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Market failure in a universal welfare state?:Ownership, quality, and regulation in Danish social services
Full text linkLike many other countries, Denmark has recently seen a sharp increase in outsourced social service provision for children and adults. While quasi-market theory suggests that complex social services could be ill-suited to market provision, there has been little assessment of how ownership relates to service quality for welfare services due to fragmented data. This paper presents findings from a population-wide analysis of quality and inspection outcomes across public, non-profit, and for-profit providers in Denmark’s residential social services for children and working-age adults with support needs, including children’s homes and adult residential facilities (N=2375, 2020-2024). First, we document a 44.1% increase in for-profit providers over five years (2020-2024), while public and non-profit provision remained stable or declined. Second, for-profit providers were significantly more likely to receive regulatory sanctions including intensified monitoring and forced closure compared to other ownership types. Third, non-profit providers received higher quality ratings, while newer for-profit entrants underperformed relative to both public and older for-profit providers. Fourth, quality and regulatory differences were most pronounced between for-profit and not-for-profit providers rather than between public and private providers, indicating that ownership form and the profit-motive within the private sector matters more than the public-private distinction. These findings support theoretical claims that welfare markets for complex social services are prone to market failure due to information asymmetries, user complexity, and incomplete contracts. Finally, the findings have policy implications for market regulation, procurement and pricing strategies in terms of how to sustain high-performing providers in an increasingly marketised social service landscape
Visual Discovery through AI:Unlocking the Postcard Archive at the National Library of Sweden
No full textThis chapter provides an overview of the National Library of Sweden (NLS) as well as an overview of AI initiatives taking place at the library. Finally, the chapter presents details of a specific AI solution, Bildsök, a service developed to search the National Library of Sweden’s post card collection. Bildsök is an AI based service that makes ca. 17,000 digitalized postcards accessible to the broader public by using AI. The chapter provides insights into the needs for the project, the actors involved in the planning and implementation and the challenges encountered on the way. The chapter also provides insights into the value that such a project generates for different stakeholders, the lessons learned and the skills that national libraries need in the era of AI.This chapter provides an overview of the National Library of Sweden (NLS) as well as an overview of AI initiatives taking place at the library. Finally, the chapter presents details of a specific AI solution, Bildsök, a service developed to search the National Library of Sweden’s postcard collection. Bildsök is an AI-based service that makes ca. 17,000 digitalised postcards accessible to the broader public by using AI. The chapter provides insights into the needs for the project, the actors involved in the planning and implementation and the challenges encountered on the way. The chapter also provides insights into the value that such a project generates for different stakeholders, the lessons learned and the skills that national libraries need in the era of AI
If a Bed Is Just a Bed, What Does That Make the Nurse?:Nurses' Negotiations of Identity in a Contested Discursive Terrain—An Institutional Ethnography
No full textAbstractA person-centred approach in healthcare has garnered increasing global attention and is promoted in research and by the WHO as an approach that holds potential for improving the quality of healthcare, patient safety, and nurses’ work environment. This, in turn, supports the recruitment and retention of nurses.This institutional ethnography is situated on a Danish University hospital where a person-centred approach is central to the hospitals’ visions, goals, and strategy in nursing practice. We explore the connections between institutional discourses and nurses’ negotiations of meaning and identity and the implications for a person-centred approach. These connections often remain invisible until they are subjected to analysis.The study is based on participant observation, interviews with nurses and nurse managers and scrutiny of the fields’ documents. Additionally, we conducted a series of co-creation workshops with nurses as co-researchers to facilitate critical reflection through joint analysis. The empirical material is analysed by the authors by using mapping and Bakhtin’s concept of voice. This study sheds light on the multiple ways in which policy and institutional discourses constitute ruling relations which activate, mediate, and coordinate nursing practice as institutional