ABSTRACT
State, civil society and market institutions have had vital functions in the evolution of modern Nordic societies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rather than focusing on the distinctions between such institutions, they have evolved by interacting, cooperating and overlapping their functions. New knowledge, science, education and technologies have been crucial as part of the dynamics of institutional and communicative change of modern Nordic societies. It is argued that the cooperation between state and civil society institutions in applying new knowledge and technologies has been significant for the continued evolution of welfare-state institutions and social equality in the Nordic states, and for the combination of the welfare state and rights of freedom. The transnational qualities of new technologies have been combined with welfare rights. The focus of the chapter is on examples of the evolution of welfare-state institutions in Norway.
