The aim of this study was to understand how teachers in Sweden act when they suspect child abuse. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers from six different schools teaching at various grades. A qualitative method was applied in order to reach broader answers and enabling the possibility of follow-up questions. The collected data was analyzed with the new institutional theory and the theoretical concepts about street-level bureaucratsand discretion. Earlier studies within the area has been found by using the keywords: teacher, child abuse, report, mandatory report, consequence andneglect. The empirical data resulted in three large categories, which further contained several subcategories explaining why the teachers took action or not when suspecting child abuse. The results indicated that the teachers act in different ways within their discretion, and sometimes against the law. Furthermore, the majority of the teachers have knowledge about the notification requirements according to the social services act (SFS 2001:453), but that some schools use their own policies and guidelines that the teacher choose to apply instead. Concludingly, the current study aligns with the new institutional theory illustrating that the solution for some organizations is to detach practical actions from formal structures and thereby ignoring laws.

The thesis explores how the way athletically active old men and women make sense of their acting-space affects their participation in competitive sports and conversely how their participation in competitive sports affect their sense-making process and acting-space. It puts emphasis on the sociological point of intersection of three different research fields; sports science, critical gerontology and gender studies. Concretely, it is inspired by grounded theory research design and based on interviews with twenty-two athletically active men and women over the age of 65. The thesis consists of four articles, and together these show that men and women experience certain constraints of acting-space in the context of competitive sports, which primarily seem to be related to norms of age and gender. At the same time, the thesis shows that by practising sports old adults, especially old women, are able to transgress these constraints and possibly challenge dominant constructions of age and gender.

This thesis is about staff in Sweden working with unaccompanied migrant children, either in supported accommodation or HVB-homes, a form of residential care. A previous study shows that staffs’ acting space often led them feeling a higher sense of responsibility for their work. This study seeks to understand if the staffs’ acting space relate to their sense of responsibility for children in care. To answer this, we have used a qualitative method. We have done eight semi-structured interviews with staff working in HVB-homes and supported accommodation, to take part of the staffs’ perspective and point of views. The theory used for analysing out material is Lipsky’s Street-level bureaucracy: dilemmas of the individual in public services. We have also used Ulla Johansson’s conception analysis Om ansvar. The result of the study shows that staff feel like they have a big acting space at their place of work. Staff also describe how they feel responsible for the children they meet in their work, but not a sense of responsibility that goes beyond their work role. From our interviews we have concluded that it doesn’t seem to be a significant relation between acting space and the staffs’ sense of responsibility for the children. The latter relates more to the staffs’ attitude and their boundaries.

The aim of this study was to shed light on the phenomenon of sex purchase amongst men from the perspective of professionals working at KAST*. Our main research questions concerned who the sex-purchasing men are, what their incentives are and furthermore how the professionals depict their work with these clients. In order to examine this we conducted three qualitative research interviews. The theoretical framework used to examine our results consisted of social constructivism and professional acting space. Main results show, contrary to research, that the “typical” sex buyer does not exist, nor do specific motives. Instead, our interviewees prefer to speak of a mutual pattern amongst the sex buyers, referred to as an obsessive-compulsive sexual behaviour. In addition, our interviewees emphasize the importance of distinguishing between the act and the individual. Other findings show that although none of the units use evidence-based practice, all interviewees claim their methods are effective and moreover they all describe their professional acting space as almost unlimited. With our interviewees’ testimonies differing in several ways from the image of sex buyers common amongst the public and some researchers, we hope our findings can contribute to a more nuanced view of sex buyers.   * Abbreviation for the unit within the social services working with sex buyers

The purpose of this essay was to examine and compare what attitudes Swedish and Belgian social workers may have towards residential care and foster care for children and young people. To answer the purpose eight qualitative interviews with four Swedish and four Belgian social workers were made. The results were analyzed by theory of organization and professional acting space. The results of the study show that the social workers in both countries preferred foster care, especially for small children, and that the Swedish social workers had a more negative attitude towards residential care than the Belgian social workers. Even though the Belgian social workers preferred foster care, they found themselves forced to choose residential care due to lack of available foster care facilities, something that did not seem to affect the Swedish social workers. Factors that affected the Swedish and the Belgian social workers professional acting space were the consent from parents, discussing with colleagues and specialization of interventions.

