Dorte Caswell
Biographic Data
| ID | 4239148 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dorte Caswell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dorte |
| FAMILY NAME | Caswell |
| SIGNATURE | CASWELL D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Aalborg University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8700-3850 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 102 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Motivational talk
In recent decades, the concept of motivation has become central to active labour market policies (ALMP) across various welfare regimes. Within the ALMP framework, client motivation has been addressed through both ‘hard’ approaches, such as economic sanctions and benefit reductions, and ‘soft’ approaches, including client-involving conversations aimed at tailoring individualized action plans based on clients’ aspirations and goals. Despite the gro…
Structuring sustainable knowledge brokering in street-level organisations
This article highlights sustaining KM as ongoing and multifaceted work, emphasising the role of street-level organisation knowledge brokers. Their embeddedness in professional practice enables them to translate, context and institutionalise KM. By outlining three axes of sustaining infrastructure, we suggest a framework for further research on sustaining in organisational practices
Work inclusion as part of social work
Using conversation analysis to develop reflective practice in social work
The need for professional reflection has been argued extensively in social work literature. A separate literature has demonstrated the potential of using conversation analytic research (CA) in interventions seeking to inform professional practice in social and health care. Nevertheless, we know little about how social workers actually do ‘reflection’ and how CA can be used to facilitate reflection, specifically. The objective of this paper is to …
Co-Creation in an era of Welfare Conditionality - Lessons from Denmark
Welfare conditionality, and the underlying understanding of unemployment because of lack of motivation, has been widely criticized. This article analyses if and how more co-created services can be a pathway to address some of these challenges. As Denmark currently is moving towards a softening of welfare conditionality for the vulnerable unemployed, and local authorities try to develop models 'in between' welfare conditionality and genuine user i…
Talking policy into being—How street‐level bureaucrats and vulnerable unemployed talk about labor market participation
Active labor market policy is talked into being in meetings between street‐level bureaucrats and vulnerable unemployed. Recent developments in the street‐level bureaucracy literature has identified potentials in more ethnographic work and a closer attention to responsiveness as a core value of the frontline work (Brodkin 2012; Zacka 2017). Contributing to this, the analytical perspective in this article is informed by conversation analysis and da…
Exploring the Ingredients of Success
When looking at clients with a long history of unemployment and substantial health and/or social problems, stories of success (in terms of moving from being on cash benefits to getting a job) are limited. Thus, when a client does manage to gain employment or enter education, it represents an unusual 1 story of success seen from a political, organisational and individual perspective. In this article, we investigate empirically what can be learnt a…
I’m Gonna Ask You about Yourself, so I Can Put It on Paper’
Standardised formats in social work have often been seen as neo-liberal and linked to New Public Management. Analysing naturally occurring data from social work interactions (conversations) in a homeless shelter, we argue that examining street-level bureaucracy from a discursive perspective enables us to discover new aspects of form-related interaction. By investigating several approaches to form-talk, we see how standardisation, routinisation, t…
Introduction
This themed issue contributes to European research on the role of front‐line work in the implementation of welfare‐to‐work policies. A number of factors underline the relevance of such study. First, the focus on activating and disciplining the unemployed seen in many countries may on the surface look similar. However, a closer look at these policies and how they unfold in different contexts reveals many and interesting differences. While all cont…
Conclusions and Topics for Future Research
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book outlines the relevance of frontline work studies in the delivery of activation or welfare-to-work policies. It aims to gain insight into how frontline workers in organizations and agencies responsible for the provision of welfare-to-work actually deliver policies and services and how these 'activation practices' are structured…
Frontline Delivery of Welfare-to-Work Policies in Europe
The debate on activation policies and challenges to social citizenship has to go beyond the level of formal policy and take into account also its operational and street-level dimension, which shapes what eventually arrives as policy on the ground. In this context, frontline practice plays a crucial role since it constitutes the very moment when activation policies encounter their target groups and real-world solutions have to be found. This artic…
Rethinking Neoliberalism
A New approach to Helping the hard-to-place Unemployed
