The transnational construction of national challenges: the ambiguous Nordic model of welfare and competitiveness

Dualising activation. Responses to unemployment and mental health-related disability retirement in Finland at the turn of the millennium

“…This way, the aim of increasing labour participation can be seen as paralleling the Nordic tradition. However, the policies discussed above seem to have weakened the social equality typical of Nordic welfare societies and have reflected the Nordic pre-welfare-state axiom (Kettunen 2011).…”

The Virtuous Circle of Sustainable Welfare as a Transformative Policy Idea

“…The elements of mutual benefits among equality, welfare states, and economic growth were already visible in policy discourses in the 1930s, when social policies had to be justified in relation to a longstanding liberal tradition that fiercely resisted state interventions. According to Kettunen [5] (p. 28), the idea of the virtuous circle changed the political discourse in that decade due to its ability to expand the focus from narrow economic interests to systemic integration. The International Labor Organization (ILO) played a significant role in promoting a society "in which the objectives of social equality and security on the one hand and of economic efficiency, competitiveness, and growth on the other were supposed to reinforce each other" [5] (p. 27).…”

“…The growth dependence has historically been accompanied by the policy idea of a virtuous circle, the notion that social and economic policies are interrelated and that social policy measures do not conflict with economic growth. This idea has helped justify social policy measures and enabled the development of tax-funded comprehensive welfare states [5].…”

Outsourcing Equality: Migrant Care Worker Imaginary in Finnish Media

“…Tellingly, the word 'equality' appears 15 times and 'justice' eight times in the Helsingin Sanomat analysis, while 'competitiveness', 'efficiency', and 'flexibility' appear 71, 54, and 17 times, respectively. This being said, particularly in Finland, the egalitarian ethos of the welfare state has presumed a virtuous circle between social equality and economic austerity (Kettunen, 2011). Whereas social and economic arguments have not opposed one another, but rather presupposed one another, a semantic shift toward neoliberal discourse was arguably easier to apply.…”

“…Historically, it has not been difficult to legitimatize such an emphasis in politics. While the neoliberal transition has occurred later and been of a slightly different kind in northern Europe than in other 'western democracies', in Finland, it has been fuelled by a strong historical confidence in economic competitiveness as the basis for achieving welfare, social equality, and ultimately a sense of community (Kettunen, 2011). In media portrayal about the 'necessary importation' of paid care workers, the link between the competitive economy and a communitarian ethos is articulated through an overtly nationalist, protectionist discourse, whereby migrant workers are invited to the nation-state through their participation in the economy, and in a position as outsiders: The quote constitutes an example of how migrant othering is played out in the Finnish media by simply lumping together settled migrants and the newly arrived within a discourse of instrumentalist integration.…”