Minela Kvakic

• Bruheim-Escobar, Ida; Aasback, Anne Wullum & Kvakic, Minela (2026). Digital technologies in social work: an umbrella review. European Journal of Social Work. ISSN 1369-1457. p. 1–15. doi: 10.1080/13691457.2026.2621288. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Digital technologies are increasingly integral to social work, shaping communication, documentation, decision-making and client-social worker relationships. Despite a growing body of research in this field, no umbrella review has yet synthesised findings from existing systematic reviews. This study provides a comprehensive overview of 24 reviews published between 2014 and 2025, examining digital technologies across diverse social work domains, including child welfare, mental health, migration and elderly care. Our analysis addressed three dimensions: (1) descriptive characteristics of the reviews, (2) ontological assumptions about the nature of digital technologies in social work, and (3) epistemological claims regarding their role and impact. Findings reveal that most reviews emphasise a strengths-versus-challenges framing of digital technologies, often privileging practitioner perspectives while overlooking client experiences. Although digital tools were found to enhance accessibility, communication and efficiency, persistent challenges include system design misalignments, ethical concerns, digital inequalities and practitioner fatigue. A notable gap lies in the limited theoretical engagement with technology, with few reviews applying conceptual frameworks such as hybridity or ethics of care. We argue that future research should move beyond binary framings, incorporate service-user perspectives, and develop stronger conceptual models that capture the sociotechnical complexity of technology-mediated social work.

• Kvakic, Minela & Larsson, Karl Kristian (2024). Caseworkers on the digital streets: Discretion in the digital decision-making process. Journal of Comparative Social Work. 19, p. 13–40. doi: 10.31265/jcsw.v19i1.624. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  It is an intrinsic feature of many public agencies that they are dependent on street-level bureaucrats making important decisions regarding their clients. While some have claimed that such decisions are in danger of being corrupted by the bureaucrats’ discretionary powers, Lipsky argued that this discretion was necessary for the proper implication of social policy. However, the digitalization of government has altered the way in which many public servants reach their decisions. For instance, Bovens and Zouridis have argued that digitalization limits or removes bureaucrats’ processional discretion when making decisions, which can have a negative effect on public services. While decisions are singular events, the process of reaching them is complex and drawn out over time. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explore the process of decision-making in a public service context, and how digitalization has impacted caseworker discretion. The context of this study is the Norwegian child welfare service, where we have conducted focus group interviews with 26 caseworkers. Our analyses of the decision-making process uncovered several points in which digitalization has increased the need for caseworker discretion, i.e., an increased availability of caseworkers, information gathering and the admissibility of private information online. Our study demonstrates how even though digital technology such as social media presents new opportunities for information gathering, it also poses a danger for the creation of discriminatory practices toward citizens that could negatively affect the quality of service provision. Furthermore, conceptually deconstructing the decision-making process was beneficial to understanding how digitalization impacts different aspects of the case-handling process.

• Kvakic, Minela & Larsson, Karl Kristian (2024). Caseworkers on the digital streets: Discretion in the digital decision-making process. Journal of Comparative Social Work. 19(1), p. 13–40. doi: 10.31265/jcsw.v19i1.624. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  It is an intrinsic feature of many public agencies that they are dependent on street-level bureaucrats making important decisions regarding their clients. While some have claimed that such decisions are in danger of being corrupted by the bureaucrats’ discretionary powers, Lipsky argued that this discretion was necessary for the proper implication of social policy. However, the digitalization of government has altered the way in which many public servants reach their decisions. For instance, Bovens and Zouridis have argued that digitalization limits or removes bureaucrats’ processional discretion when making decisions, which can have a negativeeffect on public services. While decisions are singular events, the process of reaching them is complex and drawn out over time. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explore the process of decision-making in a public service context, and how digitalization has impacted caseworker discretion. The context of this study is the Norwegian child welfare service, where we have conducted focus group interviews with 26 caseworkers. Our analyses of the decision-making process uncovered several points in which digitalization has increased the need for caseworker discretion, i.e., an increased availability of caseworkers, information gathering and the admissibility of private information online. Our study demonstrates how even though digital technology such as social media presents new opportunities for information gathering, it also poses a danger for the creation of discriminatory practices toward citizens that could negatively affect the quality of service provision. Furthermore, conceptually deconstructing the decision-making process was beneficial to understanding how digitalization impacts different aspects of the case-handling process.

