To Örebro University

The aim of this study is to identify and analyze, from an institutional perspective, how various factors can influence how suspected violence against children is assessed and handled by CW workers when investigating families in family law disputes. Five group interviews were conducted comprising 18 investigative CW workers in Sweden. CW workers' case handling is framed by both regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive elements. Across all elements, the family law dispute influences CW workers' handling of suspected violence by incorporating elements that are prevalent in the Family Law System (FLS). This can be understood in terms of how organizations seek legitimacy.

Research shows that the physical environment, such as meeting rooms and offices, affects prerequisites and outcomes in various forms of human services. This study focuses on the importance of the physical environment in meetings between child welfare workers and children within the Social Services’ activities. The conduction of the study has been inspired by the framework stages for a scoping review described by Arksey and O’Malley (2005). Results show that there is a clear lack of research on this matter. The small number of studies that do exist emphasize that physical and spatial factors clearly affect how contacts and relationships between welfare workers and children are shaped. Included studies show that spatial factors affect children’s participation in assessments, decisions, and the setup of support. The importance of the professionals’ ability to acknowledge the unique needs and desires of each child while at the same time recognising how to benefit from the physical environment where their meetings take place is stressed. Studies show that there is a trend towards contemporary child welfare work shifting from a focus on relational factors to gathering and dealing with information. In general, this field is under-theorized warranting more research with deeper theoretical aspirations.

The aim of this conceptual paper is to use Axel Honneth's theory of recognition to analyse, discuss and understand the relationship between children and youth in Swedish foster care and their child welfare workers. The discussions on recognition are related to other theoretical perspectives and to empirical examples from interviews and focus groups with foster children and child welfare workers. The article highlights the usefulness of Honneth's theory for understanding the tension between different dimensions of the relationship, and specifically to understand what form of recognition that constitutes the starting point for the relationship. However, the theory needs to be problematised and further developed to serve as a proper analytical tool for understanding this specific context. The article problematises Honneth's approach to childhood and recognition and the understanding of mutuality in caring relationships. Specific attention is given to Honneth's dichotomy between recognition and misrecognition in relation to rights. Conceptual discussions are presented that highlight that the opposite of misrecognition with regard to rights should, in this context, be understood as a dichotomy between categorizing or individualizing recognition.

Syftet med denna teoretiska artikel är att använda Axel Honneths teori om erkännande för att analysera, diskutera och förstå relationen mellan barn och unga i svensk familjehemsvård och deras socialsekreterare. Diskussionen om erkännande kopplas samman med andra teoretiska perspektiv samt till empiriska exempel från intervjuer och fokusgrupper med familjehemsplacerade barn och socialsekreterare. Artikeln påvisar hur användbar Honneths teori är för att förstå spänningen mellan relationens olika dimensioner samt specifikt för att förstå vilken form av erkännande som utgör fundamentet och startpunkten för relationen. Teorin behöver dock problematiseras och vidareutvecklas för att fungera som ett fullgott analytiskt verktyg i förståelsen av den specifika kontexten. Artikeln problematiserar Honneths syn på barndom samt hans förståelse av ömsesidighet i omsorgsrelationer. Särskilt fokuseras Honneths dikotomi mellan erkännande och misskännande när det gäller rättsligt erkännande. Teoretiska och konceptuella diskussioner presenteras som betonar att motsatsen till rättsligt misskännande bör, inom denna kontext, förstås som en dikotomi mellan kategoriserande eller individualiserande erkännande.

