still underlying the present rules within financial institutions, especially of what is understood as “for the common good” and therefore privileged to receive tax exemptions.

At present this is determined in a rather arbitrary list of activities, where f.i.

constructing model aeroplanes is seen as for the common good, but not advice and consulting for the unemployed, just because it is for whatsoever reason not on the list.
These regulations are of course outdated and cause a lot of problems for social enterprises.

Necessary would be not only a reform of the law of associations in gen- eral, but also and possibly more important new definitions and regulations of what is understood as “for the common good” (“gemeinnützig”).

We propose that this should be structured around the utilisation of profits, possibly alongside the “not-for-private-profit-distributing” principle.
7.5.4.2 Quality of work As already mentioned the existing empirical data are neither representa- tive nor detailed enough to give a full picture of the quality of work, the working conditions and other organisational aspects.

Of course, we would need definitely more detailed research to answer these questions.

On the other hand we have a number of indicators for the hypothesis that the way of work rsp.
“the mode of production” in social enterprises differs signifi- cantly from enterprises in the first and second sector.

Taking into account their preliminary character we come to the following conclusions: The work in social enterprises is characterised by a special tension be- tween high expectations and demands on one side and a rather permanent underprovision with capital and material resources on the other side.
This is experienced and assimilated in different ways: On one hand it is a source of permanent uncertainty about job security and steadiness of in- come which leads to a higher burden of work and possibly stress.

On the other hand it leads to more motivation and better identification with the given tasks and more satisfaction at work.
But here we have to distinguish between two groups of employees, those which are more or less free in shaping and/or negotiating their working conditions, mainly salaries and restrictions, and those of which Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 361 the working conditions are limited to external regulations.

This is the main conflict in most work insertion companies as well as in all organisa- tions which are engaged in active labour market schemes.
Of course, the working conditions between these two groups differ considerably: Lower salaries and limited contracts for the second, while the first enjoy “nor- mal” or even better working conditions than in ordinary companies, like more opportunities for further education and training, improved social security especially for the elderly and a higher degree of internal democ- racy and participation.
Surprisingly, and against all trade-union reserva- tions there were even more job stewards or staff council committees than in other enterprises.

To overcome this two-class-system is one of the major challenges for social enterprises today.

But as long as the legal restrictions exist, social enterprises cannot do much about it, instead of avoiding using these schemes at all.

The present labour market reforms in Germany (the so- called “Hartz”-laws) seem to move in the wrong direction.
But, despite all these handicaps staff people as well as employees re- ported in our interviews unanimously of a relatively high proportion of identification and satisfaction with their work.

This seems to be the result of compensational activities in the internal management by a co-operative style of leadership, distinct structures for participation and communica- tion, agreements on internal norms of behaviour, a culture of non- monetary recognition and so on.
Such types of social management strate- gies more or less have been already introduced by the people who founded the social enterprises or managed it from the very beginning, based on the recognition that social enterprises depend highly not only on the human capital of its workers, but also on the careful use and mainte- nance of their social capital (CONSCISE 2003).

The term “social capital” is not very popular in Germany, neither in the academic nor in the public debate.
Therefore, the term itself did not mean anything to our interview partners in the very beginning but this changed dramatically when we described the indicators out of which we believe the social capital is composed: trust, • • mutual reciprocity, • shared norms and behaviour, 362 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services • • • identity and commitment, social networks, information channels.

These indicators instead meant a lot to them and all agreed that they are of high value.
In most cases the partners realised only within the process of the interviews to what extent they actually use social capital or have been depending on in the past, f.i.

surviving periodical shortcomings or situations of internal economic crisis, and last not least within the process of founding and building up of their own enterprise, which retrospectively without the investment of social capital would not have come off the ground or survived the difficulties of the start-up process.
In general this seems to be a key to understand the question, why certain organisations are able to cope with inevitably occurring difficulties and crises, and not only to survive but possibly grow with them – while others fail in the same situations.
To summarise the main difference in the working conditions as well as the management strategies between social enterprises and others is to be found in the significance of the individual capacities as well as the social cohesion, in other words in the significance of human capital and social capital.
In this context social enterprises developed good practice strategies, mainly in the field of internal management and participation, • • use and cultivation of social capital and – as pointed out earlier – • capacity building in social competences.

7.5.4.3 Co-operation versus competition Social enterprises generate business activities mainly in sectors or areas, out of which private companies as well as the public sector have retreated or in which they never have been engaged so far.
Therefore, social enter- prises act as competitors only, where and when they want to achieve a profit in “normal” markets to redistribute it in other business activities which are in deficit.

But, in doing so they are underlying the same condi- tions as all others.

The argument of “unfair” competition is always raised if potential competitors assume a subvention of labour costs by the government.
Of Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 363 course, the regulations under which public authorities finance and control social and/or community services gives reason for such misunderstand- ings, as explained earlier.
In fact, if social enterprises in delivering social and/or community services employ long-term unemployed or otherwise disadvantaged, they do not receive a subsidy but a regular payment for their integration services, which otherwise would have to be carried out by the public sector itself.

Social enterprises are therefore often called “hybrid” enterprises which receive payments for at least two different products or services.
“Real” subventions occur to the opposite mainly in the first sector (agriculture, coal, shipbuilding etc.)!

To avoid these mis- understandings it would be necessary to change the subsidiary regulations (“Zuwendungsrecht”) into ordinary contractual regulations (“Leistungs- vereinbarungen”).

And, of course, the regulations for tax exemptions have to be revised towards the principle of “not-for-private-profit- distributing”, as mentioned before.
Another argument in this debate is that social enterprises contribute to job losses.

In fact, jobs have been cut in the first and the second sector almost continuously.

Such jobs have sometimes been taken over or revi- talised by third sector organisations.

This may sometimes lead to the im- pression of a zero-sum-game, but without these substitutes the labour market statistics would be much more negative.
Furthermore, social en- terprises generate definitely jobs in markets or business activities which have not or not to the full extent been served before.

These have in many cases been foundations out of the shadow economy transforming informal neighbourhood and/or self-help initiatives into formal enterprises.

It is mainly in this sector where we expect a large hidden reservoir for the foundation of new social enterprises and the creation of new jobs.
To open up this potential it would be certainly necessary to bring this mainly ideologically dominated competition between the sectors to an end and replace it by mutual co-operation from which all sectors would benefit.

Positive examples exist already throughout Europe in “local part- nerships promoting social cohesion”, some of which could be recently explored in Germany as well (Birkhölzer/Lorenz/Schillat 2001; Birkhöl- zer/Lorenz 2001a).
Partnerships of this type are working almost only on a lower local level, because a consensus on shared interests seems to be only possible to be based on a shared commitment or responsibility for the vitality and 364 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services sustainability of a certain locality or region.
The more these co- operational structures, partnerships or territorial pacts depart from this level, the more they are in danger to become fixed in interest conflicts and bureaucratic structures.

The recent experiences with the different “alliances for work” on national and regional level offer a lot of illustra- tive material.

A special aspect of our survey was also dedicated to the relationship between the social economy and the corporate sector.
Again, we could identify working co-operations more or less only on the lower local level rsp.

with locally rooted small and medium size enterprises, but only ex- ceptionally with big companies or global players.

The often acclaimed corporate social responsibility of American and British companies is in Germany still observed with considerable reservations because most business leaders in Germany are still convinced that social obligations are only in the responsibility of the state.
Nevertheless, the significance of partnerships between the social economy and the corporate sector will definitely increase.

The reasons seem to be rather complex: There is on one hand the growing political debate on corporate social responsibility, but there are also internal rea- sons of developing human and social capital in the corporate sector.

On the other hand social enterprises need to get better access to private in- vestment and other material resources.
One possible option is to establish programmes for mutual exchange of staff and/or employees to learn from each other and develop their social competencies.

7.5.4.4 Volunteer work In the German language we do not have the distinction between voluntary and volunteer work, the term “freiwillig” has both meanings.

To be en- gaged or work for as well as in social enterprises is, of course, voluntary in the sense that it is done without any formal obligation.
But voluntary work is not necessarily unpaid although voluntary work as well as social enterprises depend heavily on volunteer or unpaid work, not only for economic reasons, but also as a practical link between the enterprise and the community for which it is working or in which it is located.

Voluntary commitment as well as volunteer work have undergone con- siderable changes in Germany.

The traditional understanding of an honor- ary post (“Ehrenamt”) is not appropriate any longer.
In the past an honorary Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 365 post was something for people who could earn a living otherwise and there- fore could spend an honorary post “for nothing”.

In times of increasing unemployment and precarious working conditions people want or need to get something in return: experiences, qualifications or direct access to products and services.
Volunteer work, especially in social enterprises, has therefore changed its character to a relationship of mutual benefit.

This is increasingly based on non-monetary exchanges like: • • • the exchange of working time in local exchange and trading systems, the right to get access or use products and services directly in kind of a user community (children and parents, young people and senior citizens, employed and unemployed etc.

), the “social dividend”, i.e.


benefits in kind of improvements within the neighbourhood, the environment and other aspects of quality of life.

Voluntary commitment and volunteer work is also increasingly seen as a way back into regular paid work.

This is a way which has been developed by so-called self-help enterprises set up by unemployed or other disad- vantaged people.
The idea is that people invest unpaid work in their own future, f. i. by establishing an enterprise, building up work places, accu- mulating resources and build the ground for getting employed and earn a living.

Again, this is based on the idea of investing social capital, develop and turn it in the long run into physical and financial capital.
Although the number of such initiatives is rather small, this model seems to be rather successful and definitely more sustainable than the officially sup- ported individual start-ups.

The reasons are quite simple: mutual support and a collective distribution of risks.

To support such collective start-ups could become a key in future employment policies.
7.5.4.5 Evaluation As already mentioned, social enterprises have been called “hybrid enter- prises” (Evers/Rauch/Stitz 2002) because they have economic as well as social and/or community-oriented objectives which are even prioritised or at least of the same importance.

In this respect, the available accounting measurements are able to evaluate the economic objectives, but not the social and/or community-oriented ones.
To evaluate this we need to de- velop appropriate measurements like social accounting and social audit- 366 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services ing as it was mainly developed within the community economy sector of the UK (Pearce 1996 and 2003).

Furthermore, the social and/or commu- nity-oriented objectives affect also the indicators for what is meant by economic success and how to achieve it.
F. i. the top value in social en- terprises is not necessarily the rentability of invested financial capital, but the most efficient way of covering the costs in achieving the overall ob- jectives.

