The aim of this article is to understand the materialisation of social rights for citizens in need of incapacity benefits by analysing the institution of welfare inter-agency collaboration. We achieve this through an analysis of 12 observation sessions of inter-agency collaboration where incapacity benefits are being processed between several agencies. Social rights are materialised behind closed doors. The decisions are affected by suspicions of social explanations of incapacity while medical knowledge is prioritised. The laws and resources are used to suit the explanations from the officials. In such cases inter-agency collaboration risks disempowering the citizens. 

This article focuses on young unemployed people in Sweden involved in two activation measures. Using the analytical framework of governmentality, it analyses how the participants perceive and value activation measures as government-driven interventions aimed at bringing young people into the labour market based on a neoliberal discourse of the welfare state. The article highlights that the welfare system tries to not only promote behavioural changes, but also change the way people think. At the centre of the study are the people-changing technologies embedded in the Swedish norms of a strong work ethic. The analysis underlines how these technologies are internalised and even become a part of the participant's own free will.

This study illustrates the complexity and challenges of knowledge utilization in social work practice through an analysis of interviews with social workers working in the field of social assistance in Sweden. The participants had all taken an online course at their workplace, and the interviews illustrate how knowledge is either distanced or used to induce change. More importantly, the results illustrate how knowledge in practice is more than merely facts from research results, as it is more focused on process. Therefore, it is possible to use knowledge in various forms critically in everyday work life to improve practice. This study offers valuable insights into knowledge utilization in social work that could influence views about knowledge use and its implications in practice. Moreover, social work education and training need to more thoroughly prepare students and new social workers to use knowledge in various forms in their organizational settings. If a more process-oriented approach to knowledge use is to be implemented in practice, it has to be established in training.

MI, motivational interviewing, is a counselling method for increasing a person’s motivation for behaviour change that is prevalent in social work. MI emphasizes building trusting social worker-client relationships and is presented as concrete and simple to follow. The benefit of MI is limited by actual opportunities for change through poverty, the labour market and health. The article aims to critically examine the usefulness of MI in connection with the handling of social assistance. It is based on a study of the use of an assessment instrument and of individual action plans (contracts) in a municipality where MI is a central tool. The study is based on analyses of documents, individual interviews and group interviews with staff as well as observations of meetings and training.The results show that MI has been integrated into a comprehensive implementation of other elements to standardize initiatives within income support. The client’s obligations are emphasized through a strong individual focus, although extensive efforts may be needed from surrounding actors. The action plans have inherent problems in terms of clarity and legal certainty. The authors argue that it is paradoxical to use a method based on alliances and collaboration in connection with conditional decisions. The use of MI becomes a commitment that lacks reciprocity and whose activation of self-technologies can be questioned.

The aim of this chapter is to create a greater theoretical understanding of social welfare, unemployment, and vulnerability among youth and its impacts on a local level. We do so by re-analysing a study of how social workers treat young unemployed and how these young people experience their possibilities and constraints in relation to the demands of the social services. In this chapter, we will meet the empirical example with a time-geographical perspective and discuss what such an interpretation adds to the knowledge about the vulnerability of the young unemployed. The geographical and temporal aspects of the lives of young unemployed show how different types of constraints affect young people’s everyday lives. The results show that the constraints can boil down to five underlying forms of vulnerability for the young unemployed: constraints in mobility, constraints in access to technology, constraints in social relations, constraints in accommodation, and constraints in autonomy and integrity. By using time-geography, we are able to theorise the differences between local administrations of social welfare in the municipalities and the constraints the young unemployed face in their local environment.

Men's violence against women (VAW) is multifaceted and complex. Besides physical, psychological, and sexual violence, women subjected to VAW often suffer from economic hardship and financial abuse. Financial abuse involves different tactics used to exercise power and gain control over partners. Experiences of financial abuse make it difficult for women to leave an abusive partner and become self-sufficient. From an intersectional perspective, applying the concept of the continuum of violence, the aim of this article is to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how women subjected to men's violence in intimate relationships experience the complexity of financial abuse in their lives, in the context of VAW. Based on 19 in-depth interviews with women surviving domestic violence, the study describes how intertwined women's experiences of financial abuse are with other forms of abuse, influencing each other, simultaneously experienced as a distinct form of abuse with severe and longstanding consequences. Women in the study describe how men's abuse affects them financially, causing poverty and affecting their ability to have a reasonable economic standard. Financial abuse also causes women ill health, and damages their self-esteem and ability to work, associate, and engage in social life. The interviewed women describe how experiences of financial abuse continue across time, from their past into their present situation and molding beliefs about the future. According to the interviews, financial abuse in private life sometimes continues into the public sphere, reproduced by social workers mimicking patterns of ex-partners' abuse. Bringing out a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamic continuum of financial abuse, our results deepen knowledge about the complexity of VAW in women's lives, and thereby are important in processes of making victims of violence survivors of violence.

