This article contributes to research on youth democratic engagement by examining Youth Participatory Budgeting (YPB) as a process shaped by institutional, political, and cultural contexts. Based on a comparative case study of Espoo, Finland, and Lublin, Poland, it analyzes the motivations for adopting YPB, its implementation, and perceived outcomes from the perspectives of youth, teachers, civil society actors, and city officials. The analysis utilizes 29 individual and group interviews alongside documentary data and engages with theoretical frameworks concerning youth participation and participatory budgeting. While both cities aim to empower youth and foster civic engagement, Espoo's centralized, city-led model aligns with the Nordic welfare state, whereas Lublin's school-based approach reflects decentralization and NGO involvement. In both cases, YPB promotes youth agency and civic learning but is constrained by limited deliberation, symbolic inclusion, and uneven institutional support. Without long-term commitment to inclusivity and co-ownership, YPB risks remaining symbolic.

We analyse the rise of ‘Singapore on Thames’ and ‘Nordic Scotland’ discourses in post-Brexit UK as reflective of invented national models constructed with global policy scripts and rankings. The UK’s withdrawal from the European Union led the country to search for its new global identity and place in the global economy. Addressing the uncertain future, political actors referred to Singapore as a potential model for post-Brexit UK, idealising the Southeast Asian City State’s competitive institutional arrangements. Brexit also gave momentum for aspirations of Scottish independence with Nordic countries and welfare state acting as a starkly contrasting model for independent Scotland. Our article critically analyses the cognitive and normative aspects of the Singapore on Thames and Nordic Scotland discourses. We identify two modalities for referencing numerically constructed policy models, as means of anticipation or politicisation, blurring the communicative and coordinative variants of the analysed policy discourses and contributing to their failure.

Aim: In our study, after presenting the Scandinavian model of penal policy, we analyse the specific features of the Icelandic prison system. We examine the benefits of alternative sentencing in this island country, which already has a very low crime rate. Methodology: To gain a thorough understanding of the topic, we searched the relevant national and international literature, especially Icelandic literature. I was assisted in this by spending a week in the island country as an invited lecturer of the Icelandic Society of Criminology, building up professional contacts with the main researchers in the field. Findings: The main finding of the study is that Iceland is even more committed than other Nordic countries to running open prisons, with an emphasis on alternative sentencing, halfway houses and the use of imprisonment as an "ultima ratio", or last resort. Value: The main value is to summarise the main features of Scandinavian penal policy and to show how Iceland is different from other European, or even Northern European, countries, and how it achieves a reduction in the harms of imprisonment.

Abstract This study uses longitudinal data from two waves of the Norwegian Generations and Gender Survey (2020 and 2024) to test whether subjective economic uncertainty predicts fertility intentions and the transition to parenthood, controlling for objective economic uncertainty. The Norwegian welfare state provides an extensive economic safety net and institutional buffer, which could dampen the behavioral impact of perceived financial strain. Nevertheless, among 609 childless adults aged 25–34, reporting difficulties making ends meet was associated with a lower probability of realizing intended first births, even after controlling for employment status and income. Other subjective measures—expectations about personal finances in three years and worries about the macroeconomy—showed no significant effects. Overall, fertility intentions were less influenced by subjective economic uncertainty than was the subsequent realization of those intentions. This suggests that intentions translate into behavior only when external constraints, including individuals’ perceptions of their economic situation, permit it. These results highlight the importance of incorporating individuals’ subjective assessments of their current and future economic situation into fertility research.

ABSTRACT The Nordic countries are often portrayed as inclusive welfare states marked by equality, the absence of poverty, and universal access to services. However, closer examination reveals a group of invisible outsiders—individuals excluded de facto from welfare provisions. Though present, they remain overlooked in society, policy, and research. These individuals grapple with interwoven economic, social, and health challenges that often hinder their access to welfare services. Drawing on explorative qualitative research, this study seeks to amplify their voices by asking: Why have they opted out of the welfare state, and what insights can be drawn from their implicit and explicit forms of resistance? Using Johansson and Vinthagen’s concept of everyday resistance alongside the ‘good worker’ norm, we explore how such resistance emerges and what drives it. Findings show that these individuals resist through tactics shaped by experiences of stigmatization and injustice during encounters with the welfare system. Their resistance extends beyond reactions against direct structural and intersectional oppression. It also targets a third and subtle form of power – a discursive power of normative ideals embedded in the good worker norm – and how they themselves are constructed in relation to it because they are unable to meet the underlying ideal of being or becoming active, working citizens. Responses include strategies of invisibility, voice, and exit, revealing everyday resistance as opposition to disciplinary power.

