1.
Jonsson, Björn
(författare)
Graffitins spänningsfält. En studie av graffitikultur och interventioner på en lokal arena
2016
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The overall aim of the thesis is to explore and analyse graffiti in a translocal context, by asking questions about the actors' view on activity, meaning and interaction. The study has been located to a physical place, Jönköping, where actors with different interest perform graffiti-related activity. The study is based on qualitative data where participant observation and interviews form the two main methods. The study also utilizes other materials, such as newspaper articles and municipal documents. Central for the theoretical orientation is that empirical data has been collected that is first-hand information on how the actors themselves find meaning in graffiti. This implies a constructivist perspective on knowledge where meaning shifts depending on whose perspective is analysed. Theoretically, the study also is linked to Becker and his arguments that research in deviance must take notice of the interaction between actors who are perceived to deviate and those actors who respond to the deviant group.The actors consist of two main groups; graffiti writers and interveners. Graffiti writers mainly consist of young men who describe themselves as belonging to a global graffiti culture. The word “interveners” has bee selected as a generic name for actors who are involved in graffiti issues due to professional duties. Similar to the graffiti writers' interveners find the meaning in graffiti by actively select information from an “outside”, which corresponds with their professional commitment. The analysis links different approaches to perspectives of combating crime, confirming art and caring for the young men's socialisation. From those different understandings, three parallel patterns of interaction are observed. Interaction developed around graffiti as a crime has elements of a battle situation. From the graffiti writers' perspective, this fight is important when designing the local scene as an integral part of a global graffiti context. At the same time there are disadvantages managing an enemy. On a personal level, individual graffiti writers have to make an estimate how graffiti writing will affect life in the long term. Interaction developed around graffiti as an art form unites graffiti writers and interveners in an ideological consensus where graffiti can be seen as an art form that adds creative qualities to urban space. One significant difference is that the graffiti writers find the local arena as an important place. This local orientation is not necessary when actors from a cultural sector put attention on graffiti. Youth workers way of caring for graffiti writers follows a tradition of social work. This approach focuses the graffiti writers themselves and how to redirect them to accepted forms of artistic expression. The youth workers have good potential to make contact, but it seems difficult to establish long-term relations because graffiti writers themselves do not find it necessary to formalize graffiti as a scheduled activity.A conclusion made is that there is something locked up about graffiti issues because actors see graffiti from their "own" perspective, and at the same time they remain critical of alternative approaches. Somewhat contradictory to an interaction structured around distinctive perceptions, the study shows that actors express uncertainty about what they are doing. Such critical self-reflections seem to be perceived as personal objections and are not shared with others. This, together with the fact that interest in graffiti comes and goes in waves, adds ambivalence to the conflictual field of graffiti. The thesis ends with a hypothetical discussion of how the conflict level could change if graffiti would be met with a differentiated policy.
2.
3.
Ahlgren, Thorbjörn, 1959-
(författare)
Institutionalisering på hemmaplan : En idés resa i den sociala barnavården
2014
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis describes and analyses in three substudies how home-based measures for children are expanding and why an open care idea are established as part of the Swedish child welfare. The first substudy describes the national increment of what today can be considered as a treatment policy – non-institutional care in child welfare. The results are analysed with Kingdon's agenda setting theory and shows that the factors of what Kingdon describes as problems-, politics- and policyflow influenced the national increment. Significant mechanisms have primarily been, the profession, the society's concerns for socially disadvantaged children, negative experiences of institutionalisation and a political position to deinstitutionalise all care. The second substudy focuses on how knowledge and research contributes to ideological, professional, and organizational change in child welfare by analysis of Research & Developments reports and articles from the professional journal Socionomen. Based on the neo-institutional concepts of organisational fields and isoformism the study's results shows that a consequence of adaptation strategies and "rationalized myths" are a number of similarities in how home-based measures are organized and which measures that are used. The third substudy, a case study, analyses how we can understand a local development of ideas in social services for children with concepts from neo institutional theory. Interviews and municipal documents are analysed and shows that the local translation of an open care idea is characterized by discretion, personal preferences and action and affects the choice of method and organization. The study also shows a political mistrust of institutional care while there is at the same time political confidence in the individual social worker's ability to find solutions that allow non-institutional measures to be an alternative to institutional care.An overall conclusion of the thesis is that there is now a treatment policy in social services for the children, which involves extensive efforts at home and it has led to that more children receive support from social services. One result of non-institutional care increment is that it led to increased costs for municipalities for intervention for children and young people when out-of-home care has not decreased. Another general conclusion is that translation and adaptation of ideas to local contexts is something that generally fits street-level bureaucrats need for discretion.
