This dissertation examines how perceptions of competence affect the care of older persons, and the values ​​and vocational conceptions of care work and care recipients that are tied to the perceptions of what skills that are needed and why. Competence is defined by three parts with relevance for the content of care work: what knowledge the care workers should have, what tasks they should perform and how they should respond to care recipients. The aim of this dissertation is to analyse how the care managers' and care workers' perceptions of competence form the direction of the care work and how that direction relates to the care recipients’ perceptions of and expectations on the care work.   The care work is characterised by what is analysed as an activation of the recipients - that the recipients themselves should perform as much of the care work as possible. The activation aims at managing the decay of the aging body and is motivated by a vocational conception of the care recipients as different from others, with designations as grateful and passive. This conception is analysed as generation character based on an idea among the care managers and care workers that the society in which the recipients grew up gave them certain cognitive prerequisites that have to be managed in the practical care work.   The care recipients in the study have opposing conceptions and perceptions of care work compared with the care managers and care workers. The recipients’ central objective with the care work is to prevent what has been interpreted as the disrepair of the home. The care recipients’ position in the organisation raises the problem of loyalty towards the care workers and in some sense the care managers. Their loyalty reduces their ability to complain and to influence their situation to the better.   Keywords: care of older persons, care needs, care work, care relationship, care receivers, care workers, care managers, competence, technologies, activation, generation character

Nyckeln till en djupare förståelse av omsorgsbegreppet ligger i omsorgens verkliga synlighet i förskolan. Att synliggöra begreppet omsorg är dock inte lätt. Hur beskrivs omsorgsarbetet och hur förstår pedagogerna omsorg på ett djupare plan? Syftet med vår studie är att undersöka pedagogers förståelse av begreppet och emotionellt omsorgsarbete samt att ta reda på hur förskolor aktivt arbetar med omsorgsfrågor i sina arbetslag. Våra forskningsfrågor är följande; a) Hur beskriver pedagoger sin förståelse av begreppet omsorg? b) Hur förklarar pedagoger arbetet med barns rätt till omsorg? c) Hur tar pedagoger hand om och tillgodoser barns känslomässiga behov i förskoleundervisningen? Resultatet visar att omsorgen sker ömsesidigt i samspelet mellan pedagoger och barn men eftersom begreppet omsorg är mångsidigt och svårtolkat blir det sekundärt i förskoleundervisningen. Alla barn har rätt till lika mycket omsorg men det ser olika ut på grund av olika faktorer som barns ålder, personaltäthet, resurser, storleken på barngruppen et cetera. Respondenterna i vår studie framhåller att det inte samtalas tillräckligt mycket kring omsorg och hur man bedriver och aktivt arbetar med barns känslomässiga behov i förskoleutbildningen. / The key to a deeper understanding of the concept of care lies in the real visibility of care in preschool. However, making the concept of care visible is not easy. One must consider what care look like in its entirety between children and adults in today's preschool? How is care work described and how do the educators understand care on a deeper level? The purpose of our study is to examine educators' understanding of the concept of care and emotional care work and to find out how preschools actively work with care issues in their work teams. Our research questions are as follows; a) How do educators describe their understanding of the concept of care? b) How do educators explain the work with children's right to care? c) How do educators care for and provide for children's emotional needs in preschool education? The result is based on analyzes from a care ethics perspective by Nel Noddings. We have used Noddings concept to link educators' descriptions, which are from a care ethics perspective; role model, dialogue, practical actions and confirmation. The result shows that care takes place mutually in the interaction between educators and children but since the concept of care is versatile and difficult to interpret it becomes secondary in preschool education. All children have the right to the same amount of care, but it looks different due to different factors such as children's age, staff density, resources, size of the group of children etc. The respondents in our study say that there isn’t enough talk about care and how to conduct and actively work with children's emotional needs in preschool education.

Care work is not a new subject for feminist research. However, it is still important to study because of the persistent social devaluation of care workers. Financial cutbacks, the intensification of work and the general insecurity of the labour market have meant additional challenges for women, who make up the overwhelming majority of those who perform this type of work. Nowadays, women continue to be over-represented in caring and “emotional” work. In this thesis, I focus on home care work as a particular form of care work and aim to analyse care workers’ emotional management and perceptions of their current work situation. The thesis is based on a qualitative study through interviews with night-time home care workers. Building on the theory of “emotional labour” as presented by Arlie Russel Hochschild (1983) in The Managed Heart, this paper argues that working at night poses additional emotional challenges to an already affected workforce. In a time of prominent challenges in Swedish healthcare, care workers must adapt to new ways of dealing with emotions.