Young people not in employment, education, or training (NEET) often face complex and overlapping challenges, yet the welfare services intended to support them are fragmented across organisational boundaries. This article contributes to the literature by exploring how street-level bureaucrats in a Swedish municipality understand and navigate this paradox, using a qualitative case study informed by wicked problems theory. The findings show how structural complexity in the form of interconnected needs and limited knowability interacts with stakeholder complexity, where fragmented knowledge, divergent institutional framings, competing organisational priorities, and diffuse authority shape how support is organised and delivered. Practitioners described how coordination across sectors was difficult to sustain, particularly when support relied on partial information, narrow mandates, and systems that prioritised measurable outputs over meaningful progress. The study confirms the analytical value of wicked problems theory, while also extending it by highlighting the temporal instability of coordination processes. While the typology helps explain why coordination and collective action are difficult in fragmented welfare systems, the findings show how joint efforts are difficult to sustain over time in the face of staff turnover, shifting mandates, and short-term initiatives. For policy and practice, the findings underscore the importance of governance arrangements that facilitate flexibility, cross-sectoral collaboration, and continuity of support.
This work was supported under grant number FS 2.1.6- 658-22 by the Industrial Doctoral School at Umeå University and co-funded by Örnsköldsvik municipality.