Therefore, the success of social enterprises has to be assessed differently, and the internal strategies to achieve this success have to be different as well.
To conclude, social enterprises need to develop special micro-economic strategies and establish consequently a special school for-micro economic teaching.

7.5.5 Perspectives and recommendations Finally, what are the perspectives of social enterprises in Germany?

Without a radical change in the political framework the sustainability of the existing social enterprises depends heavily on a careful balanced fi- nancial mix.
Recently the charities and welfare organisations, the work insertion companies as well as all organisations which use active labour market schemes to a high degree are too much dependent on the continu- ity of public money flows and will be certainly affected by the disconti- nuities we have to expect in the near future.
On the other hand the tradi- tional co-operatives are too much dependent on the mechanism of the world market which forces rationalisation and concentration processes which endanger, if not to say abolish their original social economy and/or regional economy orientations.

This is why we believe that a balanced strategy of financial mixes is the key composed out of : • • • income from trading within the market economy, income from public contracts, carrying out public services or services of public rsp.
general interest and investment of working time and/or money by other stakeholders.

To achieve this what is mostly needed for social enterprises are: • a strong imbedding in the local community, Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 367 • • a broad variety of offers serving needs at the local and/or regional level and the establishment of local support structures like local alliances, partnerships and development agencies.
It has been pointed out in this study that in Germany there is already a large and differentiated social economy sector in existence which is cer- tainly able to create new and additional jobs as well as to integrate eco- nomically or socially disadvantaged people.
It was also pointed out that there is a big hidden potential within the social economy sector which is blocked by a number of obstacles: • • • • a general deficit of information about the real size, structures and achievements of the third sector and the social economy in Germany the lack of an appropriate legal and fiscal framework the inadequacy of a number of legal and administrative structures as well as support structures and aid programmes which need to be adjusted to the need of the social economy sector.
In this context we would like to recommend the following actions: • First and above all there is a need to build up acceptance of the social economy as a legitimate part of the economy in its own right.
Furthermore, a German social enterprise strategy should include the fol- lowing: • • improving information and the collection of data about the size, the structures and achievements of the social economy sector adjusting legal and administrative regulations concerning legal entities, public procurement and the tax system, especially what is “for the common good” • developing a separate legal framework for social enterprises (a variety of models exist already in Belgium, France, Italy, the UK and recently in Finland) 368 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services • establishing support and development agencies to advice and accompany social enterprises in the foundation process, the internal micro-economic strategies as well as the co-operation with other sectors and stakeholders • promoting co-operative relationships with equal rights between the social economy and the corporate sector (corporate social responsibility) • promoting and fostering multi-sectoral partnerships on local and/or • • regional level establishing separate education and training systems for professionals in the social economy on academic as well as vocational level, f.i.
in competence centres for the social economy and last but not least the development of appropriate financial services and public funding schemes In all these fields we need not to re-invent the wheel.

There are enough good practice models around on European and international level, and not at least in Germany itself.

References Birkhölzer K. (1999a) ‘Local Economic Development.

A European-wide movement towards more economic democracy and social justice’.

Local Economy, Vol.

14,no 1, pp.


43–54 Birkhölzer K. (1999b) ‘A philosophical rationale for the promotion of local economic initiatives’ and: ‘Develop- ment dilemmas in Berlin and the east- ern part of Germany’ in A. Twelvetrees (ed) Community Eco- nomic Development: Rethoric or Real- ity?

London: Community Develop- ment Foundation Birkhölzer K. et al (1997) Key Values and Structures of Social Enterprises in Western Europe.
Concepts and Princi- ples for a New Economy, Berlin: Technologie-Netzwerk Berlin, Publi- cation series Local Economy No 29e Birkhölzer K. et al (1998) The Contribu- tion of Social Enterprises to Commu- nity Economic Development.

Reports from Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and Spain, Berlin: Technolo- gie-Netzwerk Berlin, Publication se- ries Local Economy No30e Birkhölzer K. et al (1999) The Employ- ment Potential of Social Enterprises in 6 EU Member States.
Research Report, Berlin: Technologie-Netzwerk Berlin, Publication series Local Economy No 31e Birkhölzer K. and Lorenz G. (1998) ‘Allemagne.

Les sociétés d´emploi et de qualification en appui à la réunifica- tion’ in J. Defourny, L. Favreau, J.-L. Laville, (eds.

), Insertion et nouvelle économie sociale.


Un bilan interna- tional, Paris: Desclée de Brouwer Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 369 Birkhölzer K. and Lorenz G. (2001a) ‘Grassroots local partnerships in the Federal Republic of Germany: Instru- ments for social inclusion and eco- nomic interaction?’ in M. Geddes, J. Benington (eds), Local Partnerships and Social Exclusion in the European Union.

New forms of local social gov- ernance?


London and New York: Routledge Birkhölzer K. and Lorenz G. (2001b) ‘Germany: Work Integration through Employment and Training Companies in Berlin and its Surrounding Region’ in R. Spear, J. Defourny, L. Favreau, J.-L. Laville (eds) Tackling Social Ex- clusion in Europe.

The contribution of the Social Economy, Aldershot: Ashgate Birkhölzer K., Lorenz G., Schillat, M. (2001) Lokale Partnerschaften.
Wir- kungsweise und Wirksamkeit sektor- übergreifender und multidimensiona- ler Bündnisse zur Förderung sozialer Kohäsion, Berlin: Technologie- Netzwerk Berlin, Veröffentlichungs- reihe Lokale Ökonomie No 35 Birkhölzer K., Kistler E. Mutz G. (2004) Der Dritte Sektor.

Partner für Wirt- schaft und Arbeitsmarkt, Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften Birkhölzer K., Klein A., Priller E., Zim- mer A.

(2005) Dritter Sektor/Drittes System.


Theorie, Funktionswandel und zivilgesellschaftliche Perspektiven, Wiesbaden.

Verlag für Sozialwissen- schaften Borzaga C. and Defourny J.

(2001) The Emergence of Social Enterprise, An- dover: Routledge Campbell M. (1999) ‘Entwicklung und Beschäftigung im Dritten System.
Zusammenfassung’ in Europäische Kommission, Generaldirektion Arbeit und Soziales (ed), Pilotaktion Drittes System und Beschäftigung, Brüssel Centre International de Recherches et dÍnformation sur l’Économie Publique, Sociale et Coopérative/CIRIEC (2000), The Enterprises and Organiza- tions of the Third System: A Strategic Challenge for Employment, Liège: Université de Liège CONSCISE (2003) The Contribution of Social Capital in the Social Economy to Local Economic Development in Western Europe.
Final Report, Lon- don: School of Health and Social Sciences, Middlesex University (www.conscise.info) Douthwaite R. (1996) Short Circuit.
Strengthening local economies for se- curity in an unstable world, Dublin: The Lilliput Press Enquête-Kommission Zukunft des Bür- gerschaftlichen Engagements, Deut- scher Bundestag (2002) Bericht: Bür- gerschaftliches Engagement auf dem Weg in eine zukunftsfähige Bürgerge- sellschaft, Opladen: Leske + Budrich European Network for Economic Self- Help and Local Development (1997) Community Economic Development and Social Enterprises, Berlin: Tech- nologie-Netzwerk Berlin Evers A., Rauch U., Stitz U.
(2002) Von öffentlichen Einrichtungen zu sozialen Unternehmen, Berlin: Edition Sigma Kommission der Europäischen Gemein- schaften (1993) Weißbuch Wachstum, Wettbewerbsfähigkeit, Beschäftigung.

Herausforderungen der Gegenwart und Wege ins 21.


Jahrhundert, Lu- xemburg: Amt für Veröffentlichungen Kommission der Europäischen Gemein- schaften (1995) Lokale Initiativen zur wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung und Be- schäftigung, Luxemburg: Amt für Veröffentlichungen Kommission der Europäischen Gemein- schaften (1996) Erster Bericht über lokale Entwicklungs- und Beschäfti- gungsinitiativen.
Schlussfolgerungen für territoriale und lokale Beschäfti- gungsbündnisse, Luxemburg: Amt für Veröffentlichungen 370 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Münkner H. u. a.

(2000) Unternehmen mit sozialer Zielsetzung, Neu-Ulm: AG SPAK Pearce J.

(1996) Measuring Social Wealth: A study of social audit prac- tice for community cooperative enter- prises, London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Pearce J.
(2003) Social Enterprise in Anytown, London: Calouste Guben- kian Foundation Priller E. and Zimmer A.
(2001) Der Dritte Sektor: Wachstum und Wandel, Gütersloh Technologie-Netzwerk Berlin and Euro- pean Network for Economic Self-Help and Local Development (2001) Pro- moting Local Employment in the Third System: The role of intermediary sup- port structures in promoting Third System employment activities at local level, Berlin: Technologie-Netzwerk Berlin Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 371 7.6 Third Sector Organizations and Welfare Services.
How helpful are the Debates on Welfare Regimes and a European Social Model?

Adalbert Evers Two key-words play an important role in the attempts to structure the debate on Third Sector organisations (TSOs), welfare services and wel- fare systems: the notion of “welfare regimes” and the notion of a “Euro- pean social model”.

The former notion stems from the academic debate and tries to help in making systematic distinctions between different wel- fare states.
It is tried, to understand the past, present and to some degrees the future shape of welfare systems in this framework.

Researchers hope as well, that this way it can be achieved to understand in systematic ways similarities and differences between European countries, when it comes to services and TSOs.

The situation and perspectives are a bit different when it comes to the second key word: the “European Social model”.
First of all this is so far not a well established academic topic but rather something one refers to in political debates about Europe and the EU.

It entails the idea, that there is something special in the European social order and its welfare systems to be safeguarded and further developed, making it different from other highly developed industrial democracies.

Quite often, the talk about a European social model is made as well in order to mark a difference to the US-model.
In the following it will be discussed, what can be derived from both points of reference, the regime concept and the European social model.

To what degree are both concepts helpful in getting clearer about the nature and direction of the changes we are presently in?
Putting the re- sults of the following short reflection in a nutshell, one can say, that a rather sceptical answer is given to this question: To the degree, there is nothing much concrete about the future European model to be pursued, both concepts are largely about the past.

And there are some strong argu- ments to doubt that this past will to a high degree as well determine the future.
372 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services However, all this will in the following not be debated with an eye on the social order and the welfare state at large, but with a focus on two of its elements: TSOs and welfare services.
For matters of clarification it should be noted that in the following “welfare services” are defined as those personal services (in health and social care, labour market integra- tion, educational and cultural matters), that are provided on a not-for- profit base, by the state and municipalities, and/or in many cases by third sector organizations (TSOs), that, on behalf of this, frequently cooperate with the public authorities.
All this links both issues, welfare services and TSOs in various ways, making them altogether parts of welfare systems.

