Verner Denvall
Biographic Data
| ID | 4470815 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Verner Denvall |
| GIVEN NAMES | Verner |
| FAMILY NAME | Denvall |
| SIGNATURE | DENVALL V |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lund University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2655-2132 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Do Specialized Social Welfare and Women's Shelter Services Make a Difference? A Swedish Pre–Post Study on Domestic Violence Interventions
Purpose: Violence against women is a major public health concern. Comparative research on outcomes across different service providers remains limited. Method: Women seeking support from social welfare units or women's shelters were recruited from six organizations in Sweden. A pre–post design was applied, with structured interviews and questionnaires at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Fifty-one women participated. Results: Psychological violence w…
Voices from the shadow
It has been globally recognised that COVID-19 has impacted the prevalence of domestic violence (DV). Various international research has reported obstacles for DV workers in reaching out to victims during the pandemic. To investigate how DV victims experienced seeking help and experienced support received from specialised units within social services or women’s shelters during the pandemic, an interview study was conducted. Fifty-one women subject…
The Sounds of Silence
Increased concern was raised globally at the outbreak of COVID-19 that victims of domestic violence would be even more at risk when isolated with a violent partner and out of reach of support due to restrictions. Swedish staff in violence against women services prepared for increased calls for help. Instead, a worrying silence arose in a time and place of high uncertainty. This article analyzes the narratology of risk, when staff members in viole…
Coping with tensions between standardization and individualization in social assistance
Today’s ambition to adapt and individualize welfare delivery poses a challenge to human service organizations at the same time seeking to standardize clients, with consequences for street-level bureaucrats. In this article, the implementation of an instrument for standardized assessment of income support (IA) in Swedish social services is used to investigate what strategies street-level bureaucrats use to cope with tensions between standardizatio…
Balancing in the pandemic
Since the winter of 2020, COVID-19 has significantly changed the lives of many people. The aim of the present study is to explore how social workers specialised in the field of domestic violence (DV) balance the expectation and need to protect themselves from infection with the expectation and need to protect their clients and how this balancing affects their discretion. The method was qualitative interviews with social workers, team leaders, and…
Implementation structures at work. Exploring implementation and de‐implementation attempts regarding Housing First and Individual Placement and Support
Research shows that resistance to change might occur in organisations that implement new evidence‐based practices (EBP). Formal and informal structures may work to retain traditional interventions, potentially counteracting the implementation process. Little is known about the de‐implementation of traditional practices to leave room for and enhance the implementation of EBPs. This study uses implementation structures as a theoretical framework wi…
Durable Homelessness
In recent decades, Sweden has seen extensive change in its housing policy, with emphasis shifting from “good housing for all” to marketisation and the supposed benefits of private ownership (Bengtsson, 2013; Grander, 2018). Consequently, Swedish society is now facing increasing homelessness rates, including whole new groups of social service clients due to housing shortages and people’s difficulties accessing the housing market. This article exam…
Bridge over Troubled Water—Closing the Research–Practice Gap in Social Work
Since starting over a hundred years ago social work has been occupied with the division into academic and practical knowledge. A common theme in scientific journals of social work is how this gap can be understood and resolved. The initial purpose of this article was to carry out a systematic review to find out if and how the gap could be bridged. Because few independent studies could be found, the study instead took the form of a scoping review …
Evaluating homelessness – a comparative analysis of top 10 articles from the US and Europe
Homelessness as a political and social dominion has a number of features that make it particularly difficult to tackle. In addition to being a wicked problem, homelessness offers several analytical avenues. How do these characteristics affect the evaluation of programmes and projects aspiring to combat homelessness? Dissimilar pictures and solutions regarding homelessness in the US and in European countries will likely affect recommendations give…
Data Recording in Performance Management
In recent years, performance management (PM) has become a buzzword in public sector organizations. Well-functioning PM systems rely on valid performance data, but critics point out that conflicting rationale or logic among professional staff in recording information can undermine the quality of the data. Based on a case study of social service staff members, the authors explore three recording logics. The findings reveal a complexity of recording…
Searching for the right track – managing care trajectories in child welfare
This paper examines caseworkers' efforts to plan and find appropriate interventions for troublesome young people. S trauss's concept of trajectory is applied to analyse how S wedish caseworkers shape and manage the evolving care trajectories using assessments for young people in secure accommodation, i.e. institutional youth assessments. The empirical material consists of surveys to 82 caseworkers concerning 85 institutional youth assessments and…