This article explores the shifting and competing ways in which childbirth, obstetrics, and maternity care were represented during the first two decades of television in Sweden. While childbirth on screen has a much longer history in both educational film and commercial cinema, the introduction of public service television in the late 1950s created a new space in Sweden for both educational and critical representations of reproduction, which had the potential of reaching a much larger national audience than was previously possible. Analyzing various television formats dealing with and displaying births from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, this article examines how pregnant and birthing bodies were made visible in the new medium of television and what role these programs played in the larger debates on maternity care, obstetrics, and the Swedish welfare state in this period. Centrally, the article discusses the shift from a mode of representation in which childbirth was depicted within the framework of sex education or information about the welfare society's support systems to feminist representations giving voice to women's experiences and criticizing the medicalized perspective on childbirth found in Swedish healthcare. In this way, the article highlights shifting historical discourses of childbirth within the frames of a public service institution and a Nordic welfare state and emphasizes the importance of moving images as both an art form and an influential communication tool in postwar discussions of healthcare issues.

The current capitalistic society pushes materialistic nature that goes against minimalist lifestyle while indirectly encouraging overworking culture. This paper, thus, intends to discuss the essence of work-life balance within the context of minimalist views, which are feasible to be legally enforceable within Malaysia's legislature. It will highlight societal values on moderation that are not foreign to Malaysia yet have been drowned by the capitalist and maximalist drive, which prevents work-life balance; both by choice and by force against the employees. The literature review will then proceed to ground the current standing of literature and legal works pertaining to work-life balance within the context of minimalism while engaging with a comparative highlight towards the Nordic States including Denmark, Finland, and Sweden which successfully legalise work-life balance. Emphasis is also given on the current International Labour Organisation entanglement with Malaysian law to the concept of work-life balance. In this research, the paper will focus itself to the scope of doctrinal and juridical-normative by focusing on the effective method of comparison between the Nordic model, which can be adopted into Malaysian employment law. The findings demonstrate the acceptability of work-life balance culture among the newer generations in Malaysia, lack of welfare adaptation within Malaysian employment law, successful legal framework stemming from cultural appreciation to the minimalist work-life balance and struggling economic livelihood which abolish the capacity of work-life balance in many households. Thus, this paper recommends social media engagement to pressure the government, bill drafting in the Parliament, educational reform, and reinterpretation of the term ‘life’ within Article 5 of the Federal Constitution through judicial review are the appropriate suggestions of increasing the likelihood towards a legal enforceability on work-life balance. Hence, this research concludes that work-life balance is feasible to be implemented in the Malaysia legislature provided that it is emphasised by the masses of the public within an actual and adequate social necessity rather than an activist outcry.

ABSTRACT As in the other Nordic welfare states, public ECEC system is seen as the cornerstone of the universal early childhood education and care (ECEC) institution in Finland. Many Finnish municipalities, however, support private ECEC service provision and parents’ possibility to choose ECEC services for their child, both of which indicate privatisation and marketisation of ECEC. This study examines parents’ (N = 781) ECEC decisions between public and private services. The results showed that parents’ socioeconomic status, municipal subsidy system and perceptions about ECEC services and their provision are associated with their ECEC decisions and that parents’ gender did not significantly affect the relationship between their attitudes and ECEC decisions. The results indicate that the marketisation and privatisation of ECEC enable segregation between service users of public and private ECEC and in the context of the universal ECEC systems.

How can state politics reconstruct unhealthy, undemocratic and unsound sports as a common good? This study explores the convergence of state and sport politics. Using cultural sociology, I unearth how the Nordic welfare state reconstructs children's sport and embeds it in its broader purview of civil society. Through document-ethnography of white papers from the Ministry of Health and Care Services, Ministry of Culture, and Ministry of Childhood and Families, I clarify how the Norwegian welfare state criticizes and “repairs” children's sports by classifying its good and bad practices. The paper then reveals how this meaning-making process justifies and shapes the state's use of sport as an integration arena in civil society. The result reveals that the domain-specific politics of public health, volunteerism, and childhood and family hold three empirically interrelated yet analytically distinguishable codes. These binary codes transcend their domains to instantiate a coherent sport model that shapes how democratic integration and social criticism should be carried out in sports. Consequently, state politics can, in a culturally contingent way, (re)form sport organizations that do not have health promotion, representative democracy and “the child's best interest” as their primary functional tasks. In Norway, the state endlessly works to reshape “ bad sports” to reintegrate into its horizon of civil society. The civil repair of unhealthy, undemocratic and unsafe children's sports allows the state to use sports as a formative institution. From the perspective of the state, sport actors do not always solve all social issues, but they can learn, if principally committed, how to engage with a dynamic landscape of social problems.

