Hans Swärd

Cross-national comparisons of social work - a question of initial assumptions and levels of analysis

The last few decades have seen the publication of articles and textbooks containing surveys and comparisons of social work in different countries. This article discusses various attempts at systematic descriptions and comparisons of social work in different parts of the world. Three main ways of making comparisons are identified: comparisons based on models of social policy, profession-oriented comparisons, and practice-oriented comparisons. Each of the three methods captures essential aspects of similarities and differences in social work, but they all have obvious limitations as well. The article sums up what has been discovered by the different methods of comparison and the criticism that can be levelled at them.

Homelessness in Sweden–discussion, patterns, and causes

Abstract In a number of countries in Western Europe and in North America homelessness has come to the fore once again over the last 15-20 years, a fact to which many books and surveys bear witness. In a number of countries, organizations have been formed both for and by the homeless.1Newspapers sold on the street to promote the cause of the homeless are becoming an increasingly common sight.2Despite this trend there is at present still no generally acknowledged explanation of the cause of homelessness and we do not know whether the causes are the same in the social democratic European welfare states, in the USA and Canada, or in countries with a poorly developed welfare system. Nor do we know whether homelessness for the individual is a short-term or permanent state. This article highlights Swedish homelessness. It is based on the results of a research project which I ran from 1993 to 1998.3The article has three objectives. First, I wish to provide a brief presentation of the issue of Swedish homelessness...