This study takes departure from the paradox between the emotionally priceless caring of one’s own child and the unwillingness to pay a high prize when outsourcing the care. The purpose of this study is to explore this paradox and how it is expressed and negotiated by; parents who pays for private childminding; and by the companies providing these services The empirical data consists of six qualitative interviews with mothers hiring babysitters for their children and 19 discussion threads from the internet forum Familjeliv. To contextualize this data four company profiles from the Swedish nanny-market were included together with the technical aspects of the Swedish tax deduction for household services. The data was analyzed in the light of marxist theory of work; concepts of spiritual and menial care-work; and emotional and monetary value. The result of this study indicates that when attaching monetary value of the childminding a close relation to the child – such as kinship – devaluates the care-work; however, when hiring a babysitter from a company parents wish them to build a close relationship with the child. This relationship then has a high emotional value, but when recognizing what the pricing of the care-work consists of, only the babysitters’ qualities and the menial parts of childminding, i.e. the chores, are mentioned. This study also shows that through hiring a babysitter the parents own time with their children gains a “higher quality”. I therefore argue that according to the parents the commercialization of childcare increases the emotional value of the parents’ care-work, but the monetary value of the payed care-work remains unchanged and low paid.

Esta é uma pesquisa cartográfica que conta a análise e intervenção institucional produzidas com trabalhadores de saúde de uma Unidade Básica do município de Ribeirão Preto que também dispõe de trabalhadores do Programa de Saúde da Família. Propõe-se a delimitar as linhas em produção molares, moleculares e de fuga, os “marcos” acerca do trabalho produzido na Unidade e também da produção da equipe de saúde nesse cotidiano. O referencial teórico metodológico utilizado é o da análise institucional, especialmente da linha esquizoanalítica. O método é o da bricolagem em que diversos objetos, idéias, fragmentos de texto de autores de diferentes orientações teóricas são colocados lado a lado sem a pretensão da permanência ou da totalidade. A intervenção teve por norte a produção da auto-análise e da auto-gestão. Realizamos encontros grupais semanalmente, ora no período da manhã, ora à tarde, para facilitar a participação voluntária dos trabalhadores. Os encontros grupais foram gravados, transcritos e analisados. A equipe é definida como máquina a ser construída desmontando referências da totalização e da equipe grande-família, raspando superfícies de registro e controle. Na equipe é necessário que ocorram distintas articulações de saberes e fazeres para a produção de cuidados diferenciados para os usuários e para as famílias, uma vez que suas necessidades são diferentes. Daí a terminologia engenhoca mutante: uma permanente produção e que pode ser agenciada pela supervisão externa. Construímos três territórios de análise: Agenda, Paranóia e Aprenderes. Em cada território buscamos demarcações, ares, levezas, pesares, afetos... Agenda traz o modo como os trabalhadores se relacionam entre si e com a população para incluir ou excluir os usuários do serviço. O imprevisto próprio do trabalho em saúde faz os trabalhadores procurarem as certezas, as lógicas instituídas como o número de vaga por trabalhador médico, e resulta em diversos contornos e delineamentos no trabalho. Paranóia desenha as relações dos trabalhadores, traz momentos de resistência à mudança e de crise da equipe. Aprenderes conflui as possibilidades de transversalizar a equipe pelo seu encontro com o trabalhador agente comunitário de saúde, alguns aprendizados da própria equipe sobre si mesma, sobre o trabalho e ainda aprendizagens da equipe de análise e intervenção. / This is a cartographic research presenting institutional analysis and intervention produced with health professionals at a Basic Health Care Unit in the city of Ribeirão Preto, where there also are Family Health Care Program professionals. It is an invitation for taking the reader to a different future, multiplying senses, searching for "line" and "between-the-line" meaning. It attempts to outline molar, molecular, and escape production, "landmarks" surrounding the work produced within the unit and health care team production as to such routine. The methodological theoretical reference used is based on institutionalist writers, especially the schizoanalytical line. The method is bricolage, where a number of objects, ideas, text passages from writers with different theoretical guidance are placed together with no permanence or totality purpose: it is a performance with rhythm, color, and intensity produced upon researching/intervening. The analysis/intervention aims at producing self-analysis and self-management, professionals analyzing their work and lives, creating their own processes, and building their own responses. The analysis/intervention started as professionals asked for help with their relationships as they were not "getting along well" since the Family Health Care team arrived at the Unit. We has weekly team meetings, mornings and afternoons, in order to facilitate professional volunteer participation. Team meetings were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Team work is defined as a machine to be mounted unmounting totalization and large-team-family references, scraping record and control surfaces. The team is a mixture that does not blend, complete inclusion of difference, a net of institutions defines, according to Baremblitt (1994), as a set of said and unsaid rules and regulations that regulate people behavior. The thesis we advocate is that the team needs to be built as a changing device where know`s and do`s articulation takes place for different care production for users and families as they have different needs. The changing device term: a permanent production that may be managed through external supervision - taking care of who cares. We have built three analysis territories: Agenda, Paranoia, and Learning. We search for boundaries, atmospheres, lightness, pain, affection for each territory... Agenda brings the way professional relationships are among themselves and the population for including or excluding users to/from service. Health work unexpectation make professionals look for certainties, logic in the number of positions for medical professional, and it also provides several work outlines and standards. Paranoia outlines professional relationship, provides resistance to modification, and team crises. Learning brings team transversal possibilities through meeting health care community agents, team learning about itself, the work, and the analysis/intervention team.

