Search results for " social policy"

Financialization of Eldercare in a Nordic Welfare State

2022

Abstract The increasing presence of for-profit service providers in publicly-funded eldercare has transformed care in Nordic welfare states which have a strong tradition of public care provision. Macro-level research on care policies has mainly focused on public institutions, national policies, and marketization. The financialization of eldercare has not received much scholarly attention, and existing studies mostly focus on the UK. The financialization of eldercare refers to the ways in which care is both a site of profit extraction and financial engineering. The Nordic system is relatively universal, and, with rapidly ageing demographics, there is a secured demand for eldercare services. …

Sosiaalityön tutkimuksen mielekkyydestä ja missiosta

2017

Data practices and inequality in South African early childhood development policy: Technocratic management versus social transformation

2019

Background: In 1994, the African National Congress identified early childhood development as a potential strategy to redress the inequalities of apartheid, however, two and a half decades later, poverty still persists, and South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Aim: This article explores how policy texts based on and with the use of certain data practices establish ‘truths’ about childhoods and society, construct families and communities, and determine forms of provision to address inequality. Setting: In 2015, the South African government published the National Integrated Early Childhood Policy (NIECDP) to continue to address poverty and inequality. Its implementat…

Työura : yksilön valintoja vai monimutkaista kehkeytymistä?

2019

Artikkelissa tutkimme työurien kaaosteorian potentiaalia yhä moninaisemmiksi muuttuvien työuri-en ymmärtämisessä sekä työurien ja koetun terveyden välisten kytkösten hahmottamisessa. Kaaos-teoria tuo esiin työurien erilaiset muodot ja niitä värittävät monenlaiset epävarmuudet, satunnaisuu-det ja siirtymät. Aineistomme muodostuu kahdestatoista pohjoiskarjalalaisen miehen haastattelusta. Löysimme aineistosta kaikki teoriassa esitetyt neljä työuramuotoa, mutta ne limittyivät ja muoto saattoi myös vaihtua. Havaitsimme terveydentilan kytkeytyvän monisuuntaisesti työuran rakentumi-seen, ja taloudellisten kysymysten välittävän kytköksiä. Esitämmekin, että yksilön vapaata valintaa ja lineaarista ty…

The role of age and digital competence on the use of online health and social care services: A cross-sectional population-based survey

2022

Objective Online health and social care services are getting widespread which increases the risk that less advantaged groups may not be able to access these services resulting in digital exclusion. We examined the combined effects of age and digital competence on the use of online health and social care services. Methods We used a large representative population-based sample of 4495 respondents from Finland. Paper-based self-assessment questionnaire with an online response option was mailed to participants. The associations were analyzed using survey weighted logistic regression, exploring potential non-linear effects of age and controlling for potential sex differences. Results Higher age,…

Dividing Responsibility for Care : Tracing the Ethics of Care in Local Care Strategies

2020

This article analyses local care policies through the lens of the feminist ethics of care. The focus is on the normative understandings regarding care that emerge in local care strategy documents and how these understandings relate with the concept of ‘responsibility’. In this article, strategies published by the municipality of Jyväskylä, Finland, between the years 2008 and 2016, are analysed using Trace analysis. The research questions are: How is the division of responsibility regarding care among different actors constructed in the strategies? How do the roles assigned to these different actors accord with the principles of ethics of care? The findings show that the documents emphasise …

Comparisons, Categories, and Labels: Investigating the North–South Dichotomy in Europe

2021

The paper presents genealogy-oriented analysis of how the Nordic model gained its dominant characterization as modern, advanced and superior to other European welfare models while Southern European countries came to be labelled laggards in the welfare domain. To illuminate the relational nature of these, and all, comparisons, the analysis accentuates how researchers, politicians, and civil servants alike designate Nordic and Southern European states, their societies, and their welfare models. The empirical analysis focuses on scholarly writings about welfare-state comparisons (1986–2017) and on European Union documents addressing cohesion policies (1986–2021). Analysis of the vocabulary and…

Expertise-by-Experience in Child and Family Services : Professionals' Perspectives on Experiential Knowledge

2022

This study analyses child and family service professionals' perceptions of expertise-by-experience. Group and individual interviews with professionals were analysed. The analysis yielded three main dimensions of experiential knowledge: supportive peer knowledge; contested knowledge, in which education and talking among peers in small groups helps experts-by-experience to locate the limits of their knowledge before publicly disclosing their inner thoughts; and emotional knowledge, which is based on shared experiences of emotional challenges and vulnerability. The results support the call for a critical appraisal of experiential knowledge. The increasing demand for experiential knowledge mean…

A qualitative study of pre-service teachers’ experienced benefits and concerns of using motivational interaction in practice after a training course

2022

This is a pre-print of a published study: Renko, E., Koski-Jännes, A., Absetz, P. et al. A qualitative study of pre-service teachers’ experienced benefits and concerns of using motivational interaction in practice after a training course. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 9, 458 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01484-y Despite its positive effects on physical activity promotion, motivational style of interaction by health professionals is not easily taken up, as shown by meta-analyses of training courses. The concerns professionals experience for taking up the novel skills remain an open question. Preservice physical education teachers were offered a 16-hour training course on motivational i…