Doctoral Theses / Doktorsavhandlingar Institutionen för socialt arbete

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I skärningspunkten mellan kropp och samhälle – Multipel skleros och funktionshinder
(2025-09-22) Ståhl, Daniel
The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate and analyze disability as a social problem concerning lack of social inclusion, in relation to persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). Study I of the thesis is a scoping review including a total of 96 articles, with most focusing on employment discrimination. Other areas examined included welfare and social services, transportation, home and public space accessibility, healthcare, and negative societal attitudes. Several knowledge gaps were identified. Study II examined the use of formal help, specifically personal assistance and home help. These forms of help were analyzed as binary variables using logistic regression. The strongest association with both forms of formal help was found in relation to an EDSS (Expanded Disability Status Scale in Multiple Sclerosis) score between 6–9.5, indicating a higher degree of impairment. The most notable difference was that personal assistance users were mainly affected by visible symptoms, while users of home help were mainly affected by invisible symptoms. Study III focused on the use of informal help among persons with MS, using two dependent variables: whether informal help was used and the number of hours of informal help used per week. The former was analyzed using binary logistic regression, and the latter using linear regression. Three variables and outcomes were associated with both the use of informal help and the number of hours of informal help used per week: being born outside the Nordic countries, receiving sickness benefits, and an EDSS score between 6–9.5. Study IV is a qualitative investigation based on semi-structured individual interviews. The analysis was theoretically driven, using a critical realist framework, and reference groups were involved in the initial phase of the analysis. The empirical material was coded into the following themes: disabling symptoms; social measures in relation to symptoms; disability as a consequence of interaction with other people; disability as a consequence of societal factors; and disability as a consequence of a combination of social interaction and societal structuring. This thesis shows that disability and MS constitute a complex phenomenon. It is argued that disability arises from interactions between the body and society, and that such interactions can be contextual and situational. In line with previous research, the studies investigating the use of formal and informal help indicate a de-universalization of the Swedish welfare system. A recurring theme of the thesis is the invisibility of many MS symptoms, such as fatigue or pain, meaning that persons with MS do not necessarily conform to stereotypical images of disabled persons. The impact of invisible symptoms have been overlooked in previous research. The present results indicate that persons with MS mainly affected by invisible symptoms were more likely to use home help rather than personal assistance, raising questions about how visibility influences access to different forms of help. Several accounts from persons with MS have illustrated how invisible symptoms—both for themselves and in interaction with other people and the social environment—were related to experiences of disability.
Emotional Navigation in Social Services - on Emotional Labor among Swedish Social Workers
(2025-05-19) Holt, Fanny
This thesis explores emotional labor among social workers in Swedish Social Services. The primary aim is to enhance understanding of how social workers discuss and utilize emotions in their practice, as well as how they manage their own and others' emotions. Additionally, the thesis aims to shed light on how social workers identify and navigate feeling rules and role expectations within their professional practice. The study is based on empirical material gathered from social workers employed in the individual and family care sector, including interviews, observations of professional meetings, supervision sessions, and informal interactions. Informed by institutional ethnography, the analysis also incorporates various texts and documents. The theoretical framework of the study draws from the sociology of emotions, which views emotions not merely as individual experiences but as social phenomena that both shape and are shaped by interactions. This perspective highlights how feeling rules and norms at different levels govern the experience, display, and management of emotions. The analysis reveals that social work practice is embedded within often-contradictory sets of feeling rules, reflecting larger inherent conflicts and tensions regarding the mission, role, and direction of social work. These ambiguities manifest as conflicts and disagreements in organizational meetings, where professional ethics and bureaucratic standards—conceptualized as dual emotive-cognitive frames of reference—collide in terms of ideas about case interpretation and how to relate to emotions in practice. Additionally, these ambiguities lead to feelings of ambivalence, uncertainty, frustration, self-doubt, and guilt among social workers, as there is no clear standard for evaluating their practice and behavior, making it difficult to delineate boundaries for what can and should be done. Furthermore, the analysis shows that social workers engage in ongoing emotional navigation within the complex emotional regime of social services. This process involves claiming and moving between role positions defined by the dual frames. Role positions are based on beliefs about one's role responsibilities, the scope of one's duties, the degree of closeness to clients, and the boundaries between private and professional spheres. Claiming these role positions allows social workers to maintain coherence in their core values and sense of self. Emotional navigation and the sense of professional identity are greatly influenced by repeated interaction rituals with colleagues, which produce group solidarity and emotionally charged collective symbols, such as moral standards. Finally, the analysis demonstrates that emotions are a fundamental part of social work practice, strategically used to influence others, motivate and guide actions, inform decision-making, and underpin moral reflection. However, the organization, through implicit norms and explicit instructions regarding how, when, and where emotions should be displayed, managed, and used, aims to shape social workers' emotions into organizational resources.
