| 1. |
- Selander, Viveca, 1955-
(författare)
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Familjeliv med personlig assistans
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The introduction of personal assistance in Sweden in 1994 showed an ambition by policymakers to ameliorate the conditions of persons with extensive disabilities. The legislators expressed a vision of autonomy and integrity, and that persons with considerable disabilities should lead a life like others. This includes having a family and being a parent. The thesis “Family life with personal assistance” has aimed at exploring what it means to have an extensive disability and to have personal assistants in everyday family life. The thesis has had an explorative onset and is based on interviews with eight women and men and their family members: partners, children and members from the family of origin. They were interviewed about their experiences of daily life with personal assistance. The results are structured under three themes.The first theme is about power - loss of power and control – loss of control in different situations in everyday life. The results indicate that the assistance users, in spite of a legislation that allows the user to choose how they want to form their personal assistance, are confronted with different dilemmas striving to maintain power and control over their everyday life and daily help. To cope with these challenges the assistance users had developed different strategies.The second theme is about the results of applying a life course perspective on the different experiences depending on when in life the assistance users became disabled – if they were born with the impairment or if they had an accident or became ill as adults. These different experiences have had an effect on how they look upon personal assistance and it has also had an impact on how they formed their strategies about assistance and the assistant’s relations to their children.The third theme is about the role of the family. Family members play a significant role in making everyday life work. In designing and using personal assistance, the individual’s freedom is balanced against his or her need of autonomy on one hand and the family’s demands for privacy on the other.
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| 2. |
- Stranz, Anneli, 1971-
(författare)
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Omsorgsarbetets vardag och villkor i Sverige och Danmark : Ett feministiskt kritiskt perspektiv
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present study analyses the welfare state as employer by studying eldercare workers’ experiences of their work in Sweden and Denmark. The Nordic welfare states are often described as potentially women-friendly due to the availability of publicly provided services that enable women to combine paid work and caring responsibilities. Whereas this might be empowering for a large group of women, paid care workers are often neglected in the discussion. The theoretical point of departure is Nancy Fraser’s dualistic model of gender justice, which encompasses redistribution (of material resources) and recognition (in the form of social status).By utilising survey-data (NORDCARE) on Swedish (n=532) and Danish (n=732) eldercare workers, the study shows that care recipients have larger needs and working conditions are more arduous in Sweden. However, in both countries workers report deficiencies with regard to insufficient resources, such as lack of staff, limited opportunities for development and training, and lack of necessary equipment for lifting service users, of support from managers and of reasonable time for the tasks to be performed. The pressure at work makes the care workers feel inadequate in relation to quality of care they are able to offer.The differences in job strain between the countries turn out to be of little importance when the care workers’ experiences of bodily and mental fatigue are compared. The bodies of the care workers are their main working tool and thus the bearer of the working conditions. More than 60 per cent of the respondents state that they often are physically tired after the day's work, and two-fifths of the respondents have seriously considered leaving their job during the past year. In both countries, the experience of physical and mental fatigue and the number of sick days over the past year are important factors behind thoughts about quitting the job.Using a dualistic model of gender justice, where redistribution and recognition are theorised as overlapping analytical dimensions, the results are interpreted as continuous organisational shortcomings which make the care workers’ everyday work invisible, and in the long run imply a risk for their health.
