Kampen om klienten - En fallstudie om en socialförvaltnings erfarenhet av empowerment
(2004)School of Social Work
- Abstract
- This thesis is written within the Master Program of the School of Social Work at the University of Lund, and comprehends ten educational points. My purpose was to study the encounter between the concept of empowerment and the Swedish Social Services. Using the strategy of case study, I examined a Welfare Office’s experiences of empowerment in order to find out how the Social Services interpret empowerment and whether those experiences influence their work with maintenance support; client activation; their organisation and their relation with the clients. Furthermore, I tried to find out how the level of influence could be explained and identify opportunities for/obstacles to applying empowerment. The municipality of Örebro, where a Welfare... (More)
- This thesis is written within the Master Program of the School of Social Work at the University of Lund, and comprehends ten educational points. My purpose was to study the encounter between the concept of empowerment and the Swedish Social Services. Using the strategy of case study, I examined a Welfare Office’s experiences of empowerment in order to find out how the Social Services interpret empowerment and whether those experiences influence their work with maintenance support; client activation; their organisation and their relation with the clients. Furthermore, I tried to find out how the level of influence could be explained and identify opportunities for/obstacles to applying empowerment. The municipality of Örebro, where a Welfare Office participates in an empowerment project, was chosen as case. As method of data collection I used quality interviews. I interviewed three representatives from the Welfare Office, one from the project executive and four project participants. It turned out that the Social Services adjust their understanding of empowerment to the rules and conditions of the organisation. A central feature in the work with clients was their responsibility for their own situation and adaptation to public norms and labour morality. This was considered as a pre-condition to attain power and participation in society. Thus, the policy of activation remained unaffected – the working demand is self-evident and compatible with empowerment. The relations between social workers and clients had deteriorated. The control over the clients’ occupations and presence, as well as support possibilities, was lost. There was no change in the rules of the organisation. New working methods emerged: for instance that the client him-/herself got the responsibility to report his/her presence. I have also identified elements considered as challenges for the reformation of the Social Services in line with empowerment. These were in turn: the level of co-operation; the discussion about the concept empowerment; and the conditions of the organisation. Also the project-method appeared as a challenge. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1359258
- author
- Ringh, Martin
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2004
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Social problems and welfare, national insurance, Sociala problem, social välfärd, socialförsäkring
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 1359258
- date added to LUP
- 2004-11-08 00:00:00
- date last changed
- 2004-11-08 00:00:00
@misc{1359258,
abstract = {{This thesis is written within the Master Program of the School of Social Work at the University of Lund, and comprehends ten educational points. My purpose was to study the encounter between the concept of empowerment and the Swedish Social Services. Using the strategy of case study, I examined a Welfare Office’s experiences of empowerment in order to find out how the Social Services interpret empowerment and whether those experiences influence their work with maintenance support; client activation; their organisation and their relation with the clients. Furthermore, I tried to find out how the level of influence could be explained and identify opportunities for/obstacles to applying empowerment. The municipality of Örebro, where a Welfare Office participates in an empowerment project, was chosen as case. As method of data collection I used quality interviews. I interviewed three representatives from the Welfare Office, one from the project executive and four project participants. It turned out that the Social Services adjust their understanding of empowerment to the rules and conditions of the organisation. A central feature in the work with clients was their responsibility for their own situation and adaptation to public norms and labour morality. This was considered as a pre-condition to attain power and participation in society. Thus, the policy of activation remained unaffected – the working demand is self-evident and compatible with empowerment. The relations between social workers and clients had deteriorated. The control over the clients’ occupations and presence, as well as support possibilities, was lost. There was no change in the rules of the organisation. New working methods emerged: for instance that the client him-/herself got the responsibility to report his/her presence. I have also identified elements considered as challenges for the reformation of the Social Services in line with empowerment. These were in turn: the level of co-operation; the discussion about the concept empowerment; and the conditions of the organisation. Also the project-method appeared as a challenge.}},
author = {{Ringh, Martin}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Kampen om klienten - En fallstudie om en socialförvaltnings erfarenhet av empowerment}},
year = {{2004}},
}