Diversity as the Challenge of Democracy : A study of how the social welfare services, as a welfare bureaucracy and moral institution in society, understands and handles cultural diversity

• Abstract Dissertation This dissertation deals with the how Swedish society is confronting the democratic challenge of fining ways to integrate individuals and groups with a diversity of cultural and religious beliefs and social practices. The ide that democracy must include all members of society is central in contemporary welfare states. In Sweden, this idea is closely related to a concept of social justice and equality. This means that this study deals with aspects of integration processes. Social service is one of the  societal institutions that institutionalises the moral conceptions of how life should be lived. Therefore, its function in the integrations processes mirrors the ethos of society as a whole. The chief characteristics of a democratic state is that it represents every member of society and that it is transparent, communicative, and reflexive. But this is not easily performed. The state may exercise oppression in the form of forced assimilation through the culturally detached design of law and policy, and with the politics of diversity, minority groups may exert internal oppression of vulnerable elements within the group. In this thesis, this tension expresses The Paradox of Democracy. Social workers deal with the paradox while handling society’s moral panic regarding “other’s” traditions that are perceived as difficult to comprehend. Therefore, there investigative work is of great importance in a society that aspires to treat all citizens as equals. But the framework for such investigations is narrow and tightly controlled. A qualitative change in the scope of social workers’ ability to work in the service of communicative action within the complex areas discussed in this study could be a step towards broadening and deepening democratic practices. When the public institutions take their clients’ wishes and needs seriously and treat them as indicators of the actual needs seriously, the public institutions can build a foundation for reciprocal and communicatively anchored integration work.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Work (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Social work

cultural diversity

democracy

social justice

communicative action

Social Work

Socialt arbete

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

ovr (subject category)