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In this study, Chinese and Swedish employment officers’ assessments of physically impaired people and their ability to find jobs are compared. The study is qualitative, and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The respondents were ten employment officers working full time. The results show that several employment officers in both contexts are skeptical that disabled people will be able to find work, and highlight similar obstacles to entering the labor market related to individual and societal conditions. The results show that, unlike Swedish employment officers, who highlight both types of obstacles, Chinese employment officers consider barriers related to the individual to be most important. The results also show that, compared to their Swedish colleagues, Chinese employment officers view gender and sex as more critical obstacles. The article argues that the results reveal different conceptions of disability and gender or sex that can be linked to the two contexts’ welfare models.

Points of interest: Previous studies have rarely examined whether employment barriers for disabled people can be related to the functioning of the employment services. This article compares assessments made by employment officers in China and Sweden of disabled people and their ability to find jobs. This article reveals that employment officers in both countries to some extent negatively assess the employment prospects of women and disabled people, and it is argued that under some circumstances the employment services can function as a barrier for disabled people to get a job. This article shows that employment officers’ assessments differ depending on their perceptions of the applicants’ disability and sex, as well as if the officer works in Sweden or in China. This article argues that the employment officers’ expectations of disabled peoples’ ability to work are in line with the overarching goals of the welfare in the two countries.

Social work is a field in which budget and debt counselling are offered, and instruments have been developed to map this type of problem. The aim of this paper is to present a scoping review of validated instruments in budget and debt counselling with over-indebted people. The study's questions are: How do the instruments studied address problems related to over-indebtedness? What assumptions about the causes and remedies of over-indebtedness do the instruments for budget and debt counselling rest on? How can the ways in which these instruments address over-indebtedness be understood as micro-managing this social problem? How may the use of these instruments affect the possibility of budget and debt counsellors taking structural conditions and barriers into account? The study results show that most of the instruments are designed to map resources or problems related to the household economy. Using these instruments, social workers can be seen as part of the governance of citizens through reformatory technology and micro-management of subjects in a financialized society. On the one hand, they can be used to support clients. On the other hand, the instruments can also shift the focus away from structural conditions in society and the consequences of economic inequality. Budget- och skuldr & aring;dgivning & auml;r ett omr & aring;de inom socialt arbete som ska erbjuda st & ouml;d och hj & auml;lp till & ouml;verskuldsatta. Instrument har utvecklats f & ouml;r att anv & auml;ndas av budget- och skuldr & aring;dgivare i kartl & auml;ggningen av denna typ av problem. Syftet med denna artikel & auml;r att presentera en kartl & auml;ggningsstudie (scoping review) av validerade instrument f & ouml;r bruk inom budget- och skuldr & aring;dgivning. Studiens fr & aring;gest & auml;llningar & auml;r: Hur adresserar de studerade instrumenten problem relaterade till & ouml;verskulds & auml;ttning? Vilka implicita antaganden om orsaker till problem som r & ouml;r & ouml;verskulds & auml;ttning och l & ouml;sningar p & aring; dessa problem bygger utformningen av instrumenten p & aring;? Hur kan s & auml;ttet som dessa instrument hanterar & ouml;verskulds & auml;ttning f & ouml;rst & aring;s som mikrostyrning av sociala problem? Och vilka effekter kan bruket av denna typ av instrument f & aring; f & ouml;r budget- och skuldr & aring;dgivares m & ouml;jlighet att beakta strukturella f & ouml;rh & aring;llanden och hinder? Studiens resultat visar att de flesta instrumenten & auml;r utformade f & ouml;r att kartl & auml;gga resurser eller problem relaterade till hush & aring;llsekonomin. Genom att anv & auml;nda dessa instrument kan socialarbetare ses som en del av styrningen av medborgare genom reformatorisk teknik och mikrostyrning i ett finansialiserat samh & auml;lle. & Aring; ena sidan kan de anv & auml;ndas f & ouml;r att st & ouml;dja klienter. & Aring; andra sidan kan instrumenten ocks & aring; flytta fokus bort fr & aring;n samh & auml;lleliga strukturella f & ouml;rh & aring;llanden och konsekvenserna av ekonomisk oj & auml;mlikhet.

The aim of the present study is to deepen the understanding of over-indebted persons' ways of describing the causes of their debts and the part they and others played in the emergence of the problematic situation, in their written communications with public authorities with influence over the debt-reconstruction process. The method was a qualitative multiple-case-study design with a purposive, cross-sectional sample consisting of personal letters attached to debt reconstruction applications submitted to the Swedish Enforcement Agency. The results reveal three main ways that applicants present their cases: Attributing responsibility to oneself, Avoiding the question of responsibility, and Attributing responsibility to others. The authors suggest that the results can be used in social work to help over-indebted people to understand and present their problems in a way that restores their vulnerable identity and allows them to counteract interpretations of them as having acted irresponsibly regarding their finances.

