Das Gesetz bin ich'

In the context of organized socialization and the tension between assistance and control, social work professionals reproduce social norms. This ethnographic study traces successful constitutive conditions in interactions. Particularly, open child and youth work, with its connection to everyday life and its openness, proves to be insightful regarding the acquisition of sanctioning power, social control, the enforcement of social norms, and the initiation of self-regulation processes among children and adolescents. The author demonstrates that no social norms are negotiated between professionals and their clients; rather, only situations in which they are applied. Furthermore, children and adolescents hold notions of normality that are not acknowledged by the professionals. A social pedagogical discourse.