Knocking on heaven’s door
Ideas and concepts about evaluation travel around the globe. Studies of how evaluation models are disseminated, diffused and implemented are important. In this article, we examine an organization with a history of traditions and legitimacy and a successful audit of its own and how it responds to modern concepts of administration where evaluation plays an important role. Based on an analytical framework from organizational theory, we show how an e…
Innovations and social problem solving
This article explores the practical implementation of two innovative projects in Denmark and Sweden. The research is motivated by the high political interest in innovations as a modern quick fix to societal problems. Innovations are regarded as an all-round solution; however, research has mainly been focused on technical and economic factors without considering social problem solving. Utilizing ethnographic methodology, the study reveals that the…
Evidence in action
Evidence-based practice presupposes evidence-based decision-making. In the debate it is argued that a social work fashioned after evidence should be more rational, less authoritarian, and built on scientific knowledge, respect and ethics. Yet the empirical evidence that this idea works is weak. In fact, the difficulties met during efforts to implement evidence could be a sound reaction. Indeed, difficulties experienced could be a defensive organi…
Bridge over Troubled Water—Closing the Research–Practice Gap in Social Work
Since starting over a hundred years ago social work has been occupied with the division into academic and practical knowledge. A common theme in scientific journals of social work is how this gap can be understood and resolved. The initial purpose of this article was to carry out a systematic review to find out if and how the gap could be bridged. Because few independent studies could be found, the study instead took the form of a scoping review …
Evidence in action
Evidence-based practice presupposes evidence-based decision-making. In the debate it is argued that a social work fashioned after evidence should be more rational, less authoritarian, and built on scientific knowledge, respect and ethics. Yet the empirical evidence that this idea works is weak. In fact, the difficulties met during efforts to implement evidence could be a sound reaction. Indeed, difficulties experienced could be a defensive organi…
Implementation structures at work. Exploring implementation and de‐implementation attempts regarding Housing First and Individual Placement and Support
Research shows that resistance to change might occur in organisations that implement new evidence‐based practices (EBP). Formal and informal structures may work to retain traditional interventions, potentially counteracting the implementation process. Little is known about the de‐implementation of traditional practices to leave room for and enhance the implementation of EBPs. This study uses implementation structures as a theoretical framework wi…
Evaluating homelessness – a comparative analysis of top 10 articles from the US and Europe
Homelessness as a political and social dominion has a number of features that make it particularly difficult to tackle. In addition to being a wicked problem, homelessness offers several analytical avenues. How do these characteristics affect the evaluation of programmes and projects aspiring to combat homelessness? Dissimilar pictures and solutions regarding homelessness in the US and in European countries will likely affect recommendations give…
Data Recording in Performance Management
In recent years, performance management (PM) has become a buzzword in public sector organizations. Well-functioning PM systems rely on valid performance data, but critics point out that conflicting rationale or logic among professional staff in recording information can undermine the quality of the data. Based on a case study of social service staff members, the authors explore three recording logics. The findings reveal a complexity of recording…
Searching for the right track – managing care trajectories in child welfare
This paper examines caseworkers' efforts to plan and find appropriate interventions for troublesome young people. S trauss's concept of trajectory is applied to analyse how S wedish caseworkers shape and manage the evolving care trajectories using assessments for young people in secure accommodation, i.e. institutional youth assessments. The empirical material consists of surveys to 82 caseworkers concerning 85 institutional youth assessments and…
Evidence in action
Evidence-based practice presupposes evidence-based decision-making. In the debate it is argued that a social work fashioned after evidence should be more rational, less authoritarian, and built on scientific knowledge, respect and ethics. Yet the empirical evidence that this idea works is weak. In fact, the difficulties met during efforts to implement evidence could be a sound reaction. Indeed, difficulties experienced could be a defensive organi…
Innovations and social problem solving
This article explores the practical implementation of two innovative projects in Denmark and Sweden. The research is motivated by the high political interest in innovations as a modern quick fix to societal problems. Innovations are regarded as an all-round solution; however, research has mainly been focused on technical and economic factors without considering social problem solving. Utilizing ethnographic methodology, the study reveals that the…
Knocking on heaven’s door
Ideas and concepts about evaluation travel around the globe. Studies of how evaluation models are disseminated, diffused and implemented are important. In this article, we examine an organization with a history of traditions and legitimacy and a successful audit of its own and how it responds to modern concepts of administration where evaluation plays an important role. Based on an analytical framework from organizational theory, we show how an e…