Sexuellt samtycke bland unga - mellan ideal och praktik
(2025-03-28) Blom, Kristin
In 2018, Sweden implemented a revised sexual offence law based on voluntariness (SFS 2022:1043), and the year prior the #MeToo movement shed light on the power dynamics between men and women, emphasising the importance of consent. These changes have led to discussions about sexual boundaries, violence, gendered power relations and, not least, sexual consent. Politicians have advocated for a culture of consent, and several initiatives have been presented to promote this, including a change introduced to the school curricula that requires young people to learn about consent. In this sense, consent is framed as a solution to problems related to sexuality, which makes it important to explore it as a concept in itself, as well as how it is understood and practised by young adults. Therefore, this study aims to understand young adults’ narratives about the presence and absence of sexual consent in various situations, as well as potential ambiguities they might perceive. It also aims to highlight and provide an understanding of young adults’ narratives on sexual consent as a concept and in practice. The empirical material consists of 31 qualitative interviews with young adults between 16 and 21 years old, 13 female, four male, one nonbinary and one gender fluid. The interviews were conducted during 2020–2022. The theoretical framework consists mainly of interactionist theories, such as symbolic interactionism, sexual scripts, interaction rituals, concepts from the sociology of emotions and gender theories. This dissertation contributes to a broad and nuanced image of sexual consent. The results show that the young adults are highly informed about consent, but their understandings of consent are not always consistent with their narratives of how sexual consent works in practice. Analysis shows that different ideals affect how the young adults navigate and understand their sexual experiences. These ideals are connected to prevailing discourses about consent, narratives pertaining to sexual self-awareness and competence in sexual communication and, for boys, behavioural expectations about being ‘nice’ and gender equal. Other ideals identified in the analysis related to sexual competence and sexual experience. Girls were expected to be considerate, affirmative, sexy and desirable, as well as respectable. Boys on the other hand, were expected to be active, dominant and initiate sex and to have an insatiable sexual desire. The analysis shows that the young adults in the study try to live up to these different ideals – even though they can be both contradictive and utopian. They also reflect upon and try to reconcile the discrepancy between these ideals and practice. The results show the importance of creating room for young adults to reflect upon and question different ideals related to sex and sexual consent.
Uppkopplad mot världen: Om unga med intellektuell funktionsnedsättning och deras erfarenheter av sociala aktiviteter på internet
(2025-02-10) Borgström, Åsa
The aim of this thesis is to explore the experiences of young people with intellectual disability on social media and the internet by reviewing previous research, analysing and interpreting experiences of social activities on the internet among young people with intellectual disability and discussing methodological challenges. The overall structure of this thesis is comprised of an introductory summary and four papers. The first paper is a literature review of previous research about young people with intellectual disability and social media. The second paper investigates negative experiences on the internet and internet-related support. The third paper investigates experiences of self-presentation on the internet among young women with intellectual disability. The fourth paper discusses challenges in qualitative research about young people with intellectual disability and the internet. This thesis is based on two empirical studies, Study A and Study B. Study A is a literature review of studies about the experiences of young people with intellectual disability on social media. The sample consisted of twelve papers published in well-established and recognised journals between 2001 and 2017. The results were analysed thematically. Study B is a qualitative study combining individual interviews, pair interviews, focus groups and memo writing. The sample consisted of 17 young women and nine young men with intellectual disability aged 16-21 years. This study used both thematic analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Four broad themes emerged from the overall analysis of the results in the papers: 1) digitally competent, or exposed and vulnerable, 2) risk and opportunity, 3) online and offline – fluid boundaries and 4) standing on your own two feet or taking support from others. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this thesis is that young people with intellectual disability are digitally competent but also considered to be an exposed and vulnerable group on the internet. There are, however, differences among young people with intellectual disability. The second major finding was that young women with intellectual disability take on the role of observer rather than active participant due to the risks encountered on the internet. This thesis also shows that online and offline social settings seem to be intertwined. Finally, the thesis found that young people with intellectual disability used problem-focused coping to handle risky situations on the internet on their own and/or seek support from parents, however, they also rely on emotion-focused coping to withdraw and distance themselves instead of seeking support. This thesis contributes to our understanding of the complexity of the field as well as to the need to treat young people with intellectual disability as a heterogeneous group with different experiences and behaviours. The insights gained from this thesis have several important implications for future practice. First and foremost, they contribute new knowledge for social work practice, especially in school settings involving pupils with intellectual disability.
Mellan marknad och profession: en studie av socionomkonsulter och deras professionella ideologi
(2025-01-27) Bergström, Lowe
The social services in Sweden have faced recruitment challenges for decades. Since the 2010s, this problem has commonly been solved by hiring consultants from private companies. The emergence and continued existence of social work consultants is hard to explain. It is a professional group that despite extensive and incessant criticism has managed to survive and even grow. The aim of this thesis is to explain how and why consultants have emerged and become an increasingly common feature within the social services in Sweden. The study has a twofold purpose. Firstly, it aims to trace the roots and development of social work consultants and explain how and why today’s historical and political context has served as a fertile ground for their establishment. Secondly, the study aims to explain and understand why social workers choose to become consultants. To trace the history of consultants and to provide a historical contextualization, four different empirical sources have been used. The sources used include media reports on the use of consultants in social services, political and union debates about consultants, relevant legal sources and various types of statistical surveys. To answer why social workers become social work consultants, quali- tative interviews were conducted with active consultants and their managers. Theoretically the study draws on Bucher and Strauss’s theory of internal segmentation within professions, which argues that professions are continuously undergoing profession-driven processes that lead to the creation of new subgroups. According to their theory, this type of process can be analysed similarly to the emergence of ideologically driven social movements. The study reveals that the history of consultants dates back to the late 1990s. The historical analysis identifies three events that have been crucial for consultants: the legalization of private staffing agencies in the 1990s, the debate on the legality of consultants in the 2000s and the acute staff shortages within the social services in the 2010s. The study also shows that social workers’ decisions to become consultants must be understood in relation to a group-specific professional ideology. Consultants use this ideology to explain and justify the group’s existence, their career choice and why they choose to forgo traditional public employment within the social services. According to the ideology, it is the political governance and personnel policies within the social services that create the demand for consultants. An increasing number of social workers refuse to accept the prevailing conditions within the social services and choose to end their employment. This mass exodus has served as a breeding ground for the consulting industry and made social services dependent on consultants. The ideology justifies the existence and use of consultants with three different arguments. Firstly, social services would be unable to fulfil their statutory mission without consultants. Secondly, the consulting industry is essential to slow down the exodus from social services; without the industry, more social workers would have left the professional field completely, leaving social services with even fewer social workers. Thirdly, by exposing social services as an employer to competition, the industry helps improve conditions within social services. Thus, the industry is seen as an actor that benefits not only social workers who choose to become consultants but also social workers in general.
