The current paper is a study of the male characters Simon and Jace from Cassandra Clare's City of Bones (2010), and the characters Tamlin and Rhysand from Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015). The main aim is to examine whether the characters in these fantasy novels for young adults have traits and functions that previously have been used to describe and portray female characters. The study discovered among other things that vulnerability and sensitivity could be found in all the characters, especially when danger was upon them or their loved ones. Simon was also the only character that was not portrayed with skills in combat, which was mocked by the other male characters but not by the female protagonist. The two male characters in A Court of Thorns and Roses were also portraited as sexual objects in the novel, and Rhysand was exposed to sexual abuse by the novel’s antagonist, which can be seen as stereotypical female trait. The male character’s function in the novels was to have a folie function to each other, and be a love interest, a confidant, and a choir to the female protagonist. The male characters in the novels were also the ones who needed to be rescued by the female characters, and thereby found themselves in a female position.

This study explores the experiences of the Swedish front-line social workers (socialsekreterare) in the municipal income support unit, Young Adults, monthly assessing the income support applications as well as daily processing the activation programs for young adult clients with mental ill-health combined with social-medicinal vulnerabilities, also referred to as young adults with complex needs. Furthermore, this study aims to illuminate the ever changing conditions of the Swedish welfare state and its underlying driving forces through the lens of the social workers. 9 Semi-structured distance interviews with 11 social workers from 6 municipalities belonging to 5 regions in Sweden, were conducted for the collection of qualitative data. It has been analyzed by the inductive-deductive coding as well as a theoretical frame consisting of concepts such as discretiona and advocacy of M. Lipsky, and reciprocal interaction (Wechselwirkung), form and contents, and call of G.Simmel. The result and analysis show that the rehabilitative approach based on the interactions and relations with the clients, is prevalent through the social workers’ processing of the activation program. It seems to be effective in a dyad, between the social workers and the client while the social workers’ discretion is maximized for the utilization of the agency (unit) activation resources. However, it proved not to be as effective in a triad or more when an extern agent outside of the unit, Young Adults begins to be involved. The tension is a fact and the social workers’ discretion is minimized when they have to process the activation program for the clients who are neither “active enough” to have a job in the ordinary labor market, nor “sick enough” to be eligible for the stately activity compensation (aktivitetsersättning) from the Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) which heavily relies on the medicinal expertise for its decision making. The social workers’ experience to fail to deliver the best possible results out of the activation programs, and the client relationship built on the rehabilitative approach turns out to be unsustainable, which can indicate the discrepancy between the rehabilitative approach as well as the activation programs, as content, and the unit, Young Adults, as form. Even though the social workers daily carry the ideological as well as the social-political tensions between the medicalization and the activation through the ever changing reality of the Swedish welfare state, their mandate to make an impact on the decision making of the activity compensation program, is rather limited, reflecting the Swedish welfare state’s expectation for the professionalism of the social workers. Rather striking that the social workers, however, confess that they in spite of the pressure of organizational efficiency as well as socio-economic discourse of digitalization undermining the concept of the unit, Young Adults, are not willing to give up the rehabilitative approach for the client’s sake but also to protect their unit, Young Adults, which postulate that they are not the gatekeepers in the agency but the advocate for the clients. In this moment, they also seem to know, and even have the call, the essential, if not mandatory, element needed to be landed in the perfect society of G. Simmel.