Att börja tala med barn om pappas våld mot mamma : Radikalt lärande i arbetet med vårdnad, boende och umgänge

• Main Author: Dahlkild-Öhman, Gunilla
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Sociologiska institutionen 2011
• Subjects: Family law; custody and contact assessments; children's participation; collective learning; work group; children witnessing domestic violence; social work; age order; gender order; gender violence discourse; discursive opportunity structure; radical learning; performance team; community of practice; stages of change
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-159298; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:978-91-554-8174-2

This thesis explores the scope for children’s voices offered to children in court mandated investigations regarding custody, residence or contact. The focus is on children who have been exposed to their father’s violence against their mother The aim is to study how the legislators’ intentions concerning children’s participation in this area are implemented in work groups. The assumption is that implementation can be seen as collective learning. Implementation may in this case challenge established relations of power like age and gender orders. Professional discourses on violence have to shift from gender neutral to gendered discourses and discourses on children have to include a participation discourse. Learning which includes a shift in discourses and challenges established power relations is defined as radical learning.The approach is social constructionist and draws on group interviews with social workers specialized in family law.The thesis analyses which discourses of violence and of children are accessible and used at group level. This can be seen as a discursive opportunity structure. The discourses in question are: gender violence, child protection, treatment and family law discourses as well as care and participation discourses. The conclusion is that all these discourses are accessible to the professionals and the effects of the different discourses are discussed regarding the possibilities for creating a safe situation for mother and child during the investigation.The thesis furthermore analyses the organisation of the work groups. These characteristics can be seen as an organisational opportunity structure. The analysis shows different patterns in the groups when it comes to structure and stage of learning process. One group seems to be at the stage where the members are prepared to start talking to the child about the father’s violence.The final chapter presents a discussion of radical learning and the possibilities for radical social change when established power relations are challenged.