Engelsk titel: Affordances of Welfare Services – Perspectives of Young Clients
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Författare:
Aaltonen, Sanna
;
Berg, Päivi
;
Karvonen, Sakari
Email: sanna.aaltonen@youthresearch.fi
Språk: Eng
Antal referenser: 19
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 18010220
Sammanfattning
In Nordic welfare states, the indications of the social exclusion of young adults are
addressed with measures and services aimed at getting them back on the «right» track. In
this paper we aim to emphasize young adults’ own viewpoints on their relationship to the
services, which we consider vital for the development of the service system in a more
empowering and inclusive direction. To this end, we apply the concept of affordance to
explore how 18- to 29-year-old NEETs perceive what the service environment can offer
and provide for them in order to get by and to advance in life. Drawing upon interview
data, we claim that while the welfare services can afford young adults the opportunity to
find a job, for example, there are other affordances that remain unarticulated but that may
be significant from the young adult’s point of view. Our analysis identifies four types of
affordances – beneficial, pressurizing, false, and hidden. We conclude that the affordance
perspective is one way to go beyond the deficit-oriented perspective often ascribed to
young clients of the welfare services; it shifts the evaluative focus away from young adults
towards the service system, identifying both the enabling and the less explicit aspects.