Neoliberal Citizenship and Domestic Service in Finland: A Return to a Servant Society?

Abstract

Näre analyses the increased use of domestic services in contemporary Europe and the Nordic countries, with a focus on Finland. She examines how the use of domestic services has been justified in Finland in parliamentary debates on tax credits on domestic services and in interviews with representatives of private cleaning companies. The chapter argues that an ideological shift has taken place in Nordic countries and in Finland in that employment of a cleaner is no longer stigmatised, but has become normalised in dual-earner families and among those of older age. This ideological shift is indicative of a wider social change that Näre terms `neoliberal citizenship' (that is, the marketisation of citizenship), which has paved the way for increased privatisation of services and the privatisation of risk and responsibility according to neoliberal ideals.