Klientbemötande i socialt arbete : Metoder, tekniker och reflektioner kring makt som syns i de sju nyexaminerade socionomernas utsagor om klientarbete under den teoretiska och verksamhetsförlagda utbildningen

• Main Author: Kauppinen, Annastiina
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för kultur och lärande 2014
• Subjects: social work; social worker; client; power; method; techniques; paternalism
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-24141

The aim of this study is to increase knowledge about how a group of newly graduated social workers reflect on the practical daily work and their positions working with clients who are in need of social and/or economic resources. More precisely the purpose is to find out how these seven newly graduated social workers viewed working with clients during theoretical and practical studies. The aim is to analyze which techniques and methods could be seen in these narratives. Furthermore the aim was to find out if and how these seven social workers reflected on the power relation between social worker and client. The material of this study consists of seven semi-structured interviews. Throughout gathering the data and analyzing it, the qualitative method in form of narrative approach was used. Theoretical tools used in both creating the theoretical perspective and analyzing the data material consisted of social constructionism and main theoretical concepts of Bauman’s stranger, Foucault’s concept of power and discipline and Reamer’s paternalism. Results and analysis of data material showed how methods and techniques in social work are used when working with a client, maintaining an unbalanced power relation between social worker and client, for example in the form of creating alliances of social workers, use of language and categorizing the clients. The power relation was directly considered and reflected on by three of seven interviewed social workers. However, it was apparent that many of those interviewed reflected indirectly on the role of power in social workers’ daily work with clients.