The question of how social workers view child welfare problems and what are seen as appropriate interventions has been subject of debate and research the last decades. The aim of the study is to investigate how different child welfare models influence social workers’ assessment of cases involving children at risk. This is done by identifying differences and similarities between Nordic and Italian social workers’ assessments regarding the levels of intervention, their line of reasoning and the types of intervention proposed. A recent comparative study of social workers’ assessment in four Nordic countries reveals a tendency to apply a common model in social work with children and families. The data for this study, collected through a qualitative vignette study involving 18 Italian social workers, are compared with the results of the Nordic study. The analysis displays certain differences between Italian and Nordic social workers’ assessments, in particular with adolescents, but also indicates similar approaches with babies and children. The similarities in the assessment of Nordic and Italian social workers, especially in the line of reasoning, indicate a common professional base of values and knowledge among social workers working with families. The study also shows that child welfare models, as institutional factors, actually influence social workers’ assessment of cases involving children at risk, when it comes to level of intervention and intervention proposed. Such influence seems to be mediated by meso-level organisational factors related to how social work with children at risk is organised.

Abstract This thesis concerns the role played by immigrant organisations today. It focuses on the way in which the national context and especially the corporative, social welfare, and integration systems affect such roles. The thesis is structured around the hypothesis that immigrant organisations are shaped by their interaction with political opportunity structures which function as links between the broader institutional setting and the organisations. Examples of such structures are consultation bodies, systems of public funding, rules and routines for public-private partnerships in service provision, access to media and public debate and fiscal facilitations. Such structures can be used by immigrant organisations to, for example, advocate for the interest of the groups they represent, to strengthen their own organisation, as well as its position in society, and to influence policy. However, the usage of such structures always implies a certain amount of control and regulation, as it might require that the organisations assume certain internal rules, adhere to certain principles, or work with certain issues. To highlight the role of the national institutional setting, and especially of the corporative, social welfare, and integration systems in shaping the function of immigrant organisations, this thesis adopts a cross-national comparative approach with Sweden and Italy chosen as national contexts. The cross-national comparison follows a so- called “most-different” logic as these two countries’ civil societies, welfare systems, migration patterns and integration systems show salient differences that make them interesting to compare. Political opportunity structures are, however, spread on different levels from the local to the international in a so-called “multi-level system”. To reflect such complexity, the thesis is designed as three sub-studies focusing on the interaction between immigrant organisations and political opportunity structures connected to different levels: European Union (EU), local and national/regional. Each one of the three sub-studies therefore presents a comparison of immigrant organisations’ interaction with political opportunity structures in Sweden and in Italy. The empirical data consists mostly of interviews with representatives of immigrant organisations and other key-informants from other civil society organisations, public authorities and experts. The results of the thesis show that Swedish immigrant organisations seem to have been able to rely on relatively strong resources and administrative capacity as a consequence of the national and local systems of public grants. In Italy, the results show major differences between ethnic organisations, inter-ethnic and hybrid organisations (connected to trade unions). Ethnic organisations seem to be more marginalised in relation to both public funding and networks of organisations while inter-ethnic and hybrid organisations seem to have been able to access and use such opportunity structures and strengthen their position especially as service producers. The thesis also shows that the corporative, social welfare and integration systems seem to have played a crucial role in shaping the functions of immigrant organisations through the political opportunity structures. The most relevant opportunity structure for the Swedish immigrant organisations was the national and local systems of public grants, while for the Italian organisations the most relevant was the constellation of actors that had access to resources as service providers in the welfare-mix model. The results show also trends of convergence as the importance of immigrant organisations as service providers, often working in network with other organisations, was also evident in Sweden. Also the importance of the EU both as a channel for influencing policy through participation in European networks of organisations and as source of resources for activities at national and local level is evident in the results. Furthermore, the results show that immigrant organisations in Sweden were more often addressed by public authorities and other organisations as civil society organisations with knowledge and expertise on integration issues, while in Italy their role as representatives of immigrant communities was more often highlighted (at least for the ethnic organisations). This reflects the way in which the channelling of ethnic-based collective interests is structured in both countries. The results suggest that immigrant organisations in both countries are much embedded in the national and local context while tendencies of trans-nationalisation, for example, through trans-national ethnic networks only concerned a few organisations which in their turn tended to interact less with local and national political opportunity structures. The nation-state, in fact, seems not to have lost its importance for immigrant organisations as a frame for influencing policy-making and for collective identity formation.

