Interdisciplinary cooperation in the field of measure, means and methods: a challenge to welfare professionals

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines how four groups of welfare professionals (teachers, social workers, day care workers and health care workers) navigate and unfold interdisciplinary cooperation in a politically constructed Danish setting where a managerially imposed developmental strategy serves as a fulcrum. Based on interviews with frontline workers, the article demonstrates how welfare professionals strive to understand who is doing what, when, how and why in interdisciplinary cooperation with other groups of professionals focused on a common task: early intervention and prevention relating to vulnerable children and young people. The findings reveal difficulties for frontline workers when performing their core task and cooperating with other professional groups, as it becomes unclear who is to do what and who takes responsibility according to the strategy. The article also shows that undefined task solutions cause problems within these groups of professionals, with a dilution of professional boundaries appearing to occur as a consequence.