| 1. |
- Bengtsson, Mikael
(författare)
-
Karriär och profession. : Om positioner, statushierarki och mobilitet inom socionomyrket.
- 2020
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Societal reforms and development within the Swedish public sector have reframed the prerequisites for social workers, and other professions, and changed the area of work practice. I have used the career concept in order to investigate professional change because it provides a conceptual lens to illuminate stability and change and it captures both external and internal professional processes. To make use of this lens, I have broken up the professional group by tasks and also included three degree cohorts of social workers as conditions can vary with experience and between time-bound contexts. The purpose of this dissertation is twofold. The first is to examine and analyse the interplay between external and internal factors in the development of social work as a profession. The second is to examine and analyse the internal organizing of the social work profession through the dynamic be-tween careers, profession and organizations. The following six questions are guiding the work: 1. What does the work area look like in the social worker profession and what are the differences be-tween the three cohorts? 2. What factors shape positions in the field? 3. What positions appear in the field and how do they appear in three time-bound contexts? 4. What does the status-hierarchical order look like and why does the order appear as it does in the field? 5. What forms of mobility arise in the field from the movements and status-hierarchical order and why does mobility look like this? 6. How can the dynamics between careers, profession and organizations be understood as part of the devel-opment of the social worker profession? The results of the cohorts by employer and scope of practice show the significance of societal chang-es in the field. The profession’s development is affected by the interplay between job opportunities and individuals’ responses, external and internal forces. The cohort-based differences also show movement from certain ‘core’ areas and functions within the profession during careers. The social workers thus appear as a group gathered around certain segments in the welfare services sector, but the same type of employer or scope of practice often includes several of the eight positions that emerges in the field. The positions form a bipartite status-hierarchical order related to profession and organization, an order that is manifested through the mobility of the three cohorts. From the concepts of profession and career, this study has developed a way to explore the interplay between external and internal factors in a professions’ development and its inner organizing. Differentiation and position are active key concepts in the model together with a functional basis and significant individual, organizational and professional factors that define positions. This model of examining interplay and inner organizing can be applied to other professions and contexts.
|
|
| 2. |
- Carlstedt, Elisabeth
(författare)
-
Nursing homes on public display : Reputation management in the new landscape of Swedish eldercare
- 2020
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The general perception of Swedish nursing homes has historically been gloomy. Nursing homes have been associated with a passive, isolated, and institutionalised ‘fourth age’ life. Media reports and the public debate have largely stressed the need for organisational improvements, and called for transparency and control. In recent years, marketisation, audits, and mediatisation have become new conditions that together have shaped the landscape of Swedish eldercare, leading to increased organisational sensitivity to public perception. These changes have made organisational images more difficult to control and cultivate. The dissertation thus examines nursing homes’ publicly displayed images and how nursing home representatives act and react in relation to such images to defend and improve their organisational reputation. The dissertation answers these questions: (1) What kinds of images of nursing homes are constructed in the mass media and social media? (2) What have marketisation, audits, and mediatisation meant for nursing homes’ reputation management practices? (3) How do nursing home representatives manage their organisational reputation in the context of external demands and descriptions? Organisations are theoretically understood as open systems in a dynamic relationship with their institutional environment, and in need of external support to survive and succeed. Organisational reputation is an essential asset in an era of marketisation, particularly for organisations with difficulties demonstrating success and whose goals are uncertain or undefined, such as nursing homes. The analysis is based on 42 qualitative interviews with nursing home representatives, 338 pictures from nursing homes’ Instagram accounts, and 124 newspaper articles about eldercare user satisfaction surveys. The findings show that while the mass media construct nursing homes as places needing continuous improvement and control, the nursing homes’ self-presentations assert that these are settings where life is both normal and better than before. Increased marketisation, audits, and mediatisation have enforced the need to manage reputation by adhering to externally formulated demands, and to provide documented evidence of successful adaption to norms and expectations. Nursing home representatives manage reputation by adjusting organisational activity to external demands on different levels and in different situations: while the validity of externally formulated demands was to some extent dismissed, representatives still express the need to address and act on such expectations. The dissertation shows that the new conditions in the landscape of Swedish eldercare have given way to new institutional logics for reputation management: there is a perceived need to compete and compare; to produce content and communicate images; and to manage and appeal to their intended audience. Organisations attribute validity and adapt to externally formulated demands in different ways. They embrace the validity of external demands and conform; they dismiss and reject demands; they substitute images for action; or they adhere to external demands for the sake of an improved reputation.
