The researchers represent a range of disciplines, and cover a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches. Knowledge on variation in children’s lives/family life is required for developing services for people in a vulnerable situation.
Children means children and young people below the age of 18. The research deals with both vulnerable an ‘ordinary’ childhoods; children and families who receive special services from child welfare/family offices, as well as those who only make use of the welfare state’s general services, like kindergarten, school, and leisure time activities. Child welfare services, their practices and the implicit professional discourses, are of special interest to the research group. Children and families may receive services from several institutions and professionals. Trans-professional collaboration is a prioritized research topic, as well as children and parents’ rights and options for participation in encounters with welfare state professionals. Social inequality is a research topic, as well as a perspective in the group’s research. That implies an exploration of how the welfare state’s services target various groups of children and families. Gender, ethnicity, age, class, sexuality and (dis)ability are relevant analytical categories. So is the dynamic between categories, which actualize inter sectional perspectives.
The research group will contribute to the knowledge base for the professional studies in child welfare and social work at all levels, and the connected fields of practice. This implies research based teaching and research based practice, and student involvement in all projects. The group will initiate externally funded projects, as well as smaller local projects.
The core environment consists of thematic subgroups:
