Law, Democracy and Welfare

Political, civil and social rights for citizens are a prerequisite for a well-functioning democracy. The law is also an important tool for implementing welfare services.

The legal development in various areas of the welfare state has important implications for the design of social citizenship, meaning the institutional framework that ideally ensure citizens' opportunities to participate in society as equal and free citizens.

The theoretical basis for the research group's work is rooted in social science.  The research group focuses both on the effects of different legal constructions on the freedom and social/political participation of vulnerable groups and on how the performance of services and decisions take place in practice.

The interplay between the welfare state's services and juridification processes is a key feature of today's societal development. The knowledge base is weak in this area and the research group contributes new research-based knowledge.

Ongoing research projects

  • Prioritization of health care
  • Proritization in Norwegian municipalities. An empirical study of  service allocation after completion of treatment of serious head injury at a hospital in two Norwegian municipalities.
  • Priority guidelines as a link between law, politics and medicine – how priority guidelines are shaped, understood and used
  • Prioritizing Care: Emerging dilemmas in the Norwegian care service landscape. PriCare
  • Exploring Boundaries of Legitimate State Intervention – Adoption as a Child Welfare Measure in Norway, England and the United States
  • NAV as a community of practice
  • Employment Specialists’ Contributions of Support for People with Severe Mental Illness to be Integrated into the Workforce: A Metasynthesis
  • Supervisor education for group supervisors in NAV – assessment of relevance and competence after completed further education
  • Professional understanding and assessment of risk when children are living with interparental conflicts
  • New patterns, a research-supported innovation project. Comprehensive and coordinated efforts for families with children with persistent low income.
  • Learning and innovation in ‘Living labs’. Exploring the experiences of employment specialists in implementing ‘Utvidet Oppfølging -– tiltak i egen regi’ in NAV

Research group leader

bilde av Øyvind Samnøy Tefre

Øyvind Samnøy Tefre

Associate Professor