The role of social workers under neoliberal ideology at the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Service (NAV)

Skjefstad, Nina Schiøll; Kiik, Riina; Sandoval, Hugo

doi:10.4324/9781315111834-12

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…It seems an essential lesson from the Norwegian welfare reform is that integrating services is "'challenging" for service users, management, and employees (Christiansen et al, 2014). This has been extensively discussed by previous research (see : Christiansen & Laegreid, 2013;Skjefstad et al, 2018). The effects of the organisational divide on frontline bureaucracies and their service delivery capability still require scholarly attention.…”

Section: Background: the Nav Reform And Holistic Service Provisionmentioning

confidence: 86%

The Great Divide: State vs Municipality in Local Welfare Administration in Norway

Wathne,

Natland,

Hansen

2024

Problemy Polityki Społecznej

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This study delves into the intricate internal dynamics of the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), tasked with delivering comprehensive welfare services through state-municipal partnerships. While NAV's mandate promotes empowered local offices and holistic services, realising this can present significant challenges. Our ongoing research focuses on an organisational development process within a NAV

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Section: Background: the Nav Reform And Holistic Service Provisionmentioning

confidence: 86%

The Great Divide: State vs Municipality in Local Welfare Administration in Norway

Wathne,

Natland,

Hansen

2024

Problemy Polityki Społecznej

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“…This category is based on a moral discourse manifested in a particular form of governance. NAV's attempt to implement governmental activation policies involves very few praxis guidelines to align the extensive client rights moored in the universalist and capacity-building welfare state model with the conditionality representing the neo-liberal approach (Skjefstad et al, 2019). The caseworkers thus seek various strategies to reduce the complexity of the discretional process and align the two approaches.…”

Section: The Sick-listed Yet Work-capable Client: a Moral Missionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing sick-listed clients’ work ability: A moral mission?

Stray

Thomassen

Vike

2022

Critical Social Policy

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Judging the extent to which sick-listed clients’ disabilities qualify them for sickness benefits is increasingly part of frontline work. However, we lack knowledge about the discretional process of assessing work ability. Institutional ethnographic research of caseworkers in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration revealed that they emphasised clients’ residual work ability – meaning what clients could perform despite their medical diagnoses – as well as their inner motivations and work ethic. We argue that frontline praxis is influenced by efforts to fit clients into a category of the deserving ‘sick-listed yet work-capable client’. Because caseworkers lack guidelines to combine health and work, they increasingly apply their ‘moral selves’ in the assessment process resulting in scepticism towards clients’ feigning, or exaggerating symptoms to obtain financial benefits or avoid work. We question whether our findings represent a shift of the Norwegian universalistic welfare model to a more liberal and incentive-strengthening type.

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“…The neoliberal reorganisation of the Norwegian welfare state introduced management principles in social work practices that left less room for professional judgment and limited the autonomy of social workers (Skjefstad et al, 2018;Stamsø, 2009). As shown in the left column of Table 1, the neoliberal Scandinavian welfare state represents the professionalism that Vishanthie Sewpaul (2006, p. 112) labelled as the dominant logical-positivist conception that reflects modernism's technical rationality.…”

Section: Human Rights In Relation To Social Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social workers are also agents in relation to citizens and clients and potentially reinforce, oppose and resist policies through their practices (Nordberg, 2018, p. 128). Studies on the identities and roles of social workers in neoliberal Nordic welfare states show that social workers are not passive actors in the transformative process but are capable of taking actively different stances and choosing their own identities (Jönsson, 2019;Skjefstad et al, 2018).…”

Section: Human Rights In Relation To Social Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human rights as an opportunity and challenge for social work in a changing Norwegian welfare state

Alseth

2020

European Journal of Social Work

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This article discusses human rights as an opportunity and a challenge for social work in a Norwegian welfare state characterised by transformation and rising inequality. The relationship between social work and human rights is explored theoretically through the discussion of two different imperatives of distribution: sufficiency and equality. To develop an understanding of human rights for social work in a Norwegian and Nordic context, the article creates an illustrative framework that build on a basic continuum between sufficiency and equality (Dean, H. [2015]. Social rights and human welfare. Routledge; Moyn, S. [2018]. Not enough: Human Rights in an unequal world. Harvard University Press). The continuum is adapted by Bonnycastles (2011. Social justice along a continuum: A relational illustrative model. Social Service Review, 85(2), 267-295) Continuum of Relational Social Justice. The aim of the article is to articulate theoretically what it means to say that social work is a human rights profession in a Nordic and Norwegian welfare state in transformation and to consider the implication of such a perspective for the practice and research of social work. The article suggests that human rights must be seen in relation to the possibility of moving society closer to social equality. ABSTRAKT Artikkelen diskuterer menneskerettigheter som mulighet og utfordring for sosialt arbeid i en norsk velferdsstat preget av reorganisering og økende ulikhet. Forholdet mellom sosialt arbeid og menneskerettigheter utforskes teoretisk gjennom diskusjon av to ulike idealer: tilstrekkelighet og likhet. For å utvide forståelse av menneskerettigheter for sosialt arbeid i en norsk og nordisk sammenheng, utvikler artikkelen et illustrerende rammeverk som bygger på et grunnleggende kontinuum mellom nettopp tilstrekkelighet og likhet (Dean, H. [2015]. Social rights and human welfare. Routledge; Moyn, S. [2018]. Not enough: Human Rights in an unequal world. Harvard University Press). Kontinuumet er tilpasset fra Bonnycastles (2011. Social justice along a continuum: A relational illustrative model. Social Service Review, 85(2), 267-295) Continuum of Relational Social Justice. Målet med artikkelen er å artikulere teoretisk hva det vil si å si at sosialt arbeid er en

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The role of social workers under neoliberal ideology at the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Service (NAV)

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

The Great Divide: State vs Municipality in Local Welfare Administration in Norway

The Great Divide: State vs Municipality in Local Welfare Administration in Norway

Assessing sick-listed clients’ work ability: A moral mission?

Human rights as an opportunity and challenge for social work in a changing Norwegian welfare state

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