|
|
| 3. |
- Angelin, Anna
(författare)
-
Den dubbla vanmaktens logik : En studie om långvarig arbetslöshet och socialbidragstagande bland unga vuxna
- 2009
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the early 1990s a severe economic recession struck Sweden. The generation about to establish themselves on the labour market at this time were born in the mid seventies. They experienced unemployment and welfare dependency to a considerably higher extent than any previous generation in the modern Swedish welfare state. Despite the recovery of the Swedish economy a group of young adults, now in their mid thirties, simply could not find a way to either work, education or self-support. The aim of this dissertation is to study both actual living conditions and the experience of being unemployed and a social assistance recipient among those who remained in benefit dependency after the welfare crisis in the 1990s. The methodological approach is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The empirical data is collected from 3 studies; longitudinal analyses of official register based data, a survey based on replication of official surveys and 74 interviews with long-term unemployed young adults. The statistical analyses state that there is a connection between early marginalisation and later marginalisation in this cohort. The analyses of the interviews indicated three central themes which the respondents perceived as the most problematic issues in relation to being long-term unemployed and a social assistance recipient. Those were troubled economical circumstances, shame and lacking social recognition due to receiving social assistance and feelings of powerlessness in relation to the social services. The analyses in this dissertation shows that young adults that have had severe labour market difficulties during their establishment phase often experience multiple deprivation and more problematic living conditions compared with the normal population of the same age. They often have a marginalized or excluded position on several welfare dimensions. It is also evident that many experience cultural and institutional exclusion.The young adults often have several obstacles that hindered them from finding employment and a source of income. A recurring empirical pattern is that the respondents have many different problems at the same time. This accumulation of different problems often contribute to feelings of powerlessness in trying to solve the extensive and simultaneous difficulties. A central understanding of this situation is that the respondents often lack the resources that could enhance their possibilities to employment. Powerlessness is experienced in relation to concrete hindrances but also in emotional and relational experiences. This can be described as a double powerlessness.
|
|
| 4. |
- Andrée Löfholm, Cecilia
(författare)
-
Multisystemisk terapi i Sverige : Evidensbaserad metod i nytt sammanhang
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation deals with the transferability of an evidence-based treatment method from one cultural context to another, with Multisystemic Therapy (MST) in Sweden as an example. The primary research question is whether the evidence-based treatment intervention MST can be transferred from the US to Sweden with retained treatment effects. This thesis is organized around four separate but interrelated studies. The first of these studies focused on the annual incidence and childhood prevalence of children and youth receiving child welfare interventions in Sweden. It showed that the annual incidence and childhood prevalence of child welfare services among adolescents were comparably high. The second study, a randomized trial, assessed the effectiveness of MST within the normally operating social service system for 156 youths who met the diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder. Youth were randomly assigned between MST and treatment-as-usual (TAU) groups. Assessments were conducted at intake as well as seven and 24 months after referral. The study presents the outcomes after 24 months. Results from multiagent and multimethod assessment batteries showed a general decrease in psychiatric problems and antisocial behavior among participants across treatments. There were no significant differences between the two groups. Although the results also indicate that it was possible to implement MST in Sweden with the same treatment effects as in the US, several possible explanations to the results were investigated including treatment adherence and socio demographical and systemic differences between the US and Sweden. The third study examined weather MST treatment adherence changed during the first six years among Swedish MST teams, factors that account for identified changes, and how treatment adherence was related to post-treatment outcomes. Fidelity data were obtained from 973 families receiving MST from 68 therapists in ten Swedish teams. Results suggested that more than a year of activity was needed to significantly increase therapist treatment adherence. The collective experience of MST within the MST teams seemed to be the variable of primary importance to treatment adherence. The results presented a modest correlation between high treatment adherence and preferable post-treatment outcomes. The fourth and final study was a review that addresses the issue of interpreting results from effectiveness studies which utilize TAU as a comparator. A meta-analysis suggested a striking heterogeneity in achieved results between the studies included, and the hypothesis that context may affect the outcome was not contradicted. Results highlighted the importance of paying attention to the conditions under which the method has been proven effective.
|
|
| 5. |
- Avendal, Christel, 1977-
(författare)
-
Förhöjd vardaglighet : Unga på landsbygden gör vardag
- 2021
-
Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- I avhandlingen skildras vardagslivet hos en grupp unga som bor på landsbygden. Medan vardagen i regel ses som grå och trist visar avhandlingen hur unga gör den till något särskilt, meningsfullt och roligt, hur de gör förhöjd vardaglighet. Genom att studera ungas vardagsliv med etnografiska metoder och teoretisk nyfikenhet når studien kunskap bortom de problembeskrivningar som vanligtvis skildrar såväl unga som landsbygderna. Avhandlingen visar hur unga gör förhöjd vardaglighet genom utfärder i vardagens vidgade rum, genom att skapa och bemästra osäkra situationer samt genom sällskap och samvaro med människor, djur och prylar. Kunskaper och lärande framträder som en genomgripande dimension av förhöjd vardaglighet, och ofta förbisedda vardagskunskaper uppmärksammas. Avhandlingen lyfter fram värdet av det invanda och alldagliga och visar på behovet av att socialt arbete och liknande praktikområden uppmärksammar vardagslivet och förhöjd vardaglighet.
