The purpose of the article is to investigate the relationship between diakonia and innovation in the field of provision of welfare services. Special interest is therefore vested in studying the role of the third sector more generally. Traditionally, this sector and its organisations have been considered the most important actors for innovation in welfare services provision, as pioneers in this field of services. The investigation has laid open a rather complex field. Theories and models drawn from several fields of study, including welfare state theory and social policy theory, are used in the analysis of the relationship. A constructivist approach to social problems, combined with approaches to functions of third sector and faith-based human service organisations have helped us create a picture of the subject of investigation. The article provides elements to an analytic framework for empirical studies of how diakonia, through its organised actors, can influence public problem processes and innovations in welfare services, connected with political processes that may stimulate and inspire innovations in the public sector as well as other sectors -or hamper them. Potential risk factors, both political, financial and moral, are identified that may have an impact on innovation in welfare service organisations in civil society, including diaconal actors. Faithbased welfare service organisations possess moral resources in terms of the basic ideology and moral values. These resources may serve to stimulate innovations to improve the life of the people the organisations serve, as foundations for critical participation in public debate on social problems and welfare services innovation, but also for organisational change into the opposite of innovation, making lives more miserable for users of the organisations instead of better.

The article compares the role in welfare provision of the majority churches in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Nordic welfare state model implies a large public sector and a correspondingly small contribution to welfare provision by the voluntary sector, of which church-based welfare activities, as defined in the article, are part. The data used in the article are derived from a European project, ‘Welfare and religion in a European perspective’, concerning the role of European majority churches as agents of welfare provision. The findings show many similarities between the Nordic cases, but also some differences. In all cases it is clear that both the church and the public authorities take the Nordic welfare state model more or less for granted. The Swedish and Norwegian cases, unlike the Finnish one, show that the public authorities at the municipal level are fairly unfamiliar with local church-based welfare activities. The article raises topical questions as to the role of the Nordic churches in social policy and as moral authorities in contemporary society.Keywords: Welfare, Church, Finland, Norway, Sweden

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate and explain how a Norwegian voluntary, faith-based organisation called the Gospel Centre of Norway (Pinsevennenes Evangeliesenter) successfully substituted "network" for "market" as strategy vis-à-vis the public sector in order to obtain organisational legitimacy and financial security. During the first decade of its existence it obtained a unique position in its relationship with the state, as a separate item in the budget of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. The organization operates in the field of substance abuse rehabilitation, i.e. in a situation where instrumental effectiveness is difficult to assess. In such a situation ritual or other institutional criteria may replace effectiveness criteria and impression management turned out to be a successful strategy. Attention is paid to the relevant environmental conditions under which this organizational change of strategy was successful.ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate and explain how a Norwegian voluntary, faith-based organisation called the Gospel Centre of Norway (Pinsevennenes Evangeliesenter) successfully substituted "network" for "market" as strategy vis-à-vis the public sector in order to obtain organisational legitimacy and financial security. During the first decade of its existence it obtained a unique position in its relationship with the state, as a separate item in the budget of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. The organization operates in the field of substance abuse rehabilitation, i.e. in a situation where instrumental effectiveness is difficult to assess. In such a situation ritual or other institutional criteria may replace effectiveness criteria and impression management turned out to be a successful strategy. Attention is paid to the relevant environmental conditions under which this organizational change of strategy was successful.

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