The reforms of the social and employment services that have swept across most of the developed world since the 1990s have enormously expanded the groups of citizens receiving active employment measures. Nevertheless, up until now, most countries have only seen limited results from enhancing the labour market participation of the most vulnerable groups. We argue that the goal of including a greater share of the harder-to-place unemployed in the la…
Responses from the Frontline
Economic sanctions have gained more political legitimacy and are being more widely used as a tool to improve the willingness of unemployed welfare recipients to participate in activities within the framework of active labour market policy (ALMP). The focus of this article is the use of economic sanctions on cash benefit recipients in Denmark, Quantitative analyses show a substantial increase in the use of economic sanctions in Denmark, including …
Disability Pensions and Active Labor Market Policy
Danish active labour market policy, under the headline of flexicurity, has received international attention due to its claimed ability to curb unemployment, while boosting employment. A strong belief in the positive effects of activation, in policy as well as practice, has had consequences for all client types, including those who are far from labour market participation due to social, mental, physical or other problems. We analyse the applicatio…
Client contribution in negotiations on employability – categories revised
Eskelinen L, Olesen SP, Caswell D. Client contribution in negotiations on employability – categories revised? Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 330–338 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. In this article, we explore how the institutional category ‘unemployed’ is specified in everyday practice when implementing an active employment policy. We illustrate the process of cat…
Unemployed citizen or ‘at risk’ client? Classification systems and employment services in Denmark and Australia
The paper explores recent developments in Australian and Danish unemployment policies with a special focus on the technologies used to classify and categorize unemployed people on government benefits. Using governmentality as our theoretical framework, we consider the implications of reducing complex social problems to statistical scores and differentiated categories — forms of knowledge that diminish the capacity to think about unemployment as a…
Developing environmental awareness in engineers through Engineers Without Borders and sustainable design projects
Today’s engineering students recognize the importance of environmental issues, but the traditional engineering curriculum is weak in opportunities for students to experience the link between the practice of engineering and the ideals of environmental sustainability. To meet this need, we attempt to offer multi‐disciplinary knowledge early in the university course. We suggest a means for educating engineering students to understand environmental p…
Folket på gaden - struktureret hverdagsliv i det offentlige rum
Dorte Caswell and Ida Schultz: People in the Street Bag people are different from other people who live on the street. Pictures of bag people are employed both literally and metaphorically to illustrate homelessness, but there is scant research in Denmark about this group of homeless. The purpose of this article is to shed light on the everyday life of the bag people of Copenhagen. The article is based on a “reflexive field study“ employing the r…
Unemployed citizen or ‘at risk’ client? Classification systems and employment services in Denmark and Australia
The paper explores recent developments in Australian and Danish unemployment policies with a special focus on the technologies used to classify and categorize unemployed people on government benefits. Using governmentality as our theoretical framework, we consider the implications of reducing complex social problems to statistical scores and differentiated categories — forms of knowledge that diminish the capacity to think about unemployment as a…
Responses from the Frontline
Economic sanctions have gained more political legitimacy and are being more widely used as a tool to improve the willingness of unemployed welfare recipients to participate in activities within the framework of active labour market policy (ALMP). The focus of this article is the use of economic sanctions on cash benefit recipients in Denmark, Quantitative analyses show a substantial increase in the use of economic sanctions in Denmark, including …
A New approach to Helping the hard-to-place Unemployed
The reforms of the social and employment services that have swept across most of the developed world since the 1990s have enormously expanded the groups of citizens receiving active employment measures. Nevertheless, up until now, most countries have only seen limited results from enhancing the labour market participation of the most vulnerable groups. We argue that the goal of including a greater share of the harder-to-place unemployed in the la…
Co-Creation in an era of Welfare Conditionality - Lessons from Denmark
Welfare conditionality, and the underlying understanding of unemployment because of lack of motivation, has been widely criticized. This article analyses if and how more co-created services can be a pathway to address some of these challenges. As Denmark currently is moving towards a softening of welfare conditionality for the vulnerable unemployed, and local authorities try to develop models 'in between' welfare conditionality and genuine user i…
Introduction
