Summary:

Abstract: In this chapter, I show how I have applied the concept of objectivation to
explore how frontline workers in the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration
carry out and reflect on interprofessional collaboration in their work with youth.
Institutional and political discourse on interprofessional collaboration motivates
collaborative efforts across services. In this chapter, I describe the interaction
between frontline workers’ experiences of interprofessional collaboration and
the institutional conditions and procedures associated with interprofessional
collaboration. I analyze nine semi-structured interviews with frontline workers
in the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration. Applying objectivation as
an analytical concept, I find that even though interprofessional collaboration
occasionally can be useful and effective for the youth, the unquestioned understanding of interprofessional collaboration as positive also leads to the frontline
workers subsuming the youths’ experiences.