Critical Aspects of the Danish Welfare State — as Revealed by Issue Tracking

Abstract

The paper examines the applicability of informetric methods to trace the pattern of debate about the three main critical issues of the modern Welfare State in Denmark: economic aspects, legitimacy and functionality. The methodology of issue tracking is used to follow the developments of these issues in periods through national databases of various types covering information about the research, implementation, press and legislation aspects. The approach taken is novel in that it implements and tests issue tracking in this area of social sciences, and tries to reduce subjectivity in the analysis of trends influencing social policy and public opinion. The study aims to show how the emerging data and text mining techniques can be applied to integrate downloaded bibliographic data with other types of information in a strategic mix.