Ingrid Jönsson: Childcare and Eldercare - Different Paths of Development

Traditionally welfare in Sweden is publicly paid, publicly organised and access is based on needs rather than means. Economic retrenchment, changes of governance and legal frameworks in the 1990s have an impact on the organisation of social welfare with implication for universalism, marketisation and refamiliarisation. The paper will discuss the different paths of developments for eldercare and childcare and whether ideas of social investment currently being advocated by international organisations have contributed to the different paths of development. Although ideas of social investment in Sweden dates back to the late 1930s (Morel et al 2012) recent emphasis on early childhood and care in the context of limited economic resources and changes of governance and legal frameworks have implications for eldercare. Discussing eldercare as social investment in a European context means counteracting future costs related to ageing populations while it for children means capacitating them for changing labour market and family structures with the aim of improving employability and increased economic competition. Historical reviews of childcare and eldercare including changes of governance, legal frameworks, etc. constitute the background for the analysis of recent diverging paths within the two sectors in relation to universalism, marketisation and refamiliarisation. The recent development is socially as well as gender differentiated.