The marketisation of care: Rationales and consequences in Nordic and liberal care regimes

Abstract

The use of markets and market mechanisms to deliver care services is growing in both liberal and social democratic welfare states. This article examines debates and policies concerning the marketisation of eldercare and childcare in Sweden, England and Australia. It shows how market discourses and practices intersect with, reinforce or challenge traditions and existing policies and examines whether care markets deliver user empowerment and greater efficiency. Markets for eldercare and childcare have developed in uneven and context specific ways with varying consequences. Both politics and policy history help to shape market outcomes.

Care and caring: interdisciplinary perspectives on a societal issue of global significance

“…Rapidly developing private care markets are shaping new and shifting divisions and inequalities in the work of care (Brennan et al, 2012); state welfare systems increasingly 'outsource' the caring labour they require, relying more on private companies , and sometimes draw significantly on 'precarious' labour (Yeates, 2009;Standing, 2009;Bettio and Verashchagina, 2012;Duffy et al, 2015); in many areas of the world families are now arranging, and privately purchasing, caring labour to support their members when support needs arise. The markets on which they draw may be mainly regulated and formal (as, for example, in Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan) or have informal and undocumented dimensions (as in some Mediterranean countries).…”

Early Childhood Education and Care in England under Austerity: Continuity or Change in Political Ideas, Policy Goals, Availability, Affordability and Quality in a Childcare Market?

“…https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279416000647 groups and chains to cope with the tight margins imposed by the government's funding regime. Chains have increased their market share, but this may put availability at risk -as happened in Australia, when a large chain failed (Brennan et al, 2012) -as well as failing to provide affordable places in poor areas.…”

“…All these initiatives may be seen as efforts to increase both the quality and sustainability of provision in poor areas, 4 where the problem of making childcare affordable has been widely recognised in and beyond the UK (e.g. Comptroller and Auditor General, 2004;Van Lancker and Ghysels, 2011;Brennan et al, 2012;Lloyd and Penn, 2015).…”

Childcare, early education, and social inequality: Perspectives for a cross-national and multidisciplinary study

“…This is linked to the decommodification dimension of welfare regimes. Despite a general tendency towards increasing 'marketization' in the childcare field (Brennan et al 2012), modern societies vary largely in the extent to which the public and the private sectors are engaged in providing childcare services (Van Lancker and Ghysels 2013). In some countries, formal childcare is based mainly on public provision and the private sector is very limited.…”