logics infuse nurses’ person-centred, holistic voice. Thus, the study provides perspectives on how neoliberal efficiency discourses contribute to a cross-pressure affecting nurses’ work environment, shaping their ability to engage in person-centred care and communication.A person-centred approach in healthcare has garnered increasing global attention and is promoted in research and by the WHO as an approach that holds potential for improving the quality of healthcare, patient safety and nurses' work environment. This, in turn, supports the recruitment and retention of nurses. This institutional ethnography is situated on a Danish University hospital where a person-centred approach is central to the hospitals' visions, goals and strategy in nursing practice. We explore the connections between institutional discourses and nurses' negotiations of meaning and identity and the implications for a person-centred approach. These connections often remain invisible until they are subjected to analysis. The study is based on participant observation, interviews with nurses and nurse managers and scrutiny of the fields' documents. Additionally, we conducted a series of co-creation workshops (WS) with nurses as co-researchers to facilitate critical reflection through joint analysis. The empirical material is analysed by the authors by using mapping and Bakhtin's concept of voice. This study sheds light on the multiple ways in which policy and institutional discourses constitute ruling relations that activate, mediate and coordinate nursing practice as institutional logics infuse nurses' person-centred, holistic voice. Thus, the study provides perspectives on how neoliberal efficiency discourses contribute to a cross-pressure affecting nurses' work environment, shaping their ability to engage in person-centred care and communication.</p
Highly sensitive luciferase-based assay with red fluorescent protein expression for accurate quantitative monitoring and real-time visualization of cell invasion
No full textBackground: Traditional migration and invasion assays like scratch, Transwell, and Boyden chamber are widely used but have disadvantages such as being time-consuming, lacking real-time monitoring, and relying on endpoint measurements. We addressed these limitations by developing a novel fluorescent and luciferase-based invasion assay. Materials and methods: Three stable cell lines co-expressing the red fluorescent protein dTomato, and secreting luciferase were generated based on Caco-2, MDA-MB-231 and HEK293T cells. Transwell chamber membranes were coated with Matrigel for invasion assay, onto which the modified cells were seeded. To simulate non-invasive and invasive conditions, chambers were incubated for 48 h in FBS-free or FBS-supplemented medium. Following incubation, the Matrigel along with non-invasive cells were removed, and the chambers washed before being transferred into fresh media for 24 h allowing the cells to secrete luciferase. Luciferase activity was measured and compared to traditional cell counting invasion assay, with further confirmations through Z-stacking and microscopic fluorescent imaging. Results: Our results demonstrated that luciferase activity accurately correlates with cell count. Applying luciferase efficiently quantifies variation in cell invasion with higher sensitivity, hence improving detection of low-level invasion as compared to cell counting techniques based on nuclear staining. The expression of the fluorescent dTomato protein proved ideal for real-time visualization of invading cells. Conclusion: Overall, using luciferase and dTomato co-expressing cells for invasion assay showed reliable and accurate measurements of variations in cell invasion patterns. Introducing these cells reduced time-consuming steps, improved sensitivity, and endpoints measurements, while being capable of real-time visualization, providing advantages over traditional methods
A call for perfectly imperfect fruit and vegetables:food loss in public procurement
No full textDespite increasing awareness, food loss and waste in food supply chains remains a significant challenge resulting in environmental risks and ethical concerns, shaped by the conflicting logics of abundance and scarcity. Systemic overproduction, driven by high-quality demands and the perishability of fresh food, underscores the need for new approaches to food procurement. This article explores the relationship between public procurement processes and significant loss of fresh fruit and vegetables in Denmark. Two major Danish wholesalers and Copenhagen municipality’s food procurement agency formed the empirical basis for an ethnographic study undertaken between 2020 and 2023. The study involved participant observation at the wholesalers, semi-structured interviews, and informal conversations with a broad range of actors across the public food procurement chain. Findings revealed that the food quality requirements that guide everyday practices of quality assessment, both contractually and culturally, are being pushed to the limits of what growing seasons, shelf-life characteristics and distribution systems can accommodate. This results in practices where food produce that is still usable is thrown away. This article emphasizes the need for novel understandings of quality parameters in order to (re)design structures in the public food procurement process so that reducing food loss can be adopted as a regulatory tool within procurement contracts
