Making responsible residents

On 'responsibilization' within local community work in marginalized residential areas in Denmark

Bibliographic Data

ID3951202
AuthorsRasmus Birk (0000-0003-3740-4765, Aalborg University, corresponding author), Rasmus Hoffmann Birk (Aalborg University)
Year2018
Volume66
Issue3
Pages608-622
Publication date2018-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0038026117738148
OpenAlexW2869001494
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited29

This article explores how the local community projects in marginalized residential areas in Denmark attempt to make 'responsible' residents. It has commonly been argued that contemporary governance is inflected with responsibilization, often understood as the ambition to make citizens self-responsible and independent from the welfare state. However, much less attention has been paid to how such responsibilization is accomplished in practice. The article draws on interviews with local community workers and participant observation in local community projects, to explore the process of 'responsibilization' in practice. The article shows how local community workers use narrative accounts to assess residents and their (failed) responsibilities, as well as their own responsibilities towards residents. Building on this, it is shown how attempts to make residents independent from the welfare state become entangled with practices of care, through which local community workers assume responsibilities for residents, rather than making them independent as such. Lastly, the article shows how responsibilization is a fragile process, and how it is entangled with ongoing makings of accounts that demonstrate responsibilities, both for local community workers and residents

Corporate governance · Local community · Local governance · Local government · Management · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · State (computer science) · Welfare · Welfare state · Work (physics) · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Public Administration · Social Work Education and Practice

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