Social work is a social phenomenon, existing in most societies, that has given rise to a multitude of special organizations and professions. For that reason social work is dealing with a complex identity. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how social workers and the scientific discourse interpret the concept of social work. In addition to that the study intends to show similarities and differencies. The research process containes two studies, one based on qualitative interviews with five social workers and the other consisting a surway of academic litterature.

Our aim with this essay is to examine if social work in the care of elderly tends to be salutogenetic or patogenetic oriented. A salutogenetic oriented activity means that the social workers focuses on the elderly peoples individual possibilities, and collaborate with the receiver of care in order to offer him or her aid and resources for meaningful living conditions. A patogenetic oriented activity on the other hand means that the social workers focuses on the elderly peoples most primary needs, their illnesses and to introduce adequate treatment. We also examine if social workers in the care of elderly tend to prefer male or female characteristic features in the receivers of care. Finally we wanted to find out if there were any gender distinctions, if the appraisal of aid were more affected by a male or female receiver of care.

The aim of the study is to investigate how social workers relate to the self-determination in cases that involve people who have dementia. To investigate this we have chosen to build a qualitative study. The study is based on four interviews with social workers in elderly care in Sweden. To analyze our material we chose the concept autonomy, and legal texts from the Social Services Act (SFS 2001: 453) and Parental code (SFS 1949: 381). Our results show that social workers are often forced to deviate from the law and guidelines to ensure the best for the person with dementia.

The overall aim of this study is to investigate how social workers who are dealing with financial assistance are experiencing discretion in their daily work. The aim of the study is also to examine how social workers who are dealing with financial assistance relates to the controlling and the supporting functions of their daily work and how this in turn affects the attitude to the client. In order to examine the aim of the study, qualitative method was used. Eight social workers have been interviewed and presented with two fictitious cases that they have been able to discuss. Theories regarding the street-level bureaucrat and its discretion have been used to interpret and understand the collected material.

Our study has its starting point in the Swedish social legislation (Socialtjänstlagen) and more specifically in the 6th chapter's 5th paragraph. That paragraph regulates that social workers should try to find a kinship care placement when they are about to do a placement of a child. Our purpose is to examine how social workers, before they do a placement of a child, understand the informal kinship that is not relatives, if they consider the informal kinship and if certain circumstances have an impact on the consideration. To get this information we have done five interviews with social workers. Recent studies show that social workers in past years have begun to think more positively of people's kinships and that they more often use the resources of the kinship.

This study is about conception in the evaluation of financial assistance within the social services. The aim of this study is to describe and understand how social workers reason about variation, conception and local norms and its significance in the evaluation process. To reach this purpose we have conducted semi-structured interviews with eight social workers in which different themes were discussed and reasoned about. In order to understand and analyze our results we have studied/used the knowledge about tacit knowledge and street-level bureaucracy. Our results showed, as previous research states, that social workers do have conceptions about clients.

 The aim of this study was to examine how social workers perceive and interpret the term ?barnets bästa? (?The best for the child?), within the framework of investigatory work and enforcement of Swedish law, which is carried out by the Social Services. We wanted to investigate if the interpretation of the term had any causal effects on the work carried out by social workers. Seven social workers from two municipalities participated in this study in which we used qualitative semi-structured interviews based around two vignettes. We focused on age, experience, legislation, and external circumstances to gain insight into how these factors alter social workers? perception of the term ?barnets bästa?. Our theoretical approach was based on two theories on social constructivism.

The purpose of this essay was to study social workers´ and polices contributions with criminal youth gangs and get an insight in how co-operation in the contributions between these governments comes to rank and works.To find out, we carried out a study with a qualitative design based on document studies and interviews with social workers´ and polices who were meeting youths in their work.Our findings were that it's hard to define a criminal youth gang. The social workers´ and polices have both individual and common contributions with criminal youth gangs. One of their most important lining is to prevent new recruitment of young people to criminality. The social workers´ and polices both have an intention to cooperate but they can?t agree about the method of work they shall use, ?the kid-glove or the whip?..

The main domain in which eating disorders are defined is medical, whereas socio-cultural perspectives are less common. Because social workers seeks to explain different problems taking societal factors into account, we asked ourselves if social workers have a way of understanding eating disorders, that is different from a medical point of view. Two focus group interviews were conducted; the one composed by social workers with experience of working with eating disorders, and the other by social workers without that experience, which enabled comparisons. The interviews were analyzed using socio-cultural and feminist perspectives. The result showed that the social workers use socio-cultural perspectives in explaining eating disorders.

The purpose of this essay was to investigate and analyze affecting factors concerning social workers in two different municipality social services, Karlskrona and Karlshamn, working with cases of youth drug abuse. We wanted to see what affects social workers in their choices of assessments of youth drug abusers. We wanted to find out whether the organizational aspects or the cliental qualities affect the social workers more than the other in the choices of assessments. Among the cliental qualities we used in this essay, gender was the most important quality and therefore the quality we wanted to pay special attention to. When it came to the organizational aspects we paid special attention to the social workers boundaries of agency.

The purpose of this study was to examine social workers working process in social assistance with focus on the child´s perspective. We were interested in learning about the existence of variations in approach and attitude between two municipalities. Question to be answered about what methods and approaches used by social workers to include the child´s perspective in the process of social assistance. Another question to be answered about what the manner in which social workers took into account the child´s perspective when the families apply for social assistance in relation to the operations and requirement. To fulfill the purpose, qualitative methods were used.

This study aims to examine how social workers, in the Swedish social services, perceive and interpret LVU § 3 from a gender perspective. In total eight social workers participated in the study, attending interviews based on a vignette. From a gender perspective we wanted to found out how the social workers define "other socially destructive behaviour" and understand their thoughts about this subject. Moreover, we aimed to see if social workers perceive any differences between boys and girls behaviour. Based on several theories, two gender theories and concepts we have analysed our result from the interviews.

The aim of this study was to describe how male social workers who work in the section for children and family in one municipality in southern Sweden, experience that their gender influences their daily work. The main focus is to understand what it means to be a man in the social services department. The first research question was how the male social workers experienced how their gender influenced their contact with children and parents in terms of possibilities and obstacles. The second research question was how the male social workers experienced how their gender influenced their working place in terms of possibilities and obstacles. The third research question was how the male social workers experienced that their gender affected the work with women colleagues.

The aim of our study is to explore social workers view on the importance of clothing. We want to know how and if social worker reflects on the importance of their clothing and how it may affect their clients. Dresses social workers differently due to different work situations? Play client`s clothes any role in the social welfare officers? Can client`s clothing affect the assessment of their problem?The study is based on a qualitative method. The data consists of two focus group interviews with four social workers in each group, containing three women and one man in each focusgroup, with a total of eight informants.The results of our study indicate that the clothes are important in meeting with clients and especially as to help create a relationship with the client.

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.