<p>There seems to be a consensus in the world that the climate is changing, bringing unpredictable and severe consequences for both humans and nature. The feld of social work is known for helping misfortunate individuals and groups, and is said to deal with people in their environments. Yet there seems to be a lack of giving these environments meaning as also something natural. This thesis has the purpose of exploring the connection between social work and the physical environment made by research literature, using the methodology of literature review. The questions asked is in which ways the physical environment can be connected to human welfare; if so, what implications are there for the feld of social work, and fnally how can the discussion be understood using a typology over environmental sustainability presented by Andrew Dobson. Through the concept of sustainable development, recent research about climate change and Dobsons typology, the study's main literature review tries to answer these questions, fnding that there is indeed a connection between nature and human wellbeing that gives serious thought to what the theory base and practice of social work in the future should embrace. Concluding that social work too long, perhaps because of its roots in individualism and productivism, has ignored the natural environment, and that this has to change now, the thesis then tries to develop a concept of ecosocial welfare to help us understand were we're headed and how we'll get there.</p>

There seems to be a consensus in the world that the climate is changing, bringing unpredictable and severe consequences for both humans and nature. The feld of social work is known for helping misfortunate individuals and groups, and is said to deal with people in their environments. Yet there seems to be a lack of giving these environments meaning as also something natural. This thesis has the purpose of exploring the connection between social work and the physical environment made by research literature, using the methodology of literature review. The questions asked is in which ways the physical environment can be connected to human welfare; if so, what implications are there for the feld of social work, and fnally how can the discussion be understood using a typology over environmental sustainability presented by Andrew Dobson. Through the concept of sustainable development, recent research about climate change and Dobsons typology, the study's main literature review tries to answer these questions, fnding that there is indeed a connection between nature and human wellbeing that gives serious thought to what the theory base and practice of social work in the future should embrace. Concluding that social work too long, perhaps because of its roots in individualism and productivism, has ignored the natural environment, and that this has to change now, the thesis then tries to develop a concept of ecosocial welfare to help us understand were we're headed and how we'll get there.

This dissertation explores the relationship between people’s conceptualisation and use of time in everyday life against the background of the political economy of the late modern welfare state. The main focus lies upon their evaluation of different time-uses in order to approach a better understanding of the moral economy of time. Special consideration is given to the role of commodification of time and the experience of time scarcity. Another topic investigated is the association of time with the striving for ecological sustainability in everyday live. The study is based upon three empirical materials. The first one consists of a subset of Statistic Sweden’s time-use database for inhabitants of Stockholm. The other two materials are qualitative interview studies. One was conducted with 85 unemployed people in Sörmland and Jämtland, the other with 45 inhabitants of Stockholm. The interviewees in the latter study were asked to consider two options for the future of welfare politics in Sweden: increasing wages combined with the same work hours as today or a substantial decrease in working hours accompanied by stagnating wages. Many interviewees consider time scarcity to be an important issue that needs to be integrated into the traditional concept of welfare. Time conflicts in everyday life, also regarding the choice of sustainable options, are solved with a certain moral flexibility still dominated by work ethics. Some interviewees try to articulate counter-images to the commodified concept of time by challenging traditional conceptions of the value of time and envision an ecological sound time use. These attempts draw attention to the importance of temporal commons such as vacations and also the need for a conscious time-politics in order to strengthen temporal welfare.

This study centers on an exploration of the similarities and differences between social enterprises, commercial enterprises and public sector teams that operate within the same market. The study seeks to contribute to the establishment of social entrepreneurship theory by furthering knowledge of the boundaries of social entrepreneurship. The contextual influence on the development of social entrepreneurship theory is becoming increasingly well understood. As such, different theoretical streams are accounted for and systematically structured into a model containing four contextually anchored approaches, two American and two European, which compares their structures according to eight characteristics. It is on the basis of this model that three cases, one social enterprise, one commercial enterprise and one public sector team all operating towards work integration activities and placements for the long term unemployed are presented and analyzed from two perspectives: one focusing on how they compare to the characteristics and the other on how they compare to the approaches in their entirety. It shows how there are many similarities between the three cases that are lost when compared to each approach. Furthermore, the analysis discovered a limitation within existing social entrepreneurship models, as none of the models turned out to be fully applicable in a Swedish context. Therefore, this study proposes a tentative model for a Nordic approach, rooted in the specific socioeconomic and institutional context of the Nordic states.