This themed issue contributes to European research on the role of front‐line work in the implementation of welfare‐to‐work policies. A number of factors underline the relevance of such study. First, the focus on activating and disciplining the unemployed seen in many countries may on the surface look similar. However, a closer look at these policies and how they unfold in different contexts reveals many and interesting differences. While all cont…
Talking policy into being—How street‐level bureaucrats and vulnerable unemployed talk about labor market participation
Active labor market policy is talked into being in meetings between street‐level bureaucrats and vulnerable unemployed. Recent developments in the street‐level bureaucracy literature has identified potentials in more ethnographic work and a closer attention to responsiveness as a core value of the frontline work (Brodkin 2012; Zacka 2017). Contributing to this, the analytical perspective in this article is informed by conversation analysis and da…
I’m Gonna Ask You about Yourself, so I Can Put It on Paper’
Standardised formats in social work have often been seen as neo-liberal and linked to New Public Management. Analysing naturally occurring data from social work interactions (conversations) in a homeless shelter, we argue that examining street-level bureaucracy from a discursive perspective enables us to discover new aspects of form-related interaction. By investigating several approaches to form-talk, we see how standardisation, routinisation, t…
Exploring the Ingredients of Success
When looking at clients with a long history of unemployment and substantial health and/or social problems, stories of success (in terms of moving from being on cash benefits to getting a job) are limited. Thus, when a client does manage to gain employment or enter education, it represents an unusual 1 story of success seen from a political, organisational and individual perspective. In this article, we investigate empirically what can be learnt a…
Client contribution in negotiations on employability – categories revised
Eskelinen L, Olesen SP, Caswell D. Client contribution in negotiations on employability – categories revised? Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 330–338 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. In this article, we explore how the institutional category ‘unemployed’ is specified in everyday practice when implementing an active employment policy. We illustrate the process of cat…
Folket på gaden - struktureret hverdagsliv i det offentlige rum
Dorte Caswell and Ida Schultz: People in the Street Bag people are different from other people who live on the street. Pictures of bag people are employed both literally and metaphorically to illustrate homelessness, but there is scant research in Denmark about this group of homeless. The purpose of this article is to shed light on the everyday life of the bag people of Copenhagen. The article is based on a “reflexive field study“ employing the r…
Developing environmental awareness in engineers through Engineers Without Borders and sustainable design projects
Today’s engineering students recognize the importance of environmental issues, but the traditional engineering curriculum is weak in opportunities for students to experience the link between the practice of engineering and the ideals of environmental sustainability. To meet this need, we attempt to offer multi‐disciplinary knowledge early in the university course. We suggest a means for educating engineering students to understand environmental p…
Client contribution in negotiations on employability – categories revised
Eskelinen L, Olesen SP, Caswell D. Client contribution in negotiations on employability – categories revised? Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 330–338 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. In this article, we explore how the institutional category ‘unemployed’ is specified in everyday practice when implementing an active employment policy. We illustrate the process of cat…
Unemployed citizen or ‘at risk’ client? Classification systems and employment services in Denmark and Australia
The paper explores recent developments in Australian and Danish unemployment policies with a special focus on the technologies used to classify and categorize unemployed people on government benefits. Using governmentality as our theoretical framework, we consider the implications of reducing complex social problems to statistical scores and differentiated categories — forms of knowledge that diminish the capacity to think about unemployment as a…
Disability Pensions and Active Labor Market Policy
Danish active labour market policy, under the headline of flexicurity, has received international attention due to its claimed ability to curb unemployment, while boosting employment. A strong belief in the positive effects of activation, in policy as well as practice, has had consequences for all client types, including those who are far from labour market participation due to social, mental, physical or other problems. We analyse the applicatio…
Responses from the Frontline
Economic sanctions have gained more political legitimacy and are being more widely used as a tool to improve the willingness of unemployed welfare recipients to participate in activities within the framework of active labour market policy (ALMP). The focus of this article is the use of economic sanctions on cash benefit recipients in Denmark, Quantitative analyses show a substantial increase in the use of economic sanctions in Denmark, including …
Conclusions and Topics for Future Research
