Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur personer utan socionom- eller socialarbetarexamen som arbetar med socialt arbete riktat mot personer med alkoholmissbruksproblematik inom tredje sektorn (civilsamhället) lär sig om socialt arbete. Vidare syftade studien till att undersöka vilka former av kunskaper och förmågor som dessa respondenter ansåg vara av betydelse för att kunna utföra ett socialt arbete. Som teoretisk grund för studien användes teorier om lärande. En kvalitativ metod bestående av enskilda intervjuer med frivilliga och anställda i tredje sektorn från Mellansverige utfördes. En tematisk analys gjordes och resulterade i att ett antal teman framkom. Resultatet visar inte en heltäckande bild av kunskapsläget hos den tredje sektorn men visar dock att tidigare forskning överensstämmer med resultatet. Viktiga kunskaper var teoretiska kunskaper, den egna personens betydelse och bemötandet av den enskilde. Resultatet visade även att respondenterna tillskansade sig kunskap genom professionella relaterade till verksamheten, lärde sig genom arbetet och att egna erfarenheter visade en väg till kunskap. / The aim of the study was to investigate how people without social work education, who practice social work targeted at people with alcohol abuse problems in the third sector learn about social work. Furthermore, the study aimed at investigating which forms of knowledge and abilities the respondents considered to be of importance in order to perform social work. Theories underlying the study were theories of learning. A qualitative method of individual interviews with volunteers and employees in the third sector from central Sweden was performed. A thematic analysis was made and resulted in a number of themes. The result does not show a comprehensive picture of the knowledge situation in the third sector, but shows that previous research is consistent with the results. Important knowledge was theoretical knowledge, the significance of the individual person and the significance of the meeting with the individual. The result also showed that the respondents gained knowledge through professionals related to the organisation, learn by doing and that their own experience showed a path to knowledge.

The past 10 years has been filled with an ambition to encourage the non- profit sector to become a producer of welfare services by making it easier to apply for financial aid and co-operation. Non-profit labour is described as a force that is not driven by financial gains but with the purpose to contribute to the overall welfare of the citizens. Many studies have so far tried to understand the underlying motives behind non-profit labour and its structure historically but what effect has social relationships on the emergence of civic engagement and what kind of resources are necessary to enter the third sector? The main purpose of this study is to contribute to previous studies made in the field of non-profit-labour by further investigating the importance of social relationships for the entrance to the third sector and the requirements to get involved in a non-profit organization. This study is based on 16 interviews made with individuals who are currently engaged in a non-profit organization. The material was analyzed by Mark Granovetters theory based on the strength of weak ties and Pierre Bourdieu theory onfields, habitus and capital. The theories made it possible to highlight and understand the importance of different relationships in the development of civic engagement and the informal requirements that create thresholds. 
 
 The main conclusions of this study is that distant friendships contribute to spontaneous civic engagement while close relationships with relatives encourage civic engagement in specific organizations that have a meaning, purpose and connection to the family. The findings of this study further indicates that informal thresholds exist to get involved in the third sector. The participants have experienced competition in the field with other organizations to gain financial resources and to initiate innovative projects to deserve these resources. To be able to engage in a non-profit organization the participants are not only expected to have specific values and a specific force. Participants of the third sector value differents resources over others. Resources such as academic knowledge, personal experience and insight are highly valued and seen as legitimate by peers in the same field.