7.6.1 An European social model?

Whenever in political speeches or EU-documents the “European social model” gets mentioned (see e. g. Diamantopoulou 2003), this can in prin- ciple have two different meanings.

On the one hand a model can be some- thing that has developed over time, representing a unique result from the past that is widely acclaimed at least by those who stand for it.
On the other hand, the word “model” can as well be understood like “project”, as a concept for the future that should be endorsed.

As far as I can see, a European social model in the latter terms does not exist.

Presently, the EU and the governments in its territory do not have blueprints for the way ahead in terms of a widely shared future model.
Beyond the idea of creating and extending a common market and a liberal democracy there is little shared in terms of ideas about e. g. how much and what kind of welfare services are needed.

But is there at least a European social model as a heritage from the past?

When dealing with this question, one has to acknowledge, that first of all many features of Europe and the EU (cultural, political social) are not special but shared with all “industrial democracies”, including not only the USA but as well e.g.
Australia and New Zealand.

This is true with respect to concepts of justice, the protection of working people and other items.

There may be big differences with respect to the degree, systems of social security have been institutionalised, but as well in this field one should not forget about the differences within Europe itself.
Nevertheless, there is one important peculiarity that has made in the past nearly all Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 373 European states and their “political spaces” different from the US-model.

Throughout Europe, there has been a strong impact of the workers´ movement and of the concept of class divisions; it is reflected on the level of party building but as well in welfare institutions.
In Europe, tradition- ally the notion of “left” and “right” is tightly linked to the notion of class controversies, while in the US, the line of division between the “republi- cans” and “democrats” has not had this clear class-bias.

And while in Europe many welfare institutions, like social insurances, have grown alongside with the self-organisation of the working classes, self- administering such institutions or co-governing them, such class-based arrangements have been rare in the USA.
Yet while this is an important difference with an eye on the past, it can be asked how important this different impact of “class” will be for the future of politics in Europe.

To what degree are political cleavages in highly industrialised democracies still tightly linked to class structures and movements – now and in the future?

What about social services and TSOs?


It is well known that personal service growth in areas like health and social care accompanies the de-familiarization of welfare, which is a basic dimension of modernisation.

In coping with this, by tradition more state-impact can be found in many key regions of Europe compared to the US.
Not only in the political camps associated with the labour movements but as well among the conservatives there has been in European history a stronger affinity to models of service-development that gave a key role to social and public forms of provision instead of leaving care for the eld- erly, child care development or the increasing offer of health services to the markets and the individual families as this has been very much the case in the US.
Obviously, there are regions in Europe like the often quoted “Latin rim” that were late-comers in industrial modernisation and de-familiarisation and where therefore the level of many personal services – be it public or private – is still fairly low.

But they are not seen as typi- cal for the models of service development that took very much the form of public welfare services in major parts of Europe.
With respect to the development of TSOs there are a lot of similarities when it comes to the role of the bourgeois classes and active citizenship.

Committed citizens that built up charities, reformatory movements and 374 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services respective services (e.g.

associations for the well-being of children, fami- lies at risk etc.)
can be found on both sides of the Atlantic, the global difference being, that mostly more of their impetus became taken up by the public authorities in Europe compared to the US.

Therefore, in the USA state-welfare action to a lesser degree subsidized or even substituted the role of TSOs in areas like voluntary action, charity, foundations etc.
However, the impact of the conservative forces and of the labour movement on the type of “third sectors” that developed in Europe com- pared with the US is less clear and one-dimensional than often thought.

First of all, differences stemmed from the important role of the church, especially where a self-confident class of bourgeois citizens was missing, like in Germany or Austria.
In the USA, there was by tradition a lesser influence of faith-based organisations in carrying services that got by the state-authorities a quasi public status.

But there is another much more striking difference appearing, when looking to organisational forms and identities of TSOs.
In Europe, different to the USA, ideas of building up alternative forms of economy and economic self help were very strong; it was a type of theoretical and practical criticism of the capitalist market system that became endorsed e.g.
by social democratic concepts of creat- ing a large sector of economies for the public good or “social econo- mies”: cooperatives in consumer affairs, housing and agriculture, mutuals in the field of social insurance and financial and credit institutions that were linked with social movements or owned by the municipalities (for illustrations of these two strands of European third sectors see the contri- butions in Evers/Laville 2004).
Once again like in the field of voluntary action and charity, the power of the state became used to widen this con- cept (favouring the development of municipal-owned public enterprises in key areas like water supply, traffic etc.)

and/or to substitute the idea of economic self organisation by the concept of increasingly extending state- and municipality-based service-provision.
One recent result of these different developments and types of welfare models and third sectors in Europe and the US are the critiques of US- based concepts of the third sector (see various contributions in Evers/ Laville 2004), that exclude the parts just mentioned, taking up in Europe only those sections of TSOs, that are similar to the US voluntary not-for profit sector and excluding the large parts of the unique landscapes of European social economies.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 375 Summing up one can say, that there is a European social model, but not (yet?)

in terms of a blueprint for the future but foremost with an eye on past developments.
In Europe the idea that personal services, be it as third-sector- or state- and municipality-based institutions, should be con- trolled by public action, has been especially strong and the unique impact of the labour-movement and the welfare state did not only compete with but as well give support to third sector based welfare services.

The bal- ance of state-public and third sector-based contributions to the provision of welfare services is different then in the USA and in Europe.
Moreover it is especially important to point to the fact, that within the European civil societies, the idea of constructing alternative models of providing key goods and services took an unique conceptual and practical strength – by an alternative social economy of cooperatives and mutuals.

Neverthe- less, there is the question whether and how blueprints and models for a European social model of tomorrow will take up these unique features of the past.
This is a first reason to be doubtful about the impact of the de- bates on the European social model and on the different welfare regimes to be found in it.

7.6.2 European welfare models as “welfare regimes” – potentials and limits of a concept There has been rarely an academic concept that has become so popular like the Esping-Andersen thesis about the coexistence of different welfare regimes in the history of Europe and other industrial democracies, includ- ing the USA.
Esping-Andersen’s basic concept (Esping-Andersen 1990) is rather simple, but as well convincing at first sight.

Three great histori- cal narratives – the liberal, the conservative, the social democratic – have materialized in various regions and states in Europe and thereby trans- formed into three different welfare regimes: the liberal tale has, according to Esping-Andersen largely shaped e.g.
the UK and the USA, with mini- mal basic securities, much room for the market logic, including the “commodification” of the workers themselves; the conservative tale has been especially strong in countries like Germany or France, creating spe- cific social security provisions for the working classes in a perspective, that was busy to upheld a hierarchical social order; Finally the social democrats fought as much as possible for de-commodifying the situation 376 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services of the working men, turning them increasingly into working citizens with equal rights not only on the political level but as well on the level of so- cial resources; this concept got its clearest shape in the Nordic countries.
There have been various criticisms of the concept, but one should re- member here only those that are linked with our central question about the impact of the notion of a European social model and of European welfare regimes for welfare services, TSOs and their future.

From this perspective, three critiques are especially important.

There is a first problematic point that makes it difficult to use Esping- Andersen’s welfare-regime-concept when debating welfare services and TSO-development.
In his debate on de-familiarization and services he has restricted himself to the controversy between public and private solutions, i. e. concepts for marketed services versus state-based service develop- ment.

Or, more globally, Esping-Andersen operates throughout with what he calls a “three pillar” model: of the state, the market and the family (Esping-Andersen 2002).

The third sector, its organisations and their roles are completely left out in his thinking.
However, this critique can be seen as a “weak” one.

Because it is not necessarily saying, that the regime model is misconceived, but that it has blank spots.

There is then still the option to fill this blank spot and to inte- grate the analysis of the third sector into the welfare regime concept.

There have been various attempts to do so and to link a reasoning on the roles of TSOs with the welfare regime concept.

(Salamon/Anheier 1998).


The main results for welfare services and TSOs can be described as follows: • • in the Nordic countries, marked by the strong service and state com- ponent of their welfare model, TSOs are strong, but have been “crow- ded out” as mainstream service providers; their main role is that of representing kind of citizen-consumers, that criticise the public systems, make suggestions for improving quality and innovations in other countries, esp.
in conservative regimes, a strong and stable status of TSOs can be deducted from their concepts of social order, foreseeing a cooperation of the public authorities with various organi- zed social groups, especially those, that are linked with the churches.

Especially in the conservative regimes, TSOs then function as part- ners in service provision.
In the catholic subsidiarity-tradition, there is a subtle balance of a laic state power and “faith based” organisa- Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 377 tions, where the latter take often in service provision quasi-public role.

Different to the US, they were assigned a quasi-public role but jointly they gave in to limiting very much the special ideological flavour of their service (e.g.
in hospitals, childcare facilities and homes for the elderly, which in the tradition of subsidiarity are run by private church- based welfare organisations, but are in heir major parts financed by the public authorities and social insurances) (See also the Table 2 in Matthies, in this publication).
Once one uses a less limited concept of TSOs than the one Salamon and Anheier stand for, counting in organisations that took off as mutuals in the field of social insurance, or as cooperatives in housing, things get more complicated, depending from the role assigned to the state com- pared to the role of self organisation.

On this behalf, there has not been just one conservative or social-democratic strategy.
Within both streams of thought there were different concepts in different countries concerning the esteem of self-organised and administered institutions in the field of welfare services.

In social security, this had e.g.

an impact on the role played by self-administered insurances, run in cooperation by employers and organisations of the employees.

There is then a second critical point concerning the “welfare regime concept” and its usefulness for conceiving TSOs and welfare services.
Many European welfare states have a “patchy” nature; they are far from belonging clearly to one or the other “regime”.

Over time they have been influenced by all the three streams of thought, like e.g.

the Netherlands (see e. g. van Kersbergen 1995), where Christ-democratic corporatism has been as influential as social-democratic ideas; something similar can be found in England or Germany.
In England, a liberal idea and respec- tive meagre system of old age provision are coexisting with a socialist concept of a national health service.

Finally in Germany, the Christ- democratic notion of subsidiarity, that shaped the order of things when it came to the provision of many services, coexisted with an idea of a labour market administration that had a clear social-democratic touch.
Therefore, most realities of welfare in Europe are “mixed” ones and that holds espe- cially true for the new middle- and East-European states in the EU, where a “socialist” authoritarian past and market-liberal ideas of the presence coexist, something which could not even be conceived, when Esping- 378 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Andersen created his regimes.

