| 1. |
- Nybom, Jenny, 1967-
(författare)
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Aktivering av socialbidragstagare - om stöd och kontroll i socialtjänsten
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to examine activation, including support and control, among different groups of social assistance (SA) recipients. Assessments and activation related decisions during one year are analysed for 372 social randomly selected assistance claimants from four municipalities. Data was collected 2002-2003 through structured interviews with the clients and their social workers. Income from work and social assistance was followed up with national register data after two years.The first study focuses on social workers conception of their claimants work barriers. Conceptions vary systematically across groups of claimants. The second study examines elements of activation, finding that extent and content of activation, and use of support and control, vary between municipalities and programs. The third study analyses associations between participation in activation programs and exposures to sanctions and exemptions (indicators of support and control) on the one hand, and claimants’ characteristics on the other hand. Traditional work-test logic seems to be common in social work, and linked to stereotypic gender logic. This implies a systematic selection to activation based on sex, and on social workers opinion about the claimants work motivation. The results question the linkage between work barriers and activation, since claimants without formal resources (education and work experience) do not participate in resource activation (aiming to increase formal resources) more often than others. The fourth study analyses association between combinations of activation programs and sanctions and self support outcomes for SA claimants. Results suggest that a combination of resource activation and sanctions has a positive association with income from work, and that a combination of job activation and sanctions is associated with continuing SA.
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| 2. |
- Sandvall, Lisbeth, 1955-
(författare)
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Överskuldsättningens ansikten : En studie av vägar in i och ut ur ekonomiska svårigheter
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding and awareness of what the pathways into and out of debt problems can look like, why people get into bad debt situations, how problems are handled and how they are perceived.The empirical data is based on semi-structured narrative interviews with 32 people who can relate to a debt settlement in three ways, either by just having applied for a debt settlement, finding themselves in the midst of a debt settlement or being debt-free since a few years back. The material is analyzed in terms relating to the processes, strategies and impact factors surrounding debt problems and debt settlements.Debt problems can either happen slowly and gradually or arise suddenly and unexpectedly. The causes may be an interaction between individual and structural factors. Both coping strategies and influencing factors can change over time and depend on where in the debt process one is. The results show that the coping strategies vary from active to passive, from open to closed, where the determining factors are mainly how one was treated/ received, one's health, age, sense of shame and guilt, social relationships, as well as the causes of debt. The results show how there is interplay between individual and structural factors in terms of causes, but also in the strategies and approaches expressed. The coping strategies are influenced and changed with the time scale over the debt process. Women have a risk to a greater extent than men to suffer from debt problems without having spent any money, but instead by acting as co-signer or guarantor.The conclusion is that debt problems do not just affect a certain group of individuals, but that anyone can in principle be affected by excessive debt. What becomes clear is that there is not only one but several ways into and out of debt problems in which both individual and structural factors are important. Although there is a way out of excessive debt problems through debt relief law, results show that the solution extends over time and has far-reaching consequences for both individuals and society.
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| 3. |
- Enokson, Uffe, 1965-
(författare)
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Livspusslet : Tid som välfärdsfaktor
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis sheds some light on the duality between time-rich and time-poor living conditions and examines in which way this duality/polarisation paves the way for new patterns of inequality. The purpose is to explore the living conditions of two groups in society: those who are established in the labour force and who experience great demands on their efficiency and educational level and those who are unwanted and who do not have a natural place in the labour market.Theoretically, time geography shows a diversity of time patterns and time space restrictions between different life forms in everyday life. The conclusion contradicts the understanding of time as a monolithic concept. The results show how working time standards are essential to understand the access to time and economic resources that time-rich and time-poor life forms have. This is something that not only poses questions about household strategies and individual needs, but also shifts the perspective to social positions and demands of society.In a process analysis of Swedish working time policies I investigate how structural policy change, from a social discourse closely related to Swedish welfare reforms, is moving towards an economic discourse motivated by financial arguments. By doing so, the political measures for solving working time related problems in today’s flexible working life appear to be contradictory. On the one hand we find time-poor people in the labour market mainly supported by tax reductions and private time saving solutions while on the other we find time-rich people mainly supported by activation programmes and/or welfare benefits. It is thus a working time regime and policy strategy that obviously disregards these two sides of the coin.The European Union is a relatively new actor and powerful force on the working time agenda. The European Commissions’ policy solution is Flexicurity. A policy analysis shows that flexicurity has a life course perspective where social arguments have a central position in terms of security in a flexible working life. In comparison, Sweden is moving in the opposite direction by leaving social arguments behind. Conclusions show that the economization of time creates vulnerabilities and tensions between time-rich and time-poor living conditions. In looking at time as a welfare factor, traditional ways of solving old problems are being challenged by a policy that can open up for new kinds of welfare solutions that value work and life time patterns both inside and outside the labour market.
