Transforming the Nordic Welfare regime:Policies and Frictions in Introducing Welfare Technology

Based on analysis of key policy papers and reports from each of the five Nordic countries, we discuss national strategies regarding introducing welfare technology. We conducted a data driven thematic analysis based on 57? policy papers distributed among the Nordic countries. First, we focused on definitions and strategies, and second on frictions with a comparative angle between the countries. We argue that the Nordic care regime is central as background for understanding and comparing welfare technology policy in two senses: 1) the tradition of strong states and extensive social rights are to the point of developing welfare technology policy: 2) the ongoing transformation of welfare states through marketization and digitalization affects, promotes and pushes welfare technology policy. It appears from our analysis that Denmark and Norway have been the forerunners of utilizing the concept of welfare technology in strategy papers and in practice, whereas Sweden, Iceland and Finland have followed their example. We point at several frictions emerging nationally as well as across the Nordic countries when welfare technology is introduced, that is, hype and too optimistic expectations; the issue of contested national rollouts; the fact that there is often financial cover of acquisition, but not of maintenance cost. Our study contributes to the policy of health research by contrasting different Nordic national welfare technology strategies and definitions as well as experienced frictions. We argue that the analytic notion of frictions may support inter-stakeholder communication by providing cues to and making sense of the complexity of welfare technology innovation.