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| 3. |
- Ulmanen, Petra, 1968-
(författare)
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Omsorgens pris i åtstramningstid : Anhörigomsorg för äldre ur ett könsperspektiv
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines the extent of family care for older people, primarily filial care, and the costs of caring in the Swedish welfare state. Costs of caring are understood as the negative effects of caregiving, primarily on the caregivers’ working life. The analysis is inspired by feminist theories on the importance of welfare state provisions for care for women’s citizenship, including personal autonomy and economic independence.The main aims of this thesis are twofold. The first is to explore the extent and development of family care for older persons in Sweden, primarily filial care, and the consequences of caregiving for well-being and working life. The second is to explore how older persons’ family members have been represented and the possible consequences of these representations for the development of publicly financed eldercare services and other forms of support for family carers, as well as for family members’ living conditions.The thesis consists of four studies. The first reviews the literature concerning the extent and consequences of family caregiving for older persons and the welfare state’s policy responses to older people’s care needs. The second study analyses how older persons’ family members and their role in eldercare have been represented in Swedish eldercare policy since the 1950s. The third study analyses surveys to explore changes during the 2000s in the role of the family, the public sector and the market in providing care for older persons in Sweden. The fourth study is a survey analysis of the extent, content and consequences of filial care among middle-aged women and men in Sweden in 2013.The policy analysis found that the expansion of eldercare was motivated solely in relation to older persons’ needs; thus working daughters’ needs of eldercare have been a blind spot in Swedish eldercare policy.Since 2000, every fourth residential care bed has disappeared and the increase in homecare services did not fully compensate for the decline, resulting in a significant increase in filial care in all social groups, and among both sons and daughters. Daughters of older persons with shorter education, however, remained the primary providers of filial care.Both daughters and sons are affected by caregiving. They suffer to the same extent from difficulties in managing to accomplish their work tasks and taking part in meetings, courses and travels. They are also equally likely to reduce their working hours and to quit their job. It is however clearly more common that daughters experience mental and physical strain, difficulties in finding time for leisure and reduced ability to focus on their job. Although more daughters than sons retire earlier than planned due to filial care, this is very rare.Managerial care (handling contacts with health and eldercare services) has a more salient role in a welfare state such as Sweden, with generously provided care services, less intense filial care and high employment rates among both sexes. The high labour force participation however makes middle aged children more vulnerable when their parents’ care arrangement does not work. The decline in eldercare services since 1980 has reinforced co-ordination problems in health and eldercare services. The managerial care required to handle this development, while living up to the demands of work and family life, stands out as especially demanding for the well-being and working lives of daughters.
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| 4. |
- Linell, Hanna, 1975-
(författare)
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Child protection through an abuse-focused lens : Adolescent victimization and Swedish social services responses
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Knowledge concerning the social services’ use of the Care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act 1990:52 (CYPA) is relatively scarce, especially when it comes to the protection of adolescents victimized by abuse. The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate and discuss different conceptualisations of abuse, adolescents’ agency regarding abuse, victimization and social intervention, and how abuse and adolescent victimization are responded to, primarily by the social services. This is done from a stance influenced by critical realism as well as victim- and child-centred responses. The dissertation consists of four papers and examines these themes in two samples of judgments and related documents concerning applications for care of adolescents aged 13-17 under the CYPA. The findings from the total study of all judgments in the selected year clearly confirm § 2 CYPA as a rare intervention to protect adolescents. In only 85 of Sweden's 290 municipalities was a CYPA application made, but a main finding is that such care to a large extent was used to protect adolescents from various forms of abuse. In the total study, the applications of § 2 CYPA concerned 196 adolescents, for 70 per cent of whom abuse was described, and where more girls (96) than boys (41) were being considered for care based on abuse. Of all the girls, 79 per cent were described as subjected to abuse and of the boys 55 per cent. Also in the smaller sample consisting of judgments for 37 girls in care under § 2 CYPA and §§ 2 and 3 CYPA, abuse was described for many. For several adolescents in both samples abuse was described as having been exerted to maintain standards of honour, shame and virginity, and/ or to enable a forced marriage. The initiative and agency of the adolescents themselves in both the disclosure of abuse as well as the decision on alternative care is one of the most striking findings in the thesis. The majority of the adolescents, 71 per cent, were categorized as having intentionally disclosed the abuse. The aftermath of the disclosure was for many of the adolescents described as intensely challenging. For the majority the abuse was denied during the investigation, not only by the alleged abusers but also by non-abusing parents and other relatives. The findings relating to the social services responses suggest that the initial response to a high degree could be understood as parent-oriented. For 33 per cent, the judgment also revealed that the abuse had been disclosed to authorities one or several times prior to the investigation leading to the application for care under the CYPA. That the abuse in these cases had been known to the social services for on average 5 years can from a child-centred position be seen as a major failure regarding the system’s ability to reach children and stop abuse. A central conclusion is that the various forms of abuse described seem more connected to domination, fear, power and control than to conflict; to some extent mirroring the kind of systematic oppression described for victimized adults seeking the protection of NGOs and public authorities. The findings imply that interventions under the CYPA may enable more child-centred, safe and stable protection of children subjected to this kind of abuse. Given the findings in the present thesis it is argued that it may be important to differentiate the concept of abuse as well as to acknowledge the agency of children in both research and in practice.