4.
Amberntsson, Pelle, 1973-
(författare)
The Past of Present Livelihoods : Historical perspectives on modernisation, rural policy regimes and smallholder poverty - a case from Eastern Zambia
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This study is an enquiry into the processes shaping rural livelihoods in peripheral areas. The study is situated in the field of livelihood research and departs in the persistent crisis within African smallholder agriculture and in rural policy debates during the postindependence era. The research takes a critical stance to the way that people-centred and actor-oriented approaches have dominated livelihood research, thereby over-shadowing structural and macro-oriented features.The aim of this study is to, through a historical perspective on rural livelihoods and policy regimes, uncover the political and economic processes, with their discursive foundations, that shape contemporary rural livelihoods in peripheral areas. The analytical framework emphasises four key factors: ideas of development and modernity; the terms of incorporation into the global economy; rural policy regimes; smallholders’ ways of making a living. Inspiration is gained from critical political geography, world-systems analysis and different perspectives on rural livelihoods and development.The empirical study is based on fieldwork in Chipata District in Eastern Zambia, investigations at the National Archives of Zambia, the British National Archives and library research. The findings are presented in three parts. The first part looks into contemporary policies and the situation among smallholders in Chipata District. The second part examines the history of the area up to independence in 1964. The third part examines the post-independence period which links colonial experience to the contemporary situation.The findings suggest that smallholders’ livelihoods are shaped by long-term politicaleconomic- discursive processes, rooted in the terms of the study area’s integration into the world-economy in the colonial period. Colonial policies peripheralised the area through tax, labour, and market policies and the creation of native reserves, all of which have led to contemporary problems of food insecurity, soil depletion and a marginal role in agricultural markets. Since the inception of colonial rule, semi-proletarianisation has been a dominant process in the area. Current diversified livelihoods are more a contemporary expression of this semi-proletarianisation than a consequence of postcolonial policies. The households in the study area show preference for a farming way of life. However, the development goal of modernity has since long led to an ‘othering’ of smallholders, labelling them backwards and resistant to change. In the early twenty-first century this ‘othering’ has been played out through a development programme aimed at changing attitudes and mindsets among the farmers in line with individualistic and entrepreneurial behaviour. The ‘othering’ discourses of contemporary and colonial policymakers display striking similarities in this case.
5.
Aronson, Olov, 1991-
(författare)
Understanding the social integration of adolescents of foreign origin : Longitudinal investigations of inter-origin friendship formation
2021
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The present dissertation aims to understand some of the opportunities for, and influences on, the social integration of adolescents of foreign origin in Sweden. Informed by previous research, the dissertation suggests that successful social integration involves friendship formation between peers of similar origins (intra-origin friendship formation) as well as friendship formation between peers of different origins (inter-origin friendship formation). Social integration can be difficult to achieve in practice because most individuals tend to be homophilic and form intra-origin friendships rather than inter-origin friendships.Four studies based on longitudinal data are presented in the dissertation. The first study seeks to widen the understanding of refugee girls’ friendship formation through a qualitative analysis of interviews with refugee girls. The second study estimates stochastic actor-oriented models to investigate the friendship formation of adolescents with supportive and/or controlling parent-child relationships. The third article presents cross-lagged panel models for the reciprocal longitudinal associations between friendship formation and two forms of leisure: visits to youth centers and participation in structured leisure activities. Finally, the fourth study uses stochastic actor-oriented models to analyze with whom adolescents form friendships when they are involved in different forms of digital leisure, including online communication, video watching, and digital gaming.The refugee girls in the qualitative study stated that they formed close friendships with family members, such as cousins and siblings, rather than with peers of native origin because they experienced the latter as too dissimilar from themselves. The adolescents in the first quantitative study formed relatively more inter-origin friendships when their parents were supportive and fewer inter-origin friendships when their parents were controlling. According to the third study, visits to youth centers were associated with a larger number of intra-origin friendships among adolescents of foreign origin, while participation in structured leisure activities, such as sports and cultural projects, was related to more friendship formation regardless of origin. The fourth study suggested that native adolescents who were involved in digital gaming formed fewer friendships with native peers and had fewer friends outside of the school class, and foreign adolescents who communicated more online formed fewer friendships with native classmates but more friendships outside of the school class.All four studies indicate that the social integration of adolescents of foreign origin is not an automatic process that invariably happens when adolescents of different origins are mixed in the same location. When adolescents organize their own social lives away from the involvement of adults, they seem to remain or become more homophilic and form more friendships with peers of their own origin. By contrast, native and foreign adolescents tend to form more inter-origin friendships when adults provide them with support and structured social activities. In other words, the social integration of foreign adolescents seems to require supportive and committed adults, who contribute to facilitating inter-origin friendship formation.
