Kristian Relsted Fahnøe

Presentation

Since 2009, I have been conducting research on social work and marginalized social people. My main area of interest is the everyday life of substance users and people living in homelessness, as well as their contact with welfare services. My research is primarily based on qualitative methods, including interviews, participant observation, and visual methods. I prioritize close collaboration with practice. My research is interdisciplinary drawing on sociology, political science, and social geography.

I have particularly focused on power, lived citizenship, socio-spatial exclusion, and spatial dimension of social work, which I have addressed in various research projects.

My Ph.D. dissertation, "Tørstige sjæle" is an ethnographic study of an inpatient alcohol treatment facility. I explored power, resistance, knowledge, and identity in this institutional setting. The Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) funded the Ph.D. project as a Ph.D. fellowship.

Since then, I have participated in several research projects. In these projects, I have researched street-based outreach work and its connection to lived citizenship for people living in homelessness, the everyday life of drug users in drug environments and their experiences with welfare services, and the impact of aging on drug users' daily lives and support needs.

Currently, I am working on a qualitative research project funded by Offerfonden that investigates the social dynamics around physical and sexual violence against women in marginalized drug environments, and the barriers that keep these women from reporting these crimes.

The project is carried out in partnership with Reden København, Sundhedsteamet in Copenhagen Municipality, the women's homeless hostel Bocentret at Sundholm, and the drug treatment center KABS. As part of the project, we conduct qualitative interviews with women who are active in drug environments, while staff from the participating organizations make written accounts of incidents where their women users have been subjected to violence or sexual assaults.

In addition to undertaking research projects, I am a member of the coordination group for UC Netværket for Udsatte Voksenområdet (UC-NUVO), and I have been appointed as a member of the editorial board of Socialvetenskapligt tidskrift for the 2025-2029 term.