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| 5. |
- Storm, Palle, 1977-
(författare)
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Betydelsen av kön och hudfärg i äldreboendets vardag under olika organisatoriska villkor
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Even though nursing home care in Sweden and Canada takes place in different care contexts and utilizes different organisational models, in both countries, the traditional image of an ideal care worker is characterized by femininity and whiteness. However, today, in both countries, the care workforce is becoming far more diverse, with increasing numbers of white men, and non-white women and men.The overarching aim of this thesis is to study the meaning of gender and skin colour in the everyday life in Swedish and Canadian nursing homes. The study, based on observations and interviews, focuses on how organizational conditions contribute to creating, maintaining and challenging notions of gender and skin colour.The thesis consists of four articles, analysing the following questions:How is gender, in interaction with ethnicity and sexuality, expressed by women and men care workers in a Swedish nursing home? How do organizational conditions shape and influence men’s positions and their possibilities to be integrated and accepted as care workers in two Canadian nursing homes characterized by different care models? How do organizational conditions impact on care workers’ strategies to handle skin colour, racism and language problems in Swedish and Canadian nursing homes characterized by different scope for care workers to exercise discretion? How do non-white men born outside Europe describe their experiences of working in Swedish nursing homes, and what does it mean for them to have a body that differs from the traditional image of a care worker?Overall, the findings demonstrate that an interaction of gender and skin colour shapes the workers’ experiences and position in the everyday life of care. The most profound impact is on those who deviate the most from the normative care worker, non-white men care workers. Significantly, the results also show that the ability for the organization to handle diversity is highly dependent on whether or not the workers are able to exercise discretion in their daily work. If these organizational conditions do not exist, there is a high risk that men and non-white workers will be seen as problematic by both co-workers and residents.In order to mitigate these risks and manage the increasing diversity of those working in nursing homes, it is essential to recognize the importance of organizational conditions that can create and ensure acceptance and integration of care workers from diverse backgrounds. Therefore, questions about gender and skin colour must be recognized as a priority for management, an organizational matter that should not be left to the individual or the work group to handle.
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| 6. |
- Holmdahl, Johan, 1971-
(författare)
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Hot om vräkning : Tre aktörers perspektiv
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- From the filing of an application to evict to the final execution of an eviction order is a long and complicated process. This raises questions about how the actors involved experience and act during this process. The general aim of the study was to describe and analyse this process from the respective perspectives of the landlords, the social services and the individuals (families) facing eviction in three municipalities in the county of Stockholm. The issues discussed are how the landlords and the social welfare offices are organised, their work procedures, respective scopes of action and resources, and how individuals facing eviction cope with their life situation. The material for the study consists of qualitative interviews with nine handling officers at six landlord offices, fifteen social workers at three social welfare offices, twelve individuals who were facing eviction and fifteen observations of conversations between social workers and individuals who were facing eviction. The analytic framework used consists of perspectives and concepts derived from organisation theory – Human Service Organizations and street-level bureaucrats – and theories on coping. A main result of the study is that the work procedures of the professionals are standardised in many ways and are characterised by similar procedures for classifying and categorising the individuals facing eviction, irrespective of how the three municipalities have organised their work. Another main result is that the primarily interests of the individuals facing eviction are to meet what they experience to be their children’s needs, and to avoid eviction. Further, the individuals experience as stressful their life situation marked by the threat of eviction in combination with reduced financial resources that make it difficult for them to meet their children’s needs. The study has identified two types of strategies that individuals facing eviction use in order to cope with their life situation and to achieve their interests. These are emotion-focused strategies and problem-focused strategies, which are described and discussed.
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| 7. |
- Karlsson, Lis Bodil
(författare)
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Berättelser om inre röster : Ett fenomenologiskt och kommunikativt perspektiv
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The phenomenon of hearing voices is examined in a communicative way and with a phenomenological perspective. Data consist of talks in focus groups and of written autobiographical texts. (I) The aim of the first article, “More real than the reality”- A study of voice hearing, is to describe and analyse how participants in focus groups account for and understand their voice hearing experiences. Voice hearing can be understood as a continuum of various experiences, including thoughts about the self and the inner and the outer world. Voice hearing can be experienced as ‘more real than the reality’. (II) The aim of the second article, Från rösthörarnas värld - en analys av självbiografiska brev om hörselhallucinationer [From the world of the voice hearers - en analysis of personal letters on auditory hallucinations], is to analyse how people can describe and interpret inner voices in texts. The terms monologue, dialogue, polyphony and cacophony characterise variations of voice hearing. (III) The aim of the third article, ‘Schizophrenic or occult harassed?’ A narrative study of an autobiographical text about auditory and visual hallucinations, is to show that important insight into voice hearing can be gained when one describes and analyses how a subject writes. The analysis showed how writing was a way of adapting to inner voices and to the psychiatric diagnosis the author had received. (IV) The aim of the fourth article, Leva med inre röster. Utforskande av röstupplevelsers mening [Living with inner voices. A quest for the meaning of voice experiences], is to describe and analyse some methods and attitudes that the subjects use in order to cope with inner voices. It was important that the participants accepted their voices as a part of life. The participants also must cope with being stigmatised.
