ABSTRACT
The potential for reciprocal relationships in children’s residential care is discussed through the analysis of interview data examining perspectives on professional-child relationships in Denmark, Flanders, Germany and England. Four types of relationship are examined before discussing the discourse of risk in residential care settings. Reciprocity, as characterised by mutual exchange as the foundation for sustaining meaningful and reparative relationships, was referred to less often than more instrumental purposes of relationships. The articulation of risk and risk assessments acted as a further barrier to developing reciprocity in the responses from English residential care homes. Axel Honneth’s (1995) concept of recognition, as extended to include young people’s participation, is suggested as a more promising way forward for conceptualising relationships in residential care than reciprocity.
