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Skivenes is recognised as a leading expert in the field of child protection systems, with numerous publications in well-regarded journals. She is also a popular lecturer and a widely used expert by the media. Skivenes is the Head of the Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism, and the Principal Investigator of several international research projects. Skivenes headed  (2021-2023).

Contact

If you wish to be affiliated with the research centre, please contact prof. Skivenes. Other inquiries should be directed to Barbara Ruiken. Students who would like supervision, discuss the discipline, or be affiliated with one of the research projects, are very welcome to contact prof. Skivenes via email.

• Follow Marit Skivenes on , and . 

Biography

Skivenes completed her PhD in Political Science at the University of Bergen in 2002. Post PhD, she worked two years as a researcher at the research institute "Fafo" in Oslo.

Later she spent three years at the Centre for Child Welfare at the Faculty of Psychology (���ϳԹ���Դ), as associate professor and head of the Centre. She then continued to work three years at the Department of Social Education at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), first as associate professor and later as a professor.

Marit Skivenes is a professor at the Department of Government (University of Bergen), appointed in 2012.

Research interests

Theoretical focus:

• Argumentation Theory - Deliberative Democracy - Discretion and decision-making in Organizations - Freedom of Speech - Paternalism and Welfare - Political Theory - Quality of Public Administration.

Empirical research themes: 

• Access to public information, Children's Interests, Child Protection Systems, Child Rights, Decision-Making Proceedings,  Migration, Public Debate, Public Policy formation, Transparency, Welfare State Systems, Whistle-Blowing, Wrongdoing in Organizations.

Please examine professor Skivenes projects and publications for elaborations about her research.

Awards and grants 

Marit Skivenes was awarded the prestigous ERC Consolidator Grant in 2016 for her research project DISCRETION. Read more about this .

Marit Skivenes and Katrin Kriz were awarded the ISW prize for best article published in 2015 with the article "".

 

Skivenes and colleagues present research in and some of Skivenes´s blogposts are also in .

Recent Commentaries in Media

• Skivenes M. (2019). . Strasbourg Observers, 11 October 2019.
• Skivenes, M. og Helland, H. (2019).  ("Children's right to family life", in Norwegian). Dagbladet, 23 February 2019.
• Skivenes, M. (2018).  ("Who has the most influence - the Prime Minister or the welfare officer", in Norwegian). Bergens Tidende, 5 June 2018.
• Skivenes M. og McEwan-Strand A. (2018). . Strasbourg Observers, 3 January 2018.
• Skivenes, M. (2016). . ("Rights that challenge", in Norwegian). Bergens Tidende, December 1 2016

Marit Skivenes does also regularly publish blog posts at

Recent media coverage

• . (Experienced researcher to lead new Official Norwegian Report on child protection) Kommunal rapport, 30. March 2021.
• . (Child protection services ask less frequently for compulsory care orders) Bergens Tidende, 16. October 2020.
• . (New research: reveals new violations of the law) Dagbladet, 15. September 2020.
• . (Warning against inspiration from Norway) Dagen, 23. May 2020.
• (Professor: - Norwegian child welfare is at the forefront in terms of children´s rights. It seems like we are paying the price for this”, in Norwegian.  / , 25 November 2019.
• (They have been foster parents to Nora (7) since she was 1 years old. Their greatest wish is to adopt her. But the court says no, in Norwegian). Aftenposten, 18 May 2019.
• (Adoption provides better living conditions, in Norwegian). Forskning.no, 9 February 2019.
• Xinhua News, 6.februar 2019.
• (Around 50 children are adopted by their foster parents each year. The number is much too low, according to new report, in Norwegian). Aftenposten, 5 February 2019.
• (What are the requirements for the child protection services to remove a newborn child from its mother?, in Norwegian). Forskning.no, 7 February 2018.
• (Received 18 million norwegian kroner in scholarship, in Norwegian). Bergens Tidende, 15 December 2016. 

