Uppsatsen syftade till att undersöka hur olika socialsekreterare resonerade i sina bedömningar inom ekonomiskt bistånd samt hur socialsekreterarna uppfattade och tillämpade sitt handlingsutrymme. Fem socialsekreterare intervjuades i en kvalitativ intervjustudie där även två vinjettfall ingick. Resultatet påvisade viss variation i resonemang och bedömningar samt att tid, ärendebelastning och samverkan med andra myndigheter enligt socialsekreterarna hade störst inverkan på deras handlingsutrymme. Resultatet motsade en del tidigare forskning, genom att organisatoriska kontrollmekanismer inom socialt arbete även kan upplevas som positivt för socialarbetarnas handlingsutrymme. Generellt sett kände sig majoriteten av socialsekreterare tämligen fria i sin yrkesutövning. Skillnader i socialsekreterarnas resonemang analyserades samt diskuterades. Vissa socialsekreterare tillämpade ett tämligen byråkratiskt förhållningssätt gentemot klienter och deras ansökningar, medan andra socialsekreterare fokuserade på alliansbyggande i sina bedömningar och resonemang. Utrymmet för socialsekreterarna att själva välja vilket förhållningssätt de önskade inta föreföll vara stort. / The aim of the study was to examine how social workers working with income support reasoned in their assessments and to examine how they perceived and applied their discretion. Five social workers were interviewed in a qualitative study, which also included two vignettes. Results showed that reasoning and assessments varied to some extent. The social workers described time, caseload and collaboration with other authorities as challenges, limiting their discretion. The results contradicted some previous research, as the social workers described positive aspects of organisational control mechanisms in relation to discretion. Generally they all felt rather free in the exercise of their profession. Differences in social workers reasoning were analysed and discussed. Some social workers applied a rather bureaucratic approach regarding clients, whilst others focused more on alliance building in their assessments. There seemed to be room to choose which approach to take depending on the social worker’s perception of the situation.

Social service’ information is crucial for a client’s possibilities to participate and influence. In this survey study we focus on the social workers’ relation to information:  What are the prerequisites for informing and how do they use their discretion? Previous research has shown communication problems due to insufficient or inadequate information material. Organizational support and social worker/client relationship have been shown as important factors for participation. The meaning and use of concepts such as participation and influence has also changed over time. No similar study has been carried out before, which makes the present study explorative. Through a mixed method questionnaire, we have tried to capture 125 respondents’ experiences of and attitudes to the clients' need for information. The study shows previously unidentified circumstances. One is that the vast amount of information provided to the client is perceived as a problem in itself. Another is the social workers’ emphasis on the clients’ understanding of the information. We perceive these circumstances as a sign of a juridification of social work, partly as a result of a cooptation process. Social service incorporate new elements in a way that strengthens the organisation's power at the expense of the street level bureaucrats’ discretion.

Abstract The aim of this qualitative case study was to examine social service workers and managers approach towards the implementation of the Signs-of-Safety (SoS) model and their comprehension of working with the model. This study took place at a children and youth unit at a social service office in Stockholm. The empiric is based on three qualitative semistructured interviews and participant observations. The result was analyzed by definitions from Hasenfeld’s Human service organizations (HSO), Lipsky’s and Johansson’s definitions of "street-level bureaucrats", and room for manoeuvre. Lundquist’s definitions of "understand", "want" and "can" was also used, as well as the core-components that Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman och Wallace draw together of a successful implementation. The main result of the study indicates that the SoS-model contributes to the participation of children and parents and that it is complicated to implement the SoS-model in such a specialized organization. The study’s result also shows that the implementation is promoted by the support and the resources of every level in the organization and the fact that the initiative came from the street-level bureaucrats. The documentary system that comes with the BBIC is complicated to combinate with the SoS-model and therefore this might become a restricting effect.

