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Who is the Monster? Welfare Agencies’ Suspension of Power

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Hybrid Forms of Governance

Abstract

Welfare institutions and their programmes for help often rest upon naturalized ideas about how to transform the citizen. However, they may act out these as markedly colliding rationalities (Andersen 2008). This mechanism is also true for institutions that care for highly marginalized groups such as the homeless. These institutions employ ‘help programmes’ that construct the homeless through their own internal criteria of what counts as needs, motivation and client-development. Several incompatible programmes may exist across different re-housing institutions, constructing the ‘roles’ of helper and client in radically different ways. By exploring how different welfare institutions suspend and hybridize logics of help, this chapter questions the possibility of realizing the ideal of social integration, a core value of the welfare system.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

    Helene Ratner (doctoral student) & Kaspar Villadsen (Associate Professor of Sociology)

Authors
  1. Helene Ratner
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  2. Kaspar Villadsen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

    Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen (Professor in Political Management) (Professor in Political Management)

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, Norway

    Inger-Johanne Sand (Professor of Public Law) (Professor of Public Law)

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© 2012 Helene Ratner and Kaspar Villadsen

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Ratner, H., Villadsen, K. (2012). Who is the Monster? Welfare Agencies’ Suspension of Power. In: Andersen, N.Å., Sand, IJ. (eds) Hybrid Forms of Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230363007_10

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