The unemployment business: profit, precarity, and the moral economy of social democracy in Norway

Abstract

AbstractNorway's welfare system is widely admired for its success in mitigating the worst effects of post‐industrial capitalism. In the past decade, however, that system has undergone remarkable – and controversial – change, as commercial firms have been permitted to play a growing role in administering services for the unemployed. This article, based on fieldwork in Oslo during the 2015‐16 oil crisis, examines Norway's ‘unemployment business’ and the high‐stakes symbolic struggle between its advocates and opponents. It shows that making unemployment services a business not only destabilizes the unique moral economy of social democracy, predicated on the conceptual entwinement of the state and society, but also requires the maintenance of a new class of precarious workers who administer the welfare system without having its guarantees. Beyond its Norwegian concerns, this article also refines our understanding of moral economy and privatization through highlighting the strategies actors deploy to endow new economic activities with moral legitimacy.