The Nordic welfare states have found themselves in the firing line of post-industrial developments, resulting in fundamental changes in societal institutions at all levels. In particular, changes in the labour market and family, reinforced by processes of migration and international market integration, have presented the welfare states with new social needs to attend to. This book critically explores responses to changing social risks across areas such as structural unemployment, entrepreneurship, immigration, single parenthood, education and health. It explores critical changes in the structure of the Nordic welfare states and the social policy strategies for alleviating social risks. While the Nordic countries are shining in most international comparisons, such changes and their wider implications have often been overlooked in the literature. The book raises the question whether certain risks are even being evoked actively through new social policies instating incentive structures concomitant with policy goals in order to encourage certain behaviour among citizens.

Insuring its citizens against the misfortunes that may threaten their livelihood is the defining feature of the welfare state. The first social insurance schemes that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were instituted to protect people in cases of work accidents, sickness, unemployment, widowhood and old age (if it occurred). By instituting such schemes, the state acknowledged that individuals were exposed to social risks conditioned by societal structures that were beyond their control (Rothstein 1994).

The social worker-client relationship is described as essential to social work but is a broad and multi-layered concept. Today, the relationship is strengthened and challenged by digitalisation. The aim of this configurative literature review is to understand how research on social work from 2015 to 2020 describes and analyses digitalisation's significance for the social worker-client relationship. Three themes depict the benefits and disadvantages of digitalisation, how digitalisation generates new ethical questions and dilemmas, and the different theoretical perspectives used. Future research should go beyond the pros and cons of digitalisation and should use various theoretical approaches to challenge data, illuminate client perspectives, and pose additional questions.

Today’s ambition to adapt and individualize welfare delivery poses a challenge to human service organizations at the same time seeking to standardize clients, with consequences for street-level bureaucrats. In this article, the implementation of an instrument for standardized assessment of income support (IA) in Swedish social services is used to investigate what strategies street-level bureaucrats use to cope with tensions between standardization and individualization. Results from six focus groups in two organizations show how job coaches cope by individualizing their practice towards the client, while caseworkers equally often cope through standardization, which could work towards or against the client, in order to keep their discretion and handle organizational demands. Results point to a loose coupling between IA as an organizational tool for legitimacy, and as a pragmatically used questionnaire. Conflicts and contradictions are left to street-level bureaucrats to deal with.

Institutionen för socialt arbete på Linnéuniversitetet har utvärderat implementeringen av ”Standardiserat bedömningsinstrument för initial bedömning inom försörjningsstöd och jobbtorg Stockholm”. Syftet har varit att undersöka hur instrumentet för initial bedömning (IB) har implementerats och påverkat kvaliteten i arbetet inom socialtjänsten och jobbtorg Stockholm med personer som söker försörjningsstöd.

Materialet består av (1) en enkät till 334 användare (socialsekreterare och deras chefer, jobbcoacher och deras chefer) i Stockholm stad som arbetade med IB; (2) sex fokusgrupper med 31 användare; samt (3) tjugo intervjuer med sökande.

Utvärderingens första slutsats är att användarna som har tagit del av implementeringsinsatserna överlag haft tid för, velat ta del av och förstått dessa insatser. Problem ska om något kopplas till möjligheten att delta i centrala implementeringsinsatser och att göra tid för lokal implementering.

Utvärderingens andra slutsats är att användarna av IB överlag förstått och velat använda IB. Undantag är kunskap om hur den sista delen i IB, del 4, ska organiseras mellan aktörer, tidigare arbetsplatsrelaterade tillvägagångssätt samt fokusgruppssvar kring IB:s förenlighet med professionellt socialt arbete. Vidare har användare överlag också kunnat använda IB. Undantaget är återigen del 4 som inte görs i mer än hälften av fallen. Orsaker till att IB inte används är tids-, språk- och individrelaterade. Problem i användandet av IB kretsar kring frågor vars svar är svåra att hantera och samverkansproblem mellan aktörer.

