| 1. |
- Allen, Mary Dallas, et al.
(författare)
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Special Issue on Social Work in the Time of COVID-19
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - : University of Stavanger, Department of Social Studies. - 0809-9936. ; 16:2, s. 1-8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Avendal, Christel
(författare)
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Social Work in Ghana: Engaging Traditional Actors in Professional Practices
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - Stavanger : Stavanger University Library. - 0809-9936. ; 6:2, s. 106-124
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In contemporary Ghana, the traditional system and professional social work operate as two parallel systems within the field of social work. The aim of this study was to investigate if and how the teaching of contemporary professional social work in Ghana takes into account traditional actors and practices. The traditional system includes extended family members and traditional authorities such as chiefs or family heads. It formed the social institution that protected and cared for the vulnerable before (Western) social work was introduced as a formal profession in Ghana. A 10-week ethnographic field study was conducted at the Department of Social Work at the University of Ghana. The study employed a qualitative, social constructionist approach, interpreting the results within a theoretical framework of social world theory. The empirical material consisted of interviews with students and teachers, participant observation at lectures, and various documents. The main findings of the study were that professional social workers and traditional actors can be seen as members of two subworlds – the subworld of professional social workers and the subworld of traditional actors. Students and teachers discuss interventions from the perspective of social workers and traditional actors. Their ability to take different perspectives seems to be crucial for localisation – the process by which social work is made relevant to local culture and traditions. The interviewees’ accounts reveal how localisation is not only about culture, but also about social structures and practical considerations. The poor state of the social work profession in Ghana affects interventions in a profound way.
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| 4. |
- Basic, Goran, 1972-
(författare)
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A case of what? : Methodological lessons from a reanalysis of conflicts within Swedish Juvenile Care
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - : Stavanger University Library. - 0809-9936. ; 8:2, s. 222-250
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- “Collaboration” is generally portrayed as being beneficial to authorities, even if previous collaborative research shows that conflicts are common between authorities who are supposed to cooperate. What takes place when different actors in the collaboration meet in practice? And what is the best way to analyse this? In qualitative studies, it is often problematic to go from an exhaustive analysis of individual empirical instances to an overall picture of the context or phenomenon in which all instances taken together can be viewed as a case. Years of close engagement with the data may interfere with the analyst’s capacities and opportunities to contextualize a study more broadly and theoretically, and detailed knowledge about a range of situations in the field may make novel contextualizations difficult. This article discusses how to overcome such obstacles, using examples from a study about a “collaboration” project in Swedish youth care.
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| 5. |
- Basic, Goran, 1972-
(författare)
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Successful Collaboration in Social Care Practice : Beneficial Success Points of Interest for the Young Person in Swedish Juvenile Care
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - Stavanger : Universitetet i Stavanger. - 0809-9936. ; 13:2, s. 56-77
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this ethnographic study is to analyse themes for ‘the successful collaborations’ that emerge from the study field notes on youth in Swedish juvenile care, and that can be interpreted as beneficial for these youth. These successful collaborations were observed, for instance, at meetings where the young persons were being discussed, and where an observer could distinguish planning for them that was carried out practically. The empirical base for this study is its total of 119 field observations/notes. The examples analysed reference a completed appointment for an eye test, a practical realization of active leisure, homework help and an internship placement that works. The coherence of three actors belonging to three different categories (coherent triads), and success points of interest that benefit the youth in the situation, create the image of a positive development for them. In this way, common identities of interplay that are useful for the young person are created and elucidated. The physical presence of the young person in these situations is an especially important theme for the ‘successful collaboration’. This study shows that trust and motivation are important aspects for a successful collaboration and inclusion of less powerful individuals and groups of individuals within a community. Young people discussed in this study receive confirmation of their identities by participating in the community, with a successful interaction between actors in juvenile care a prerequisite for successful involvement and integration.
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| 6. |
- Eldén, Sara
(författare)
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"You child is just wonderful”: On ethics and access in research with children
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - 0809-9936. ; :2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article discuss the consequences of the ambiguous view of children in the ethical guidelines – the ambitions to “give voice” while also “protect” – with a point of departure taken in the Swedish context, and in an actual research process of a project on children and care. It shows how the regulation of informed consent through the parent compromises the ideals of child-centred research; firstly, by limiting the child’s possibility to opt in to research; secondly, by affecting the relationship between researcher, child and parent in the research encounter; and thirdly, by jeopardizing the child’s right to confidentiality. The author argues that we should view not only the child’s but also the adult’s consent as a “continuous negotiation” and discusses strategies for strengthening the child’s right to opt in and participate in research on equal terms.
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| 7. |
- Ellingsen, Ingunn T., et al.