This dissertation studies early seventeenth century local government, both the secular and religious, in order to investigate that period’s concepts of ”the good society”, and the strategies that were used to achieve and retain this ideal. The goal of the investigation is to give a broader understanding of early modern society at the local level. Order and balance appear to have been the overriding goal for the local institutions in Linköping. Justice and well-being were not a question of individual rights, but rather were found in corporative associations in which differences together created a hierarchical harmony and order. People who stood outside these were threatened by marginalization. For those who were “on the inside” resources were available. In the town were found material resources such as wells and gristmills, the community of the parish and the rådsturätt. Local authorities do not express any concept of development or a utopia of change. It did not seek to redistribute material resources or systematize support for specific vulnerable groups. A fundamental welfare strategy was to fit people into households within which they could support themselves. In the same way the religious punishments, can be seen as an important welfare strategy. To recreate order was also a way of appeasing God. If God liked what he saw, then perhaps he would rest his hand over the congregation. In summary it can thus be said that the local government tried to formulate the conditions for welfare by creating the premises for two important spheres—the home and the parish.

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.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka diskurser inom det sociala välfärdsarbetet utifrån ideologiskt politiska aspekter. Studien grundar sig på artiklar och publikationer från ideologiskt förankrade tidskrifter och organisationer. I arbetet har vi inspirerats av Faircloughs (2003) kritiska diskursanalys, då den inte enbart fokuserar på diskurs utan även strukturerna som påverkar den. I studien kan vi se hur liberala och socialistiska ideal är dominerande inom välfärdsdebatten. Dessa har kommit att bilda två olika diskurser som konkurrerar med varandra om att bli dominerande gällande hur välfärden ska bedrivas. Idag kan vi se hur den marknadsekonomiska diskursen är den som vunnit mest mark, men det finns vissa indikationer på en eventuell diskursiv förändring. Arbetet tar sin utgångspunkt i två idag etablerade begrepp; New Public Management och Evidensbaserad praktik och de diskursiva svängningar begreppen vållat. / The purpose of this study is to investigate discourses influence of the social welfare, based on ideological and political aspects. The study is based on articles and publications from ideologically entrenched magazines and web-sites. We have been influenced by Faircloughs (2003) critical discourse analysis, as it not only focuses on the discourse but also the structures that affects it. In the study, we can see how liberal and socialist ideals are dominant in the welfare debate. These have come to form two different discourses competing to become the dominant force in welfare. Today we can see how the market-economy discourse is the one which has gained most ground, but there are some indications of a discursive change. The work takes its starting point from two established concepts and the discursive fluctuations caused by the New Public Management and the Evidence Based Practice.

From a view of health strategies and techniques this thesis wants to throw a light on how the individual in its"health thinking"is governed. A thinking that, according to the author, can lead to a new way of governing as in municipal activity, an activity whose focus is on health and ill-health. The study is done whit a theoretical approach of power, with qualitative interviews as method and analysed from a perspective of Governmentality. The object for the study is Socsam and Rehabrådgivarna in Finspång. Socsam is a local project, and their main task is to create cooperation between health- and medical services, social services and social insurance. The health advisor in Finspång directs its activity towards sick-listed people and their main task is to help the sick-listed back to work as soon as possible. The analysis is done from both the perspective of what the individuals’ state about Rehabrådgivarnas treatment in relation to their own health and life of quality and how Socsam and Rehabrådgivarna can be analysed as health technologies and health strategies from Governmentality as theory. The author argues for the opinion, that from a specific way of thinking about health and how the individual have to act to achieve this health, this way of thinking creates a health technique. This health technique leads to a social demand on the individuals, a demand that the individuals have to achieve to be accepted in the community. They, whom not have the capacity or the will to achieve this health demand, will be regarded as maladjusted. Because of that, the individuals as well as the community need a self regulatory health strategy to persuade them self as well as others to become a healthy citizen. From this point of view the author argues for that Socsam can be regarded as a health strategy like this and that Rehabrådgivarna is the practical tool that is used to implement the health strategy and health technology to the people.

In the end of 2015 the Swedish government made a complete turnaround regarding its former generous migration policy. Through examination of previous and recent decisions made by the swedish government, this study aims to contribute to a better understanding of this unique situation. It does so by applying Elinor Ostrom’s theory of sustainable management of common resources onto the swedish universal welfare modell. By classifying whether the policies can be considered as steps in a sustainable direction or not, the essey seeks to find whether Ostrom’s theory, former soleley applied on natural resource pools, is compatible with sheer welfare policies, in this case migration, thus offering a better understanding of the phenomenon. The study finds that even though the theory very well could be applied to the said policy area, it would be done with no regard of the ever so important moral and ideological values which characterizes the universal welfare model.