Utvärderingens tredje slutsats är att de resultat som flest användare upplever att IB medför är likställighet, rättssäkerhet och uppföljningsmöjligheter. Brukardelaktighet är ett område där olika definitioner finns. Resultatområden med mindre stöd är frågor om samverkan och kunskap om resultat och effekter av insatser. Utifrån fokusgrupper präglas det förra av samverkansproblem, det senare uppfattas inte som relevant.

Utvärderingens fjärde slutsats är att sökande har upplevt IB:s olika delar på olika sätt. Generellt upplevs del 1 och 3 som mer kontrollerande och del 2 som mer stöttande. Ifråga om del 1 som genomförs på telefon, upplevdes få enskilda frågor som besvärliga och sökande har en förståelse för att frågorna ställs. Istället är det helheten som kan upplevas som ansträngande då man inte vet vem man pratar med på telefon, frågorna kommer i snabb följd och kräver snabba svar. Ansträngningen inriktas på att svara ”rätt” på frågorna som ställs. I fråga om del 2 på jobbtorg upplevs inriktningen på jobb som positiv liksom bemötandet. Deltagarcentreringen skapar en upplevelse av delaktighet, även om vissa frågor är svåra att svara på eller är för privata. Att frågor upprepas från del 1 ses inte som ett problem. Del 3 upplevs mer som ett förhör än del 2, och upplevelsen av deltagandet kan beskrivas som begränsat. Frågor som kommenteras av sökande är frågor om våld, familj och nätverk samt hälsa. Ingen fråga är enhälligt problematisk, snarare är enskilda frågeområden problematiska för vissa men inte för andra. Också i del 3 finns ambitionen att svara ”rätt” på socialsekreterarens frågor. Ett förbättringsförslag som lyfts fram är att en förklaring till varför en viss fråga ställs minskar risken för att den ska uppfattas som besvärlig eller obehaglig. Avslutningsvis är det svårt att säga något om del 4 då endast en sökande har gjort den.

I utvärderingens sista del diskuteras implementeringens programteori, IB som kartläggning och standardiserad bedömning, IB som stöd för nyanställda, IB, evidens och kunskap om insatser och effekter, samverkan mellan kontroll och stöd samt att ställa frågor om våld och ta emot svaren.

In the last decade, digitalized automated decision-making (ADM) has been implemented in many Swedish municipal social services to achieve values such as legal security, client empowerment and time efficiency. The paper aims to understand how ADM policy is legitimized and performed through time efficiency, by a comparison of ADM policy in two Swedish municipalities’ social assistance agencies. It builds on 17 interviews with managers and professionals in two Swedish municipalities’ social assistance units. Findings show ADM is legitimized through arguments of activation and relationships, and performed by handling more applications or increasing time spent with clients, rather than being perceived as increasing the quality of social assistance services. This highlights the significance of organizational goals regarding how street-level bureaucrats perform tasks within their discretionary powers.

Syftet i forskningsrapporten är att analysera om och i så fall hur statlig och kommunal arbetsmarknadspolitik överlappar varandra samt om arbetslösa riskerar att varken aktualiseras inom kommunal eller statlig arbetsmarknadspolitik. Forskningsrapporten omfattar en kunskapsöversikt av forskning om kommunal arbetsmarknadspolitik samt en intervjustudie med nyckelpersoner inom statlig och kommunal arbetsmarknadspolitik i elva kommuner. Huvudresultatet i kunskapsöversikten är att kommunal arbetsmarknadspolitik är heterogen; insatserna vänder sig till skilda målgrupper, är ofta av flyktig beskafenhet, bedrivs i projektform, har otydliga mål och leder till tämligen svårbedömda effekter. En viktigt slutsats i intervjustudien är att statens styrning av arbetsmarknadspolitiken är mycket vag och resulterar i stora lokala variationer. I intervjustudien lyfts fram flera exempel på att statlig och kommunal arbetsmarknadspolitik överlappar varandra samt att arbetslösa "faller mellan stolarna".  

