PhD-programme
Digitalisation and Society
Background
Bachelor's in Delvelopment Studies at UiA, Kristiansand (2016-2019)
One-year programme in Science and Technology studies (STS) at NTNU, Trondheim (2017/1018)
Master's in Global Development at NMBU, Ås (2020-2023)
Academic interests
Title of the PhD-project: Digitalization and service development in the child welfare services: work, coordination and user participation
The PhD project explores the interplay between digitalization, work, and organization in child welfare services, and how digital solutions become part of service development. The project is motivated by the increasing use of digital technologies in child welfare services through national digitalization initiatives, including DigiBarnevern. These solutions are intended to improve service quality, strengthen coordination, and enhance user participation. At the same time, they become embedded in the work processes, forms of collaboration, and organizational arrangements that shape child welfare practice.
The aim of the project is to gain insight into how digital solutions are understood, developed, and implemented across different levels of the child welfare sector, and how national digitalization initiatives and policy objectives are translated into practice. The project examines how digital technologies, work practices, and organizational arrangements are mutually shaped through their interaction, and how this influences service development.
The project focuses particularly on:
- how digital solutions are integrated into everyday work in child welfare services
- how digital solutions shape and become part of coordination between different actors, services, and levels of government
- how digital solutions may facilitate or constrain opportunities for participation among children, young people, and families
The study draws on institutional ethnography as its research approach and combines document analysis, observation, and interviews as methods. Taking the everyday work of child welfare professionals as its point of departure, the study examines how work processes and service development are coordinated through digital solutions, policy documents, and administrative systems. The overall aim is to develop knowledge about the relationship between overarching ambitions for digitalization and how these ambitions are enacted in practice.
- Main supervisor: Catharina Bjørkquist
- Co-supervisor: Therese Dwyer Løken