A New Social Risk? Social-Scientific Knowledge and Work-Life Balance in Twentieth-Century Finland

Abstract

Work-life balance, or the reconciliation of work and family, has been discussed recently as a "new social risk" in comparative research on the welfare state. According to this discussion, the social security systems of traditional welfare states were built after World War II in order to protect (male) breadwinners against the "old social risks" such as the loss of income due to old age, sickness, accident, or unemployment. Scholars have argued, however, that these postwar policies have been inadequate for dealing with the new types of risks that resulted from complex changes in employment practices and family life. This article reflects critically upon the conceptualization of work-life balance as a new social risk by focusing on one of the Nordic countries, which have come to be known for their policies that combine (female) parenthood and paid work. In particular, it analyzes the problematization and governance of work-family reconciliation in twentieth-century Finland. Overall, the article argues that social scientific knowledge played a key role in the ways in which work-life balance was rendered intelligible and manageable as a social policy issue.

Workplace flexibility and communication flows: a structurational view

“…The study focuses on two Finnish companies with policies that reflect Finnish customs by allowing some temporal flexibility, but with differing policies related to the use of telecommuting. Finnish organizations provide an interesting context, given their general supportiveness toward various forms of flexible work (Pyöriä, 2011), and well-established supportiveness toward work-family policies for both genders (Eräranta, 2015). Next, we offer a brief overview of ST outlining its value toward understanding organizational interactions and flexibility.…”

The Europeanization of Nordic Gender Equality: A Foucauldian Analysis of Reconciling Work and Family in Finland

“…In Finland, reconciling work and family has been a well-established field of gender equality, family and employment policies, characterized by universal welfare state services and statutory citizen rights (Eräranta, 2015). Its key elements included the statutory right to childcare for all children under the age of 7 (school age) and a Home Care Allowance for children under the age of 3.…”

Introduction: Moving Targets Risk, Security, and the Social in Twentieth-Century Europe

“…It is unsurprising, therefore, that diverse languages of "risk" can be traced in each of the contributions to this special section. As Mark Smith notes, for example, "in the USSR … the language of risk was seldom deployed explicitly," while Kirsi Eräranta charts the conscious reference to "New Social Risks" in Finland at the end of the twentieth century (Smith 2015: 131;Eräranta 2015). For Martin Geyer's demographers and sociologists in West Germany, "risk" was more often seen as an issue related to atomic energy and nuclear weapons, rather than a term specifically related to social policy.…”