Although social workers can be regarded as the practical interpreters and implementing actors of social policies, little is known about their attitudes to their working conditions and to ongoing social-political trends, especially in a comparative Nordic perspective. In this article the present conditions for social work is studied on the basis of a questionnaire distributed to a representative sample of social workers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The questionnaire was answered by a total of 5554 respondents, which represents a response frequency of 60%. In addition to some general discussions based on the answers of the entire population of respondents, the article particularly focuses on social workers in municipal social services (N = 3018). Our most important result is that social workers' attitudes seem to vary to a certain extent if different fields of specialization within municipal social services are compared, and that these tendencies appear in all the Nordic countries. Those who work with financial support are more dissatisfied with their work situation and are somewhat more positive to sanctions and restrictions aimed at the clients than their colleagues in the other fields. They are also more inclined to explain poverty with reference to individual deficiencies.

Det övergripande syftet för rapporten är att studera hur den Europeiska Unionen (EU) påverkar det svenska organisationslandskapet av ideella organisationer, exempelvis genom resurstilldelning, men också nya målsättningar, metoder och ideologiska element. Mer konkret analyserar vi i vilken utsträckning och på vilket sätt ideella organisationer har lyckats tillskansa sig deltagande och inflytande i Equalprogrammet. Programmet finansierades genom den Europeiska Socialfonden och löpte mellan 2001 och 2007. Programmet föreskrev ett nära samarbete mellan offentliga, privata och ideella organisationer i så kallade partnerskap. I denna studie har vi kartlagt alla ingångna partnerskap i Equalprogrammet samt jämfört det svenska Equalprogrammet med motsvarande program i andra medlemsländer. Materialet har analyserats utifrån teorier om partnerskap och nya former av styrningsmekanismer, diskriminerade gruppers egenorganisering, samt organisationsteoretiska perspektiv om det sociala landskapet. Studien visar att Equalprogrammet har haft ett stort genomslag i det svenska organisationslandskapet. Nästan 650 organisationer har engagerat sig i programmet. Många av dessa är ideella organisationer, men också offentliga och privata aktörer. Bland de ideella organisationerna finner vi exempelvis kvinno-, handikapp- och invandrarorganisationer, men också svenska kyrkan och andra religiösa samfund. Bland de ideella organisationerna finns också en rad mindre brukarorganisationer. Alla deltagande organisationer har accepterat att arbeta efter programmets principer och metoder där bl.a. partnerskapsmodellen och det transnationella samarbetet är centrala element. För många av de ideella organisationerna har deltagande i programmet inneburit ett centralt kapitaltillskott. Våra analyser indikerar dock att det svenska Equalprogrammet avviker från motsvarande program i andra medlemsländer. I flera medlemsländer är de ideella organisationerna i majoritet och i många fall motsvaras det höga deltagande av de ideella organisationerna med ett lägre deltagande från offentliga organisationer. I en stor majoritet av länderna är andelen privata organisationer mycket liten. Därmed skiljer sig det svenska Equalprogrammet från övriga länders i och med att andelen offentliga organisationer är jämförelsevis hög och andelen deltagande ideella organisationer relativt liten. Studiens resultat ligger därmed väl i linje med den internationella forskningen om välfärdsstatsregimer. Deltagandet av ideella organisationer i det svenska Equalprogrammet pekar mot en tydlig övervikt av ideella organisationer som kan knytas till arbetsmarknadens parter (fackförbund och liknande) samt intresseorganisationer för svaga och diskriminerade grupper i samhället. Eftersom Equalprogrammet har som syfte att få ut människor i arbete och att bryta utanförskap är detta knappast förvånande. Ett mindre antal ideella organisationer har en ”social inriktning”, dvs. som sitt främsta syfte att öka välfärden för individer och grupper i samhället. Många av dessa socialt inriktade ideella organisationer har dock en tydlig brukarprofil, dvs. organisationer som har en ”vi för oss” prägel. Men även om offentliga organisationer dominerar numerärt i det svenska Equalprogrammet innebär detta inte att andra organisationer förblivit lottlösa. Tvärtom har offentliga organisationer ofta varit en ekonomisk garant för ett stabilt arbete inom ramen för programmet. Men målsättningarna för att delta i programmet är högst skiftande. I många fall anges att arbetet syftar till att stödja utsatta gruppers inträde på arbetsmarknaden, i andra fall är syftet snarare att skapa goodwill för det egna företaget genom att samverka med andra organisationer. I denna rapport har vi även analyserat sammansättning och resursfördelning inom ramen för de enskilda partnerskapen i det svenska Equalprogrammet. Analysen visar på komplexa former av samverkan och/eller konflikt inom partnerskapen och att vissa positioner är mer betydelsefulla än andra i ett partnerskap (exempelvis som stödmottagare och koordinator). Dessa positioner innehas framför allt av offentliga organisationer. Detta kan dels vara en medveten strategi, men också svar på önskemål från den Europeiska Socialfonden då offentliga organisationer ger partnerskapen stabilitet, kompetens och tydliga rutiner när det gäller att hantera projekt i mångmiljonklassen. Få privata organisationer agerar koordinatorer eller som stödmottagare. Mer förvånande är att många mindre brukarorganisationer har dragit nytta av programmet. De har lärt sig vad som krävs för att leda olika EU projekt, utveckling en allmän kompetens om EU frågor och utövat inflytande i sina respektive partnerskap. Vår bedömning är att dessa organisationer har lyckats stärka sin ställning och fått ökat handlingsutrymme tack vare sitt deltagande i Equalprogrammet.

