Capabilities and special needs

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This doctoral work offers a comprehensive capability-oriented analysis of a new Danish policy (Act. no. 564 of 2007) aimed at providing social work and educational interventions for mentally challenged youth and those with special needs, known as individually arranged youth education (STU). The research is contextualized within an international study on the UN convention regarding the rights of persons with disabilities. Theoretically, it employs Pierre Bourdieu's sociological concepts alongside the Capability Approach developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, focusing on Nussbaum's key human functionings of practical reason and bodily health, particularly the freedom to choose. The study also examines the legislative aims as a development of targeted capabilities and conceptualizes the Capability Approach within a model that structures the analysis. The findings reveal a trend of de-professionalisation in social work concerning this target group, linked to how professionals construct the target group across macro, meso, and micro levels. This results in a heterogeneous group lacking specialization, which negatively impacts the resources allocated through STU. The thesis argues that STU students should have access to trained social workers with significant cultural capital as personal guardians, ensuring that the Act's intentions are upheld in practice.