Hilde Åsheim
RESEARCHER II
Contact
Mobile: 951 33 806
Email: has@nforsk.no
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Researcher with expertise in welfare systems, child protection and youth exclusion
Hilde Åsheim is a senior researcher at Nordland Research Institute and has extensive experience with research related to individuals' encounters with welfare systems. She has a particular focus on how user experiences can contribute to the development of better services. She is particularly interested in young people in vulnerable life situations and has worked both in research and practice with child welfare, mental health and social work. Hilde has a doctorate in sociology and extensive experience from education, teaching and development of social work education.
Competence
Hilde has particular expertise in qualitative research methods, and especially in institutional ethnography. She has used a number of methods such as interviews, focus groups, observation, document studies and workshops in her projects. In her research, she has been concerned with how institutional structures and political guidelines are reflected in the services of the welfare state.
She also has significant experience in education and teaching in social work, with program management and course responsibilities at bachelor's and master's levels. Her professional interests include exclusion, child welfare, mental health and educational research.
Education and work experience
Hilde holds a PhD in sociology from Nord University (2019). She is a social worker with a master's degree in social work. She also has a number of further education courses, including university pedagogy, cognitive therapy and guidance pedagogy.
She has been a researcher at Nordland Research Institute since 2024, and was previously an associate professor at Nord University for five years. Previously, she worked as a social worker at the student association in Nordland and has experience from both municipal and state child welfare.
Projects and publications
Throughout her career, Hilde has been involved in several major research and development projects related to children, young people and welfare systems. Among other things, she has worked on investigating the decline in care placements in child welfare, where she has helped to analyze both statistical trends and possible societal explanations. In another project, she has evaluated the interview processes in the Child Welfare and Health Board, in collaboration with Proba social analysis and legal professional communities. She is also part of the research group behind the project HOUSYOUNG, which studies housing for young people in the transition to adulthood, and how such services can promote inclusion and support. She is also involved in a regional project on exclusion among young people in Midt-Troms.
Hilde has published several peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and research reports. Her doctoral thesis examined the consequences of activation policies for young people with mental health challenges in the face of NAV, and thematized how management tools and institutional frameworks affect both young people and employees in work clarification processes. She has also written about identity, powerlessness and interaction in welfare services, and contributed to anthologies on social work education and institutional ethnography.
Lectures and dissemination
Hilde is an active participant in professional networks both nationally and Nordic-wide, and she regularly contributes to research dissemination in various contexts. She has participated in research groups related to ethnographic welfare studies, social work and upbringing and exclusion at Nord University. In addition, she has been affiliated with the Research School PROFRES and the Nordic Network for Institutional Ethnography. Through her involvement in the national professional body for child welfare, she has also contributed to the development of the field. She regularly gives lectures to both professional communities and the field of practice, and has a strong interest in making research relevant and accessible to decision-makers and service providers.
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No completed projects
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