The Institutionalization of Child and Youth Welfare: Adopting the Perspective of (De-)Institutionalisation Studies

Using the example of German youth welfare, this article examines the question of how the institutionalisation of pedagogical practice and its organisation contours itself as an expression of the rationalisation of society in general. This is illustrated by the development in the field of youth welfare and schooling. A closer look into this field shows that the widely shared perception of institutionalisation processes in educational and social work contexts as linear developments is not totally convincing. Rather, institutionalisation proves to be a multi-dimensional as well as a contradictory process, including dynamics of de- and re-institutionalisation. Moreover, institutionalisation processes are also characterised by legitimacy policy interventions and are part of political debates at various levels. These insights lead to a plea for a research perspective of (de)institutionalisation, which will have to be elaborated empirically as well as theoretically in the future.