Linda Lane Michael Wallengren-Lynch  Editors Narratives of Social Work Practice and Education in Sweden Narratives of Social Work Practice and Education in Sweden Linda Lane • Michael Wallengren-Lynch Editors Narratives of Social Work Practice and Education in Sweden Editors Linda Lane Michael Wallengren-Lynch Department of Social Work Department of Social Work University of Gothenburg University of Malmö Gothenburg, Sweden Malmoe, Sweden ISBN 978-3-030-45873-7 ISBN 978-3-030-45874-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45874-4 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Foreword I am delighted to have been asked to write a few words to introduce this timely and important book. The authors rightly identified a gap in my own book, Becoming a Social Worker: Global Narratives, 2013. The stories that appeared in this book (and in its predecessor, Becoming a Social Worker, 2003) were largely the stories of the people I had met over the course of my career in social work, as a practitioner and an academic. So this was definitely not a random sample! There were no Swedish stories in the books, which makes this new volume all the more welcome. What did emerge in both books, and (I have no doubt) will be found in this new book, were amazing stories of human beings who, against all the odds, made a deci- sion to try to make a difference in their lives. People of all genders, sexualities and colours, young and old, disabled and non-disabled, from privileged and non- privileged backgrounds, all felt that they wanted to do something to help others and make society a fairer and better place for all. Social workers are not, of course, the only people who work in ‘helping professions’: doctors and nurses, teachers and youth workers, psychologists and therapists all choose to work for the greater ben- efit of all. What makes it harder for social workers, however, is that most people do not choose to have social work involvement in their lives. On the contrary, they accept it either because the state mandates that they do so, or because they have run out of all other alternatives. They are quite literally, at the end of their tether. We might see this as social work’s curse; it certainly explains why social work has been called an ‘unloved’ profession. And yet, looked at differently, perhaps it is, at the same time, what makes social work special – specially demanding and specially rewarding at the same time. There is, without question, nothing more satisfying than walking alongside someone who is going through a process of personal transforma- tion, whether this is a young person we are encouraging to move away from a life of crime or an older person who now has to accept that they can no longer live inde- pendently. Becoming and being a social worker is, at the end of the day, an enor- mous privilege; we are really lucky to be able to do what we do. Of all the books I have published over the years, Becoming a Social Worker remains the one that sold most copies. This matters little to me, because editors do not earn vast amounts of money for their hard work! What does matter to me is that v vi Foreword the stories touched readers, who could identify themselves in the very different accounts that people gave of their journeys in and through social work. Those who read the book were considering embarking on a career in social work, or who were at the start of their training, got courage from the stories of others. They began to give value to their own experience and appreciate a shared value-base alongside other social workers. This is not to suggest that there is only one way of being or doing social work; quite the opposite, it is about acknowledging the breadth and diversity of approaches and people within social work. So if you are at the begin- ning of your social work journey, I would like to wish you well, and hope that social work brings you the same joy (and of course, at times, despair) that it has brought to me over the years. I remain proud to be a social worker; I hope you will be too! Viviene Cree Emerita Professor of Social Work The University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, Scotland February 2020 Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Linda Lane and Michael Wallengren-Lynch 2 The Power of Narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Linda Lane and Michael Wallengren-Lynch 3 World Making: Stories and the Power of Radical Imagination . . . . . 27 Zulmir Bečević 4 Digging in the Present: A Day in the Life of a School Counsellor . . . 37 Michael Wallengren-Lynch 5 Turning Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Ing-Marie Johansson 6 We Live in a Political World: Between Needs and Money . . . . . . . . . 59 Kristina Alstam 7 The Problematic Labour Market Situation of Immigrants to Sweden – Consequences and Causes . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Björn Gustafsson 8 Gothenburg Was a City in Mourning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Rehema Prick 9 Intercultural Perspectives in Social Work Practice, Education and Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Somita Sabeti 10 Tackling the Contradictory Nature of Social Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Tobias Davidsson vii viii Contents 11 Adopting an Anti-oppressive Approach to Inclusive Teaching . . . . . . 