How do we balance care and control? When does protection become coercion – and who has the right to define the boundaries?
The research group for Welfare and Community Studies (WELCOM) invite researchers, students, and engaged members of the public to a one-day symposium on coercion in institutions, with a particular focus on early childhood education and care, schools, child welfare institutions, foster care, hospitals, psychiatry, youth detention centres, prisons, and nursing homes. The aim of the symposium is to shed light on and discuss the many faces of coercion, and how it is experienced, recorded, and justified across different institutional contexts.
Key themes include:
- The extent of coercion across different institutional settings
- The relationship between experienced coercion and recorded coercion
- The boundary between coercion, freedom, and consent
- The role of parents and next of kin in decision-making processes
- The function and presence of the police in institutional interventions
- The state’s responsibility to provide protection versus the individual’s right to self-determination
- The right to self-harm (ethical and legal dilemma)
Format and contributions
Each presentation will be 20 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes of discussion with the audience.
Call for abstracts
We encourage all interested participants to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words by 27 February 2026. Contributions may be empirical, theoretical, or practice-based. Abstracts should be sent to Associate Professor Esben Olesen (esben.s.olesen@nord.no).
Feedback on abstracts, registration details, and further information about the programme will be published on this webpage in March and sent to participants by email.
Participation is free. Food and drinks will be served.
Welcome to an important and challenging conversation!
Program:
| Time | Room | |
| 09:00-09:30 | Welcome/Coffee/Registration | Atrium |
| 09:30-10:00 | Chair: Esben S. B. Olesen (Nord University) Plenary: Ann-Karina Henriksen (University College Copenhagen): Multi-layered experiences of coercion in child and adolescent psychiatry Drawing on a broad perception of coercion, this presentation centers on coercion as lived experience in child and adolescent acute psychiatry. While the use of formal coercion is imbued with professional concern, coercion as “treatment pressures” is widely embedded in the routine treatment of minors, especially for patients under the age of 16. Reducing coercion in all forms, by means of a child-centered framework, can contribute to strengthen children’s trust in professionals and support long term outcomes. (20 mins + 10 mins Q&A) | A7 – ‘Vebjørn Tandberg’ |
| 10:00-10:10 | BREAK (10 mins) | Atrium |
| 10:10-11:40 | Session 1 (20 mins x 3, 30 mins Q&A) | |
| Panel 1: Psychiatry, control and Coercion | Panel Chair: Esben Olesen Lisanne Stone (Tilburg University): Compulsory care for adolescents with anorexia nervosa and complex relational dynamics. Tone Jørgensen (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences): Coercion and everyday mealtime practices in Norwegian acute psychiatric units. Treating adolescents with restrictive eating disorders. Trond Bliksvær (Nordland Research Institute): Employees’ involvement in coercion in child and adolescent psychiatric inpatient units in Norway: Scope and variations | A126 |
| Panel 2: | Panel Chair: Stine Marlen Henriksen Gunilla Maria Berg Kristiansen (University of Stavanger): Navigating the Boundary Between Prevention and Coercion: Preliminary Findings from Staff Experiences with MAP in Municipal Health and Welfare Services. Tesfahun Alemayehu Terrefe (University of Inland Norway): Coercion in the Pursuit of Users’ Best Interests and Its Implications for Trust Across Institutional Settings Stine Marlen Henriksen (Nord university): Mapping the Uncomfortable Truth: Discrepancies between Staff’s Understanding and Actual Coercive Practices in Intellectual Disability Care | A7 – ‘Vebjørn Tandberg’ |
| 11:40-12:00 | BREAK (20 mins) | Atrium |
| 12:00-13:00 | Session 2 (20 mins x 2, 20 mins Q&A) | |
| Panel 3: | Panel Chair: (To be announced) Jorun Rugkåsa (Akershus University Hospital and Oslo Metropolitan University): Coercive care and the right to self-determination: the case of Community Treatment Orders in Norway. Cecilie Riis Gadegaard (Roskilde University): Exploring power dynamics and the movement and entanglements between limit setting (soft power) to the use of coercion (hard power) in the professional work with children in an out-of-home-care institution in Denmark. | A126 |
| Panel 4: | Panel Chair: Stine Marlen Henriksen Esben Olesen (Nord university): Documentation Practices in Norwegian Adolescent Psychiatry: Tracing the Institutional Circuit of Physical Restraint Stine Marlen Henriksen (Nord university): When Coercion Becomes Routine | A7 – ‘Vebjørn Tandberg’ |
| 13:00-14:00 | LUNCH | Main canteen |
| 14:00-15:00 | Session 2 (20 mins x 2, 20 mins Q&A) | |
| Panel 5: | Panel Chair: (To be announced) Hanne Warming (Roskilde University): Limit Setting and Coercion – Young People’s Experiences and Reflections Trine Brinkmann (University College Copenhagen): Is it really care? A letter exchange about coercion between a researcher and a former patient in a Norwegian psychiatric youth ward | A126 |
| Panel 6: | Panel Chair: Esben Olesen Daniel Weiss (Nordland Research Institute): Coercing silence: Legal loopholes grant hospitals monopoly power to dictate access to psychiatric patient data research in Norway Esben Olesen (Nord university): When the Gatekeeper Closes the Gate: Data Protection Officers and the Constraints on Independent Research Access | A7 – ‘Vebjørn Tandberg’ |
| 15:00-16:00 | Reception Nordland Research Institute |
Observers
Observers are welcome at the symposium. Write to Esben Olesen (esben.s.olesen@nord.no) by August 24 to register as an observer.
Dinner September 1
On Tuesday, September 1, we warmly invite you to join us for an informal dinner at the restaurant Bjørk (Storgata 8, Bodø 8005, Norway). Participants will pay for their own food and drinks. If you would like to join us, please contact Esben Olesen (esben.s.olesen@nord.no) by August 24.
Top photo: Nordlandsmuseet
