Johan Vamstad earned his Master’s degree in political science at Lund University and defended his Ph.D at Mid-Sweden University in 2007. He is an associate professor at the Department of Social Sciences at Ersta Sköndal University College since 2010. His Ph.D thesis is titled “Governing Welfare: The Third Sector and the Challenges to the Swedish Welfare State” and it explores the potential of democratic organization of welfare services as a measure to counter the growing democratic deficiency in Sweden. Cooperative childcare is studied as a case where such democratic organization has been tried on a large scale in Sweden. Dr. Vamstad has since conducted a large research project on freedom of choice systems in Sweden, studying the effects of quasi-markets in eldercare, addiction treatment and upper secondary education in Sweden. Among his other research interests are co-production of welfare services, philanthropy and charitable giving and the social origins of civil society. Dr. Vamstad teaches courses in social policy and the organization of welfare states at Ersta Sköndal University College and in 2013 he served as a guest lecturer at the University of Applied Science in Munich. He is currently undertaking a comparative study of cooperative health and eldercare in Japan, together with professors Victor Pestoff, Yayoi Saito and Chikako Endo. He holds a cross-appointment as associate professor at the Graduate School of Human Sciences at Osaka University 2015-2016.