Yayoi Saito, Ph.D, Professor

<Background>
Yayoi Saito earned her B.A. in law from Gakushuin University in Tokyo (1987) and her M.A. at the Department of Political Science, Lund University in Sweden (Master of Public Administration). She defended her Ph.D in Human Sciences at Osaka University in 2013. After studying at the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management as a research fellow (1988-1993), she became assistant professor (1993-1994), lecturer (1995-1998), and associate professor (1999-2000) at Osaka University of Foreign Studies, where she was responsible for the study of modern Swedish society. She then became associate professor at the Faculty of Human Sciences, Osaka University in 2000 and is now Professor at the Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University.

Professor Saito has studied and researched in several Scandinavian countries. She was guest researcher at the Department of Social Work , Lund University (SWEDEN) in 2002, at the Faculty of Humanities, Oslo University (NORWAY) in 2008, and at the Department of Social Work, Stockholm University (SWEDEN) in 2011-2012. She studied at the Section of Eldercare at The Swedish National Board of Health and Social Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) in 2002.

She is a member of the Japanese Society for Study of Social Welfare, the Japanese Research Association for Community Development, the Japan Association for Northern European Studies, and the Japan Association for Comparative Politics. She works as chairman of the Japan Association for Northern European Studies from November 2014.

<Selected Publications>
Saito, Y. (2014), Provision and Organization of Elder Care in Sweden, Osaka: Osaka University Press.
　 (Japanese) *16th Sompo Japan Foundation Award in 2015.
Uenoya, K.,Y. Saito(eds)(2015), Social Work in Welfare Governance: Comparative Research among UK,
　 Norway, US, Korea and Japan , Kyoto: Minervashobo. (Japanese)
Saito, Y. (2015) Comparative Economic and Political Study of Elder Care: Challenges for Diversity Welfare
　Management, Okazawa, N.(ed) Frontier Studies of Scandinavian Society. Kyoto:Minervashobo. (Japanese)
Campbell, J. C., Edvardsen, U., Midford, P., and Y. Saito (eds) (2014) Eldercare Policies in Japan and
　Scandinavia: Aging Societies East and West, NY : Palgrave Macmillan. (English)
Saito,Y., Abe Auestad, R., and K.Waerness(eds)(2010) Meeting the Challenges of Elder Care: Japan and
　Norway, Kyoto:Kyoto University Press and Trans Pacific Press. (English)
Saito, Y., ‘Eldrely Care Transition and Welfare State in Japan.’ Aulenbacher, B., Riegraf, B.,and H.Theobald
　 (eds)(2014) Care im Spiegel soziologischer Diskussion (Care Set within the Context of Sociological Debate) erscheint als Sonderband 20 der Zeitschrift (to be published Special Issue 20 of the Journal): Soziale Welt 2013, Nomos-Verlag Baden-Baden. 419-434. (English)

Victor A. Pestoff, Ph. D, Visiting Professor

Victor A. Pestoff earned his B.A. in political science from California State University at Long Beach; and defended his Ph.D. in political science at Stockholm University in 1977. He taught for nearly 20 years at Stockholm University, became docent at Helsinki University in 1985 and was a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Economics in Kanazawa, Japan in 1998. He became full professor in political science at Södertörns högskola in 1999 and was appointed Professor of Political Science at Mid-Sweden University in Östersund in 2002. He became Professor Emeritus in 2008 and is now part-time Professor at the Institute for Civil Society Studies, Ersta Sköndal University College in Stockholm, Sweden. He is currently undertaking a comparative study of cooperative health and elder care in Japan, together with Prof. Yayoi Saito, Osaka University and other Japanese colleagues. He is also a founding member of the EMES Research Network on Social Enterprise.
Dr. Pestoff began his academic career by examining the relations between party systems, popular movements and voluntary organizations in three Nordic countries with his Ph.D. in 1977. For 35 years thereafter he explored the political and democratic aspects of voluntary organizations, cooperatives, third sector organizations and the social economy. He has published reports and articles on Swedish consumer organizations and consumer influence; many articles and two books on Swedish cooperative movements; articles and reports on Swedish business interests organizations; articles on the negotiated economy in Scandinavia, several articles and a book on the transformation of the public sector in Central and Eastern Europe, two books on the third sector and welfare state and two edited volumes on the co-production of public services. His latest books, A Democratic Architecture for the Welfare State (2008) and New Public Governance, the Third Sector and Co-Production (2012) appeared with Routledge. Many of his articles and books are translated to other languages.

LINK：http://www.esh.se/in-english/ersta-skondal-hogskola---english/about-us/contact-staff/staff/2015-01-14-victor-pestoff.html

Chikako Endo, D.Phil, Associate Professor

<Background>
My current research and teaching interests are in theories of social rights and the normative implications of policies involving social service provision by third sector organisations in the context of active welfare policies. My academic background is in normative political theory.

I earned my BA from the Faculty of Liberal Arts, International Christian University in Tokyo Japan. After earning my DPhil in Political Theory from the University of Oxford, I was post-doctoral researcher at the Graduate School of Law, Keio University, and Assistant Professor at the School of Human Welfare Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University. I joined the Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University in April, 2015.

Johan Vamstad

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.