Denna studie bygger på handläggarnas arbetssituation på ett servicekontor i nordöstra Skåne. Studien avser att undersöka motivationen hos handläggarna med hänsyn till deras arbetssituation där de dagligen ställs inför tuffa situationer med många svåra beslut. Undersökningen söker svar på frågorna om hur frontlinjebyråkrati, kontroll, negativ kritik och hot kan påverka handläggarnas arbetsmotivation. Det är de anställdas bild som speglas i denna studie och det är genom deras berättelser som svaren på problemformuleringarna kommer fram. Studien har genomförts på Försäkringskassans servicekontor i en ort i nordöstra Skåne. Fem intervjuer har genomförts med fem kvinnor, alla med olika berättelser och olika anställningstider. Resultatet visar att handläggarna på servicekontoret upplever sig vara motiverade i sitt arbete, trots att de måste ta hänsyn till organisation, regelverk, försäkringstagare, kontrollen från organisationen och eventuella hot och obehagliga möten. Dessa faktorer upplevs inte ha någon större inverkan i deras arbetsmotivation. Arbetsmotivationen erhålls och behålls av intresset att träffa och hjälpa människor. Handläggarna upplever även att själva utredningen för varje ärende bidrar till deras arbetsmotivation samt upplevs rollen som myndighetsutövare som en drivfaktor i deras arbete.

Title: [Frontline bureaucrats discretion in the transition to Establishment Reform]This essay aims to study discretion among frontline bureaucrats as an important factor in the integration of immigrants. In contrast to other studies of discretion this essays has its focus on a new establishment reform that has been recently legislated. The theoretical frame is based on the concept of frontline bureaucracy developed by M. Lipsky (2010). In the analysis of the discretion in this specific area I have been inspired by I. Schierenbecks (2003) comparative study based on three different relationships a frontline bureaucrat has to take into account: regulations, the dual role and a relationship to the immigrant client. I have used a qualitative approach where I interviewed workers in two different employment exchange offices in the country. The results show that there is an opportunity to adapt the law to individual needs which meets the criteria for an extensible and flexible framework. All frontline bureaucrats find the dual role as debilitating where they feel torn between the organization's goals and the applicant's needs. When these needs conflict, the majority chooses to follow the employment services directives. Frontline bureaucrats in the study are sharing a disposal, problem- solving approach towards the immigrant clients. There is a perception among frontline bureaucrats on new immigrant clients as carriers of specific cultural characteristics, however, there is nothing saying that these perceptions affect the exercise of authority. This study expands further through the dimension of newcomers' opportunities in achieving active citizenship. In the essay I discuss the usage of discretion among workers at the employment exchange office and the new establishment reform as two factors playing a significant role in the activation of active citizenship for the new immigrants as well as in the integration of the same.

The aim of this study was to explore job-coaches and work consultant’s discretion in work with activation of social assistance recipients. Semistructured interviews have been conducted with 4 job-coaches and 4 work consultants within 2 different municipalities. The interviews have been analyzed using Lipsky's theory on street-level bureaucracy and new institutional organization theory. The results of the study showed that job-coaches and work consultant’s report having a large discretion in the work with activation. Further results show that their experienced discretion in their work is not assessed as being affected by the level of education and age but that the work experience is seen essential. On an organizational level a large supply of activation measures and routines giving support was viewed as important. On a political level political priorities was viewed as an important aspect in regards to the discretion. / Syftet med den föreliggande studien har varit att undersöka jobbcoachers och arbetskonsulenters handlingsutrymme i aktiveringsarbetet med socialbidragsklienter. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med 8 jobbcoacher och arbetskonsulenter i två kommuner. Intervjumaterialet har analyserats med hjälp av Lipsky´s teori om fornlinjebyråkrati och nyinstitutionell organisationsteori.  Studiens resultat visade att jobbcoacher och arbetskonsulenter upplever en stor handlingsfrihet i arbetet med aktivering. Vidare resultat visar att det upplevda handlingsutrymmet i arbetet bedöms inte påverkas av utbildningsnivå och ålder men att yrkeserfarenhet upplevs som betydelsefull. På organisationsnivå ansågs ett stort utbud av aktiveringsåtgärder och stöd inom verksamheten vara av vikt. På politisk nivå ansågs politiska prioriteringar som en viktig aspekt när det gäller handlingsutrymme.

