En domänteori för organisering av socialt arbete i offentlig sektor

Abstract

A domain theory for the organization of social work in the public sector

The article presents outlines of a domain theory for the organization of social work in the public sector. e aim is to describe – from a Nordic perspective – how social workers’ professional prac- tice is shaped by local level politics and administration, and how such shaping processes at the local level are conditioned and controlled by general structural and institutional conditions at the national and international level. We argue that public sector arenas for social work are constituted by three domains with different tasks and logics, yet interconnected and interdependent: the policy domain, the domain of administration and the profession’s domain. Organizations at the local level – constituted by the three domains and their respective logics – are, in turn, conditioned by a fourth domain: the domain of institutional conditions. The latter domain is about control ideals, norms, knowledge, epistemological approaches and technologies prevailing in society, legitimized and disseminated by central institutions that affect how local level organizations operate.