All this makes the Scandinavian case then look different.
Instead of being the strongest illustrative point of reference for the concept of clear cut “regimes”, one can see it as a kind of excep- tionalism, as the only region with a rather extreme continuity and domi- nance of one narrative in practical politics, the social democratic idea.

With respect to our topic, TSOs and welfare services, this means, that one can be sceptical towards the idea that they in their respective country have developed within just one clearly dominating conceptual environ- ment.
Possibly the logics of TSO- and service-development have in most countries been as fragmented and diverse as the larger history of their welfare systems.

Finally a third critical point should be raised; it is the most radical one, questioning the type of theory building behind the regime concept.

This critique could be started by asking oneself about the impact of the histori- cal regimes for paths into the future.
Esping-Andersen’s thinking is linked with what can be seen as an institutionalist approach in social sciences (for a critique see: Crouch/Farrell 2002).

From this perspective, despite historical turmoil, welfare systems seem to develop according to their initial genetic code (liberal, social democratic etc.).

They “grow” and that seemingly legitimizes to debate the blueprints for the future very much as an extension of the past.

But is that really true?


What about the harsh breaks, gaps and cleavages to be found in the history of the welfare insti- tutions of many European countries?

And what about the impact of inter- national trends and forces that put the same questions and visions on the present agenda of countries – fairly independent of their past?

Aren’t there plenty of signs that future institutional solutions are to a far lesser degree “path dependent” than all the reasoning on “welfare regimes” does suggest?
I will take up this third critical issue in the next chapter, pointing at new internationally shared challenges to European welfare societies at large and to their welfare services and TSOs in particular.
7.6.3 Traditional models and regimes, blurred by new challenges: marketization, new cleavages and forms of governance and networking The limited significance of “welfare regimes” and of the status that might be given in such an analytical framework to welfare services and TSOs Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 379 gets further blurred by new trends.

They appear internationally and domi- nate on the agenda of all welfare states.
Obviously, their different pasts have an impact, but it is limited.

I will mention three of such trends that are not about continuous change but rather about ruptures and new phe- nomena.

(1.)

The first international trend is that of a widespread marketization of welfare services (Ascoli/Ranci 2002).

TSOs as service providers are confronted with images and forms of behaviour in the public at large and among their clients, which are very much shaped by the general climate of a consumer society.
Hence the appearance of welfare-consumers (Bal- dock 2003), managerial and consumerist perspectives have to be taken up to some degree within the third sector and by the service concepts of TSOs, if they want to be “up to date”.

Secondly consumerism gets even more impact by the increasing presence of commercial providers of wel- fare products, like e.g.

in matters of health, prevention and wellness with the gliding zones between them.
Where there was a privileged role for TSOs, they have now to compete with commercial rivals (Brandsen 2004).

In areas, that had before been reserved to the state and TSOs and been seen as a different world or “sector”, one finds nowadays the juxta- position of competition and cooperation, state-subsidies and the search for the social capital of civic support, marketing techniques and an appeal to community and civic virtues.
I have described this trend and the in- creasing impact of “hybrid” organisations that is accompanying it else- where (Evers 2005); similar observations stem e. g. from the debate about “agencification” – the mushrooming of organisations somewhere between the state, the business sector and the realms of the civil society (Pol- litt/Talbot 2004), questioning the idea of clear-cut separated state-, mar- ket-, and third sectors.

(2.)
(2.)

Throughout Europe in the last decades the impact of civil society and community issues has got new and additional forms.

Besides the fairly stable and well institutionalized mainstream services, wherein es- tablished third sector organisations play a role, one can find lots of fuzzy items and limited local fields with provisional and precarious organisa- tions and institutional settings ( Evers/Laville 2004a).

This is e.g.
This is e.g.

the case when it comes to various issues of social exclusion – community building in decaying city areas, services for groups in need, like immigrants, fami- lies at the margins, long term unemployed, subcultures of young citizens 380 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services at risk.
Altogether, new social cleavages and movements bring about a new generation of “emergency” services and TSOs that are more frag- mented and less institutionalized than many of their older predecessors.
In the middle of society the counterpart of this is represented by innovative types of services, like crèches founded and run by middle class parents, various forms of self-help groups in the psychosocial field, attempts to open up schools to the local environment, new experimental forms to run and design care and service housing for the elderly a. o..

(3.)
(3.)

These two items, the modernization of mainstream services in so- cieties that are more market- and consumer-societies than ever and the appearance of new needs and threads, most visible at the social margins but as well present in the middle of societies, go along with new forms of cooperation, networking and governance (Newman 2001).
In the “cen- tre”, there are attempts to find new regulations by establishing social markets; at the “periphery” there are new unstable forms of support for third sector organisations and of soft control by time limited government programs.

In the respective policy fields, programs and projects, usually various organisations cooperate and network; new public private partner- ships take shape that only have in common to be dissimilar to the old forms of long lasting stable social partnerships.

(Bode 2006).
(Bode 2006).

There is a more multifaceted and turbulent service field with more consumerism and new service industries both in former mainstream areas and in the “micro- fields” of new social needs and problems emerging.

It seems as if the respective dominating codes, formerly enclosed in clearly separated sec- tors are now present everywhere (Dekker 2001).

The values of the busi- ness sector like proper management and entrepreneurial orientation are now e.g.
important points of reference as well for public administrations and the third sector.

On the other hand it can sometimes happen as well, that a stricter code of conduct, “corporate citizenship” is requested as a guiding value that should count as well in the business sector.
While much of the old style political and academic rhetoric is still contrasting the public and private, the economic and the political of the new networks and logics of governance and (co)production of welfare present an often uneasy mix of these issues and concerns.

New “rules of the game” con- cerning cooperation and division of responsibilities between all sides have still to be found.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 381 With respect to change and the issue of continuity or rupture and of the impact to be given to historical “models” with an eye to the future, a look should be given as well to action taken by the EU itself.

So far vis a vis TSOs and “services of general interest” the European Union is offer- ing different roles at a time (Evers/Lange 2005; Zimmer/Sittermann 2005).
In two respects, the Brussels administration welcomes TSOs: • They are welcome as lobbying and interest groups besides others, as part of the European civil societies, in settings as e.g.

the social and civil dialogue • They are furthermore very much welcomed in all those programs, the EU is creating and subsidizing that try to deal with new social challenges like social exclusion, the discrimination of special groups , e.g.
as central agents, flexible and provisional service providers in local labour market policies, programs like “Equal” (against poverty) in EU-created projects like the European Anti-Poverty-Network But on the other hand the role they have by tradition as special kind of service developers and providers on a large and stable scale is completely denied.
The recent EU documents like the green and the white book on services of general interest (European Commission 2003 and 2004) have not only problems to acknowledge at all the peculiarities of social and welfare services compared with telecommunication, water supply, traffic a. o. but moreover they operate with the simple dualistic public (state)/private (commercial) concept.
The peculiarity of third sector or- ganisations as a potentially different type of economic provider is not even mentioned; they get treated like any other private for-profit provid- ers.
This does not only mark a clear difference to the various practices in EU-member states of giving service providing TSOs a guaranteed special status; it is denying as well at least one important element of the historical European social model, at other times so often appraised – the special status of a social economy and TSOs in the provision of welfare services.
Summing up one can say, that there are good reasons to speak not only about changes that entail continuity and that are tightly linked with national histories, but as well about inter-national changes that question the old models, which then seem to just impediments from the past.

This, 382 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services once again, limits the value of the debate on “welfare regimes” and a “European social model” when it comes to future trends.
7.6.4 Conclusions: Welfare services and TSOs – in search for roles beyond traditional status-guarantees and across “welfare regimes” It has been argued, that welfare models are today mainly descriptions of past social and political arrangements.
Some of them included a special status for third sector organisations (TSOs) as privileged providers of welfare services, be it as parts of a historical “social economy” or in the framework of subsidiarity and a tight cooperation between public authori- ties and welfare associations such as Caritas, Diakonie etc.

as robust so- cial partners.


More recent developments are blurring these models, the respective images of welfare services and TSOs and likewise the tradi- tional forms of cooperation, partnership and governance.
With old wel- fare and service models and the respective status-guarantees loosing im- pact, TSOs have to look for redefining their missions, both in mainstream service fields where they act as powerful forces and providers as well as on the micro levels of special non-standard spots as they have taken shape around various forms of new needs and risks of social exclusion.

These challenges are hard to describe in the language of “welfare re- gimes”.
First of all they do not stem from their respective histories but come on to all of their agenda, concerning as well the Nordic Models.

Secondly, many of their aspects escape the language of traditional welfare models with their clear separation of public and private, political and market issues.
The special concern with the loss of one’s status as a privi- leged partner in service-provision, so important in some “regimes” (like in Germany; see for that Bode/Evers 2004) is just a part of a broader story which is comprising such larger items as the waning of sectorial bounda- ries concerning organisational forms and dominating codes, new partner- ships networks of governance and welfare mixes in joint service provi- sion.
How to act under such circumstances in the more consumer- ist/standardized area of mainstream service industries on the one (e.g.

hospitals, child care facilities and care for the elderly) and in the more patchy spots where one feels compelled to take resort to civil – soci- ety/community based resources (dealing with drug addicts, long term Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 383 unemployed, immigrants) on the other hand?
How will TSOs and their umbrella organisations work in both fields and on the gaps between them?

Sometimes both fields are separated and so are the “old” and “new” or- ganisations that operate there, with more established and stable organisa- tions at one and more precarious small and local initiatives at other sides.

Sometimes however, there are national alliances and umbrella organisa- tions that face responsibilities in both fields.
These TSOs must develop a tale, a narrative and image of ones´ mission, able to re-integrate the specific challenges and concerns in both areas.
There is the challenge of: • qualifying as large interest organisations of ordinary welfare consumers …and as special advocacy for weak and marginal groups and settings competing on regulated service markets …and pioneering new non-standard services for special groups in partnerships with the central state and commercial groups … and networking in the community with a plurality of stakeholders.
• • Getting back from this final excursion into present and future challenges to the overarching question about the value of the debate on welfare re- gimes and a European social model for the discussion on TSOs and wel- fare services one can state two things.

On the one hand, there is a signifi- cant explicative and analytical value in embedding debates about TSOs and welfare services in larger concepts about Europes´ social model (of the past) and the narratives an regimes that are part of it.
On the other hand, it has been shown that much of the ongoing changes question this heritage including the ways to label and construct models.