Key Words: migration, gender, transnational motherhood, care work, reproductive remmitences, Ukrainian female migrants in the Czech Republic Abstract: The aim of my dissertation is to analyze how gender operates in transnational spaces, and what impacts it has on the experience of motherhood and the formation of new gender identities. I will try to describe how transnational Ukrainian mothers narratively construct and emphasise their experiences with transnational motherhood. I will also focus my attention on the social practices of transnational motherhood and social conditions of female care migration in the Czech Republic.

People are growing older than they ever have before. My architectural proposal is a home for the elderly in a rural environment close to Stockholm.I think there is a large group of people, including me, who loves animals and recognizes their positive effect on wellbeing.  I wanted to test the limits, how close the elderly and animals can live together in a functional and species-appropriate environment and to the benefit of both. Every individual on the site, Human or Non-Human, is providing care to some extent, the built environment supports these meetings and tasks in a subtle and natural way.

Key Words: migration, gender, transnational motherhood, care work, reproductive remmitences, Ukrainian female migrants in the Czech Republic Abstract: The aim of my dissertation is to analyze how gender operates in transnational spaces, and what impacts it has on the experience of motherhood and the formation of new gender identities. I will try to describe how transnational Ukrainian mothers narratively construct and emphasise their experiences with transnational motherhood. I will also focus my attention on the social practices of transnational motherhood and social conditions of female care migration in the Czech Republic.

Uppsatsen syftade till att undersöka faktorer kring hemtjänstpersonalens kvarvarande i yrket samt personalens arbetsvillkor. Datainsamlingen utfördes genom en kvalitativ intervjustudie med fyra enhetschefer inom både privat och kommunal hemtjänst.  Bidragande orsaker till att personal lämnar yrket framgick som upplevelser av otillräcklighet, bristande påverkans- och utvecklingsmöjligheter samt arbetstidsförläggningen. Faktorer för kvarvarande uppmärksammades som betydelsen av det relationsnära arbetet, kollegialt utbyte, utvecklingsmöjligheter och stöd i arbetet.  Resultatet indikerade på att bristande resurser var skäl till att personal lämnar yrket och betydelsen för personalens kvarvarande har diskuterats utifrån äldreomsorgens kvalité. Äldreomsorgen har likt andra välfärdsverksamheter skyldigheter i att bedrivas på ett sätt som tillgodogör målgruppens behov varför personalens kompetens och erfarenhet blir av stor betydelse. / The study aimed to examine home care workers’ intentions to remain within their profession and working conditions. Data collection was conducted through qualitative interviews with four first-line managers within private and municipal home care. The first-line managers described experiences of inadequacy, lack of influence and development opportunities, and the working hours as reasons for the care workers’ turnover intentions. Factors regarding remaining in the profession were noted as the importance of relational work, collegiate exchange, development opportunities, and support. The results indicated lack of resources as the main reason for home care workers leaving their profession, and the importance of remaining has been discussed based on the quality of elderly care. Elderly care has obligations to be conducted in a manner that meets the needs of the targeted group, which is why the home care workers’ competence and experience are of significant importance.

