We started out the study with a preconception of culture as something that creates difference between groups of people, which had been verified by our prior research. We also had a sense of culture as a polysemous term. Our assumption is also that there is an opinion within social work practice that Swedish social workers are faced with a cultural barrier when encountering immigrant clients.In this study our aim is to examine constructions of the terms cultural competence and culture. Constructions of the terms ethnicity and ethnic diversity are also observed, although the main reason for this is to show what relation these terms have to the terms cultural competence and culture, and how they may give each other meaning, according to the theory of social construction. In addition to constructions, we also aim to bring out discourses around the terms, upon which we will create a discussion about power and dominance informed by post-colonial theory and critical discourse analysis (CDA).

The main purpose of this study is to examine and gain increased knowledge concerning the legal security of children taken into protective care. The purpose is also to enable contemporary social workers to reflect around phenomena in today´s social work, among other things how investigations are carried out surrounding children taken into protective care thought this historical study. To find out how social workers dealt with caretakings I have chosen to examine the personel files that the social workers compiled for each child and also interview a man who worked as a social worker at the time of the investigation. The paper is divided into two part studies were the first one studies legal security through Mattsson´s (2002) further development of KjÆnstad?s way to analyse legal security, namely through investigating the clarity of the law, procedural rules and the comtetenay of the social workers.

The aim of this study is to understand and describe school staff´s view on the legal obligation to report child maltreatment. With this approach I will get a better understanding how child maltreatment can be caught up in the Swedish community. Previous research shows that school is one of the authorities who report most children to social services. Previous research indicates that cooperation between school and social services reduces the time of the investigations, and gives a better understanding of what is to be reported. The result shows that a functional cooperation between school staff´s as well as between school and social services is important for children to be caught up in the community.

This study aims to further Work-family conflict research for Social Workers by providing insight into what kind of impact the job role of social workers in Sweden has on their private lives and how they deal with it. The study operates from a qualitative approach and is based on three focus group-interviews and three semi-structured interviews with people working in different fields of social work. The empirical material has been analyzed through the Dramaturgical Perspective and Frame concept of Erving Goffman. The results of this study show that the job role impacts the psychological well-being of social workers, their family life and their social life to varying degrees, mainly due to organizational and client-based aspects, often resulting in role-conflicts and a lack of energy in their private lives. The primary strategies were found to be conversing with colleagues, spending time alone, embracing hobbies and having a clear understanding of individual responsibility. .

The purpose of this paper has been to reach a greater understanding in how moral inflicts social workers way of handling everyday situations. In what way, if in any way, moral comes to play a part in the making of decisions. In order to reach this understanding we have interviewed two different groups of social workers which we also later on came to compare . One of the groups contained six interviewees and the other group contained five interviewees. Both of these groups were in the ages between 27 ? 52.To shed some light over this phenomenon did we use two theoretical perspectives, first Kant?s morale theory and second, consequentialistic utilitarism theory.As a result from the interviews we?ve made, we came to an understanding that the meaning of morale and in what way it can be applied in the everyday work differs between these two professional groups.

It is a qualitative study that describes and analyzes how professionals deal with social issues of inclusiveness and ethics in the investigation of cases involving interventions for adolescents. The focus is on the strategies that staff in social services expressed in terms of obstacles and opportunities for working participatively and especially when it comes to dealing with ethical dilemmas that may arise.    The method used was qualitative research interviews. Five social workers from two different municipalities were interviewed and the material is analyzed on the basis of socio-cultural theory and organizational theory. Themes that emerged were participation, ethics, discretion and flexibility, collaboration, organization, skills and time. The main obstacles that have emerged in the study are that those who work in social services have had been difficulties to fully create participation due to various factors.

AbstractOur purpose was to understand how social workers experience the possible complexities that working with economical aid can entail. As an example we chose to focus on long-term economical aid work. We aimed to address the question of which factors could affect their work. In a prior study, done by Dellgran & Höjer (2003) the conclusion was drawn  that  the combination of economical aid, healthcare and schools makeup a third of  practical social work in the terms of the proportion of the amount of social workers, but only 8 percent of the research is done in those areas. Other studies (Stranz, 2007) demonstrate that the research that is done on working with economical aid is deficient.

The aim of this study was to examine how clients who have or have previously had a drug- and/or alcohol addiction experienced interchanges with social workers. In this study, eight semi-structured interviews were made with respondents from an out-patient clinic in a small town in Sweden. Questions were asked regarding clients? experience of the social workers' attitudes during the initial meeting as well as all continuing meetings. Other possible variables that affected the interchanges, either positively or negatively, including how the clients wanted to be treated, were also explored.

