Abstract
Introduction and background: This study explores Nav caseworkers interacting with young adult clients with mental and/or physical health challenges and the implications for pathways towards or away from employment. Despite increasing political and organizational efforts aiming for labor market inclusion for young adults at risk in Norway, the number of young adults on disability benefits continues to rise, and the welfare state carries the cost. The price is also paid by Nav supervisors and young adult clients, who spend time and effort navigating the intertwine of bureaucracy, law, and life. The perspectives of acceleration (Hartmut Rosa) and institutional ethnography (Dorothy Smith) serve as theoretical lenses through which the findings are presented and discussed.
Methods: Ethnographic fieldwork conducted at a local Nav office Spring 2024 and a follow-up interview with Nav employees one year after. The material is analyzed inspired by the analytical tools provided by institutional ethnograpy (Smith).
Results: Nav supervisors frequently refer to textual elements such as diagnosis, criterion for eligibility for programs and support by law, and municipal budgets as what Smith would call ‘ruling relations’. There exists a significant separation between how physical health conditions and mental health conditions are understood and approached in several instances, spanning from initial assessments of clients upon first encounter to eligibility for programs depending on assessments by healthcare professionals. Suggesting a hierarchy of diagnoses, certain physical conditions seem to justify ‘easy’ instant disability benefits while ‘grey area’ diagnoses related to cognitive or mental conditions represent ‘harder’ cases.
Conclusion: Nav supervisors’ time and effort with young adults at risk due to physical or mental health conditions vary depending on diagnosis, suggesting diagnosis as a ruling relation affecting client pathways towards or away from employment. Tight municipal budgets and requirements of efficiency show how acceleration (Rosa) is present in their everyday work.