ABSTRACT
A comprehensive restructuring of the economic and social systems in post-modern societies has already happened and has strongly affected the traditional bases of the welfare state systems. Welfare states were developed as part of a political class compromise, with the industrial working class and its organisations as their principal supporters and in the sense were part and parcel of the nation states. This chapter analyzes to what extent the changing interplay between the welfare state, market institutions, and the local community influence the relationships between family, work, and the welfare system. The research group aims to demonstrate that welfare state analysis needs an interdisciplinary approach in order to understand the transformation on different levels. The distinction between rhetoric and reality in the perception of welfare state development is analysed from micro and macro perspectives. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
