Welfare state attitudes are often studied from the perspective of the individual's characteristics and/or national or regime-type contexts. This thesis instead seeks explanations for individuals' varying attitudes towards the welfare state at the level of local contexts (municipalities). Sweden is used as a case for testing whether there are such contextual effects. The general aim is to find out whether social, political, and institutional aspects of local context influence the attitudes of individuals. Since the general aim of this thesis is to examine how background characteristics of individuals and characteristics of local contexts simultaneously act in shaping individuals' attitudes, I use multilevel modelling in order to handle individual-level and contextual-level data simultaneously. Latent-class analysis (LCA) is also employed in the analyses to explore the patterning of variables. This is mainly done in order to create dependent variables and to distinguish between categories of municipalities sharing similar characteristics.  The data consist of Swedish survey data, which have been complemented by municipal-level data. The findings indicate that the social and political context of municipalities can matter for individuals' attitude formation. Variation across municipalities in terms of the prevalence of social problems and risks seems to influence how individuals view the welfare state. Local municipal contexts characterized by many social problems and risks tend to be associated with more welfare state friendly attitudes among the local inhabitants, after taking individual-level determinants into account. Support for high social spending is greater in such milieus as is the tendency to view welfare beneficiaries with less suspicion regarding the potential abuse of welfare policies. Regarding the influence of local public service provision on attitudes, no evidence was found for feedback effects on individuals' attitudes toward public service privatization. In their attitudes towards the welfare state, individuals are to some extent influenced by their local environment. There seems to be a 'built in' thermostat in the Swedish welfare state. Local circumstances characterized by social problems and risks tend to be associated with a local citizenry having more welfare state-friendly attitudes.

The purpose of this essay was to study some selected magazine articles by examining how the concept of child poverty is produced in the public debate, and to see if the definition of the term has changed over time. The theoretical approach on which this study is based has been used as a tool to provide better understanding on the subject. Furthermore, theories of consumer society, the "collateral damage" and the theory of welfare regimes have been used. In the previous research presented in the paper focuses on linking children and families living in precarious economic conditions, consumer standards and welfare systems that characterize society. This study has a qualitative approach as it attempts to capture and increase understanding of how the concept of child poverty can be understood from a Swedish context. The study is based on newspaper articles that are studied using a structural text analysis. Consequently, the analysis is divided into three themes, the first is the role of children in the family, and the second are political decisions and welfare role of the state and the third theme is the importance of the charity. Finally, the study's results indicate that the definition of child poverty has changed over time and also that the child has received more attention in the public debate. / Syftet med denna studie var att genom några valda tidningsartiklar undersöka hur begreppet barnfattigdom framställs i den offentliga debatten, samt att se ifall definitionen av begreppet har förändrats över tid. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna som denna studie bygger på har använts som verktyg för att ge ökad förståelse kring ämnet. Vidare har teorier om konsumtionssamhället, "collateral damage" samt teorin om välfärdsstatsregimer använts. I den tidigare forskningen som presenteras i uppsatsen ligger fokus på att länka samman barn och familjer som lever under knappa ekonomiska förhållanden med konsumtionsnormer och de välfärdssystem som präglar samhället.  Denna undersökning har kvalitativ ansats då den försöker fånga samt öka förståelsen kring hur begreppet barnfattigdom kan förstås utifrån en svensk kontext. Studiens datamaterial baseras på tidningsartiklar som undersökts med hjälp av en strukturell textanalys. Följaktligen är analysen uppdelad på tre teman, varav det första är barnens roll i familjen, de andra är politiska beslut och välfärdsstatens roll och det tredje välgörenhetsorganisationers betydelse. Avslutningsvis visar studiens resultat på att definitionen av barnfattigdom har förändrats över tid och även att barnet har fått ett större utrymme i den offentliga debatten.

