Anna Angelin

Social background and life-course risks as determinants of social assistance receipt among young adults in Sweden, Norway and Finland

We analyse the determinants of social assistance receipt among young adults in three Nordic countries, focusing on social-background and life-course events during early adulthood. We ask whether they are related differently to short-term and long-term receipt. Short-term poverty could be more individualized than long-term poverty which can be expected to be more strongly related to social background. We applied generalized ordinal logit modelling to longitudinal register-based data. Both social-background and life-course factors were found to be important, but our results did not confirm the hypothesis of social background predicting mostly long-term receipt and life-course factors predicting mostly short-term receipt. Leaving the parental home early and parental social assistance receipt were important determinants of social assistance receipt, and both factors predicted longer duration of receipt as well. We found some differences between the countries, which may be related to differences in youth unemployment and social welfare systems.

Patterns of institutional change in minimum income protection in Sweden and Germany

Germany is generally regarded as a case of qualitative “change” in minimum income protection (MIP) schemes, while Sweden is perceived as one of institutional “inertia”. This paper seeks to qualify this view by embedding developments in MIP in wider policy and governance trends. Empirically, it is based on document analysis and qualitative expert interviews in the two countries. Theoretically, the paper applies recent institutional approaches that address patterns of change in more complex ways. In Sweden, an exclusive focus on formal continuity regarding social assistance would disguise its change in function from temporary security system of last resort into one that permanently provides income protection when neighboring policy fields, unemployment and sickness insurance, are downsized. Conversely, in Germany a merger of social assistance and unemployment assistance took place. Yet an exclusive focus on the Hartz reforms would downplay the degree of continuity that nevertheless exists in the unemployment insurance.

Service user integration into social work education: lessons learned from nordic participatory action projects.

Service users have lacked substantial influence, access, and participation in social work education in Norway and Sweden. In this article the author presents comparative analyses of two participatory projects that have developed and implemented practices that integrate service users into academic social work education and empower service users. The Norwegian HUSK project and the Social Work as Mobilization and Entrepreneurship course, also known as the “Mobilization course,” at Lund University in Sweden demonstrate collaboration between research, social work education, and service users. The conclusions focus on the importance of the empowering processes by including recognition and dialogue, co-learning in practice, and the use of neutral venues to ensure effective user participation. The inclusion of service users in social work education can improve both practice and education.

Have governments designed provisions for lone mothers, long-term unemployed and working poor to be multi-dimensional and integrated?

Discovering methods to combat poverty and social exclusion has now become a major political challenge in Europe. This book offers an original and timely analysis of how actors at the European, national and subnational levels meet this challenge. Combining perspectives on multilevel and network coordination, the editors discuss to what extent actors join forces in these efforts and identify the factors limiting the coordination achieved in practice. The book builds on a European study comparing Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK.

Worlds of active inclusion at local level : a comparative analysis

This chapter compares active inclusion strategies in five European cities with high problem pressure. The focus is on minimum income protection with particular attention paid to social assistance as well as to activation policies and the role of the third-sector in providing support and services. The local active inclusion strategies studied diverge substantially regarding the level of market-oriented, bureaucratic and participatory focus, each case displays its own unique landscape of active inclusion. The legacy of previous local welfare arrangements strongly influences the implementation of active inclusion polices. The main conclusion is that the legacies and the composition of each local welfare system conceptualize the concept of active inclusion, to some degree regardless institutional architecture strategies and changes at both national and EU levels. (Less)

Have Nordic welfare regimes adapted to changes in transitions to adulthood? Unemployment insurance and social assistance among young people in the Nordic welfare states

Entering adult life consists of several transitions that are related to finding a source of income, establishing an independent household and creating new family formations. This stage of ‘becoming’ entails a move from needing others to living as an autonomous and economically independent citizen (France, 2008; Smeeding and Philips, 2002). This key life stage, where several major transitions and life-course events take place concurrently (Anxo et al., 2010; Muller and Gangl, 2003), results in increasing vulnerability to poverty (Moore, 2005). In the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden and Norway), economic autonomy has become quite difficult to obtain for many young people; continued financial support from either parents or social assistance is a reality for many. Poverty is central in understanding if and how young people can transition effectively into adulthood. Within the populations of the Nordic countries today, young people are among those most likely to be economically vulnerable.1 Despite being relatively affluent compared with young people in many eastern and southern European countries, it is evident that this life phase is associated with increasing vulnerability in the Nordic countries.