We Need to Focus on the Resources: Struggling with Neoliberal Economic Rationales in Social Work with Children and Families

Abstract

This chapter offers an exploration of what welfare rationales are currently expressed in the policy context of social services as well as in the practices of social work with children and their families in Denmark.1 Historically, economic rationales related to the promotion of wealth have been an integral part of the shaping of the Nordic welfare states. Although the relation between rationales of wealth and welfare is far from unambiguous, it is generally agreed that the reconciliation of conflicts arising from increased competitive structures in the market through agreements between employers, unions and the state has played a decisive role. Ideals of full employment, shared responsibilities and income regulations enabled a flexible labor market adaptable to shifting economic conjectures, political stability, and security through compensations for loss of income. It also enabled the backing of tax financed universal welfare services underpinning the development of an extensive well-educated, healthy, and productive work force. Thus, a welfare rationale concerned with mobilizing resources for welfare for the purpose of both economic productivity and equality has been in the heart of the shaping of the Nordic welfare states closely linked to ambitions of promoting the well-being of in principle all citizens (e.g., Esping-Andersen, 1990; Kautto et al., 2002; Nissen et al., 2015; Fallov et al., 2017). However, by exploring the contemporary policy contexts of social services as well as practices of social work, we might learn something about how such a welfare rationale may become challenged and what kind of struggle this entail in the everyday practices of mobilizing resources for welfare.