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.
