WP5 UNDERSTANDINGS AND CONCEPTUALISATIONS OF CARE AND CONTROL ACROSS CHILD WELFARE PROFESSIONS

Leader: Margunn Bjørnholt; Co-leader: Margrete Aadnanes
Researchers: Ellen Syrstad

Informed by Bacchi’s (2009) problematisation approach, WP5 emphasises that concepts and understandings are crucial for policies and practice. Professionals working with vulnerable children and young people relate not only to different principles, norms and laws, but also to different understandings of what care and control means in their professional practice. At the same time these understandings frequently are tacit and taken for granted within the specific professions and sectors and rarely made explicit, despite their pivotal role in decisions with potentially wide implications. WP5 aims to probe these perceptions as well as new concepts that are entering institutional and professional fields. The WP’s objectives are threefold: (i) to explore understandings of care, control and related concepts across different institutional and professional contexts;
(ii) to explore how these understandings rely on specific images of the ‘good’ or ‘not-so-good life’ for children; (iii) to explore how these understandings may hold potential for change and improvements in professional
practice.