The idea of a European social citizenship is being developed by the EU to provide a minimum safety net. Questions about social citizenship are of fundamental importance in people's everyday lives. Social assistance is a central dimension when studying social citizenship. Before discussing in terms of a European social citizenship, we should determine whether we have a social citizenship at the national level. We therefore analyse the Swedish welfare state, one of the most mature welfare states in the EU. We conclude that the social right to social assistance is not part of modern citizenship, nor does it follow the formal principles of legal citizenship rights. The law presupposes a considerable amount of discretionary power at the local level when it comes to identifying the deserving poor; something that goes against the definition of a legal citizenship right. The right to social assistance is still a reproduction of the old poor-relief logic.

Swedish municipal labor market has expanded since the 1990s involving 5,300 professionals, 110,000 participants and cost 5 billion annually. According to the latest literature review (2012), the knowledge of what is done and achieved is limited. This article present a systematic review since 2012 by synthesizing research on four themes: why are municipal labor market measures initiated, how these measures are organized, the impact and how the practical work is conducted. The conclusion is that the research continues to be limited, there are few impact studies, individualization and decentralization are key components and labor market measures have a doubtful quality.

This study aims to understand how goals of activation and gender equality interact in labor market programs directed towards activating unemployed participants. The study draws on interviews with 28 social workers and managers at four Swedish municipally governed labor market programs typically targeted towards poor, unemployed individuals with little to no attachment to the labor market or social insurance system. Our findings show that activation goals are understood to be clear cut and a dominant logic within the labor market programs. The gender equality goals are understood as fuzzy and subordinate to the activation logic. Our theoretical analysis, based on neo-institutional theory, shows that gendered activation as a hybrid logic is created within the four programs as a means of handling the competing logics of gender equality and activation. Gendered activation may be reasonable on an individual level, where women in long-term unemployment can sustain a higher income through work and become financially independent. In the context of the gender segregated labor market, gendered activation reproduces gendered inequalities when an increasing interest for activation policy among welfare states overshadows claims of gender equality. Furthermore, our study exemplifies the systemic reproduction of racist discourse within social- and labour market policies. Within the logic of gendered activation, migrant women become singled out as specifically problematic for Swedish society to handle when unemployment is given gendered and cultural explanations. Through the logic of gendered activation, gender equality goals become no-matter-what employment rather than employment leading to equal outcomes.

Rapporten lyfter att snabba vägar till arbetsmarknaden inte nödvändigtvis innebär jämställdhet utifrån den segregerade arbetsmarknad som råder i Sverige vad gäller såväl kön som etnicitet. Studiens syfte har varit att beskriva och analysera hur kommunal arbetsmarknadspolitik kommer till uttryck i faktiska verksamheter och hur dessa relaterar till övergripande intentioner, reglerande styrdokument och chefers, socialarbetares och arbetslösas behov, intressen och perspektiv. De anställdas handlingsutrymme uppfattas som central för att bedriva en verksamhet trots den mängd (potentiella) spänningar som kan uppstå i hanteringen av olika mål tillsammans med samhällets, deltagare och arbetsgivares förväntningar. Handlingsutrymmet för socialarbetarna undersöks och förstås i relation till kommunala och organisationsspecifika mål om jämställdhet och sysselsättning som avses styra vad som ska göras i insatserna och sätts i relation till hur socialarbetarna förstår och hanterar dessa i praktiken. Exempelvis att hantera kommunens mål om jämställdhet om än att deltagare gör yrkesval som går emot målen om jämställdhet. Liksom de potentiella motsättningar som kan finnas mellan att stärka grupper med en svagare position och bristande förankring på arbetsmarknaden, och samtidigt genomföra kommunens mål kring sysselsättning och jämställdhet.

För att nå studiens syfte utgick studien från fyra kommunala arbetsmarknadsinsatser inom en kommunal arbetsmarknadsorganisation. Insatserna har studerats genom grupp- och individuella intervjuer, dokumentstudier samt observationer. Totalt har 57 personer intervjuats. Analysen av materialet har en teoretisk referensram som inkluderar en organisationsteoretisk förståelse som hämtas från nyinstitutionell organisationsteori, samt teoretiska begrepp från Michael Lipskys (2010) teori om gräsrotsbyråkrati och handlingsutrymme.

