JCSW publishes articles on subjects of importance for social work with a special emphasis on comparative research.
University of Stavanger, Department of Social Studies
Copyright (c) 2025 Janestic Mwende Twikirize, Ayan Handulle, Ann Christin E. Nilsen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Dorte Caswell, Heidi Moen Gjersøe, Sara Hultqvist, Siv Oltedal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Intersections between Ubuntu and Social Work in Humanitarian Settings in Uganda
Understanding the context and complexities of humanitarian settings and the intersections between Ubuntu and social work is crucial, yet it has not received considerable attention in Africa. With the increasing number of refugees in African countries such as Uganda, it is imperative to examine how Ubuntu manifests itself in humanitarian responses, and how it shapes social work interventions in these contexts. This paper investigates the interface between Ubuntu and social work values, focusing on how this influences the reception of refugees and their interactions with authorities, service providers and host communities. It further explores how Ubuntu and social work intersect to help facilitate the social integration of refugees into host communities, particularly in protracted refugee situations. The study employs a qualitative approach, integrating a desk review of 60 scholarly publications and primary data from semi-structured interviews with refugees and key informants. Using an intersectional lens, we analyse how Ubuntu is understood and practiced, and how it mutually influences social work values in humanitarian settings. Findings reveal that Ubuntu fosters collective responsibility, shared humanity and solidarity, which aligns with social work values of empathy and mutual respect, facilitating the integration of refugees into host communities. However, certain aspects of Ubuntu, such as communal decision-making, may conflict with social work’s emphasis on individual agency and self-determination. By situating the discussion within the framework of decoloniality, the study highlights how the cultural resources embedded in Ubuntu can contribute to the indigenization and decolonization of social work practices, while critically examining aspects of Ubuntu that may conflict with social work values, such as self-determination and individual agency, emphasizing the need for cautious engagement with these tensions.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lambert Buzaare, Martha Nababi, James Thomas Ssenfuuma, Paul Bukuluki, PhD https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Special Issue: What is going on? Digitalization in social work
Copyright (c) 2024 Tea Torbenfeldt Bengtsson, Heidi Esma Dahl Bønnhoff https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
A chief editorial within a special issue of JCSW
Copyright (c) 2024 Siv Oltedal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The Role of Social Work in Empowering People Living with HIV (PLHIV) for Poverty Alleviation in the Huye District in Rwanda
People in need (PIN), such as people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV), are often discriminated against, isolated and disempowered. Consequently, it is not always easy for them to fight for their survival. However, the literature has shown that once empowered, PLHIV manage to cope with social problems, particularly poverty and its ramifications. This study aimed to examine and show how social work, as an empowering profession, has the potential to contribute to the mitigation of adversities, particularly poverty, that hinder the betterment of the lives of PIN. In particular, this study examined the phenomenon of social work indigenisation as a means of re-invigorating practice approaches by drawing on the case of Rwanda. This study is based on data collected in the Huye District for my PhD research project, which was completed in January 2023. The research adopted an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, with great privilege given to the participatory action research (PAR) methodology. The research results showed that social workers are key catalysts, and are well positioned to empower PIN. For effective success, it is essential that they work with intermediary social work actors (ISWAs), and use mostly developmental approaches that should integrate indigenous practices. Ultimately, the findings of this study provide evidence that PAR is beneficial to the bridging role of ISWAs in the problem-solving process, and thus may be recommended to be adopted for adequately mitigating poverty.
Copyright (c) 2025 Charles Kalinganire https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Engaged Scholarship through Community Social Labs
The indigenisation of social work education in Africa is a response to the limitations of Western-centric approaches to addressing complex local social issues. This paper explores the role of engaged scholarship and community social labs in indigenising social work education in Uganda. The study analyses data from four focus group discussions, and student WhatsApp conversations, to examine how these approaches facilitate meaningful community engagement and the integration of local knowledge into the social work curriculum. The results show that community social labs can help with cultural sensitivity and problem-solving that is relevant to the situation. They also demonstrate that institutional constraints and power dynamics may hinder this transition. Despite these issues, the study suggests that engaged scholarship through community social labs has significant potential to make social work education and practice in Uganda more culturally sensitive and responsive to local realities. Even with these challenges, the study suggests that engaging scholars in community social labs has a lot of potential to make social work education and practice in Uganda more sensitive to local cultures and needs.
