Manon Alice Lavaud

In my dissertation I explore, how normality and deviance (or difference) come into play in social work with vulnerable children and youth. I look at the stories that children and young people tell about themselves, and the stories told by the practitioners and other adults around them. I follow 15 children and young people, where some live in foster families, some are placed in a care residence and others live at a residence for youth with 'psychological vulnerabilities'.

The PhD project is part of a broader research and developmental project called "Deviance as a potential resource", which aims at identifying and working with the potential resources lying in those special characterictics or behaviour of vulnerable children and youth, which are normally considered as problematic or symptoms of "maldevelopment" (www.saerlig.ruc.dk)