Coproduction in the Nordic Welfare States: Transformation or Adaption?

This chapter introduces the aims and context of this book on Coproduction in the Nordic Welfare States in Transformation followed by a short chapter introduction. Co-production through partnerships and collaboration with citizens, the public sector, and civil society is on the political and administrative agenda and a research topic in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. However, the degree and shape of co-production differ among the four countries. Many place coproduction as the (new) answer to well-known challenges of Nordic welfare states such as increasing complexity, wicked problems, democratic deficit, and economic scarcity - and hereby situating a welfare state in transformation. This is also the case if we look into the international arena for coproduction. However, an interesting difference underlines the importance of this Nordic research. The current body of theories and concepts within the field of coproduction have originally been developed in the context of the so-called ‘residual’ welfare states (Esping-Andersen, 1990) such as Great Britain, the US, Holland, and Belgium (Bovaird, 2007; Brandsen & Honingh, 2014; Parks et al., 1981; Pestoff, 2012). This context differs significantly from the social democratic ’ welfare states of the Nordic countries in terms like the ‘contract’ between the citizens and the welfare state (Meijer, 2016) and the role of the public-service professionals (Vamstad, 2012). Consequently, an important question arises, addressing the specific conditions for co-production in the Nordic welfare states. How might we understand the challenges and possibilities of solidary and democratic welfare attempts to cope with this central problem of public administration—the preference revelation problem—by mobilizing three different institutional paradigms to increase public administrations’ level of information about users’ preferences: the market, the forum, and the commons.