In the literature, the experience of ‘care’ and ‘caregiving’ has been well documented and widely researched. Caregivers are recognized as people (family and friends) who provide unpaid substantial care for family members. Over time, research has increased awareness of caregivers as a distinct social group and has also contributed to caregiving being a widely recognized social issue. However, despite this increased awareness and continued concern for caregivers, much of the literature focuses on adult caregivers. As a result, the experiences of other caregiving populations, such as the youth and young adults, continues to be overlooked and underrepresented. Therefore, there is a need to explore and understand the unique experience of this population and how they give meaning to their experiences. Young caregivers (YCs) are children (5-18) and young adults (18-25) who provide substantial (unpaid) care for a family member who has an illness or disability (Stamatopoulos, 2016). Research on this population is scant and there exists many notable gaps in the literature in terms of diversity, age-based differences, programming and best practices for intervention. More specifically, there is a gap in understanding the experiences of young caregivers who are affected by progressive and incurable chronic brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease or a Related Dementia. As such, this dissertation explores the experiences of YACs affected by ADRD, in terms of their personal experiences with ADRD (knowledge, dementia care and care practices), perceptions of their caregiving role and how they navigate the caregiving role. It builds on scholarship on young caregivers to broaden existing knowledge by using a phenomenological approach, known as Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, to explore their caregiving experiences and the meaning they give to these experiences in-depth (n=12). It also aims to challenge the dominant assumptions about young caregivers by giving voice to this population by situating the young caregivers as the experts in their own lives. Findings indicate that the caregiving experience for YACs is complex, and situated within a larger socio-political context, which impacts the overall experience of care. Overall, the findings contribute to knowledge on the experiences of care among YACs and highlight the need for more inclusive research and practices on addressing caregiving among this group. / Dissertation / Candidate in Philosophy / This dissertation explores the lived experiences of young adult caregivers (YACs) caring for an older adult with Alzheimer’s Disease or a Related Dementia. Research on this group of caregivers is limited, particularly YACs (ages 18-25) who provide substantial (unpaid) caregiving for an older adult affected by Alzheimer’s or a Related Dementia. Therefore, a key aim of this research is to generate awareness and shed light on the nature of caregiving as experienced by this overlooked population of caregivers. As such, this dissertation aims to understand how young caregivers give meaning to, interpret and make sense of their caregiving experience. To understand the caregiving experience of YACs, I conducted interviews with 12 YACs from Canada and the United States and analyzed their perspectives in detail. The findings shed light on the many factors that shape the caregiving experiences. In addition, the findings show that more research is needed to understand the differences amongst young caregivers to better support their needs. In general, the research can contribute to existing knowledge on young adult caregivers, as well as relevant programs and policies.

This dissertation is about the experiences of low-paid single mothers in sustaining their families in Sweden in the early 2000. The investigation builds upon interviews with twenty low-paid single mothers living and working in Stockholm. Ten of the women are Swedish-born and the other ten are Iranian-born but have been residing in Sweden for several years. A majority of the Swedish-born women belong to the working class, while most of the Iranian-born mothers are from a middle class background. This study is based on an extended definition of sustenance that encompasses support for livelihood and meeting the family needs that conform to socially accepted norms. Sustenance requires incomes to cover expenses and care work. The informants sustain their families mostly from wage work. However, they also seek allowances from the social security system to buy goods and services that they combine with care work to sustain the family. The care work for younger children demands much time and physical work, while caring for older children requires more mental and emotional work. Sustenance for these mothers implies fulfilling all these demands and also to ensure that the children’s’ needs are met. Several factors influence the mothers’ sustenance. Low wages and the single responsibility for children means less money and more time devoted to care work. Few fathers take significant responsibility for their children’s sustenance. The mothers get support from their social networks, often from other women and from the welfare system. Ethnic background negatively affects sustenance for the Iranian-born mothers mostly in the form of reduced cultural and social capital. Children are the highest priority among all the families. However, the priorities may differ among the families and are connected to the mothers’ class, ethnic background and their access to cultural capital.

