Staffan Bengtsson

Producing and consuming knowledge in social work practice: research and development activities in a Swedish context

The aim of this article is to describe how experince-based knowledge can be made visible by giving some examples of how this has been done in Swedish social welfare services, in collaborations betw ...

Reflection in action : Implications for care work

This paper addresses the issue of reflective practice, as suggested by Schön. The aim is to analyze instances of reflective practice in elder care, in order to depict individual and collective work. Reflective practice is prevailing as a way of emphasizing the value of practical knowledge and enhancing its status. Reflexivity is thinking about what and why we do something. Moreover, reflexivity is a way of incorporating knowledge with our own personal selves, making it a very personal matter. Using reflective practice in elder care enables learning, leading to improved quality of care. However, individual reflection must be accompanied by collective reflection; this is crucial to improve quality of care.

You Have to Have a Certain Feeling for This Work: Exploring Tacit Knowledge in Elder Care

Increased care worker knowledge has been emphasized for improving quality of care for older persons in organized elder care in Sweden. However, care workers and national policies are not always corresponding, with observations suggesting that care workers emphasize tacit knowledge. The aim of this article is to explore the nature of this kind of knowledge and how it can be identified and described. Field notes from participant observations at two elder care units in Sweden serve as the empirical material. Knowledge use for staff in elder care is part of a process of knowledge making and knowledge shaping. Analysis of the field notes identified the themes of “feeling for work” and “acting and artistry” as parts of a tacit knowledge in elder care. The processes of knowledge and job execution are closely intertwined, making them difficult to separate or even understand without a deeper insight.

On the borderline – representations of disability in the Old Testament

This article explores disability in the Old Testament. The discussion takes its starting point in a number of domains and arenas where disability was visualized and investigates the significance and meaning that can be attached to these domains in relation to the problem of inclusion and exclusion. The analysis highlights complex and contradictory phenomena, where the interpretation was not given but rather dependent on the cultural context and different mechanisms at work.

Child protection and cultural awareness: Simulation-based learning

ABSTRACT Social work educators have long struggled with the challenge of finding appropriate strategies for fostering cultural awareness among their students. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how a computer-based simulation, SimChild, can be used in teaching about child protection to enhance cultural awareness among students and expand their insight into how personal biases can affect professional practice. In SimChild, individual students can assume the role of social worker and then collectively discuss the patterns emerging after their individual assessments have been aggregated. This study, based primarily on focus group data, reflects testing conducted at three Swedish universities.

The nation’s body : disability and deviance in the writings of Adolf Hitler

Abstract This article takes its starting point in the Nazi ideology as it appears in the writings of Adolf Hitler, and discusses how disability and the body can be understood in the context of Mein Kampf. The article underlines how disability and bodily infirmities, alongside race, featured significantly in Hitler’s demagogic message. Although the overall image of disability was related to a sense of threat – and a culture gone wrong – Mein Kampf also contains a mixed interpretation of disability as a phenomenon, in which different and opposing disability narratives took part in the construction and the image of the body as a national property.

Out of the frame: disability and the body in the writings of Karl Marx

How disability as a phenomenon is to be understood has been widely discussed within the field of disability research. Influenced by a Marxist perspective, the social model has reinforced the view that disability results from the organization of society rather than from individual premises. This article elaborates on these issues by exploring the writings of Karl Marx and his views concerning disability. The analysis pinpoints bodily normality in Marx’s reasoning and how the economic system shapes the premises for participation and roles, but also how people with disabilities were left out of the progressive call for social change.

The myth of the total institution: Written narratives of patients' views of sanatorium care 1908–1959

Drawing on written narratives by 72 former sanatorium patients, this article explores, from patients perspectives, the nature of the relationships between patients and staff in a Swedish sanatorium during the first half of the twentieth century. These narratives are discussed in the context of the total institution. This article suggests that this phenomenon was marked by inconsistencies that can be understood in terms of its situational and contradictory characteristics. Simultaneously, these narratives are in opposition to the assumption of the static and powerless patient adapted only to suit the logic of the institution.