In this essay my aim is to examine how the term utanförskap is constructed and defined as a social problem in the public arena of the Swedish Parliament. The term utanförskap was widely used in the election-campaign prior to the Swedish Parliament election in the year 2006. The term, mainly articulated by the Right-wing Alliance, was used to describe indi-viduals and groups that were depicted as being outside the Swedish society. In the political debate, work and benefit dependency were constructed as binary opposites, with the latter describing the individuals in utanförskap. Translated to English the term utanförskap would be something like ?the state of being outside? or ?outsidership?.

Vår uppsats, Den individualiserade arbetslösheten? Attityder och värderingar till arbetslösa försörjningsstödstagare, bygger på fyra kvalitativa intervjuer med socialarbetare verksamma inom arbetet med försörjningsstöd. Det huvudsakliga syftet med uppsatsen har varit att undersöka om och hur synen på arbetslöshet som individuellt orsakat gestaltas i socialtjänstens arbete med arbetslösa försörjningsstödstagare. Detta har gjorts mot bakgrund av det individualiserade synsätt som präglar aktiveringspolitiken. För att undersöka syftet har vi utgått från följande frågeställningar:1.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine the portrayals of class in four Swedish contemporary novels that have been mentioned as working class literature in the literary public sphere. During the 20th century, society has undergone vast changes due to globalization and technology development. The rise in standards of living for most people in the Western societies has led to changed consumption patterns. In consequence, there has been increased emphasis given to cultural rather than materialist explanations of social stratification.