Social work restructuring and paradoxes of professional identity in Finland

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the changing landscape of social work professionalism in Finland and new understandings of citizenisation. It explores the ways in which social work scholars and professionals relate to social work as a professional identity in neoliberalising Nordic welfare states, particularly in Finland. The chapter identifies increasingly ambiguous professional identities for social workers. Much of the Finnish scholarly debate touches upon the above-outlined ideological changes in social work globally. In Finland, scholars have typically approached neoliberalism through a critical examination of New Public Management. A number of studies show empirically how Finnish social workers experience a decreasing sense of discretion, for example in the field of street-level activation work with young adults. More research is needed on mobilisation and resistance in Finland, but it seems as though social workers adapt to the restructured social work landscape rather than radically resisting it.

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