Governing Ideas of Risk in Child Protection Services

This presentation explores issues related to current ideas of risk and governing in modern welfare state institutions. This is also the thematic focus in my Ph.D project, where the empirical material is collected in the field... [ view full abstract ]

This presentation explores issues related to current ideas of risk and governing in modern welfare state institutions. This is also the thematic focus in my Ph.D project, where the empirical material is collected in the field of Child Protection Services in Norway. Data consist of 22 interviews with child protection workers, 25 reports from investigation and care order cases, and selected government documents.
The analysis indicates that ideas of risk have created grounds for knowledge presented as positivistic and objective, such as calculation and prediction. On this basis I put forward the claim that ideas of risk do influence and govern practices in Child Protection Services. The presentation traces the rise of the governing idea of risk and the different logics and values which underpin it, showing that it has less to do with real dangers than we might imagine, and more to do with institutional accountability and legitimacy. Furthermore, ideas of risk can be understood as part of political rationality which have the effects of surveillance and shaping of identities and conduct in the welfare state. One of the questions under discussion is whether current ideas of risk may in fact have the effect of reinforcing ruling definitions of normality and creating more bureaucracy instead of using resources on protecting children in need or danger.
Using a frame drawn from theories of governmentality, this qualitative study aims to deepen our understanding of how ideas of risk have become pervasive components of practices, technologies and rationalities concerned with governing in the welfare state.

Veronica Haug
Ph.D student /Assistant Professor
UiT The Arctic University of Norway / Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences
Norway
Email: Veronica.haug@uit.no