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VAM-Velferd, arbeid og migrasjon

Understanding the Role of Trust in the Institutions of the Welfare State

Alternative title: Tillitens betydning i velferdsstatens institusjoner

Awarded: NOK 11.3 mill.

In the project, we investigated attempts to promote trust-based governance in Danish and Norwegian municipalities. In public discourse, the term “trust reform” is used to describe such efforts that aim to replace excessive control routines in public organizations with trust-based approaches that emphasize professional autonomy, flexibility and co-determination. Within the project, we focused on understanding the problem perceptions that underlie such attempts, as well as the dilemmas and obstacles that municipalities encounter when trying to translate the ambition to work more trust-based into concrete practices. The project also aimed to develop a more coherent understanding of how control and trust can be understood in the context of broader developments in the welfare municipality, with a particular focus on how political and administrative dynamics impact on service development. To find answers to these questions, we have, among other things: - Conducted interviews with key national actors, including representatives from trade unions and political parties, who have contributed to the public debate on trust reforms. - Mapped trust reforms in Norwegian municipalities. - Conducted surveys with chief municipal executives in Danish and Norwegian municipalities. - Conducted case studies in a selection of Norwegian and Danish municipalities that are systematically working to promote trust-based governance. - Conducted ethnographic studies that have investigated the interrelations between political culture, governance and service development in Norwegian municipalities. The findings from the project have contributed to mapping the extent to which municipalities systematically work with trust in the Scandinavian countries, how they work, and the reasons behind initiating this work. These results improve the understanding of the phenomenon of trust reforms and have enabled comparative analyzes between the Scandinavian countries. Findings from Norwegian municipalities suggest that the underlying ideas behind trust reforms are perceived as uncontroversial and align well with the existing values of municipal organizations. However, it often proves challenging to translate the ambition to work more trust-based into concrete changes in practice. Through the case studies, the project has shed light on various dilemmas municipalities encounter in their attempts to implement trust reforms. The project has also developed theoretical models to support trust-based leadership and to understand the interconnections between institutional and interpersonal trust in collaboration between services. At a broader level, the project has generated empirical material and perspectives on trust, governance, and democracy that provide new and significant insights related to the social and cultural-historical foundations of local democracy and trust. Findings from these parts of the project demonstrate how trust can be understood in relation to moral systems, notions of representation, and norms of control, and how these unfold in local political dynamics, shaping the municipality as an institution. These findings make an important contribution to understanding the significance of trust in the Norwegian welfare state and in the longer-term development of welfare services.

I prosjektet har vi gjennom ulike utgangspunkt utforsket betydningen av tillit i det norske velferdssystemet. Dette er gjort både gjennom kartlegging og undersøkelser av tillitsreformer i Norge og Danmark, studier av andre tilfeller hvor tillit har blitt aktualisert i norske kommuner, og også gjennom etnografiske studier av lokalpolitisk dynamikk og dens betydning for styring og tillit. Publiseringer fra prosjekter favner vidt, og adresserer blant annet: - Problemforståelser og forståelser av tillit i kommunale tillitsreformer. - Utbredelsen av kommunale tillitsreformer i Skandinavia. - Dilemmaer i implementering av tillitsreformer. - Styringsrelasjonen mellom politikere og tjenestene i lys av tillitsreformer. - Profesjonsroller i tillitsreformer. - Utvikling av modeller for tillitsbasert ledelse i offentlige organisasjoner. - Forholdet mellom relasjonell og institusjonell tillit i samarbeid mellom velferdstjenester, samt sammenhengene mellom vertikal og horisontal tillit. - Sammenhengene mellom tillit, demokrati og universalisme i velferdsstaten. Prosjektet har bidratt både til ny kunnskap om tillitsreformer som fenomen, og mer praksisrelevant kunnskap om implementering og dilemmaer som oppstår i de kommunale forsøkene som er studert. I prosjektet er det utviklet teoretiske innganger for å studere tillit som både vertikale og horisontale relasjoner i velferdstjenestene, og også som bredere fenomen i relasjon til lokalpolitikk og velferdstjenestenes lengre utviklingsbaner. Denne kunnskapen vil kunne forventes å ha effekter i form av mer informert politikkutvikling på området, i form av å understøtte praksis og utvikling i kommuner og andre offentlige organisasjoner som jobber systematisk med tillit, og i form av å danne grunnlagt til videre forskning om sammenhengene mellom tillit, styring og demokrati. I tillegg til den forskningsrettede formidlingen på konferanser og i vitenskapelige publikasjoner, er det som del av prosjektet drevet omfattende formidlingsarbeid rettet mot særlig politikkutvikling og praksis, i tett samarbeid med sentrale offentlige aktører og arbeidstakerorganisasjoner. Prosjektet har også bidratt til en mer informert offentlig debatt rundt tillitsreformer, gjennom populærvitenskapelig formidling, kronikker og oppslag i massemedia, samt deltakelse på debattarenaer.

In the wake of New Public Management reforms, the role of trust in the public institutions of the Nordic welfare state has been politicized and entered the public debate in a previously unprecedented form. The proposed study is designed to map and investigate how this new political interest in trust is currently being translated into political, administrative and professional practices within municipal welfare services in Norway and Denmark. The ambition of the study, however, goes beyond investigating how new ideas and developments within public management affect the work and output of public organizations. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach linking different theoretical approaches to the role of trust in public institutions, the project is designed to gain an understanding of the mechanisms that underpin vertical trust relations within public organizations and examine how these relate to horizontal trust relations, both between welfare professionals and between welfare professionals and citizens. The proposed studied therefore aims to develop policy-relevant knowledge of how trust is reproduced by public welfare institutions and in the everyday work of welfare professionals, while also addressing major developments that may have an impact on the reproduction of trust. The project is organized through four different work-packages, each utilizing different methods and theoretical approaches towards fulfilling the primary objectives of the study. The main research objectives of the study are to: • Identify and explore the emergence reforms aimed at enhancing trust in public organizations. • Identify and explore the mechanisms relating vertical trust within public organizations to horizontal trust between welfare professionals, and between welfare professionals and citizens.

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VAM-Velferd, arbeid og migrasjon