Keynote speaker (selected)

• Keynote speaker at the 15th International EUSARF Conference “All Children, All Families. Promoting Excellence in Child Welfare Research, Policy and Practice”. 2018-10-03 – 2018-10-05. Porto, Portugal
• Keynote speaker at the conference “Decision Making in Child and Adult Protection: Discretion and Dialogue“. 2018-05-31 – 2018-06-02. Basel, Switzerland
• «Do we still trust barnevernet - and should we?» ���ϳԹ���Դ Innsikt. 12-09-2020.
• Key note speaker at the 3rd Annual International ERCPAMM Seminar “Research, social policy and action with migrant minors”, Title: «Children across borders: Rights and policies», Melilla, Spain; 2018-04-25 to 2018-04-27.
• Key note speaker at the conference “Unaccompanied minors across borders: Main social and political issues for their protection”. Title: “Discrimination of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors”, Melilla, Spain; 2017-04-25
• Keynote speaker at the 8^th ESFR Conference “Changing Family Relations – Gender and Generations”; 2016-08-31 – 2016-09-03. Dortmund, Germany.
• Keynote speaker at the Nordic Congress on Child Welfare; 2015-08-26 - 2015-08-28. Turku, Finland.

Recent videos

• . (Is Norwegian child protection in crisis?) ���ϳԹ���Դ 19. November 2020
• . ���ϳԹ���Դ 19. November 2020

For full overview of media contributions, presentations and publications, please visit the .

Students who would like supervision, discuss the discipline, or be affiliated with one of the research projects, are very welcome to contact prof. Skivenes via email.

PhD-students under supervision

• Frøydis Lønborg Haarberg, project (���ϳԹ���Դ): Addressing the ‘how’ of children’s participation
• Mathea Loen, project (���ϳԹ���Դ): Legitimacy Challenges: Participation in Public Debate
• Irene Aase Kvåle, project (HVL): Priorities in Child Protection and Health Services

Courses

• Master's thesis in Politics and Public Administration (supervisor)
• Qualitative Methods (supervisor)
• Constitutions, Courts and Politics
• – Courts and law as battlegrounds for social change
•  Introduction to Systematic Review and the use of SR in Social Science
• Master's thesis in Administration and Organization Theory
•  Research design
•  Discretion and paternalism
• Bachelor’s Thesis (2013 - 2017)
• Political Theory and Democratic Governance (2013 - 2014)
• Introductory Course in Administration and Organization Theory (2013 - 2014)

Lecture

Conference lecture

Radio or TV participation

Academic article

Media feature article

Academic book chapter

Journal review

Popular science article

Research report

Encyclopedia entry

Book anthology

Media interview

Academic monograph

Professional article

Open Access Publications:

• Skivenes, M., Falch-Eriksen, A., & Hassan, B. (2024).. European Journal of Social Work, 27(3), 490–504
• Berrick, J., Skivenes, M. & Roscoe, J. N. (2023) . Children and Youth Service Review, special issue "The Perspective of the Child in Child and Youth welfare"
• Loen, M. & Skivenes, M. (2023).. Journal of Social Policy, 1-20. DOI: 10.1017/S004727942300003X
• Skivenes, M. & Benbenishty, R. (2022). . Child & Family Social Work 28(2): 432-442
• Helland, H. S., Pedersen, S. H. & Skivenes, M (2022). Journal of Public Child Welfare
• Skivenes, M. & Benbenishty, R. (2022). Journal of European Social Policy 32(4)
• Berrick, J., Skivenes, M. & Roscoe, J. N. (2022). . Journal of Social Policy, 1-22
• Helland, Hege Stein; Pedersen, Siri Hansen; Skivenes, Marit (2022) . Journal of Public Child Welfare
• Berrick, Jill Duerr; Skivenes, Marit; Roscoe, Joseph N. (2021) . International Journal of Social Welfare
• Løvlie, A.; Skivenes, M. (2021) . Nordic Journal on Law and Society
• Skivenes, Thoburn, J., & Poso, T. (2021). . Policy Press
• Skivenes, Marit (2021) . European Journal of Social Work
• Luhamaa, Katre; McEwan-Strand, Amy; Ruiken, Barbara; Skivenes, Marit; Wingens, Florian A. (2021) . Children and Youth Services Review
• Breen, C., Krutzinna, J., Luhamaa, K., & Skivenes, M. (2020). . The International Journal of Children’s Rights.
• Krutzinna & Skivenes (2020). . Child & family social work.
• McEwan-Strand, A., & Skivenes, M. (2020). . The International Journal of Children’s Rights.
• Burns, Kriz, Krutzinna, Luhamaa, Meysen, Pösö, Segado, Skivenes & Thoburn. 2019. . European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance.
• Skivenes, Marit; Helland, Hege Beate Stein. 2019. . Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism, Bergen.
• Langford, Skivenes & Søvig (eds.). 2019. . Universitetsforlaget.
• Berrick, Dickens, Pösö & Skivenes. 2018. . International Journal of Children’s Rights.
• Skivenes & Sørsdal. 2018. The Child’s Best Interest Principle across Child Protection Jurisdictions. In Falch-Eriksen, A. & Backe-Hansen, E. (eds.) , pp. 59-88. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Skivenes, M. and Thoburn, J. (2016) ‘‘, Children and Youth Services Review, 67 (2016), pp. 152-160.
• Križ, K. and Skivenes, M. (2014) ‘, Children and Youth Services Review, 40 (2014), pp. 71-78.
• Skivenes, M. and Trygstad, S. C. (2013) ‘, E-Journal of International and Comparative Labour Studies, 2, pp. 50-65.