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| 8. |
- Schön, Ulla-Karin, 1970-
(författare)
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Kvinnors och mäns återhämtning från psykisk ohälsa
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim with this thesis is to describe and analyze women’s and men’s recovery processes. More specifically, the aim is to determine what women and men with experience of mental illness describe as contributing to the personal recovery process. The point of departure for the studies was 30 in-depth interviews conducted with 15 men and 15 women. The selection of interview subjects was limited to individuals who had been treated in 24-hour psychiatric care and diagnosed as having schizophrenia, psychosis, a personality disorder, or a bipolar disorder. Four studies have been carried. Study 1 was a baseline article that examined what people in recovery from mental illness outline as facilitating factors to their recovery. The results that emerged from that study indicated areas for further analysis to condense the understanding of the recovery process. In study 2 the similarities and the differences in recovery described by women and men were examined. In Study 3 women’s and men’s meaning-making with reference to severe mental illness facilitate the recovery process were studied. The forth study explored how peer-support contribute to women’s and men’s recovery from mental illness. The results emphasize recovery from mental illness as a social process in which relationships play a key role in creating new identities beside the mental illness. For a majority of the participants meeting peers facilitated the recovery process. The participants described how peer support meant an end to isolation and became an arena for identification, connection, and being important to others. Throughout these recovery processes the impact of gender has been emphasized. The results from this thesis provide new insight into gender as an important factor in understanding the recovery processes. The results from the four studies emphasize the mental patient, the psychiatric interventions and the individual recovery strategies as being influenced by gender constructions.
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| 9. |
- Snellman, Marie-Louise, 1974-
(författare)
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"Det är ju inte hela tiden bara lycka heller" : äldre kvinnors berättade liv- om arbete, omsorg och åldrande i landsbygdsmiljö
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Even though ageing in Western society has been a major issue in research and politics in recent years, there is still a distinct lack of knowledge about elderly people and their experiences. As much of the ongoing research has focused mainly on the oldest of the old and elderly people in need of public care, research about elderly people in general is needed. Ageing in a rural environment is of interest, because research about the elderly and ageing generally concerns urban areas. The study of old women has grown during the last decades in the academic fields of social gerontology and feminist studies. Older women’s disadvantaged position has been highlighted from a structural perspective. This knowledge needs to be combined with knowledge from a micro level in order to make other experiences of being an older woman visible. The importance of considering ageing as an integral part of life has been stressed by social gerontological research during the last decades. The focus of this thesis is the life stories of ten women aged between 75 and 85 years of age. The study has two main aims: firstly, to analyse the diverse meanings involved in being a woman who was born between 1920 and 1930, and lives in the Swedish or Finnish rural countryside. Secondly, the aim is to highlight and analyse how caring is reflected in the women’s stories about their lives. A broad understanding of caring as a fundamental condition for human existence is stressed in the thesis. Life stories are never complete, nor do they cover the totality of a life lived. The life story is a story told from a certain perspective in a specific situation and the meaning in the life stories is produced through interaction with the researcher. The women who participated in the study have lived their lives through major societal transformations. Historical events that have affected women’s rights, possibilities and conditions, have served as a framework for understanding the women’s life stories in a wider context. Structural and individual conditions have been taken into account, and indicate that the enabling and limiting conditions are both multi-dimensional and vary from individual to individual. A contextual framing is needed to understand expressions of care in the life stories. The life stories make visible caring as changeable; caring is carried out differently in different contexts and situations. An extended understanding of caring makes it possible to gain additional insights into meaningful expressions of caring during the life course, and these insights reach beyond conventional definitions in theories on caring.
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