Copyright (c) 2025 Timothy Opobo, Jannette Abalo, Agatha Kafuko, Janestic M. Twikirize, Eric Ocen Awich, Firminus Mugumya https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Navigating Tensions between Indigenous Norms and International Frameworks Protecting Women from Gender-Based Violence in Tanzania
Gender-Based Violence (GBV) remains a significant health and social issue in Tanzania and Africa at large. Most GBV reduction interventions often concentrate on mitigating harmful cultural practices perpetuating it, therefore failing to identify and integrate aspects of the indigenous norms perceived to be protective to women against GBV. Thus, adopting qualitative approaches and cross-sectional design, this article: (i) explores norms considered protective to women against GBV in studied communities and the attached values; (ii) identifies and presents the tensions that emerge in the application of such norms when viewed through the analytical lens of the conventional frameworks that protect human and women rights and freedom against discrimination and abuse; and (iii) highlight potentials for the integration of these norms into social work practice to promote culturally sensitive interventions. Findings indicate varied views regarding GBV prevalence and magnitude. They also confirm the presence of deep-seated beliefs among the community members regarding the existence of some cultural norms that they perceived to be protective of women from GBV. Irrespective of this reality, findings also show tensions and clashes between some aspects of norms and human rights conventional frameworks and social work ethics on diversity and inclusion. Mindful of the importance of the integration of contextually relevant and culturally appropriate knowledge into social work, the study establishes the need for social workers to adopt a culturally sensitive and reflective mindset when designing gender-based interventions by sorting out what norms can be kept and what can be discarded.
Copyright (c) 2025 Zena Mnasi Mabeyo, Joyce Nyoni, Deman Yusuf, William Manyama https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Citizens’ experiences of enablers and barriers to obtaining digital citizenship
This article focuses on citizens’ experiences of enablers of- and barriers to obtaining digital citizenship. E-applications for social assistance are used as an exemplar. In Sweden, as in many countries, there is political pressure on welfare services to become more digitalized, and to offer different kinds of self-service technology such as e-applications. Even if the goals of implementing these technologies are to increase efficiency and transparency and offer faster services to citizens, there is a risk of expanding the ‘digital divide’. and making it more difficult to obtain one’s digital citizenship and gain access to social rights. This article draws on a qualitative interview study. and explores citizens’ experiences using e-applications in two Swedish municipal social assistance agencies. Results show that most citizens had positive experiences applying for social assistance online, but there were some potential barriers. There were also differences in experiences in the two municipal social assistance agencies. We discuss how the increased digitalization of welfare services seems to push towards a blend of digital and social rights. In this process, social workers play an important role in countering new types of inequalities that emerge in evolving social assistance organizations. The article identifies several areas that merit further research.
