Outsourcing within the Nordic context: Care services for older people in Finland

The early 1990s economic setback brought significant reforms favoring the outsourcing of care in Finnish municipalities. Here, outsourcing refers to the practice of municipalities employing private organizations through different means (e.g., open tendering) to deliver public care services. In this context, this study examines the growth in the outsourcing of service housing and home-help services in 311 municipalities from 2001 to 2015 and investigates the municipal factors associated with outsourcing using four dimensions: care needs, population size, economic situation, and political ideology of the municipality. The findings reveal a steep increase in the outsourcing of home-help and service housing. Care needs of older people are the most influential factor for outsourcing, particularly for service housing. Overall, the findings show a growing trend in private care provision in Finnish municipalities.     

Risk and vulnerability in social assistance receipt of young adults in Finland

Social background may affect not only individuals’ wellbeing, but also their ability to manage the typical and problematic transitions occurring during young adulthood. Hence, this article has used Finnish population register data to analyse how social background and critical life‐course factors predict the number of months of social assistance received annually among young adults aged 19–29. Special interest was given to asking whether those with a disadvantaged social background are more vulnerable to the effects of critical life‐course factors. The results showed that social background and critical life‐course factors have independent effects on social assistance receipt. Additionally, this study shows that the effects and the incidence of critical life‐course factors can be affected by social background.     

The risk of under-insurance in the Finnish statutory pension scheme for self-employed workers: A trajectory analysis

Using unique data on the contribution base, we investigate under-insurance within the statutory pension scheme for self-employed workers in Finland. Under-insurance is defined as the difference between pension-declared income and tax-declared income. The trajectory modelling technique applied has allowed us to estimate the levels of under-insurance for different subgroups and to identify possible explanatory factors. Under-insurance is found to be persistent and large. The analysis reveals six distinctive and homogenous sub-groups of self-employed workers. Close to 84 per cent of these workers pay too little in contributions, often leading to inadequate protection against personal risks. Especially for lower-income self-employed workers, this points to myopic behaviour as regards contributing to the self-employed statutory pension scheme and calls for fine-tuned economic incentives.     

Inclusion,integration, or what? A comparative study of the school principals’ perceptions of inclusive and special education in Finland and in Alberta,Canada

This study explores the perceptions of school principals in terms of organizing inclusive and special education in two well-performing, western school systems in Finland and in Alberta, Canada. The interview data reveal that, in spite of the inclusive rhetoric within education policy documents, most of the principals were still defining their current practices using the language of integration, and the educational decisions were often based on the more traditional idea of the least restrictive environment. The principals’ views were surprisingly similar in both jurisdictions despite the different contextual and historical trends.     

Raising the legal gambling age in Finland: problem gambling prevalence rates in different age groups among past-year gamblers pre- and post-implementation

This article reports on the frequency of problem gambling, measured with the Lie/Bet instrument, in different age groups among Finnish past-year gamblers in 2011 (n = 2984) and 2014 (n = 2326). The data highlights the situation before, and three years after, the implementation of a raised minimum age limit for gambling from 15 to 18 years. The difference in problem gambling frequency when comparing all age groups was statistically significant in 2011, but not in 2014. A significantly lower frequency of problem gambling was found among 18–19-year-olds in 2014 (3.4%), compared to 2011 (16.3%). The results regarding problem gambling prevalence among 15–17-year-olds (8.0% in 2011, 0.0% in 2014) are somewhat inconclusive as the number of respondents fulfilling the criteria for problem gambling was zero in 2014, thus affecting the analysis. No statistically significant difference in problem gambling frequency was found among 20–21-year-olds (a group less affected by the policy implementation) – or other older age groups – between the survey years. While the findings should be viewed with caution, they do support recommendations regarding a minimum gambling age of 18 years or higher as an effective harm-minimization measure.     

Understanding Professional Projects in Welfare Service Work: Revival of Old Professionalism?

The professional terms for occupations that provide welfare services are changing, and here the introduction of new public management in the Nordic countries since the 1990s is indicative of wider developments. The article explores professional projects in welfare service work from both conceptual and empirical perspectives. The aim is to produce a gender‐sensitive analysis of the professional projects at the lower levels of the occupational hierarchies in health care. The first part reviews the literature conceptualizing the societal and institutional embeddedness of professional projects. The institutional matrix of welfare states emerges as a key context in shaping the welfare service work performed by women‐dominated professional groups. The second part examines the case of Finland and suggests that recent reforms have created new inequalities in the system of professions, in which occupational groups in welfare service work are becoming marginalized. This signals a move away from ‘democratic professionalism’ towards a revival of ‘old professionalism’.     

Household income and other socio-economic determinants of long-term institutional care among older adults in Finland

An analysis of longitudinal data on Finnish older adults shows that the probability of admission to long-term institutional care is inversely associated with household income: women in the lowest income quintile are 35 per cent more likely, and men in the lowest quintile 59 per cent more likely to be admitted than those in the highest quintile, independently of age, first language, and area characteristics. Controlling for other socio-demographic characteristics and medical conditions reduces these differences by 59 and 78 per cent, respectively. Being a renter and living in poorly equipped housing increases the probability of admission to institutional care, while the possession of a car and living in a detached house decreases it, independently of other factors. These results imply that the future need for institutional care will depend not only on the increasing numbers of older people but also on socio-economic factors and housing conditions.     

Quota trouble: Talking about gender quotas in finnish local politics

This article analyses the discourse concerning gender quotas and their implementation in Finnish local politics. Among our local actor interviewees, we found four different groups: feminist-oriented, non-feminist, accepting and disapproving. Despite the successful implementation of the quotas, our analysis reveals hidden conflicts and resistance. Respondents often resorted to memory lapses, strategies of distancing or assumptions about the interim character of quotas in an ‘almost gender equal Finland’ when discussing the implementation process. The predominance of these strategies is explained by contextual factors, including the strong cultural support for gender equality and legalism in Finland. We suggest that they can be interpreted as psychologized forms of resistance to a hegemonic discourse which does not really allow for anyone to be ‘against gender equality’ or wilfully negligent of the law.     

芬兰的崛起及对我国的几点启示

文章介绍了芬兰的发展概况,总结了其发展经验,给出了对我国的几点启示。     

How unemployment duration affects social assistance receipt: evidence from Finland

This article reports on a study of the impact of unemployment duration on the probability of becoming a social assistance recipient and on the time spent on social assistance. The data are taken from a local Finnish labour market consisting of the cohort of unemployed people at a given date (n = 2,274). The data are linked to information about the number of months recipients received social assistance during the subsequent year. Count data regression models of the hurdle type are estimated. The results of the analysis suggest that the impact of unemployment duration on the probability of becoming a social assistance recipient is explained to a large extent by changes in the distribution of types of unemployment benefits between people with different lengths of time spent in unemployment. Unemployment assistance recipients are more likely to become social assistance recipients and to spend longer periods on social assistance than are recipients of unemployment insurance because the unemployment benefits for the latter are higher. Among social assistance recipients, time spent on the transfer increases with unemployment duration only for those who are in frequent need of assistance.