Abstract
Open Comparisons is a soft power governance method using data collected from the municipalities for benchmarking their activities. Open Comparisons in Sweden may have different national goals, such as to measure quality, policy development and democratic openness. The overall aim of this paper is to describe and analyze the use of Open Comparisons to monitor the social welfare services—social assistance, child and youth care, and treatment of alcohol and drug abuse. Four focus group interviews were carried out with professionals from eight municipalities. Results show that Open Comparisons measures the technical quality of activities by reviewing what is available, such as routines and agreements, but says little about trickle down to client level. The findings are discussed in a wider context of overall goals of Open Comparisons related to soft power governance and governmentality which includes how the social services may internalize this way of thinking.
Highlights
Open Comparisons is a soft power governance method using data collected from the municipalities for benchmarking their activities
The project was led by FoU-Nordväst, a regional social services R & D unit owned by the municipalities involved, and its goal was to improve the use of Open Comparisons and to find common issues to continue working with in all eight municipalities
One idea was that the same personnel, for example, the division head responsible for social assistance in the municipality, would attend
Summary
Open Comparisons is a soft power governance method using data collected from the municipalities for benchmarking their activities. The overall aim of this paper is to describe and analyze the use of Open Comparisons to monitor the social welfare services—social assistance, child and youth care, and treatment of alcohol and drug abuse. Results show that Open Comparisons measures the technical quality of activities by reviewing what is available, such as routines and agreements, but says little about trickle down to client level. The overall aim of this paper from Sweden is to describe and analyze the use of Open Comparisons to monitor the social welfare services—social assistance, child and youth care, and treatment of alcohol and drug abuse. Open Comparisons measures the technical quality of activities by reviewing what is available, such as routines and agreements, but says little about trickle down to client level. It is thought that countries will be able to improve their social policies by formulating goals, comparing results and adopting favorable solutions (see e.g. Berg & Spehar, 2011)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