Copyright (c) 2024 Gabriella Scaramuzzino, Kettil Nordesjö, Rickard Ulmestig https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Self-care and Productive Ageing Practices among Rural Pensioned Retired Primary School Teachers in Tanzania
Productive ageing as a global agenda and initiative aims to improve the productivity of the older population, evidenced to be gradually increasing and living longer. Older people are a significant resource in most African communities. Understanding their productive ageing practices and experiences in their localities informs social work practitioners on how they can promote and support productivity for other older people in their respective communities. This study conducted in Iringa, Tanzania explored two questions: (i) What practices do retired primary school teachers engage in to achieve productive ageing in their local communities? (ii) In what ways can social work practitioners integrate the practices of productive ageing towards enhancing the well-being of older people in their communities? We applied a case study design that involved 14 purposively selected participants, with data gathered through interviews and thematically analysed. The findings reveal that older people actively engage in several practices and activities that nurture their productive ageing, while empowering them to be relevant and providing support within their local communities. Self-care practices revealed include proper hygiene, diet and exercise engagement. Furthermore, the types of socio-economic activities and participation that include farming, livestock keeping, self-help groups and community shared events are shaped and influenced by cultural factors, community values, individual preferences, the abilities of older people and the availability of resources at their disposal. The productive ageing practices and engagements are practical and relevant to rural contexts. Despite commonalities in some aspects of productive ageing informed by international literature, this study reveals distinct variations in activities and other dimensions of productive ageing, such as self-care. Consequently, this study highlights the necessity for upholding and encouraging local and context-based productive ageing practices that have proven to be beneficial, practical, relevant and responsive to local realities.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rukia Mwinyi, Julius Omona, Zena Mabeyo, Heidi Esma Dahl Bønnhoff https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Economic Participation among Older People
Economic participation studies often emphasize challenges of accessing and engaging in formal employment after retirement. However, they tend to overlook personal factors, traditional values, and culturally specific elements in rural settings that influence participation in informal work. This study explored the factors that influence older people’s participation in handcraft activities in the Masasi District in Tanzania. It provides a deeper insight into their continued engagement, and highlights its implications for social work practice. This study explored the factors that influence the participation of older people in handcraft activities to provide a deeper insight into their continued engagement and its implications on social work practice. A phenomenology method was used, and in-depth interviews were employed to collect data from purposively sampled older people working in handcraft through the lens of decolonial theory. The analysis revealed that older people’s participation in handcraft activities was triggered by poor living conditions, the need for income to meet essential needs, a lack of formal and inadequate informal support, parenting and grand-parenting obligations, as well as the desire to maintain personal agency and avoid dependence syndrome. The findings suggest that the traditional role of extended family and community, as a pillar of care and protection of older people, should be enhanced to improve their working lives and well- being. Older people working in handcraft activities should be empowered in their socio- economic issues to improve their working and quality of life in rural communities. Collaboration between social workers and the community at the grassroots level is crucial, and social work knowledge and practice that reflect and promote indigenous knowledge and practices should be developed and adopted.
Copyright (c) 2025 Catherine Aquiline Manda, Narathius Asingwire, David Mafigiri, Randi Kroken, Joyce Nyoni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Bildung, capabilities, human freedom and human flourishing
There is international interest in approaches to social work focussing on human development and service users’ real freedoms to act. One such example, established in social work, is the capabilities approach. This paper introduces a related, but internationally less well-known concept from German-language philosophy of education discourses, Bildung. It argues that Bildung represents a valuable additional framework for understanding social work in terms of human growth and human flourishing. The concept of Bildung has taken many forms. The term’s changing notions are sketched, starting from its late enlightenment-period origins. Two particular variants are highlighted: the original 18th-century Bildung, which focussed on helping the individual reach a state of agency and Mündigkeit (maturity), a late 20th-century critical theory-influenced Bildung, which focussed on the relationship between the growth of the individual and the society of which they are part. A brief consideration of the capabilities approach provides a context for this discussion of Bildung, with parallels to the capabilities approach noted in the course of outlining Bildung theories. It is suggested that due to their shared tenets, both variants of Bildung can be seen a single concept, one with a strong conceptual closeness to the capabilities approach. When applied to social work, Bildung suggests a shift away from thinking about the person in terms of utilities and outcomes, towards instead an understanding of a person’s humanness in their freedom to choose their own path and become the author of their own life. To conclude, consequences for a Bildung-informed social work are considered. Four are highlighted: the role of the social worker stimulating the service user’s dispositions in the context of their social environment; shifting to a relationship-oriented practice, centring on direct work; utilizing community settings in practice and the importance of refraining from using guidance, persuasion and coercion.