They entail more rupture than continuity, more dis-organisation than reform, thereby reasoning on the future in terms of the models of the past is of quite lim- ited use.

The latter statement does not mean that the realities of the past do not count at all.
Not by accident, the present challenges to TSOs are e. g. felt and resisted most in those welfare states and regimes, where the former role of TSOs as guaranteed social partners in mainstream service provi- sion and negotiation in corporatist settings was most developed.
Let me conclude on the theme of this paper by putting our thesis in a nutshell: 384 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services One can not derive future possibilities and scenarios for action mainly from analyzing the limits and achievements of past welfare models and regimes.
It is by defining shared present and future challenges that one gets enabled to discuss appropriately the degree a common European heritage and a special national welfare-regime-legacy have an impact – and not the other way around.

Svensk sammandrag Nordiska civilsamhälleliga organisationer och välfärdsservices framtid – en modell för Europa?
Kunskapsöversikt över nordisk forskning om den tredje sektorn som väl- färdsområde Aila-Leena Matthies Introduktion Forskningsprojektets politiska och vetenskapliga välfärdskontext Under tider då erfarenheten av välfungerande nationella välfärdsstater ständigt omprövas, är det inte bara välfärdsstatens uppgift, utan även en uppgift för civilsamhället, det ömsesidiga ansvaret och områden för med- borgarnas egenansvar som omdefinieras.
Tredje sektorns betydelse i de mest framgångsrika och stabila välfärdstatliga omgivning – i Nordeuropa – är därför av stort intresse.

Min hypotes är att varken den nordiska offentliga sektorn ensam eller den tredje sektorn som sådan kan förklara den nordiska modellens fram- gång, men det kan vara det speciella förhållandet mellan den offentliga sektorn och civilsamhällssektorn som har möjliggjort utvecklingen av ett visst välfärdssamhälle.
De relativt nära och öppna kontakterna mellan medborgare och kommunala myndigheter, mellan frivilliga organisationer och den offentliga förvaltningen har lett till ett särskilt responsivt sätt att tillkännage inbördes spänningar, behov och intressen (se även Sipilä 386 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 1997).
Detta speciella förhållande som gäller den offentliga sektorn, tred- je sektorn och marknaden har emellertid genomgått betydelsefulla föränd- ringar i de flesta nordiska länderna under de senaste tio åren.

Komplexiteten av de socialpolitiska debatterna och de teoretiska frå- gorna som utgör ramarna för forskningsöversikten består av följande fyra riktningar: 1.
Nordiska välfärdsmodellens potential och framgång inom den europeiska kontext som Nordiska ministerrådets välfärdsforskningsprogram antagit.125 Välkända fyra välfärdsmodeller skiljer sig också med hänsyn till serviceperspektiv, genusmodeller och civilsamhällets organisationer, som ges i typologiseringen på nästa sida.

Andelen av barnfattigdom ges i tabellen som ett exempel för olika framgång av välfärdsmodeller.

2.
2.

Pågående utveckling av och debatt om den europeiska socialmodellen och den nordiska modellens eventuella bidrag därtill.

3.

Komparativa studier av tredje sektorn och civilsamhället, där tillväxten varit snabb under de senaste 20 åren och som har sina egna teoretiska frågeställningar.

4.

Aktuella förändringar inom välfärdsservicen och non-profit- sektorns förändrade roll i serviceutförande – tendensen som även EU- politiken har gett upphov till genom partnerskapsprogram.
125 Tyvärr ser det ut som om de nordiska länderna själva under global ekonomisk press för- stör alltmer just de faktorer som de fått beröm för.

Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 387 Tabell 1.

Välfärdsstatsmodeller, genus, service och tredje sektorn 126 Regim Välfärdsstat Social säkerhet och genusmodell Tredje sektorns roll Välfärdsservicens rationalitet Liberal “Minimistat“ (t.ex.
USA) Residual (socia- la förmåner för de allra fattigas- te) Marknadsoriente- rad social säkerhet och 1,5-familje- försörjarmodellen Central roll som tillhandahållare av service, betydelsen av civilsamhället och privata stiftel- ser Höginkomsttaga- res eget ansvar, låginkomsttagare ges tillgång till service enligt behovsprövning Framgångs- indikator: andelen barn- fattigdom 21,9% Konservativ (t.ex.

Tysk- land/Väst) Latinsk (t.ex.


Spanien) Korporativ (arbetsmark- nads- och familjebaserade avtal) Fragmentarisk (traditionellt informella och kyrkobaserade strukturer) Nordisk (t.ex.
Sverige) Universal (modern, individuell) Social säkerhet med kollektiva avtal och enförsörjarmo- dell Huvudsaklig etable- rad roll som tillhan- dahållare av servi- ce, finansieras av staten Ansvar enligt subsidiaritetsprin- cipen, tillgång till service med diversitetsprincip 10,2% Agrar- och religi- onsbaserade samfund med enförsörjarmodell Central roll av traditionella sam- hällen och den katolska kyrkan Familje- och gemenskapsan- svar, begränsad tillgång till service 13,3% Formell jämlikhet och individuell social säkerhet med tvåförsörjar- modell Huvudroll som intresseorganisa- tioner, kompletterar den starka offentli- ga serviceproduk- tionen Universell och lika tillgång till service, offentligt skattefinansierat ansvar 4,2% Frågeställningar Målet med forskningsprojektet är att analysera befintlig forskningsbase- rad kunskap om tredje sektorn och organisationer inom civilsamhället med anknytning till välfärdsservice i de nordiska länderna.
Målsättningen är även att belysa området med ett “utifrån-perspektiv”, utifrån en kompa- rativ europeisk utgångspunkt.

I enlighet med den ovan nämnda teoretiska ramen syftar forskningsöversikten till att svara på frågan, vad forskningen vet om de civila organisationerna i välfärdområden och deras möjliga roll i de nordiska ländernas välfärdstaters framtida utmaningar.
126 Esping-Andersen 1990; Lewis 1992; Anttonen/Sipilä 1996; Unicef 2005, modifierad av Matthies, se även Ferreiras jämförelse av modellerna för tredje sektorn i denna publikation 388 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Forskningsprocess, partners och material Idén med “forskningslägesprojekten” inom Nordiska rådets välfärds- forskningsprogram är att ge en översikt av forskning på basen av befintlig forskning, inte att samla in nya data eller att göra egna teoretiska analy- ser.
Forskningsuppgiften gavs till en enskild forskare, men erfarna part- ners från respektive nordiskt land har bistått med bibliografier över forsk- ning inom området i respektive land.

Bibliografin omfattar totalt 755 referenser på originalspråk med bifogad engelsk översättning.

Bibliogra- fierna har dokumenterats i EndNote-databasen, som blir tillgänglig via Nordiska rådets webbsida (www.norden.org/forskning/sk/forskning.asp).

Tabell 2.
Registrering av forskningsreferenserna om tredje sektorn inom välfärdsservicens område i de nordiska länderna: Land Projektgrupp Antal referenser Danmark Finland Inger Koch-Nielsen, Kaspar Olesen, David Rosenthal- Dansk Socialforskningsinstitut Riikka Westman, Jyväskylä (assisterade koordinatorn enligt privatkontrakt) Island Steinunn Hrafnsdóttir Islands universitet Norge Sissel Seim, Bennedichte Olsen, Marith Markussen Høgskolen i Oslo Sverige Lars Svedberg, Johan Vamstad Sköndalsinstitutet Totalt 60 291 38 71 295 755 Skillnaderna i mängden katalogiserad forskning påverkar inte forsknings- översikten som sådan, eftersom en lista gjordes upp på de 10–15 viktigas- te och tematiskt relevanta studierna från respektive land och dessa valdes ut till innehållsanalysen.
För att komplettera analysen av de valda studierna genomförde forsk- ningskoordinatorn en expertgruppsintervju med 3–6 nyckelforskare från vart och ett av länderna (Se deltagarna i rapportens bilaga).

Hela projektens resultat presenterades och diskuterades under en eu- ropeisk workshop i Magdeburg november 2005.

Deltagarna i denna workshop kom från 12 länder.


Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 389 Komparativ översikt av den nordiska forskningsprofilen Nordisk forskningsprofil för tredje sektorn De närapå 800 referenserna från de senaste 15 åren berättar om ett nytt och snabbt växande forskningsområde i de nordiska länderna.

Forsk- ningsområdets allmänna profil karakteriseras av en omfattande forskning inom olika vetenskapsgrenar.
Sedan 1990-talet har det i de flesta nordiska länder tydligt funnits ett växande politiskt intresse för att utveckla och öka frivilliga insatser inom social service vid integration av olika “socialt utslagna” grupper och inom sysselsättningen.

I nästan varje nordiskt land har samtidigt ett allvarlig politiskt be- kymmer uppstått över att traditionella element för demokratiskt intresse och deltagande minskat.
På motsvarande sätt har demokratins och civil- samhällets rehabiliteringsprogram varit kännetecknande för de flesta nordiska länder under de senaste tio åren (Trägårdh, 1995: Amnå 1999; Repstad 1998; Østerud, 2003, Borg 2005).

Därför har inställningen till forskning inom detta område blivit mera uppskattande.
Differenserna i forskningsapproach verkar följa vissa genusprofiler (Matthies 1998): Kvinnliga forskare har i huvudsak fokuserat på frivillig- het, självhjälpsgrupper och medborgarnas perspektiv liksom på vissa serviceområden127, medan manliga forskare huvudsakligen styrt sitt in- tresse på makronivån, på sektorns funktionella som på dess ekonomiska roll128.
På nordisk nivå har ett par försök gjorts för att bygga nätverk kring forskning inom den frivilliga sektorn och två gemensamma publikationer har getts ut.

(Redaktionskommiteé 1999; Jeppsson/Habermann 1999; Henriksen/Ibsen 2001; Helander /Sivesind 2001).

På internationell nivå finns en bild av en särskild “nordisk tradition” inom forskningen kring tredje sektorn och civilsamhället, som presenteras aktivt i internationella fora.
Den enhälliga presentationen av den nordiska forskningen kring tredje sektorn och civilsamhället knyts oftast samman med den mer eller mindre direkta kritiken av den dominerande, US-baserade teorin om sta- 127 S. Alm Andreassen 2004; Nylund 2000; Olsen 1994; Seim 1997; Habermann 2001; Jeppsson 1994; 2005; Fellesoe 2004; Halvorsen 2002; 2005; Hrafnsdottir 1998; 2005, Roivainen 2001; Turunen 2004 128 Helander /Sivesind 2001; Østerud/ Selle/ Engelstad 2003; Siisiäinen 2000; Lundström/ Svedberg 2003, Lorentzen 2004.
390 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services tens misslyckande som en förklaring till den frivilliga sektorns existens.

