Fattigdomens besvärjelser : visionära ideal och vardagliga realiteter i socialt arbete
Salomonsson, Karin LU
(1998)
- Abstract
- The theme of this dissertation is how changing claims as to what is proper and true social work have been formulated and staged in the twentieth century. From the perspective of cultural analysis I seek to discuss how social work has been formed and changed over a century. I wish to demonstrate how descriptions and narratives, actions and gazes, practice and rhetoric have constituted a changing professional role with differing expectations.
It is a study of how different groups of social workers have made room for themselves and how new fields have been colonized. This process looks different depending on who has had the initiative and the primacy of interpretation.
In the book I juxtapose the grand... (More) - The theme of this dissertation is how changing claims as to what is proper and true social work have been formulated and staged in the twentieth century. From the perspective of cultural analysis I seek to discuss how social work has been formed and changed over a century. I wish to demonstrate how descriptions and narratives, actions and gazes, practice and rhetoric have constituted a changing professional role with differing expectations.
It is a study of how different groups of social workers have made room for themselves and how new fields have been colonized. This process looks different depending on who has had the initiative and the primacy of interpretation.
In the book I juxtapose the grand narrative of social policy with the stories of the young woman who wanted to combat destitution like some gallant knight; of the matron who served too much butter to her alcoholic inmates; of the teenage girl who was transformed by the official records into a sexual girl; of the fieldworkers who wanted to describe the concrete jungle in a new way; of the social medical officer who wished for civic common sense. The maxim is often the same: the modern project with its aspiration for order, or the good intentions with their unforeseen disciplining. Just as often, I have come across unexpected reasons why social work has taken the shape it has.
In choosing a constructivist perspective I have tried to avoid regarding concepts such as therapy, client, or modern social welfare as stable, unchanging entities. By calling them constructions - formed and mutable - one cannot ignore that they are historically and socially constituted.
It would be cynical to claim that social problems do not exist until a social worker names them as such. Men do abuse women, children are badly treated, and money is short - but this does not happen in a vacuum devoid of speech and action. They become realities in perception and conceptualization. How this is captured, described, and made into a reason for intervention is a central theme in the dissertation. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Popular Abstract in Swedish
Socialakrobat, världsförbättrare, soc-kärring. Benämningarna på socialarbetare har skiftat genom åren, liksom synen på yrket. I Fattigdomens besvärjelser skildras den svenska fattigvårdens förvandling till modern socialvård. Det är arbetets vardag som står i fokus, många gånger i kontrast till socialarbetarnas visionära förhoppningar.
Vi får möta sekelskiftets filantroper, folkhemmets socialläkare och sjuttiotalets radikala fältarbetare. Utifrån olika fall - barn som mördar för en bit mat; en otuktshärva med tonårsflickor; en skandal på ett alkoholisthem - diskuteras vem som har haft initiativet och tolkningsföreträdet i det sociala arbetet.
Boken är en... (More) - Popular Abstract in Swedish
Socialakrobat, världsförbättrare, soc-kärring. Benämningarna på socialarbetare har skiftat genom åren, liksom synen på yrket. I Fattigdomens besvärjelser skildras den svenska fattigvårdens förvandling till modern socialvård. Det är arbetets vardag som står i fokus, många gånger i kontrast till socialarbetarnas visionära förhoppningar.
Vi får möta sekelskiftets filantroper, folkhemmets socialläkare och sjuttiotalets radikala fältarbetare. Utifrån olika fall - barn som mördar för en bit mat; en otuktshärva med tonårsflickor; en skandal på ett alkoholisthem - diskuteras vem som har haft initiativet och tolkningsföreträdet i det sociala arbetet.
Boken är en kulturanalytisk granskning av hur socialarbetare har koloniserat nya verksamhetsfält, hur ideal och målsättningar har förvandlats till praktisk handling. Fattighuset och socialbyrån, journalen och IQ-testet, är konkreta påminnelser om myndigheternas ingrepp. Men den svenska socialvårdens historia vittnar också om rättvisekrav och medkänsla. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/18775
- author
- Salomonsson, Karin
LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Ph.D. Öhlander, Magnus
- organization
- alternative title
- Invocations of Poverty. Visionary Ideals and Everyday Realities in Social Work
- publishing date
- 1998
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- "doing the discoursing", Cultural anthropology, Gender-performances, the State, Social welfare, Modernity, Cultural meanings, History as narrative, Professional identity, Cultural construction, Social work, etnologi, ethnology, Kulturantropologi, Space/Place
- pages
- 256 pages
- publisher
- Historiska Media
- defense location
- Palestra
- defense date
- 1998-05-15 10:15:00
- external identifiers
-
- other:ISRN: LUHFDA/HFET-98/1032--SE+256
- ISBN
- 91-88930-28-9
- language
- Swedish
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 22c01e5a-e26f-455a-8fd1-dc0aa687fa51 (old id 18775)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 10:23:48
- date last changed
- 2021-12-02 10:14:04
@phdthesis{22c01e5a-e26f-455a-8fd1-dc0aa687fa51,
abstract = {{The theme of this dissertation is how changing claims as to what is proper and true social work have been formulated and staged in the twentieth century. From the perspective of cultural analysis I seek to discuss how social work has been formed and changed over a century. I wish to demonstrate how descriptions and narratives, actions and gazes, practice and rhetoric have constituted a changing professional role with differing expectations.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
It is a study of how different groups of social workers have made room for themselves and how new fields have been colonized. This process looks different depending on who has had the initiative and the primacy of interpretation.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
In the book I juxtapose the grand narrative of social policy with the stories of the young woman who wanted to combat destitution like some gallant knight; of the matron who served too much butter to her alcoholic inmates; of the teenage girl who was transformed by the official records into a sexual girl; of the fieldworkers who wanted to describe the concrete jungle in a new way; of the social medical officer who wished for civic common sense. The maxim is often the same: the modern project with its aspiration for order, or the good intentions with their unforeseen disciplining. Just as often, I have come across unexpected reasons why social work has taken the shape it has.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
In choosing a constructivist perspective I have tried to avoid regarding concepts such as therapy, client, or modern social welfare as stable, unchanging entities. By calling them constructions - formed and mutable - one cannot ignore that they are historically and socially constituted.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
It would be cynical to claim that social problems do not exist until a social worker names them as such. Men do abuse women, children are badly treated, and money is short - but this does not happen in a vacuum devoid of speech and action. They become realities in perception and conceptualization. How this is captured, described, and made into a reason for intervention is a central theme in the dissertation.}},
author = {{Salomonsson, Karin}},
isbn = {{91-88930-28-9}},
keywords = {{"doing the discoursing"; Cultural anthropology; Gender-performances; the State; Social welfare; Modernity; Cultural meanings; History as narrative; Professional identity; Cultural construction; Social work; etnologi; ethnology; Kulturantropologi; Space/Place}},
language = {{swe}},
publisher = {{Historiska Media}},
school = {{Lund University}},
title = {{Fattigdomens besvärjelser : visionära ideal och vardagliga realiteter i socialt arbete}},
year = {{1998}},
}