|
|
| 6. |
- Blomberg, Staffan
(författare)
-
Specialiserad biståndshandläggning inom den kommunala äldreomsorgen : Genomförandet av en organisationsreform och dess praktik
- 2004
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The 1990s was a period characterized by a strong pressure for reform in the Swedish municipalities. The care manager reform, i.e. the initiation of a position within the administration - the care manager - whose work tasks are concentrated around needs-assessment practices only, was one of many reform proposals. Within a fairly short time span a great number of municipalities decided to implement this new model for organizing the care of the elderly. A central research question in this thesis is how the rapid diffusion of this organizational idea could be explained. The diffusion of new ideas of organizing doesn’t come about automatically and doesn’t take place in a social vacuum. Reform proposals encounter different actors and local traditions, opinions and understandings of desirable goals and appropriate means. Eight Swedish municipalities were studied, and the thesis shows that there were differences among them concerning the arguments used when the reform was launched and implemented. A key to understand the impact of the reform is that it over time was ascribed more and new problem solving qualities. Among the early adopters the model was justified by ideological arguments, and the reform was seen as a necessary element in the privatization of the old age care services. The other municipalities in the study were not inclined to adopt the model in connection with marketization rhetoric; in fact, some of them opposed it on precisely these grounds. However, in a discourse about the need for greater rättssäkerhet – legal security in the sense of the individual’s rights in the face of law – the reform eventually became a solution to a new problem. The third discourse that paved the way for the care manager reform is connected with cost-efficiency. In this discourse the reform was associated with the control function of costs and a more restrictive needs-assessment practice. In the last phase of adoption, the reform had reached the status of a fashion prescribing the modern way of organizing old age care. The second part of the dissertation studies care management as occupational practice. The thesis shows that managers supported the reform with arguments echoing the different problem solving functions that had been ascribed to the model over time, but it also shows that support were tied to hopes for increased professionalization. However, the core domain of the care manager’s work – need-assessment – is contested by other occupational groups, e.g. medical professions. As the thesis shows there are signs that indicate that the power of the care managers to protect their new domains is uncertain. The empirical material consists of strategic interviews and documents. Interviews were held with the social actors involved in the implementation such as politicians, public servants at different positions in the local administration, union representatives and care managers. The documents were basically of two kinds; official public documents produced on a yearly basis in the local administration and internal documents produced in the old age care organizations, and secondly, documents referred to in the interviews, such as directives from supervisory authority, local evaluations and reports from consultants.
|
|
| 7. |
- Bohlin, Ulla
(författare)
-
Habilitation in focus : A human service organization and its challenges
- 2009
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation explores intervention practices for children and young persons with developmental disabilities. It focuses especially health and medically related services provided by the local children habilitation centres (CHC: s), where everyday services are carried out by interprofessional teams of habilitation specialists.The objective was to critically examine the CHC as a human service organization. How did professionals describe their work and the methods of treatment that they made use of? How could their conceptions be explained ? The purpose was also to explore whether and in what way the recently introduced training method of conductive education (CE) has influenced the habilitation work at the CHC: s.The qualitative study was carried out inspired by a social constructionist perspective of the phenomenon of habilitation. Organizational theory and in particular neo-institutional organizational theory offered an analytical instrument. The empirical material consisted of observations of the ongoing habilitation work: interviews with professionals (25 interviewees); 13 interviews with key informants involved in the discussion about conductive education; observations and interviews with staff and families at training centres for CE. Closely studied, the main tasks of the CHC: s reveal important dilemmas and ambiguities. Three (main) themes have been used to structure the problems:1)Frames of interpretation of the assignment; 2) Issues of influence; 3) Issues of competence and occupational qualification.In CHC: s, the opaque meaning of the habilitation concept can be used to handle the tension between the social and the medical logics and traditions, it can be a tool to claim jurisdiction for the habilitation experts; it can enlarge the areas of discretion for them and strengthen the legitimacy of the organization. When CE is offered as a complement/ alternative to habilitation services, this is an incitement for the habilitation organization to stress the qualities of the habilitation model. Gate-keeping and doing boundary work within the organization and in relation to the outer world are also important issues that are brought up by the interviewees.