Dans l’histoire de la République de Chine, Tsiang Tingfu était un historien et un critique politique, en même temps, il était un politicien représentatif dans la grande vague des « experts en politique ». Ce mémoire se concentre sur sa pensée et ses expériences dans la première moitié de sa vie. Pendant cette période, Tsiang a présenté les caractères de la maturité et l’activité dans sa pensée. En particulier, dans les années de 1930, il a déjà préconisé la pensée la plus importante qui a provoqué un gros débat entre les intellectuels chinois. Au travers des expériences de Tsiang de suivre les études, on fait ressortir que la culture traditionnelle chinoise et la nouvelle éducation occidentale ont conjointement influencé sa pensée. Dans ce mémoire, on analyse ses opinions et ses pratiques en politique et trouve que les noyaux de sa pensée consistent au nationalisme et à son intention de la modernisation chinoise. Au fur et à mesure de l’aggravation de l’invasion japonaise en Chine, la sauvegarde de la nation a occupé la position centrale dans ses opinions, et sa pensée a été devenue conservatrice. En 1935, stimulé par son sens de responsabilité comme un intellectuel, Tsiang a participé au gouvernement nationaliste chinois et a servi ce régime jusqu’à sa retraite. / Tsiang Tingfu was a historian and political critic. In the history of the Republic of China, he was also a representative politician in the wave of "scholar-bureaucrat". This thesis focuses on his thoughts and his experiences in the first half of his life when Tsiang exhibited characteristics of maturity and activity in his thinking. In particular, in the 1930s, as one of the leaders of the public opinion in China, he had advocated most of his important thoughts which triggered a heated discussion among the Chinese intellectuals. Through investigating each step in his educational career, we come to the conclusion that both the Chinese traditional culture and the Western education had shaped his later political and social thinking. By examining his principle political thoughts and his social practices, it is also found that the core of his thoughts lies in the nationalism and his intention of Chinese modernization. As the Japanese invasion intensified in China, saving the nation became his superior value and his thought therefore turned to the conservative. In 1935, prompted by the sense of responsibility as an intellectual, Tsiang participated in the Nationalist government and had served it until his retirement.

Studien syftade till att undersöka hur socialsekreterare arbetade med barns delaktighet i socialtjänstens barnavårdsutredningar samt hur covid-19-pandemin påverkade detta. Kvalitativa intervjuer hölls med åtta socialsekreterare om deras erfarenheter av utredande arbete med barn innan och under covid-19-pandemin. Socialsekreterarna visade stort en­gagemang för barns delaktighet, men det framkom att delaktigheten främst handlade om att inhämta information från barn om deras situation. Resultatet visade att pandemin har haft negativ påverkan på barns möjligheter till delaktighet. Socialsekreterarnas handlings­utrymme påverkades i varierande grad beroende på verksamhetens förhållningssätt till riktlinjer och restrik­tioner. Det framkom stora skillnader mellan hur socialsekreterare har träffat och inkluderat barn både innan och under covid-19-pandemin. Av resultatet att döma var arbetet med barns delaktighet en utmaning sedan tidigare, men det har ställts på sin spets under covid-19-pandemin. För barn kunde situationen liknas vid ett lotteri för i vilken utsträckning de gjordes delaktiga, utifrån den socialsekreterare de tilldelats. / The aim of this qualitative study was to examine how social workers at child welfare agencies implemented the principle of children's right to participation in child protection investigations and how the covid-19-pandemic has affected it. Eight social workers were interviewed on their experiences before and during the covid-19-pandemic. The social workers showed much interest in children’s participation, but findings showed they mostly thought of it as acquiring information from children. The study found that the covid-19-pandemic had a negative effect on the possibilities of participation. Experiences of how the covid-19-pandemic affected discretion and relative autonomy differed between the social workers. Notable differences emerged regarding how they met and included children in investigations both before and during the covid-19-pandemic. The challenges of implementing children’s right to participation seems to persist. The situa­tion appeared much like a lottery, where children’s level of participation greatly depended on which social worker they were assigned.

