Summary: This study examines understandings of social pedagogy. Interviews were conducted with nine social pedagogical researchers from Northern Europe. The interviewees were selected as representatives of their cultural and professional context and provided insight into their countries’ social pedagogical discourses. The interviewees were asked to talk about their understandings of social pedagogy from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

Findings: The empirical data were divided into two discourses; the universalistic and the particularistic. In the interview statements it was evident that interviewees leaned towards one of the two discourses as a starting point for their understanding of social pedagogy. However, the way the two discourses were combined varied among the interviewees. In further analysis, three models were constructed, which can be regarded as ideal types. These models shows that social pedagogical way of thinking extend from an individualistic, adaptive, starting point through a democratic approach to a mobilising collective approach.

Application: These models can be seen as an important contribution to understanding of social pedagogy that illustrate three different ways of understanding social pedagogy from northern European perspectives. The models elucidate the complexity embedded in the concept, but can also be used to facilitate analyses and interpretations of various social pedagogical activities. This findings has implications for how education in the field is constructed and implemented. Social pedagogy may not be definable in a simple way, but it can nevertheless be understood and described by the models constructed in this study.