Teething problems : legitimation strategies in controversies in Youth Care transformation

This paper focuses on the transformations in the Youth Care system in the region of Twente, that took place in 2015 and 2019. The `Grammar of Legitimation' is used in a qualitative study to the strategies that are used for the (de)legitimation of action and opinion within the three major controversies that emerged within the transformations: the existence of market forces within the Youth Care system; the e_ects of transformation; and the development towards a second transformation. It was found that the most prominent legitimation strategies used were moral evaluation and rationalisation, also evidence of exempliciation was found. Additionally, an exploratory research was con- ducted to investigate the potential for a connection between legitimation strategies and knowledge boundaries. It was determined that knowledge boundaries are created by novelty and evidence was found that rationalisation is used to create common knowledge and therefore can be used as a strategy to overcome knowledge boundaries. This research contributes to current literature by providing additional knowledge into the subject of transformation and legitimation strategies, which is valuable for policy makers when designing a transformation.