Resultatet visar att organisationens mål om sysselsättning ofta är tydligt och mätbart formulerade medan mål om jämställdhet ofta är mer svårdefinierade och således svåra att mäta. Resultatet visar vidare på en spänning genom att målen ordnas hierarkiskt i förhållande till varandra där de hårda, tydligt mätbara sådana verkar få företräde framför andra. Målen kring sysselsättning och jämställdhet förstås som motstridiga såtillvida att målen om sysselsättning indikerar att insatserna så snabbt som möjligt ska förmå den arbetslöse att finna en egenförsörjning vilket ofta innebär att följa den struktur som finns inom arbetsmarknaden, medan målen om jämställdhet snarare belyser vikten av strukturellt inriktade insatser som innebär att köns- och rasnormativa val i arbetslivet motverkas. Genom sitt handlingsutrymme prioriterar personal och chefer mål om sysselsättning före mål om jämställdhet utifrån olika strategier. Eftersom jämställdhetsmålen inte är tydligt definierade eller operationaliserade skapas det således ett tämligen stort handlingsutrymme där personalen kan fokusera på att hitta ett arbete åt deltagaren istället för att arbeta förändringsinriktat mot normer. Handlingsutrymmet möjliggör dock att ha mål gällande sysselsättning och jämställdhet som får organisationen att framstå som legitim, om än att jämställdhetsmålen inte är inkorporerade i hur det dagliga arbetet utförs. På en övergripande nivå diskuterar rapporten frågor rörande målsättningar på kort och lång sikt. Snabba effekter och enklaste vägen in till arbetsmarknaden riskerar att konservera befintliga strukturer, värderingar och kan i förlängningen minska möjligheter till social mobilitet bland grupper med en svagare ställning på arbetsmarknaden.

The present study focuses on the local labour market programmes with the municipalities as the responsible authority. There is no systematic documentation of the local labour market programmes, here termed "activation programmes", as is the case for programmes with the Labour Market Board as the responsible authority. The programmes that are directed towards receivers of social assistance who are unemployed can be seen as a secondary labour market policy.

Being as these local activation programmes are by nature local, no overview of the extent and type of programmes has never before been undertaken in Sweden. Information on both the municipalities and the programmes representing the situation in April 2002 has been collected. 204 municipalities took part, which is the equivalent of 70% of the total. Information from more than 500 activation programmes in a total of 168 municipalities forms the basis for the analysis of the programmes.

These programmes differ in principle in several ways from national labour market programmes, amongst other things due to the result of amendments made to the Social Services Act in January 1998. A landscape, containing very large local variations, has been made partially visible in the present study. The basis is the administering of social assistance that takes place with a wide range of views concerning the possibilities for the labour market to find alternative financing for those in need of social assistance. The labour market policies that are pursued and laid down by the government and the parliament and which the Labour Market Board has the responsibility for carrying out, do not reach all citizens.

An English summary is included in this report.

Inter-agency collaboration plays a central role in contemporary Swedish welfare provision and access to social security for citizens that are long-term unemployed and suffer from ill health. Drawing on Nancy Fraser's theorisation on the 'politics of needs interpretation', this article examines how needs and rights are interpreted and contested in inter-agency meetings involving local representatives from national, regional and municipal Swedish welfare agencies. Contextualised against social security reforms that put emphasis on the limitation of access and a 'work-first' approach, the article suggests that localised inter-agency meetings of this nature are arenas where perceived injustices are symbolically elaborated and challenged 'from within' welfare organisations. Although discourses emphasising self-sufficiency and the importance of work tend to act as depoliticising and normalising, the way they are implemented in practice is not passively accepted by frontline professionals, who question interpretive justifications, as well as harmful consequences for individuals.

Although political parties are singing praises of entrepreneurship, welfare systems do not recognized the self-employees' rights to decent conditions of basic economic safety and of their access to social security. This means that self-employed are forced to find their own way to reduce the risks of losing the possibility to support them self economically. This article examines twelve self-employed women's daily conditions to support themselves and their strategies to deal with risks. The study shows that the interviewed have more freedom to find their own support strategies than wage-employed but on (the other side) their position on the labour market and the systems for social security doesn't recognize their vulnerability towards risk in the same manner as wage-employed.

Self-employment is often presented as a solution to the important issue of inclusion into the labour market for groups that find difficulties in being employed by others. Indeed, recent years have seen repeated calls by Nordic policy-makers for self-employment and entrepreneurship. However, promoting this form of employment is a delicate matter in the Nordic countries. In these countries, welfare systems have been based on the principle of lost wage income, while self-employed persons in need of protection have not been covered. This chapter explores how Nordic policy-makers through policy adaptations have tried to encourage people to enter into the risky position as self-employed. The chapter contextualizes these policy initiatives by discussing how promoting self-employment may also be regarded as a strategy for adapting labour markets to the need for flexibility imposed by the post-industrial economy.