The main purpose of this report is to study how the European Union (EU) affects the landscape of voluntary organizations in Sweden. This may take many different guises, for instance through new forms of financial support, but also by introducing new aims, methods and ideological components. One major European initiative has been the Equal programme, which started in 2001 and lasted until 2007 and prescribed a close cooperation between public, private and voluntary organizations. We ask how and to what extent did voluntary organisations manage to gain resources and influence within this programme? The study relates to current theoretical thinking on new forms of governance, mobilization among marginal groups and current organizational theory. Findings demonstrate that almost 650 organizations have been involved in the Swedish Equal programme and among the different participants we find a great number of public organizations, yet to less extent private actors. The programme also included a large number of voluntary organizations. However, our analyses indicate that the Swedish Equal programme differs from similar programmes in other Member States. In most countries voluntary organizations were in majority and public organizations in minority. All countries share a common feature as a limited number of private organizations have participated. Arguably, the Swedish programme is marked by its high numbers of public organizations and – in a comparative perspective – small number of voluntary organizations. Analyses of the participating voluntary organizations in the Swedish Equal programme demonstrate variety as the programme included organizations such as the women’s movement, immigrant organizations, organizations representing people with disabilities, the Swedish Church and other religious organizations. However, most organizations belonged to a social partner related organization (e.g. national, regional or local unions) or an interest group representing poor and discriminated groups in the society. This is hardly surprising as the Equal programme aimed to bring people back into the labour market. Some user organizations participated in the programme. The reasons why organizations participate in the Equal programme vary greatly. Some follow the formal objectives and tries to include unemployed people in the labour market, while others have mainly participated as a way to create goodwill for their company. Another key reason is to gain financial support and even though public organizations tend to ‘dominate’ the Swedish Equal programme, it has provided voluntary organizations with ample financial support. However, our study demonstrate competition over some desirable positions within partnerships, e.g. to be coordinators and/or the organization controlling the finances within the partnership. These positions are mainly hold by public organizations. In some cases this appears to be part of an intentional strategy, while in other cases a response to expectations from the European Social Fund. Public organizations function as a guarantee for a certain degree of stability within partnerships (organizational, financial and administrative). Albeit that these positions are generally held by public organizations, some smaller user organizations have been highly successful in hoarding opportunities within the programme. They have developed a general competence on running different EU projects, administrative capacity to coordinate projects involving several different partners and have also managed to exercise great influence in the partnerships they have participated in. Our conclusion is that these organizations have gained most from participating in the Equal programme and increased their position vis-á-vis other voluntary organizations.

När EU stödde projekt vars mål var att motverka diskriminering, deltog 21 invandrarföreningar. Många arbetar för ökad välfärd och erbjuder service till sina egna. Betyder det att den offentliga sektorn blir allt mer förbehållen majoritetsbefolkningen?