Copyright (c) 2024 Magnus Frampton, Günter J. Friesenhahn, Jonathan Parker https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Iterations of work inclusion beyond the standard service
Employment services are repeatedly criticised for building barriers to service user participation and decent employment due to combinations of conditionality, bureaucratic logics, high caseloads and scarce resources. However, a range of newer service approaches recognise some of these shortcomings, and aim for personalisation, service coordination, and/or increased connection to employers. In this article, we compare four programmes and their key worker roles, implemented in Norwegian postreform welfare and employment services (NAV) in the 2010s, as iterations of work inclusion beyond the standard follow-up service. These approaches are sensitive to gaps in the current service system, and they invest in the relationship between the professional worker and the service user, working both within and beyond social work approaches. Situated in the broader research literature on activation, personalisation and street-level organisations, we provide an analysis of how these approaches go beyond “business as usual” through strengthened key worker roles. We argue that the relational work approach adopted in these measures has the potential to foster the participation of service users, and to smoothen and sometimes tone down the conditional aspects of services, but that different organisational demands and accountability mechanisms produce a different space of action for key workers and users to shape the path towards labour and social inclusion.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kjetil G. Lundberg, Suzan M. Skjold, Arnhild Melve, Astrid O. Sundsbø https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Political Contestations, Human Rights Violations and the Human Victims in Uganda
In Uganda, the social work profession was introduced by the British colonial government, and therefore activated as a tool of colonial state control. Consequently, the profession adopted Western philosophies with a disregard for indigenous social support philosophies. It used a non-political stance to counter political dissent, resistance and activism against the colonial administration. In the decades that have followed, the profession’s invisibility in politics and activism has undermined its critical contribution to challenging injustice in social policy and society. In this article, we challenge this apolitical epistemology of social work in Uganda rooted in the profession’s colonial past, the country’s violent political history and contemporary neoliberal economic choices. We use a case analysis of the political contestations, human rights violations and human victims in the 2021 presidential elections in Uganda. We conducted a thematic analysis of data sourced from both print and electronic media, election observer reports and human rights reports. From this analysis, we argue that Uganda’s political contestations produce widespread state- and non-state-driven human rights violations. We articulate that the resultant countless human victims can no longer be ignored, and should compel social work as a profession that seeks to promote social justice into action. From a decolonial standpoint, we stress that social work’s continued inaction cannot safeguard the profession’s social justice mission amidst Uganda’s political contestations. Since the outcomes of these political contestations profoundly impact social justice, human rights and the well-being of the majority of the communities, we argue that the social work profession in Uganda must galvanise the commitment to engage in the politics of the day vigorously and publicly. We conclude by making calls for social work actions that utilise indigenous pathways in building a credible political leadership that safeguards the rights and wellness of society.
Copyright (c) 2025 Venesio Bwambale Bhangyi, Mette Rømer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Modern welfare agencies are increasingly offering clients digital tools in their service delivery. Since young people are prolific users of digital technology, this trend should be to their advantage. However, the quantitative study presented in this article investigates how citizens under the age of 30 use public digital services, compared to those over 30. The study found that clients were less active than older clients in using a digital plan while receiving support from the government. Accordingly, they may be less able to receive help from public agencies when it is offered digitally. Yet, the choices made by caseworkers in how they prioritized clients for more personal support may have reduced the risk of this disadvantage.
Copyright (c) 2024 Karl Kristian Larsson, Marit Haldar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
It is an intrinsic feature of many public agencies that they are dependent on street-level bureaucrats making important decisions regarding their clients. While some have claimed that such decisions are in danger of being corrupted by the bureaucrats’ discretionary powers, Lipsky argued that this discretion was necessary for the proper implication of social policy. However, the digitalization of government has altered the way in which many public servants reach their decisions. For instance, Bovens and Zouridis have argued that digitalization limits or removes bureaucrats’ processional discretion when making decisions, which can have a negative effect on public services. While decisions are singular events, the process of reaching them is complex and drawn out over time. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explore the process of decision-making in a public service context, and how digitalization has impacted caseworker discretion. The context of this study is the Norwegian child welfare service, where we have conducted focus group interviews with 26 caseworkers. Our analyses of the decision-making process uncovered several points in which digitalization has increased the need for caseworker discretion, i.e., an increased availability of caseworkers, information gathering and the admissibility of private information online. Our study demonstrates how even though digital technology such as social media presents new opportunities for information gathering, it also poses a danger for the creation of discriminatory practices toward citizens that could negatively affect the quality of service provision. Furthermore, conceptually deconstructing the decision-making process was beneficial to understanding how digitalization impacts different aspects of the case-handling process.
