To Stavanger, in a new university in the oil capital of Norway, to give some lectures on international social work and globalisation with my colleague, Gurid Aga Askeland; our joint book (see 23rd June 2008) is on the masters in scoial work curriculum here. The Western coast of Norway, warmed by the Gulf Stream, is not regarded by Norwegians as really having winter. The joke apparently is that they have winter (i.e. what a Norwegian regards as serious snow) one day a year. However, as we know in the UK, the Gulf Stream is being a bit temperamental with climate change and they are having their second winter in a fortnight, what Gurid (who originates up-country) calls a ‘light covering of snow’ when we get to our hotel breakfast on the second day.

This light covering is about the level that led to London completely closing down a few weeks ago, but the Norwegians just get on with it, and we catch our bus up the hill (the university is on the outskirts) as usual, slowed a bit by fairly heavy traffic, since, even with the de-rigeur snow tyres, the radio station has abjured everyone to be careful. People are weaving between the traffic on bicycles; Gurid tells me that you can get snow tyres for bicycles too.

The main focus of our work here, though, is the cultural outcomes of faster and better communication and travel on relationships between different ethnic groups, both across the world and within countries, particularly as a result of migration.

Students are interested in issues about death and dying and in the university bookshop, there are a number of books about palliative care, but in socialist Norway, you get a strong feeling that everyone should be responsible for social support and that it is integral to how they see health and social care. There’s a bit of an impression of ‘why would you separate that off from ordinary health and social care?’ and a general acceptance of the role of the state. One of the issues with palliative care is that its proponents focus on the specialist role, while I think most people think first about non-specialist help at the end of life.

However, you get the same picture as I got in Portugal a few months ago (see 10th November 2008), of a commitment to social provision, but a frustration with the bureaucratic character of it. But is the UK provision any less bureaucratised in spite of its efforts to marketise and privatise health and social care services with the aim of de-bureaucratisation? I’m not convinced that the Thatcher/Blair anti-statist revolution in ownership of care has led to any greater responsivemess in providing care services. I am convinced, visiting European countries, that a greater commitment to shared responsibility is a valuable thing that they sometimes retain and we have mostly lost.