ABSTRACT
As noted in the introduction, the rise and consolidation of market-based arrangements in social welfare provision is a striking phenomenon throughout the Western world. This chapter provides a brief overview of those institutional forms and organizational landscapes in which this process materializes. It starts by mapping the basic signposts and confi nes of the new society-embracing market agenda crystallizing from the 1980s onwards. Thereafter, it turns to the major varieties of welfare markets. The third section pictures the organizational landscapes typical of these markets. This helps identify collective actors relevant to the building and reproduction of these markets, including by processes of active sense-making.
