I kapitlet ges en grundläggande ingång till kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Här beskrivs stegen i analysen på ett struktuerat sätt. Kapitlet innehåller också en granskning hur analysmetoden används i aktuella samhällsvetenskapliga doktorsavhandlingar. 

This article contributes to the understanding of how residents and social guides collaboratively navigate multiple forms of displacement within Municipal Service Centres (MSC) situated in marginalised communities in Sweden. Drawing on critical theories of the production space, the paper posits that social work can be understood as an emplacement practice in response to displacement from vital resources such as jobs, housing, and residence permits. The article identifies two pivotal emplacement practices operating at MSCs: reclaiming and enclosing. MSCs are perceived as institutional spaces that provide residents with agential power to navigate challenging realities, conditional welfare systems, and bordering practices. The study draws on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a specific MSC located in a marginalised community, along with interviews with 23 social guides and 6 managers in four other MSC within similar settings. Employing a relational ethnographic approach, the study observes face-to-face encounters, collaboration, and education between residents and social guides.

Swedish social services rest on strong institutional legitimacy, yet levels of trust in the organization and its professionals vary across different groups. Outreach social work targeting young people aims, in the spirit of prevention, to actively seek out and engage those who would not otherwise encounter social services –”the hard to reach”. While previous research has largely examined how low trust affects service users and those under investigation, far less attention has been paid to legitimacy–an issue that is crucial in outreach work, where social workers initiate contact. Because young people may view such approaches as intrusive or illegitimate, outreach workers must negotiate situational legitimacy to gain recognition and acceptance. This study draws on participant observations and interviews with outreach workers, young people, and unit managers to analyse the conditions that shape these legitimacy-building processes and how they are managed in practice. The findings show that outreach workers navigate multiple audiences: a primary audience–the youth themselves–and a secondary audience consisting of collaboration partners, policymakers, and other actors present in public settings. Another finding highlights how outreach workers negotiate contextually, shaped by time and place, seeking acceptance that grants them the mandate to pursue broader preventive goal, a process conceptualized in terms of situational legitimacy. 

Despite support from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), children’s actual influence on welfare policy remains inconsistent. This study investigates why children’s collective participation (CCP) failed in Swedish policy development for prevention, despite organisational openings, obligations, and opportunities. The policy development involved health care, social work, preschools, schools, and the police in an initiative inspired by the Scottish policy, “Getting it Right for Every Child” (GIRFEC). Through qualitative analysis of meeting observations, documents, and key informant interviews, we provide an empirical example of how child rights governance can manifest in complex welfare policy development efforts. We identify broadly applicable mechanisms at national, regional, and local levels that hinder CCP in such contexts. The conclusions focus on management approaches to address these mechanisms and anticipated challenges, based on a holistic understanding of child rights and critical reflection to effectively promote children’s rights and children’s collective participation. -

Sweden has long maintained one of the lowest rates of deadly violence globally, with 11 intentional deaths per million people in 2017 compared to a world average of 61. However, the past decade has seen a sharp rise in gun violence among criminal groups. Between 2011 and 2015, police in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö recorded 948 shootings—378 resulting in injury or death—and so-called near-repeat patterns significantly heightened risk of shootings in all cities. Effective crime prevention requires theory-driven, evidence-based interventions, as uninformed policies can lead to unintended harms. In recent years, Sweden’s escalating gun violence has prompted intense political pressure for decisive action. Policymakers have predominantly adopted suppression-first strategies emphasizing tougher penalties, expanded prisons, and stricter border controls, while preventive approaches remain limited. This shift represents a major departure from Sweden’s traditional welfare-oriented, knowledge-based criminal policy associated with Nordic exceptionalism. The result has been numerous legislative reforms and a potential increase in the national prison population, alongside growing social divisions.

This chapter examines Sweden’s transformation in criminal policy, exploring whether it constitutes a paradigmatic change or a layering of reforms. It also analyzes foreign policy influences and considers prospects for restoring evidence-based policymaking amid politicized debates.

This report combines a systematic literature review with an exploratory interview study to examine why the municipality of Jönköping, Sweden, experiences relatively low levels of gang-related firearm violence compared to other similarly sized cities. Conducted within a three-year municipal research initiative, the study supports ongoing local development efforts in four priority areas: Huskvarna Söder, Råslätt, Österängen, and Öxnehaga.

The literature review synthesizes current research on structural and social factors that influence gang formation and firearm violence, such as inequality, segregation, and collective identity formation through violence. Additionally, the review presents individual risk factors for gang involvement and gun violence. It also outlines evidence-based interventions—including group violence reduction strategies, public health approaches, and functional family therapy—that have demonstrated positive results internationally.