Sexualitet, sexuell hälsa och socialt välfärdsarbete. En studie om gränsdragningar för sexualitet och sexuell hälsa som privat eller samhällsangelägen fråga
(2023-05-09) Andersson, Johanna
Vem får stanna? Om politiska problemrepresentationer av rätten att stanna i Sverige 1936–1989
(2023-02-02) Jansson, Tobias
In 2015, the Swedish government restricted the right to stay in Sweden, to reduce the number of asylum seekers seeking protection in the country. Since then, it has established a restrictive migration policy that only allows people who require a residence permit to stay permanently if they become self-sufficient and are strictly law abiding. Based on a genealogical approach, the aim of this thesis is to analyze changes concerning the right to stay during the period 1936–1989, to make visible assumptions and conditions that underlie a contemporary understanding of this right. This concretely means analyzing the problem representations that precede changes in immigration legislation and related government guidelines, the assumptions on which these are based, as well as the effects in the form of technologies of government that follow from different problem representations. The data comprises 13 government reports and government bills published between 1936–1989. The study’s theoretical framework rest on a Foucauldian approach, combined with combined with selected parts from Bacchi’s analytical framework ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’, and analytical concepts from governmentality research and critical border studies. The analysis shows that problem representations of the right to stay during the studied periods (1930s, 1950s, 1960s and 1980s) have recurringly rested on an underlying assumption that the state is responsible for creating an ordered society. This kind of assumption has legitimized problem constructions and subsequent conditions for the right to stay – historically as well as in 2015 – as a way of achieving such an ideal. Although this type of assumption has existed for a long time, it has taken on a different meaning and form in relation to different discourses. For example, an assumption of state responsibility for an ordered society was clearly linked to an equality discourse during the 1960s, leading to state welfare initiatives as solutions to ‘the problem’. Following from the individualized, workfare discourse of 2015, however, the solutions to contemporary problem representations and underlying assumptions instead target individual asylum seekers, requiring them to prove that they deserve the right to stay permanently in Swedish society by becoming self-sufficient subjects. Moreover, governance within Swedish migration control has undergone multiple shifts during the studied periods, alternating between focusing on controlling territorial borders and making non-citizens in the country adapt to national norms. The contemporary use of temporary residence permits to discipline those granted residence permits towards norms of being self-sufficient and law-abiding thus contains clear traces of historical modes of governance. This study has shown, among other things, that problem representations of the right to stay continuously rest on distinctions between deserving and underserving categories of migrants, although these categories have altered over time. Historically and at present, categories such as ‘bogus refugees’ and socalled unwanted aliens – with ‘socio-economic’ or criminal motivations – have been constructed as undeserving, while hard-working and law-abiding migrants have been constructed as deserving. These constructions have linked the right to stay to notions of who is a ‘good’ citizen and has influenced people’s access to social work services. At the same time, the study has shown that historical problem representations provide political alternatives, such as the possibility to represent problems of the right to stay based on people’s basic need for security.
Hantering av hemlöshet. En kartläggning och analys av organiseringen av lokala hemlöshetsystem i Sveriges kommuner.
(2022-11-17) Wirehag, Matti
The general aim of this thesis is to study the organization of housing services for persons living in homelessness in Sweden. Three areas are in focus. The first concerns how the right to housing assistance is interpreted in different municipalities and how assessment and placement processes for housing interventions are organized. The second focuses on which types of housing interventions are used and how these differ across Sweden. The third looks at which actors take part in the provision of housing services. The thesis is based on four studies, and both quantitative and qualitative methods are used. The aim of study I is twofold: first, to map and explore the extent and variation of local homeless service systems in Sweden’s municipalities and, second, to explore the possibilities and limits of using available secondary data on homelessness and homelessness housing services when analysing local homeless service systems. Study II aims to explore and compare how local social services organize and manage housing services for the homeless. More specifically, the detailed functions of local homeless services are scrutinized, such as rules and regulations regarding interventions and how they are specified in different types of municipalities. Study III addresses how housing services for persons living in homelessness have grown and changed between 2011 and 2018, focusing on the actors involved (municipal, non-profit and for-profit organizations) as well as how homeless housing services vary between different types of municipalities. The aim of Study IV is to explore the housing situation of undocumented migrants in Sweden and its association with the state of their mental health. One result of this thesis is that there seems to be a trend towards assessment processes relating to homeless problems taking on stricter forms. Many municipalities have developed a clear requirement profile for who should receive housing due to homelessness. It is clear that a lack of housing is not enough to be eligible for help. A person also needs to fit the mould of the traditional client categories used by social services. Another result is that there is a high degree of isomorphism, i.e. agreement, between the municipalities in terms of how they design their work in the homelessness field regarding the overarching models to organize housing interventions, predominantly the staircase model. There are similarities in how social services have developed functions that resemble housing agencies with a social agenda. At the same time, important details diverge between municipalities. Conditions for the termination of housing assistance or eviction from occupancy, duration of residence and methods to surveil and control the tenants differ. These differences clearly impact the individual’s chances of obtaining long-term housing. The results also show that there are groups of structurally homeless and hidden homeless who cannot access the housing services provided by social services. When it comes to actors in the field, the results suggest that both for-profit and public actors play a major role in the system, while non-profit actors only play a minor role, particularly outside main and large cities. The results presented in this thesis have implications for research, policy and practice. Among other things, creating cohesive rules regarding the length of social contracts as well as termination of these contracts, so-called hidden evictions, may be one important step for both policy and practice. Another important step for research would be a political decision to make detailed data available on local placements within the local housing services for persons living in homelessness in a national registry, to better allow study of the functioning of housing interventions.
