I hope the doctor will send something black-or-white’
Reflective practice at the frontline in the Danish public employment service
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12117359 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Leif Tøfting Kongsgaard (0000-0001-5853-1443, Aalborg University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 120-144 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-28 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Comparative Social Work (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0809-9936 • E-ISSN: 0809-9936 |
| Publisher | Stavanger University Library (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.31265/jcsw.v19i2.667 |
| OpenAlex | W4408027250 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 32 |
The provision of public employment services to people in vulnerable life circumstances is notoriously filled with complexity and dilemmas. Not only are there multiple potential solutions to a given problem, but the very definition of the problem itself, ‘what it is all about’, is subject to interpretation and discretion. Faced with such intricacies, employment service professionals need to engage in critical reflections. Despite this recognised need, little is known about the actual processes involved in professional reflections. The aim of this article is to contribute empirically to our understanding of how professionals engage in collective reflections, specifically zooming in on the logics and reasonings behind these reflections. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Danish employment service organisations, the research shows that professional reflections tend to be more instrumental than critical, and more focused on certainty and what to do, than on understanding dilemmas and bringing in new perspectives on problems. Following the perspective of reparative critique, the analysis explores avenues for fostering more critical reflections within the context of public employment service. The findings bear implications for understanding the institutional and organisational embeddedness of professional reflective practices within welfare work, particularly in the realm of public work inclusion services
Business · Context (archaeology · Discretion · Embeddedness · Inclusion (mineral · Political science · Public relations · Realm · Service (business · Social science · Sociology · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Social Work Education and Practice
Fieldnotes
The Handbook of Conversation Analysis
Abductive Analysis
The System of Professions
Conclusions and Topics for Future Research
When the State Meets the Street
Using conversation analysis to develop reflective practice in social work
A New approach to Helping the hard-to-place Unemployed
Critical reflection in social work
Client Participation and Conditionality
Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, Second Edition
Dilemmas in a general theory of planning
Wicked Problems
What is Wrong with Social Theory
A Pragmatist Approach to the Problem of Knowledge in Health Psychology
Doing Without Data
Theory Construction in Qualitative Research
| Highly cited | No |
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