The aim of this qualitative study is to understand how first-line managers lead their employees in the implementation of social service legislated value-base for elderly people. We wanted to understand what kind of leadership the managers used and how this leadership is formed by their acting space. Method: For this study is a qualitative method used. Trough semi-structured interviews, with 7 first-line managers, the empirical data were collected. Theory: For the analysis of the empirical data was Kurt Lewin’s three classic leadershipstyles used; the autocracy, the democracy and laissez-faire, and the theoretical concept of acting space. Result: The result of the study showed that the most common leader-style is the democracy style among the first-line managers. In the work with the social service legislated value-base for elderly people it is important to be a present leader that supports and include the employees in this work. However there are situations where the leader has to use an autocracy leader-style. The leadership is shaped by the acting space the first-line manager has. It can be affected by the organizational conditions like resources and the possibility of education for both the managers and the employees.

The purpose of this essay is to highlight the space students receive through teachers´ questions in text conversations from a power perspective. The empirical data is based on observations in the classrooms, and student and teacher interviews. The ambition of this essay is to investigate the way power and standards reproduce and are created in classrooms. This is preformed through observations. Through interviews with students and teachers the study aims to display their experiences and reflections about the space provided. Methods used in the study are both quantitative and qualitative. The material in this study is represented by two schools and four classrooms in grade two. The theoretical framework is based on Foucault's theory of power and on Åsa Bartholdsson´s concept of "friendly exercise of power". The theoretical framework is also based on exercise of power as it has been analyzed in Donald Broady´s "educational frameworks" and the relationship between these frames and power, as well as the analytical concepts of speaking space, action space and interaction space. The results show that speaking space in the classroom is dominated by closed questions. To answer the teacher's questions the student needs to sit still on a chair and raise the hand and also that teachers do not create enough opportunities for students to refer to each other’s reply in conversations about a text. The conclusion that can be drawn is that teachers teach students through hidden power shapes and democratic forms for students' future roles as democratic citizens.

Based upon feminist organized women's experiences of resistance and political acting space, this study investigates what is possible to say and do (and not do), as well as which issues can be politicized (and which cannot) in the Swedish municipal policy. More specifically it analyzes in which spaces women face resistance, who are expressing it, and how it is manifested. Moreover, it discusses which political content that can be formulated, politicized, and implemented in the local political area. It is based on interviews with representatives from the political party Feminist initiative, and builds on previous research on resistance against women's extra-parliamentary political organizing. Previous research has suggested that the organization in itself evokes resistance. Nevertheless, this study shows that it is the political content, rather than the organizing, that arouses resistance. The combination of women who organize themselves as women and runs an anti-racist policy seems to be the most provocative. This thesis also shows that it is possible to politicize gender issues – unless they are not labeled as feminist issues. The concept of “gender equality” can be used, but not “feminism”. There are opportunities to talk about equality if it is formulated in terms of gender neutrality and equal treatment. It is possible to talk about gender when it comes to gender equality, but it is not allowed to permeate other policy areas. And concrete policy proposals can be formulated, unless the political discussion is not conducted at a more visionary and ideological level. While there are policies which can be implemented on condition that they are not formulated in feminist terms, there are also policies which could be expressed, but subsequently will not be implemented due to opposition from the administration.

This study aims to understand how care managers approach consent and user influence related to older people with dementia. The study was conducted through qualitative interviews with individual care managers and with a hermeneutic approach. We have interviewed ten care managers in smaller municipalities whom are experienced in their profession and have been in contact with older people with dementia. throughout all the interviews, we had a semi-structured interview guide at our disposal, and after all the interviews were conducted, we analyzed them with the hermeneutic circle and theoretically analyzed the material with Lipsky´s theory about street level bureaucracy, acting space and, what we call it, the social service as a last resort and finally with Johansson´s theory of client relationships. Our main conclusions regarding consent is that care managers need to relate to the law simultaneously have the individual needs and wishes in regards. Also, the care managers have a few ways to circumvent the absolute that the individual needs to give his or hers consent to everything. Our main conclusions regarding user influence is that the care managers need to use other professions for information regarding the individual, such as nurses, carers, dependants and so on. They also prefer to get in touch with the individual whom is diagnosed with dementia as early into the disease as possible to get to know them and learn how they want their care to be. As a last conclusion about the whole study is that the care managers find working with older people with dementia is a vastly difficult task, and they need to rely on dependants, other professions and have a lot of knowledge about the individual.