Studiens syfte är att öka kunskapen om brukarinflytandet och dess förutsättningar inom socialtjänstens missbruks- och beroende-handläggning, detta genom att utforska hur socialsekreterare inom missbruksenheter uppfattar förutsättningarna till brukarinflytande på individnivå. Detta baserat på sex kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare från fyra olika kommuner i Stockholms län. Urvalet har varit målstyrt och således har kontakt tagits med adekvat enhet inom dessa kommuners socialtjänstkontor för att bäst besvara vår forskningsfråga.Intervjumaterialet har bearbetats genom tematisk analys med hermeneutisk meningstolkning för att sedan analyseras vidare med teorin Empowerment och det teoretiska begreppet gräsrotsbyråkrat. Vi har också använt oss av den teoretiska modellen brukardialogmodellen och dess begreppsapparat i en avslutande analyssammanfattning. Dessa val av teoretiska utgångspunkter för analysen har genomförts efter materialinsamling och har agerat som tolkningsverktyg med den referensram de erbjuder.Studien har visat att de intervjuade socialsekreterarna uppfattar en mängd återkommande och betydande förutsättningar för brukarinflytande på individnivå, inom socialtjänstens missbruksenheter för vuxna. Dessa har kategoriserats i tre huvudteman som vi benämnt socialsekreterarens verklighet, allians och brukarens verklighet. Dessa tre teman är tre dimensioner av de förutsättningar som finns för brukarinflytandet och vad som påverkar det. Det har även varit tydligt att förhandling är något som sker i men också mellan dessa tre teman, likt det lim som fogar ihop det till en helhet. Socialsekreterarna har beskrivit dels den verklighet de själva står inför i sin myndighet med de organisatoriska förutsättningar som står till buds, dels brukarnas verklighet i mötet med socialtjänsten och den situation de befinner sig i. Dessa två verkligheter behöver, enligt socialsekreterarna, tas i beaktan och genom olika relationella och kommunikativa egenskaper behöver en allians uppstå mellan parterna för att möjliggöra en konstruktiv förhandling om inflytandet. / The aim of the study is to increase knowledge about user influence and its prerequisites within the social services' addiction and dependency management, this by exploring how social workers in the substance abuse units perceive the conditions for user influence at the individual level. This is based on six qualitative, semi-structured interviews with social workers from four different municipalities in Stockholm County. The selection has been goal-driven and thus contact has been made with an adequate unit within these municipalities' social services offices to best answer our research question.The interview material has been processed through thematic analysis with hermeneutic sentence interpretation to then be analyzed further with the theory Empowerment and the theoretical concept of Street-level bureaucrat. We have also used the theoretical model of the user dialogue model and its conceptual apparatus in a concluding analysis summary. The choices of theoreticalstarting points for the analysis have been made after material collection have functioned as interpretivetools with the frame of reference they offer.The study has shown that the interviewed social secretaries perceive a variety of recurring and significant conditions that affect user influence at the individual level, within the social services' addiction and dependency units for adults. In our thematic analysis, these conditions have been categorized into three main themes that we have called the social worker's reality, alliance, and the user's reality. These three themes are three dimensions of the conditions that exist for user influence and what affects it. It has also been clear that negotiation is something that takes place in but also between these three themes, like the glue that joins it together into a whole. The social secretaries have described, on the one hand, the reality they themselves face in their authority with the organizational conditions that are available, partly the user’s reality in the meeting with the social services and the situation they are in. These two realities, according to the social secretaries, needs to be considered and through different relational and communicative characteristics, an alliance needs to emerge between the parties to allow for a constructive negotiation about the influence.

This essay discusses the relationship between the employees at Swedish municipalities working at labor market units and their participants. The aim is to understand how their big room for action affects how they see their role and what this does to the help they are able to give the participants. The aim is also to give insight into how other organizations play a role in the creation of trust between the participants and the employees. This is done by breaking down the aim in two different questions: Question 1: How do the employees in labor market interventions view their service based on their room for action within the business and how does this affect their relationship with the client? Question 2: How do the employees use their room for action to help the participants orient themselves in the authority landscape? The data has been collected using a qualitative method and interviews with ten employees at four municipalities have been conducted. The theories used are aspects from the following theories: emotion sociology, professionalism and grassroots bureaucrats. The main findings are that the employees use their own personal life and personalities to make connections with the participants. They go outside of the realm of their job if they think it will help the participants and every employee makes a distinction in where to draw the line regarding what is part of their job.

