This thesis will aim to demonstrate how policymakers, in the efforts of policymaking, influence the very essence of interdisciplinary cooperation, to the extend that its meaning has become that of words and management terms, rather than a physical, intentional exchange.
In connection to a previous study, I came to wonder how the attempted implementation of various policies could affect the conditions for an inter-professional collaboration, concentrated around vulnerable children and young people in the school and education sector.
Through a case study, where the focus on vulnerability is based on the forms of cooperation that this particular group requires, I seek to determine how the professionals respond to policies related to their interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration. This is done via contact to an interdisciplinary cooperation committee, with a mission to uncover reasons for school drop-outs, and possible ways of action. The study includes a specific policy, concerning the school opportunities, for the before mentioned students, which the committee’s informants supposedly relate to their field of expertise
Following a timely review of the field of interest, showing strong relations between the European economic policies, and the Danish counterpart, the thesis demonstrates how international school policies and benchmarks, correlate timewise with certain policy implementations in the Danish schooling system.
This calls to show how interconnected political initiatives have become and serves to acknowledge the influence that international economics have on the day to day policy making and thereby the professionals invested in working with vulnerable children and young people.
With the scientific methods proposed by the philosophical approach of critical realism, I aim to explore the circumstances, on which strategic policy objectives could have an effect on interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral cooperation.
The approach of critical realism, besides being complex, also contains several levels or layers called strata. The deeper the stratum, the more abstract and vice versa. This serves to enable my findings, even where it’s difficult to access – such as the interweaving interactions of professionals.
My study come to show that the management consultant, responsible for facilitating the committees’ joint efforts, shows no or little acknowledgement of what it takes to facilitate such a complex gathering of professionals.
The literary analysis shows the same tendencies and by initiating the results up against my previous findings, I have come to the thesis end conclusion: That when talked about it in very general terms, without relating to-and understanding the effects that local circumstances serve on the students and professionals, further introduction of polices will possible have serious consequences for both student and professionals – without either coming closer to understanding just what influence it serves to show.