Within the field of welfare research, few people take into account both the aspect of gender and class. Thetraditional class-oriented research has a one-dimensional perspective on gender and the feminist welfare researchrarely carry out large comparative studies. A multi-dimensional perspective on the construction ofgender and class would benefit from both the feminist and class welfare-oriented research, and contribute toincreasing the knowledge about the individual's experience and attitudes to work and work time. The aim ofthis paper is to examine the correlation of the intersectional relationship between sex / gender position andclass position with the attitudes and motives for working time reduction. Especially in, (1) the value in work,and (2) the attitude to a high number of working hours, as well as (3) its combined effect on the conflict betweenwork and family. Countries compared are: Sweden as a social-democratic country and the UnitedStates as a liberal country, based on the similarities in high amount of working mothers and influentialwomen’s movements as well as in there different strategies in the labour market. The survey data collectionis conducted by the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) and based on the 2006 survey Role of GovernmentIV, 2005 survey Work Orientation III and the 2002 survey Family and Changing Gender Roles III.The results from this study show that there is general support, in Sweden and the United States, towards theworking society. Meanwhile, there is also support for the state to reduce the working hours. In brief summary,employees value their work highly and are generally receptive to working long hours. However, itdoes not create a perception of high conflict between work and family responsibilities. It has been interpretedas a general positive attitude towards work society, and indications that the work is an important part of anindividual's identity and individuality. With these three motives as the starting point, the attitude towards thestate's responsibility to reduce working hours was studied. The result was a generally high support, especiallyin a Swedish context. Politicization in relation to sympathetic pattern was seen as explanations, basedon the fact that the issue of working time reduction is a central part of the Swedish media and political arenaas well as the working class and women's movement are the main actors promoting the issue.

The development and longevity of the welfare state is dependent on public support. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between public sector employment and popular support for the welfare state in comparative perspective. Welfare state attitudes represent the micro-foundation in many theories about links between welfare state organization and interest formation and the shaping of values, norms and levels of aspiration. Most studies seeking to explain differences in welfare state support use welfare state regime labels on countries as their independent variable. However, previous empirical research on comparative welfare state attitudes has found very mixed support using the regime typology approach. The present study takes a step forward in using comparative indicators of public sector employment and social protection, instead of regime labels. In previous research the role of public sector employment for welfare state attitudes has typically been given little attention. The main hypothesis is that public service employment positively influences aggregate levels of support towards the welfare state. Based on a multilevel-regression framework and drawing on ISSP comparative data from 2006 on individual level attitudes, this study demonstrates clear empirical support for this main hypothesis.

This study discloses the responsibility of social work for the Swedish welfare state respective deacons in the Swedish protestant church, which roll the Swedish protestant church have in the existent welfare and also if deacons experience any expectations and how these expectations in that case are expressed.The aim of this study was to investigate the relationbetween deacons working within the Swedish protestant church and social work, as it appears for professional deacons. The method of investigating the questions raised by the aim of this study has been qualitative analysis of answers derived from six deacons working in different workplaces. The data derived from these interviews was then analysed through the theory of Gösta Esping-Andersen about welfare states and also through background research and earlier science research about the social work within the Swedish protestant church and other social work. The result of the study show that the welfare state in Sweden has the comprehensive responsibility for the citizens. Deacons working within the Swedish protestant church does not have the same responsibility. Instead deacons usually provided the supplementary social work as regarding existential questions. Different conditions, for example laws and regulations is something that is different regarding the social work that deacons and other authorities in the society performs. Our study also shows that sometimes when the official welfare is insufficient the deacons partly can fill up for this. The deacons in our study experience that there are high expectations from the people in society regarding the social work that deacons performs. There are also expectations from other performers of social work in the welfare as well as from the church itself, although these look a little bit different and are not as clear and explicit. The problem with the expectations is that they are not always realistic which depends on relatively bad knowledge about the social work the deacons perform. When the social work that deacons perform is within the church characterized by Christian ethos a result can be that in meeting with other social work a tension arise which leads to challenges for the different performers of social work.

Abstract Taiwan's social security has implemented at the institutional for a while. The development of social security shows the face of diversity in each era. There is diverse social security law can be described with impressive results, but we also have to reflect on another issue: What is Taiwan's social security law the common purpose? Every laws and regulations both have a different development process, in the whole social security should have their roles, if the social security policies and regulations have a lack in the principle of system, the government which in the administrative system may be faces obstacles. Particularly, after the democratization of political system in Taiwan, the development of social security measures cannot prevent the intrusion of politics, vote often become the means of achieving the people's welfare and security, and just in the implementation of policies on social security payments of uncertainty measures, it is unable to satisfy what people's need essentially. At this point, the state is difficult to achieve the protection of people's right and equalize opportunity and remove social conflicts, the state power is hard to protect the right of freedoms and vulnerable function, it caused the implementation of social justice by the state as the legitimate role become increasingly disordered. View of diverse of the development of Taiwan's social security law, the legal system reflects the purpose of social security to promote harmony development of society which has become an important starting point. Thus, this study is about the status of social security law, the legal aspects of evidence which in our Constitution, "Social Security" in the normative sense, that is what we want to create? The concept of this country endowed with a local social security of the explanation? Or should we look for the legal science for another closer theory of state and society relations outside positive law, in order to facilitate the establishment of law system. And another study is from the philosophy of law, analysis Lorenz von Stein's book of social theory, which is German scholar of public law, and the book of John Rawls theory of justice, which is American political scientist. And then look for the social constitution real meaning behind the words to construct a more complete system of social security law. Attempt to think through the social sciences, the social security law find a common language, and to answer how to construct a Taiwanese legal system of social security, people's social life will have a more harmonious development of justice in order.

