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Northern European Rehabilitation Services in the Context of Changing Healthcare, Welfare, and Labour Market Institutions: A Theoretical Framework

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New Dynamics of Disability and Rehabilitation

Abstract

This chapter provides a rough outline of the background to interdisciplinary studies of medical and vocational rehabilitation services in Northern European welfare states. We emphasize the critical role of such services in the early development of welfare state arrangements, closely tied to efforts to build cohesive nation states, and cater for industrial labour markets. Understanding this historical background is important for recognizing how these services are functioning under the current postnational and postindustrial conditions. In establishing a compromise between capital and labour, such services played an instrumental role in mitigating social conflicts. Workers knew they had access to wide-ranging health and vocational services, including assistance for longer-term retraining—provided as statutory citizenship rights—should they ever need it. Comprehensive rehabilitation services, along with general encompassing national healthcare services, instituted health and return-to-work processes as a state responsibility. In the current postnational and postindustrial context, where rehabilitation services no longer constitute the proud flagship of the welfare state, it seems that the state is abdicating responsibilities. Increasing emphasis on governance networks involving non-state actors, public-private partnerships, hyper-efficient hospital services, and place-then-train reemployment models seems to be leading to the individualization of responsibility for health and employability.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Ivan Harsløf

  2. Department of Neurorehabilitation, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Ingrid Poulsen

  3. Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Kristian Larsen

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  1. Ivan Harsløf
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  2. Ingrid Poulsen
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  3. Kristian Larsen
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Correspondence to Ivan Harsløf .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Ivan Harsløf

  2. Department of Neurorehabilitation Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Ingrid Poulsen

  3. Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Kristian Larsen

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Harsløf, I., Poulsen, I., Larsen, K. (2019). Northern European Rehabilitation Services in the Context of Changing Healthcare, Welfare, and Labour Market Institutions: A Theoretical Framework. In: Harsløf, I., Poulsen, I., Larsen, K. (eds) New Dynamics of Disability and Rehabilitation. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7346-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7346-6_2

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