Copyright (c) 2024 Minela Kvakic, Karl Kristian Larsson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
This article is about meetings between frontline workers in the Norwegian labour and welfare administration (NAV), and young people outside work or school - NEETs. This group often has few or no financial rights beyond financial social assistance, which is granted from the social services in NAV. One of NAV's intentions is to ensure a work-oriented focus and comprehensive follow-up across various benefits. Based on a qualitative study in five NAV offices, the article investigates how organizational measures, in this case the specialization of work tasks, which seeks to put work-oriented aspects in the foreground of service provision, and separate it from traditional casework on benefit decisions. The study consists of 14 observations of conversations between frontline workers and young social assistance recipients. Additionally, five focus group interviews were conducted with the frontline workers. The findings suggest that the frontline workers' follow-up appears fragmented, so that these young people can end up with up to three frontline workers at the same time, who are respectively responsible for finances, work and follow-up. This specialization can have implications for the quality of the service provision, and it seems that the nature and dynamics of social problems are not taken into account.
Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration
Copyright (c) 2025 Michaela Nilsen, Heidi Moen Gjersøe, Lise Cecilie Kleppe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The aim of this article is to understand how a group of subsidised employees constructed a collective identity and symbolic community, and the role the municipal labour market programme played in that process. Further, it explores whether and how a shared collective identity and symbolic community may provide an explanation for how the ‘successful intervention/lock-in effect paradox’ occurs when using subsidised employment as an activation intervention. The article is based on a qualitative interview study with eight social workers and 11 subsidised employees from a Swedish municipal labour market programme that offered subsidised employment as its main intervention. The interviews were analysed using the concepts of social identity and symbolic community. The article shows that subsidised employment plays a crucial role in subsidised employees constructing their identity as ‘persons with a job’, as distinct from the activation interventions usually associated with social assistance. The labour market programme serves as a transformative space where receiving a salary becomes a symbol of distinction, marking a significant departure from past experiences of receiving social assistance. The article also highlights the role of social workers in subsidised employees’ identity processes. The social workers perceived the subsidised employees as participants with special needs, and subsidised employment as an intervention which could influence the planning and support provided during the subsidised employment. The collective identity developed by the participants fostered a sense of community, but also led to reluctance to leave the programme, driven by the fear of reverting to social assistance, and once again being excluded from the labour market. The article concludes that the subsidised employees risked getting stuck in a borderland between work exclusion and work inclusion and, therefore, that subsidised employment can potentially place participants in a state of ‘marginalised inclusion’ in the labour market, instead of supporting participants into regular employment.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ellen Parsland, Gabriella Scaramuzzino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Professional work in the balance between care and control
Copyright (c) 2023 Aleksandar Bozic, Siv Oltedal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Ethical considerations in research when building predictive risk modelling in child and family welfare
This article presents and discusses ethical issues and implications in research when building a predictive risk model for potential use in Danish child and family welfare. The idea is to build a predictive risk model in order to study whether such a model can be valuable to child and family welfare services in the assessment of risk – aimed specifically at the decision-making process regarding notifications. Based on a framework developed especially for this field, we present and discuss ethical considerations, reflections and actions in relation to four main ethical principles: non-maleficence, autonomy, justice and explicability. We hope that our reflections on these ethical challenges can inspire research – and potentially also the field of practice when taking a deep dive into the difficult field of digitalization in social work.
