This text explores the role of social economy and civil democracy in transforming welfare state in Sweden, while retaining public financing for social services. This can be achieved through cooperative self-management and greater citizen participation as co-producers. Separating the financing from the provision of universal social services and contracting out their provision to social enterprises can promote several important social values, such as: enrichment of work life, improvement of work environment and increased co-determination for the worker; the empowerment of citizens as co-producers of the services they demand; and finally the transformation of the welfare state into a welfare society. The text undertakes an extensive conceptual discussion necessary for understanding the potentials of social enterprises in meeting the challenges facing the welfare state at the turn of the century. This includes the concepts of the third sector, civil society and civil democracy, and then of both the economic and political aspects of civil democracy. It extends the study of psychosocial work environment with the dimension of enduring client interaction. It summarizes the Work Environment and Cooperative Social Services Project, financed by the Swedish coucil for Work Environment Research between 1992-1996. This includes Organizational Study, Staff Study and Parent Study, comparisons of different cooperative services and municipal day care.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 116 citations exist upstream.