Servants for the Knowledge-Based Economy?: The Political Economy of Domestic Services in Europe

Over the past two decades, many countries across Europe have set up schemes to subsidize the demand for domestic services. This article suggests that these policy developments reflect a new economic strategy linked to the development of the service-based economy in coordinated market economies, as well as a new ideological orientation regarding the public sector and the role of the State in providing welfare. Specifically, the article aims to contribute to the analysis of the transformations of the role of the State, of its modes and aims of intervention, and of the social consequences of these transformations in two fields: on labor markets on the one hand, and on welfare policy on the other. In doing so, this article highlights the ways in which state policies, rather than simple market forces, are structuring new inequalities and new dualisms, and addresses the issue of the fate of the low skilled in today’s knowledge-based economy.