Understanding the Role of Trust in the Institutions of the Welfare State

In the wake of New Public Management reforms, the role of trust in the public
institutions of the Nordic welfare state has been politicized and entered
the public debate in a previously unprecedented form. 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.