• Kvakic, Minela; Fineide, Mona Jerndahl & Hansen, Heidi Aarum (2023). If digitalization is the answer–what is the problem? An analysis of policy documents related to the digitalization of Norwegian child welfare services. Nordic Social Work Research. ISSN 2156-857X. doi: 10.1080/2156857X.2023.2277255. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this article, we have analysed policy documents related to the digitalization of the Norwegian child welfare services. The project ‘DigiBarnevern’ is a national initiative intended to develop and improve the digital tools in child welfare services. In our article, we explore which arguments for digitalizing child welfare are used in Norwegian policy documents. The analysis is inspired by Carol Bacchi’s analytical approach of ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ This approach starts with the premise that policy documents are produced and implemented as answers to specific problems. Our analysis shows how the problems represented are inefficient services, a lack of systematization, arbitrary practices, and the lack of a quality system. Thus, digitalization seems to be the answer to comprehensive problems in child welfare services. By drawing on the literature of street-level bureaucracy and professional discretion, we discuss features of digital systems such as their potential to measure quality and how they can serve as tools to meet the aim of regulating frontline workers` room for discretion. Policy documents are not neutral tools. Instead, they are instruments and carriers of values that affect service provision and ultimately the clients.

• Kvakic, Minela & Wærdahl, Randi (2022). Trust and Power in the Space Between Visibility and Invisibility. Exploring Digital and Social Media Practices in Norwegian Child Welfare Services. European Journal of Social Work. ISSN 1369-1457. doi: 10.1080/13691457.2022.2099350. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this article, we explore how caseworkers in the Norwegian Child Welfare Services and their clients use digital and social media in information sharing. By applying Foucault’s description of Bentham’s Panopticon as an analytical tool, we show how caseworkers’ use of digital and social media without the client’s knowledge, while making themselves invisible, contribute to increase the power asymmetry of a professional–client relationship. The clients, on the other hand, have less possibilities of making themselves invisible. If they discover that caseworkers have invaded their private information, this is experienced as a breach of trust. While some studies discuss the equalising potential of using digital and social media in welfare communication, this study reveals some of the pitfalls in using these medias for communication and information exchange. Regardless of the type of media in question, their use becomes vital for visibility, trust and power. Our findings underscore that it is not only the digital tools that needs regulation. Regulations should address the participation of clients in deciding on communication tools and the all-important openness and non-covert practices necessary to build and maintain trusting relationships between caseworkers and clients.

• Kvakic, Minela; Fineide, Mona Jerndahl & Hansen, Heidi Aarum (2021). Navigering med ustø kurs: Om bruk av digitale og sosiale medier i barnevernet. Tidsskriftet Norges Barnevern. ISSN 0800-1014. 98(3), p. 164–180. doi: 10.18261/ISSN1891-1838-2021-03-02. Full text in Research Archive

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• Kvakic, Minela (2026). FOrskerfrokost og FOrskerportrett: Digitalisering i barnevernet: Barnevernsansatte i møte med et digitalt samfunn - FO (Fellesorganisasjonen). Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Hvem er du? Jeg er utdannet barnevernspedagog og har erfaring fra arbeid i barnevernstjenesten. Nå […]

• Sletten, Marina Snipsøyr; Bjørkquist, Catharina; Helgesen, Marit Kristine; Løken, Therese Dwyer; Kvakic, Minela & Østensen, Amalie Fernanda (2025). Digitale systemer og tjenesteutvikling i barnevernet -Fra politikk til praksis. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvakic, Minela & Larsson, Karl Kristian (2024). Caseworkers on the digital streets. Discretion in the digital decision-making process. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvakic, Minela (2024). Krav til digitalisering setter barnevernsansatte i skvis. [Internet]. forskning.no. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvakic, Minela (2023). Barnevernet har bedt om hjelp til å løse digitale utfordringer i årevis uten å bli hørt. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  https://forskersonen.no/barn-barnevern-bufdir/barnevernet-har-bedt-om-hjelp-til-a-lose-digitale-utfordringer-i-arevis-uten-a-bli-hort/2242500 Flere ganger har det hendt at digital post og meldinger til barnevernet har forsvunnet som følge av overgang til digitale løsninger. Og i flere år har barnevernet bedt om støtte og svar fra nasjonale myndigheter på hvordan de skal løse ulike digitale utfordringer de har møtt på. I mellomtiden må de finne egne løsninger som gjør dem i stand til å ivareta arbeidsoppgavene sine på en mest mulig forsvarlig og effektiv måte. Mange av utfordringene kunne vært unngått med bedre koordinering av staten og dens ambisjoner om en digital offentlig sektor, og de offentlige tjenestene.

