Kollektiv mobilisering, sosiale bevegelser og den norske velferdsstaten: Medhjelper eller motstander av «det offentlige»?

Abstract

This chapter discusses understandings of collective communities in relation to the current welfare system in Norway. Initially, the theoretical basis within ‘Social Movements Theory’, hereinafter referred to as SMT, is explained. SMT is the study and analysis of how social movements arise, and the significance they may have at local, national and international levels. Furthermore, SMT is distinctly interdisciplinary and is explained in the chapter on the basis of its historical development and division into various subcategories.

Reference is also made to how different directions within SMT, including different understandings of motives for collective communities, can shed light on a contemporary Norwegian welfare policy context. Divisions of responsibility between the public and the civil sphere form the basis for discussions about how the welfare state appears as a provider of premises for social movements in today’s Norway. We ask questions about whether social movements in Norway can be said to be ‘institutionalized’, i.e., taking place within rather than in opposition to established political systems. Finally, we discuss the implications of understandings of social movements in today’s Norway against what was initially emphasized as their foundation: an emancipatory function and potential.