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Over the last several decades, politicians, police and communities have increased their attention on the activities and behaviours of men who solicit prostitutes. This study critically examines one recent legal policy aimed at addressing the demand side of prostitution: Bill 206, the Traffic Safety (Seizure of Vehicles in Prostitution Related Offences) Amendment Act, 2003. This study explores what claims-making processes are used to justify this legislation, how johns and prostitutes are represented, and how this legislation (re)produces racialized and gendered subjects. It argues that several claims-making strategies are employed, including a crisis of child prostitution, individualization and responsibilization tactics, and stereotypes about johns and prostitutes, to justify and legitimate this legislation as an appropriate response to prostitution. As a result, the perspectives of prostitutes were absent from the debates, and there was a broad neglect of a socially and historically contextualized analysis of prostitution as a social problem.

The concept of social membership is the mainframe for this dissertation, which encompasses four independent articles that approach the boundaries of social membership from different perspectives. Empirically, the focus lies on mobilizing groups that demand an extension of rights and/or inclusion for documented and undocumented immigrants in two European immigration countries: Sweden and Spain. I have defined the processes through which mobilizing actors (immigrants themselves and diverse supporters of their cause) interact with boundary-making actors (institutional actors, policy makers), whom through their positions participate in drawing the boundaries between inclusion and exclusion, as negotiating social membership. To study these processes, I have performed 68 interviews with actors as mobilizing immigrants, activists mobilizing on behalf of immigrants, representatives of NGOs and trade unions, policy-makers and politicians. Two main types of claims appeared: undocumented migrants’ rights groups mobilizing for residence permits and social rights, and documented immigrants’ (and their supporters’) advocacy against ethnic discrimination. Furthermore, I have included a study that reflects the tensions over social membership within immigrant communities. The gendered dimension is its main focus, as it illustrates the value conflicts over gender equality and ethnic diversity brought to the surface through the debates following so-called honour killings in Sweden, and the difficulties faced by young immigrant women mobilizing simultaneously against racism and patriarchal oppression.  The thesis consists of four independent articles within the overall framework of mobilizing groups demanding extended rights for and/or inclusion of immigrants. By using immigrants’ rights mobilizations, negotiations, debates and agendas, my general aim has been to explore the processes through which social membership is being contested and negotiated by a wide range of actors. In doing so, it has been possible to reveal how legal and symbolic boundaries create exclusionary processes that pose constraints on the social membership of immigrants with different legal statuses. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript.</p>

Syftet med den föreliggande systematiska litteraturgenomgången är att undersöka och analysera på vilket sätt frågor om Sexuell och Reproduktiv Hälsa och Rättigheter (SRHR) integreras i det sociala arbetets praktik i Skandinavien. Mer specifikt syftar litteraturgenomgången till att undersöka på vilket sätt begreppet SRHR används i aktuell forskning inom socialt arbete, samt vilka claims som finns rörande behovet av att integrera SRHR-relaterade frågor i socialt arbete. Litteraturgenomgången baseras på 15 vetenskapliga studier. Det sociala arbetet har historiskt berört sexualitet med ett fokus som skiftat mellan att begränsa och kontrollera sexualiteter samt att främja sexuella rättigheter. Trots det har en begränsad mängd forskning om SRHR inom området för socialt arbete utförts. Litteraturgenomgången analyseras via Judith Butlers teori om den heterosexuella matrisen, Tina Mattssons intersektionella perspektiv om maktstrukturer samt Donileen R. Losekes teori om claims-making. För att komma åt aktuell forskning har en systematisk litteraturgenomgång med en tematisk analys av resultatet utförts, med grund i en hermeneutisk ansats. Resultatet visar att det i socialt arbete råder en kunskaps- och kompetensbrist i frågor om SRHR då arbetet omfattas av diskurser, normer och värderingar. Det är särskilt angeläget att uppmärksamma utsatta grupper för att bemöta behov och främja rättigheter i SRHR-frågor. SRHR är ett ämne och ett begrepp under utveckling vars utrymme successivt växer i forskningen, på socionomutbildningen och inom det sociala arbetet. / The purpose of the present systematic literature review is to examine and analyze how matters of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) are integrated into the practice of social work in Scandinavia. More specifically, the literature review aims to examine how the concept of SRHR is used in current research within social work, as well as which claims exist regarding the need to integrate SRHR-related issues in social work. The literature review is based on 15 scientific studies. Social work has historically referred to sexuality with a focus that has been shifting between limiting and controlling sexualities and promoting sexual rights. Despite this, a limited amount of research on SRHR in the field of social work has been conducted. The literature review is analyzed via Judith Butler's theory of the heterosexual matrix, Tina Mattsson’s intersectional perspective on powerstructures and Donileen R. Loseke's theory of claims-making. To access current research, a systematic literature review with a thematic analysis of the results has been conducted, based on a hermeneutic approach. The results show that in social work there is a lack of knowledge and skills in matters of SRHR as the work is covered by discourses, norms and values. It is particularly important to pay attention to vulnerable groups in order to respond to needs and promote rights in SRHR matters. SRHR is a subject and a concept under development whose space is gradually growing in research, in social work education and in social work practice.

