Kulturkompetens – att möta det (o)lika? En diskursanalys av begreppet kulturkompetens och dess praktik, i en invandrartät stadsdel i Göteborg

Abstract

We started out the study with a preconception of culture as something that creates difference between groups of people, which had been verified by our prior research. We also had a sense of culture as a polysemous term. Our assumption is also that there is an opinion within social work practice that Swedish social workers are faced with a cultural barrier when encountering immigrant clients.

In this study our aim is to examine constructions of the terms cultural competence and culture. Constructions of the terms ethnicity and ethnic diversity are also observed, although the main reason for this is to show what relation these terms have to the terms cultural competence and culture, and how they may give each other meaning, according to the theory of social construction. In addition to constructions, we also aim to bring out discourses around the terms, upon which we will create a discussion about power and dominance informed by post-colonial theory and critical discourse analysis (CDA).

The study is carried out by posing questions about these terms in interviews with the managers of different branches within the social services. We have conducted five interviews in one city district in the town of Gothenburg. This particular district is immigrant-dense. The reason we have chosen branch managers in the social services is that we wanted to see how these terms are brought to the fore when the managers recruit new co-workers to their units.

The conclusion from the results of our study is that our informants speak of culture in different ways, with inconsistencies both within the group and in their individual definitions of the term. The main discourse of the term culture is that culture is something that certain groups of people have, which makes difference between groups. According to some of our informants, difference is based in an essential aspect of a person. The most important discourse of the term cultural competence is that the people that carry this competence are used as a mediators or educators for the people who do not carry this competence (the majority of the population).