The research deals with issues of inequality and segregation and especially the power relations regarding how social problems are articulated and how solutions or reforms are organized. This concerns issues of how the provision of welfare through the pedagogical rationality of various welfare initiatives, in, for example, social work, leisure activities and education are performed.
By considering individuals as active with the ability to learn, efforts are directed towards equipping individuals with skills and abilities to be themselves involved in managing their situation.
The ways in which welfare initiatives are organized politically and administratively by public actors, such as municipalities in particular in the practice alerts interest towards how boundaries between different policy areas are not always clear. An example of this concerns how sports and cultural and leisure activities at the municipal level are conditioned by social and educational policy conditions. In relation to this, the research concerns the role attributed to civil society or voluntary efforts in relation to welfare.
The focus in research is thus on various aspects of how welfare and social work are managed and shaped as tools for governing individuals and the population. Empirically, the themes covered here have mainly been examined with a spotlight on how sport have been assessed and utilized as a response to social problems.