The Nordic welfare state constitutes an important and, in many respects, a decisive historical foundation for Nordic masculinities in today's world. The "welfare state" is a broad notion, at the same time describing the systems of social security and service, the societal patterns and the normative value systems of the five Nordic countries. Although the emergence of the welfare state often is dated to the 1920's and 1930's, it has historical roots tracing much further back in history. The welfare state has always been a dynamic process in which society and politics have responded to changing challenges.

Historical intersections between the welfare state and Nordic masculinities are to be found for instance in topic areas such as family work market, distribution of income and class conflicts; educational systems and social mobility; family policy and fatherhood; pension systems and old age; policies for gender equality; parish life and ecclesiastical work; citizenship, nationalism and strivings for national cohesion and solidarity; as well as societal exclusion and stigmatization.

This workshop discusses historical connections between men, masculinities, and different aspects of the welfare state. Some of the central questions will be:

How has the specific Nordic welfare state model built upon or resulted in something specificly and uniquely Nordic in terms of men and masculinities?

How have notions of gender, gender order and masculinities shaped the institutions, policy areas, ideologies and mentalities of the welfare state?

How has the welfare state in turn had repercussions upon and changed the living conditions and self-understandings of men, as well as notions about men in the society?

Workshop participants and titles of paper presentations:

Torsdag 29/1:

Cand. mag. Morten Hillgaard Bülow, Roskilde University: Det stof, mænd er skabt af?
Ph.D.-student Hanna Lindberg, Åbo Akademi: Problem och framgång. Manlighet, vetenskapligt skrivande och socialpolitik i texter av Heikki Waris.
Mag. art., Ph.D.-student Matias Kaihovirta, Åbo Akademi: Manligheten som norm i skapandet av den duglige arbetaren i en finländsk kontext.

Fredag 30/1:

Ph.D.-student Niclas Järvklo, Literatur og Idéhistorie, Stockholm University: Politicising the New Man: Gender political discourses and knowledge production in Swedish State Masculinity Politics.
Margunn Bjørnholt, University of Oslo: Chivalrous masculinity – Men constructing equal family relations in the 1970s.
Phil. lic., Ph.D. Anders Ahlbäck, Åbo Akademi: Competing versions of the citizen-soldier in the new Finnish national state: 1917-1932.

Download abstracts for this workshop here.