In light of the growing use of collaborative robots in workplaces, this article investigates how they reshape workplace dynamics and have unintended impacts on the psychosocial work environment and social interactions—issues central to the Nordic model of ‘good work’. This article builds on qualitative interviews from three workplaces in Sweden: a mechanical workshop, a university laboratory, and restaurants in an amusement park. To interpret the findings, we apply Collins’s theory of interaction rituals. While robots were introduced to reduce physical strain, they initially also generated enthusiasm, learning, and ergonomic relief. Over time, however, they contributed to job intensification, additional tasks, and fewer opportunities for spontaneous interaction. The study contributes to debates on robot–human relations and interaction rituals by showing how robots can energize or disrupt social interactions, providing insights into the theoretical understanding and the practical implementation of social robots in the Nordic work context.

Modifiable risk factors, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and excess weight, are associated with cancer incidence but data on their associations with population-based mortality among cancer patients are limited. Pooled data from seven health studies conducted in Finland during 1972-2015 were used to assess the associations of smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass index, physical inactivity, and education on mortality among 224,820 participants, of whom 10,637 were diagnosed with colorectal, lung, pancreatic, prostate or breast cancer. We estimated age-standardized relative survival and relative excess risks of death (RER) using piecewise constant excess hazard models. Current smoking was associated with increased excess mortality in male pancreatic cancer (RER compared with never-smokers 1.54, 95% CI 1.08-2.19) and prostate cancer patients (1.55, CI 1.08-2.23), as well as in female lung cancer patients (1.44, CI 1.07-1.92). Obesity was associated with increased excess mortality in prostate cancer patients (1.56, CI 1.06-2.30) and physical inactivity in colorectal cancer (1.33, CI 1.01-1.76 in men; 1.36, CI 1.06-1.74 in women) and male lung cancer patients (1.15, CI 1.02-1.30). Excess mortality was systematically elevated among patients with low education with statistically significant associations for male lung and female pancreatic cancer. Several lifestyle-related factors were associated with increased excess mortality among cancer patients but not consistently over all cancer sites or in both sexes. It is notable that even in a Nordic welfare state with potentially equal healthcare, marked socioeconomic inequalities persist in mortality among cancer patients.

ABSTRACT Social work are influenced by the development of increased individualization, standardization, and evidentialization in service provisions. At the same time external societal changes and recent crises have created new needs for social work intervention. In this article, we address whether a collaborative approach to social work can strengthen the discipline’s capacity to respond to these changes. We embed our discussions in two concrete practice fields in social work: the integration of migrants and refugees and the youth work. The changes in these practice fields demonstrate the increasing need for collaboration with the greater involvement of civil society and local communities. This addresses the need for mobilizing both public and civil society, demanding new roles for frontline social workers. Building on theoretical perspectives on co-creation, social innovation, and mobilization we argue for a collaborative approach in social work practice and education. This highlights the importance of individuals working together, sharing a common vision, co-creating, and mobilizing resources, liberating local knowledge, and increasing participants’ capabilities to act from a bottom- up perspective. Consequently, we argue for a need for rethinking social work education. We can not only tell students about collaborative approaches to social work; we need to give them opportunities to participate in and experience collaborative social work. This actualizes the tension and conflict of interest between social work education as individualized or collective-oriented, and between education in social work, and education for different social work services and practices.

National income and comparison of economic growth is often described and compared with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income (GNI). These measures show how much value an economy produces but not how effectively that income supports real progress. A country’s GDP can rise even while its citizens face unemployment, inequality and inflation. This paper introduces the Net Economic Income Progress Index (NEIPI), a new currency-based method to evaluate how much of a nation’s income truly contributes to sustainable and inclusive progress. NEIPI starts from the total income of a country and adjusts it for five essential realities: how much of the income stays within the nation, how efficiently it is generated, how equally it is shared, how much environmental damage it causes and how inflation reduces purchasing power. Using recent 2023 to 2024 data from India, the United States and Norway, this study demonstrates how NEIPI provides a realistic view of economic performance. Unlike the welfare-driven Scandinavian models, NEIPI relies only on real, measurable data which makes it practical and adaptable for any country, no matter what kind of policies it follows. The index serves as a bridge between economic growth and human wellbeing.

