The increasing significance of social economy as a concept is linked to general global processes such as the crisis of the welfare state, neoliberal globalization, anti-bureaucracy tendencies and decentralization, but also to a growing political interest in human rights and social development. In Sweden the idea of the social economy generates wide support within civil society as well as within the government and across party political boundaries. Furthermore, what is problematic in this context is the fact that the discussions on the subject tend to be relatively uncritical and often it seems as if though the expansion itself is the main objective. The emphasis on cooperation and the third sector in terms of welfare production implies a set of risks in relation to state responsibility, democracy and the autonomy of civil society. This paper aims to explore those risks and how they can be dealt with within the Swedish context..

Weblogs, or blogs, are frequently modified web pages with a series of archived entries, generally in reverse chronological sequence. This thesis focuses on the rapid-growing phenomenon of weblogs and the fact that individuals with a background in library and information science are frequent users of weblogs. Since this is an explorative inductive study the ultimate purpose can be described as to find out what ?blogging? as activity is about. The research questions posed are: Why do individuals with a background in library and information science use weblogs? How does their professional identity affect their blogging? And finally; how do they use the weblog to create networks with other bloggers? The empirical material consists of audiotaped interviews with five informants who are all employed in knowledge work, either as librarians or information specialists.

Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilken betydelse sociala aktiviteter har för äldre människor.Metod: En litteraturstudie av elva kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar. Studierna artiklarna bygger på har ett urval av socialt aktiva äldre deltagare med fokus på sociala aktiviteter ur ett deltagarperspektiv. I dataanalysen användes kvalitativ innehållsanalys med induktiv ansats.Resultat: Analysen resulterade i följande kategorier: Sociala relationer, vidgade vyer, meningsfullhet, tillhörighet, delaktighet, sociala rutiner, livsberikande, tillföra något till andra, personlig utveckling och välbefinnande.Slutsats: Sociala aktiviteter var betydelsefulla för deltagarna i studierna som utgör underlag för den här studien. De bidrog till sociala relationer och välbefinnande..

The main purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse how social worker on a specific Social Service Agency describe their experiences. My focus has been to concentrate on social worker, whose task is related to young people. The paper is presented from three different themes; work assignments, professional roles and projects in life. The central questions are; Which are the socialworker´s main tasks? How does the social worker see himself in his professional role? Have their expectations been fulfilled? Where do they get their motivation from? Which are the reasons why the job as social worker is so strenuous? I have interviewed four social workers (semi-structured interviews), and a qualitative method is used.

The main purpose of this essay was to study how the social service and the lawcourt have implemented the UN Convention on the Right of the Child, particularly incorporating the childs best interest in social services, child welfare investigations and the lawcourts judgement. We considered how the needs of the child, and the will and view of the child was documented. Also how the parents capacity and the environment factors, were documented in the social services investigations and the lawcourts judgement. The study was based both as a literature study and a document analysis. We analysed ten child welfare investigations from a social service office and their belonging lawcourt judgements.Our conclusion of the study is that the child is in focus both in the investigations and in judgement.

The purpose of this study was to analyze and develop a workflow for assessing and representing the value of ecosystems to professionals involved in municipal planning. A thorough literature review was conducted and supplemented by interviews and observations. Frameworks for ecosystem service assessments were analyzed and combined with methods in urban planning in order to assess social and ecological conditions. A workflow was set up and methods were evaluated by applying them to a case study in the area Åstråket in Uppsala. Experience from the case study was compiled in order to improve the workflow.Complex assessments were identified and simplified for the method to be useful for practitioners.

Denna C-uppsats i social omsorg är en kvalitativ litteraturstudie som baseras på teorierna om ledarskap, ledarstilar och förändringar i organisationer inom social omsorgsverksamhet. Syftet med studien är att fördjupa kunskapen om organisationsförändringar inom social omsorgsverksamhet och att öka förståelsen för valet av olika ledarskapsstilar vid organisationsförändringar inom social omsorgsverksamhet. Resultatet som författaren till studien presenterar är att chefer/ledare inom social omsorgsverksamhet ständigt möter nya förändringar. Detta beror dels på samhällsutvecklingen och synen på funktionshindrade, dels på att chefer inom social omsorgsverksamhet stöter på nya situationer och problem inom sitt yrke som ledare. För chefer/ledaren innebär detta att han eller hon måste anpassa sin ledarskapsstil till den specifika situationen eller till det problem som ledaren kan hamna i..