I den här rapporten beskrivs innehållet i den kommunala arbetsmarknadspolitiken i tolv svenska kommuner. Utgångspunkten är tolv typer av arbetsmarknadspolitiska insatser och analysen går ut på att fördjupa förståelsen om vad insatserna innebär i praktiken. Det primära syftet är att bidra med kunskap som är viktig vid utvärderingar av den kommunala arbetsmarknadspolitikens effekter. Studien bygger på sammanlagt 39 gruppintervjuer. En huvudslutsats är att det är svårt att beskriva de kommunala insatserna på ett entydigt vis. Gränserna mellan olika typer av insatser är oklara, och en och samma insats kan innebära olika saker i olika kommuner.   

This is a study about an activation scheme in a small Swedish municipality and the aim is to understand the scheme with a special focus on the participant’s description and experience. Theory on recognition and power are applied to analyze the empirical data. The scheme has had an intention to motivate and increase self-esteem among the participants that often have severe hindrance to enter the labour market. However the uneven power positions between staff and participants and the very fixed boundary that upholds the positions are forces that counteract the aim about motivating and increased self-esteem. This uneven power position is reinforced by the weak positions that unemployed have in the part of the labour market policy that is organized by the municipalities as well as in society from a broader point of view. The participants describes that they often doesn’t feel recognised as unique individuals that has the right both to be alike others as well as the right to differ from the norm about the “good citizen”. This report calls in to question if it is possible, in a context with very weak power positions for participants, to motivate and increase self-esteem among groups with high thresholds to enter the labour market.

Activation is crucial for beating unemployment for those with high thresholds for entering the labor market. The municipalities in Sweden have become an important factor in the activation. However, no formal argument or decisions were ever made to support the inclusion of municipalities in labor market policy. A government report was, however, compiled and sent to different stakeholders for comments. The present study is based on an analysis of the comments, here termed knowledge claims. The analysis shows that there is a low level of interest from different stakeholders except for the municipalities who are burdened with the cost of social assistance when the unemployed do not find work. The municipalities legitimize and reproduce a dual system for labor market policy. The Public Employment Service (PES) prioritizes unemployed persons who have unemployment insurance and a low threshold for entering the labor market, and the others are left to the municipalities to deal with.

There has been an increase in local activation programs for social assistance recipients in Swedish municipalities. The purpose with municipal activation programs is multi-fold, but one of the major objectives is to make social assistance recipients self-sufficient by reattaching them to the regular labour market. The policy rhetoric claims that the ultimate goal is to improve the social inclusion of social assistance recipients through regular employment. The approach to reach this goal is to expand employability, mobility, skills, and work experience by requiring participation in various activation measures. Approximately one out of ten unemployed in Sweden is referred to the municipalities’ social service. Immigrants who not yet have established them self on the labour market are over represented in this type of programs. 

Although, thousands of people as passing through these local programs it is still difficult to have a clear picture of this policy field. We do not know much about the implications of these programs as little systematic examinations have been conducted in this developing policy area. However, we do know that municipalities have a high degree of autonomy when organising local programs, which suggest that there is a large variation between municipalities in terms of program content and the quality of the programs.

This study highlights the situation for immigrants that participate in municipal activation programs. For example, if there are signs of discrimination of immigrants in the programs and whether these programs improve their possibilities to enter the labour market. The study has demonstrated that immigrants sometimes are offered somewhat different activation services compared to other participants. However, these differences are more significant between different municipalities than between immigrants and other participants. The study also finds that there is no empirical support that the programs are efficient in reducing unemployment among the participants. The activation programs seem to have other objectives as their primary goals. For example, to mobilise other authorities (e.g. the Public Employment Services) and to reduce municipal expenditures. The study also finds that social assistance recipients are activated in these programs based on a normative belief that they are better of if they are activated. Due to such observations, municipalities seem to have a limited interest to evaluate the activation programs.