Bakgrund: Studier visar att unga män har svårt för att sätta ord på sina känslor och att socialt konstruerade normer hindrar dem från att söka hjälp. Samtidigt påvisar studier att skolkuratorer har för många elever vilket begränsar hanterbarheten och handlingsutrymmet att arbeta förebyggande och främjande. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka de utmaningar och möjligheter som kuratorer på gymnasiet identifierar för att fånga upp killar som de bedömer vara i riskzon för psykisk ohälsa, med fokus på riskfaktorer, utmaningar och handlingsutrymme. Metod: Studien har utgått från en kvalitativ ansats. Fem semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med skolkuratorer på gymnasiet. Intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades med tematisk analys. Resultat- & analysdelen framställdes utifrån insamlad empiri och presenterades sedan i relation till de teoretiska utgångspunkterna hegemonisk maskulinitetsteori och gräsrotsbyråkrati & handlingsutrymme samt tidigare forskning. Resultat: Studiens resultat visade att den psykiska ohälsan ökar och att frånvaro ses som den mest centrala riskfaktorn för psykisk ohälsa, men även underkända betyg och språkbarriärer. Studiens resultat påvisade även att fungerande rutiner är viktigt för att identifiera unga män i riskzon, samtidigt som upplevelsen att rutinerna ofta brister och att övrig skolpersonal behöver kompetenshöjas kring att se riskfaktorer. Upplevelsen var också att man som skolkurator inte räckte till.

The work of social workers is complex as they need to relate to different demands and expectations. They need to relate to the expectations of children in foster care, while they also have the organizational frameworks in consideration. This essay has studied social workers' experiences of children in foster care and their expectations of a relationship with social workers and how this can be understood in relation to organizational frameworks. This essay has also studied how social workers describe the unification of these expectations and demands. Lipsky's (1980) theory about street-level bureaucrats has been used to describe the complex role of social workers. In order to gather empirical data, eight semi-structured interviews with social workers who work with children in foster care were conducted. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the empirical data. Based on the interviews, the conclusion can be drawn that the organizational framework frames the relationship between social workers and children in foster care, and therefore the children's expectations can be understood on the basis of the organizational framework. Another conclusion that can be drawn is that social workers mostly don't experience any expectations on a relationship from children in foster care, and thereby they don’t experience any difficulties in the unification of the expectations and organizational framework. However, there are a few social workers who experience that some children may have high expectations on a relationship, which social workers experience are difficult to attain. This can make it difficult to unify the children's expectations with the organizational framework. Therefore, it can lead to contradictions in the work of social workers, which also was a part of the aim of the study.

Social workers in this study describes various experiences of the assessments of interventions for children and adolescents. Social workers experience of the many different situations where an assessment of best effort must be made on the basis of BBIC, which is the Social Services investigation records. To make this assessment, the Social workers need social assistance and support of their colleagues and manager. Knowledge mixed with experience is also an important part when it comes to being professional and not let emotions control that could otherwise be happened when the social worker meets and builds relationships with clients. Social workers are also those who will decide which achievement the client needs from the needs. We use systems theory, Hasenfeld´s theory of human services organizations  and Lipsky´s grassroots bureaucrats to analyze how social worker work with clients of different experiences, knowledge and some of their own personal values for the various operations. The efforts in our work we have examined is traditional familycare and MTFC (Multi dementional Treatment Foster Care), we have found that there are different arguments for different actions, but the assessments are made virtually the same assessment model. There are requirements that govern the operation of which is matched with the objectives and resources administration. Social worker also believes that social work is a game where we do not know how the results will be.