The aim of this study is to explore how middle class residents construct narratives of belonging. The study was conducted in a suburban area in the southern part of Stockholm. This is a neighborhood that undergoes a renewal and status increase. I used a method consisting of auto-photography and subsequent interviews to explore resident’s narratives of belonging. The sampled group was residents with academic exams. Participants were instructed to take five photos of their everyday life in the area and reflect upon these in the interviews. The result was analyzed within a constructive grounded theory frame. The theoretical concepts used take inspiration from Bourdieu’s cultural capital, field and social class. The results are divided into three main cores. The results suggest that a core narrative of constructive affiliation was a useful tool to understand how residents construct a sense of belonging. Residents in this study affiliated with other groups and social classes in the area, through a heightened sense of reflection on their own social position. Residents subscribed to an inclusive version of elective belonging.  Second the construction of a sense of locally based authenticity was a narrative process were they deployed a sense of belonging to the “local” and the small scale community. Third, a sense of rootless territorialism was reflected on in their sense of belonging. This was a process were residents narrative mediated between a stable and a fluid place attachment.

This thesis is an exploration of the perspectives of recipients and providers of health and criminal justice services about the transitional support needs of arrestees and remand prisoners, leaving short-term custody. The study implements Constructive Grounded Theory Methods, underpinned by the Network Theory of Social Capital as the theoretical framework. Forty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted, with five participant groups; service users (arrestees/remand prisoners), family/carers, mental health staff (criminal justice liaison and mental health in-reach, community mental health teams), criminal justice staff (police/prison officers) and mental health commissioners. Participants provided unique perspectives about the health and social support, available at the transitional points of leaving short-term custody. This was supported by the construction of 11 sociograms for service users, in both arrest (n=5) and remand (n=6) situations, to highlight the availability and functionality of support networks. Transitions are particularly problematic in relation to linking offenders with appropriate community-based mental health services. The over-arching constructed grounded theory is a need for a culture shift within health policy and practice to refocus on transitional care planning to optimise continuous care pathways. Associated themes include ‘lack of practical assistance’, ‘lack of crisis support’, ‘returning to the security of prison’ and ‘poor transition planning’. Critical Time Intervention, a variant of case management has demonstrated benefits when applied to mental health and offender populations, transiting from hospital and prison settings. The programme contains all the components of service that service users, carers and staff identified as important to effectively support transitions from short-term custody to the community.

Skiljer sig arbetsupplevelserna för socionomer beroende på om de arbetar inom socialtjänsten i storstäderna eller ute på landsbygden? Det var frågor som denna som inledde uppsatsskrivandet. Detta mynnade slutligen ut i syftet att undersöka socionomers beskrivningar av sina klienter och om dessa har någon koppling till organisationens struktur. De socionomer vars berättelser studerats har arbetat med myndighetsutövning i kommunal socialtjänst. Två ämnen var av särskilt intresse för min studie; skillnader och likheter i socionomernas berättelser kopplat till större och mindre kommuner, sett till kommunernas folkmängd, samt om socionomerna uttryckte huruvida de kunde arbeta holistiskt med sina klienter.  Studien utfördes med hjälp av åtta kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer i sex olika kommuner med varierande kommunstorlek. Materialet analyserades sedan utifrån konstruktivistiskt grundad teori med inspiration av en socialpsykologisk teori om trygga sociala band. Utifrån analysen av resultatet genererades begreppet jaget som verktyg. Studien visar att jaget som verktyg användes i större utsträckning av socionomer i de kommuner som var mindre till storleken jämfört med socionomer som arbetade inom socialtjänster i större kommuner. Nyinstitutionell teori användes för en vidare analys av resultatet och dess innebörd för socialt arbete. Studien visar att det finns ett glapp mellan vad socionomer lärt sig via sin utbildning och vad för typ av arbete de förväntas utföra i kommunal socialtjänst. / Is there a difference in work experience for social workers if they work for the social services in the city or in the countryside? Problems such as these seeded the idea behind the thesis, and was narrowed down to the following research question; to study social workers description of how they work with their clients and if there were any differences in their descriptions depending on organizational structure. The social workers interviewed throughout this thesis were employed within the municipalities social service and worked with decision making concerning social be nefits. Two aspects were of particular interest; differences and similarities of the social workers descriptions related to population size of the municipalities and if the social workers expressed that they could work in a holistic manner with their clients.  This study was conducted with the help of eight semistructured qualitative interviews in six municipalities of varying sizes. The material was later analyzed with the help of constructive grounded theory with inspiration taken from social psychological theories about safe social bonds. The result of the analysis was generating the term the self as a tool and the study showed that the generated term was more prevalent in the descriptions from social workers that were employed in smaller municipalities compared to the social services in larger municipalities. Institutional theory was used to further analyze the results and their implicaitons for social work. The study showed that there is some discrepancy between what social workers are taught during their education and what they are expected to do when employed by the municipality social services.