(författare)
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The child, the parents, the family and the state : Chile and Norway compared
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - : Stavanger University Library. - 0809-9936. ; 14:1, s. 93-114
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- EnglishThere is a lack of research comparing Latin American and European countries alongside how family policy relates to social work practices. This study fills in the research gap, and compares Chilean and Norwegian social workers’ conceptions of children’s position in the family, in family work in a complex family case, and how their understandings impact on CWS practices when working with families with complex needs in each context. A total of 19 social workers participated in the study. The participants took part in four focus groups, discussing a complex family case (vignette). The results of the analysis reveal similarities and difference across contexts, according to children’s position in CWS work, social worker’s understandings of the responsibilities of parents and the type of family interventions they were inclined to offer. The Chilean social workers seem more family-, and adult-oriented than their Norwegian counterparts, which holds an individualized child oriented view when discussing the case. Moreover, when issues interventions, the Norwegian social workers seems to relay more on the state, whereas the Chilean workers place more trust on the family network. Practical implications of the findings are discussed in light of family welfare policy and child welfare discourses. SpanishLos niños, sus padres, las familias y el Estado. Chile y Noruega comparados.Hay una escasez de investigaciones que comparen América Latina y los países europeos, en términos de cómo las políticas de familia se relacionan con las prácticas de los trabajadores sociales. Este estudio se posiciona en este vacío investigativo, y compara la concepción de trabajadores sociales noruegos y chilenos respecto la posición de los niños en las familias, en el trabajo con familias en casos de familias complejas, y cómo sus interpretaciones impactan en las prácticas del sistema de protección infantil cuando trabajan con familias con necesidades complejas en cada contexto. Un total de 19 trabajadores sociales participaron en el estudio. Los participantes tomaron parte de cuatro grupos focales donde discutieron un caso de familia compleja (viñeta). Los resultados del análisis revelan similitudes y diferencias entre los dos contextos, de acuerdo a la posición de los niños en el trabajo del sistema de protección infantil, la concepción de los trabajadores sociales sobre la responsabilidad de los padres; y el tipo de intervención en familias que son más propensos a ofrecer. Los trabajadores sociales chilenos parecen más orientados hacia la familia (y a los adultos), que sus pares noruegos, quienes sostienen una visión más orientada hacia la individualización de los niños en la discusión del caso. Por otra parte, cuando se trata de las intervenciones, los trabajadores sociales noruegos parecen apoyarse más en el Estado, mientras que los chilenos ponen más la confianza en las redes familiares. Las implicaciones prácticas de estos hallazgos son discutidas a la luz de las políticas de bienestar familiar y los discursos sobre bienestar infantil.
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| 8. |
- Eriksson, Erik
(författare)
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To tell the right story: Functions of the personal user narrative in service user involvement
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - 0809-9936. ; :2, s. 1-32
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- From the starting point of narrative ethnography, this article explores a specific kind of service user involvement in psychiatry: staff training activities in which patients and former patients are invited to “tell their stories”. A core feature of these stories is that they are based on the narrators’ self-perceived experience, and they all have a highly personal character. I call these stories service user narratives, and these are the topic of study in this article. The narratives’ disposition, content and functions are explored, as is the role played by the personal aspects of the stories. This article investigates two functions of the service user narrative: the narrative as a means (1) of creating alternative images of mental ill health, and (2) of enabling a critique of psychiatry. The context wherein the stories are told can be understood as containing an inherent power asymmetry, in which the narrators hold a subordinate position relative to the organization and its employees. Hence, the study explores how power structures affect and might be affected by the user narratives. It turns out that while the user narratives work as counter-narratives in some respects, questioning the dominant order, in other ways they maintain the current power balance within psychiatry. The personal features of the user narrative are vital to enabling the delivery of a critique — however, at the same time, the same personal features could also work to help maintain the narrator’s inferior position.
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| 9. |
- Gümüscü, Ahmet, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Family as Raw Material – the Deconstructed Family in the Swedish Social Services
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - Bodö. - 0809-9936. ; :2, s. 1-27
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article focuses on how families are defined and conceptualized by social workers in the Swedish social services. Using a qualitative study design, we carried out telephone interviews with 60 social workers in five major sectors of the social services in two smaller and two larger municipalities. These sectors included elderly care, disability, child welfare, addiction and economic support, with a qualitative content analysis approach used to analyze the data.The results showed that the practices in social service organizations are both individualized and specialized. Social workers primarily focus on the individual as the client when deciding upon interventions, and when asked about how they regard, define and delimit the family in their work, our analysis revealed that different mediating mechanisms were engaged in what can be seen as a deconstruction of the family. These mechanisms included legislation (as a control mechanism), household composition (boundary mechanism) and service needs (professional mechanism), which were used in various ways and to differing degrees within each sector. The resultant five unique and sector-specific conceptualizations of families are implicated in how interventions are constructed and work processes targeted at individuals and families.
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| 10. |
- Norstedt, Maria, et al.
(författare)
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Self-employment and disability : the case of support for starting a business in Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - : Universitetet i Stavanger. - 0809-9936. ; 18:2, s. 154-179
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In many countries, self-employment has become a common strategy for achieving inclusion in the labour market. Studies show that the occurrence of self-employment depends not only on individual motives, but also on existing policies and support. In Sweden, labour market measures to include people with disabilities are primarily organized to achieve inclusion through traditional forms of employment, though one tool offered by the Swedish Public Employment Service is Support to Start a Business. One part of this support is exclusive to people with disabilities. Although the Swedish Public Employment Service is responsible for this specific support, they collaborate with both external state-funded and non-profit actors who assess applicants’ business ideas.Drawing on the methodological approach of institutional ethnography, this article explores how the in-house frontline workers and external actors describe their professional roles, how they make decisions and what the chain of action looks like at multiple sites. Nine representatives from the various organizations that people can meet with when trying to start and run their own business have taken part in semi-structured interviews.The analysis identifies different institutional practices that overlap when people with disabilities apply for support to start their own business: one focusing on the efficient allocation of resources, and the other on the individual’s social and financial welfare by protecting the individuals these organizations meet with from risks connected to economy and health. These two practices reflect a long-standing conflict between control and support in objectives within both labour market policy and social work. This support of self-employment for people with disabilities is organized by actors who traditionally have not been studied in research on social work.
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