COMMERCIAL SUGARCANE FARMING AND RURAL YOUTH LIVELIHOODS IN EASTERN UGANDA
(2022-06-23) Mwanika, Kassim
Commercial farming is a pathway for pro-poor growth because of its economic linkages such as jobs and incomes. However, most of the available studies of commercial farming are largely generic, leaving a dearth of evidence about what it means for population categories such as the youth. Anchored in a capitalist development lens, this study examined the implications of sugarcane farming for rural youth livelihoods in Eastern Uganda. Using a structured questionnaire, interviews and Focus Group Discussions and observation checklists, both quantitative and qualitative data was collected about youth involvement in sugarcane farming, with particular attention to the implications for youth livelihoods and enhancing their outcomes from sugarcane farming. The study reveals a suboptimal impact of sugarcane farming on youth livelihoods in Busoga. Due to a lack of requisite resources, the youth are incorporated into sugarcane farming through circuits of labour, which are hinged on land and financial constraints. Their proletariat class exposes the youth to imperatives of dialectical labour relations such as arbitrary exploitation, and harsh working conditions in physically demanding and low paying sugarcane jobs. Rather than solving youth livelihood vulnerabilities, sugarcane farming is an enclave for well-off groups and local compradors. Thus access to sugarcane jobs seldom guarantees decent youth livelihoods manifested by low purchasing power to acquire assets, and afford education and food. The situation is exacerbated by structural constraints such as a lack of labour regulation and sugarcane price volatility which affect the trickle-down effects of sugarcane farming on the youth. Commercial farming should be coupled with mechanisms that address individual youth constraints and the structural traps embedded in capitalist large-scale farming.
Older people in Sweden – Age at migration, poverty and utilization of long-term care services
(2022-03-02) Hanna, Mac Innes
This thesis studies the significance of age at migration for labor market integration and old-age poverty, as well as the utilization of long-term care services by older people. This thesis comprises four studies. All four are empirical studies using register data from National Board of Health and Welfare and Statistics Sweden, comprising a total population. The results showed that age at migration is a strong predictor for labor market integration compared to other factors such as educational level and number of children. Time until getting a first foothold in the labor market increases rapidly with age at migration, starting already at age 40+. This has implications for the financial situation in older age. Findings of this thesis show that the risk of being both income and wealth poor increases with rising age at migration. This thesis also show that every third person born in a low-income country are booth income and wealth poor. Meanwhile the equivalent number among Swedish born older persons is nearly one percent. Later in life, migration may imply a disadvantage in relation to the labor market and increased poverty in older age. However, when it comes to LTCS, utilization in older age there is a different pattern. The results from this study suggest that late in life migration does not have to imply lower utilization of LTCS. Findings show substantial heterogeneity across and within different birth countries. Although migrating later in life may increase the risk of being poor in older age, it seems as the LTCS are relatively equally distributed across different income groups among Swedish and foreign-born older persons. The Inverse Care Law states that those who most need care are least likely to receive it, while those with least care needs tend to care services more. The results show that that the Inverse Care Law does not apply to the utilization of LTCS by Swedish-born older people, nor by the majority of older migrants. However, the Inverse Care Law does appear to operate for older persons born in low-income countries who do not have a partner.
Governing migrants through the Norwegian Introduction Programme
(2021-08-26) Fernandes, Ariana Guilherme
This thesis focuses on the Norwegian Introduction Programme for newly arrived immigrants and refugees. With its implementation in 2004, the Introduction Programme represents one of the most significant policy measures initiated by the state for new migrants in Norway. The Introduction Programme combine two important official goals, namely labour market participation and immigrant integration into the receiving society. The aim of the overall thesis is to examine how the Introduction Programme in Norway can be understood in relation to different power perspectives. One of the main perspectives is Foucault’s idea of governmentality, supplemented with the perspectives of neoliberalism and ethnification. Inspired by Carol Lee Bacchi’s social policy analysis approach, one of the main points of departure of the thesis, is to examine what problem formulation the Introduction Programme is an answer to. The study focuses primarily on how the Norwegian Introduction Programme is justified, designed, structured and framed to facilitate the integration of new migrants in society in general, and in the labour market specifically. The thesis is based on four studies which have all critically examined the Introduction Programme from different comparative and theoretical perspectives. Comparisons are made between different social policy measures in Norway and between seemingly ‘similar’ policies in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The method employed for all four articles is based on public document analysis, which falls within the broader categorization of qualitative text analysis. The main aim of Study I is to provide an in-depth understanding of the underlying ideology of two Norwegian post-immigration measures; the Introduction Programme and the financial support scheme for voluntary immigrant organisations. Study II addresses the justifications for implementing the Introduction Programme for newly arrived immigrants and refugees in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The aim of Study III is to explore how policy texts and the policy development process when establishing the Introduction Programme and the Qualification Programme have differently constructed the identity of their target groups. Study IV sets out to critically examine if and eventually how different ideas of empowerment are embedded in the design and structure of the introduction programmes in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. In sum, it is possible to conclude that the Norwegian Introduction Programme can be viewed as an arena in which the subjectivity of new migrants is being shaped to influence their actions and beliefs in specific ways. By participating in the programme, the target group is being governed, disciplined and shaped into becoming idealized citizens, and for the state, an ideal citizen is one who is employed, active in terms of being economically and culturally assimilated. Moreover, the ideal citizen is expected to be active, self-governing and self-sufficient. In addition, the thesis also demonstrates that ethnification of the target group has implications for how the Introduction Programme has been designed and shaped.