Postscript:Professional Ethics in Welfare Work–Current Perspectives and Prospective Visions for Education and Practice
No full textThis edited volume Professional Ethics in Welfare Work and Education: Nordic Perspectives presents cutting-edge research that can inform researchers and practitioners to identify and reflect on professional ethical dimensions in educational programmes and working life
More Lives Better Than Good Lives
No full textThis chapter presents a conclusion that has attracted much attention in the area of moral philosophy known as population ethics. It is called "the Repugnant Conclusion". According to this conclusion there is for any population of people all leading lives of a very high quality another possible population in which all people lead lives barely worth living but which would nevertheless be ethically better as long as the population is sufficiently large. To many this sounds totally absurd. But, if the conclusion seems clearly repugnant, why consider it in the first place? Why waste any time on such a bizarre comparison of possible population scenarios? As will be suggested in this chapter, it turns out not to be an easy task to avoid the Repugnant Conclusion.</p
Sprouting sideways:queer temporalities and kinship in donor conception
No full textTemporal constructs are central to reproduction and kinship, as epitomised by the pervasive concept of the biological clock within public imaginaries. While queer scholarship has problematised linear models of kinship and reproductive temporality, the specific temporalities associated with donor-conceived families have received less scholarly attention, despite the increasing prevalence of these family structures. In this article, we explore the question: how does donor conception reconfigure temporal logics. More specifically, we ask how does donor conception challenge (hetero)normative temporalities and kinship organisations. We examine donor conception through narratives of the embodied and intimate experiences of key stakeholders in the form of clinical staff, parents and donor-conceived adults, across case studies conducted in Denmark, Sweden and Australia. Our analysis illuminates distinct temporal perspectives: for clinic staff, donors exist in a static present; for recipient parents, the donor’s past is integrated into the present; and for donor-conceived adults, the donor is embedded within fragile futurities. We propose the concept of sideways temporalities to capture the queering of temporal logics in donor conception, characterised by non-normative scale (e.g. extensive sibling networks) and velocity (e.g. immediate matching via DNA testing)
Flexible Query Answering Systems:16th International Conference, FQAS 20255, Burgas, Bulgaria, September 11–13, 2025, Proceedings
No full textThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems, FQAS 2025, held in Burgas, Bulgaria, during September 11–13, 2025.The 26 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 49 submissions. The proceedings also include 3 invited talk and 2 tutorial papers. They were organized in the following topical sections: Invited Talks; Flexible Query Answering Systems; Data-driven Quality Management and Intelligent Systems for Academic Processes and Flexible Decision-making; Language Models in Advanced Information Retrieval; Intuitionistic Fuzzy Approaches for Flexible Querying and Reasoning under Uncertainty; and Emerging Trends in Flexible Query Answering and Information Retrieval
Governance of Business Responsibility in Areas of Limited Statehood.
No full textThis chapter analyzes business-society relations within areas of limited statehood (ALS), offering critical insights into governance in the global South. It examines the influence of non-state actors, particularly businesses and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, in shaping governance, challenging conventional Eurocentric views of statehood and collective goods provision. Emphasizing the diversity of actors in ALS, this chapter highlights the complex dynamics of stakeholder interactions within challenging economic and political conditions. It also discusses the effectiveness of CSR in ALS contexts, exposing misalignments between global social norms and local expectations that can undermine corporate legitimacy. By employing the ALS framework, this chapter provides an alternative perspective on business-society relations, questioning the applicability of dominant CSR theories rooted in Anglo-Saxon contexts. It advocates for extending the ALS framework across regions and policy domains, promoting a globally inclusive approach to understanding these relations. This chapter contributes to the ongoing discourse on the role of business in society, particularly in contexts where traditional state functions are limited or absent