The article examines the income trajectories of women and men in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in Finland, a country within the Nordic labour market context that strives for gender equality. The study uses total population register data from Finnish STEM degree holders with at least a bachelor’s degree, aged 30–40 years, selecting cohorts born in 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975 and 1980 ( N = 31,865). This study estimates how cohort, becoming a parent, and co-residing with a spouse affect income trajectories for women and men. The findings reveal persistent gender income disparities across cohorts, with economic turbulence potentially widening the differences. The results support the motherhood penalty and, unexpectedly, address a ‘living-alone penalty’ for men. Even with a design examining STEM graduates at the same career stage, gender differences remain significant and are not alleviated by the Nordic welfare state context.

This study takes the issue of worker suicide in the context of industrialization as its focus, noting that while industrial society improved living standards, it also intensified labor pressure, transformed social structures, and deepened alienation, thereby heightening suicide risks. The purpose of this paper is to examine how industrialization influences worker suicide through labor conditions and social structure, and to analyze why suicide rates differ across countries and institutional environments. The research adopts a literature review and cross-national comparative case analysis, drawing on Durkheims theory of anomie and Marxs critique of alienated labor, and integrating case studies from Europe, Japan, China, and Northern Europe to construct a cross-national and historical sociological framework. Findings reveal that deteriorating working conditions, fractured social relations, economic instability, and insufficient social protection place workers in high-risk situations, while experiences from Nordic welfare states show that robust security systems and trade union support can mitigate negative effects. Thus, industrialization does not inevitably increase worker suicide, as outcomes largely depend on institutional arrangements and the degree of social integration. The studys limitation lies in its reliance on literature and case analysis without large-scale quantitative data, yet its cross-national and historical framework provides a new perspective for future research and offers scholarly reference for improving workers living conditions and designing social policies.

Background Epistemic injustice is a form of injustice directly related to knowledge in which, based on prejudicial assumptions, the knowledge of marginalized communities is not acknowledged or respected. Epistemic injustice against trans sex workers is crucial to consider in the current context of debates around sex work criminalization and the push to implement the Nordic model in Spain and other countries globally. Aim To explore how epistemic injustice may be evident in the experiences of trans sex workers residing in Spain in relation to sex work criminalization, as well as the possible impact these experiences may have on their mental health. Methods Qualitative study based on data from 16 in-depth semi-structured interviews with trans sex workers residing in Spain. A reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken, using a combined deductive and inductive approach to coding based on an epistemic injustice framework. Results Three themes were developed regarding epistemic injustice in the context of sex work criminalization: (1) refusal to listen, (2) infantilization and dehumanization, and (3) institutional neglect and hypocrisy. Two themes were developed regarding the impact of this injustice on trans sex workers’ mental health: (1) sadness and loneliness; and (2) uncertainty and anxiety. Conclusions Epistemic injustice is a harmful consequence of sex work criminalization. Trans sex workers face an unfair credibility deficit that is used to silence them by political parties and neo-abolitionist feminists. Suffering this injustice negatively impact trans sex workers’ mental health in various ways. Sex workers should be respected and considered valid knowers on legislative processes that deeply affect their lives and health.

The Nordic countries have been described as generous front-runners in their development assistance, making observers suggest the existence of a ‘Nordic Model’. They have been claimed to play a leadership role in a European and global context. Recently, however, this characterisation has been challenged due to changes in Nordic policies and in the external environment. We investigate the development policies of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden – and their changing roles and priorities from the start of Nordic aid programmes, with a focus on developments and trends in the last 15 years and ask if we have come to the end of the Nordic Model. We identify three key changes in their policies: (1) an increased emphasis on security and migration, (2) the traditional focus on poverty reductions is increasingly competing both with other value-related objectives and with self-interested goals and (3) an increased emphasis on the role of the private sector and trade as instruments for development. We argue that perceptions of a Nordic leadership role still exist, despite these challenges, although in a diluted and more complex shape. The Nordic Model is not abandoned but has been eroded by external and internal forces.

Abstract Background Despite Nordic welfare states’ commitment to equitable social service access, migrants in vulnerable situations face persistent barriers in Finland and internationally. While healthcare access among migrants has been studied to some extent, social services remain underexplored. This study examines access to and needs for social services among persons exposed to different types of vulnerabilities, comparing the findings between migrants and the general Finnish population. Methods We used two nationally representative cross-sectional datasets: MoniSuomi (N = 7,838; response rate 44.1%) for foreign-born adults, and Terve Suomi (N = 28,154) as reference data for the general population. Access to and needs for social services were examined by different vulnerability indicators: unemployment, financial stress, poor health, disability, low inclusion, and discrimination. We compared social service access and needs between vulnerable and non-vulnerable individuals in both datasets using regression analyses (survey package in R). Intersectional vulnerabilities were also analyzed. Results Vulnerability was consistently linked to worse access and unmet needs in both datasets. Among foreign-born adults with low inclusion 82.7% reported that services did not meet their needs (vs. 54.2% with higher inclusion). Similarly, in the general population, the figure was 74.5% (vs. 51.9%). Comparable disparities were found for those with depressive symptoms, functional limitations, or experiences of discrimination. Intersectional vulnerabilities exacerbated these disparities. Overall, vulnerable respondents faced significantly greater barriers than others in both datasets. Conclusions Multiple, overlapping vulnerabilities significantly reduce access to social services. To promote equity and social justice, policies and practices must simplify service pathways and actively strengthen inclusivity. Key messages • Vulnerability reduces access to social services among both migrants and the general population in Finland. • Inclusive and accessible services are essential for equity, and intersectional disadvantage must be addressed to ensure equitable service delivery.