Abstract This paper is a peer-review about social workers´ experiences and descriptions of making individual assessments of their unemployed clients when working toward self-sufficiency and eventual obstacle for making them. The paper also deals with how social workers prioritize their work tasks. The study was conducted through interviews with five social workers at the same workplace. The results have been analyzed using theories of discretion, street-level bureaucrats and client dimensions within a street-level bureaucracy. The result shows that lack of time and limitation of discretion have negative influences in the social workers’ ability to make individual assessments. The result also shows that individual assessments are foremost made when the clients mismanage their planning and are risking not getting their application for financial assistance approved. Further the results show that the processing of applications and payment of financial assistance is a priority task since it is considered to be most important to clients and result in the greatest consequences for both social workers and clients if not performed. The discussion that follows is about the possible consequences of prioritizing work tasks this way. / Sammanfattning Denna uppsats är en kollegiegranskning och handlar om socialsekreterares upplevelser och erfarenheter av att göra individuella bedömningar av sina arbetslösa klienter i arbetet mot självförsörjning och eventuella hinder för dessa. Uppsatsen beskriver även om hur socialsekreterare prioriterar sina arbetsuppgifter. Studien har genomförts genom intervjuer med 5 socialsekreterare på en arbetsplats. Resultatet har analyserats utifrån teorier om handlingsutrymme, frontlinjebyråkrater och klientdimensioner inom en frontlinjebyråkrati. Resultatet visar att tidsbrist och begränsningar i handlingsutrymmet båda är faktorer som har en negativ påverkan på en socialsekreterares förutsättningar att göra individuella bedömningar. Resultatet visar även att individuella bedömningar främst görs när en klient misskött sin planering och riskerar avslag på sin ansökan om ekonomiskt bistånd. Vidare visar resultatet att handläggning av ansökningar om och utbetalning av ekonomiskt bistånd är en prioriterad arbetsuppgift då den anses vara viktigast för klienterna samt resulterar i störst konsekvenser för både socialsekreterare och klienter om den inte utförs.

Since August 2022, the use of cell phones in Swedish schools is regulated by law. In this study, the implementation of the cell phone ban is studied from the perspective of upper secondary school teachers as an example of implementation within a street-level bureaucracy setting. Interviews were conducted with eight teachers to examine what factors they experience as affecting the implementation, how they act while implementing the ban, what discretion they experience in the implementation and what their opinions on discretion are. The study shows that the teachers generally understand the law and its implementation, but that knowledge-related issues concerning for example the implementation in specific situations exist. The willingness to implement varies among the teachers, which mainly seems to be connected to their views on cell phone use in the classroom and – in some cases – views on policy efficiency. Some teachers also have issues implementing the ban due to lack of time, information and support from colleagues, the number of students they must keep an eye on, and students opposing the ban. While several teachers collect the students’ phones or tell them to put them away, there are also those who do not act to implement the ban or only do it in certain cases. Finally, the teachers all experience discretion and find this positive, but some teachers see issues with other teachers having discretion and not implementing the ban.

The thesis examines accompanied asylum-seeking children’s position in Swedish asylum reception management and in the determination of their claims. The three articles of the thesis focus on children’s own experiences of seeking asylum, on the experiences and practices of the civil servants at the Migration Board, as well as those of the legal representatives that assist asylum-seekers in the application process. The thesis builds on ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2008 and 2010 in southwest Sweden. Theoretical inspiration has been sought in the new sociology of childhood as well as in practice theory. The first article in the thesis concerns children’s caseworkers who are responsible for safeguarding children’s interests in the Migration Board’s daily work with reception. The study highlights a range of dilemmas caseworkers have to deal with in their role as frontline bureaucrats. The study shows that the children’s caseworkers often perceive their discretion as limited, but also that they themselves contribute to limiting it, for example due to their hesitation in challenging existing norms and collegiality.    The second article examines the ways in which legal representatives, who act on behalf of families in asylum determinations, in their practice perceive and relate to the concept of children’s best interests and children’s right to participate. The study shows that children in families can become invisible in the legal representatives’ daily rounds. This invisibility is due to practical limitations in the representatives’ work as well as a general view that children rarely have their own grounds for asylum, as separate claimants to their parents. The third paper of the thesis explores the ways in which children experience and seek to influence circumstances that signify their time spent as asylum-seekers. The study shows how the children developed a range of tactics to deal with their particular situations, which varied with their housing and schooling, and the family’s financial resources. The conclusion is that the children themselves are the primary representatives of the child perspective in the asylum-seeking process, not least through their struggle to belong and create a life like that of ’ordinary’ children.  In line with previous research in the field, the thesis points to the contradiction between the principle of regulated migration and the child perspective in the asylum-seeking process. Together with practical circumstances, such as lack of resources, this contradiction results in a more limited implementation of the child perspective than rules and regulations actually stipulate. Finally, the thesis points to the active role asylum-seeking children take in their efforts to create an everyday life that is as similar as possible to that of  the ’ordinary’ children (e.g. non asylum-seeker and permanently settled children) around them. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Submitted.</p>