1.
Turunen, Päivi
(författare)
Samhällsarbete i Norden : Diskurser och praktiker i omvandling
2004
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The dissertation deals with an inquiry concerning how the transformation of community work can be understood from a comparative perspective within the framework of social work in Scandinavia. Community work is examined by means of two main studies: an international literature review and an empirical study in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden). The transformation is discussed in the light of theories of modernisation and discourse analysis. The results propose that the transformation is characterised by differentiation, both divergence and convergence. The discourses are far from constant, while the practices seem to remain the same. There are surprisingly many similarities between settlement work and contemporary community strategies across the globe. Since the 1980´s, they have expanded rapidly because of the political and ideological changes within welfare states – towards decentralisation and devolution. The concept of community work has been replaced by a plurality of community-orientated concepts. Within social work, it has converged into community social work. The transformation of Nordic community work has also moved towards a national and local diversity. The Nordic countries share similar phases of transformation of community work, but also have traits of their own. In general, community work has been carried out as projects. Denmark is characterised as the promised land of projects, Finland as the community land of minimal number of projects, Norway as the land of co-ordinated projects, and Sweden as the land of structural project-ideology. The transformation has also resulted in a polarisation – an increased professionalisation in academic communities and deprofessionalisation in practice. A constant problem with community work is its temporary nature, due to dependence upon recurring projects. There is a great need for sector transcending and integrating research, knowledge and practice development within the area of community policy and practice, including community work.
2.
Sjöberg, Stefan, 1967-
(författare)
Löntagarfondsfrågan - en hegemonisk vändpunkt : En marxistisk analys
2003
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of the dissertation is twofold. The primary aim is to explain how the wage-earner funds could change the way they did, from the original proposal 1975 to the carried through 1983. The second is to show the relevans of Marxist analysis today, through the application of Marxist theory on the wage-earner funds issue. A discourse analyses is carried through to show the arguments and positions taken by key actors during the wage-earner funds struggle.One important finding is that the wage-earner funds struggle was what I designate a hegemonic turning-point in the Swedish post war history. Until and including the raising of the fund issue the Swedish labour movement had for decades gradually moved their positions forwards vis-a-vis the bourgeois in wide meaning. The bourgeois won the fund struggle and has ever since step by step forced the labour movement on the defense. The wage-earner funds struggle then meant a very important change of the balance between the organized class forces.Previous works on the wage-earner funds have a strong emphasis on the political level in trying to explain the issue. The dissertation shows that although this is an important factor, it has to be related to others. In accordande with a structuralist influenced Marxist perspective the interrelation of economical, political, cultural and ideological factors has to be evaluated in the analysis of the issue. The agenda on the political level needs to be related to processes in the economy. In other words changes in the economic base strongly influenced what was taking place in the political/cultural/ideological domains.Marxism has for a long period been the objective for deconstruction and dissolution. Through the concrete analysis of the fund struggle the dissertation shows that Marxist theory is still relevant. The dissertation stresses that a relevant Marxism today is not the same as the classical marxism that culminated during the 1970’s. But there is fundamental parts, core, centrality, that can be built upon for a modern Marxism that is not ending up at the Post-marxism that dissolves and gives up still relevant foundations.
3.
4.
Sjöblom, Yvonne, 1952-
(författare)
På väg ut : När ungdomar rymmer och kastas ut hemifrån - ur socialtjänstens perspektiv
2002
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of this thesis is to discover and understand how caseworkers in the social services view and present the phenomenon of young people who run away from and/or are thrown out of their homes. What images of these young people do they entertain and how do they articulate their work with this group?The data were collected through 20 qualitative group interviews with caseworkers who in 1997 were working with young people between the ages of 12 and 20 at Individual and Family Care sections in all the social districts of Stockholm Municipality. Simultaneously, a quantitative background study of 96 problem cases was also conducted. Following analysis of the initial group interviews, two of these were chosen for detailed case study. To provide a complementary perspective, the thesis also contains two case studies of accounts of running away/being thrown out from a runaway’s and a parents’ respective points of view.Leaving home in this way is seen to be more common among girls than among boys and the most usual cause a problematic family situation with elements of violence, assault, and substance abuse. A particularly vulnerable group is girls in immigrant families who are exposed to authoritarian upbringing and often suffer rough treatment. Dominant among these young people’s own individual problems is difficulty in school. Other problem areas mentioned are substance abuse, truant behaviour, staying out late and sexual promiscuity. A small number of runaways were able to return home after counselling; but the conditions leading to running away/being thrown out were described by the welfare workers as complex, and accounts of the same situation given by parents and runaways often differed widely.The caseworkers’ view of the phenomenon is informed by a relationship and family oriented perspective, where the paramount goal is “working home” the runaways/thrown outs and restoring them to the bosom of their families. When that avenue has failed, as often was the case, the alternative is to place them in family homes or institutions. Running away and being thrown out are seen as deviant attempts at accomplishing the process of separation from parents that is normal at this stage. In the case of girls of immigrant background who run away/get thrown out of their homes, the tendency is to explain the phenomenon as a ‘culture collision’ between incompatible value systems and traditions. When young people and even the parents come to the social services needing practical help with accommodation and economic support so that the children can leave home, the caseworkers described this as presenting a dilemma.The main technique relied upon by the caseworkers is counselling intended to lead to reconciliation between children and their parents. The thesis discusses the importance and consequences for these youth in their development towards adulthood of the lack of a young people’s perspective within the social services and the emphasis on the sanctity of the family. A clear contradiction lies in the fact that while the youth units have been established expressly for the purpose of helping young people, a social services dominated by a family perspective with the aim of reintegrating runaways into their often dysfunctional families takes on a mainly controlling and disciplinary role, where the young people’s individual survival strategies are not paid attention to or taken seriously.
