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Are Scandinavians lazy or hard-working?
- Author:
- SIPILA J.
- Journal article citation:
- Scandinavian Journal of Social Welfare, 5(3), July 1996, pp.143-147.
- Publisher:
- Munksgaard/ Blackwell
The popular image of work and working in Scandinavia is highly contradictory. One discourse stresses the strict work ethic of Scandinavian people and the participation of the whole population in wage labour. Another discourse says that welfare states have undermined the motivation of people in Scandinavia to work. This article explores the argumentation of both discourses and compare the industry of people in Finland, Norway and Sweden with the situation in other OECD countries. The picture that unfolds is contradictory: Scandinavia has a high labour market participation rate, but Norwegian people nonetheless work only comparatively few hours. Finnish people work long hours, while Swedish people fall somewhere in-between. Overall, the people of Scandinavia are certainly not the most hard-working in the world, but the amount of work does not seem to correlate directly with the national standard of living.
Defining, measuring and talking about poverty: the case of Finland
- Author:
- SIPILA J.
- Journal article citation:
- Scandinavian Journal of Social Welfare, 1(1), July 1992, pp.12-19.
- Publisher:
- Munksgaard/ Blackwell
Scholars have always disagreed about the definition and measurement of poverty. Looks at these issues in the light of Finnish poverty research. The chief target of the methodological criticism is the use of equivalence scales or units of individual consumption in the comparison of individual people's disposable income. The main argument against this method is that it tends to be based on the implicit assumption that 'people with low income need less money'. Another major concern is to demonstrate the key significance of the empirical definition of poverty. Different methods of calculation single out very different groups of poor people. Furthermore, part of the poor people are excluded from all conventional definitions.