6.
Egonsdotter, Gunilla
(författare)
Datorbaserade simuleringar i socionomutbildningen : reflektion och social barnavård
2022
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Socionomutbildningen i Sverige syftar till att ge blivande socialarbetare såväl vetenskaplig som praktisk professionell kunskap. En för utbildningen central fråga handlar dock om hur teori och praktik bäst kan integreras. Risken, menar kritiker, är att teori och praktik separeras: teori blir något som förmedlas i klassrummet och praktik något som studenterna ges tillgång till genom fältförlagda studier i olika professionella miljöer. Mot bakgrund av denna utmaning har olika didaktiska tillvägagångssätt prövats för att koppla samman teori med praktik. Ett sådant tillvägagångssätt är simuleringar, vilket innebär att professionella utmaningar i socialt arbete på olika sätt efterliknas i klassrummet, det vill säga i en miljö där sårbara klienter inte riskerar att komma till skada.Med denna avhandling fokuseras en specifik form av simuleringar, nämligen datorbaserade simuleringar.Avhandlingens syfte är att undersöka om en datorbaserad simulering som didaktiskt verktyg i undervisning av socionomstudenter främjar studenters reflektionsförmåga i sociala barnavårdsärenden. Vidare inbegriper syftet att ge en bild av den internationella omfattningen av liknande didaktiska utvecklingsarbeten samt diskutera möjligheterna av att använda datorbaserade simuleringar också i forskningssyfte.Avhandlingsarbetet bestod av två delar: dels en konstruktionsfas, dels en undersökningsfas.Under konstruktionsfasen utformades den datorbaserade simuleringen SimChild, vars avsikt är att utveckla svenska socionomstudenters förmåga att reflektera inom ett av det sociala arbetets viktigaste och svåraste verksamhetsfält, den sociala barnavården. Under övningar med SimChild antar studenter rollen som yrkesutövande socionomer och ställs inför uppgiften att individuellt göra bedömningar och fatta beslut i ett barnavårdsärende. Den skriftliga information som studenterna successivt får tillgång till är, som ofta är fallet i faktiska ärenden, knapphändig och motstridig. Deltagarna i simuleringen får tillgång till samma ärendebeskrivning men med den viktiga skillnaden att bakgrundsinformation om till exempel barnets etnicitet alternativt kön varieras slumpmässigt. Efter den individuella delen av övningen samlas deltagarna i lärarledda seminarier och får då tillgång till aggregerade data om hur skillnader i bakgrundsvariabler påverkat bedömningar och beslut. Från dessa utgångspunkter ges de möjligheter att reflektera över hur stereotypa uppfattningar om till exempel kön eller etnicitet kan påverka professionellt socialt arbete.Med undersökningsfasen fokuserades den betydelse etnicitet kan ha för bedömningar och beslut genom att barnets namn varierades på ett sätt som skulle kunna indikera olika etniciteter. Studier av sådana SimChild-övningar genomfördes vid tre lärosäten med totalt 176 socionomstudenter. Efter individuella bedömningar och beslut samlades undersökningens respondenter i fokusgrupper som för dem fick ersätta de seminarier som annars följer det individuella arbetet i SimChild. Aggregerade sammanställningar av individuella bedömningar och beslut för respektive lärosäte presenterades och låg till grund för fokusgruppsdiskussionerna. Tre fokusgrupper bestående av vardera åtta studenter, totalt 24 studenter, organiserades i direkt anslutning till de avslutade individuella bedömningen. Fokusgruppsdiskussionerna indikerade att denna typ av datorsimulering kan främja studenters reflektion och självinsikter (artikel I). Studie II illustrerar hur studenterna kunde bli medvetna om hur stereotypa föreställningar kan påverka bedömning i ett barnavårdsärende.Utöver de båda studierna av socionomstudenters upplevelser av SimChild ingår i avhandlingen ytterligare två studier som på olika sätt syftar till att fördjupa diskussionen om användningen av datorbaserade simuleringar i socialt arbete. En scoping review av internationell forskning, med 16 ingående