Research in Social Work at LiU

Research in social work includes the study of social problems and their causes, the interventions that aim to handle and solve them, and people's need for support and aid in vulnerable situations.

The view of how social exclusion arises and how it is counteracted has fundamentally changed in recent decades. During the 1960s and 1970s the dominating view was that society's organization and way of operating created different kinds of problems for people. Today people are regarded as acting subjects, with their own interests and the ability to make informed choices, who can therefore be assigned responsibility. The social work aims to remove the barriers preventing the client/user from fulfilling himself/herself as a free, competent and lawful member of society.

Increased mobility of people, capital and political ideas has led to the globalization of social problems. The nation-state is no longer the natural boundary and the location for social work. The research programme "Cross-border social work - time, place and agency" takes heed of these changes. The programme has in its first version four priority areas.

1. Help and support in the welfare state

Social work would not exist without the citizens' legal right to help and support. In the area "Help and support in the welfare state" the rights of citizens under current law are identified and analyzed. This analysis can take its point of departure in the distinction eligible/not eligible for help and support. The control over this distinction is a result of negotiation processes and conflicts involving several social systems. The result is formalized in rules which are constantly changing. A central question is whether the individual is seen as someone who can and should take responsibility for their situation, or as a victim of circumstances he or she cannot control and therefore eligible for support.

2. Welfare Law

Research on welfare law relates to issues of the importance of law in constructing and maintaining a welfare society with respect for fundamental values anchored in human rights such as law and order, non-discrimination and respect for the integrity of the individual. This includes issues of gender and migration, such as free movement, social insurance, child, family and school rights, as well as the consequences of force and other sanctions, such as liability in the exercise of authority.

3. Transnational social work

Local social problems have become globalized and seek their solutions across national borders. In the research area, social work as a transnational project based on partnership between different actors, government representatives, professional social workers and voluntary organizations are studied. Domestic violence is a global social problem that develops
and remains in the absence of democracy, respect for human rights and governance. Linköping University is, represented by Margareta Hyden, involved in the scientific management of an international social program for schools aimed at children who have witnessed domestic violence. The aim is to prevent violence being passed on from generation to generation.

4. Responses to interpersonal violence

Violence between people, interpersonal violence, occurs in different kinds of relationships between people, such as families and couples. Traditionally, research on interpersonal violence has studied its causes and effects. Within the field of research the perspective is widened to include the study of relationships and responses to violence from the individual (such as various kinds of resistance), from the social network (family, relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbours) and professional and institutional contexts (police, justice, social services, health care, school and the workplace). Then we can better understand the individual's responses over time and the processes within the network that contribute to the ending or continuation of violence.

Research

Research projects