Organizational Power Dynamics in Residential Group Care as Key Drivers for Safeguarding Children’s Rights

This chapter addresses organizational power dynamics and hierarchies in residential group care that facilitate or hinder participatory processes and safeguarding participatory rights. Different forms of power dynamics between children, youth, staff members, and senior management will be presented and illustrated by examples from group discussions with young residents and with professionals. In the conclusions, the interconnectedness of organizational power dynamics with clientization processes and the enaction of enerational orders are highlighted. In addition, the limitations of the study will be discussed.