| 1. |
- Andersson, Lisa, 1983-
(author)
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Addressing youth unemployment: what role for social work? : Policy responses to youth unemployment in Sweden and Europe
- 2022
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Unemployed youth are a heterogenous group facing varying and sometimes complex problems. Being young and unemployed can have a negative impact on future life chances and quality of life. Studies on youth unemployment have mostly focused on education and labour market responses, leaving the involvement of social work aside. This thesis aims to explore policies for unemployed youth in three key policy areas: social work, education and labour market, in Europe and Sweden. The thesis consists of four separate studies highlighting how policy ideas are translated into agendas, and how responses are administered and organized at national and local level. Applying an institutionalist theoretic framework, the results are analysed with consideration to the structure of state and welfare state. Study I explored the ideas inherent to the social policy concept ‘social investment’, outlining three central dimensions of the concept: temporal-perspective, principles of distribution and policy coherence. A key result of study I is that social investment ideas are nuanced, and that social investments can take different forms. In the following three studies, the dimensions of social investment are used as heuristic tools to examine policy responses for unemployed youth. Study II examined how the EU recommendation on establishing a youth guarantee (YG), was translated in national YG plans. The results were analysed using tentative regime-types based on the structure of social work, the education system, and the social insurance system. The results showed that outreach as an early intervention was marginal across countries and regime types, and the involvement of social work was largely absent. In study III, the coordination within and between policy areas was analysed between Sweden and the UK, over time. Policy documents on national labour market programs in both countries between 1998-2011, were analysed. The results showed that coordination between labour market programs and social security benefits/social assistance had strengthened over time in both countries. How authority to regulate and administer different policy areas, was also linked to the occurrence of coordination between different policy areas. Study IV examined if and how specialization and coordination were part of organizing local level work with NEETs in Sweden. This was explored through structured interviews with local professionals in social work, education and labour market. The results showed a pattern of coordination and specialization among education and labour market actors. The involvement of social work was instead marginal, and primarily concerned social assistance. In conclusion, the results of this thesis show that the agenda, content and administration of policy responses to youth unemployment consists mainly of wide, universal and reactive responses. They are also characterized by coordination between labour market measures and social insurance/assistance, in line with an activation trend. An important finding is also the very limited involvement of social work, as noted in national policy agendas and programs, and in local level work. Both activation and social work involvement did however vary somewhat with administrative levels and between different policy areas. The results thereby indicate that institutional aspects such as organizational structure and administration, matter for the involvement of different policy areas in responses to youth unemployment.
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| 2. |
- Bromark, Kristina, 1973-
(author)
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The user as a key actor in user participation : Exploring knowledge production in personal social services with a participatory approach
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The concept of user participation in social work is frequently debated. In Sweden, users are supposed to be active and involved in matters concerning them, a stance which is regulated in policy and law. The involvement of users in practice can be considered a form of knowledge production that can strengthen and develop users as well as the organizations. In practice, however, research shows that actual engagement, education or activation of users is difficult to attain and can be understood as a devaluation of user knowledge. The aim of this dissertation is to increase knowledge of how to understand and enhance the conditions for user participation in personal social services. To study this question, the dissertation focuses especially on young people’s participation in the context of out-of-home care. To explore user participation in personal social services, a participatory approach was applied. Data was gathered with young people and staff using participatory techniques as well as qualitative interviews. To explore challenges and possibilities with user participation, a future workshop was held with staff in personal social services (study I). This was followed by a co-design process in which staff, young people, and researchers collaborated on a support tool (study II), later to be implemented in practice (study III). The implementation process was explored by interviewing both staff and managers as well as a user representative (from a youth council). The co-design and implementation processes are problematized and discussed in the dissertation from a researcher’s perspective (study IV). The theoretical framework for understanding how users can be devalued as knowers is epistemic injustice. The assumption is that the role of a knower can shift, depending on social power and the structures in a context. The findings in this dissertation show that user participation is contingent on the distribution of power and responsibility and on perceptions of knowers and knowledge in practice. Although the general attitude towards user participation is positive, a reluctance in practice is revealed. It appears to be a challenge for staff to acknowledge the expertise of users, despite the fact that the users’ have the capacity and are willing to contribute with their knowledge. Work with user participation is identified as a team effort that requires actions at all levels of the organization as well as increased resources, leadership and a coherent understanding and agreement of the concept. A participatory approach to knowledge production with users is identified as a possible way to enhance epistemic justice and the inclusion of all relevant actors in activities and processes. The dimensions important to user participation can be acknowledged. For the dynamics to be maintained in a wider sense, however, an organizational infrastructure, with routines and methods, is necessary. To sustain epistemic justice in the implementation of user participation, a participatory culture with a solid and coherent understanding of user participation in practice is encouraged. A realization of user participation in practice requires a critical exploration of power and positions, systematic changes to infrastructure and transparency about roles and responsibility.
