This master thesis is a case study concerning how the employees in Viborg municipality negotiates meaning
with regards to ’Den tværfaglige model’ (The interdisciplinary model) and ’Tidlig indsats’ (Early effort). In
the case I examine, both models were introduced in 2010, however in the municipality as a whole it was
only ‘Den tværfaglige model’ that was introduced in 2010. ‘Tidlig indsats’ is a research project run by AKF
(Danish Institute of Governmental Research) with the aim of spotting potentially vulnerable children, aged
0-10, before their problems grow bigger than they can handle. Four districts in Viborg municipality are
participating in it and the preliminary results are so good that the administration has decided to expand the
methods used in ‘Tidlig indsats’ to the rest of the municipality starting in the autumn of 2012.
The problem statement of this master thesis is to examine how the employees negotiate the meaning of
these two models and what the experiences so far mean for the expansion of the methods to the rest of
the municipality.
I examine this by conducting interviews with the head of the day nursery department, a psychologist, a
health visitor, the head of an institution and one of the kindergarten teachers in the same institution. They
all contribute with different views regarding the implementation of both models, most noteworthy is the
mix of top down management from the administration and the charismatic leadership of the head of the
institution and the fact that the methods have resulted in more appreciation of the kindergarten teachers.
I then analyze how these five employees negotiate meaning. I use Etienne Wengers social theory of
learning (Wenger, 1998) and focus on the participation-reification dualism and the three characteristics of a
community of practice: mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire. I found that there had
been quite a lot of participation, as is custom when there is quite a lot of reification, seeing that there
cannot be reification without participation and vice versa. This means that the models and methods have
been adapted to the practice that they are now a part of.
This, along with the general experiences regarding ‘Den tværfaglige model’ and ‘Tidlig indsats’ leads to a
number of concerns that the administration can contemplate before introducing ‘Tidlig indsats’ to the rest
of the municipality.