• Løberg, Ida Bring & Kvakic, Minela (2022). Moving “towards” or “too close” to the client? Comparing frontline workers’ use of digital technologies in the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration and the Norwegian Child Welfare Services. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Digital service provision has been argued to “compress” time and space (Buffat, 2015), which can enable new forms of closeness between street-level bureaucrats and citizens. But when new technologies, such as digital chats, enable actors who previously met in public offices to reach each other in their living rooms – when does closeness become problematic? Drawing on qualitative data from two different ph. d projects, we explore frontline workers’ experiences with digital technologies from both the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration and the Norwegian Child Welfare Services. We use Tummers, Bekkers, Vink, and Musheno’s (2015) concepts of “moving towards,” “away from” and “against” clients to show how digital technologies create new dilemmas and coping responses in digital frontline work. First, our findings indicate that frontline workers use digital technologies to move both towards and away from clients. For example, while digital communication enables frontline workers to check up on and support their clients, workers also hide behind the screen to protect them from the same clients. Second, the latter example illustrates how digital technologies themselves become devices in the coping response. Third, digital devices seem to blur the distance between public and private domains. For example, street-level bureaucrats in both lines of service use informal channels, such as social media, to extract information about clients. In this paper presentation, we will discuss these emerging dilemmas and subsequent coping strategies, including the line between moving “close” and “too close” to the client.

• Kvakic, Minela (2022). Vi må snakke om barnevernets bruk av digitale og sosiale medier. 22(9), p. 60–61. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvakic, Minela; Hansen, Heidi Aarum & Fineide, Mona Jerndahl (2022). Digitalisation in the Child Welfare Services: Meeting frontline workers need for autonomy and the State`s need for control. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Digitization of the public sector in Norway has been on the agenda for many years, but few state-initiated solutions have been introduced in child welfare services compared to other parts of public sector (Breit, 2019; Hansen, Lundberg & Syltevik, 2018). Simultaneously, the expectations of both service users and frontline professionals increase in line with increased use of digital media in society (López Peláez, Pérez García & Aguilar-Tablada Massó, 2018). A recent study demonstrated that frontline professionals in child welfare services were not quietly waiting for state policies to be realized. Instead, they developed private practices (Kvakic, Fineide & Hansen, 2021), see also Cooner, Beddoe, Ferguson and Joy (2020), Byrne, Kirwan and Mc Guckin (2019) and Breyette and Hill (2015). These findings brought us to the question of Which challenges in the child welfare services is digitalisation the answer to? A Digital Government Review of Norway named “Boosting the Digital Transformation of the Public Sector” reported a need for a dedicated and integrated digital government strategy and a clearer and more structured governance framework for digital government, strengthening leadership and defining clearer roles (OECD, 2017). Digitalisation is on the Norwegian state`s agenda, and the child welfare service is no exception. Digitalising child welfare services is said to both improve efficiency, the quality of services and safeguard more equal service provision across child welfare services and municipalities (KS, 2018). But if digitalising the child welfare service is the answer, what is the problem? To answer this question, we study public policy document, and use a political sociological approach and public policy instrumentation as theoretical framework. Public policy instrumentation implies a set of problems posed by the choice and use of instruments that allow government policy to be made material and operational; “bearers of values, fuelled by one interpretation of the social and by precise notions of the mode of the regulation envisaged” (Lascoumes & Le Gales, 2007, p. 4).

