Study title

Norway, Sweden, Finland

Individual

Semi-structured interviews with 38 elites (representatives of major political parties, government departments, NGOs, employer organisations and trade unions). In addition to the historical sociological analysis, my primary research was focused on semi--‐structured elite interviews with both politicians and civil society actors in order to map the national discourses on welfare state and social citizenship. I conducted semi--‐structured elite interviews with parliamentarians; in a representative democracy they, it can be argued, mirror the views and values of contemporary society. In order to test the claim that the values of the welfare state in the Nordic countries stretch beyond social democratic party politics, I interviewed parliamentarians from all major parties. While the Nordic countries are strong representative democracies, their political traditions are also rooted in civil society activism and social movements. As such, in order to supplement the interviews with parliamentarians, I interviewed central trade union and employer organisation representatives and national level NGO actors. Interviewing representatives from central organisations was important for my research, as they are located at the level of organisation where the policy agendas are formulated. Interview schedule: Interviews in Finland 23 March-8 April 2009 and 22-30 June 2009; Interviews in Sweden 23 April-19 May 2009 and 28 September-9 October 2009; Interviews in Norway 12 October-6 November 2009.