Professor Sofia Enell

Profile

Sofia Enell is a trained social worker and an Associate Professor of Social Work at Linnaeus University. Her research focuses on assessment practices, preventive interventions, and compulsory care and measures within the field of child welfare services. In particular, her research is concerned with the voices and experiences of children and young people involved in various forms of residential care. Enell is also interested in practice-based research and has worked together with children and professionals to explore children’s agency and rights in relation to early and coordinated support.

Research

Publications

Enell, S. (2025). ‘Doing’ research relationships : reflections on a qualitative longitudinal project with young people leaving secure care. Nordic Social Work Research. 15 (1). 4-16.

Mattsson, T., Enell, S. (2023). State Provision of Resilience in Social Compulsory Care : A Vulnerability Analysis of Physical Constraint of Children and Youth Without Consent. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. 36. 1529-1545.

Enell, S., Vogel, M.A., Henriksen, A.E., Pösö, T., Honkatukia, P., et al. (2022). Confinement and restrictive measures against young people in the Nordic countries : A comparative analysis of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Nordic journal of criminology. 23 (2). 174-191.

Enell, S., Wilińska, M. (2022). “My Whole Family Is Not Really My Family” : Secure Care Shadows on Family and Family Practices Among Young Adults and Their Family Members. Journal of Family Issues. 43 (8). 2210-2233.

Enell, S., Wilińska, M. (2021). Negotiating, opposing and transposing dangerousness : a relational perspective on young people’s experiences of secure care. Young - Nordic Journal of Youth Research. 29 (1). 28-44.

Enell, S. (2017). 'I Got to Know Myself Better, My Failings and Faults' : Young People's Understandings of being Assessed in Secure Accommodation. Young - Nordic Journal of Youth Research. 25 (2). 124-140.

Expertise