Sammanfattning En likvärdig utbildning ska vara en självklarhet i Sverige som kunskapsnation och demokratiskt föregångsland. Ändå ökar skillnaden i studieresultat mellan elever med olika socioekonomiska bakgrunder. Sedan ett par år tillbaka har likvärdighet i grundskolan varit ett hett ämne i samhällsdebatten. År 2014 uppdaterades skollagen och det blev obligatoriskt för kommuner att ta hänsyn till elevers förutsättningar och behov vid fördelning av resurser till utbildning inom skolväsendet. Ett sätt att åstadkomma en mer jämlik utbildning kan vara att omfördela resurser inom kommunen efter elevers socioekonomiska bakgrundsfaktorer. Hittills har ingen bred utvärdering av sådana resursfördelningssystem gjorts utifrån om systemen bidragit till en förbättring av elevernas studieresultat. Inte heller har en jämförelse mellan olika typer av system gjorts. Detta arbete är därför en första ansats till att utföra en sådan utvärdering. Uppsatsen syftar till att utreda om kommuners socioekonomiska resursfördelningssystem för grundskolor är välfärdshöjande och att undersöka om olika typer av sådana system har olika stor effekt på välfärden. Med välfärdshöjande menar vi i uppsatsen en total ökning av studieresultat där eventuella sänkningar av vissa elevers studieresultat kompenseras av en större höjning av studieresultat för andra elever.  För att uppfylla vårt syfte genomför vi en ekonometrisk analys, främst genom tidsserieregressioner och tester för strukturell skillnad. Vår studie visar att än har de socioekonomiska resursfördelningssystemen inte haft en bred påverkan på välfärden inom kommunerna. I fyra av de tjugo kommuner som ingick i vårt urval kunde vi se en trendförändring av studieresultat efter införandet av ett system. I två av dessa var trendförändringen signifikant positiv. I de andra två kommunerna var trend-förändringens riktning varken signifikant positiv eller negativ. Vi kan inte se någon skillnad i effekt av systemen beroende på vilka socioekonomiska faktorer systemet utgår från. Däremot får systemen större effekt ju längre tid kommunen använt socioekonomiska faktorer för att fördela en viss del av resurserna. I dess nuvarande form verkar socioekonomiska resursfördelningssystem inte vara tillräckligt kraftfulla verktyg för att kunna vända en negativ trend i kommuner med svaga socioekonomiska förutsättningar. / Abstract Equal education should be a matter of course in Sweden as a knowledge nation and a country with a highly developed democratic system. Nevertheless, the difference in study results increases between students with different socio-economic backgrounds. For the last couple of years this has been a hot topic in the public debate. In 2014, it became mandatory for the municipalities to take into account the pupils' prerequisites and needs when allocating resources to education within the school system. One way of achieving a more equal education could be to redistribute resources within the municipality according to students' socio-economic background factors. So far, no broad evaluation of such resource allocation systems has been made based on whether the systems have contributed to an improvement in study results. Neither has a comparison been made of different types of systems used. This thesis is therefore a first approach for performing such an evaluation.   The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether municipalities' socio-economic resource allocation systems for primary and secondary school are welfare enhancing and to investigate whether different types of such systems have different impacts on welfare. With welfare enhancing, the thesis refers to a total increase in study results, where any reductions in the results of some students are compensated by a higher increase in study results for other students. To fulfil our purpose, we perform an econometric analysis, primarily through time series regressions and tests for structural differences. Our study shows that the socio-economic resource allocation systems have not yet had a broad impact on the welfare of the municipalities. In four of the twenty municipalities that were included in our sample, we could observe a change in the trend of study results after the introduction of a system. In two of these, the change in trend was significantly positive, which implicates on a welfare increase. In the other two municipalities, the direction of the change in trend was neither significantly positive nor negative.  We cannot observe any differences in the effects of the systems depending on the socio-economic factors the systems are based on. However, the study shows that the systems give higher effect the longer time the allocation system has been in use. In their current form, socio-economic resource allocation systems do not appear to be sufficiently powerful tools to reverse a negative trend in municipalities with weak socio-economic conditions. / <p>Uppsatsen är de 50 första sidorna. Resterande sidor är bilagor.</p>