Det ätstörda samhället och det sociala arbetet
En kvalitativ studie om ätstörningar ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv
Eating disordersSocial workSocietySocio-cultural perspectiveFeminist theoryÄtstörningarSocialt arbeteSamhälleSociokulturellt perspektivFeministisk teori
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. Both groups also emphasized the medical perspective, but the first group where less willing than the other to depart from this perspective. The conclusion were made that the social workers having experience of working with eating disorders are more into the medical discourse than are the ones without this experience.