**Meet the editor**

Rosario Laratta, PhD is faculty member at the Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University, Japan. Before his current appointment, he held a post as Visiting Scholar and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow at the University of Tokyo and a lectureship position at the International Christian University (Japan). He earned an MA and PhD in Sociology from Warwick

University (UK), an MA in Public Administration from Bocconi University (Italy) and a BA in Economics and Social Sciences from Calabria University (Italy). He is the author of four books and more than forty peer-reviewed papers on leading international journals. He is a member of a number of academic associations on social welfare in Italy, UK and Japan.

Contents

**Preface IX** 

Rosario Laratta

Chapter 2 **Privatization and Financial** 

Kaspar Villadsen

Brendan O'Keeffe

Dag Leonardsen

Kjell Underlid

Helen Schneider

Chapter 5 **Look to Norway** 

Ioannis N. Kallianiotis

Chapter 1 **Contemporary Civil Society Theory** 

**Markets in European Union: A Social Welfare Perspective 25** 

Chapter 3 **Paradoxes of Welfare: Universality, Truth,** 

Chapter 4 **Area-Based Partnerships and Social Welfare: Innovations and Challenges 89** 

Chapter 6 **Autonomy and Poverty – An Empirical Study** 

Chapter 7 **Can Competition Save Your Life? 155** 

**Part 1 Social Welfare: Idealization and Privatization 1** 

**Part 2 Social Welfare: Paradoxes and Innovations 61** 

**and Power in Modern Welfare Provision 63** 

**– A Sobering Challenge to a Success Story 117** 

**of Long-Term Recipients of Social Assistance 137** 

**Part 3 Social Welfare: Competition and Negotiation 153** 

**Versus Hegel's Understanding of Civil Society 3** 