119 Linda Lane 12 The Relevance of Narratives in Future Social Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Linda Lane and Michael Wallengren-Lynch Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 About the Contributors Kristina Alstam PhD in Social Work, is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research interest revolves around discourses of family and parenting, social class, and the redistribution of resources. Of special interest is the manner in which ideologically connoted dis- courses of welfare regimes and austerity are circulated, defended and contested within the domain of social work. Among her resent publications is her doctoral thesis, Parents, Power, Poverty: On choice and responsibility on two parental com- munities (2016). Zulmir Bečević PhD, is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. His research focus is children and young people’s living conditions with specific focus on welfare issues, vulnerability, power, participation and social exclusion/inclusion. He has conducted research on young people in institutional care and youth participation in European cities. He is also author of several works of fiction. Among his latest publications is Living with diagnoses: an interactionist analysis of a young person’s experience of ADHD and Asperger’s syndrome (2017). Tobias  Davidsson PhD in Social Work, is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Originally, a social worker working with family treatment, his main research areas are social exclusion and control, the political management of poverty and labour market policies. Among his latest publications is a joint article with Frida Petersson titled Towards an actor- oriented approach to social exclusion: a critical review of contemporary exclusion research in a Swedish social work context (2018). Björn Gustafsson PhD, is emeritus Professor of Economics at the Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and research fellow at the Institute of Labor (IZA), Bonn, Germany. His research focus is the distribution of income, poverty and the situation of international migrants in Sweden. Since the 1990s, he has taken part in the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) and studied ix x About the Contributors earnings, income, poverty and ethnic minorities in the People’s Republic of China. A recent publication with Torun Österberg is How are immigrant children in Sweden faring? Mean income, affluence and poverty since the 1980s (2018). Ing-Marie Johansson PhD in Social Work, is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She has many years’ experience in International Social Work both in teaching and in developing academic courses in frameworks such as Nordplus, Erasmus, Linnaeus-Palme and the Swedish Institute. Among her latest publications is The unruly young men: Exploring some key constructions of masculinity within Swedish social services (2016) with Helena Johansson. Linda Lane PhD in Economic History, is a Senior Lecturer and researcher at the Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research focuses international studies of work and family life, gender empowerment, disabil- ity in higher education and sexual harassment the work place. Since 2011, she has studied gender empowerment and poverty in India. Her latest publication with Birgitta Jordansson is Conceptualizing work in the Swedish gender equality debate (2019). Michael Wallengren-Lynch DSW in Social Work, University of Sussex, United Kingdom. He practiced social work from 2004 to 2015 and is now a researcher and lecturer at the University of Malmö, Sweden. His current research interests focus on school-based social work, disaster social work, internationalisation and social work education. His latest publication with colleagues Anna R, Bengtsson and Katarina Hollertz is Applying a ‘signature pedagogy’ in the teaching of critical social work theory and practice (2019). Rehema Prick BA in Social Work and Licensed Systemic Family Psychotherapist (Retired), worked as a social work professional from 1991 until her retirement in 2018. During her years in the field, her work focused on immigrants, refugee youth and their families. After many years of work in refugee centres and as a high school counsellor, she ended her career as a family therapist. She remains committed to gender empowerment for immigrant women through her engagement in voluntary organisations. Somita Sabeti BA in Social Work, earned her MA in the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's programme Crossing the Mediterranean – towards investment and integra- tion (MIM), a programme that focused on European co-operation with North Africa and the MENA region within the migration and diversity field, jointly offered by four universities in Italy, Spain, Tunisia and France. Her research interests include migration studies, integration, inclusion and diversity practices as well as liminality and belonging. She published her master thesis Between Liminality and Belonging – mapping the experiences of Afghan young adults ‘in transit’ in Istanbul in 2019.