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| 3. |
- Heimdahl Vepsä, Karin, 1983-
(author)
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Substance use, pregnancy, and parenthood : A study on problematizations and solutions
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- With the starting point in the view that how we interpret a problem is decisive for how we think this problem should be dealt with, the overall aim of this dissertation is to explore problematizations of substance use in relation to pregnancy and parenthood within different settings. The dissertation consists of four studies, based on different empirical materials, that analyze problematizations of substance use, pregnancy, and parenthood from different perspectives. Elucidating how these constructions are made in social work related settings can in the long run contribute to improve the ways that pregnant women and parents with substance use problems are approached.Study I analyzes the Swedish discussion on the diagnosing of Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). The data consists of a report from a Swedish authority and webpage material from an FASD interest organization. The results show that the interest organization and the authority have different views on whether FASD diagnoses should be used. The analysis suggests that the discussion on FASD is structured by three main discourses; a scientific discourse, a pragmatic discourse, and an ethical discourse.Study II analyzes professional accounts of substance-using pregnant women’s transitions into parenthood. Professionals within maternity care were interviewed in focus groups. The results show that the professionals related to two, sometimes contradictory, ideals of, on the one hand, “believing in the patient” and on the other hand “being realistic” when reflecting on the patients’ prospects to function well as parents.Study III is carried out as a scoping review aimed to give an overview of research on psychosocial interventions targeting parents with substance use problems. It has a focus on underlying assumptions motivating these interventions. The results show that all studies but one focused on women as parents. Most of the interventions were primarily concerned with the psychological deficits of these mothers, while only seldom addressing broader social and structural factors.Study IV aims to explore how parents with previous substance use problems narrated their experiences of becoming and being parents. The study participants were all active in the 12-step movement. The results show that the way they narrated their experiences of substance use problems, recovery, and parenthood was structured by a classic 12-step storyline. The participants described how their recovery processes had made them more emotionally present and skilled in handling their own feelings – competences they described as important resources for them as parents. The four studies, taken together, show some patterns in how substance use, pregnancy, and parenthood were problematized in relation to each other. The problematizations tended to portray parents, and especially mothers, with substance use problems as posing risks towards their children’s psychological and physical wellbeing. Furthermore, there was a tendency to define these parents solely based on their substance use problems, without acknowledging potential individual variation in parenting capacity. Finally, the solutions presented had a clear individualistic focus, emphasizing, for example, the importance of individual motivation and the willingness to comply with treatment, but only occasionally taking contextual and structural factors into account.
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| 4. |
- Hussénius, Klara, 1988-
(author)
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Differentiating the Poor : Patterns of Discrimination in Decision-Making on Social Assistance Eligibility
- 2023
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Access to the Swedish welfare state’s last safety net, social assistance, is ultimately determined through discretionary decision-making by social workers. This dissertation examines intersectional patterns and discriminatory bias in social workers’ assessments about social assistance eligibility. Focusing on factors related to applicants’ gender, family and ethnicity, the project comprises four studies, all of which highlight patterns regarding which applicants assessed as being eligible for support. Altogether, the project contributes to an expanded understanding of discriminatory tendencies in how social assistance policies are given practical meaning by the professionals that bring them into force.The first study builds on data covering all social assistance eligibility decisions implemented in 25 municipalities during one calendar month in 2012 (n=472). The remaining three studies build on data from a vignette experiment conducted in 2018, in which just over 1,000 social workers from 19 municipalities, including Sweden’s three largest cities, participated. Results from both sources of data confirm the impression left by previous research that social assistance assessments are gendered. They show that the likelihood of granting assistance is determined through different standards for men and women. In the view of current knowledge gaps, an important contribution lies in bringing the issue of ethnicity bias to light. The results from the vignette experiment indicate that applicants with Arabic-sounding names are responded to with more conditionality than applicants with Swedish-sounding names, and that discriminatory biases related ethnicity are highly intertwined with gender biases.By raising much-needed questions about the assessment of couples, the project also draws attention to the dissonance between the Swedish welfare state’s gender equality regime and the conditions for accessing social assistance. The results indicate that moral judgments about applicants’ gendered family roles affect social workers’ propensity to grant support to couples, and that such judgments take form through ethnicity bias. In terms of theory, the dissertation draws upon feminist and postcolonial perspectives on social policy as well as a street-level bureaucracy perspective on frontline work. Social assistance is understood as part of the welfare state’s wider politics of redistribution, and the quantitative patterns formed by social workers’ individual acts are seen in the light of structural inequalities. The dissertation presents a conceptual model for thinking about social assistance eligibility, emphasising uncertainty as an inescapable dimension of means-testing. A central argument is that eligibility issues decided at the street level cannot be separated from ongoing discretionary processes of policy implementation. While the risk of discrimination in social assistance assessments is inevitable, it tends to be concealed by the administrative arrangements through which policy comes to matter.