Abstract Background Education and income are independent predictors of mortality, but they also interact so that educational inequalities in mortality are larger at low levels of income. However, the average educational attainment in high-income countries has risen during recent decades and it is unclear how the interplay between education and income on mortality has changed over time. We studied this in the Nordic welfare state context of Finland and Sweden. Data & methods We used individual level register-linked data from Finland and Sweden of all individuals aged 30-64 in three-year periods from 1994-1996 to 2018-2020. We estimated three-way interactions in Poisson regression models between attained educational level, household income quintile and study period separately for both countries and genders. Results The educational inequalities in mortality are substantially larger in lower levels of income and these inequalities are slightly higher in Finland compared to Sweden. Absolute educational inequalities in the lowest income quintile remained unchanged among men but increased substantially among women. The rate difference changed from 21 to 36 in Finland and from 19 to 30 in Sweden, mostly due to rising mortality among women with basic education and low income in both countries. Conclusions Due to educational expansion the proportion of those bearing the double burden of basic education and low income is declining but they are experiencing increasing or stagnating mortality development likely driven by changes in labour market dynamics and composition of lowest educational group. Policy measures aimed at tackling health inequalities should consider groups with multiple disadvantages. Key messages • Educational inequalities in mortality are wider at lower levels of income and this association has grown stronger over time among women in Finland and Sweden. • Due to educational expansion the proportion of those with basic education and low income is declining but their mortality development is increasingly adverse particularly among women.

Abstract Nordic countries are known for their comprehensive welfare models and strong social support systems. However, ageing populations and associated increasing complex care needs (combined health and social care) are challenging these systems. Living up to the public expectations of high-quality, universal care and maintaining equity and accessibility is becoming more difficult as care demands increase, and costs are rising. Therefore, the workshop seeks to highlight both similarities and differences in how Nordic welfare states address ageing-related care needs, and discuss opportunities for improving care coordination, access, and equity. The workshop will begin with a very brief overview of the Nordic welfare model, setting the scene for the presentations and outlining similarities and differences across the countries. Then the workshop's five studies will present key aspects of health and social care for older adults in four Nordic countries. This starts with quantitative studies on healthcare and social care expenditures of multimorbidity (Sweden), and caregivers’ distress linked to care service use (Finland), followed by qualitative studies exploring critical areas for implementation of a successful integrated care model (Norway), driving and mitigating factors of adverse health among informal caregivers (Denmark), and experiences of realising evolving needs that make older adults seek home help services (Sweden). Together, these studies build up to a comprehensive perspective on care provision for older adults in the Nordics drawing from both qualitative and quantitative methods. A mutual challenge is the gap between the policy goal of providing opportunities for “ageing in place” and the realities in relation to informal care burdens, fragmented care services, and social inequalities. Addressing these challenges requires both attention to the lived experiences of older adults and caregivers, and reshaping how care is provided though policies and care reforms. The added value of this workshop lies in the fact that all presenters are part of the Nordic network “Social Inequalities in Ageing” (a Nordic network on social gerontology). This allows for well-informed comparisons across the Nordic countries. The structure of the workshop, with a joint introduction, coordinated presentations, and a shared discussion, facilitates a deeper understanding of both mutual challenges and national differences. It also creates a space for learning from each other and explore new ideas for improving care for older adults. The workshop will be structured as a 60-minute scientific session with a very brief introductory talk, followed by five short presentations, each 8 minutes long followed by an interactive discussion with the audience. This format provides opportunities for cross-country learning and exchange of knowledge among the participants in the workshop. Key messages • Nordic countries share a strong welfare tradition, but rising care demands due to ageing populations are exposing shared vulnerabilities and expose the need for renewed approaches to care provision. • By drawing on both qualitative and quantitative research, this workshop provides new insights into the challenges and opportunities for the care systems across the Nordic region.