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Relational agency in collaborations for the well‐being of children and young people

Relational agency in collaborations for the well‐being of children and young people This article focuses on the conditions that are conducive to effective work on reducing children's vulnerability to social exclusion. It draws on three studies of practitioners who are collaborating to prevent the social exclusion of children and young people. Two ideas are discussed: distributed expertise and relational agency. Distributed expertise recognises that expertise is distributed across local systems and that practitioners need to become adept at recognising, drawing on and contributing to it. Relational agency offers a finer‐grained analysis of what is involved in working in systems of distributed expertise. Findings include the need for professionals to develop relational agency as an extra layer of expertise alongside their core professional expertise and a concern that interprofessional work may result in seeing clients as tasks to be worked on rather than people to be worked with relationally. Implications for training and professional development are outlined. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Children s Services Emerald Publishing

Relational agency in collaborations for the well‐being of children and young people

Anne Edwards
Journal of Children s Services , Volume 4 (1): 11 – Sep 17, 2009
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References (28)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1746-6660
DOI
10.1108/17466660200900004
Publisher site
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Abstract

This article focuses on the conditions that are conducive to effective work on reducing children's vulnerability to social exclusion. It draws on three studies of practitioners who are collaborating to prevent the social exclusion of children and young people. Two ideas are discussed: distributed expertise and relational agency. Distributed expertise recognises that expertise is distributed across local systems and that practitioners need to become adept at recognising, drawing on and contributing to it. Relational agency offers a finer‐grained analysis of what is involved in working in systems of distributed expertise. Findings include the need for professionals to develop relational agency as an extra layer of expertise alongside their core professional expertise and a concern that interprofessional work may result in seeing clients as tasks to be worked on rather than people to be worked with relationally. Implications for training and professional development are outlined.

Journal

Journal of Children s Services – Emerald Publishing

Published: Sep 17, 2009

Keywords: Distributed expertise; Relational agency; Prevention; Social exclusion; Children; Practitioners

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