ABSTRACT
Since the 1990s, neoliberal political developments in Denmark have led to economic, managerial, organisational and ideological changes in public policies and services. Social workers' professional identities are particularly influenced by social policies. In Danish youth social work, a strong tradition of social pedagogy prevails. This chapter draws on a study conducted in 2010 within a municipal youth programme. In the youth programme, the development and realisation of various forms of youth responsibility were central pedagogical goals and measures of whether such goals had been met were implemented. In the programme, the young people were taught to make individual choices in relation to other people and the welfare system. Collective responsibilisation was also taught through the staff's facilitation of the youth's self-defined community identity. Responsibilisation in the youth programme entailed both manipulating and emancipating elements, and it aimed at teaching the young people to voluntarily conduct their own lives responsibly by making autonomous choices.