Politisering av omsorg. En kvalitativ studie om kollektivt motstånd bland feminiserade välfärdsprofessionella yrkesgrupper i Sverige.
(2021-08-26) Ryan Bengtsson, Anna
This thesis is about collective mobilisation and new forms of resistance among feminised welfare professional groups in contemporary Sweden. The research focus is placed on what these struggles are about, the different practices or repertoires used, and how the activists describe the response from trade unions, managers and political leaders. The key concept that is explored and developed in this thesis is the politicisation of caring. This concept stems from feminist research on nurse’s militancy, which shows that untraditional methods such as mass resignations and sick outs are reoccurring in the nursing profession both historically and in different geographical locations. Furthermore, the argument of previous research is that these unorthodox tactics are inherently linked to gendered relations of power and the specific position created for nurses in health care organisations undergoing neoliberal change. This thesis explores how this theory is also relevant to explore and comprehend the collective mobilisation among other feminised welfare professional groups in contemporary Sweden. The thesis is based on two qualitative case studies and four publications. One study maps the different collective resistance practices or repertoires used by staff in the Swedish health care sector between 2013-2015. Based on empirical data from one strategically chosen page on Facebook “Stöd våra Sjuksköterskor”, an ideal-type model on how caring is politicised in Sweden is presented. Based on a qualitative comparative case study of two collective revolts Nu bryter vi tystnaden bland socialarbetare and Barnmorskor för trygg och säker vård the concept a politicisation of caring is explored and developed from a feminist epistemological position and the notion of situated knowledges. This thesis shows that the collective mobilisation and new forms of resistance in contemporary Sweden can be understood as a politicisation of caring. In terms of why the mobilisation takes place, the study shows that it is the working conditions rather than salaries that is the main reason to mobilise. Thus, highlighting how it is the professional knowledge base that is at stake, and that this collective mobilisation serves to gain a professional jurisdiction that involves empathy and a caring commitment for patients and clients. Drawing on previous research on union renewal and the concept of members’ activism, the two revolts’ descriptions of their relationship to the trade unions are explored. Even if the trade unions support the revolts, this support is limited and the relationship tense, illustrating the complexities and difficulties of union renewal, especially in the public sector. Based on a resistance theoretical framework and concepts from previous research on equality the practices of power used by politicians and managers are also shown. The results show how fear and distance is created and upheld through different techniques of power. Techniques of power that serve to prevent both collective mobilisation and avoid that the issues of deteriorated working conditions and care are interpreted and politicised as unequal relations of power.
Unaccompanied minors (un-)made in Sweden. Ungrievable lives and access to rights produced through policy
(2021-05-04) Kazemi, Baharan
On 24 November 2015, the Swedish prime minister announced a new, restrictive asylum policy with the explicit aim of placing Sweden at the EU minimum level in terms of refugee reception. A temporary Aliens Act minimized the right to asylum and family reunification. At the centre of the policy debate was the figure of the unaccompanied minor. In this thesis, the meanings associated with the concept of unaccompaniedness in Swedish legislation is explored in order to critically analyze the changes that took place during and after 2015. With a theory-method design drawing on post-structural policy analysis and discourse theory, seven government bills are analyzed together with interviews with welfare workers/activists and young persons affected by the policy changes. What the government bills have in common is the centrality of the concept of unaccompaniedness. The reforms are positioned at the intersection of social work and migration policy: custodianship for asylum-seeking unaccompanied minors, reception in municipalities under the Social Services Act, construction of alternative “Supported Housing” services aimed at this target group and other youth, age estimations in the asylum process and exception rules as a path to residence permits based on participation in upper secondary education. The main results indicate that the way in which unaccompanied minors are described as different from children in general and thus in need of other support and other rights, has existed long before the restriction laws from 2015. The discursive formation with a specific position for unaccompanied minors has thus not undergone a total transformation. Rather, additional layering of meanings associated with the concept has been added. In the reforms from 2005-2006, unaccompanied minors are mainly regarded as grievable lives due to the vulnerability associated with their specific migration experience and being without guardians. Through various political logics, where economy and anti-immigrant sentiments have an impact, subjects are increasingly excluded from this position. They are attributed negative associations and disqualified from being both children and vulnerable. This demarcation defines who can be a "real" child and thus a grievable life with the right to protection and rights. The exception rules that were presented in 2017-2018, acknowledge the precarious position created through the restrictive reforms. A pathway to residence permit through participation in upper secondary education was provided. Thereby, the figure of the unaccompanied minor was also re-invented from a child refugee to an international student and potential labour migrant. In this thesis, it is argued that lives are constructed as grieavable and not through specific meanings given to the term vulnerability in relation to concepts of childhood, borders, racialization and the nation. Through these processes of meaning-making subject positions are shaped and access to rights defined. However, policy is produced in a political context and dependent on social practices. Thus it is relevant to see the reforms in relation to social work practice, social movements and the populations affected, who through acts of citizenship and of solidarity challenge the dominant border regime.