(Klausen/Selle 1996; Lundström 2004, 25–; Ibsen 1996; Henriksen 1996).
Men det verkar som om den nordiska antitesen – att en stark väl- färdstat inte förhindrar civilt samhälle – inte fått påfallande inflytande: teorin om statens misskötsel som orsak för civila organisationernas åter- komst kommer nämligen ännu fram exempelvis i det komparativa John- Hopkins-projektet Den socialekonomiska inriktningen har uppmärksammats och blivit vida känd bland nordiska forskare, men det finns endast några systema- tiska empiriska studier inom denna.
Ofta är socialekonomiska forskning- en separerad från de andra typerna av forskning kring tredje sektorn och civilsamhället (Pestoff 1991; Grönberg 2004).

Nationella profiler för forskningen129: nordisk mångfald Island: En tradition av historisk forskning kring medborgarrörelsernas värd att uppmärksamma – särskilt kvinnorörelsernas – inflytande i sam- hällsutvecklingen.
Framträdande forskning och konsensusbaserad diskus- sion om betydelsen av aktuell frivillig verksamhet och frivilligsektorn, tillsammans med de största icke-statliga organisationerna, med anknyt- ning till befrämjanden av frivilligt arbete .

Inga referenser till socialeko- nomi.

Danmark: Forskningen fokuserar på frivilligsektorn som sådan och tar fram skillnaderna mellan olika områden.
Forskningen om förhållandet till statssektorn reflekterar pluralism inom välfärdsservice och långt utveck- lad decentralisering med modeller av delaktigt beslutsfattande.

Den soci- alekonomiska debatten är inte särskilt synlig.

Finland: Tvärvetenskapliga beskrivningar av sektorn alltsedan 1990- talet.

En ökning inom tredje sektorn i slutet av 1990-talet, efterföljdes av en pragmatisk-strategisk diskurs om tredje sektorns roll i partnerskaps- modeller och som konkurrensfaktor.
Ny forskning kring frivillig verk- samhet alltsedan 2000.

Norge: Mycket avancerad teoretisk debatt och aktivt internationellt deltagande.
Stark betoning på servicebrukare och medborgarnas delaktig- 129 För mera information om forskningsprofilerna för tredje sektorn i de nordiska länderna och i de respektive länderna se Sivesind /Lorentzen /Selle /Wollebaek 2002, 115-; Nylund 1997; Svedberg 2001; Helander/Sivesind 2001; Lundström 2004, 25-; Juliusdottir 1999, 13; Halvor- sen/Hvinden 1998 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 391 het, ingen forskning kring privatisering och socialekonomi.
Forskningen uppdelad på många institutioner.

Sverige: Etablerad forskning kring folkrörelser.

Intensiv forskning kring frivillig verksamhet, den frivilliga sektorn för sig och socialekono- min för sig, men nästan ingen koppling dem emellan.

Forskningen är koncentrerad till endast några centra.

Växande forskning kring lokalt partnerskap; stark ideologisk debatt om forskningsobjektet.
Huvudteman inom forskningen: förhållandet till staten dominerar – kön och marknadsförhållandet knappt tematiserat Forskningsreferenserna finns katalogiserade i programmet EndNotes i fem nationella databaser.

De flesta av de 755 kan betraktas som “natio- nella översikter” (304).

Majoriteten av publikationerna behandlar tredje sektorns/medborgarorganisationernas förhållande till den offentliga sek- torn.
Det är verkligen överraskande att i länder som räknas till de mest jämställda och kvinnovänliga i världen omnämns genusaspekterna inom civilsamhällets aktiviteter och tredje sektorn endast i 24 undersökningar Tabell 3: Huvudteman för registrerade undersökningar.
Kategori /Centralt Tema Antal Referenser Anmärkningar Nationella översikter Teoretisk och/eller konceptuell debatt Förhållandet till staten/lokal myndighet 304 232 162 Makroperspektiv, ofta med historisk aspekt på organisationernas roll eller kvantitativa surveyundersökningar Använda koncept: Non-profit, ideella sektorn, civilsamhället, socialt kapital Den frivilliga organisationens roll i välfärds- statens/kommunens koncept 47 Traditionella och nya områden Olika serviceområden Motiv för frivillig verksamhet Könsaspekter 36 26 Det mest utvecklade enskilda empiriskt forskningstemat Huvudsaklig hänvisning till de frivilliga per- sonernas kön, eller genusfördelade uppgifter inom frivillig verksamhet (Totalt 755, möjlighet att ta fram flera centrala punkter.
Här de oftast omnämnda punkterna) 392 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Evaluering av forskningen Forskningsprestationer i europeiskt perspektiv: synliggörande Prestationerna och bristerna inom forskningen kring den nordiska tredje sektorn och civilsamhället kan sammanfattas på följande sätt: 1.
Forskningen har under de senaste 10–15 åren lyckats med att nationellt och internationellt synliggöra sektorn, med tanke på att det ända till 1990-talet ännu knappt fanns någon kännedom om aktiviteter utanför den offentliga sektorn hade anknytning till välfärdproduktionen.

Idag har tredje sektorns koncept och betydelsen av frivilliga organisationer etablerats i den offentliga sfären i de flesta samhällen i Norden.

2.
2.

Nordiska frivilliga organisationers speciella funktion och särart i internationell jämförelse åskådliggörs med tydliga bevis: organisationerna är multifunktionella med stark betoning på “voice”, advokat, expertis, avant-garde, sammanhållning, men inte med så stark orientering mot servicefunktion.

3.

Vad som karakteriserar förhållandet till den offentliga sektorn diskuteras i de flesta källorna.
Vanligtvis ses relationen som komplettering i stället för utmaning, partnerskap i stället för konkurrens, samarbete i stället för avtal och att vara “vakthund” i stället för att överta uppgifter.

4.

De frivilliga personernas profil, motivation, status, ålder och kön undersöks systematiskt och jämförande i de respektive länderna.

5.

Dessa tre teman (funktion, förhållandet till staten, frivillighet) representerar även styrkan i den teoretiska debatten inom detta forskningsområde i de nordiska länderna.
6.

På kartan över internationella forskningstraditioner delar de flesta forskare den europeiska forskningstraditionen och går in för den.

Denna position utvecklas dock inte systematiskt i forskningspraxis och är inte heller synbar vid användning av centrala begrepp eller vid avgränsning av forskningsobjektet.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 393 Outforskade teman och öppna frågor: genus, medborgare och konflikter Det finns åtskilliga frågor som nästan inte alls tagits upp, fastän de i själ- va verket är vitala i ett europeiskt perspektiv och för den roll som de nor- diska samhällena kunde ha i diskussionen om civilsamhälleliga organisa- tionerna.

1.

Den ideella sektorns särart och dess speciella potential och fördel i jämförelse med de offentliga och privata sektorerna.
I själva verket vet vi faktiskt inte hur denna egenart slutligen kommer att beröras av nuvarande förändringsprocesser.

Eller håller skillnaden mellan sektorerna på att försvinna eftersom de alla på ett likadant sätt går i riktning mot New Public Management?

2.

Förhållandet till marknaden och partnerskap med näringslivet (Finland undantaget).

Detta är verkligen överraskande eftersom merparten av forskningen kontinuerligt fokuserar på förhållandet till staten.
Även den empirisk-systematiska kunskapen om socialekonomi är mycket liten (Sverige undantaget).

3.

Genusaspekterna är underrepresenterade genom hela forskningen.

Vilken betydelse har det civila samhällets organisationer för nordiska samhällens kvinnovänliga modell i ett internationellt perspektiv?

4.

Medborgarperspektivet är fortfarande mycket tunt i undersökningen (med undantag av Norge) även om studierna talar om medborgarorganisationer.

5.
5.

Konflikterna mellan civilsamhällets organisationer och välfärdsstaten inom välfärdsservicens område inte är synliga.

Motsättningsvis markerar de nordiska ländernas forskning konsensusorienterad samverkan mellan sektorerna.

Man kunde även undra om funktionen som vakthund kan lyckas utan att skälla och bita?
Kvantitet, komposition och struktur av den Nordiska tredje sektorn i europeisk kontext För att skapa en komparativ-kvalitativ aspekt är de uppdaterade resultaten från John Hopkins Comparative Research (CNP)-undersökningen de mest användbara.

Resultaten av denna undersökning illustrerar förvånansvärt att: 394 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services • tredje sektorns kvantitet i de nordiska länderna är t.o.m.
vad gäller arbetsstyrkan större än i de flesta andra i-länder • den frivilliga verksamhetens grad i de nordiska välfärdsstaterna är större än genomsnittet för andra samhällen av västerländsk typ • På en lista av 36 länder listade enligt andelen ekonomiskt aktiva personer som är avlönade eller oavlönade och deltar i civilsamhällets organisationer, kommer Norge på åttonde, Sverige på nionde och Finland på elfte plats.

Tabell 4.
Den civila organisationernas arbetsstyrkas andel av den ekonomiskt aktiva befolkningen 130 Land Avlönad personal Frivilliga Finland Norge Sverige Genomsnitt för i-länder Genomsnitt för inalles 36 länder 2,4% 2,7% 1,7% 4,7% 2,7% 2,8% 4,4% 5,1% 2,7% 1,6% Totalt 5,3% 7,2% 7,1% 7,4% 4,4% Även i tabellen om frivilligt arbete på privat basis och donationer är de tre nordiska länderna bland samhällenas tio i topp (2 plats = Sverige; 4 = Norge; 8 = Finland): 130 Källa: John Hopkins Comparative Research (CNP) 2005. www.jhu.edu/~engp/pdf/ table101.pdf.
(se även Helander 1998 och; Sivesind /Lorentzen /Selle/ Wollebaek, 2002) Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 395 Tabell 5.
Frivillig verksamhet i de nordiska länderna 131 Procent frivilliga vuxna av total befolkningen Procent frivillig verksamhet med inriktning på social välfärd Tre huvudområden inom civila samhällssektorn som arbets- styrka 132 inom FTE 133 Danmark 134 35% Island 135 40,3% 12% 11% Finland 136 33% 13% 137 Norge 138 52% 12,6%139 Sverige141 52% Genomsnitt för i-länderna 15% 1.

Sport/kultur 2.Boende/lokalsamhället 3.