This report concludes that the development of municipal activation programs is problematic as Swedish labour market policies are becoming decentralised and differentiated. Individuals that are established on the labour market are entitled unemployment insurance in case of unemployment. They are also more likely to be offered participation in governmental labour market programs delivered by the Public Employment Services. Those who are uninsured and have weak ties to the labour market, a group overrepresented by immigrants, are referred to a labour market policy system that is organised by the municipalities.

This article is based on an interview study with thirteen survivors of domestic violence and ten social workers within the social assistance system. This article aims to understand how applications for social assistance from survivors are handled between the discretionary powers of the social workers, the organization’s fixed categories and the survivors’ need for support. Theories of street-level bureaucracy and human service organizations was used in the analysis. The results show that social workers state that they treat survivors with respect and generosity. Survivors said they wanted to meet a committed social worker, which was not the case for many of the survivors interviewed. Categorizing the ‘right’ kind of survivor is of great significance for being eligible to social assistance.

This study investigates how formal equality is “done” in 48 individual action plans for social assistance. We use a street-level perspective to understand how policy is “done” to enhance equality for social assistance applicants. The analysis is based on the theory of street-level bureaucracy as well as on the concept of equality. Formal equality was inhibited by weak legal security, vague rights and duties, the inability to advocate for one’s own case, and difficulties with ambiguous and incomprehensible language in individual action plans. Establishing formal equality is made even more difficult because of the individual means testing used to determine social assistance. We argue that applicants of social assistance might experience inequality that is greater than the inequality they experienced before the implementation of their individual action plans, despite the intent of these plans to decrease inequality.

Våld i nära relationer är ett samhällsproblem som på senare år har fått alltmer uppmärksamhet, både inom forskning och bland professionella praktiker. I den här boken diskuteras mäns våld mot kvinnor i nära relationer, med fokus på handläggningen av ekonomiskt bistånd och ekonomiskt förtryck som ett uttryck för våldet.

Hur formuleras problemet på den politiska nivån? Hur tolkar och hanterar handläggare det i praktiken? Här möter vi våldsutsatta kvinnors erfarenheter av ekonomiskt förtryck och av att vara klienter i ett system som förväntas hjälpa dem ur det. Fram träder en bild där lagens intentioner och handläggares goda målsättningar ofta är svåra att uppnå i praktiken. Men vi ser också hur handläggare kan fungera som reellt stöd och hjälp åt våldsutsatta kvinnor i deras strävan efter att bli ekonomiskt självständiga och fria från mäns våld.

Boken riktar sig främst till yrkesverksamma handläggare inom ekonomiskt bistånd och våld i nära relationer – och andra professioner som möter problemet. Den vänder sig även till studerande på kurser inom socionomutbildningen eller kurser som inkluderar våld i nära relationer, handläggning av ekonomiskt bistånd och andra interventioner inom socialt arbete.

Being self-sufficient, having an economy of your own does not only safeguard basic resources as food and shelter but is also a prerequisite for ensuring full participation in society. Research shows that women subjected to domestic violence often suffer from economic abuse and experience economic hardship within and after their relationships. Without economic support it is harder for abused women to break up and the risk of returning to a violent partner increases. The aim of the article is to understand how survivors of domestic violence experience financial vulnerability and what implications these experiences have on social work within the social assistance system.  Based on 13 in depth interviews with women survivors our study describes how debts and stolen money together with difficulties on the labour market affects their ability to have a reasonable economic standard (long) after breaking up. Several of the women describe how social workers in different ways have recognised them by giving emotional support, cognitive respect and social esteem. However, social workers have also mimicked patterns of abuse from their ex-partners. Our results show the importance of welfare in the process of making victims of violence survivors of violence.

Amidst the deep and interrelated global crises in finance and employment, the Nordic countries might look like heaven on earth. They could be regarded as such not only by individuals who are particularly vulnerable to the risks sparked by such crises but also by those belonging to the middle class. As recently asserted, one would opt for a Nordic country ‘[i]f you had to be reborn anywhere in the world as a person with average talents and income’ (The Economist 2013). In Europe alone, the Nordic type comprehensive welfare state has apparently fared the best in coping with the international recession while securing its population against social risks (see European Commission 2013). Certainly, recent years have seen policy-makers across Europe embracing policies originating from the Nordic countries such as ‘flexicurity’ (Schmid & Schömann 1999), activation (Knijn 2012: 28), gender polices (Haas & Rostgaard 2011: 192), child investment through public provision of child care (Lister 2009) and so on.