By the end of the 20th century, social class appeared to be an old-fashioned and outdated concept. Serious doubts were expressed about the theoretical and empirical relevance of social class in understanding inequalities in contemporary society. However, experiences from completing research with children and families receiving support from child welfare services shows that applying a class perspective is useful. The purpose of our study was to explore the redistributive and cultural dimensions of social class in the context of child welfare. The data include survey interviews with 715 families in contact with the Norwegian child welfare services (CWS). We found that social class is important but with different effects compared with the industrial society. Our analysis highlighted the problems children and families involved with CWS face, associated with social inequalities based on class differences. We argue that social class is part of the social dynamic of late modern societies, and that this dynamic intertwines with the lives of families in CWS and the problem complexes they encounter in everyday life.
The promotion of Olympic education through Olympic events has received increased attention among researchers. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) as an arena for Olympic education based on the perceptions of the pupils participating in the school programme "Dream Day" during the YOG 2016 in Lillehammer, a former Olympic city in Norway. Didactical principles for Olympic education (Naul, 2008) are adopted as an analytical framework. This is a qualitative case study using interviews, observations and personal essays of participating pupils as the main sources. Based on the findings in this paper, we argue that the YOG have significant potential as an arena for Olympic education. However, this potential is not yet utilized, and the following implications for future practices are presented. First, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) needs to put more effort into the implementation of Olympic education programmes. Second, the implementation of Olympic education programmes should be a collaboration between different groups and disciplines, including youth representatives. Third, corroborating Naul's (2008), the pupils' socio-cultural backgrounds have to be taken into account in order to meet the needs of the participating youth. Finally, the Olympic education programme should have a long-term perspective where the Games are used to increase the educational effect.
SammendragArtikkelen tar utgangspunkt i uttrykket «gode nok foreldre» som barnevernsarbeidere i forskningsstudien «Fra tanker til teori: En studie om barnevernsarbeideres resonnering» bruker når de snakker om de barnevernfaglige vurderingene som de foretar. Dette begrepet er også anvendt i flere sammenhenger innenfor barne-og familieområdet, som for eksempel i dommer, faglitteratur og forskning. Det faktum at begrepet benyttes i ulike sammenhenger, har ikke bidratt til å klargjøre begrepet naermere betydning. I barnevernets praksis synes ikke «gode nok foreldre» å ha et naermere avgrenset innhold. Hvordan man forstår begrepet, hvilket innhold man gir det, er avhengig av hvilket perspektiv man inntar. Hva eller hvem som er «gode nok foreldre» er ikke et spørsmål som kan besvares enkelt og entydig, men som like fullt er et spørsmål som barnevernsarbeiderne vier mye oppmerksomhet. Det er også et sentralt spørsmål i interaksjonen som barnevernsarbeiderne har med familiene i barnevernet. I artikkelen stiller vi spørsmål ved hvordan uttrykket «gode nok foreldre» brukes som målestokk i barnevernet, og drøfter ulike implikasjoner med en slik praksis med utgangspunkt i Foucaults teorier om disiplineringsmakt.Nøkkelord: Barnevern, Foucault, normalitet, tilknytningsteori, gode nok foreldre Abstract This article discusses the term "good enough parents", which was found to be a key concern of the social workers in the study "Decisions about preventive measures in child welfare: Towards an understanding of social workers reasoning". The term is referred to in several domains of the child and family welfare field, including court cases, academic literature and research. While the term is frequently referred to, there is little consensus surrounding its exact meaning. "Good enough parents" is neither a concise term, nor does it have a defined content. It therefore appears both constructed and complex. How the term is understood, and which content is given to it, is dependent on perspective. The answer to what or whom may be considered "good enough parents" is certainly not clear-cut, yet it remains a topic of close consideration for social workers who assign important meaning to the term when interacting with the families in the child welfare services. The article questions the relative importance given to the term "good enough parents" as a benchmark in the child welfare services, and discusses the implications of such practices with reference to Foucault's theories of disciplinary power.
In this article, we theorize and reflect based on former research into professional practice and discretion as well as use some results from working together with practitioners in child protection services to explore the phenomenon of non-performing. Regulation lies at the heart of the contemporary child protection discourse. On the one hand we have seen a trend towards systematization of assessment content and procedures, on the other hand it is assumed that rational management approaches can secure consistency of performance. Social workers may be weary of the constraints all this imposes, but seem generally content to comply. Our reasoning was that social workers in child protection should be helped to get to grips with modifications to practice so that multi-challenged families could be accorded priority. These changes would include a reframing of assessment to take account of family needs as well as the needs of children. Follow-up would also require much more attention. Additionally, the choice of help provided for children and families would have to come into better focus, despite the limitations often experienced in practice. The question we asked was whether these types of reframing could be fostered within local child welfare units. We conducted a field trial in which child protection units were encouraged to reframe their practices, with the support of an expert group. The idea was to enhance and enable innovation through the combination of a more thorough dialogue with the families involved, as well as critical reflection based on available knowledge related to the identified challenges. We do a critical discussion of the work and the results from this in order to enhance knowledge on innovation in child protection.
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