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book outlines the relevance of frontline work studies in the delivery of activation or welfare-to-work policies. It aims to gain insight into how frontline workers in organizations and agencies responsible for the provision of welfare-to-work actually deliver policies and services and how these 'activation practices' are structured…
Frontline Delivery of Welfare-to-Work Policies in Europe
The debate on activation policies and challenges to social citizenship has to go beyond the level of formal policy and take into account also its operational and street-level dimension, which shapes what eventually arrives as policy on the ground. In this context, frontline practice plays a crucial role since it constitutes the very moment when activation policies encounter their target groups and real-world solutions have to be found. This artic…
Rethinking Neoliberalism
A New approach to Helping the hard-to-place Unemployed
The reforms of the social and employment services that have swept across most of the developed world since the 1990s have enormously expanded the groups of citizens receiving active employment measures. Nevertheless, up until now, most countries have only seen limited results from enhancing the labour market participation of the most vulnerable groups. We argue that the goal of including a greater share of the harder-to-place unemployed in the la…
I’m Gonna Ask You about Yourself, so I Can Put It on Paper’
Standardised formats in social work have often been seen as neo-liberal and linked to New Public Management. Analysing naturally occurring data from social work interactions (conversations) in a homeless shelter, we argue that examining street-level bureaucracy from a discursive perspective enables us to discover new aspects of form-related interaction. By investigating several approaches to form-talk, we see how standardisation, routinisation, t…
Introduction
This themed issue contributes to European research on the role of front‐line work in the implementation of welfare‐to‐work policies. A number of factors underline the relevance of such study. First, the focus on activating and disciplining the unemployed seen in many countries may on the surface look similar. However, a closer look at these policies and how they unfold in different contexts reveals many and interesting differences. While all cont…
Talking policy into being—How street‐level bureaucrats and vulnerable unemployed talk about labor market participation
Active labor market policy is talked into being in meetings between street‐level bureaucrats and vulnerable unemployed. Recent developments in the street‐level bureaucracy literature has identified potentials in more ethnographic work and a closer attention to responsiveness as a core value of the frontline work (Brodkin 2012; Zacka 2017). Contributing to this, the analytical perspective in this article is informed by conversation analysis and da…
Exploring the Ingredients of Success
When looking at clients with a long history of unemployment and substantial health and/or social problems, stories of success (in terms of moving from being on cash benefits to getting a job) are limited. Thus, when a client does manage to gain employment or enter education, it represents an unusual 1 story of success seen from a political, organisational and individual perspective. In this article, we investigate empirically what can be learnt a…
Using conversation analysis to develop reflective practice in social work
The need for professional reflection has been argued extensively in social work literature. A separate literature has demonstrated the potential of using conversation analytic research (CA) in interventions seeking to inform professional practice in social and health care. Nevertheless, we know little about how social workers actually do ‘reflection’ and how CA can be used to facilitate reflection, specifically. The objective of this paper is to …
Co-Creation in an era of Welfare Conditionality - Lessons from Denmark
Welfare conditionality, and the underlying understanding of unemployment because of lack of motivation, has been widely criticized. This article analyses if and how more co-created services can be a pathway to address some of these challenges. As Denmark currently is moving towards a softening of welfare conditionality for the vulnerable unemployed, and local authorities try to develop models 'in between' welfare conditionality and genuine user i…
Motivational talk
In recent decades, the concept of motivation has become central to active labour market policies (ALMP) across various welfare regimes. Within the ALMP framework, client motivation has been addressed through both ‘hard’ approaches, such as economic sanctions and benefit reductions, and ‘soft’ approaches, including client-involving conversations aimed at tailoring individualized action plans based on clients’ aspirations and goals. Despite the gro…
Structuring sustainable knowledge brokering in street-level organisations
This article highlights sustaining KM as ongoing and multifaceted work, emphasising the role of street-level organisation knowledge brokers. Their embeddedness in professional practice enables them to translate, context and institutionalise KM. By outlining three axes of sustaining infrastructure, we suggest a framework for further research on sustaining in organisational practices
Work inclusion as part of social work
Political science (12 works) · Business (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Economics (8 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (8 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Engineering (6 works)