publikationer, visar att datorbaserade simuleringar i utbildning av socialarbetare fortfarande är i en prövande, preliminär fas. Av översikten framgår att datorbaserade simuleringar främst används för att främja specifika färdigheter men också förmåga till reflektion eftersträvas. I den sista artikeln (IV) diskuteras huruvida utvecklingen av datorbaserade simuleringar för undervisningsbruk kan bidra till utvecklingen också av forskningsmetoder i socialt arbete. Diskussionen illustreras med data från en pilotstudie med 63 studenter och flera forskningsfördelar med simuleringar framhålls: studiers externa validitet främjas av realismen i simuleringen medan den interna validiteten främjas genom möjligheter till kontroll.Reflektion utgör en viktig teoretisk ram för avhandlingen och kan förstås som länken mellan socialarbetarens teoretiska kunskaper och praktiska färdigheter. För att förstå studenternas bedömningar och tolkningar i samband med den datorbaserade simuleringen utgår analysen från begreppen reflektion i handling, reflektion över handling och reflektion inför handling. Utöver dessa begrepp tar analysen även avstamp i kritisk reflektion, vilket bland annat innebär att synliggöra studenters förgivettagna föreställningar.En central slutsats i avhandlingen är att simuleringar av SimChilds typ gör det möjligt för socionomstudenter att se skillnader i beslut och bedömningar, reflektera över varför dessa skillnader uppstår och reflektera över den betydelse sådana skillnader kan få för klienter.
7.
Enell, Sofia
(författare)
Transit i samhällsvården : När unga utreds på särskilda ungdomshem
2015
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis is about assessments of young people in secure accommodations. Institutional assessments relate to the paradox in child welfare of combining control and care. The procedure raises questions about their implications for young people, their caseworkers and evolving care trajectories. Although institutional assessments of young people have a historical heritage, research about their implications is lacking. The aim of the thesis is to explore young people’s and their caseworkers’ experiences of assessments in secure accommodations and their implications for young people’s care trajectories. Methods used are primarily repeated interviews with 16 young people during a period of two years and one interview with their caseworkers. Surveys about 85 youths, participatory observations and written assessments are also included. This thesis takes an interactionist approach and the material has been analysed with the main concept of care trajectory along with the concepts of self-presentation, total institution, institutional identity and texts as coordinators.The results are presented in four papers. The concluding analysis shows that assessments in secure accommodations can be divided into three elements: the practice, the text and the placement. These three elements have different implications for the young people and the caseworkers. For the young people the practice and the placement converge into an assessment universe that, with the text, intensifies their shaping of self-identity. The young people’s experiences are characterised by lack of control over their self-presentations, the present and the future. For the caseworkers, the practice has implications for their understanding of the young people’s individual troubles, the text for negotiating with other actors and the placement in their efforts to achieve change in the young people’s troublesome situations. The assessments’ implications for stability and foreseeability in the young people’s further care trajectories are limited. Moreover, the procedure of assessing young people in itself contains instability through involving several professionals in different parts of the assessment and decision-making process. Despite lack of stability, the thesis reveals that some young people experience the assessment as a place for self-development and where the course of the care trajectory changes to the better.
8.
