"Producing people" in documents and meetings in human service organizations

Abstract

This thematic issue is devoted to how human service work may be influenced by accentuated administrative processes, as well as reinforced by digitalization, in contemporary society. The public sector has expanded the requirements of documentation, auditing and evaluation practices. Policy, problems and persons are shaped and enacted in meetings and documents. Meetings and documents comprise the forum for making highly important decisions for the individual client or for various categories of clients. Still, people’s participation in meetings and their reading and production of documents are often overlooked in studies of human service organizations. In this thematic issue, empirically-oriented researchers describe and analyze human service workers' administrative routines, particularly focusing on processes of client inclusion and exclusion.