Syftet med studien har varit att förstå hur företrädare för idéburna organisationer med social inriktning inom äldreomsorg ser på sin egen, organisationens och civilsamhällets roll som serviceproducent av offentligt finansierad välfärd. För att uppnå syftet har semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med sex företrädare på ledande nivå inom idéburna organisationer med skiftande storlek och geografisk spridning. Lundquists förbindelseteori har delvis använts som en teoretisk utgångspunkt i analysen. De har i Lundquists termer gett uttryck för ett aktörskap som vi har försökt förstå genom att sätta det i relation till de strukturer företrädarna verkar inom och är beroende av. Resultatet från intervjuerna visar generellt på att de två lagrum som styr villkoren för driften av äldreomsorg på entreprenad och i egen regi, lagen om valfrihetsysten respektive lagen om offentlig upphandling ger kommunerna stora friheter i tillämpningen. Det gör att förutsättningar att bedriva äldreomsorg varierar stort vilket skapar osäkerhet och kan hämma de idéburna att ta en större roll. Organisationerna anpassar sig på olika sätt till förutsättningarna. De större aktörerna använder sina resurser för att skapa sig ett handlingsutrymme. Det görs genom att eftersträva en större kontroll av hela vård- och omsorgskedjan tack vare en mer omfattande administration och fler servicefunktioner inom den egna verksamheten. Möjligheten att involvera frivilliga inom äldreomsorgen ger dock i det närmaste ett obefintligt tillskott, speciellt i termer av någon ekonomisk vinning. Riksorganisationen för idéburen vård och omsorg, Famna, har en central roll och är en samlande kraft för de flesta av de intervjuade organisationerna när det gäller påverkan och opinionsbildning på nationell nivå, inte minst genom sina remissvar till olika departement. De har även en viktig uppgift i att ta fram utbildningar till medlemmarna och driva gemensamma nationella utvecklingsprojekt. En sammanfattande slutsats är att villkoren för organisationerna är komplex och beror främst på de lokala förutsättningarna där de ekonomiska ramarna sätter tydliga gränser för möjligheten att ta en större roll som utförare av äldreomsorg. / The purpose of this study has been to understand how representatives of non-government organisations active in the care for the elderly view their own, the organisation’s and civil society’s role as service providers of publicly funded care. To achieve this objective, semi-structured interviews have been performed with six representatives in leading roles within non-government organisations of varying size and locations. Lundquist’s theory of stakeholders and structures have in part been used as a starting point for the analysis. This has, in Lundquist’s terms, given voice to a stakeholdership which we have tried to understand by relating it to the structures within which the representatives work and are dependent on. The result of the interviews give a general picture of one of the two laws that control the conditions for the management of municipal as well as outsourced care for the elderly; the law of freedom of choice and the law of public procurement, which give the councils great scope for adaptation. This means the prerequisites for managing care for the elderly vary greatly which creates uncertainty and may hamper the non-government organisations to take on a bigger role. Organisations adapt in different ways to these prerequisites. The bigger stakeholders use their resources to create space to work. This is done by striving for a stronger control of the entire chain of care thanks to a more extensive administration and more service functions without their own management. The possibility of involving volunteers in the care for the elderly, however, gives a practically non-existent addition, especially in terms of financial gain. The national organisation for non-government care, Famna, holds a central role and is a uniting force for most of the organisations interviewed when it comes to advocacy and opinion forming on the national level, not least through its comment letters to different departments. They also have an important role in creating training programmes for their members and run joint national development projects. To summarise, our conclusion is that the conditions for the organisations are complex and depend primarily on the local prerequities where the financial framework sets clear boundaries to the possibility of taking on a more extensive role as providers of care for the elderly.

The aim of this thesis is to create knowledge on processes of change in the contemporary organizing of Swedish voluntary sport and the systems of meaning at work in these processes. The thesis proceeds from the assumption that the contemporary public sport policy climate is characterized by a pressure on organized sport to change in order for sport to better serve as an implementer of non-sport goals. In attempting to capture the possible ramifications of this pressure on the organizing of voluntary sport, the thesis work relies on the argument that processes of change are best captured in instances where new and established ideas are confronted with one another. Following this argument and drawing upon the concept of theorization, the first research question treated in the thesis concerns how legitimacy is established for a new practice (reported in Article 1). The second research question addressed is how, why, and with what consequences new ideas on organizing are implemented in sport organizations (reported in Article 2 & 3). In relation to this question, the concepts of translation and organizational identity are mobilized in the analysis. Empirically, these two questions are addressed using data from 29 interviews covering the emergence and organizing of organized spontaneous sport, so-called Drive in sport, in four Swedish municipalities. The analysis relating to these two questions shows that the same systems of meaning invoked to legitimize and specify Drive-in sport as a practice that has the potential to remedy problems being faced by both the Swedish society and the Swedish sports movement, also made Drive-in sport an unlikely developmental direction for the majority of implementing sport clubs. This process is understood with reference to a mismatch between the organizational identity of the clubs and the cultural material of the idea of Drive-in sport. This insight is brought into the formulation of the third research question treated in the thesis, which is concerned with sport clubs’ readiness, willingness, and ability to respond to policy changes (reported in Article 4). Building on data from short, qualitative interviews with representatives from 218 randomly selected sport clubs, 10 organizational identity categories are constructed. Between these categories, there is a variety of clubs’ core purposes, practices, and logics of action. The implications of this heterogeneity, in terms of sport clubs’ role as policy implementers, are discussed with reference to what clubs in each category might "imagine doing." The analysis provided in the thesis as a whole suggests that at stake in processes of change in the contemporary organizing of Swedish voluntary sport, is the very definition and meaning of sport.