Classed parental practices in a modern welfare state: Caring for the under threes in Norway

Abstract

This paper deals with aspects of social class within the modern welfare state of Norway. More specifically, it explores how universal family policy measures are understood and combined by parents in different social classes. Drawing on qualitative interviews with parents, we identified two distinctly different ‘cultural models of care’. Parents more or less followed these models in their own care strategies, although some combined elements from each into hybrid strategies. The cultural models were clearly related to class: most middle-class parents combined the different welfare state measures into a ‘tidy trajectory’ of care, while most working-class parents created a ‘sheltered space’ for care. In the paper we discuss the significance of structural factors for these patterns of care by comparing our findings with similar research from Britain.