ABSTRACT
In Norway we consider the period after 1945 as the time for development of the professions in the welfare state. This arena is mainly influenced by the health and social policy, the education policy regarding higher education and the demand for interprofessional cooperation in practice reflected by the local authorities. The higher education system is state-financed and statecontrolled, but the education institutions hold a great degree of autonomy nevertheless. This chapter illuminates the development of interprofessional education and discusses the relationship between interprofessional education and interprofessional cooperation in practice and illustrates some of the contradictions in the Norwegian case.