|
|
| 8. |
- Ebsen, Frank
(författare)
-
Udsat til børneforsorg : om etablering af familiepleje, børenanstalter og indsats i hjemmet for udsatte børn i Danmark
- 2012
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation looks into the treatment of exposed children and young people. The background is a puzzlement as to how the discourse on treatment, during the latest twenty years, has concentrated on the same institutions and themes (Ebsen, 2007). The aim of the dissertation is to shed light on how the institutions of child saving, (family care, placement in residential care, intervention in the home) the specific social technologies and the understanding of children and adolescents, within the child saving system, were established. The first step in this research was to look back in time through the legislation and realize that the first stand-alone act on exposed children and adolescents was launched in 1905 (The Act of neglected and Criminal Children and Adolescents). The Act states that the institutions of child saving include family care, small and large institutions, special intervention in the homes of the neglected children, and an agency which was to make decisions on removing a child and, if necessary, on where the child should be placed. It appears as if the institutions had already been established at the time, and were just gathered in one act. The act gathered the many organizations into a public unity of child saving with the crucial point of securing a public financing by the state. There are good reasons for regarding the 1905 Act as a kind of constitution of the Danish child saving (Like e.g. Egelund, 1997; Bryderup, 2008). This led to research into the background of the 1905 Act More specifically, it led to the study of how the various institutions mentioned in the Act had come into being, and it was examined whether there existed some kind of special institutional “lock-up” which meant that one century later the same institutions were still crucial.
|
|
| 9. |
- Egard, Hanna
(författare)
-
Personlig assistans i praktiken : Beredskap initiativ och vänskaplighet
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Personal assistance is a user-directed service that was founded by a section of the disability movement, namely the American Independent Living movement, in the late 1960s. Today, the concept and ideology of personal assistance services (PAS) has spread worldwide, and constitutes a part of the support system for people with disabilities in many countries. The service differs from several other publicly financed services since users of personal assistance are given the opportunity to employ and supervise the staff providing the service. Organizing services in this way is presumed to enhance self-sufficiency of persons with disabilities and improve their chances of so-called independent living. This dissertation deals with personal assistance services (PAS) in the Swedish context. The aim is to illuminate and understand how personal assistance is carried out socially. To explore this, an ethnographic field study was conducted. The field study focused on face-to-face interaction of adult users with physical impairments and their personal assistants. Analysis and interpretation of the empirical material was primarily guided by Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective and concepts. Results show that the users and their personal assistants balance and shift between different modes of interacting with and approaching each other; by doing so they create and withhold definitions of the situations that are crucial for carrying out personal assistance services. “Preparedness” refers to their passivity, but also readiness, in situations when the users and personal assistants are idle. “Initiative” refers to their negotiations, but also agreements, concerning how the practical help of the personal assistance should be carried out. “Friendliness” refers to their small talk but also to the informal way of approaching each other.
|
|
| 10. |
- Elvhage, Gudrun
(författare)
-
Projekt som retorik och praktik : Om utvecklingsarbete på särskilda ungdomshem
- 2006
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis deals with development work within institutional care for young people. The Swedish National Board of Institutional Care (SiS) grants tens of millions of Swedish crowns to development projects to their institutions. Since the mid-1990s major investments have been made in order to develop the institutions? competence in family-work and networking. The aim of this thesis is to study the government's intentions in backing the development work of specially approved youth care. The thesis consists of two empirical studies, partly a document study that gives a historical perspective over the growth of development work in Sweden with an emphasis on institutional care, and partly a case study of how development work has been carried out within five governmental youth institutions. The document study shows that development work within the social field started to gain importance in the mid-1940s. At this time governmental institutions with responsibility for experimental work and research were established. During the 1970s development work started to become more commonplace within youth care and a number of major development projects were initiated. Development work that builds upon central initiatives is still the prevalent form of development work within youth care. The case study of the five youth homes demonstrates the difficulty of anchoring development projects in the personnel. This difficulty has led to many of the projects failing to reach their objectives. As a part of the development work the youth homes have received contributions for educational efforts. Even if these efforts have contributed to knowledge and methodological development the personnel in some cases have had difficulties in assimilating the training. At some of the youth homes several of the projects have not worked according to plan, which has led to the personnel becoming sceptical and mistrustful of the possibilities of the projects. From an organisational theory perspective, development funding is an informative means of control and functions as an administrative way of governing youth care. For the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care there exist reasons of both legitimacy and function in initiating development projects. For the youth homes it is mainly a question of function, namely obtaining more resources for the operation.
|
|
