12 From Folkhemmet to Post-welfare Sweden: Rethinking Care and Dependency in a Neoliberal Context

IntroductionSweden's welfare state, historically lauded for its collectivist ethos and egalitarian principles, was founded on the ideological bedrock of Folkhemmet, or the 'people's home'.Introduced in the early twentieth century by Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson, Folkhemmet envisioned a society unified by shared universal responsibility for dependency, anchored in strong institutional mechanisms -thus fundamentally reimagining the role of the family in society. 1 By positioning caregiving as a public commitment and collective obligation rather than an individual burden, 2 this 1 PA Hansson, 'Folkhemstalet' (1928) SvenskaTal.se (in Swedish) https://www.svenskatal. se/tal/per-albin-hansson-folkhemstalet accessed 1 December 2025; N Edling, 'Varifrån kommer välfärdsstaten?' (2018) 25(2) Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift 115; N Edling, The People's Home: The History of a Swedish Keyword 1900