Hedman, Karl, 1967-
(författare)
Managing Medical Emergency Calls
2016
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This dissertation is a conversation analytic examination of recurrent practices of interaction in medicalemergency calls. The study expands the analytical focus in past research on emergency calls betweenemergency call operators and callers to pre-hospital emergency care interaction on the phone betweennurses, physicians and callers. The investigation is based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Swedish emergencycontrol centre. The data used for the study consists primarily of audio recordings of medical emergency calls.Fundamental procedures in medical emergency calls examined in the dissertation are: (1) questioning; (2)emotion management; (3) risk management and (4) instruction giving. Emergency call-takers ask questions toelicit descriptions by callers of what is happening and to manage symptoms of patients to help keep them safeuntil ambulance crews arrive. In the questioning practice about acutely ill or injured patients call-takers usemainly yes-no questions and clarify problems by questioning callers making a distinction between defined andundefined problems. The analysis reveals four core types of emotion management practices: (1) call-takerskeep themselves calm when managing callers’ social displays of emotions; (2) promising ambulanceassistance; (3) providing problem solving presentations including emergency response measures to concernsof callers, and (4) emphasising the positive to create hope for callers. Call-takers use seven key procedures tomanage risk in medical emergency calls: (1) risk listening through active listening after actual and possiblerisks; (2) risk questioning; (3) risk identification; (4) risk monitoring; (5) risk assessment; (6) making decisionsabout elicited risk and (7) risk reduction. Instruction giving using directives and recommendations isaccomplished by call-takers in four main ways: (1) acute flow maintaining instruction giving when callers areprocedurally out of line; (2) measure oriented instructions for patient care and emergency responsemanagement; (3) organisational response instructions and (4) summarising instruction giving. Callers routinelyacknowledge risk identifications and follow instructions delivered by call-takers to examine statuses and lifesigns of patients such as breathing, movement and pulse, and perform basic first aid and emergency responsemeasures.The findings generated from this study will be useful in emergency call-taker training in carrying out interactiveprocedures in medical emergency calls and add to the larger research programmes on on-telephoneinteraction between professionals and citizen callers. This is an essential book for pre-hospital emergency careproviders and institutional interaction researchers and students.
9.
Jansson, Peter M., 1965-
(författare)
Våldets onda cirklar : En explorativ undersökning av mäns barndomsupplevelser, maskuliniteter, känslor, våld samt terapeutiska interventioner mot våld
2016
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Avhandlingens överordnade syfte är att utforska möjligheterna för ett integrerat forskningsperspektiv på mäns våld samt exemplifiera hur sådan forskning kan bedrivas. Det konkreta syftet är att öka kunskapen om hur våldsamma mäns barndomsupplevelser, socialisation, maskulinitetskonstruktion och emotioner kan relateras till deras våld mot andra män, mot sig själva och mot kvinnor samt till hur terapeutiska interventioner mot våld kan analyseras och utvecklas i korrespondens med denna kunskap. Med vetenskapsteoretiska utgångspunkter hämtade från den kritiska realismen och ekologiska metoder relaterar studien forskning från olika skolbildningar till varandra; - psykologisk: om barndomserfarenheter och socialisation, socialpsykologisk: om emotioner och interaktion samt sociologisk: om social klass, könsmaktsstrukturer och hegemonisk maskulinitet. Detta genomförs för att kunna få tillgång till kunskap om hur olika faktorer samverkar vid mäns våld.I studie I och II studerades möjligheterna att undersöka de sociala banden mellan terapeut/terapi och klient inom terapeutiska behandlingar mot våld. I studie I operationaliserades indikatorer på emotionerna stolthet och skam och i studie II testades dessa på terapeuter inom en KBT-orienterad terapi. I studie IIIundersöktes män i olika maskulinitetspositioner, där urvalet för den ena gruppen hämtades ur populationen män dömda till terapi för våld och missbruk och den andra ur populationen män som organiserat arbetade för jämlikhet och mot våld mot kvinnor. I studien jämfördes de båda gruppernas förhållningssätt till faktorer som i tidigare forskning relaterats till våld och våld mot kvinnor. I studie IVundersöktes våldsdömda mäns karriärer fram till deras nuvarande position som våldsbejakande kriminella i avsikt att öka kunskapen om det samspel mellan faktorer som i olika situationer leder fram till deras våld mot andra män, sig själva och kvinnor. Samtliga empiriska studier använde kvalitativa metoder för datainsamling och analys. I studie IV användes individuella intervjuer och biografisk analys, I studie II ochIII användes gruppintervjuer samt deduktiv innehållsanalys. I studie I, den teoretiska reviewartikeln, utgjorde sociologisk, socialpsykologisk och psykologisk teoribildning empiri.Avhandlingen visar att det finns fler fördelar är nackdelar med ett nivåövergripande perspektiv. Nivåintegrerande studier försvåras av att de kräver en komplex metodologi för