Social service 1.

Kultur /sport 2.

Social service 3.

Humanitär 1.

Kultur /sport 2.


Civila samhället/försvar 3.

Social service 1.Kultur/ sport 2.

Social service 3.Yrkesmässiga org.

1.

Kultur /sport 2.

Yrkesmässig 3.

Social Service Inom ramen för EU-projektet “Third system and employment” (Pättinie- mi 2004) identifierades betydelsen av sysselsättning i motsvarande orga- nisationer enligt följande: 131 Källa: (www.jhu.edu/~engp/pdf/comptable5_dec4.dpf.)
132 Data tillgänglig endast om frivilliga, inte om avlönad personal från Island och Danmark 133 FTE = ekonomiskt aktiv befolkning 134 Koch-Nielsen/Rosdahl 2005; Koch-Nielsen/Dalsgaard Clausen 5; även Habermann 2001; Socialforskningsinstituttet 2005 135 Hrafnsdottir 2005 136 Nylund (2000, 115) refererar till Finstats Life condition survey; men Yeung (2002) talar för 37%, se även Helander 2004;.
Emedan i CNP-resultaten uppnår Finland endast 8% (se föl- jande fotnot) 137 Helander/Sivesind 2001, 61 138 John Hopkins Comarative Non-Profit Project (CNP) 2005 142 Sivesind & al 2002, 55 396 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Tabell 6.Anställning i tredje systemets företag och organisationer (social ekonomi) inom EU 1995–1997 140 Land Andelen nationellt sysselsatta inom FTE 1.

Nederländerna 2.

Irland 3.

Danmark __ 6.

Finland 10.


Sverige EU–genomsnitt 14,69% 12,57% 12,56% 6,92% 5,15% 6,57% I de nordiska samhällena verkar man ligga nära toppen eller under det europeiska genomsnittet i fråga om sysselsättande inom social ekonomin.

När allt kommer omkring rubbar tillgänglig data som gäller tredje sektorn och civilsamhällets organisationer den dominerande bilden av att en stark stat skulle utesluta civilsamhällsstrukturerna.
Men komparativ kvantitativ forskning med existerade data från olika kontexter kan dock vara mycket problematiskt och kan kanske bara hänvisa på tendenser.

Civilsamhällets organisationer och utmaningarna för välfärdsservicen Aktuella utvecklingstendenser: civilsamhällets organisationer under press Några av de essentiella tendenserna i de aktuella förändringarna inom nordisk välfärdspolitik anknyter mer eller mindre direkt till välfärdsservi- cens område och således även till civilsamhällssektorn.
Raija Julkunen (2001; se även Anttonen /Sipilä 2000) poängterar att de grundläggande omläggningarna i den nya välfärdspolitiken består av minskade resurser till offentlig service och en i all tysthet fortskridande privatisering av service.
Detta innebär att de privata, tredje och offentliga sektorerna blandas ihop, liksom att informell omsorg om anhöriga integreras allt mer 140 Källa: Vivet /Thiry 2000, enligt Pättiniemi 2004, 25 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 397 i hela servicesystemet.

Nytänkandet bidrar även till tendensen att öka den frivilliga sektorns, välfärdsorganisationernas och kyrkans roll i arbetet med marginaliserade grupper, diskriminerade och minoriteter.
Under tiden sköts dessa uppgiftsområden i ökad grad på ett projektinrikat sätt i stället för i institutionaliserade former, medan statens universella ansvar vanligen distanseras och blir selektivare.

Wijkstöm (2001) beskriver trenden inom tredje sektorns förhållande till staten som “övergång från subventioner till kontrakt”, vilket redan i hög grad har förändrat sättet för organisationernas offentliga bidrag.
På grund av EU-konceptet för socialekonomin anser man i allt högre grad att organisationerna som arbetar inom detta område är någonting som utgör en del av det offentliga systemet, såsom ett instrument för att implemen- tera den statliga policyn (Wijkstöm 2001, 95).

Samma diskussion förs i Finland.

Möttönen och Niemelä (2005, 18–) välkomnar och skisserar en bredare och systematiserad kooperation mel- lan kommuner och frivilliga organisationer som det enda sättet att trygga välfärdsservicens framtid.
Kauppinen och Nuutinen (2005) konstaterar enbart ökningen av non-profit och for-profit drivet serviceproduktion, och analyserar läget utan att skapa normativa skillnader mellan sektorerna.

För det tredje intar Särkelä, Vuorela och Peltosalmi (2005) en kritisk position.

Dom talar ur civilsamhällsorganisationernas synvinkel och sätter sig emot pressen på att förändra sin funktionella fokus och överge auto- nomin.
EU kräver av sina medlemmar att de marginaliserades egna organisa- tioner involveras i välfärdspolitiken och projekten (Halvorsen 2005, 239– 240).

Härefter blir både tredje sektorns civilsamhälleliga funktion och servicefunktionen allt viktigare och samtidigt mera reglerad och inkopp- lad inom ramen för regeringsprogrammet.

Via nya partnerskapsprogram, såsom den dominerande metoden i EU har nya optioner för kooperation kommit fram.
Men såsom Nordfeldt (2000, 164–166) analyserar är situa- tionen ambivalent.

De frivilliga organisationerna anser att frågor om an- svar och individens rättigheter kan bli oklara i en blandekonomi (falla mellan stolarna).

Genom att ta mer ansvar för enskilda grupper kan orga- nisationerna medverka till att den offentliga sektorn drar sig tillbaka.
Den förändrade ekonomiska situationen för de frivilliga organisationerna med korttidskontrakt och högre självfinansierade belopp skapar större svårig- 398 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services heter att leverera nödvändig service och skapar nytt finansiellt beroende.

Många organisationer har redan slutat sin service i Sverige.
Även Lorentzen (1994, 38) återupptar att frivilliga organisationer i allt högre grad består av institutioner vars aktiviteter har blivit en regelbun- den del av det offentliga servicesystemet.

Svårt är sist och slutligen att se vilken deras speciella karaktär som medborgarorganisationer är, och hur organisationernas egna intressen kan kombineras med den offentliga upp- fordran.
Helander (2004, 71–) har observerat att särskilt servicebrukarnas organisationer endast i några enstaka fall får komma med i politiska pro- cesser (Helander 2004, 72; även Olsson & al 2005).

En allt djupare diskrepans uppstår mellan förväntningarna utifrån och frivilliga organisationernas egna intressen.

Enligt Siisiäinen (2003) har föreningarnas kvantitativa tillväxt fr.o.m.
1990-talet i Finland mycket tydligt riktats in på hobby- och expressionsorienterade nya föreningar, men mindre på den sociala välfärdssektorn eller traditionellt politiskt deltagande.

(Även i Sverige, s. Jeppsson och Svedberg (1999, 121– Svedberg 2001, 173).

Enligt Lorentzen (2004, 129–) är medborgarnas engagemang inte en- dast under statens “kolonisationspress”, utan även under press att bli på- verkad av vetenskaplighet och professionalism141.
Övriga faktorer som påverkar medborgarnas engagemang är kommersialisation och konsume- rism: den nya liberala utilitarismen söker det “loensamme medlemskap” (vinstbringande medlemskap) såsom paroll för 1990-talet.

Social- och forskningspolitiska konsekvenser: kunskapsbaserad välfärdsmix i stället för dold konkurrens mellan lika aktörer.
Enligt aktuell politik kommer tredje sektorns organisationer att bredda serviceleverans inom området för standardiserad konventionell service, där de konkurrerar med privata instanser (se även Evers 2005).

Detta leder till att bilden av välfärdsregimen i ett komparativt perspektiv kom- mer att förändras.

Aktuella tendenser innebär fler risker för mångfunktio- nella, kritiska och spontana aktiviteter hos civilsamhällets organisationer i nordiska demokratier än öppnar nya chanser.
Det finns även en risk för att 141 .

“Genom utdannigstilbud i kultur, naermiljö, idrett, ungdoms- och barnearbeid, forebyg- ging, sang och musik, natur- och miljöarbeid, mv.

föregoer det en vitenskapligtgoering av hand- lingsfelt som tidligere var erfahringsbaserte og lokalt forankrede”.
(Lorentzen 2004, 159) Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 399 de sociala problemens komplexitet och långvariga understödsprocesser för medborgaren splittras genom de kontrakt som enskilda instanser teck- nar.

En annan typ av välfärdsmix behövs.

I stället för att en mångfald in- stanser inom tredje sektorn skall konkurrera om samma offerter för sam- ma efterfrågan borde mixen styras av noggrann analys och öppet förhand- lande av uppgifter och kompetens.
Vi borde ställa följande frågor: 1.

Vilka samhällsfunktioner och serviceformer kan bäst tillhandahållas 2. när dessa knyts till det som är speciellt kännetecknande för medborgarnas organisationer?

Inom vilka serviceområden är den rationalitet som grundar sig på marknadsekonomin mest funktionell för samhället (inte endast i vinstbringande syfte)?

3.
3.

Vilka delar av de mänskliga och sociala behoven borde lämnas utanför konkurrensen och kvarstå under offentligt ansvar med omfattande transparens och lika tillgång till service?

Jag antar att en strategi av denna typ av kunskapsbaserad och reflektiv välfärdsmix skulle kunna skilja sig från den konventionella dolda konkur- rensen bland servicelevererantörer.
Den kunskapsbaserade modellen skulle snarare förstärka de nordiska ländernas framgångar än den som blint upprepar misstagen inom den enkelriktade marknadsekonomin, och driva mångfalden av aktörer till en mer homogen produktionsform.

Civilsamhället i de nordiska välfärdsstaterna –en framgångsmodell?
Utmärkande för de nordiska organisationerna är deras funktion som in- tresseorganisationer – vilket tillåter försvar, påtryckning, deltagande – lika väl som serviceinnovation eller leverans av service på ett komplette- rande sätt.

I dessa roller har organisationerna troligen medverkat till en förbättring av ett helt servicesystem, samt till förmågan att modernisera sig och till kontinuerlig utveckling.

De olika välfärdsstatsmodellerna har dock i huvudsak grundat sig på kulturella olikheter.
Såsom Rieger och Leibfried konstaterar när de refe- rerar till östasiatiska kulturer, “(…) ingen typ av socialpolitik kan överle- va utan en kulturell ram som förmedlar vitala motiv och kritiska mått- 400 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services stockar för dess aktörer” (Rieger/Leibfried 2004, 62).

