The Nordic welfare state is changing, and there is much concern about where it is headed. Some of these concerns and challenges include the shifting boundaries between the state and the market, the advance of globalization and multiculturalism, social exclusion, poverty, and population ageing. Rather than fuelling the moral panic surrounding the dismantling of the Nordic welfare state, this book aims to show how the bits and pieces that form the Nordic states have been adapted, assembled and rearranged.

The 13 case studies in this anthology look at recent developments in lifestyle, public health and welfare in the Nordic countries in the policy areas of alcohol, tobacco, nutrition, illicit drugs, gambling and pharmaceuticals. These studies describe and analyse the underlying motives, forces and aims of the changes in policies concerned with the regulation of consumption. All of them reveal interesting relationships between decision-making and current views on the problems.