Copyright (c) 2024 Anne Marie Villumsen, Michael Rosholm, Simon Tranberg Bodilsen, Sanne Dalgaard Toft, Line Svolgaard Berg, Liesanth Yde Nirmalarajan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Experiences of child sexual abuse survivors with formal child protection systems
Preventing abuse in childhood and providing services to the victims requires a comprehensive child protection framework. Even when the government of Uganda has made deliberate efforts to facilitate protection of children, research shows that their efforts have largely been inadequate. Adopting an indigenous perspective that centers the structural inequalities that inform social relationships in families, communities and the society rather than the individual is paramount. Thus, this study examined how indigenous child protection systems can be integrated to complement formal approaches in responding to child sexual abuse. This article presents experiences of five adult women from Luuka district, Uganda who experienced rape during their childhood. Narrative inquiry was used to explore survivors’ experiences. This information was complemented by information from social workers who were purposively selected and interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the findings and four major themes relating to survivors’ experiences emerged from this study. Survivors reported challenges with investigations, access to justice, lack of protective shelter and challenges in accessing medical services. In addition to formal child protection systems, survivors utilised services from indigenous child protection systems which included; Local Council 1, community volunteers, social groups and savings groups. Indigenous practices based on mutual aid and community organising addressed broader welfare needs of survivors, including enabling them to access education, linkage to services and access to shelter. The social support provided through indigenous models involved multiple social welfare functions, and addressed different child protection needs. However, poverty at the household and community level limits the scalability of such approaches. Accessing formal child protection services was found to be costly for the survivors. The Informal Child Protection System is more accessible, offers comprehensive services and demonstrates to buffer the formal systems.
Copyright (c) 2025 Florence Turyomurugyendo, Eddy J. Walakira, Cecilie Revheim, Janestic M. Twikirize https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
In the dominant debate, dialogue and literature, there is an assumption that Africa had no form of social work before colonisation. In this article, we deal with the historical question pertaining to the existence of social work in Africa, and deconstruct the term ‘social work’, its origin and meaning in an African context. We employ an autoethnographic approach to describe the knowledge and skills known as social work in African communities using Indigenous Knowledge. We conclude that the Western epistemological paradigm facilitated the idea that social work was non-existent in the pre-colonial era, which distorted and distracted knowledge and skills construction in post-modernism theory and practice
Copyright (c) 2025 Zibonele Zimba, Nolwazi Shongwe, Sinenhlanhla Nyoni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Ubuntu is an indigenous African philosophy that promotes collectivism, solidarity and mutual interdependence as being vital for the majority welfare. In this paper, it is used to discuss the findings from a qualitative study of how older people living with HIV (OPLHIV) in Korogwe, Tanzania use help groups for informal social support, to battle their daily challenges as a result of HIV and ageing in a rural context. Interviews with 13 OPLHIV showed that there are voluntarily formed groups and arranged groups. We find that voluntarily organised groups seem to build on, and benefit from Ubuntu values. The study further showed that Ubuntu values in group organisation are currently challenged by donor dependency, heterogeneity and poverty in local communities. Social work practice is recommended to acknowledge the strength of Ubuntu to support already existing initiatives in the field, but also to recognise the factors that challenge it.
Copyright (c) 2025 Abigail Kiwelu, Tale Steen-Johnsen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
‘I hope the doctor will send something black-or-white’.
The provision of public employment services to people in vulnerable life circumstances is notoriously filled with complexity and dilemmas. Not only are there multiple potential solutions to a given problem, but the very definition of the problem itself, ‘what it is all about’, is subject to interpretation and discretion. Faced with such intricacies, employment service professionals need to engage in critical reflections. Despite this recognised need, little is known about the actual processes involved in professional reflections. The aim of this article is to contribute empirically to our understanding of how professionals engage in collective reflections, specifically zooming in on the logics and reasonings behind these reflections. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Danish employment service organisations, the research shows that professional reflections tend to be more instrumental than critical, and more focused on certainty and what to do, than on understanding dilemmas and bringing in new perspectives on problems. Following the perspective of reparative critique, the analysis explores avenues for fostering more critical reflections within the context of public employment service. The findings bear implications for understanding the institutional and organisational embeddedness of professional reflective practices within welfare work, particularly in the realm of public work inclusion services.
