Suchergebnisse

Personal assistance (PA) has been characterized as a melting pot consisting of, on the one hand, a social rights discourse with its basis among disabled people, and, on the other hand, a consumer directed market discourse increasingly putting its stamp on welfare policy in the Western world. In the realm of welfare politics, these discourses are, in many ways, opposites, but have found common ground in the demand for a more individual and consumer friendly provision of services. Within a shared welfare state model, the application of PA has developed divergently in the Scandinavian countries and relates to the two discourses in different ways. In this article, PA in Denmark, Norway and Sweden is presented and similarities and differences are discussed and analysed. Questions raised include: How can the differences between the countries be understood? What dilemmas within welfare policy do they illustrate? How do the different discourses put their marks on the different PA-models in the Scandinavian countries? How do the PA programmes seem to develop further and what kind of PA will the Scandinavian countries end up with in the future?

The conceptualisation of a caring democracy provides strong arguments against neoliberal welfare states. However, there is currently a knowledge gap regarding how non-market-oriented welfare states are striving to reach their intention of a caring democracy. Based on a qualitative study, this article uses the case of Norwegian long-term care services for older people to provide insight into how this intention is practised in everyday care service settings when the current development is about active citizenship. The findings show ethical dilemmas for care managers and healthcare professionals, positioned on the front line of combining the creation of active citizens with the democratisation of services.

During recent decades a strong interest has grown in actively involving service users in social work education, research and policy development. Drawing on a major European Social Fund project, this book presents an overview of inspiring collaborative models that have proven their efficacy and sustainability. Contributions from service users, lecturers and researchers from across Europe provide detailed case studies of good practice, exploring the value framework behind the model and considering their added value from a user, teacher and student perspective. The book concludes with a series of reflective chapters, considering key issues and ethical dilemmas