Introduction

During the 1970s, feminist researchers across the western world developed new research perspectives on the phenomenon of ‘care’. This research interest was widely linked to the political objective of finding new ways to strengthen women's welfare and position in society. The topics, perspectives and influential academic disciplines in this field of feminist research varied between countries. Consequently there now exists a rich and fascinating multidisciplinary international body of research on care, which offers opportunities for researchers to learn much by reading studies from other countries.

Relationships between British and Nordic feminist research into care began to develop during the early 1980s. A British book, A labour of love: Women, work and caring (Finch and Groves, 1983), became very influential in Nordic research, while the influence of Nordic academics was apparent as British feminist researchers gradually widened their interests from informal to paid and professional care (Baldwin and Twigg, 1991). Today, the question of how research on care can have a greater impact on policy and planning is of urgent and international interest. This chapter discusses developments in research and policy on care, based on the recent experiences of the Nordic social democratic welfare regimes – welfare regimes that comparative research has concluded are especially women friendly. As research into care becomes a global enterprise, these developments should therefore be of particular interest to care researchers rooted in different and more problematic welfare policy contexts.

The chapter traces the development of research on care from a Nordic perspective. Despite the proclaimed ‘woman-friendly’ nature of the Nordic welfare states, this research has nevertheless had little impact on either rational economic approaches to the study of care or on approaches to the evaluation of care-related services. The chapter argues that theory and practice derived from the emerging feminist ‘ethic of care’ may provide the basis for fruitful new interdisciplinary and international approaches to the study and understanding of care. Moreover, these new approaches may also have the potential to engage with, and challenge, the mainstream economic and managerial discourses that continue to dominate research into care policy and service planning.

The Nordic context of research on care

It is 30 years since the first Nordic research on care work (omsorgsarbeid) from a feminist perspective was published (Wærness, 1975). The research formed a small part of the first Norwegian Level of Living Study, financed by the Social Democratic government.