Over-indebtedness has increased in Sweden and other European countries during the past 30 years. It involves great suffering for afflicted individuals and high costs for society, as well as inflicting personal stigma because of their inability to fulfill their moral obligation to pay debts. The aim of the study is to analyse personal letters attached to applications for debt reconstruction as examples of counterstories, paying special attention to the potential for these narratives to provide narrative repair for the applicants, as well as to formulate resistance to master narratives regarding over-indebtedness. The data for the study consists of personal letters accompanying applications for debt reconstruction. Qualitative analyses are made of the three different styles of argumentation that over-indebted persons use in applications for debt reconstruction, negotiation, reimbursement-claiming and confession, using the theoretical framework of counterstories. The results show that negotiation and reimbursement-claiming both have the potential for narrative repair and resistance to the master narrative, while confession does not.

The article investigates how over-indebted persons present their case in personal letters attached to debt-reconstruction applications and how their narratives can be argued to contain features that help counteract negative expectations about their identity. The results reveal three types of narratives. These are: negotiating, in which the applicant communicates personal agency in relation to all areas of life, and the promise to start a new life and continue on the path of improvement is invoked as the main reason for being deserving of help; reimbursement-claiming, in which personal agency is communicated in relation to all aspects except for the applicant’s personal economy, and earlier achievements are invoked as the main reason for being deserving of help; and confessing, in which personal agency is communicated as located outside the applicant’s control, and a lack of possibilities to manage one’s own personal economy is invoked as the main reason for being deserving of help. The results also show that, although all three narrative categories can be considered counter-stories, confessing can be argued to have the greatest potential to counteract negative expectations and thereby help to repair the applicant’s identity.

Over-indebtedness has become an increasingly common issue in Europe and a growing concern for social work. In Sweden, budget and debt counsellors are the main actors guiding over-indebted individuals towards financial well-being. This study analyses how budget and debt counsellors rhetorically make sense of and justify their service provision. The research data consist of interviews with thirty-nine counsellors, supported by vignettes. The analysis shows that counsellors make sense of their service by constructing two guiding principles: to promote financial agency, centred on upholding the client’s autonomy and self-determination in solving the debt problems, respectively, to promote financial change, centred on providing the advice, guidance and practical support required to alleviate the client’s debt problems. These two guiding principles construct the client’s capability and responsibility to deal with their debt burden differently and motivate the counsellors to take different courses of action in relation to the client. Counsellors’ sense-making talk can thus be said to both reproduce and challenge predominant policy discourses emphasising citizens’ personal responsibility for creating welfare. The findings are discussed in relation to their implications for social work policy and practice.

The starting point of this article is an interest in understanding whathappens when the concept of evidence-based practice (EBP) travelbetween countries. Understanding knowledge as somethingconstructed between actors who shape and trade ideas andexperiences, the aim is to study how EBP has been received,interpreted and practised in Swedish social work in comparison tosome of the other Nordic welfare states. This is done through ascoping study literature review of research on evidence-based practice(EBP) in Swedish social work within the Swedish welfare system. Thereview shows that two research units (CUS and IMS) at the publicauthority National Board of Health and Welfare have had significantinfluence on the travelling of EBP to Sweden. Further, the reviewshows that a guideline-model version of EBP has been given priority inthe diffusion process. The results also show that the interest in EBPamong managers has increased over the past few years, and that theirattitude toward the concept is generally positive. At the same timeSwedish social workers rarely make use of research in their work,seldom use evidence-based methods, and seems to be unsure of themeaning of the concept.

Utgångspunkten för denna artikel är ett intresse i att förstå vad somhänder när evidensbaserad praktik (EBP) som begrepp reser mellanländer. Genom att förstå kunskap som något konstruerat mellan olikaaktörer som skapar och förhandlar idéer och erfarenheter syftarartikeln att studera hur EBP har blivit mottagen, tolkad och utövad isvenskt socialt arbete i jämförelse med några av de andra nordiskavälfärdsstaterna. Detta är genomfört genom en omfångsstudie avpublicerad forskning EBP i socialt arbete i Sverige. Översikten visar atttvå forskningsavdelningar (CUS och IMS) hos den statliga myndighetenSocialstyrelsen har haft stor betydelse i införandet av EBP till Sverige.Dessutom visar översikten att riktlinje-versionen av EBP har gettsföreträde i spridningen. Resultaten pekar också mot att intresset hosgruppledare och chefer har ökat under de senaste åren, och att derasattityd gentemot EBP, generellt är positiv. Samtidigt använder sällansvenska socialarbetare forskning i sitt arbete eller evidensbaserademetoder och tycks även vara osäker på begreppets betydelse.