Crime, punishment, and counselling – a study of the local judicial and social work application of prostitution policy in Sweden
(2021-02-18) Olsson, Narola
This thesis explores the social construction of a purchase of a sexual service within the implementation of prostitution policy in Sweden and seeks to contribute to the current knowledge about how a purchase of a sexual service is regulated based on how the law and social work are locally implemented. The thesis consists of four papers based on two empirical studies, including legal documents concerning the enforcement of the Swedish Sex Purchase Act (Chapter 6 Section 11 of the Criminal Code), and interviews with professionals within social services providing counselling to individuals with the experience of purchasing sexual services. The first paper provides a descriptive analysis of how the Sex Purchase Act is implemented. The second paper examines how a purchase of sexual services is established as a criminal offence and the construction of the buyer and the seller during the legal process. The third paper examines the legal process of a case concerning the purchase of a sexual service and how stigma and social normative notions potentially influence the legal process. The fourth paper examines the construction of a purchase of a sexual service as a social problem and how this is addressed through the work of social services in Sweden. The results show that a purchase of a sexual service is socially constructed as a criminal offence and as a social problem through the implementation of Sweden’s prostitution policy. This construction represents a purchase of a sexual service as a problem concerning gender equality, as a problem with a symbolic victim and as a problem of morality. All three representations construct the purchase of a sexual service as a problem that can be addressed through punishment and counselling with Sweden’s prostitution policy. Hence, experiences of buying and selling sexual services that fall within the current problem definition are addressed in the current criminal justice and social work practices. However, experiences outside the current problem definition are often left unproblematic. A potential consequence of this is that individuals with the experience of buying sexual services are positioned further way from the punishment and counselling used to implement Sweden’s prostitution policy.
Handlingsimperativets dilemman – Om frihet och kontroll i socialtjänstens arbete med klienter som använder narkotika
(2020-10-13) Lindwall, Johan
ABSTRACT Title: Dilemmas of the imperative for action – On freedom and control in social services’ work with clients who use illicit drugs Author: Johan Lindwall Keywords: social service, substance use, discourse, discourse psychology, institutional talk, institutional identities, street-level bureaucracy, legitimacy work, power, subjectification ISBN: 978-91-88267-15-3 ISSN: 1401-5781 http://hdl.handle.net/2077/66585 This thesis studies social services’ work with clients who use illicit drugs. The aim is to contribute to knowledge about how social services’ imperative for action – to actively promote change for clients who use illicit drugs – is shaped in practice and balanced against the principle of autonomy. The aim is also to discuss the conditions and implications of social workers’ practice, and to show how power is expressed. The material was collected through observations, reflective discussions with staff, interviews and focus groups at three social service offices. Viewing social workers as street-level bureaucrats, the study draws on discourse psychology in dialogue with Foucauldian concepts of power. The analysis shows that social workers’ conditions are contradictory and dilemmatic. Individualistic ideals and clients’ freedom are highly valued but collide with strategies that can be perceived as authoritarian, when clients are seen as incapable to act in their own good. To handle contradictions, social workers perform substantial legitimacy work. The analysis demonstrates that social workers, when pursuing and justifying their job, engage in a considerable rhetorical and interactional work. When acting to promote change in clients’ drug use, social workers normally avoid acting against clients’ intention, and rather pursue a strategy that aligns with clients’ freedom of choice and aims to shape clients’ will to change. In this way, power is made invisible. Finally, the analysis reveals that social workers shape their approaches and strategies towards clients on the basis of how they view clients’ drug use with regards to risks, how they perceive clients’ morals, and how they assess the expected return-on-investment of the work, rather than on the basis of clients’ drug use as such. As a consequence, many clients need to take full responsibility for ensuring that they get the help they might need.
Teenage Kicks – The Differential Development of Drug Use, Drunkenness, and Criminal Behaviour in Early to Mid-Adolescence
(2020-05-12) Turner, Russell
This thesis studies the development of drug use, drunkenness, and criminal behaviour in early to mid-adolescence. Its main aims are to improve knowledge about how and why these three behaviours develop and to contribute towards the development of theory that can have applications in prevention policy and practice. The thesis comprises four studies. Three of these are empirical studies using data from the Longitudinal Research on Development in Adolescence (LoRDIA) project. A general population, prospective sample of over 1500 adolescents was followed annually from age 13 to 15 (grades 7 to 9). Longitudinal within-person and person-oriented statistical analyses were applied. A fourth, theoretical study, applied principles from Critical Realism both to theories of the development of these behaviours, and also to existing empirical studies, including two from this thesis. The results of this thesis found greater complexity and heterogeneity than previously known both in how drug use, drunkenness, and criminal behaviour develop, but also in how they relate to each other. For example, drug use and drunkenness showed less stable patterns over time, compared to criminal behaviour. Criminal behaviour also showed greater statistical risk of being followed by later drug use and drunkenness, but not vice versa. The behaviours were found to cluster together in specific ways with a larger group (80%) who abstained, two smaller groups who infrequently engaged either in crime (9%) or mainly in drunkenness and drug use (9%), and a ‘severe’ 2% who regularly engaged in all three behaviours. This differential development was also shown to be related to different combinations of explanatory factors. This thesis challenges and extends existing knowledge concerning the development of drug use, drunkenness, and criminal behaviour in early to mid-adolescence. Drawing on sociological, criminological and psychological theory, a new formulation of the differential development of these behaviours is outlined. The results and conclusions presented in this thesis have implications for the design of prevention policy and practice and for social work with young people.