• Kvakic, Minela; Fineide, Mona Jerndahl & Hansen, Heidi Aarum (2021). Navigating with unstedy course: -Norwegian Child Welfare Workers Use of Digital and Social Media. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvakic, Minela (2021). Ny studie: Barnevernet bruker falske profiler for å søke opp folk på sosiale medier. [Internet]. NRK. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvakic, Minela (2021). Bruk av digitale og sosiale medier i barnevernet: muligheter og utfordringer. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvakic, Minela (2021). Barnevernet "ser" deg på sosiale medier. [Internet]. Høgskolen i Østfold. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvakic, Minela (2019). Digitalisering i barnevernet: forskningsstatus. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvakic, Minela (2024). Digitalization in child welfare services: How child welfare professionals` digital and social media practices change their frontline work. OsloMet - storbyuniversitetet. ISSN 9788283645750. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Digitalization of the public sector has been on the agenda for several years. The driving force behind digitalization in the public sector is said to involve attempts to increase work efficiency and provide more streamlined and uniform services. Through the DigiBarnevern project, digitalization in child welfare aims to develop a standardized digital framework for child welfare investigations and new solutions for digital interaction with clients. Digital tools such as ICT (information and communication technology) systems for case management, email, SMS and digital mail have gradually been introduced as a natural part of child welfare professionals’ work. However, there is limited research on how greater use of digital tools and media affects professional practice in child welfare and service provision to clients. This thesis examines how the increased use of digital tools and media in Norwegian child welfare is changing professional practices in this work. The study is qualitative and is based on analyses of focus group interviews with child welfare caseworkers, and individual interviews with clients (parents and young people) and with child welfare employees with direct responsibility for digitalization in their unit. Further, an analysis was conducted of documents related to the state policy of digitalization of the public sector and the digitalization project DigiBarnevern. The project consists of three sub-studies with associated articles. The overall theoretical framework used to understand and discuss the changes that arise from increased use of digital tools and media consists of practice theory and theories of profession. Findings from the first sub-study show how a lack of professional norms and frameworks for the use of digital tools and media creates various challenges and dilemmas for child welfare professionals in choosing digital tools and media for communication with clients, and reveal divergent practices in their choice and use of digital and social media. Due to these challenges, child welfare professionals develop coping strategies where their own preferred digital tools and media tend to determine the tools and media they choose to use themselves and to offer to clients. The findings also show extensive use of social media to look up information about clients online, including some caseworkers` use of fake Facebook accounts. The second sub-study shows that clients are probably unaware that child welfare workers look up information about them online and in social media, that clients prefer traditional forms of interaction such as face-to-face meetings, and that some clients withdraw completely from digital communication with child welfare due to the feeling of digital surveillance. The study shows how child welfare workers can make their presence on digital and social media invisible, while clients have fewer opportunities to do this. Previous studies have indicated that increased use of digital tools can empower clients and decrease the power asymmetry between professionals and clients. This thesis challenges this view, as clients who avoid digital communication with child welfare may indicate an attempt to negotiate power. When clients are additionally subject to digital monitoring by public servants, this further reinforces the power asymmetry involved and diminishes trust in public service professionals. The third sub-study shows how the state is introducing new standards for caseworkers' professional practice through digital systems in an attempt to meet some of the criticism directed at child welfare, such as different assessment of similar cases, unsystematic investigations, and low levels of competence, quality and efficiency. Previous research has discussed whether digitalization and ICT systems for case handling limit professional discretion. The analysis in this sub-study shows how the problems represented in the policy documents are inefficient services, lack of systematization, arbitrary practices and lack of a quality system. Digitalization thus appears to be the solution to extensive challenges in child welfare. By drawing on literature on street-level bureaucracy and professional discretion, features of digital systems and their potential to measure quality are discussed, as well as whether digital systems can serve as tools to meet the goal of reducing professionals' discretionary space. Some points discussed in this thesis are the challenge of measuring quality through digital systems, and how restricting the discretion of child welfare workers challenges the ideology of equal treatment and personalized services. Dilemmas experienced by child welfare workers when using digital tools and media are handled by turning the digital tools into coping devices, either to increase the professionals’ accessibility for clients, or to distance themselves more from clients. It is also argued that professionals do not necessarily need common standards for the digital media to be used in communication with clients; they should instead use discretion and consult clients in choosing the most suitable digital media for clients’ preferences and needs.

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