The aim of this thesis is to study, analyze and understand the relationship between children and youth in foster care and their responsible child welfare workers. The empirical material consists of qualitative interviews with foster children (n=53, three interviews/child, in total 159) and child welfare workers (n=17) conducted in a national evaluation of a pilot project with supervision representatives, and two focus groups conducted for the thesis. Examples of central theoretical concepts in the thesis are institution, role, professionalism and recognition. The interviewed children highlighted that the relationship with child welfare workers is negatively affected by a lack of time, availability, and trust. The children desire close and trustful relationships with child welfare workers, but generally they expect a relationship characterized by distance and formality. The child welfare workers emphasized that the relationships are affected by organizational constraints, such as time pressure and lack of continuity. Further, the work is characterized by role conflicts and contradictory expectations of professionalism. On the one hand, the child welfare workers stress the importance of closeness and trust in the relationships. On the other hand, they are expected to maintain formality, distance and functional specificity. The current relationship is affected by institutional prerequisites that are made visible by prevailing regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive expectations. These different expectations shape and constrain the child welfare workers’ discretion, at the same time as they also create internal conflicts. By applying the theory of recognition, it becomes evident that the foster child is expected to be recognized through closeness, rights, and solidarity by the child welfare worker. Under current institutional conditions, tensions arise between these different forms. The discussions focuses on which form of recognition should constitute the starting-point for the relationship, and how closeness versus distance is affected by recognition through rights.

At the same time as the number of child and youth placements in foster care is increasing in Sweden, some serious deficiencies have been highlighted, such as instability in placements and shortcomings in the social services' monitoring. Because the child welfare workers are ultimately responsible for these children's situation, understanding how they handle their multi-dimensional occupational role is crucial. The aim of this article is to study child welfare workers' individual and collective experiences of and expectations about their occupational role and responsibilities in their administrative and relational work with children and youth in foster care. Individual interviews with child welfare workers from a previous evaluation of a national pilot project, and two focus groups with child welfare workers, constitute the empirical basis. Theoretically the article explores central concepts such as sub-roles, dilemmas, professionalism, and functional specificity. The results show that the child welfare workers are burdened by a heavy workload, but that the prerequisites and the obstacles they face also must be understood in relation to prevailing contradictions and dilemmas in their occupational role. Even though the child welfare workers stress that professionalism is about putting relational work first, their activity is dominated by administrative tasks and functional specificity.

The question of whether the Swedish social services are fulfilling their obligation to monitor and support children in foster care is attracting increasing attention. The importance of closeness and trust between children and their child-welfare officers has been highlighted in particular. The aim of this article is to study foster children's experiences and expectations concerning the role of the child-welfare officer, and how these constitute prerequisites for, and possible obstacles to the officers developing close and trustful relationships with the children under prevailing institutional conditions. Data from our evaluation of a national pilot project with supervision representatives provide the empirical basis. Our theoretical point of departure is that the relationship between the child and the child-welfare officer is affected by the officer's rolea role that is negotiated under the prevailing institutional conditions and in interaction with the children's experiences of and expectations about that role. The results show that most children emphasize that the relationship with their officer is negatively affected by a lack of time, availability, and trust. It is also weakened by the children's general expectation that child-welfare officers only act in their official role, a role that is associated with a formal and distanced relationship.

The relationship between children in foster care and ‘their’ welfare official has recently been accentuated on political level in Sweden. In this paper we will discuss how Honneths theory of recognition can be applied on this relation – which is a very multifaceted one – not least because the role of the official is multi-dimensional. Besides ensuring official policy, law and regulation (the authority role) he/she shall represent the child vis-à-vis other actors’ and institutions involved (the advocacy role), and be a stable and trustful adult for the child to attach to socially/emotionally (the attachment role). The latter is now emphasized in Swedish law.

     Recently, in the framework of an evaluation we interviewed children in foster care. When asked about how they experience “their” official most of them show a quite negative or indifferent attitude referring first and foremost to the authority role, i.e. someone controlling and administering their foster-home placement. However, those most positive of “their” official highlights the attachment dimension, indicated by a deeper and more developed relation based on mutual trust. And, such a relation seems desired by most interviewed children. By Honnet’s theory of recognition we may reach deeper insights about how and under what circumstances a professional role that promotes such relations can be developed without undermining the authority role of the welfare official. The theory elucidates three types of recognition-relations needed for an individual to develop a positive identity: through primary relations of mutual emotional attachment self-confidence of importance for being able to articulate personal needs is developed. Through legal relations the individual is recognized as an adequate partner in interaction, i.e. as a person entitled to the same legal status and treatment as all other persons (universal dimension). This infuses self-respect. In complement to this – to care and legal recognition – the individual needs to be recognized for unique capacities and achievements via belonging to a community of shared values. The paper discusses if, how and what the welfare official can offer here on the basis of his/hers position in the welfare bureaucracy.