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| 5. |
- Härd, Sofia, 1992-
(author)
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Knowledge in practice : The feasibility of recovery capital in Swedish alcohol and other drug treatment
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The recovery model, endorsed by various governmental bodies, emphasises the integration of a recovery perspective into alcohol and drug policy, with a focus on post-treatment interventions such as housing, employment and education needs. In an effort to enhance the utility of the recovery perspective in treatment, the concept of recovery capital (RC) has been used as a foundation for operationalisations used to measure treatment needs and progress. While other countries have embraced the recovery model and RC in alcohol and other drug (AOD)-related policy and treatment, the treatment setting in Sweden has not undergone a comparable transformation. This dissertation aims to explore the feasibility of implementing RC in Swedish AOD treatment. It examines the transferability and applicability of assessment tools and considers the challenges of translating research into practice. This involves delving into the complexities of knowledge transfers, production and use in order to bridge the gap between research findings and practical implementation. The feasibility study involved qualitative interviews with AOD treatment professionals to gather their perspectives on the applicability of an RC-based assessment tool (Papers II and III). Insights into feasibility were also obtained from a quantitative study assessing treatment progress in individuals residing in a recovery residence in Florida, USA, using an established RC-based assessment tool (Paper I). To further evaluate the target setting for the feasibility study, the use of a locally developed assessment tool was explored through a deviant case analysis (Paper IV). The dissertation’s theoretical framework is built upon conceptualisations of standardisations and professions that emphasise their interconnected nature and thereby underscore the significance of their relationship in the analysis of knowledge production and use, thus situating the study within a broader theoretical discourse on the interplay between standardisation and professionalism.The findings confirm the applicability of the RC concept in Swedish AOD treatment by highlighting its unique benefits in exploring diverse recovery pathways to address individual challenges and strengths. However, it is evident that certain elements of its conceptual framework are already implemented in the treatment facilities visited in the study. Furthermore, whether or not to use standardised assessment tools to implement RC in Swedish AOD treatment remains unclear. The dissertation also emphasises the importance of collaborating with professionals during the development of assessment tools as a way of ensuring that these tools align with the cultures and structures of the social work profession, presenting this collaboration as an approach to bridging the gap between research and practice. It also identifies a significant knowledge gap in locally produced knowledge, urging further research to map its extent and evaluate its impact on current and future knowledge production and use in social work. Lastly, the absence of client participation is acknowledged. The need for future research to explore the client perspective is emphasised, given the potential adverse effects of recovery-oriented interventions on clients.
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| 6. |
- Korkmaz, Sibel, 1987-
(author)
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Youth Intimate Partner Violence in Sweden : Prevalence and Young People’s Experiences of Violence and Abuse in Romantic Relationships
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Swedish studies on intimate partner violence (IPV) among young people are virtually non-existent, and the European research field on this phenomenon has not been specifically overviewed. This thesis aims to review European research on youth IPV, investigate the extent and characteristics of youth IPV victimization in a sample of Swedish high school students, and explore the dynamics of this victimization.The dissertation consists of four sub-studies employing different kinds of methods and using different sets of data. Analyses are underpinned by a rather extensive theoretical framework, permitting an examination of youth IPV from different perspectives and angles.Study I gives an overview of existing European research, pointing out trends and challenges within the field and providing a frame of reference for the Swedish study. One conclusion of this overview is that an intersectional approach is needed when researching violence among youth, and that gender, especially, is a key variable to explore in research on youth IPV.Study II presents IPV prevalence rates in a regional sample of Swedish young people. Drawing upon survey data, the study shows that over half of participating youth reported experiences of some form of IPV, and that girls experience more repeated IPV compared to boys. Furthermore, the study places youth IPV in a physical context, suggesting that it takes place in different arenas, such as the parents’ house, the partner’s house, and at school.Study III uses data consisting of “teller-focused” interviews with 18 IPV victimized youth (aged 17-23) in Sweden, and illustrates the dynamics of IPV victimization, establishing it as a social phenomenon and emphasizing the agency of young people in the midst of abusive relationships. It shows varying responses (including a lack of response) from three different actors: parents, school, and young people themselves, all from the young person’s perspective. Overall, the data show that youth-specific factors (e.g. parental dependency, attending school) have a meaningful bearing on both responses and resilience to IPV.Lastly, study IV draws upon data consisting of “teller-focused” interviews with 18 IPV victimized youth (aged 17-23) in Sweden, and shows how young people’s abusive relationships come to an end. It shows that the ending process for youth may be different than for adults, since youth-specific factors create unique barriers (e.g. the desire to be a girlfriend) and bridges (e.g. parental responsibilities) for young people seeking to end abusive relationships.Overall, this dissertation shows that many Swedish youth experience violence within a romantic intimate relationship, and that such violence, many times, is repeated and severe. The results indicate a gendered dimension to youth IPV—compared to boys, girls report more repeated violence and also describe how gendered norms affect their victimization. Moreover, regarding the physical context of youth IPV, the results show that this social problem takes place in arenas where adults dwell and how they can respond. Hence, it is not possible for the adult world to dismiss youth IPV as something undetectable.In sum, this dissertation shows that IPV does happen “when you’re young too.” Thus, it seems apparent that a wide-ranging response is called for: one that involves parents, schools, social workers, and policy makers alike. Only then will youth IPV as a social problem receive the attention it needs and deserves.
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