Controlling children's lives: covert messages in child protection service reports

This article presents central findings from a detailed examination of written documents in 50 child protection cases from the Norwegian welfare state. In so doing, it explores issues related to the social consequences of document writing in welfare state services. Using a frame drawn from Foucault's theory of discursive rites, it looks at the writing of certain documents as ritual performances involving on the one hand, various chains of power and on the other, processes reinforcing ruling definitions of normality. The examination shows that documents do more than satisfy bureaucratic demands for record keeping about the delivery of child protection services. These records also serve as distributors of social identities and social positions for children and their families. Moreover, the examination also reveals the contours of a paradox whereby, activities intended to help and to protect some children often involve using these youngsters to reaffirm normality in society and to confirm the existing social order. These findings indicate that there is a need for greater sensibility to ethical issues involved in documents writing.