Copyright (c) 2025 Leif Tøfting Kongsgaard https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Unemployment among young people is a large and multifaceted theme in contemporary social work research in the Nordic countries, with investing in youth being a top political priority. Social work has a pivotal role in the provision of employment services, particularly for young people in disadvantageous situations. We argue that the political understanding of unemployment as a social problem, and work inclusion as the solution effectuated through universalised employment support for young people, do not always correspond to social workers’ experiences and understandings of work and inclusion. This is particularly evident in postcolonial contexts, where identity politics interfere with policies of employment support, and power asymmetries between Nordic countries become visible. We suggest that culture as complex forms of local knowledge continuously negotiated and transformed by multiple actors, is a key factor for the constitution and resolution of unemployment as a social problem. Drawing on two ethnographic cases from Greenland and the Faroe Islands, we investigate how tensions between local knowledge and governance is played out in social work on young unemployment. We show how social workers insist on unemployment as social problems that need to be solved in tensions between belonging and uprooting, traditional and modern forms of life, and through postcolonial conflicts. Addressing challenges of employment support and work inclusion in areas in the Nordic region, which have been paid less attention to in research, is of crucial importance to make improvements
Copyright (c) 2025 Anne Birgitte Leseth, Firouz Gaini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Despite being the subject of numerous research, professional identity in social work remains an important yet contentious concept. The aim of this article is to contribute to the literature on professional identity in social work by reflecting on the mutual development of the personal and professional identities of social workers in Ghana. Interviews were conducted among 20 social workers in two regions of Ghana, the northern and central regions. The evidence shows that the identity of social workers is shaped by two major factors – the statutory legal regime in which they operate, and the professional principles they apply in their work. Understood within the frame of social identity theory, the narratives of the social workers indicate how identifying with the professional group bestows distinctiveness and a change in personal identity. This change is reflected in their attitudes and value judgements of previously taken-for-granted socio-cultural practices. But while they firmly identify with the state and the professional principles, the social workers actively attempt to build local authenticity into their professional practices.
Copyright (c) 2023 Jovia Salifu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Work Hazards and Social Class among ‘successful’ ALMP-Participants in Norway
Background and research question. Studies of the outcomes of participation in Active Labour Market Programmes (ALMP) focus primarily on employment status or earnings. Few studies address the social class and work environment that “successful” ALMP-participants transit to. Little is also known about whether participation in different types of ALMPs leads to different social classes and work environments. This is unfortunate since many ALMP participants have health challenges and reduced work ability and thus are particularly susceptible to poor working conditions. Data and methods: Using Norwegian register data, we examined social class and exposure to hazardous working conditions, measured by a Mechanical Job Exposure Matrix and a Psychosocial Job Exposure Matrix, that characterised the jobs of “successful” ALMP participants, compared with the general work force. Results: We found that both mechanical and psychosocial job exposures in male ALMP-participants were higher than those of the general work force. For female participants, mechanical exposures were higher than the average level in the general work force, while psychosocial exposures were lower. Further, job exposures differed by ALMP type, but after adjustment for age, education and social class, only negligible differences in job exposures between ALMP types remained. Social class contributed to variation in both mechanical and psychosocial job exposures, most for mechanical exposures among male participants, and least for psychosocial exposures among female participants. Conclusion: Compared with the general working population, former ALMP participants, regardless of what type of programmes they participated in, entered lower social classes and tended to face more hazardous work environment.