Medborgarorgani- sationerna i Nordeuropa har otvivelaktigt bidragit till en kulturtradition som har främjat framväxten av en universell och jämlikhetsorienterad välfärdsstatsmodell.
Samtidigt är vi tvungna att medge att sådana samhäl- leliga kulturtraditioner som har sin grund i ideologiska och religiösa rö- relser på 1800- och 1900-talet har förlorat vitala delar av sin styrka för att påverka det pluralistiska samhället i början av 2000-talet.

I de nordiska länderna betonar de flesta forskare suveränitetens och autonomins betydelse för utveckling av civilsamhällets organisationer.
I de flesta fall betyder detta att forskarna förhåller sig skeptiska till de på- gående processerna där intresseorganisationerna dras in i välfärdsstaten och i deras funktion förändras i riktning mot servicefunktion.

Det ses att det automatiskt betyder mer eller mindre dold instrumentalisering för välfärdsstatens behov.

I syfte att uppehålla fördelarna med den nordiska välfärdsstaten är den tredje sektorns civilsamhälleliga och demokratiska roll viktig att bevara.
Det är även mera essentiellt än att binda organisationerna som offentligt styrda instanser i leverans av konventionell välfärdsservice eller att ut- veckla dem i riktning mot vinstbringande företag.

Brister i demokrati och inom service kan för övrigt inte ställas mot varandra.

Utan ett aktivt civil- samhälle finns det troligen varken tillräckligt med politisk påtryckning eller lösningar för att bemöta välfärdsservicens alla nya utmaningar.
Uppenbart är även att forskning inom detta område i nordiska samhäl- len befinner sig i ett initialskede som bara ger en allmän bild av dem och medverkar till att göra sektorn synlig.

För att få mera utförlig kunskap om möjligheterna och förhållandena inom sektorn krävs en omfattande, of- fensiv och välkoordinerad forskning.

Sensitiv och kritisk forskning skulle vara i stånd att identifiera annalkande konflikter, istället för att som nu enbart upprepa teser om konsensus och framgång.
Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 401 References Ascoli, U./Ranci, C., 2002: Changes in the Welfare Mix: The European Path, in: Ascoli, U.

/Ranci,C.

(eds.

): Dilem- mas of the Welfare Mix: The New Structure of Welfare in a Era of Priva- tization.

New York, Kluwer pp.

225–243 Baldock, J., 2003: On Being a Welfare Consumer in a Consuming Society, in: Social Policy & Society (2) 1, pp.
65–71 Bode, I. and Evers, A., 2004: From institutional fixation to entrepreneurial mobility?

The German third sector and its contemporary challenges´, in Evers, A./Laville, J. L.

(eds.)

The Third Sector in Europe.

Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp.

101–121 Bode, I., 2006: Disorganized Welfare Mixes.

Voluntary agencies and new governance regimes in Western Euro- pe, in: Journal of European Social Pol- icy 19 (4) (fortcoming) Brandsen, T., 2004: Quasi-Market Go- vernance.
An Anatomy of Innovation, Utrecht: Lemma Publishers Crouch, C./Farrell, H., 2002: Breaking the Path of Institutional Development?

Alternatives to the new determinism, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Discussion Paper 02/5, Cologne, June 2002 Dekker, P., 2001.

“What crises, what challenges?

When nonprofitness makes no difference,” in H. K. Anheier and J. Kendall, eds., Third sector pol- icy at the crossroads.

An international nonprofit analysis (London and New York: Routledge).
Diamantopoulou, A., 2003: The Euro- pean Social Model – myth or reality?

www.europa.eu.int/comm/employment _social/speeches/2003ad290903_en.

pdf.

Esping-Andersen, G., 1990: The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Prince- ton, New York Esping-Andersen, G., 2002: Towards the Good Society, Once Again?, in: Esp- ing Andersen, G. a.o.

(eds.)

Why we Need a New Welfare State.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.


European Commission 2003: Green Paper on Services of General Interest www.europa.eu.int/eurlex/en/com/gpr/ 2003/com2003_0270en01.pdf.

European Commission, 2004: White Paper on Services of General Interest http:/ /europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat _general/services_general_interest/doc s/com2004_374_en.pdf Evers, A./Lange, Chr., 2005: Freie Wohlfahrtspflege und Europäische Integration.

Auf der Suche nach Identi- tät und Anerkennung, in: Linzbach, Chr.

u. a.

(Hg.
u. a.

(Hg.

): Die Zukunft der sozia- len Dienste vor der Europäischen Her- ausforderung.

Nomos Verlag, Baden- Baden, pp.

155–182 Evers, A., 2005:, Mixed Welfare Sys- tems and Hybrid Organisations.

Changes in the governance and provi- sion of social services, in: International Journal of Public Administration (28) 3, pp.

737–748 Evers, A. and Laville, J. L. 2004.

The Third Sector in Europe.

Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Evers, A. and Laville, J .L., 2004a: Social services by social enterprises:on the possible contributions of hybrid organizations and a civil society, in: Evers, A. and Laville, J. L.: The Third Sector in Europe.

Northampton, Mas- 402 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services sachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp.

237–256 Newman, J.

(2006): Modernising Gov- ernance.

New Labour, Policy and So- ciety, London: Sage.


Pollitt, C./Talbot, C., 2004: Unbundled Government: A Critiical Analysis of the Global trend to Agencies, Quangos and Contractualism, London, Routledge Salamon, L. M./Anheier, H. K., 1998: Social origins of Civil Society: Explaining the Nonprofit Sector Cross- Nationally, Voluntas, 9, pp 213–248 Van Kersbergen, K., (1995) Social Capi- talism.

A Study of Christian Democ- racy and the Welfare State.

London: Routledge.

Zimmer, A./Sittermann, B.
2005: Brus- sels Civil Society, paper given at the International Conference “Concepts of the Third Sector”, organized by EMES and ISTR, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) Paris , 27–29 April 2005 Authors Dr. Karl Birkhölzer, economist and social scientist, is Head of the Inter- disciplinary Research Group Local Economy at the Technical University of Berlin and Chair of the European Network for Economic Self Help and Local Development; his main research topics are: Local and Social Econ- omy, Future of Work, Social Capital and related issues.
Adalbert Evers is presently Professor for Comparative Health and So- cial Policy at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen.

His central research field is concerning the interlinkages between public policies and civil society in the field of social welfare.

Recent international research has focused on child care services, local arrangements and networks for oc- cupational and social integration, issues of governance in the field of welfare services.
Silvia Ferreira, is sociologist, lecturer at the School of Economics of the University of Coimbra, member of the Centre of Cooperative Studies of this School, and researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the Uni- versity of Coimbra.

Her research interests include the relationship be- tween the state and the third sector in welfare policies, welfare state re- form, as well as third sector/social economy organisations and social entrepreneurship.
Ulla Habermann is a senior researcher at the University of Copenha- gen and the University of Southern Denmark.

Her central research inter- est is voluntary organisations in the (Scandinavian) welfare state, volun- teering and volunteers’ motives.

She is currently working with the issue of gender and women in voluntary organisations.

Lars Skov Henriksen is Associate Professor at the Department for So- ciology, Social Work and Organization, Aalborg University, Denmark.
His research focuses on social policy, welfare state, voluntary organiza- tions and volunteering.

404 Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services Dr. Steinunn Hrafnsdottir is a social worker, with MA in management and PhD in Social Work.

She is an Assistant professor at the Department of Social Work, Faculty of Social Science, University of Iceland.
Her main research topics are: volunteering, non-profit organizations, the rela- tionship between the state and voluntary organizations and related issues.

Bjarne Ibsen, PhD., Head of Research, Associate Professor, Centre for Sports, Health and Civil Society, University of Southern Denmark.

He is currently working with analyses of the voluntary, non-profit sector in Denmark from an organizational perspective.
The research interest in- cludes also the relation between voluntary sector and state as well as sports and leisure politics.

Eva Jeppsson Grassman currently holds a chair as professor at the Na- tional Institute for the Study of Ageing and Later Life (NISAL) at the University of Linköping in Sweden, where one focus of her research is on welfare, ageing and civil society.
Her previous work includes a number of publications in the area of voluntary organisations, volunteering, informal care giving as well as publications concerning the role of the Church from a welfare perspective.

Inger Koch-Nielsen was until recently Senior Researcher at The Dan- ish National Institute of Social Research, Copenhagen, Denmark.

She is now retired.

She has for many years done research in a wide range of topics with a focus on social policy, volunteering and voluntary organiza- tions.
Marith Kristin Markussen, Sociologist, researcher at Social Welfare Research Centre, The Faculty of Business, Public Administration and Social Work, Oslo University.

Main interests of research: Civil society, marginalization, and minority/majority relations.

Aila-Leena Matthies, Professor of Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal in Germany since 1996.

Her previ- ous position was at the University of Jyväskylä, Department of Social Policy, Finland.
Her research focuses on comparative European ap- proaches of social policy and social work, third sector and citizens’ par- ticipation as well as gender models.

Dr. Marianne Nylund is a social scientist, professor in social work at the University of Helsinki, Department of Social Policy.

She is in charge for a 4-year professional licentiate degree program in social work.
Her Nordic civic society organisations and the future of welfare services 405 research interests include voluntary work, volunteering, self-help groups and social networks.

Bennedichte C. Rappana Olsen, sociologist, associate professor at So- cial Welfare Research Centre, The Faculty of Business, Public Admini- stration and Social Work, Oslo University College.

Main interests of research: Disability research, organisations of disabled, peer-work, User- participation, minority/majority relations.
Sissel Seim, Social worker, Ass.

Professor, Leader of Social Welfare Research Centre, The Faculty of Business, Public Administration and Social Work, Oslo University College.

Main interests of research: Self- organisation, Self-Help, User-Participation, Child Care, Ethics in Social Work.

Lars Svedberg, Professor and Director of the Research Department, Ersta Sköndal University College.

Several national and international re- search projects on the voluntary sector.
Johan Vamstad is a PhD Student of Political Science at Mid-Sweden University in Östersund.

His ongoing dissertation project goes under the working title “The third sector and the challenges to the Swedish Welfare State”, a project that will finish in the spring of 2008.

His research inter- ests are the third sector, the welfare state and cooperative social services.
Annette Zimmer is Associate Professor of Social Policy and Compara- tive Politics at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Mün- ster, Germany.

She was affiliated with the Program on Nonprofit- Organizations at Yale University, USA, and served as the DAAD Visiting Professor of German and European Studies at the Centre for International Studies of the University of Toronto, Canada.
As one of the Local Asso- ciates in Germany, she is involved in the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project.