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Over the last decade, fundamental changes have occurred in Denmark with regard to welfare structures. These changes have taken place in the sectors of social care and health where decision-making structures have been reformed to become more consumer-oriented. This article examines elderly-care services specifically in order to explore how changes in decision making have altered structures of inclusion. The analysis is based on systems theory, which allows an exploration of how each of three decision-making systems has particular conditions for participation and inclusion. The article argues that inclusion has assumed a hybrid form.

I de senere år er frit valg blevet præsenteret som den foretrukne vej til markedsgørelse af den offentlige sektor. Frit valg er samtidig præsenteret som borgernes mulighed for at blive involveret i velfærden beslutningstagning. En nærmere analyse af en lovreform på ældreområdet viser, at frit valg åbner for modsatrettede tendenser i rolleforventningerne til ældregruppen. Det handler om betingelserne for inklusion af de ældre samt om præmisserne for de interne differentieringer på området. Med afsæt i den organisatoriske del af systemteorien vil artiklen undersøge, hvordan frit valg skaber spændinger i velfærdens beslutningsgrundlag. Som det vigtigste mellem beslutninger i hverdagens konkrete velfærdsudøvelse og beslutninger i de administrative systemer omkring velfærden.

This article will show how Luhmann's concept of functional differentiation makes it possible to analyse how the government draws various stakeholders into governable terrain through the use of different functional systems. The article takes its outset in a recent reform aimed at a renewal of the authority relations between the municipalities and the non‐governmental housing associations in Denmark. In doing so, the article provides an example of how the government uses meta‐governance to define several interactive arenas for the various stakeholders. The article concludes that meta‐governance means neither that the government retains its old power at the centre of society nor that it is hollowed out. Instead, we have to realize that the government's capacity as an organizer relies on many other forms of media beyond power. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Organization recently devoted a special issue to Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. Since Luhmann's work remains relatively unknown in the English-speaking world, the issue was an important opportunity to introduce Niklas Luhmann's contribution to organization theory to this audience. Unfortunately, the primarily theoretical approach to systems theory presented in the issue may leave the reader wondering what, if anything, Luhmann's work might contribute to empirical research into organizations. This note is an attempt to draw attention to the potential of Luhmann's approach in this regard.