Idleness: Energizing the Danish Welfare State
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Idleness : Energizing the Danish Welfare State. / Mikkelsen, Henrik Hvenegaard.
In: Anthropology and Aging , Vol. 40, No. 2, 2019, p. 37-47.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Idleness
T2 - Energizing the Danish Welfare State
AU - Mikkelsen, Henrik Hvenegaard
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - This article appropriates the concept of energy in order to analyze the interaction between the Danish welfare state and the category of citizens referred to among social workers and health professionals as “passive citizens.” While passivity might commonly be seen as mere inactivity—a certain non-action beyond the unfolding of social life—this article argues that in the Danish welfare society, the opposite is the case. In fact, in this context various forms of passivity have become the object of concerted political and media attention and the general schism between energy and passivity has become part of a public discourse on elderly health care and aging. By examining the way health care professionals talk about passive senior citizens in terms of a lack of energy, this article shows how, in a wider sense, passivity is framed as a particular problem that can be overcome through the right health care intervention. I argue that energy and passivity have become of key interest to the Danish welfare state in managing its aging population and that the attempt to activate the passive citizen in fact energizes the welfare state.
AB - This article appropriates the concept of energy in order to analyze the interaction between the Danish welfare state and the category of citizens referred to among social workers and health professionals as “passive citizens.” While passivity might commonly be seen as mere inactivity—a certain non-action beyond the unfolding of social life—this article argues that in the Danish welfare society, the opposite is the case. In fact, in this context various forms of passivity have become the object of concerted political and media attention and the general schism between energy and passivity has become part of a public discourse on elderly health care and aging. By examining the way health care professionals talk about passive senior citizens in terms of a lack of energy, this article shows how, in a wider sense, passivity is framed as a particular problem that can be overcome through the right health care intervention. I argue that energy and passivity have become of key interest to the Danish welfare state in managing its aging population and that the attempt to activate the passive citizen in fact energizes the welfare state.
KW - Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet
KW - passivity
KW - Denmark
KW - welfare society
KW - Bartleby
KW - energy
U2 - 10.5195/aa.2019.176
DO - 10.5195/aa.2019.176
M3 - Tidsskriftartikel
VL - 40
SP - 37
EP - 47
JO - Anthropology and Aging
JF - Anthropology and Aging
SN - 2374-2267
IS - 2
ER -
ID: 181224617