To complement these findings, six interviews were conducted with strategically selected stakeholders engaged in Jönköping’s crime prevention and youth collaboration efforts. Interviewees emphasized the importance of the municipality’s long-standing, trust-based collaborative frameworks and targeted support for at-risk youths. They also highlighted the role of a strong civil society and high community engagement as protective factors. Comparative data suggest that Jönköping’s relatively low levels of segregation and socioeconomic inequality further contribute to its resilience.

The report concludes by recommending future research into how local criminal ecosystems may influence gang dynamics and help stabilize levels of violence.

 Aims: Involvement in minor drug offences at an early age can be a signal of the onset of a potential drug issue. This is why Sweden has considered the criminalization of personal use as a strategy to deter the progression of drug use. This study investigated how the judiciary and social services succeed in identifying and providing support to adolescents convicted of drug offences. Methods: Characteristics of all 15–17-year-olds convicted of offences against the Act on Penal Law on Narcotics (drug offence) in 2017 were examined using Swedish longitudinal registry data (N = 1847). Furthermore, the decision process rendering different legal responses was examined by use of social services files for a subsample of 189 adolescents. Results: About two-thirds of the adolescents had their first conviction for the index offence and the majority received legal responses consisting of rehabilitative measures. Background factors indicated that those with severe drug and criminal issues encounter risk factors relating to their upbringing (e.g., neuropsychiatric disorders were notably more prevalent in this group than among similar peers). Around 61% of adolescents were reconvicted for new drug offences during the three-year study period, but with variations among subgroups. Younger boys who received rehabilitative measures had lower reconviction rates compared to those without. Conclusions: Addressing the underlying factors contributing to adolescent drug offences requires a multifaceted approach that prioritizes early intervention, personalized support, and collaboration across systems to promote positive outcomes and reduce recidivism rates.

The Wellbeing Wheel is a tool used for early detection, assessment, and planning around children. This study examines how this artefact has been translated from Scotland to Sweden and what that process involved in relation to transformation from the original ideas when travelling from one specific context to another. The analysis was based on three graphic wheels and their supporting documentation, interviews, and field notes. The results reveal great similarity in the overall ‘spirit’ of the work performed to introduce the Wellbeing Wheel to the Swedish context, but on several points significant differences can also be noted, with some content being removed or relocated, and new content being added. These changes were conscious and intentional in some instances, while others arose spontaneously and ad hoc during the development processes.

Outreach social work targeting young people has been conducted in Sweden since the 1950s, but its extent has varied significantly depending on the prevailing social policy ideas. Today, we observe a strong expansion, partly motivated by the need to develop preventive strategies against recruitment into gang criminality. The fundamental idea of outreach work is to reach individuals who do not themselves seek the support of social services through contact establishment and motivational work. However, it is not always clear which individuals or in which situations the detached practitioners have the legitimacy to approach the youth they wish to engage. Several factors influence how outreach workers seek out and establish contact with the target group. In this study, participant observations was used to understand what fieldwork entails in practice concerning the outreach and contact-establishing dimensions. It emerges that the location, time, and signals given by the youth themselves indicate how outreach practitioners should seek contact, and with whom. The overarching idea seems to be to establish "good meetings", which means that interactions with the youth proceed smoothly and that a meeting can be an investment that facilitates future contact attempts. This idea results in outreach workers striving to avoid confrontations and to be accepted as adults in an arena where young people are perceived to have significant influence over who is allowed in. The study highlights that the accessibility and receptivity of youth to interactions appear greater when they are in environments with already present adult supervision or control, such as youth centers or sports activities. It seems more challenging 

The mandatory reporting system of children at risk of harm is a cornerstone in the Swedish welfare state’s ability to identify, support, and protect children. This system continues to expand, involving an increasing number of children. This article maps the implications and processes involved in making the mandatory reporting system meaningful for identifying children at risk and enabling collaboration between the police and child welfare services. It does so in light of current political discussions and development efforts on early interventions and coordinated activities between welfare sectors. Drawing on interviews with 17 professionals from the police, child welfare services, and strategic positions involved in initiatives to enhance collaboration between welfare organizations, the article reveals that the mandatory reporting system is a double-edged sword. It is considered a necessary tool for safeguarding children in need and an important societal statement of children’s right to protection and support. At the same time, the system is perceived as a challenging entry point for the changing capacity of social work, creating ambiguities for professionals who find themselves navigating a system where it is nearly impossible to act correctly. Current development initiatives are intended to address the system’s flaws by creating an interface that promotes close collaboration between welfare sectors and facilitates earlier identification of children in need. However, these efforts introduce new challenges, particularly regarding what kind of worry police are supposed to report to child welfare services and the capacity of the mandatory reporting system.