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| 4. |
- Enokson, Uffe, 1965-
(författare)
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Tiden i senmodernt vardagsliv : En rollteoretisk analys av hushållens livsformer
- 2006
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Tiden i senmodernt vardagsliv utgör en teoretisk fördjupning av den tidigare utgivna rapporten Tid, pengar och sociala nätverk (2005). Där undersöks klyftorna mellan tidrika och tidfattiga levnadsförhållanden. Kontraster som visar på en obalans i fördelningen av tid, pengar och sociala roller på och utanför arbetsmarknaden i vardagslivet. Syftet i denna rapport är att undersöka teorier om de sociala rollernas betydelse genom att jämföra två konkurrerande teoribildningar och granska deras generaliserbarhet och förklaringsvärde. I huvudsak används teorierna för att analysera tidrika och tidfattiga livsformers levnadsmönster i förhållande till självupplevd tid, multipla roller och stress. Tillsammans utgör de två rapporterna författarens licentiatavhandling.
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| 5. |
- Harju, Anne, 1965-
(författare)
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Barns vardag med knapp ekonomi : En studie om barns erfarenheter och strategier
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about the every day life of children who suffer from economic hardship. The aim is, from the children's point of view, to create an understanding of the consequences that economic hardship has on their relationships with their parents and other children. A further aim is to gain an understanding of how children act in relation to the families' economic situation and how they experience their every day life and general living conditions. Parents have also been interviewed about the families' general living conditions and the interaction between children and parents in relation to the economic situation. The empirical data has been collected over a period of fourteen months. Fourteen children aged 7-19 years and eight parents in seven families have been interviewed on five occasions. A total of 44 interviews have been conducted. The theoretical foundation of the thesis is childhood sociology, symbolic interactionism and social identity. The conclusions of this thesis can be summarized in two major results. The first is that economic hardship is of importance in the relationship with other children and in the interaction between children and their parents. The children's possibilities of participating together with peers through possessions and activities are affected to a varying extent depending on the circumstances. The relationship with their parents is also affected by children having to take economic responsibility and by children cooperating with them. Economic hardship also causes a strain on the relationship. The second major result is that children are active in forming theirs and their families' every day life in relation to the economic limits. On the basis of their understanding and their definition of the situation they choose different strategies, the aims of which are either to live within the limitations of the situation, so-called reactive strategies, or to change their own situation and sometimes also the situation of their household. These are defined as proactive strategies in the thesis.
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| 6. |
- Jonasson, Ingrid, 1952-
(författare)
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Hur gick det sen? : Om tidigare bidragsmottagare ur ett livsloppsperspektiv
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to shed light on how life can turn out for individuals with long term social assistance and afterwards when it has ceased. The primary objective of the dissertation is to study the changes that have occurred during the life course and the impact of those changes on the life course at large. A key question of this dissertation is the development of selfsufficiency and work-life patterns in a longitudinal perspective.The dissertation consists of a longitudinal study based on qualitative interviews with an interval of 20 years. The empirical data is composed of interviews with 11 recipients of social assistance – seven of which have been interviewed again in 2008/2009. A life course perspective is employed in the data analysis as a comprehensive approach and analytical tool. Other analytical approaches are related to the impact of the welfare state on the life course and to the term marginality.The situation of the interviewed group regarding self-sufficiency, employment and social conditions is viewed from a one-year perspective, a 20- year perspective and a life course perspective. The different time perspectives generated widely diverse pictures and nowledge. Not everyone worked at the point of the last interview but all were in a better social and economical position. No one remained on social assistance. One conclusion is that the notion of social problems being reinforced and exacerbated over time is simplistic. Another conclusion is that it appears that social assistance and social services have little importance from a life course perspective. A concluding result is that cross-sectional studies of individuals in a vulnerable situation are of limited value. A brief look at a person’s life does not say much of what the rest of his or her life will look like.Keywords: Life course, long term social assistance, social welfare services, human agency, timing, social integration, notions of social problems, welfare state, marginality.
