Kulturellt relevant socialt arbete?
En fältstudie i en SOS-barnby, Swaziland
Social workSOS-Children?s VillagesVillagemothersGlobal northGlobal southCulturePost colonialismLegitimacyNew institutionalismChildren?s right perspectiveSocialt arbeteSOS-barnbyarBymammorGlobala nordGlobala sydKulturPostkolonialismLegitimitetNyinstitutionalismBarnrättsperspektiv
The purpose of this study was to examine how SOS Children's Villages as an organization in Swaziland is affected by, and takes into account, the cultural, organizational and societal context in which it acts. Material was gathered through a field study during one month in one of the three SOS Children's Villages in Swaziland. The study has a qualitative approach and is based on the result from 12 semi-structured interviews with village mothers and other representatives from the organization. The other representatives were: social worker, program director, child and youth development coordinator, board member and educational manager. Since this study is both characterized by a specific historical, cultural and organizational context, we decided to connect the postcolonial perspective with an organization theory with focus on the concepts of culture, power and a children?s right perspective. The result from the study showed that SOS Children's village is affected by and takes into account the cultural and societal context in Swaziland in several ways. They do so, mainly by inlvolving the children in cultural values and activites. The result also showed that the village is influenced by the organizational field, because the SOS-Children´s village is in need of creating legitimacy. However, it becomes thus a dilemma how much the social work should be built upon, adapted, or should take into account the cultural, organizational and societal contexts to not maintain colonial worldviews.