This essay aims to examine and compare Swedish and Norwegian social work with children. It is a comparative study between two social welfare offices, in districts with similar population and problems, one located in Stockholm and one in Oslo. The main questions were; how is the work organized and carried out, what type of help and assistance is available and what kind of discretion and powers do the social workers have. In our essay we used qualitative methods mostly based on interviews, vignette questionnaires and documents, but also written research. In our analysis we used modern organisation theory and street level bureaucracy to seek explanations.The two welfare offices have similarities and differences.

The aim of this study was to reach a better understanding of voluntary work and its possible influence on the work role. Based on a phenomenological approach, five voluntary workers from the leisure field were interviewed. The interpretation of the empirical data was based on the Humanistic psychology and its theories about personality, self-realization, motivation and emotion. The results show that the motive behind the voluntary engagement varied amongst the participants and all of them stated more than one motive. However, social motives, wanting to learn more and develop their skills and also wanting to help others, were the most frequent motives among the participants. In the light of the theoretical background for this study, these motives can be understood as being due to the need of self-realization and appreciation from others, and also a wish to reach an ideal self.

Previous research shows that women who are victims of intimate partner violence and also have asubstance abuse have difficulties getting access to services to aid with their experience of violence.This study has examined social workers experiences of working with women with these problems,what types of services are provided and how their service needs are assessed. The study has ahermeneutical approach and the data consists of interviews with nine social workers in lines ofwork that come into contact with women in the previously described client group. The data hasbeen analyzed using content analysis. The result of the study indicates that women who are victimsof intimate partner violence and also have a substance abuse do not get their needs provided forthrough the current services in the field of social work. These women are described as havingcomplex problems and are therefore in need of more and other services than those currentlyprovided.

Every year a great amount of unaccompanied children flee their homelands without their parents or guardians. This means a journey filled with danger and difficulties. The difficulties don?t only exist during the road ahead but also when the children arrive to the new country. Even if Sweden?s work in receiving refugees is one of the best in the world, it still exist problems.

There are many views in the concept of corporate reputation and the massive research in the area tends to result in many new definitions. Research has shown that a good corporate reputation has a positive relation to Sustainable Competitive Advantage, financial performance and attraction to competent employees. The many views in the concept make it especially interesting to examine the view on corporate reputation in a perspective of big Swedish corporations. Another interesting area to examine is whether the companies manage their reputation or not. The empirical findings of this essay are based on qualitative interviews to get a deeper understanding in the area of reputation.

This essay examines how a group of five youths? self identities are affected by unemploy-ment, contact with the social services and by labour market interventions. In Sweden youth employment has been regarded as a social problem. Arbetslinjen that could be translated into the work model or the work line influences and is a necessity for the Swedish welfare system. With a hermeneutic scientific philosophical position the method used to examine this has been to interview the youths, in the age of 18-25, individually.

The purpose of this study is to use a qualitative approach to get an understanding of what is expected of social workers targeted towards women managers in social services. Nine social workers were interviewed. The empirical data was then analyzed on the basis of gender theory. Respondents did not see their supervisor as a manager but more as a social worker with special tasks. Our empirical data indicates that there is a strong belief that men and women possess different properties.

The purpose with this essay is to examine how principals, teachers and parents look at a possible cooperation between preschool-teachers and parents regarding the promoting of gender equality, with children's literature as a tool. The literature documentation presents theories concerning the application of gender and the gender-order in society as well as the influence society has on children?s development of a gender-identity. Parent?s participation in the gender equality-work in preschool describes, as well as its significance.

The aim of this study was to investigate the production of knowledge that can emerge in the use of Practice Research by Mirror method. This by finding out what it is in the practical work that leads to the production of knowledge and how knowledge production takes form. The empirical data that form the basis for this study is recorded group within the Mirror method discussions and a focus group interview with social workers who participated in the discussions. Those who have participated are social workers with experience from working with financial aid support and only real cases have been used in the discussions. The results have been analyzed according to Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucracy and their discretion and Fook and Gardner´s theory of critical reflection.

The aim of this study is to discuss the diagnosis ADHD as a meaning-making discourse that is something more than just a diagnosis with a set of symptoms. I aim to discuss that the diagnosis is productive and can be seen as a means to control and to comfort individuals. The research was based on a method consisting of an idea analysis and a discourse analysis. I am using both a discourse analysis and a critical ideology analysis as perspectives. These perspectives are also based on a general theory of late modernity.

In this study we describe the needs of lone parents and how the authorities fulfill these needs. The needs contain both economic and social aspects, such as the access to an employment, childcare and the possibility to social activities. For the lone parents being able to work the childcare provision must improve and be available in a greater extent during non-traditional working hours. It is also required that the housing benefit ceiling is increased so that the parents may work more hours without risking the loss of the housing benefit. The statistic about the housing benefit which we present shows that many of those with a low income are lone parents.

The aim of this study is to examine a number of Swedish working public librarians and compare them with some popular standard images of librarians. In this project we have been working in line with these three questions: How do the librarians describe themselves and how can the descriptions be interpreted? What images are the most common and repetitive, according to earlier research? What differences and similarities are there between the images of the librarians and the working librarians? To answer the questions we have performed seven qualitative interviews with working librarians and collected relevant literature that presents various portrayals of librarians. To interpret the interviews we have used Pierre Bourdieus theories of social space, social fields, habitus and the cultural, academic, social and the economic capitals, as well as the connection between individual taste, class and social power. The conclusions of the collected material of earlier research and the interpreted material from the interviews have been compared and discussed.

The ambition to use evidence based treatments has spread within the field of Swedish social work. The number of treatments with claim to being evidence based has grown but the research concerning implementation; the procedures being used to introduce new methods in organizations and assure that the method is being used appropriately and continuously, is scarce. The aim of this study was to examine the implementation of Functional Family Therapy (FFT), being an evidence based treatment, in an organization providing social services in the public sector, in Sweden. We used a qualitative research design and conducted interviews with persons involved in the implementation of FFT in the social services in a town in the south of Sweden. We used the practice guidelines provided in Evidence Based Practice (EBP) together with recently published meta- analyses of implementation research, in the field of social work, to examine the implementation of FFT, as being an evidence based treatment.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate how frequently, and in witch ways, theories concerning the "late-modern" society are being used in the contemporary research of social work. My thesis is that theories concerning the late-modern society could be useful in social work research, foremost to shed light on, and broaden the understanding of, dilemmas and problems that are specific to the contemporary society. In the study I'm investigating all doctoral dissertations on social work written in Sweden between the years 2003 and 2006, and to execute the study I've applied a text analysis method in four steps. Simplified the four steps of the analysis can be said to investigate, if, how frequent, and in what way theories on the late modern society is being used in social work study. I'm also specifically investigating how problems exclusive to the late-modern society is being taken under consideration in the dissertations.In the analysis of my results I take a critical theory approach and I also discuss if theories on late-modernity is to be seen as a paradigm in the field of social work science.

This essay has aimed at exploring how different companies work with CSR. We want to highlight their opinions about the topic, what it means for the companies that work with it and how important it is to apply CSR in a business. The reason why we chose this subject is because of the possibilities that come with working with CSR. We think there are a lot to be done when it comes to corporate social responsibility and we want to be a part of this new type of marketing. The win-win-situation that occurs with CSR is unique and it makes the subject interesting.