Back to the future of journalist work? Entrepreneurial subjectivity and freelance journalism in Sweden

Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492110331
Author(s):  
Maria Norbäck
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
The Future ◽  
Freelance Work ◽  
Work Done

This article adds to our knowledge of precarious journalist work in advanced welfare states. By drawing on the literature on neoliberal governmentality, it explores how entrepreneurial subjects are constituted, and the particular role of freelance work in this process. The article is based on interviews with 52 freelance journalists in Sweden. The study illustrates how the impermanent and marketized forms of freelance work enforces an entrepreneurial subjectivity onto the individuals who engage in it – a subject position which in turn seems to be necessary when it comes to making it in a fierce freelance market. In this way, the neoliberal discourse of entrepreneurship has a performative effect in that it helps to produce the kind of entrepreneurial subjects needed in order for a competitive precarious labour market to function. At the end of the article, I discuss how the particular role of the Swedish setting, that is, an advanced welfare state with strong worker protection, paradoxically seems to amplify the precarious work done by some professionals as it only protects those on the ‘inside’ of traditional employment, while leaving increasing groups of outsiders, such as freelance journalists, exposed to precarization.

scholarly journals Invited Commentary: Social Cohesion, Depression, and the Role of Welfare States

2019 ◽  
Vol 189 (4) ◽  
pp. 354-357
Author(s):  
Mikael Rostila
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Neighborhood Disorder ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract In this issue of the Journal, Baranyi et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2019;000(00):000–000) examine the longitudinal associations of perceived neighborhood disorder and social cohesion with depressive symptoms among persons aged 50 years or more in 16 different countries. An important contribution of their article is that they study how neighborhood-level social capital relates to depression in different welfare-state contexts. Although the authors provide empirical evidence for some significant differences between welfare states in the relationship between social capital and depression, they say little about potential explanations. In this commentary, I draw attention to welfare-state theory and how it could provide us with a greater understanding of Baranyi et al.’s findings. I also discuss the potential downsides of grouping countries into welfare regimes. I primarily focus on the associations between social cohesion and depression, as these associations were generally stronger than those for neighborhood disorder and depression. Finally, I provide some suggestions for future research within the field and discuss whether the findings could be used to guide policies aimed at increasing social cohesion and health.

What's Globalization Got to Do with It? Economic Interdependence and the Future of European Welfare States

2006 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Hay
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Models ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Usa ◽  
State Regime ◽  
European Welfare States ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractThe appeal to globalization as a non-negotiable external economic constraint plays an increasingly significant role in the linked politics of expectation suppression and welfare reform in contemporary Europe. Yet, although it threatens to become something of a self- fulfilling prophecy, the thesis that globalization entails welfare retrenchment and convergence is empirically suspect. In this paper it is argued that there is little evidence of convergence amongst European social models and that, although common trajectories can be identified, these have tended to be implemented more or less enthusiastically and at different paces to produce, to date, divergent outcomes. Second, I suggest that it is difficult to see globalization as the principal agent determining the path on which European social models are embarked since the empirical evidence points if anything to de-globalization rather than globalization. The implications of this for the future of the welfare state in Europe and for the USA as a model welfare state regime are explored.

The American Welfare State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Klosko
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Early History ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Welfare Programs ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Political Justification ◽  
History Of

Background on the American welfare state. What we mean by welfare states; early history of American welfare state; causal factors in regard to how it developed, and the American welfare state in comparative perspective. We also look at the role of political justification in the development of American welfare programs.

6. Problems

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Garland
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Real ◽  
Moral Hazards ◽  
The Welfare State

The welfare state is, at its core, a problem-solving apparatus, designed to manage dysfunctions that are endemic to the economic and social life of modern nations. But welfare states also generate problems of their own—such as moral hazards, excessive bureaucracy, soaring costs, and labour market rigidities—that sometimes threaten to bring the whole enterprise into disrepute. ‘Problems’ shows that these issues are troubling and consequential, but in weighing their significance we ought always to ask: ‘what can be done?’ and ‘what are the alternatives?’ That the welfare state has its problems is undeniable. The real question is whether these problems are manageable and how they compare to those of other arrangements.

scholarly journals Artificial Intelligence as a Resilient Tool for Fighting Inequalities in the COVID-19 Crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Luís Capucha ◽  
Nuno Nunes ◽  
Alexandre Calado
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Term Change

