14 research outputs found
Speaking bodies â silenced voices: Child protection and the knowledge culture of âevidencingâ
Using the metaphors body and voice and drawing on critical contributions on biopolitics, this article interrogates childrenâs participation rights in a knowledge culture of âevidencingâ. With child welfare and protection practice as an empirical example, I analyse written assessment reports from a Swedish child welfare agency, all exemplifying how social workers evidence needs for protection and reasons for removing children from the home. I discuss how âevidencingâ equals a knowledge culture of seeing-believing and predicting-believing and the search for visibly damaged bodies and underdeveloped minds. I furthermore problematise how such conceptualisation of evidencing foregrounds childrenâs âspeakingâ bodies while silencing their voices. By showing these manifestations of evidencing, this critical contribution discusses some wider epistemic concerns for fields influenced by the knowledge cultures of âthe evidence-basedâ
Amoral, im/moral and dis/loyal: Childrenâs moral status in child welfare
This article is a discursive examination of childrenâs status as knowledgeable moral agents within the Swedish child welfare system and in the widely used assessment framework BBIC. Departing from Frickerâs concept of epistemic injustice, three discursive positions of childrenâs moral status are identified: amoral, im/moral and dis/loyal. The findings show the undoubtedly moral child as largely missing and childrenâs agency as diminished, deviant or rendered ambiguous. Epistemic injustice applies particularly to disadvantaged children with difficult experiences who run the risk of being othered, or positioned as reproducing or accommodating to the very same social problems they may be victimised by
Child (Bio)Welfare and Beyond : Intersecting Injustices in Childhoods and Swedish Child Welfare
No ManŽs Land? : En fallstudie av Zene Zenama - en grÀnsöverskridande kvinnoorganisation
Denna uppsats baseras pÄ fÀltarbete i efterkrigstidens Bosnien & Hercegovina och handlar om grÀnsöverskridande samarbetsrelationer inom ramen för kvinnoorganisationen Zene Zenama. För en mer nyanserad illustration av organisationens multidimensionella samarbete utgÄr jag ifrÄn intersektionalitetsperspektivet som teoretiskt ramverk och huvudsakligen intervjuer som empiri. Jag söker Àven förstÄ kontexten och fÄ svar pÄ vilken betydelse kriget har för organisationen samt hur olika jÀmstÀlldhetsfrÄgor legitimeras. Min analys visar att krigets betydelse inte kan underskattas i organisationens kamp för jÀmstÀlldhet, vilken inte heller stÄr helt opÄverkad frÄn det transnationella ekonomiska stödets premisser. Samtidigt som krigets konsekvenser verkar enande i kampen för kvinnors rÀttigheter och i stÀrkandet av en regional identitet tenderar de Àven att utesluta andra erfarenheter av utsatthet som inte direkt Àr förknippade med krigets förödande följder
(Bio)vÀlfÀrd för barn och bortom : Intersektionella orÀttvisor i barndomar och den sociala barnavÄrden i Sverige
The current thesis discusses how tools for analysing power are developed predominately for adults, and thus remain underdeveloped in terms of understanding injustices related to age, ethnicity/race and gender in childhoods. The overall ambition of this dissertation is to inscribe a discourse of intersecting social injustices as relevant for childhoods and child welfare, and by interlinking postcolonial, feminist, and critical childhood studies. The dissertation is set empirically within the policy and practice of Swedish child welfare, here exemplified by the assessment framework Barns Behov i Centrum (BBIC). It aims to explore how Swedish child welfare, as a field of knowledge, modes of knowing and knowing subjects, constitutes an arena for claims and responses to intersecting social justice issues. The material consists of BBIC primers and selected samples from, a total of 283 case reports from a Swedish social service agency. The case reports address assessments of children (0ÂÂâ12 years of age). This dissertation is based on four qualitative studies using discourse analysis, as well as analysis inspired by thematic and case-study methodology. Two studies focus on child welfare discourses in BBIC documents involving social problems and violence, and two studies are based on child welfare case reports. Studies IÂÂ-II address child welfare policy and practice by analysing the conditions required for children to participate, in terms of childrenâs moral status and in terms of status of âevidencingâ needs for protection. Studies IIIÂÂ-IV explore this further from the perspective of intersecting and embodied social injustices in childhoods. Together, the studies interconnect child welfare as a field of knowledge, modes of knowing and knowers with child welfare as a moral arena for claims to rights, recognition, and social justice. The synthesised findings point to child biowelfare, in which justice discourses are largely absent. Biowelfare is informed by a mode of knowing and âevidencingâ risks to childrenâs health and development, which are confined to scientific predicting-believing, seeing-believing by professionals and a moral economy of care, all of which constrain the idea that injustices are structural and intersecting. Biowelfare primarily responds to children as âspeakingâ biological bodies, rather than as voices of justice. In this sense, injustices of an epistemological nature are interconnected with social injustices. When issues of justice are mobilised in case reports and policy, they come across as rather âunjustâ, primarily confined to the sphere of the family home of racialised children and not connected to âgeneralâ children. In addition to intersections of age, ethnicity/race and gender, class and health are fundamental to recognition and protection in biowelfare. Finally, the dissertation indicates the need for a moral economy which responds to intersecting social injustices such as racial, gender-based and ageist violence in childhoods, and violations of childrenâs bodily integrity. Key words: biowelfare, child protection, child welfare, critical childhood studies, critical social work, embodiment, epistemic injustice, epistemology, feminist theory, intersectionality, justice subjectivity, moral economy, moral subjectivity, participation, postcolonial theory, poststructural social work, social justice, violenc
