Leva som man lär? : En studie av spänningsfältet mellan genusvetande och genusgörande

Practice as you preach? Gender scholars’ reflections on practising gender theory Being a gender scholar – to what extent is it possible to practice as you preach? This study investigates how gender scholars relate to using and practicing theoretical knowledge on gender.Ten in-depth interviews are conducted with gender scholars at Swedish universities. A semi-structured interview guide, based on ambitions, possibilities and obstacles regarding using theoretical knowledge in practice, is used. The results indicate that being a gender scholar is a highly reflective project, since it involves turning your gender theoretical gaze towards yourself. Practicing as you preach seems to be interpreted as undoing gender. Attempts to undo gender are said to be hindered by gender normative structures rendering gender scholar women and gender scholar men different possibilities to practice the undoing of gender. The analysis show that gender scholars perform a balancing act by adding some expressions for the opposite gender to their everyday doings and their physical appearance, thus combining a doing with an undoing of gender. The pace and force of change in these doings and undoings are rather small. Nevertheless, small as they may be, these steps are interpreted as part of a strategy to change gender normative structures, making possible yet other and freer gender performances.

Om kategorisering og symbolskmagtudøvelse i det sociale arbejde : Myten om de ressourcestærke forældre til børn medneuro-psykiatriske diagnoser

On categorization and symbolic power in social work: The myth of the resourceful parents to children with neuro-psychiatric diagnoses Social workers often use the term resourceful about a certain group of parents to children with neuro-psychiatric diagnoses, e.g. autism spectrum disorder and ADHD. This paper discusses the consequences of this sort of stereotyping/categorization with particular regard to the collaboration between these parents and the social workers as they meet in the social services system, when the parents apply for help for their children. Drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu, it is suggested that the categorization resourceful is not only overly simplistic and a myth, but is straight out misguiding and complicates the interaction – in fact it represents an act of symbolic power. Based upon a six months long sociological field-work study it is shown, that even though social workers seem to acknowledge the difficult and grueling life-situation of the parents, they are first and foremost perceived as resourceful and knowledgeable but hence also as annoying, insufferable, demanding and basically unjustified, even though they have obvious legal rights. Parents and social workers alike described the collaboration as being conflictual and a struggle and the complex power-relations are discussed in the light of Bourdieu.

Carers in the welfare state : on informal care and support for carers in Sweden

  The general aim of this dissertation is to describe and analyse patterns of informal care and support for carers in Sweden. One specific aim is to study patterns of informal care from a broad population perspective in terms of types of care and types of carer. A typology of four different care categories based on what carers do revealed that women were much more likely than men to be involved at the ‘heavy end’ of caring, i.e. providing personal care in combination with a variety of other caring tasks. Men were more likely than women to provide some kind of practical help (Study I). Another aim is to investigate which support services are received by which types of informal caregiver. Relatively few informal caregivers in any care category were found to be receiving any kind of support from municipalities or voluntary organizations, for example training or financial assistance (Study II). The same study also examines which kinds of help care recipients receive in addition to that provided by informal carers. It appears that people in receipt of personal care from an informal caregiver quite often also receive help from the public care system, in this case mostly municipal services. However, the majority of those receiving personal, informal care did not receive any help from the public care system or from voluntary organizations or for-profit agencies (Study II). The empirical material in studies I and II comprises survey data from telephone interviews with a random sample of residents in the County of Stockholm aged between 18 and 84. In a number of countries there is a growing interest among social scientists and social policymakers in examining the types of support services that might be needed by people who provide informal care for older people and others. A further aim of the present dissertation is therefore to describe and analyse the carer support that is provided by municipalities and voluntary organizations in Sweden. The dissertation examines whether this support is aimed directly or indirectly at caregivers and discusses whether the Swedish government’s special financial investment in help for carers actually led to any changes in the support provided by municipalities and voluntary organisations. The main types of carer support offered by the municipalities were payment for care-giving, relief services and day care. The chief forms of carer support provided by the voluntary organizations were support groups, training groups, and a number of services aimed primarily at the elderly care recipients (Study III). Patterns of change in municipal carer support could be discerned fairly soon. The Swedish government’s special allocation to municipalities and voluntary organisations appears to have led to an increase in the number of municipalities providing direct support for carers, such as training, information material and professional caregiver consultants. On the other hand, only minor changes could be discerned in the pattern of carer support services provided by the voluntary organizations. This demonstrates stability and the relatively low impact that policy initiatives seem to have on voluntary organizations as providers (Study IV). In studies III and IV the empirical material consists of survey data from mail questionnaires sent to municipalities and voluntary organizations in the County of Stockholm. In the fields of social planning and social work there appears to be a need to clarify the aims of support services for informal carers. Should the support be direct or indirect? Should it be used to supplement or substitute caregivers? In this process of reappraisal it will be important to take the needs of both caregivers and care recipients into account when developing existing and new forms of support. How informal caregivers and care recipients interact with the care system as a whole is undeniably a fertile field for further research.