Welfare institutions as knowledge factories: Danish ‘welfare export’ of childcare know-how to China

This article examines how public welfare institutions in Denmark are reconfigured into knowledge factories. Since the 1990s, Denmark has sought to export “welfare” solutions as a way of extracting knowledge on social practices already happening in institutions of the welfare state for economic purposes. Through a case study of “welfare export” of knowledge about childcare from Denmark to China, the article analyses the Danish commodification of welfare know-how to a global market. This article draws attention to the practical outcomes of such efforts by the Danish State, focusing on one public educational institution in Denmark, VIA University College. In particular, the article sheds light on the practical arrangements of commodifying “Danish childcare know-how”. Drawing on theoretical insights from post-workerism and a body of qualitative empirical material, the article discusses how the phenomenon of “welfare export” does not result in privatisation but rather challenges and blurs the line between “public” and “private”. The article argues that “welfare export” activates techniques within public welfare institutions normally associated with corporations. That is, knowledge taught within Danish institutions becomes a product for (and simultaneously creates) a “market niche”. Welfare institutions are, in effect, turned into knowledge factories.