Observed successful collaboration in social work practice: coherent triads in Swedish juvenile care

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to analyse observed situations of successful cooperation, even if it unfolds during shorter interaction sequences. The aim is to analyse how and when the actors within juvenile care in Sweden present successful cooperation, and which interactive patterns are involved in the construction of this phenomenon. Forming the empirical basis for this study are 119 field observations of organised meetings and informal meetings before and after organised meetings, during visits to youth care institutions in Sweden, social services offices, and the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care. In this study, markers are used to define successful cooperation in the empirical material, so that actors who belong to at least three different categories will be identified (coherent triad). The professional actors can also shape a coherent triad with young people or parents in cases where past conflicts arise. When some professionals create a distance from other professional partners, conflicts can be erased so as to generate new conditions for coherence of the triad. Construction and reconstruction of collaboration success is an ongoing, interactive process. Presentation of the proper interaction moral is created and re-created during interactions and appears in the myriad of everyday interactions.

ABSTRAKT

Syftet med denna studie är att analysera observerade situationer av framgångsrik samverkan även om dessa utspelas under kortare sekvenser av interaktion. Syftet är även att analysera hur och när aktörerna inom ungdomsvården i Sverige visar upp lyckad samverkan och vilka interaktiva mönster som är involverade i konstruktionen av detta fenomen. Den empiriska grunden för denna studie är 119 fältobservationer av organiserade möten samt informella träffar före och efter dessa möten, vid besök på institutioner i Sverige, socialtjänstkontor och Statens institutionsstyrelses huvudkontor. Det lyckade samarbetet har i denna studie definieras via markörer i det empiriska materialet där aktörer som tillhör minst tre olika kategorier framträder (samstämmig triad). De professionella aktörerna kan också forma en samstämmig triad med ungdomar eller föräldrar som t.ex. i fall när tidigare konflikter aktualiseras under interaktionen. Genom att vissa professionella tar avstånd från andra professionella samarbetsparter kan konflikter suddas bort så att det skapas nya förutsättningar för samstämmighet i triaden. Konstruktion och rekonstruktion av framgång i samverkan är en ständigt pågående interaktiv process. Uppvisande av den rätta interaktionsmoralen skapas och återskapas i myriader av vardagsinteraktioner.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaboration
• social work
• triad
• moral
• collaboration identity
• triad coherence
• field notes
• fieldwork

NYCKELORD:

• samverkan
• socialt arbete
• triad
• moral
• samverkansidentitet
• triadsamstämmighet
• fältanteckning
• fältarbete

Acknowledgements

For valuable comments on my text, I would like to thank Malin Åkerström, David Wästerfors, and the anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributors

Goran Basic is an associate professor in sociology and a senior lecturer at the Department of Pedagogy, Linnaeus University. His research concerns fieldwork in Bosnia and Herzegovina; he has written articles on the postwar society and carried out an evaluation of a project in the juvenile care. Currently analysing: (1) narratives of youth that have experienced war, taken refuge in Sweden, and taken into custody and placed in institutions; (2) the collaboration between border police and coastguard and between different actors in the youth care; (3) definitions of successful intelligence and operational police work.

Notes

1 This text is in some parts earlier published in Swedish in the book Successful collaboration. Described and observed experiences of youth care (Basic 2015a).

2 In Sweden, more than half of special youth home are privately run (Swedish residential care), the rest are operated by the municipalities or by the National Board of Institutional care (abbreviated SiS or NBIC). The institutions operated by the NBIC differ from the rest since they are the only ones with far-reaching disciplinary powers. This makes these institutions very special and as a last resort in the Swedish system.

3 Government Office, Ministry of Social Affairs, 2006; Swedish National Board of Institutional Care, 2006, 2009.

4 Social Services staff, social worker.

5 Municipality staff member.

Additional information

Funding

This research was financially supported by Swedish National Board of Institutional Care.