Barns röster om växelvis boende. Vardagsliv, familjepraktiker och nära relationer
(2019-09-25) Berman, Rakel
Over the past decades, the ways in which children’s care is arranged after parental separation have changed significantly in many societies. Dual residence, where children live across two households spending equal amounts of time with each parent, is particularly common in Sweden. Despite the dramatic increase in dual residence in Sweden, knowledge from children’s point of view is limited. This thesis aims, through children’s perspectives, to provide knowledge about everyday life when lived across two households, with a special focus on family practices, influence and personal relationships. The thesis draws on qualitative interviews with children and teenagers, whose stories, descriptions and reflections have been analysed using thematic analysis. Both theoretically and methodologically, the basis of this thesis is the sociology of childhood, in which the active and reflective roles of children are accentuated. This perspective guides the analysis, highlighting the ways in which children participate in, and influence, decisions regarding how their dual-residence arrangements are put into practice. Family life is understood as a process of doing, and the concept of family practices is adopted to shed light on the particular practices that constitute everyday life for children in dual residence arrangements. The thesis includes four articles, each of which illuminates a separate theme. Article I, II and III are empirical articles highlighting different aspects of everyday life in the context of dual residence, and the fourth article is a literature review. Article I focuses on dual residence as a mobility practice, emphasizing the practical, emotional and relational transitions involved when children live in and move between two homes. Participants’ reflections about relationships with parents are discussed in Article II. Article III focuses on children’s influence over their residence arrangements and practices therein. Article IV investigates the meta-data of the research on dual residence (when, where, who, and how) and their purposes and study findings (what). In summary, findings illuminate the nuances and the everyday complexities of living in two homes. Routinely managing practical and emotional transitions requires effort, even if they become an ordinary part of life to which many children become acclimatised. These transitions may also lead children to reflect about family relationships and think more explicitly about what they mean to them. Taken together, the thesis demonstrates that dual residence involves both positive and negative aspects where children’s experiences differ and change over time. In the final part of the thesis, key elements that influence children’s well-being and the way they feel about practising dual residence are discussed. Children’s relationships lie at the centre of dual-residence family life and they play a crucial role in the way dual residence is experienced. By focusing children’s perspectives, this thesis sheds light on how dual residence can be understood, it highlights the significance of listening to children and considering their views regarding issues that affect their lives.
Skola för lönsamhet. Om elevers marknadsanpassade villkor och vardag
(2019-08-21) Allelin, Majsa
The aim of the thesis is twofold: to explore the ways in which the transformation of the Swedish elementary school can be understood through Marxist theory; and, by ethnographic methods, understand the everyday lives of students and teachers in light of the transformation of the educational system. The ethnography has been conducted by observations and interviews during a total of six months at two different schools, Libera and Publica. While Libera is a charter school, owned by a private investment company, Publica is municipally administrated. The former is based in the central part of the city, while the latter is located in a more economically marginal and geographically peripheral area. At Libera, students plan their own schedules and work load and they also set their own goals. At Publica, the students are organized in a more conventional, meaning collective, structure. By discussing marketization, which includes private as well as public actors, scholars foreground the competition that exists between schools through the Swedish voucher-system as well as the transactional relationship that reshapes the relationship between students and teachers. To describe the market rationales by which the public schools must operate the already established concept of New Public Management has been used. However, still no terminology can be found to describe the private actors’ way of functioning. By returning to Marx’s concepts of formal and real subsumption, I offer new ways to conceptualize the shift in character of education and how privately-owned schools operate, meaning how surplus value is created in the everyday life of students and in their pedagogical relations. As my results show, more efficient and flexible ways to organize teaching and pedagogical practices have emerged as new scale logics are developed by private actors who are part of big investment companies. Due to the competition, both Libera and Publica adopt a strong market rationale in their organizational arrangements and pedagogical expectations. Besides conceptualizing schooling on an organizational level, I also seek to address the premises and effects of the learning situation for students in a milieu that is characterized by both flexible and standardized management. Despite the different characteristics of the schools, the market rationales, which dovetailed well with the result-based (state-arranged) management, tended to create alienating conditions for students and teachers in their daily work. Everyday school life was occupied with grade talks and very little time was given for pedagogical “detours”; the students were mostly trying to crack the code and the ones who could not manage the pace were systematically left behind (eliminated). In many cases, whether it was in more successful situations or during processes of (self)elimination, students were often left alone. The expectation of being self-propelled dominated the pedagogical relationship, which translated into the pressure of constant performance and little space to be “unskilled” or explorative. In a situation when school organizations are in competition with each other and are expected to present high numbers (in terms of grades and economic efficiency), the already motivated or skilled students appear as attractive and desirable. The results show how schooling continues to maintain, and in some ways accentuates, segregation and social reproduction.
