Sofia Enell

Research

I am, by profession, a social worker with work experiences from residential care and child protection services. My research focuses on assessment practices, preventive work and compulsory treatment within the context of child welfare services. I´m interested in exploring the interplay between organisational context, institutional logics, agency and interpersonal relations – how are people and their relations affected by, and how do they in turn affect organizational and institutional contexts? Particularly, my research is concerned with the voices and experiences of children and young people involved in various forms of institutional care and protection.

An extensive body of my research is based on qualitative in-depth interviews and analysed through the prism of interactionism. So far, I have explored how young people make sense of assessment processes while being placed in involuntary care and secure care settings. Doing this I have also focused on their identity work in relation to secure care and the assessments practices. My most recent work explores young people’s relations and the relational dimension of institutional practices.

Currently, I´m working in three research projects. 1) A study about family relations from the perspective of young adults with experience from secure care, and their family members. 2) I´m involved in an interdisciplinary project about implementing and integrating the Scottish model of preventive measure for children “GIFREC” in a Swedish context. 3) I am also engaged in another inter-disciplinary research project exploring potential conflicts in social work practice between a children´s right perspective and a standardised, evidence-based agenda for young people in secure care.