att kunna hantera samverkan mellan faktorer bakom våld på olika nivåer men ger å andra sidan en mer holistisk förståelse av fenomenet i fråga. Resultaten visar att integrerande perspektiv kan minska risken för ekologiska felslut och ökar förståelsen av komplex samverkan mellan faktorer bakom mäns våld, något som kan komma att bidra till kunskapsutvecklingen inom våldsterapiområdet. Den teoretiska reviewartikeln (studie I) exemplifierade hur teoretiskt och metodologiskt driven forskning om sociala band kan göras pragmatiskt tillämpbar av terapeuter inom våldbehandlingar. Den tillämpade studien av en KBT-terapi (studie II) gav exempel på hur operationaliserade indikatorer på stolthet och skam kan användas praktiskt för att bestämma kvalitén på det sociala bandet mellan terapeut och klient. Den studerade KBT-terapin innehöll som förväntat både skam- och stolthetskapande moment vilket utgör värdefulla utgångspunkter för vidare forskning. Jämförelsen mellan män i idealtypiskt motsatta maskulinitetspositioner (studie III) visade att både gruppen av män som arbetar mot våld mot kvinnor och männen dömda till behandling mot våld, bär på ambivalenta attityder gentemot våld och våld mot kvinnor. Jämförelsen visade vidare att gruppernas maskulinitetskonstruktioner och attityder till våld korresponderar med grupperingarnas olika tillgång till ekonomiska, sociala och kulturella resurser. Den biografiskt fokuserade kvalitativa studien av män i våldsbehandling (studie IV) undersökte explorativt hur karriären fram till våldskriminell kan se ut och hur barndomsupplevelser, socialisation, maskulinitet och emotioner hos enskilda våldsverkande män kan tänkas ha samverkat med varandra när våld äger rum. Resultaten visade att de män som vittnar om utsatthet för allvarligt våld i barndomen är mer skambenägna och vid kränkningar från andra tenderar att omedvetet och utan föregående känslor av skam direkt reagera med aggressioner och våld mot båda könen. Övriga män var visserligen skambenägna men beskrev en mer kontrollerad våldsreaktion. Två män som blivit brutalt fysiskt mobbade i grundskolan, berättade om ett mer kontrollerat våld. En preliminär hypotes är att männen kan ha lärt sig att kognitivt, för att undslippa fortsatt mobbing, ta kontrollen över processen där skamkänslor ersätts med aggressioner. Föräldrarnas personliga problem tillsammans med deras bristande sociala kontroll och omsorg antogs ha ett samband med flera av männens skolproblem, deras umgänge med avvikande ungdomar, deras senare svårigheter med att kunna försörja sig med konventionella medel samt deras våldskarriärer.
10.
Jarhag, Sven
(författare)
Planering eller frigörelse? : En studie om bemyndigande
2001
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The legislation on rights that was presented in the final report of the commission of inquiry into handicap (SOU 1991:46), the Act concerning Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments, showed that, from an ethical point of view, society´s welfare is something that concerns everyone. The demand for social solidarity, according to the inquiry, meant that public measures must be designed to meet quality requirements aiming at self-determination and influence, accessibility, participation, and continuity and holism. The focus is on the problematic concept of empowerment. The aim of the study was to acquire a deeper understanding of whether this phenomenon as a process was active at three levels of society: individual, group and municipality. The methods used were interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation. Written documents, such as minutes and memoranda, were also analysed and interpreted in order to understand empowerment at these three contextual levels. The dissertation is based on three empirical studies using this method of analysis. Although society´s rule system creates new administrative categories, which in turn generate administrative paradigms, it is in the relations between the actors at these three levels that the content is developed, that is, in interaction between them at the level of actor and structure. Alberto Melucci´s (1991) discussion of the irreconcilable tension between liberation and control/repression, between the opposites of empowerment and attitudes of paternalism/disempowerment, also provided an analytical model that is used throughout the dissertation. Julian Rappaport´s (1981) analysis of empowerment phases was likewise an important component when the empowerment theory was applied to the empirical studies. The dissertation also includes a description and analysis of Beth Mount´s (1987) study of planning processes, in order to compare some Anglo-Saxon planning models with the individual plan presented in the Act (prop. 1992/93:159). The results show that the paternalistic attitudes that dominate the planning processes aimed at empowerment are ideologically associated with individual and medical explanatory models of handicap. Four shared themes are presented, representing categories which answer the research questions posed, that is, whether empowerment processes could be observed at the different levels. Regardless of what empowerment functionally impaired persons can achieve through the attitudes of the public authorities, the Act cannot conceal the fact that nothing has changed yet since the law was passed in any respects that concerns people´s influence and empowerment. In this discursive development, cooperation between the research community and the functionally impaired persons is a cornerstone.
