Risk, Reflexivity and Social Control in Child Protection: New Times or same Old Story?

Abstract

The article addresses some recent attempts to reassess the contemporary child protection system as potentially liberating. These are, first, discussions of child protection in the context of theories of reflexive modernization and the risk society, and, second, postmodernist feminist writings. After initial theoretical debate about some of these perspectives, the authors go on to present ethnographic research evidence showing that social control is alive and well in child protection work. The article concludes that, while these recent optimistic accounts of the child protection system are welcome contributions, they have overstated the liberating potentials of the current system. While much of the discussion deals with child protection specifically, another aim of the article is to contribute to a debate about the application to social policy in general of theories of reflexive modernization and the risk society.