This project is focused on comparative welfare production in a global setting as against modes of production and managing the social service output within the public, private and third sector. There is a clear limitation to international comparison because of the various welfare systems, i.e. the three main welfare production systems within Europe; the British-Nordic, the Middle European and the Mediterranean models. Thus the ambition of the project is to highlight common features in national case studies, whereby especially the respective roles of the welfare producing sectors are analysed over time. The decreasing role of the public sector and the corresponding increasing role of the third sector seems to be a global trend in most Western countries, as well as an aging population with growing needs.