(Bio)vÀlfÀrd för barn och bortom : Intersektionella orÀttvisor i barndomar och den sociala barnavÄrden i Sverige
The current thesis discusses how tools for analysing power are developed predominately for adults, and thus remain underdeveloped in terms of understanding injustices related to age, ethnicity/race and gender in childhoods. The overall ambition of this dissertation is to inscribe a discourse of intersecting social injustices as relevant for childhoods and child welfare, and by interlinking postcolonial, feminist, and critical childhood studies. The dissertation is set empirically within the policy and practice of Swedish child welfare, here exemplified by the assessment framework Barns Behov i Centrum (BBIC). It aims to explore how Swedish child welfare, as a field of knowledge, modes of knowing and knowing subjects, constitutes an arena for claims and responses to intersecting social justice issues. The material consists of BBIC primers and selected samples from, a total of 283 case reports from a Swedish social service agency. The case reports address assessments of children (0ÂÂâ12 years of age). This dissertation is based on four qualitative studies using discourse analysis, as well as analysis inspired by thematic and case-study methodology. Two studies focus on child welfare discourses in BBIC documents involving social problems and violence, and two studies are based on child welfare case reports. Studies IÂÂ-II address child welfare policy and practice by analysing the conditions required for children to participate, in terms of childrenâs moral status and in terms of status of âevidencingâ needs for protection. Studies IIIÂÂ-IV explore this further from the perspective of intersecting and embodied social injustices in childhoods. Together, the studies interconnect child welfare as a field of knowledge, modes of knowing and knowers with child welfare as a moral arena for claims to rights, recognition, and social justice. The synthesised findings point to child biowelfare, in which justice discourses are largely absent. Biowelfare is informed by a mode of knowing and âevidencingâ risks to childrenâs health and development, which are confined to scientific predicting-believing, seeing-believing by professionals and a moral economy of care, all of which constrain the idea that injustices are structural and intersecting. Biowelfare primarily responds to children as âspeakingâ biological bodies, rather than as voices of justice. In this sense, injustices of an epistemological nature are interconnected with social injustices. When issues of justice are mobilised in case reports and policy, they come across as rather âunjustâ, primarily confined to the sphere of the family home of racialised children and not connected to âgeneralâ children. In addition to intersections of age, ethnicity/race and gender, class and health are fundamental to recognition and protection in biowelfare. Finally, the dissertation indicates the need for a moral economy which responds to intersecting social injustices such as racial, gender-based and ageist violence in childhoods, and violations of childrenâs bodily integrity. Key words: biowelfare, child protection, child welfare, critical childhood studies, critical social work, embodiment, epistemic injustice, epistemology, feminist theory, intersectionality, justice subjectivity, moral economy, moral subjectivity, participation, postcolonial theory, poststructural social work, social justice, violenc
From Asylum Back to Futurity
This qualitative study is inspired by queer-feminist elaborations on normative and queer temporality, where I seek a temporal terminology of displacement in the context of migration in Sweden. The focus is on former asylum seekers from the region of former Yugoslavia, who in the 1990s, had years-long periods of uncertain residence statuses and unemployment. This interview-based study deals with retrospective narratives of uncertain-futures, often described as wasted years. I consider temporal stasis and the narratives of loss in their intersections with timings in heteronormative life trajectories and logics of progress and futurity. This thesis indicates that the valuation of time operates through mechanisms of power, where the terminology of sooner-later gives character to re/integration and measurements of normativity in working-age adult life. In the year 2011 time has regained its value and meaning. Considering the current hectic lifestyles in employÂŹment and stable residence, time is no longer still but experienced as quickly passing and in short supply. Another indication is that temporal stasis can be linked to the contexts of refuge as well as to the ambiguities regarding the predictable and monotonous âwork-homeâ schedules, which offer other dimensions to work and free time
"Kvinnor, invandrare & andra handikappade" En diskursanalys av "mÄngfald" och "jÀmstÀlldhet"
Denna studie Àr ett alternativt synsÀtt pÄ en kommuns mÄngfalds- och jÀmstÀlldhetsfrÀmjande. VÄr uppsats Àr en diskursiv analys av de normativa förestÀllningarna kring begreppen "mÄngfald" och "jÀmstÀlldhet" med vilken vi uppmÀrksammar hur det till synes positiva mÄngfalds- och jÀmstÀlldhetsfrÀmjandet i sjÀlva verket inbegrips av negativa inslag. Vi granskar inte bara hur interaktionen fungerar mellan dessa vÀrdeladdade begrepp utan ocksÄ effekterna dÀrav. Studien avgrÀnsar sig till Landskrona kommuns mÄngfalds- och jÀmstÀlldhetspolicys, med intervjuer som kompletterande inslag, genomförda med strategiskt utvalda representanter frÄn kommunen. Genom den hÀr uppsatsen uppmÀrksammas de bristfÀlliga perspektiven som rÄder över begreppen "mÄngfald" och "jÀmstÀlldhet". Dels belyser vi hur begreppen i sin samverkan interagerar som exkluderingsmekanismer och reproduktioner av rÄdande maktförhÄllanden. Dels uppmÀrksammar vi den kontradiktion som sker i samspelet och dÄ policys motarbetar varandras respektive frÀmjande. Som ett alternativt synsÀtt föreslÄr vi intersektionalitetsperspektivet, ett perspektiv med betydligt mindre benÀgenhet till exkludering, osynliggörande och stereotypisering av individer i samhÀllet