The main purpose of this essay was to study the program "Nationellt stöd för kunskapsutveckling inom socialtjänsten" ("National support for knowledge development within the social services") from the National Board of Health and Welfare on the basis of how such a development, as represented by the program, could affect clients' possibilities to participation and influence within the social services.To respond to the purpose I used the following questions at issue:* How is client participation and client influence defined in the program?* What arguments for and/or against client participation and client influence are stated?* Which patterns and similarities/differences are possible to discern between the municipalities and universities that participated in the program when it comes to client participation and client influence?The study was conducted as a document analysis. I studied documents from the program both on a national and a local level. The essay uses empowerment theories and theories concerning client participation and client influence. The main conclusions were that on the national level the authors of the documents spoke with caution about their view on client participation and client influence and expressed that it had to be balanced against the rights of the citizens and the social workers for example.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine male social workers experiences of working in a female dominated work. The aim with this study was to find out how men perceive working with mostly women and how this effects their construction of masculinity. The theories that have been used in this study are a social constructive perspective on gender, Chodorows (1995) Theory of Socialization and Connells (2008) Theory of Masculinities. The method used in this study is qualitative interviews based on the experiences of five male social workers in Sweden.The interviews have been recorded and retailed in text in its full version, to enable analysis out of the above mentioned theories and earlier studies. The result of the study shows that the men in this study experience mostly benefits from working with women and they feel appreciated as being men.

The intention of this study was to examine the interaction between authorities. More specifically it had a purpose to look at the ongoing cooperation between social workers and staff of special homes of closed institutional youth care. The sanction system for young offenders? reform of 1999 where young people between the ages of 15-17 who have committed serious crimes, can be sentenced to secure institutional treatment instead of prison, aims to counteract the harm which can result from a stay in prison. The social welfare board in the young person´s local authority and the national board of institutional care shall cooperate during the youth?s placement at the special home of closed institutional youth care.

Utredningshemmet in Hässleholm, Sweden, is a special residential home for acute management and investigative evaluation of juvenile delinquents.Utredningshemmet has, since 1991, used an investigative model, which is based on systems theory. The investigative work is done in close co-operation with social workers, youths and their parents.This study takes into account the youths, who have had a commissioned placement to carry out an investigation of their needs of care and treatment, 71 juvenile delinquent cases. They are divided into three one year intervals: 17 cases in 1993, 28 cases in 1998 and 26 cases in 2003.The purpose of this evaluation is to illustrate changes in the social workers, parents and youth's level of satisfaction during the development of the special residential home's investigative model.Approximately one to three months after discharges social workers, youths and their parents completed a level of satisfaction questionnaire. The results demonstrate no significant difference in the level of satisfaction between different time periods. There are, however, differences in satisfaction levels between social workers, who have the highest level of satisfaction, parents, who have the next highest level and finally the youths level of satisfaction..

The purpose of the study is to explore how social workers work with youths that seek financial assistance and what importance gender plays in this process. The participants were six female social workers that work with financial assistance. They were interviewed and had to reflect over a case, where the client where either male or female. The results was analyzed and compared in relation to social constructive theory and gender theory. The study shows that social workers work in two parallel processes, when they decide about financial assistance and other help benefits, the formal and the intuitive.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how social workers within different areas of work in Malmö, who comes in contact with persons who have been subject to honour-related violence, sees the problem, if they have any special view on the cause of the violence and investigate the efforts which are offered to individuals who have been or are subject to honour-related violence. I wanted to investigate if there exists a universal view among social workers in Malmö of the definition of and way of working with persons affected by honour-related violence. Various reports show that there exists great disagreement among debaters as well as social workers regarding the definition of honour-related violence. There are also different sentiments about the cause of honour-related violence within research. I conducted four interviews on five individuals employed within different areas of work in Malmö which comes in contact with girls and women who have been subject to honour-related violence. My study shows that there exists great dissent among social workers regarding the term honour-related violence, the cause of the problem and the concerned areas of work works with different ways with persons which they come in contact with..

The purpose of my study was to see what kind of relationships there were between the youth and the social workers in the treatment home Hassela in Klintehamn, Gotland. The social workers work for six weeks day and night by living together with the youth. I also wanted to examine what happens when there were conflicts between them as signs of tensions in the relationships. In addition to this I wanted to study the relations between power and influence in their relationships where Hassela strives for democracy. My questions were the following; How do the youth and the staff describe the relationships between them? How do conflicts work between them at Hassela? What does the relationship between power and influence look like?The study is based on qualitative interviews with four clients and four social workers.