In the best interests of the child? Exploring child protection practices and their impact

With the Danish policy reform the Child’s Act (January 2024) interventions have been further reconfigured in a child-focused direction around the central principle of ‘the best interests of the child’ (the Convention on the Rights of the Child). Claims to represent children’s best interests highlight power differentials of class and state authority. The project investigates, how younger children's (0-12 years old) needs, rights and interest are interpreted and balanced in relation to their
families, when permanent placement of the child in out-of-home care or non-consensual adoption is considered, and how frontline professionals legitimise decisions to either provide supportive welfare services or to intervene in the families. The project combines a longitudinal ethnographic field study with a document study of cases concerning non-consensual adoptions. This knowledge
is crucial in developing a theory of the current configuration of relations between children, families and the state.