Trine Tornfeldt Sorensen

Aalborg University, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of Society and Politics

During the past decade, I have worked within the Danish employment system. I started out in the Ministry of Employment, followed by a role as a caseworker in a municipality, and currently, I am employed at the Danish Agency for Labor Market and Recruitment (STAR). STAR also serves as the industrial partner for this PhD project. In these roles, I have worked with the implementation of legislation at the municipal practice level and bridged frontline practice with the policy level.

Academically, I hold a Master's degree in anthropology from the University of Copenhagen (2014) that has provided me with ethnographic skills and a particular interest in how we live with things of the world – and how things and (digital) technologies actively co-constitute the world(s) we inhabit.

Tell us about your project!

The PhD project examines how relationships between vulnerable clients and professionals in Danish job centers are re-configured by digitalization and technological mediation. Focusing on the expanded use of video introduced through employment reforms in 2023, the project analyzes how 'relational engagement' is articulated and practiced in digitally mediated client-professional relations in social work and welfare settings. The research follows a longitudinal qualitative design:

  • Online observations of video-mediated client-professional meetings over nine months • Interviews with clients and professionals

  • Field visits with clients in their homes and professionals in job centers

  • Workshops and focus group interviews with professionals Providing insight into client–professional relational work over time and into clients' and professionals' perspectives, accounts, and actual use of technologies across both institutional and domestic settings, the project aims to understand how digital technologies are integral to client-professional relational practices and co-constitutive of human engagement in digital social work and welfare services.

“…the project aims to understand how digital technologies are integral to client-professional relational practices and co-constitutive of human engagement in digital social work and welfare services.”

— Trine Tornfeldt Sorensen on her PhD project “Human Presence Interrupted? How digital technologies impact relational work in Danish employment services”