Markets in care:
Are there critical lessons for Nordic countries?
OPEN SEMINAR
10am-12pm August 21, 2012
before the opening of the REASSESS final conference
Quality Hotel 33, Oslo
Over the last two decades, there has been growing debate about the role of markets mechanisms
and private providers in eldercare provision in the Nordic countries. Proponents have argued that
private provision and competition will save public money and improve the quality of services,
while critics are concerned that marketisation threatens the Nordic universal care model. In many
other countries, in particular in liberal states, private provision and market mechanisms have long
played a role in eldercare. What can Nordic countries learn from this much longer experience? In
this seminar, leading academics from the UK, the US and Canada, with long experience of
researching different dimensions of privatisation in eldercare, reflect on the challenges of
maintaining quality – and equality – in care markets.
Presenters:
Sue Himmelweit, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK: A feminist economist’s
perspective on theories of markets in care
Charlene Harrington, University of California, San Francisco, US: Quality differences in
for-profit and not-for-profit nursing homes
Pat Armstrong, York University, Toronto, Canada: Privatisation, regulation and control
The seminar is organised by Normacare, a researcher network funded by
NordForsk and FAS; see www.normacare.net
ALL WELCOME, NO CHARGE, NO PREBOOKING REQUIRED
For enquiries, please contact info(at)normacare.net
The presenters
Sue Himmelweit is professor of economics at The Open University, Milton Keynes UK. She
researches the economics of caring, including the macroeconomics of caring and explanations of
caring behaviour at the micro-level. Her work includes:
The prospects for caring: economic theory and policy analysis, Cambridge Journal of Economics,
2007, 31(4): 581-599.
The marketisation of care: rationales and consequences in Nordic and liberal care regimes, Journal
of European Social Policy, forthcoming, 2012 (together with D Brennan, B Cass and M Szebehely).
Charlene Harrington is professor of sociology and nursing at the University of California, US, and
an international expert on quality, ownership and regulation of long-term care. Her work includes:
Does investor-ownership of nursing homes compromise the quality of care? American Journal of
Public Health, 2001, 91, 1452–5 (together with S Woolhandler, J Mullan, H Carrillo and D
Himmelstein).
Nurse staffing and deficiencies in the largest for-profit nursing home chains and chain owned by
private equity companies, Health Services Research, 2012, 47, 106-28 (together with B Olney, H
Carrillo and T Kang).
Pat Armstrong is professor of sociology at York University in Toronto, Canada. She is the PI of a
large comparative project, Reimagining long-term residential care, including Canada, US, UK,
Germany, Sweden and Norway, and has extensively researched the gendered nature of care work
and the organisation of care services in for-profit and not-for-profit eldercare. Her work includes:
Public and private: Implications for care work. Sociological Review, 2005, 53:2, 167-187 (together
with H Armstrong).
Critical to Care: The invisible women in health services, 2008, University of Toronto Press (together
with H Armstrong & K Scott-Dixon).