Thesis (doctoral)--Umeå University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

The thesis set out in this submission is drawn from six of the candidate’s publications, based in turn on empirical findings from four research studies of adult social care in England spanning the period 1992 2006. As a body of work, it interrogates the validity of Lipsky’s (1980) conclusions about the origins and nature of ‘streetlevel bureaucracy’ in the wake of subsequent welfare restructuring. The earlier studies pay particular attention to the impact of managerialisation on frontline assessment practice amongst adult social work teams following implementation of the 1990 National Health Service and Community Care Act. Later studies tackle a further challenge to Lipsky’s thesis of street-level bureaucracy, that is, the potential for a change in the nature of the exchange relationship between street-level bureaucrat and client in the light of the insertion of service user involvement, empowerment and rights into governance arrangements after 1990, including adult social care. The candidate argues that the ethnomethodological approach adopted in three out of the four studies has yielded rich data on frontline practice of a type screened out by much contemporaneous research on the impact of social care reforms. Taken together with the span of the research studies over some fifteen years, this has supported not only a detailed analysis of the relationship between the micropolitics of assessment practice and key features of the differing environments within which they occur but also their articulation with changing modes of welfare governance. Discourse analysis of interview findings from the remaining study has permitted insights into the way social workers integrate thinking about human and social rights into their everyday assessment practice. The candidate summarises her threefold contribution to the literature in a taxonomy derived from the research findings which serves, firstly, to articulate the relationship between core dimensions of the policy and practice environment and the differing forms of frontline discretion to emerge after 1990; secondly, to explore the impact of user empowerment and rights on the distribution of resources; and, thirdly, to evaluate the continuing relevance of ‘streetlevel’ bureaucracy for understanding frontline social work practice. She concludes by sketching out possible future directions for her work.

The Austrian mental health care system has been characterized by reform initiatives since the 1970s. The reform strategies can be summarized under the term 'community mental health care'. The thesis focuses on an analysis of the reform (context) and the related challenges for mental health care financing with respect to its interdependencies with service provision in the process of change. In a qualitative research process, firstly, reform documents and transcripts of qualitative interviews have been analyzed via a discourse-analytical approach. Secondly, secondary data on mental health care financing in Austria and in western European countries have been collected. An analytical framework was, finally, applied to analyze the interrelations between mental health care financing and reform discourse with respect to its impact on the micro-level and on the macro-level of the mental health care system. The results show that the reform discourse reflects broader welfare state transformation processes. Yet, financing issues have hardly been addressed in reform discussions. Nevertheless, discursive elements are either explicitly or implicitly associated with financing issues or are even linked to specific financing models. A central impact from the restructuring processes on the micro-level is an increasing (financial) responsibility for people who are affected by a mental disorder and/or their relatives. On the macro-level, the processes of change are related to decreasing (financial) responsibility for the sector 'state' while responsibility for the sectors 'family' and 'voluntary/community' is rising. The international development shows similar characteristics. The thesis finishes with some recommendations for developing an alternative financing model and provides a guideline for a comprehensive discussion of alternative mental health care financing approaches. (author´s abstract)

This thesis studies youth from different perspectives. These are the life phaseand the generational perspectives, which have been studied via questions of establishment and individualisation. The main question is whether young people are different because they have not made socially important transitions into adulthood or if they are different because they have grown up under different circumstances than earlier generations. The consequences of the outcome are important because they can indicate what kind of society young people will reproduce. The following conclusions are drawn: First, there are clear effects of social structurations (class of origin and gender) in the lives of young people. They affect the distribution of attitudes towards welfare state expenditures as well as the economic effects in a long-term perspective. Second, there is rather weak importance of role transitions in relation to what young people believe is important for adulthood, role transitions’ importance for the distribution of attitudes towards the welfare state as well as role transitions’ importance in a long-term perspective. Third, increasing age and subtle socialisation processes may be an explanation to the rather weak meaning of role transitions, cause adjustments to surrounding contexts and people’s expectations. It is concluded that the life phase perspective is a more accurate way of viewing young people, mainly because of the impact of social structurations, which are believed to contribute to continuous reproduction rather than complete change of society.