The researchers of VELPRO consider welfare, profession and everyday life to be phenomena which are interconnected and dependent on each other. Changes in the working conditions of professional welfare workers and in the conditions of users must be considered in relation to the professional workers’ environment and their own experiences with the profession, the citizens, and the welfare state.

The concept of welfare indicates a focus in the research on the importance of the political and institutional framework within which the welfare tasks must be executed. This framework of course has a historical background, but it also interacts with current societal, institutional, and political conditions. Accordingly, the choice to analyse the concept of welfare indicates an interest in making critical analyses of various welfare models, of transformations, of the current development of welfare society and challenges in relation to the ongoing modernisation of the public sector, and of the societal challenges in relation to the development of the competitive state.

The concept of profession indicates a focus in the research on analysing the intentions within specialised professional groups to develop a practice which is competent and ethically justifiable, but which is also about winning social recognition through professional autonomy and status. The research projects focus on both the professional workers’ learning processes, and experiences with education and work. This includes a focus on the framework and knowledge which is the basis of the carrying out of the welfare tasks aiming at improving and supporting citizens’/users’ everyday life. Furthermore, the concept of profession is used to focus especially on the social and societal construction of professions, their institutional tasks and their construction of the ‘users’.

Everyday life is an important concept in relation to the centre’s research position, theoretical interests, and methodological orientations. It indicates an interest in studying subjective experiences of practices and analysing welfare models and welfare tasks ‘from below’ while making a critical evaluation of their impact on both users/citizens and on the everyday life and work of professional workers. The perspective on everyday life indicates the researchers’ engagement with studying the ways in which the welfare state gives its citizens the possibility of experiencing subjective meaning and empowerment in their lived lives.