Professional accounts of services for disabled children in the context of the 1990s Finnish economic recession

Abstract

This study examines professional accounts of services for disabled children and the ideologies behind those services in the context of the European economic crisis of the 1990s. The study is based on interview data which were collected among professionals of municipal and central government sectors working in the same Finnish town. The methodological starting‐point is that of critical discourse analysis (CDA). The professionals first suggest in their discourse that their services are provided on the basis of uncontrollable, general framework, and ideal professional‐ or client‐based principles, but accounts are recorded in which services were rendered which were in conflict with these ideal ideologies. The study concludes that the discourse of the professionals involved in the study consists of various, conflicting accounts and ideologies.