Themes/Strands

1 Care in ageing and diversifying societies
Leader: Professor Marta Szebehely
Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, Sweden,

2 Family change, public policies and birth rates
Leader: Senior Researcher Mai Heide Ottosen
The Danish National Centre of Social Research, Copenhagen, Denmark

3 Welfare regimes and parent-child relations
Leader: Professor Gunhild Hagestad
Agder University College and Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), Norway

4 Ageing populations and income security in old age
Leader: Senior Researcher Axel West Pedersen
Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), Norway

5 Migration as a challenge to the Nordic Welfare Model
Leader: Professor Eskil Wadensjö
Institute of Social Research, Stockholm University, Sweden

6 Combating exclusion - the case of people with disabilities
Leader: Professor Jan Tøssebro
Department of Social Work and Health Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

7 Activation and new governance structures
Leader: Professor Ivar Lødemel
Oslo University College, Norway

8 Globalisation and the competitiveness of the Nordic Welfare Model
Leader: Professor Jørgen Goul Andersen
Centre of Comparative Welfare State Research, Aalborg University, Denmark

9 Nordic welfare state paths - drivers of change
Leader: Professor Anneli Anttonen
Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Tampere University, Finland

10 Changes in patterns of poverty, social exclusion and other outcomes in the Nordic countries
Leader: Professor Veli-Matti Ritakallio
Turku Centre for Welfare Research, Turku University, Finland

CROSS-CUTTING PERSPECTIVES AND TASKS:
The research strands outlined here will draw on and combine different disciplines, theories and methodological approaches and data sources. Given the overall focus on the NWM an important common reference will be the Nordic tradition of comparative analysis of welfare states - and the substantial criticism of this tradition, especially from feminist perspectives, e.g. in term of gender regimes and breadwinner models. Similarly, the mainstream tradition has also been criticised from the points of view of care, social services and excluded groups and minorities.

In this context two useful concepts will be "welfare architecture" and "configuration", i.e. we need to focus on different combinations of institutions, rather than on one particular institution, and be sensitive to the particularities of different national policy constellations (without becoming unable to see the forest for the trees). For instance, to make meaningful comparison of Nordic pension systems we need to examine these as multipillar systems, and not as consisting of only publically provided pensions. Similarly, we have to compare gendered patterns in economic provision against the complex historical legacy of economy, culture and politics in each country. We must understand divergence or convergence in care services for the elderly or people with disabilities within a broader NWM matrix of gendered family care, public provision, third sector involvement and market-based services.

Hence the NCoE will not only address single issues or policies, but aim for a better understanding of the intended and unintended consequences of policy changes, as they, taken together, manifest themselves in the everyday lives of women and men, i.e. how people in the Nordic countries live the consequences of public policy.