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Malin Åkerström

Malin Åkerström

Professor emerita

Malin Åkerström

Doing ambivalence: Embracing policy innovation - At arm's length

Author

  • Malin Åkerström

Summary, in English

This article considers the social organization of responses among human service staff to changes in public policy, using a study of a Swedish treatment center for juveniles as an illustration. The stance toward a new treatment ideology, "family-work," was not one of either accepting or rejecting the new policy; the staff conveyed both embracing and distancing. Policy innovations, it is argued, create conditions that work as a catalyst for "doing ambivalence, " an accommodative rhetoric that integrates the new and subtly expresses reservations.

Department/s

  • Sociology

Publishing year

2006

Language

English

Pages

57-74

Publication/Series

Social Problems

Volume

53

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Topic

  • Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)

Status

Published

Research group

  • Kriminal- och socialvetenskapligt nätverk

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0037-7791