Searching for the right track – managing care trajectories in child welfare
This paper examines caseworkers' efforts to plan and find appropriate interventions for troublesome young people. S trauss's concept of trajectory is applied to analyse how S wedish caseworkers shape and manage the evolving care trajectories using assessments for young people in secure accommodation, i.e. institutional youth assessments. The empirical material consists of surveys to 82 caseworkers concerning 85 institutional youth assessments and…
Evaluating homelessness – a comparative analysis of top 10 articles from the US and Europe
Homelessness as a political and social dominion has a number of features that make it particularly difficult to tackle. In addition to being a wicked problem, homelessness offers several analytical avenues. How do these characteristics affect the evaluation of programmes and projects aspiring to combat homelessness? Dissimilar pictures and solutions regarding homelessness in the US and in European countries will likely affect recommendations give…
Data Recording in Performance Management
In recent years, performance management (PM) has become a buzzword in public sector organizations. Well-functioning PM systems rely on valid performance data, but critics point out that conflicting rationale or logic among professional staff in recording information can undermine the quality of the data. Based on a case study of social service staff members, the authors explore three recording logics. The findings reveal a complexity of recording…
Durable Homelessness
In recent decades, Sweden has seen extensive change in its housing policy, with emphasis shifting from “good housing for all” to marketisation and the supposed benefits of private ownership (Bengtsson, 2013; Grander, 2018). Consequently, Swedish society is now facing increasing homelessness rates, including whole new groups of social service clients due to housing shortages and people’s difficulties accessing the housing market. This article exam…
Bridge over Troubled Water—Closing the Research–Practice Gap in Social Work
Since starting over a hundred years ago social work has been occupied with the division into academic and practical knowledge. A common theme in scientific journals of social work is how this gap can be understood and resolved. The initial purpose of this article was to carry out a systematic review to find out if and how the gap could be bridged. Because few independent studies could be found, the study instead took the form of a scoping review …
Coping with tensions between standardization and individualization in social assistance
Today’s ambition to adapt and individualize welfare delivery poses a challenge to human service organizations at the same time seeking to standardize clients, with consequences for street-level bureaucrats. In this article, the implementation of an instrument for standardized assessment of income support (IA) in Swedish social services is used to investigate what strategies street-level bureaucrats use to cope with tensions between standardizatio…
Balancing in the pandemic
Since the winter of 2020, COVID-19 has significantly changed the lives of many people. The aim of the present study is to explore how social workers specialised in the field of domestic violence (DV) balance the expectation and need to protect themselves from infection with the expectation and need to protect their clients and how this balancing affects their discretion. The method was qualitative interviews with social workers, team leaders, and…
Implementation structures at work. Exploring implementation and de‐implementation attempts regarding Housing First and Individual Placement and Support
Research shows that resistance to change might occur in organisations that implement new evidence‐based practices (EBP). Formal and informal structures may work to retain traditional interventions, potentially counteracting the implementation process. Little is known about the de‐implementation of traditional practices to leave room for and enhance the implementation of EBPs. This study uses implementation structures as a theoretical framework wi…
The Sounds of Silence
Increased concern was raised globally at the outbreak of COVID-19 that victims of domestic violence would be even more at risk when isolated with a violent partner and out of reach of support due to restrictions. Swedish staff in violence against women services prepared for increased calls for help. Instead, a worrying silence arose in a time and place of high uncertainty. This article analyzes the narratology of risk, when staff members in viole…
Do Specialized Social Welfare and Women's Shelter Services Make a Difference? A Swedish Pre–Post Study on Domestic Violence Interventions
Purpose: Violence against women is a major public health concern. Comparative research on outcomes across different service providers remains limited. Method: Women seeking support from social welfare units or women's shelters were recruited from six organizations in Sweden. A pre–post design was applied, with structured interviews and questionnaires at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Fifty-one women participated. Results: Psychological violence w…
Voices from the shadow
It has been globally recognised that COVID-19 has impacted the prevalence of domestic violence (DV). Various international research has reported obstacles for DV workers in reaching out to victims during the pandemic. To investigate how DV victims experienced seeking help and experienced support received from specialised units within social services or women’s shelters during the pandemic, an interview study was conducted. Fifty-one women subject…
Political science (12 works) · Public relations (10 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Social Work (6 works) · Business (5 works) · Computer Science (5 works)