Det är väl belagt i internationell forskning att en pluralism av olika kunskapsformer och organisatoriska förhållanden påverkar val och utformning av insatser inom socialt arbete. I den svenska kontexten har det visat sig att dessa kunskapsformer och så kallade ramfaktorer kan framstå som svårförenliga eller till och med i konflikt med varandra. Samtidigt saknas det aktuella svenska studier som på en nationell nivå visar vilken utbredning och upplevd betydelse kunskapsformer och ramfaktorer har för kommunernas utbud och val av insatser. I artikeln presenterar vi en nationell studie av enhetschefers syn på olika kunskapsformers och ramfaktorers förekomst och betydelse för utbud och beslut om insatser inom socialtjänstens individ- och familjeomsorg. Artikeln bygger på data från en nationell enkät riktad till enhetschefer för ett urval av Sveriges kommuners barn- och familje- respektive missbruksverksamheter. Resultaten visar att samtliga undersökta kunskapsformer och ramfaktorer påverkar val och utformning av insats, men att vissa former mer framträdande än andra. Främst baseras val och utformning av insats på individuell erfarenhetsbaserad kunskap från yrkeserfarenhet och utbildning, snarare än kollektiv professionell kunskap. Vidare menar enhetscheferna att systematiska kunskapssammanställningar påverkar i högre utsträckning än enskilda kvalitativa och kvantitativa forskningsstudier inom vetenskaplig kunskap. När det gäller ramfaktorer visar studien att insatsens kostnad påverkar i mindre utsträckning än faktorer som tillgänglighet, ramavtal och lagstiftning.
Social services are among the public policy areas criticized for lacking a reliable knowledge base to support professional as well as political ambitions and actions. This article contributes to the literature on knowledge perspectives in social service policies by studying and analyzing mechanisms that sustain a plurality of perspectives in the policies. The empirical material consists of knowledge perspectives in social service policies at the national level for child and family care and substance abuse treatment in Sweden between 1992 and 2015. Mechanisms that sustain a plurality of perspectives are identified with the support of an institutional logics framework. The main findings are that a plurality of knowledge perspectives. such as professional, scientific, and organizational, seems to be a permanent rather than temporary configuration; and that this permanent plurality is sustained by a set of mechanisms, including assimilation, blending, segregation, and contradiction. Despite this pluralism, there are few comments or guidelines in policy regarding the relationship between different knowledge perspectives. The findings suggest that more attention should be paid to the relationship between different knowledge perspectives and its impact on social work practice. In this, research and practice together need to support a development towards a more transparent professional acting.
A national Swedish project was followed in 12 municipalities aimed at youth aged 15-20 years. Neither police nor social services systematically used the indicators based on criminological research and proposed by national authorities. The police and social services thought they had more contemporary and holistic intuitive knowledge than any systematic indicators could provide. Despite implementation difficulties, the project was described as a success at the political level and widely dispersed. The specific and systematic image of early indicators provided momentum at the policy level. The local authorities welcomed the opportunity to reach a group considered difficult to manage.
This article illustrates how the theory of institutional logics can be used for analyzing the identity of social workers and clients, focusing on people processing that precedes treatment (control access, assessment, and treatment deliberation, among others). The article has two research questions: (1) What identities of social workers and clients can be distinguished by institutional logics? (2) How are identities intertwined in practice (exemplified by well-established decision-making models such as evidence-based practice, family group conference, and government by voucher)? Identity is examined using institutional logics and the findings reported in the current body of social work literature. The article derives two conclusions. The first conclusion is that institutional logics can be used for distinguishing ideal type identities: three client identities, namely taken care of community member (community logic), active citizen (participatory democracy logic), and consumer (market logic); and three social worker identities, namely professional (professional logic), bureaucrat (State logic), and executor of management directives (corporation logic). The second conclusion is that identities and institutional logics coexist in well-established models for processing people and treatment deliberation, but the conditions for coexistence differ. For instance, evidence-based practice is characterized by segregation (a bureaucratic and a professional alignment have been separated from the original version of EBP), whereas family group conference and government by voucher are typified by assimilation (logics coexist with the core elements of original logics preserved). Keywords: social work, institutional logics, people processing, decision-making
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