Survival of the Fittest or Services for All? - survival strategies and new structures of inequality in a crumbling welfare state

Combining social science research and puppetry, the research project delves into the strategies, alliances and learning that has become necessary for maneuvering in the welfare state of the 2020s. The starting point of the project is the observation that the responsibilities of the public authorities for the service system have deviated from their actual actual means to ensure equal access to rights and services to which citizens are entitled.

The project asks, what kind of administrative and legal literacy is needed to operate in the welfare state in the 2020s, what kind of coping strategies citizens develop and learn, and what kinds of new inequalities are generated by the crumbling welfare state. The key concept permeating the research is the concept of agency.

The project consists of five empirical sub-studies approaching the welfare state from different directions, a puppetry play drawing on the sub-studies and working on their results through performance art, and a social theoretical synthesis comprising the empirical findings of the project and existing theory and research.