Strengthening the Notion of the ‘Village’ in Signs of Safety – A Luhmannian Perspective

Abstract

Signs of Safety’s child protection approach has recently been criticized for lacking in theory when it comes to the part of the framework that deal with the involvement of social networks. The article explores if it is possible to respond to this critique with the help of Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. Luhmann’s systems theory was shown to be aligned with core components in Signs of Safety hence offering a possible theoretical underpinning to the parts of the framework that deal with social networks. Furthermore, by allowing us to reflect about how the simplicity of Signs of Safety synthesizes considerable complexities, the result may also be of use to counteract current tendency to falsely confuse the frameworks ambition to simplify the bureaucracy surrounding assessments with a quest to simplify social work thinking.