2024/04/09 by Magnus Linnarsson, Mats Hallenberg · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Research in Social Sciences
paper · doi:10.4324/9781003379232
openalex publication_date 2024/04/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
The municipal administration expanded greatly in cities and towns in the Nordic countries after 1850.The contributors to this book have argued that this expansion constituted the emergence of the Nordic welfare city: it was during this period that city councils wrestled with issues as diverse as how best to organize water distribution, improve housing conditions and support the local theatre scene and how to run the city's tramway system.These public services were introduced as a means to improve the well-being of a city's inhabitants.The expansion was also a response to deteriorated living conditions and impending social conflict.This book argues that our understanding of the history of welfare systems and public services requires reassessment.The various contributions each demonstrate that social reforms and the expansion of public services were first carried out at the municipal level, pioneering the development of the modern welfare state.Cities and towns experimented with different welfare solutions, and the emergence of the welfare state was an extrapolation from these processes. 1This perspective differs from the majority of previous research on the development of modern public services.Up until this point, the focus has most often been on the period after 1945 and on the national level and the welfare state. 2 The approach argued for here is the opposite: the chronological focus must be shifted to consider the expansion of public services prior to 1945.The expansion was, furthermore, primarily a result of urban politics whereby specifically the period 1850-1940 represents a transition from an austere political agenda to a more expansive public policy.It was during this period that money and resources were invested in cities to improve living conditions and the welfare of the urban community. 3 Using the concept of the welfare city, the aim of the book has been to explore a whole range of political agents and interactions, to show a different type of welfare than that which is more commonly surveyed on the national level.Let us therefore review the definition of the concept, as stated in the first chapter.There, the welfare city was defined as 'the political vision of municipal authorities to expand and improve public services.It highlights a political shift that occurred 11 The Nordic welfare city -types and dimensions