ERC-grant: DISCRETION 

Professor Marit Skivenes is awarded an European Research Council (ERC) Frontier Research Grant for the research project DISCRETION to consolidate her research ideas and thinking around core themes in social sciences about the governments use of power towards its citizens, and the justifications of state interventions into peoples lives. The ERC sole evaluation criterion is scientific excellence of researcher and research proposal.

The full title of the project is “Discretion and the child’s best interests in child protection”, and it aims to unlock the black box of discretionary decision-making in child protection cases by a comparative-empirical study of how discretionary decisions are made and justified in the best interests of the child.

There are huge research gaps in this important area of the welfare state, with a great deal of uncertainty concerning how, when and why discretionary decisions about the child’s best interests are different between decision- makers within and between child protection systems.

• Read more here:

Current projects:

• Principal Investigator for the research project "" (University of Bergen). Funded by ���ϳԹ���Դ and the Norwegian Research Council. 2022-2028.
• Principal Investigator for the research project " (���ϳԹ���Դ/UC Berkeley). Finanisert av Peder Sather Grant Program. 2020-2021.
• Principal investigator for the research project "" (University of Bergen). Funded by the Norwegian Research Council (VAM). 2020 - 2025.
• Principal investigator for the research project "" (University of Bergen). Funded by the European Research Council (Consolidator Grant). 2017-2021. 
• Principal investigator for the research project "" (University of Bergen). Funded by the Norwegian Research Council (FRIHUMSAM). 2017-2021.
• Team leader for the research project "" (Gabriel Bădescu, Asgeir Falch-Eriksen, Marit Skivenes) (Babeş-Bolyai University). Funded by the EEA and Norway Grants – Romania. 2019-2023.
• Member of the core group in the research project  together with Alexander Cappelen and Bertil Tungodden (The Choice Lab, Norwegian School of Economics). Funded by the Norwegian Research Council (FRIPRO)
• Volume co-author (together with Jill Berrick and Neil Gilbert) on "Handbook on Comparative Child Welfare Policy» as part of the Oxford University Press International Social Policy Library. 2016-2019.

Previous projects

• Principal Investigator with Jill Berrick for the research project "" (���ϳԹ���Դ/UC Berkeley). Funded by the Peder Sather Grant Program. 2019-2020.Principal Investigator for the research project on the implementation of "Mit Liv" (���ϳԹ���Դ). 2016-2019.
• Principal Investigator for the research project «Adoption as a Child Welfare Measure» (, in Norwegian) (Marit Skivenes, Hege Helland, Øyvind Tefre), The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs. 2016-2018.
• Book project: "Children´s participation in child protection - street level bureaucrats exercise of discretion" (Marit Skivenes, Katrin Kriz). 2016-2018.
• Principal investigator in the research project “” (Marit Skivenes, Tarja Pösö, Jill Berrick, Jonathan Dickens, Anne-Mette Magnussen, Line Sørsdal), The Norwegian Research Council (VAM) 2012- june 2017.*
• Organizer of the fourth "" together with Karl Harald Søvig. Funded by the Norwegian Research Council (VAM). April 2017.  
• Principal Investigator for the research project “" (Marit Skivenes, Katrin Kriz, Heidi Skramstad, Øyvind Tefre, Milfrid Tonheim), The Norwegian Research Council (FRISAM) 2010- may 2017.
• Book project: Co-editor (Together with Malcolm Langford and Karl Harald Søvig) "Measuring Child Rights in Norway". Universitetsforlaget. 2016-2017