Navigating tricky waters
Inter-agency collaboration and competing logics in Swedish welfare provision
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12937778 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tove Samzelius (0000-0003-3641-5542, Malmö University), Rickard Ulmestig (0000-0003-4740-2499, Linnaeus University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 155-172 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-13 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Poverty and Social Justice (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1759-8273 • E-ISSN: 1759-8281 |
| Publisher | Policy Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1332/17598273y2024d000000035 |
| OpenAlex | W4405357555 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 19 |
Navigating the context of the Swedish welfare system when unemployed, sick, or disabled is complex and multifaceted as it involves agencies governed by national, regional and municipal decision-making bodies, as well as different legal frameworks. Despite significant structural and organisational barriers, these agencies must collaborate around individual cases. The aim of this article is to gain an understanding of how welfare professionals make sense of the role of inter-agency collaboration when trying to address the support needs of long-term unemployed individuals with disabilities and/or ill-health. Focusing on sensemaking, as a form of knowledge claim, of those who work in frontline or coordinating roles on a local level draws attention to tensions between different institutional logics that are crucial for policy implementation. The analysis presented is based on data from 16 semi-structured interviews with welfare professionals from different agencies working in the same region of southern Sweden. Two key competing logics are highlighted: a work-first logic and a welfare logic. The findings show how welfare professionals seek to navigate through the competing logics by identifying alternative ways of working. By harmonising these logics, trying to fit them together in a hybrid logic, they attempt to find ways of meeting the needs of vulnerable individuals, but without challenging the structure and principles of Sweden’s overarching ‘work-first’ approach to social security
Agency (philosophy · Business · Context (archaeology · Institutional logic · Political science · Public relations · Sensemaking · Social science · Sociology · Structure and agency · Welfare · Work (physics · Engineering · Geriatric Care and Nursing Homes · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Losing ground
Institutional Work
Institutional Logics and Institutional Change in Organizations
Institutional work and the paradox of embedded agency
Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking
Local worlds of activation
Thematic Analysis
Talking about needs and rights in inter-agency meetings
It may not be due to illness’
Institutional logics of service provision
European Sociological Review
Welfare State Regimes and Caseworkers’ Problem Explanation
Theorizing Hybridity
The three worlds of welfare capitalism
Social rights in the shadow of poor relief - social assistance in the universal Swedish welfare state
Zoom Interviews
The Diminishing Power of One? Welfare State Retrenchment and Rising Poverty of Single-Adult Households in Sweden 1988-2011
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |