ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book suggests that the relations between professionals and the sick are marked by a range of 'non-meetings'. It develops a forward-looking research strategy inspired by the collaboration between philosopher Martha Nussbaum and Nobel Prize winner in Economics Amartya Sen. The book argues that the historical development of Norwegian care services can be broken down into three phases: traditional, modern and late modern outputs there occurs a gradual strengthening of the legal and ideological control of the field. It shows that the Finnish welfare state is increasingly moving away from such a political and moral commitment to democratic professionalism. The book also argues that the body is deeply ambiguous in late modernity, since there is both public exposure of the body and simultaneously an increasing privatization.