This dissertation examines changes in the Swedish health care system during the period 1962-2000. During this period, three legislative changes affected the development of the health care system. Firstly, the Health care act of 1962 that increased the county councils responsibility for the health care. Secondly, the Health care act of 1983, which resulted in a new definition of concept health at the same time as it changed the hospitals responsibility for care and illness. Thirdly, from 1992 to 1995, three reforms changed the hospitals position in the health care system. Together with the general technological development of the health care sector, these three legislative changes have led to new way of producing care as well as it has created new jobs, new work specialities and it has also effect the gender division in work. Women have always dominated the work in the health care sector. The way of care production have however also created new jobs mainly consisting of technological work assignments that have better status than traditional care work with the patients. The new technological jobs are furthermore primarily occupied by men, which leads to a organizational development than reemphasizes the hierarchical structure of the health care sector, where women work in the lower position and men in the upper positions. This development is also evident when nurses begin to work with technology. This express a new gender system in which men dominate in curing and nursing work-assignments at care wards with high technological level, but not in the caring assignments. And at care wards with low technological level the situation is the opposite, women dominate in all three assignments e.g. curing, nursing and caring care work.

Syfte: Huvudsyftet med denna undersökning var att kartlägga den psykosociala arbetsmiljön samt identifiera stressfaktorer bland undersköteskor och vårdbiträden i olika kommunala hemtjänstverksamheter. Metoder: Till denna undersökning användes en metodkombination utav kvantitativa samt kvalitativa undersökningar. En enkätsundersökning skickades till 149 medarbetare i berörd kommun och 91 medarbetare besvarade frågorna. Därefter analyserades svaren med hjälp av programmet SPSS. Slutligen genomfördes nio intervjuer med ändamålet att förstå samt försöka identifiera orsaken till stressfaktorer som visade sig i enkätsundersökningen. Resultat: En hög svarsfrekvens av stressrelaterad ohälsa bland hemtjänstpersonal påvisas utifrån mina undersökningar. Analysen har visat att den psykosociala arbetsmiljön på de olika hemtjänstverksamheterna består av höga krav och låga kontrollmöjligheter. Dock var det sociala stödet högt eftersom flertalet upplevde en god sammanhållning inom arbetsgrupperna. Resultatet i den kvantitativa undersökningen visade att det fanns stressfaktorer i dessa verksamheter. Det som var intressant och stack ut var att det allmänna hälsotillståndet upplevdes som mycket bra/ ganska bra av 70.8% av deltagarna, dessutom bedömde 80.3% arbetsförmågan kring psykiska krav som mycket god/ ganska god. 82.4% bedömde arbetsförmågan när det gäller fysiska krav som mycket god/ ganska god. Trots dessa positiva procentenheter svarade flertalet att arbetet krävde att man arbetar fort samt hårt. Dessutom svarade 83.5% att man ibland, ganska ofta, nästan jämt kände sig uppvarvad, 67,1% svarade att man ibland, ganska ofta, nästan jämnt känner sig pressade på gränsen av vad man klarar av. Ytterligare var det 71.8% som upplevde stress ibland, ganska ofta, nästan jämnt. Det vill säga att resultatet påvisade stressfaktorer dock inga bakomliggande orsaker. För att definiera bakomliggande orsaker genomfördes nio intervjuer i studie 2 med ändamålet att förstå medarbetarnas arbetssituation. Resultatet av studie 2 påvisade att orsakerna till att stress uppstod var förändrade arbetsuppgifter där administrativa uppgifter hade ökat radikalt, därtill poängterades det av alla intervjupersoner att man fått flera kundbesök med kort restid emellan vilket ledde till frustration, oro, stress samt dåligt samvete. På så sätt påverkades medarbetarnas meningsfullhet med arbetet. Därtill påvisade undersökningen att medarbetarnas arbetsplatser var så kallade ”spända arbeten” eftersom kraven var höga och beslutsutrymmen väldigt små.