OFFPHD-Offentlig sektor-ph.d.

The dissertation Homelessness: knowledge, policy and practice is about how knowledge, strategy, and governing are connected in today?s knowledge society. With homelessness policies in Norway as its theme and case study, the dissertation examines how the phenomenon of homelessness has been understood and developed in practices of research, policy, and governing between 1996, when the concept of homelessness was introduced, and the present. The experience of long-term homelessness in Norway, which generally has good welfare schemes and a solid safety net, affects people with challenges such as drug use, poverty, and mental illness, which are conceptualised in many disciplines and traditions. The concept of homelessness links the problem to the lack of housing and proffers housing as the solution. In Norwegian and international research, this problematisation has been bolstered by the shift of focus from individual explanatory models to structural ones, such as the lack of accessible housing. The purpose of the study has been to explore how this particular understanding of homelessness arose and what causes it to be maintained. The empirical material is the result of interviews with, and observations of, employees in the sectors involved in public administration at the ministry and directorate levels, and includes texts that are either publicly available or the result of processes that took place during the project period. The material is analysed and discussed in light of theories of governing, with a focus on the ways in which knowledge, professions, and technologies are woven together with the design and implementation of plans and strategies. The dissertation consists of three papers. Paper 1 sheds light on how homelessness was constructed and constituted as an area for knowledge development, policy, and practice in the period 1996?2005. Persons without permanent dwelling were defined as homeless and mapped in line with the definition, while the survey became a knowledge base for arguments in political documents and for the implementation of strategies and practices in the municipalities. This development is discussed by engaging theories of sociology of knowledge, with a focus on how the problematisation of being without a home was reduced to dealing with the absence of a material housing unit. Paper 2 discusses how the sectors of public administration, particularly those involved in policy and practice development related to homelessness, understand and approach the problem of some people living without permanent homes. The sectors are organised around various themes and concepts related to work, drugs, crime, and housing, and they approach the theme of homelessness via knowledge developed within these subject areas. This shapes the understandings of problems and solutions differently. The empirical material is discussed in light of theories regarding the close links between government management and the measurement and knowledge obtained through predefined categories, showing how knowledge can thus become a barrier to the goal of achieving integrated approaches where several administrative sectors develop solutions together. Paper 3 analyses the current social housing policy strategy entitled Everyone Needs a Safe Home (2021-2024). The general target group for the strategy consists of those who are disadvantaged in the housing market. The analysis focuses on how homelessness is presented as a problem in the text of the strategy, and finds that homelessness is presented as a problem related to the lack of services, where the housing unit also emerges as a service. The connection between general housing policies and economic theories, wherein housing is a commodity in the market, is discussed towards the understanding of housing as a welfare benefit. It is concluded that the presentation of the strategy makes homelessness a problem that lies outside the discourse of disadvantage in the market, the general frame of social housing policies. Overall, homelessness appears as a narrow site of knowledge and policy, one that lacks both a broader connection to professions and expertise in all sectors involved, including the housing sector, and insight into the lives of those experiencing homelessness. In the period studied, from 1996 to the present, knowledge about homelessness seems to have been produced mainly through predefined categories in surveys and evaluations of measures. References to international knowledge about homelessness and methods of counteracting the problem are many?yet knowledge about how homeless people in Norway experience their situation is, with few exceptions, absent.

Potensielle effekter av prosjekter er en bedre forståelse av bostedsløshet slik det er fremstilt i norsk forskning og offentlige policydokumenter.

I Norge har det siden slutten av 1990- tallet vært utviklet og implementert politikk rettet mot bostedsløshet. Til tross for forsterket innsats er det fortsatt et relativt stort antall som opplever bostedsløshet som tilbakevendende problem over flere år. Kunnskap om påvirkningsfaktorer i feltet, hvilket utslag det får i kommunal praksis, og hva som gjøres likt og ulikt i land med en tilsvarende velferdsmodell er viktig for utvikling av politikk og praksis for å bekjempe langtids bostedsløshet i framtida. Målet om horisontal og vertikal samordning har ligget bak samtlige av strategiene rettet mot bostedsløshet, strategiene er eksempler på hvordan koordineringen mellom stat og kommune foregår i form av «mykere» tiltak, såkalt "governance". Ved at statlig styring i større grad gjøres gjennom slik samstyring tas andre metoder i bruk enn de formelle, hierarkiske styringsmetodene. Typiske eksempler er koallisjonsbygging, partnerskap og nettverk.Samtidig er de etablerte forvaltningsstrukturene i Norge tilpasset en sektorinndeling. Hvordan denne kombinasjonen av styringsformer har kommet til uttrykk i politikken og strategiene rettet mot bostedsløshet er vesentlig å studere for å forstå resultatene. Mye av ansvaret for å løse utfordringer overlates til kommunen, dette gjelder også arbeidet med bostedsløshet.Rammebetingelsene gitt av staten består hovedsakelig av lovverk, tilskudd, låneordninger og bidrag til kompetanseutvikling.Kommunene har stor grad av frihet i å beslutte lokale målsettinger, organisering, prioriteringer osv. Dette stiller krav til administrativ tilpasning og kompetanse i det kommunale tjenesteapparatet. Brukere med samtidig bolig- og tjenestebehov krever en koordinert innsats fra flere tjenesteenheter. Hvilket utslag får den statlige politikken på kommunalt nivå? Kontrastering opp mot Danmark og Sverige vil bidra til å øke forståelsen for den praksis og politikkutviklingen vi har sett i Norge.