This essay is a case-study of an ethnically homogeneous association, situated in an ethnically heterogeneous neighbourhood. The purpose is to examine the social capital of the members in this particular association. The theory of social capital claims that this form of association constitutes an example of bonding social capital, and is running the risk of becoming excluding towards non-group members. However, several scientists suggest that the ethnically homogeneous associations can assist immigrants in their new home countries to become a part of society, hence promote a more bridging form of social capital. This would be extra valuable in an ethnically heterogeneous context where the phenomenon of social capital often has a hard time.

The aim for this essay is to adress questions concering ethnic and cultural experiences and in what way it affects our experience of being in different landscapes. By studying how ethnic experiences are expressed in the landscape and the ongoing process of interaction between them, this essay sets out to discuss the significance of cultural aspects in the landscape. The perspective of this essay is that both landscape and ethnicity can be viewed as something constructed which is shaped and maintained by ongoing interactions in the landscape.While examples are taken from different parts of the western world, the main focus is to study how these experiences take place and are being negotiatiated in a particular landscape, an allotment area outside Malmö, Sweden.In the first part it is shown how the landscape can be read as a landscape of powerrelations and how these relations are related to ethnic experiences.In the next chapter the discussion concerns whether we can talk about different ?ethnic landscapes?. Research suggest that the use and perception of the landscape differs among ethnic groups.

Detta examensarbete handlar om social fostran i skolan ur ett elevperspektiv. Syftet med studien har varit att förstå elevers uppfattningar om social fostran i skolan. Vi har genom kvalitativa intervjuer frågat fem gymnasieelever om vilka upplevelser de har av social fostran i skolan, vilken form av social fostran de önskar att skolan använder sig av samt hur de upplever relationen mellan social fostran och en god arbetsmiljö. Elevernas upplevelser visade att läraren har en central roll och att relationen mellan lärare och elever är grundläggande för elevernas moraliska utveckling. Likaså önskar eleverna att lärarna ska vara goda förebilder och med ett tydligt förhållningssätt visa vad som är ett acceptabelt beteende.

The objective of this study was investigating social worker?s perspective of how alcohol consumption can affect, and what elements in the social environment that may be of significance for, alcohol consumption and development of identity. The questions at issue were: Do social workers experience any positive effects from alcohol consumption in 16-17 year-old girls with problematic alcohol consumption and what influence do the effects have on self esteem, self image and development of identity? What do social workers experience are the negative effects from alcohol consumption on self esteem, self image and development of identity? How important do social workers find the social environment and how do they believe the social environment affect the alcohol consumption and development of identity? This was investigated with a qualitative approach from a social worker?s perspective, hence social workers were interviewed. The study?s theoretical basis was Symbolic Interactionism and Erikson?s theory of Psychosocial Development.

 The main purpose is to investigate the main fea-tures of the discourse in the social medias about the legal view on cimes and criminals.                                                The special questions that are investigated are:1)    What specific features characterize the discourse in the social medias?2)    What are the legal restrictions for the freedom of speech on the Internet?3)    What attitudes can you find among lawyers towards the discourse in the social medias?4)    Are there grounds for presuming that the discourse in the social medias can effect the judgement in a special case?         .

This essay is about persons who have had social assistance and the individual?s experiences of social assistance. The focus is on how the individual develops in a new life situation and if and how they are motivated to get out of it. The essay has an individual perspective where the relation between society and the individual is important. The result is based on four qualitative interviews with a hermeneutic perspective.

 The aim of this study was to examine how young people, who have been treated for their misuse and/or to learn to handle a parent's misuse, portrayed the network's implication in their wishes about improving their lives, to make new choices. The network included members of nuclear family, relatives, important persons at school/work and friends. The ?professional network? (therapists and social workers) also became a part in the young people's life during a period. The main issues of this study concerned differences in their experiences of the young persons´ network relationships in before, during and after completed treatment.

The thesis ?Vi fixar och trixar oss fram till att hjälpa människor? focuses on social work in the field of prostitution and human trafficking in Sweden. Through semi-structured interviews with social workers in the municipalities of Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö working with persons selling and buying sex, and through discourse analysis, the author analyses the perceptions among these social workers of the relation between human rights, prostitution and human trafficking, and the social work which they conduct.The thesis concludes that although the social workers perceive prostitution and human trafficking and social work in this field as human rights related, they are not explicitly using a human rights based approach in their work.The thesis concludes that the social workers identify several aspects that infringe on the rights of their clients in relation to the human rights principles of Universality, Non-discrimination, Accountability and Rule of law and the principle of Participation and Inclusion. They portray the human rights situation of street based sellers, especially those not being Swedish citizens and those affected by human trafficking, as severe.The thesis concludes that the social workers find several obstacles (legal as well as structural) that diminish their ability to strengthen their clients? human rights situation.