The heroine and the capitalist: the profession's debate about privatisation of Swedish social work

Since the 1990s, as a consequence of economic crisis and ideological and political redirections, welfare provision in Sweden has undergone processes of decentralisation, market orientation and privatisation. Publicly financed services provided by subcontracted private enterprises have increased substantially in every welfare sector, including social work. Furthermore, numbers of self-employed social workers also appear to be increasing. The aim of the article is to describe and analyse the debate on privatisation in professional social work journals. More than 700 articles gleaned from 1100 issues of four professional journals spanning the period 1985–2003 have been analysed using a combination of quantitative content and qualitative discourse analysis. The results show that the debate has shifted from ideology to pragmatics in the two major social work unions, although, despite de-polarisation tendencies, ambivalence towards private social work is evident.     

Implementing evidence-based practices and programmes in the human services: lessons from research in public administration

The development of evidence-based practice and programmes (EBP) has led to increasing interest in implementation issues in the field of human services, and specifically how to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and actual practice. However, because EBP are usually connected with social policies, which are political, implementation problems arise concerning resource allocation, ethics and power. Such implementation problems in the field of public administration have been extensively researched. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether and how research into policy implementation in public administration may benefit ongoing research on EBP in the human services to understand, explain and manage common implementation problems. This paper is based on a broad review and comparison of the literatures on policy implementation in public administration and implementation of EBP in the human services. Analysis shows that human services could learn from public administration research to develop a broader theoretical approach for understanding and managing implementation of evidence-based practice and programmes.     

Do cutbacks pay off? Perceived changes in the standard of municipal services and attitudes towards services among citizens and municipal decision makers in Finland

One common aim in the Nordic countries during the last decade has been to lessen state control over municipal affairs and to increase the local community's influence over the development of (welfare) services. These reforms happened to coincide with the economic depression of the 1990s, which especially hit Finland and Sweden, and enforced extensive cutbacks that negatively influenced the standard of services in a number of ways. However, according to some indicators the cutbacks also made public services more efficient. This article – utilizing Finnish data from 1995 – focuses on a comparison between how the general public on the one hand and leading municipal politicians and administrators on the other hand perceived the development of services and, further, whether these perceptions influence the groups' attitudes towards future changes in the system. Results show that decision makers, in contrast to a significant proportion of citizens, have a quite positive view on the development of services as well as on the continuation of cutbacks and a reduction of the municipalities' responsibilities for service provision. The study also indicates that citizens' views on the decline of various services are related to negative attitudes towards further decrease or changes in the municipalities' responsibilities. Among the decision makers, those politicians who think that (particularly efficiency aspects of) services have developed favourably also exhibit the weakest support for the prevailing system. The results raise questions concerning the role of citizens' attitudes in the development of services in the municipalities.     

Pre-, post-, and longitudinal evaluation of juvenile justice education

This article describes two stages of the Juvenile Justice Educational Enhancement Program's pre-, post-, and longitudinal evaluation research. Pilot studies were used to explore how to design statewide research of pre- and postassessment scores and community reintegration outcomes. Preliminary findings suggest that higher performing educational programs produce greater educational gains as measured by academic achievement tests, credits earned, and pupil progression rates. The findings also indicate that these programs have more students returning to school and lower recidivism rates. Building on the pilot studies, refinements were made to the research designs to enable more comprehensive statewide evaluation. Current research includes collection of pre- and postassessment scores from official sources on approximately 16,000 juvenile justice youths. In addition, a research design has been developed to examine program effectiveness by measuring community reintegration variables. Multiple data sources, including official and self-reported data on family, school, employment, and subsequent crime involvement, will be used in the longitudinal study.     

The withdrawal of the welfare state: Elderly care in Sweden in the 1990s

In Sweden, clear changes in the care of the elderly have occurred during the 1990s, with fewer people being provided public care, although greater efforts are now directed towards those most in need of help. Elderly people are cared for increasingly in other ways: by the family, by means of market-provided care, and by voluntary and informal means. Differences between municipalities are considerable. A comparative study was conducted in eight Swedish municipalities, four of them characterized by extensive reorganization of home-help services, and the other four constituting a reference group where such changes had not occurred. The aim was to examine processes of setting local priorities and adjustments in a period of marked structural change. Interviews with local politicians, administrators, professionals, and union representatives, and with the elderly themselves, were the main sources of data. The process of determining the extent and content of home care services in the municipalities was found to be a complex process, one involving a number of partly interdependent factors. Restructuring was found to be greatest in the context of a traditionally strong reliance on home-help services, rather than in the context of institutionalized care, where administrative decision-making and a medical and rehabilitative perspective dominated.     

Disabled students’ experiences of higher education in Sweden,the Czech Republic,and the United States – a comparative institutional analysis

Students with disabilities face obstacles in their encounters with higher education. The aim of this study is to investigate how the institutional context shapes students’ experiences of unequal opportunities in higher education. In comparing disabled students’ experiences from universities in Sweden, the Czech Republic, and the United States, the study makes visible the kind of experiences that students share and how experiences differ between these countries within the global context of higher education. The study has shown that students’ possibilities for equal participation are shaped by the institutional context that is based on medical diagnosis and compensation for an inaccessible education.