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| 7. |
- Thelin, Angelika, 1970-
(författare)
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Äldrefattigdom : Ekonomisk utsatthet i yngre ålderspensionärers vardag
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- I Sverige omfattas äldre personer av ett historiskt och internationellt sett generöst offentligt ekonomiskt grundtrygghetssystem. Trots det ökade risken för relativ fattigdom bland unga ålderspensionärer (65 till 74 år) under 2000-talets första decennium. Det nya pensionssystemet, tillsammans med den demografiska och ekonomiska utvecklingen, förväntas bidra till att denna trend fortsätter.Inom ramen för dessa omständigheter undersöker avhandlingen yngre ålderspensionärers relativa ekonomiska utsatthet, vad den får för konsekvenser i deras vardag och hur de hanterar situationen. Särskilt vikt läggs vid hur människors livshistorier inverkar på problematiken. Avhandlingen baseras på 30 intervjuer med ekonomiskt utsatta och 17 intervjuer med ekonomiskt trygga yngre ålderspensionärer. Ekonomisk utsatthet preciseras till att motsvara ekonomiska förutsättningar som återfinns bland yngre ålderspensionärer med bostadstillägg. Ekonomisk trygghet definieras följaktligen som bättre ekonomiska förutsättningar än så.Tidigare forskning förklarar ekonomisk utsatthet i ålderdomen med att socioekonomiska nackdelar samverkar och följer på varandra i en negativ spiral över tid. De ger intryck av att det finns en väg fram till ekonomisk utsatthet i ålderdomen. Denna väg tar sin början i en svår ekonomisk situation i barndomen som sedan förvärras allt eftersom tiden går. I kontrast till det visar denna avhandling på fyra vägar fram till ekonomisk utsatthet i ålderdomen – kontinuitet, sluttning, fall och berg- och dalbana. Tre av dessa inkluderar erfarenheter av relativt goda ekonomiska förutsättningar tidigare under livshistorien.Tidigare forskning visar även att äldre personer som lever med ekonomisk utsatthet har anpassat sina preferenser efter små ekonomiska förutsättningar över tid och därför är nöjda med sina vardagsliv trots ekonomisk utsatthet i ålderdomen. I kontrast till det är målen i vardagen likartade bland ekonomiskt utsatta och ekonomiskt trygga pensionärer i avhandlingen. Ju sämre ekonomiska förutsättningar pensionärerna har, desto mer exkluderas de från möjligheten att nå mål om ett hälsosamt åldrande, oberoende, valfrihet och meningsfullhet. Avhandlingens visa också hur äldre personer hanterar den ekonomiska utsattheten på flera olika sätt – genom att hushålla med resurser, försöka öka inkomsterna, använda tillgångar, acceptera situationen, fokusera på positiva aspekter av vardagslivet och anpassa anspråken efter vad som blivit möjligt att uppnå. Hanteringen framträder företrädesvis som resultatet av yngre ålderspensionärers inlåsning i ekonomisk utsatthet under den resterade förväntade livstiden och inte som resultatet av deras tidigare livshistoria.I avhandlingen diskuteras slutligen hur 40-talisternas eller den så kallade rekordgenerationens ålderspensionering kan komma att påverka den ekonomiska utsatthetens betydelse i ålderdomen. Dessutom lyft standardindexering av den skäliga levnadsnivån för äldre personer samt ytterligare subventioner på utgiftssidan fram som möjliga socialpolitiska insatser mot social exklusion bland yngre ålderspensionärer.
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| 8. |
- Albertsson, Marie, 1956-
(författare)
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Från socialbidrag till äldreförsörjningsstöd. : En reform ur äldre invandrares perspektiv.
