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‘What Troubled Children Need’ Constructions of Everyday Life in Residential Care
Author(s) -
Jakobsen Turf Böcker
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
children and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-0860
pISSN - 0951-0605
DOI - 10.1111/j.1099-0860.2009.00220.x
Subject(s) - ambiguity , residential care , ethnography , welfare , sociology , everyday life , social work , work (physics) , social welfare , service (business) , public relations , point (geometry) , psychology , nursing , political science , medicine , business , law , marketing , engineering , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , mechanical engineering , linguistics , anthropology
This article argues that key values of child protection work are not the appropriate point of departure for contemplating the welfare of children in professional care. Central values, such as ‘comfort’, ‘recognition’ or ‘appreciation’ say very little about the social practices of residential care. Using data from an ethnographic study in Denmark, the article demonstrates that ideas about the needs of troubled children are realised in dissimilar ways, creating highly different living environments for institutionalised children. The principles behind these construction processes are explored, and the profound ambiguity of values in childcare is discussed as an effect of residential care’s being an ‘institutional’ or ‘human service’ type of organisation.