The Danish welfare state has become increasingly more well-known during the last couple of years. At the same time, the welfare state as we know it is under pressure and is trying to figure out how to survive in a time, where budgets are tighter and the neo liberalistic ideals are taking its toll on Danish policy. Therefor the Danish government and municipalities are trying to mobilize the civic society in the hopes of them sharing in on a shared responsibility to rethink the welfare state and share the task included in this. There are tendencies in the civic society that pulls towards more professionalized civic acts, but at the same times research shows, that fewer citizens are involved in civic organizations and a spontaneous and temporary form of civic engagements, where citizens organize around a shared concern for an arisen problem in the society.
This master thesis will take its outset in questions regarding this development in the Danish society. With its outset in interviews with representatives from the civic society in Aarhus, this thesis explores the role and potential of the civic society, in involving it in the solution of challenges regarding the welfare state, and how this affect an ideal of recognition in social work.
The imperial findings showed, that there were differences in the way, the civic society defines itself depending on the degree of organization in the initiatives. This affected the way the civic groups responded to the appeal from the state, regarding the way the civic society should be a part of the welfare state. Through the analysis of this thesis it becomes clear, that the state and the civic society represents different kinds of systems and organizations, and the civic society itself contains many different characteristics as well. These differences causes the civic society to respond in different ways to the states wishes – either by conforming to the states logic of structure and professionalism or by maintaining its specific features and insisting on their own ideals and definitions. Because the focus in public social work in Denmark are on standardization, there are a great potential in involving a form of civic acts, that are based on an interpersonal meeting and takes its outset in the individuals wishes to make changes in her own life.