Supervised injection sites (SISs) have become subject to much political and social controversy in Canada since the late 1990s. Since the implementation of North America’s first SIS, Insite, in 2003 in Vancouver, the controversy has reached new levels. Despite the increasing evidence base available regarding the effectiveness of SISs as a harm reduction strategy trans-nationally, the implementation of this intervention in Canada prevails within public and parliamentary debates. Guided by the theoretical contributions of Joel Best (2008) on claims-making and the construction of social problems, this thesis explores the SIS debate in Canada and the assertions advanced with respect to the implementation of SISs. Building on the available literature, the author identifies numerous types of claims advanced by proponents and opponents of SISs through a qualitative content analysis of 164 newspaper documents from The Vancouver Sun, The Ottawa Sun and The Ottawa Citizen. It was determined that claimsmakers often present the intervention as a solution to the ‘drug problem’ or part in parcel of the problem. Opponents in particular attempt to construct the intervention as harmful for the community in that the implementation of a SIS would exacerbate various aspects of the ‘drug problem’ including drug abuse and crime. Very rarely, however, claimsmakers suggest the SIS is merely one strategy to addressing public health issues related to injection drug use and that there is ‘no easy fix’ to this ‘drug problem’. Further, the author applies the findings from this analysis to make sense of the Canadian federal government’s proposed policy response, The Respect for Communities Act, towards the establishment of SISs.

In early twentieth century Canada, the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic struck far and wide (Herring, 2007) and its effect was greater on indigenous populations, particularly the Inuit (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2013). In 1906, the Mountain Sanatorium was founded by the Hamilton Health Association (HHA) in an effort to curb the disease (Wilson, 2006) and was designated as a treatment centre for Inuit from the Eastern Arctic. Controlling TB became a movement extensively documented by The Hamilton Spectator – a prime news provider. This research concerns the way in which social problems emerge and the responses they generate. Drawing on the literature on social problems, this thesis examines the HHA’s claims-making activities regarding tuberculosis in 1953-1963 along with The Spectator’s role in helping to define TB as a problem. It examines 1) how the HHA constructed TB as a problem 2) how the HHA understood the problems and solutions of tuberculosis; 3) it ascertains whether the HHA and The Spectator drew from a biomedical model or considered social determinants of health (SDOH) in their control and reportage of the disease; 4) the portrayal and treatment of Inuit patients; 5) the role of legitimacy; and 6) the importance of Pfeffer and Salancik’s resource dependency theory in the Sanatorium’s efforts to survive as an institution. This was executed through a content analysis of the HHA’s annual reports and newspaper articles by The Spectator. The examination of this case through the theory of social problems and resource dependency provides a lens to understand how TB became a problem and why hospitals are more than treatment facilities. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Working within a social constructionist paradigm, the focus of this study is on the way in which the social problem of campus sexual assault is constructed and the way in which these constructions determine the proposed solutions. To address the issue, the study focuses on a high-profile case of a violent sexual assault that occurred at Carleton University in the fall of 2007. Drawing upon the work of Joel Best and Donileen Loseke, I approach this issue by focusing on the claims-making activities that emerged in response to this event. Using a mixed methods analysis of newspaper coverage of the event consisting of a quantitative content analysis combined with a more detailed thematic analysis focusing on the specific claims made and the more general themes they reflect, this study analyzes the dominant claims-makers identified by the media, the claims they put forth, and the proposed solutions that follow from their particular constructions of the problem. Results of this analysis illustrate the contested nature of the construction of campus sexual assault as well as the way in which competing discourses reflect features of a broader social discourse relating to crime, individualization, and the responsibilization of women to protect themselves from sexual violence.

The aim with this study was to analyze and understand how begging is constructed as a social problem in Sweden between September of 2010 and the end of February in 2014 in debate articles in Dagens Nyheter. To do this I have chosen to use a social problems theory and critical discourse analysis to highlight some aspects in the process of defining the social problem. The study's main finding is that the construction of beggars and begging appears to be in a relatively extensive redefinition in the current situation. It is shown by, for example, a shift in focus in the discourse. For this reason, it is relevant for social work to examine how the construction progresses.

Natural disasters are social and political phenomena. Social structures create vulnerability to natural hazards and governments are often seen as responsible for the effects of disasters. Do social trust, political trust, and government satisfaction therefore generally change following natural disasters? How can media coverage explain change in political attitudes? Prior research suggests that these variables are prone to change, but previous studies often focus on single cases, whereas this dissertation adopts a broader approach, examining multiple disasters. It investigates the social and political impact of natural disasters by examining their effect on social and political attitudes and by exploring media coverage as a mechanism underlying political consequences. The results reveal that natural disasters may have a comparatively frequent, although small and temporary, effect on social trust. Substantial effects are less likely. Social trust was found to decrease significantly when disasters cause nine or more fatalities (Paper I). Political attitudes were expected to be prone to change after natural disasters, but Paper II illustrates that political trust and government satisfaction among citizens are generally hardly affected by these events. Finally, media framing and the political claims of actors explained the variation in political consequences after disasters of similar severity. Paper III also illustrates the importance of the political context of natural disasters, as their occurrence can be strategically exploited by actors to further criticism towards the government in politically tense situations. This dissertation contributes to existing disaster research by investigating more cases than disaster studies typically do. It also uses a systematic case selection process, and a quantitative approach with a, for disaster research, unique research design. Hence, it offers methodological nuance to existing studies. A broader analysis, factoring in the variation of disaster severity and the increased number of cases offers new answers and tests assumptions about underlying patterns. The main contribution of this thesis is that it examines how common political and social effects of disasters are. Furthermore, this dissertation contributes to existing disasters research by emphasizing contextual and explanatory factors, e.g., properties of disasters and the political context that affects the media coverage of natural disasters.