Can artificial intelligence (AI) be a sustainable way to help solving the Covid-19 global problem? What does the way how welfare states, charity organizations and labour markets are dealing with the pandemic crisis tells us about the AI capacity for reducing exposition of underprivileged groups to the desease? It is becoming more and more visible how the new coronavirus pandemic is affecting specifically the most deprived and vulnerable groups, and also the big difference that welfare states and their policies make. What did the pandemic show about the relations between social inequality, welfare state provision and AI? This presentation will discuss the role of AI as a tool for public policies fighting inequalities that were amplified during the Covid-19 crisis. It will be analysed how the welfare state, the labour market and social communities are already incorporating AI tools and how this can eventually produce more resilient paths. Accelareted and amplified by the Covid-19, several processes of AI penetration in health, education, healthcare, social security, public administrations, labour and surveillance of citizens, became a subject of public discussion. Artificial intelligence is currently a process of long-term change in health and biotechnologies, long-distance education, teleworking, automation, robotization, consumption behaviours, surveillance and human enhancement. An in-deep analysis of the Portuguese case will support the lessons that can be learnt from AI and its use in public policies in a context of pandemic crisis, leading to a set of political recommendations, to promote its application as a resilient tool to fight inequalities.

scholarly journals Er de frivillige organisationers teknologiunderskud et problem?

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-46
Author(s):  
Anders La Cour
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Future Role ◽  
The Third ◽  
Welfare Society ◽  
The Future ◽  
Third Dimension

Is the Lack of Technology a Problem for Voluntary Organizations? This article attempts to contribute to the discussion of voluntary organizations and the challenges they face in the development of the Danish welfare society by applying insights from systems theory. The article discusses three central dimensions of these challenges. The first is the government’s increasing expectations as regards both the content and quality of voluntary effort, as well as its expectations regarding the nature of organization of voluntary groups. The second dimension is the lack of technology that voluntary organizations have at their disposal. The third dimension is a discussion of the relevan-ce that their programs and technologies have for the future role of voluntary organizations in the modernization of the Danish welfare state. In this regard it asks the question as to whether voluntary organizations suffer from a lack of relevant technologies.

Changing Expectations? The Change in the Role of the Welfare Ministry in the Regulation of Personal Social Services

2020 ◽  
Vol 691 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-173
Author(s):  
Lihi Lahat
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Regulatory Role ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Historical Changes ◽  
The Welfare State

Many welfare states have increased their regulatory role, but little attention has been given to historical changes in the regulatory role of government ministries. This study embraces a mezzo perspective and explores the regulatory role of the Welfare Ministry of Israel in the field of personal social services, asking the following questions: 1) What are the changes in regulatory expectations versus practices over the last five decades? and 2) How can we explain these changes and their outcomes? The study is based on the qualitative analysis of comptroller reports and other resources. It reveals a growing gap between society’s expectations of the Ministry as a regulator and the Ministry’s capacities over five decades. Notably, it points to the variety of regulatory spaces that have appeared in a regulatory welfare state. The Israeli case is relevant for other countries that have experienced processes of outsourcing and privatization in the welfare state and whose ministries had to change their role.

Closing the Childcare Gap: The Interaction of Childcare Provision and Mothers' Agency in Norway

2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNE LISE ELLINGSÆTER ◽  
LARS GULBRANDSEN
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Demand Side ◽  
Closing The Gap ◽  
Increasing Demand

AbstractIn most European countries a ‘childcare gap’ exists: that is, a discrepancy between the demand for and provision of childcare. Among the countries that are succeeding in closing the gap are the Nordic welfare states. Hence, knowledge abouthowchildcare provision in these countries has developed is of wide interest. This article stresses the importance of studying how the interactive processes of changing provision and demand explain the building up and the closing of national childcare gaps. Although there are similarities in the development of Nordic childcare services, some differences stand out. The comparison indicates that complex societal processes interact in shaping provision and demand. These dynamics are explored in more detail in the Norwegian case, where the interactive processes have produced an ever-increasing demand for childcare. The demand side is crucial, particularly the role of mothers in generating momentum for policy change. Mothers' changing labour market patterns and their demand for childcare are important driving forces for policy change.

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