Copyright (c) 2025 Espen Dahl, Kjetil A. van der Wel, Åsmund Hermansen, Magne Bråthen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
This article deals with issues of work inclusion, with a particular focus on the user’s perspective on work, and the work inclusion policy in Norway. An expanded concept of work is applied, which includes all human activities that contribute social value to society, and not only paid work. However, work is typically seen as activities that are valued in society. One consequence of this is that some activities are hidden and devalued as work, although they contribute socially valuable means. This is the case for a range of activities performed by clients in the welfare state who contribute to fulfilling the objectives of welfare policy. The article argues that the user’s perspective is important to understand how work inclusion comprises several activities that can be seen as work. Based on data from 14 in-depth interviews with young adults currently outside the labour market due to health problems, the study elucidates how being ill and part of work inclusion programmes are not a passive existence, but rather demanding work. The overarching question addresses how the young adults perceive their situation. They wanted to enter working life, in line with hegemonic norms, but health challenges meant that they did not always succeed. Mental and physical health problems affected their everyday lives in many ways. Pain, anxiety and fatigue made their days variable and unpredictable, and limited their level of activity and pace, both in daily chores and due to work inclusion. The article discusses some implications for policy-making, as well as for social work in the front line of the welfare state. Key factors involve the need for time, understanding and counselling to establish tasks and a workload that are sustainable over time.
Copyright (c) 2025 Aud Kirsten A. Innjord https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Migrant healthcare assistants’ decision to work in long-term care
In high-income countries, population ageing has a significant impact on the labour force and care demands. As a result, the tendency is to rely on migrant workers to meet workforce and care demands. Drawing on insights from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, this study focused on unskilled migrant healthcare assistants in Norway’s long-term care. The objectives were to explore factors influencing the decision of unskilled migrant healthcare assistants to work in elderly care, sources of knowledge about work in elderly care, and challenges encountered in elderly care work. The key research questions were as follows: a) What factors influence the decision of migrant healthcare assistants to work in elderly care? b) What are the sources of knowledge/information about work in elderly care for migrant healthcare assistants? c) What are some of the challenges of working in elderly care for migrant healthcare assistants? Qualitative research and purposive sampling were used to recruit 20 participants: 13 unskilled migrant healthcare assistants and seven managers of long-term care facilities in South-Eastern and Northern Norway. Data were collected using in-depth individual interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation, and thematically analysed. Findings indicated that factors influencing unskilled migrant healthcare assistants' decision to work in the elderly care sector included cultural norms and values of caring for older people, nonrecognition of overseas qualifications and economic considerations. State-organized language learning programmes, Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) offices, as well as migrant family and community networks, provided crucial information about work in elderly care. Challenges regarding lack of career progression, temporary working contracts, low status and poor wages emerged. In conclusion, meaningful employment outcome through better opportunities for career progression are essential for unskilled migrant healthcare assistants’ well-being and care for older people. It would be useful for long-term care policymakers and stakeholders to address the challenges faced by its aged care workforce.
unskilled immigrant healthcare assistants
Copyright (c) 2023 Vyda Mamley Hervie https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The use of vignettes in an international comparative social work research
The aim of this article is to reflect on the strengths and challenges in qualitative comparative research on personal social services. The specific methodological approach that these reflections emerge from is the application of case vignettes in focus group interviews with social workers, working in different welfare regimes. We describe the process of vignette construction and implementation in focus group interviews, and relate this to findings in a large international project with researchers and data from Chile, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Ireland and the UK. Findings reveal that some globally spread professional norms prevail when they are applied locally, while others are more formed through welfare systems with strong contextual norms and legal and socio-economic barriers. Furthermore, the project showed that to use case vignettes and focus groups, in order to compare ‘social work’ in its totality between countries, is really difficult. It appears more fruitful to use such research methods to compare subsectors and sub-disciplines instead of social work as a whole. The strength of the data retrieved from the study is that it makes it possible to separate information on actual practice from information on principles and system norms, thus providing in-practice and on-practice reflections.
Copyright (c) 2023 Siv Oltedal, Lennart Nygren https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0