- 2008
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In 2003 the Swedish parliament decided to incorporate maintenance support for the elderly within the framework of the state social insurance system. Maintenance support for the elderly entails that individuals who, due to too short a period of residence in Sweden, do not qualify themselves for a full guarantee pension and thus have the right to receive benefits after completion of an income test. A large proportion of these people previously received individually incometested social benefits. Maintenance support for the elderly and how it is perceived by the elderly is the focus of the study. The overall aim of the study is to gain knowledge about what it means for immigrants who moved in later life to be the subject of a transfer from a selective benefit system to one where more general principles apply. More specifically the aim concerns what it means for their possibilities for gaining access to social rights and what it means for their relationship with the Swedish welfare state. The study’s empirical material consists of two parts. The first part contains register data from the social services register of the National Board of Health and Social Welfare and the social insurance register of the Swedish Social Insurance Board. The second consists of interviews with eleven foreign-born elderly persons who previously received social benefits and now receive maintenance support for the elderly. The analysis of the register data indicates that one-fifth of the target group actually includes people born in Sweden while the rest are immigrants arriving in Sweden in later life. For most of those in this latter group the maintenance support is their only source of financial support while it is a supplement for the Swedish-born elderly recipients. The results show that of those, who previously received social benefits and where the maintenance support is their only source of financial support, about onefifth received a smaller amount of benefit after the reform. The interview study indicates the existence of a gap between what the respondents express as needs of more individual considerations both in terms of the contact with the administrating authority and the maintenance support’s monetary content and how the elderly perceive that these needs are provided for. In order to try to understand this gap the result was analysed by using a number of major theoretical concepts such as universalism, stigma and shame, and social citizenship, public identity and recognition. The conclusions of the study is that a comprehension of the gap can be found in the standardised design and administration of the maintenance support and in the socio-economic context that immigrants coming to Sweden in later life find themselves in.
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| 9. |
- Hultqvist, Sara, 1977-
(författare)
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Att göra aktivitetsersättning : Om målförskjutning och icke-kontakt vid förtidspension för unga
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates ‘the doing’ of the Swedish social insurance program Activity Compensation (AC). AC is an example of disability policies in Western welfare states. These policies have two goals: to ensure financial security and to promote social participation. In 2003 AC replaced Early Retirement Pension for persons aged 19 to 29 years and who, for medical reasons, have reduced work capacity.Three features characterize AC. Young adults are differentiated in a separate system. For them, benefits are time-limited. Benefits include an established right to participate in activities.Doing AC is studied bottom-up. Interviews with two actor groups have provided the empirical base: 1) persons accorded AC and medically certified to have an anxiety and/or a depression diagnosis and 2) the respective administrator(s) at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. National legislative preparatory texts and legal documents complete the data.The conclusions of this study are three-fold addressing goal displacement and non-contact. Firstly, a discursive change in respect to the denotation of social participation within the politics of principle has appeared throughout OECD countries over the last decennium. This goal displacement obscures the goal of economic security emphasizing the profitability of work. AC explicitly manifests this change in establishing a right to activity participation for beneficiaries. This displacement is without full impact in the politics of practice when actors’ experience of doing AC is examined. Financial security remains the foremost goal in the local politics of practice mirroring the initial function of safeguard for those with reduced work capacity due to certified illness.Relating to this lexical displacement, the study concludes that social participation is revealed as a goal to be realized in a specific form, salaried employment, within a distinct arena, the labor market. Values such as life-quality are neglected as regulatory efforts to get persons on the track to work have been underscored.Finally, the prescribed contact between the insured young adults and their administrator(s) is not consistently present. This contact is a necessary condition for the intended planning of activities to take place. When non-contact prevails, the established regulatory right to participate in activities can not materialize.
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| 10. |
- Jonsson, Cecilia, 1974-
(författare)
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Volontärerna : Internationellt hjälparbete från missionsorganisationer till volontärresebyråer
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A new form of foreign travel called “voluntourism” has emerged in Sweden. In advertisements that invite to “make a difference”, travel agencies promote short- term aid opportunities at for example orphanages or schools in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. International volunteer work is nothing new. Rather, the volunteer agencies have entered an old and established organizational field. Using theories of new institutionalism and the analytical phrase “the story about”, this thesis investigates the way international aid work originated and evolved, and how commercial volunteer agencies entered the field. The thesis is partly based on historical data from organizational reports, biographies of aid work icons, and interviews with volunteers active during the 1960s and 1970s. Additionally, it makes use of contemporary data from interviews with representatives from volunteer travel agencies and volunteers. It also includes an analysis of how the travel agencies present their business operations on their websites.The thesis concludes that travel agencies apply the common perception of international aid work’s characteristics when marketing volunteer travels. This common perception can be traced through the evolution of international aid work. Travel agencies attract volunteers by offering access to this exclusive field. The volunteers are well-educated young women from middle class families. They are looking for experiences from international aid work, perspective on their own lives, and first-hand knowledge of local and traditional societies in poor countries. Nevertheless, due to the esteem in which the organizational field is viewed, a brief period spent as an aid worker is considered a desirable qualification for a job applicant. I interpret volunteer travel as a “grand tour”.
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