Med avstegen som arbetsplats – En etnografisk studie av hälso- och sjukvårdskuratorns arbete
(2019-05-06) Sernbo, Elisabet
ABSTRACT Title: Out of line as workplace – An ethnographic study of health social work Author: Elisabet Sernbo Keywords: health social work, ethnography, queer phenomenology, reorienting work, jurisdictional work, professional self-image, professional-patient relations, interprofessional relations Distribution: University of Gothenburg, Department of Social work, Box 720, S-405 30 Göteborg ISBN: 978-91-88267-09-2 ISSN: 1401-5781 E-publishing: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/59806 The aim of this thesis is to analyse what characterizes everyday health social work, focusing on the interplay between health social workers, patients and other health care professionals, and on the professional self-image of health social workers. The approach is ethnographic and the study is based on shadowing and focus group interviews. The overarching theoretical concepts are inspired by queer phenomenology. The analysis shows that in the main, health social work is not characterized by the exercise of public authority or redistribution of resources. It is therefore analysed as reorienting work – affecting how people understand themselves and direct their attention as well as what objects become reachable. Health social workers help patients as well other staff members and teams to cope with difficulties and contribute to maintaining organizational efficiency and specialization by offloading other staff members and enhancing patient compliance. They position themselves, and are positioned, in many and contrasting ways. This results in multifaceted everyday work directed at individual patients as well as other health care professionals, in which the health social workers become a conditioned part of several constellations of ‘we’. These ambivalent loyalties are balanced using strategies that allow them to be perceived as parts of the institutions and also as unattached. This makes them flexible in organizing their work but also dependent on cultivating and maintaining personal relationships, resulting in a high degree of temporality in their jurisdictional work. Health social workers hold a professional self-image of valuing loyalty with patients, but this ideal is difficult to observe in practice. They often intend to function as extended arms for patients, but sometimes they rather become extended arms of the organizations.
Brott eller passion? Myndighetsdiskurser om manlig sexhandel från 1930- till 2000-tal
(2018-11-26) de Cabo Y Moreda, Annelie
Abstract Title: Crime or Passion? Discourses about Male Sex Trade in Official Investigations from the 1930s- to the 2000s Author: Annelie de Cabo Y Moreda Key words: Male ”prostitution”, heterosexual ”prostitution”, homosexuality, heterosexuality, gen¬der, intersectionality, genealogy, social constructionism, governmentality Distribution:University of Gothenburg, Department of Social work, Box 720, S-405 30 Göteborg ISBN: 978-91-88267-08-05 ISSN: 1401–5781 E-publishing:http://hdl.handle.net/2077/58113 This thesis concerns discourses on male “prostitution”. Through a genealogical examination of how commercialised sex between men was problematised in Sweden 1933–2016, the general aim has been to outline the assumptions and premises that underlies the contemporary predominant understanding of the phenomena. Using male “prostitution” as an example a second objective has been to highlight constructions of social problems in relation to categorisations based on gender, sexuality, and desire but also to gain an in-depth understanding of how these categories are associated with class, ethnicity, nationality, race and age, as well as masculinity and femininity-coded actions in a wider societal understanding. This is examined in relation to discourses on hetero¬sexual commercialised sex. The empirical material comprises official government reports and parliamentary documents published between 1933 and 2016, and group interviews with professionals, social workers and police officers working in special units aimed at prostitution. In addition, so-called advocacy material – printed text, books and articles – addressing male “prostitution” produced during the investigated period have been collected. The empirical material has been subjected to a genealogical analysis where the focal point is how arguments and claims regarding male “prostitution”, as well as commercial sex on a general level, were problematised and accounted for over time. The theoretical frame is based on constructivist perspectives on social problem categorisations, combined with poststructuralist feminist and queer theories. The analytical tools used derives from a genealogical approach to discourse analysis. This is combined with governmentality analysis, were the interests concern how credible knowledge is articulated and produces practical action, along with the premises about language as constituting the studied phenomena at hand. The analysis shows that discourses on male prostitution are inextricable linked to perceptions of male homosexuality, insofar as they tend to become inseparable. However, key themes in the different problem categories identified, such as male “prostitution” as an expression of a specific sexual culture, can be understood in relation to homosexuality being the primary problem category, where “prostitution” is subordinate. Thus, questions of governance have thus been linked to changes in knowledge regimes in relation to homosexuality, giving rise to cycles of liberal and repressive regulatory means during the investigated period. The results show that emotions or the establishment of an “emotional economy” between different societal groups, are important aspects of liberal governance. Disgust, contempt, tolerance, and acceptance, to name a few, whose shifts have been politically installed during the investigated decades, emerges as prominent tools for regulating the relationship between homo- and heterosexuals. These emotions are aimed at the population as a whole and function as a normative guide to point out a morally correct and acceptable distance, which should be neither exceeded or undercut. In terms of social problems, the heterosexual “prostitution” constantly seems to represent an urgent and modern contemporary issue, with a political potential to engage and concern far more groups than those involved. Male “prostitution” is structured by other conditions and seems to lack the ability to transform in relation to societal changes, in similar ways that have shaped the perceptions of the heterosexual “prostitution”. With a few historical exceptions, these circumstances are underlined in various periods by discourses pointing out male “prostitution” as invisible and silent, which constitutes the most prominent pattern in the material studied.

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