Social work
Within the subject social work we study people’s living conditions. In particular, we are interested in the contexts that create social problems. We also study society’s measures and how these affect concerned groups. The subject social work is included in the social work study programme but can also be studied as single-subject courses at first-cycle and second-cycle level.
Our social work study programme has one of the highest applicants per place ratio of all degree programmes at Linnaeus University and is offered in both Kalmar and Växjö. In the Swedish Higher Education Authority's latest assessment of all social work study programmes in Sweden, the social work study programme at Linnaeus University was considered to meet the requirements for "high quality".
We offer an education that combines scientific thinking with practical, professional skills and after completing your studies you will be well equipped for a future working life as a social worker.
Social work at Linnaeus University is a third-cycle subject area. The research carried out by us is primarily focused on areas linked to family, children and youth; elderly people and people with disabilities; violence and gender; migration, integration and diversity; evaluations; and social policy questions and welfare.
Education
Programmes and Courses
Research in social work
Within social work at Linnaeus University there are six main research areas:
- Children, youth and family
- Migration, integration and diversity
- Social policy questions and welfare
- Evaluation
- Research on elderly
- Violence and gender
Research groups
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Social work, disability and ageing (SODA) Within the research community of Social Work, Disability and Ageing (SODA) the research area is related to social problems among people with disabilities and…
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Ethnographic Forum Ethnographic Forum is a research group where members share a common interest in qualitative and ethnographic fieldwork. The group consists of researchers and graduate students from…
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Social work and migration In the research and teaching environment Social work and migration participants study and discuss social work in times of migration. What challenges and opportunities does…
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Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies The Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies is a leading Swedish centre for…
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Research on Elderly and Disability in Social Sciences (REIS)
Research projects
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Doctoral project: Who is alone? How is the loneliness of the elderly in the countryside constructed in the social services' speech, text and action My doctoral project is about making visible and…
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Project: Financial neglect financial abuse and against older people The research project begins in a study among staff in elder care, about their experience of the problem. Later, another study is…
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Project: Future students’ perspectives on higher education The aim of this research project is to identify and analyse descriptions by future higher education students’ concerning interests and…
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Project: Tracing the lives and support needs of young fathers
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Project: Cultural dialogue via an interpreter The purpose of this project is to improve interpreted encounter that takes place in public service settings between professionals and non-Swedish speaking…
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Project: Asylum interviews in South Africa and Sweden: Experiences, interpretations, and negotiations This project seeks to investigate and compare the asylum procedure in two countries, South Africa…
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Project: Organizing for trust - coordinated efforts for children's best This research project aims to contribute with knowledge-based support within the initiative ”Barnens bästa gäller! i Kronoberg”…
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Project: Treatment Research with Adolescents at the Maria clinics The idea of the project is to shed light on outcomes for the young people who started an outpatient contact with a Maria clinic one…
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Project: Whose voice? Law, care management and dementia The overall aim is to investigate whether the conditions for achieving the goals and requirements of the Social Services Act can be fulfilled…
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Project: Connected Children: A research centre for knowledge-based prevention This project aims to build a research center with national and international researchers from various professional fields,…
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Project: Abused women in homelessness – a time geographic study The aim of this project is to enhance our knowledge about battered women's experiences of living in transit and managing everyday…
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Project: What works and why? The significance of how interventions and cooperation among organizations affect victims health and well-being The overall purpose of this research project is to explore…
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Doctoral project: Women’s fitness doping The project focuses on women’s meaning making of doping and doping use, in a gym and fitness context. More precisely, the project aims to seek an understanding…
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Project: School success for newly arrived students: possibilities, obstacles, identities and collaboration This project will fill knowledge gaps about the situations of newly arrived children and…
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Project: Youth with war experiences in institutional care The purpose of the study is to analyse narratives by young people that have experienced war, taken refuge in Sweden, and been taken into…
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Project: War anomie In this project, the obscure practices and rhetoric of the war is analysed, the emotions and moral of the war, human interaction during horrific captivity and escape but also the…
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Project: War sociology – renewed analysis of ethnographic material from Bosnia This project analyses verbally depicted experiences of survivors from the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Project: Successful collaboration Previous collaboration research shows that problems and conflicts sometimes arise as a part of collaboration. This project analyses successful cooperation.
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Project: Definitions of successful intelligence and operational police work This project will analyse how the police, border guards and coastguard define successful intelligence and operational police…
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Project: School as a protection factor The aim of this project is to identify and analyse achievements, obstacles, collaboration, and identities in senior high school work with students who use…
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Project: Concurrent Imaginaries, Postcolonial Worlds. Toward Revised Histories This collection of original essays offer new postcolonial approaches to exploring the richness of concurrences as both a…
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Project: Northern Sweden as a colony and as utopia The colonization and decolonization of Northern Sweden (Norrland) was intensely discussed during some decades in the late 19th and early 20th…
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Project: Modelling institutional dynamics in historical commons (MIDI) The MIDI project adopts an interdisciplinary perspective to contribute empirically-grounded and systematic knowledge of the…
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Project: Social wounds and civil repair following forced migration – a case study of narratives of suffering, ethics and morals among Swedish volunteers, social workers and young migrants
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Project: A worthy reception? Social work with of refugees and migrants. Asylum reception is characterized by rapidly changing conditions as well as by a complex structure of receiving actors and…
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Project: Communication with non-Swedish speaking clients and patients The purpose of the study is to map how primary care and social services staff handle communication with patients who have…
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Project: Generating hope and dealing with uncertainty: An ethnographic study of the social dimensions of hope in the Swedish asylum-seeking context This project will study issues of hope and…
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Project: Migration experience and religion as resource. An ethnographic study. I study how the migratory experience is mirrored in Sunday services in a Nigerian pentecostal congregation in Malmö,…
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Project: Narratives as cultural heritage. Power and resistance in collections of narratives from and about immigrants at the archive of Nordic Museum 1970-2015 This project investigates how memory…
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Project: Statelessness and political belonging in a world of nation-states This research project investigates statelessness and political belonging in a world of unequal nation-states and citizenship…
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Project: Pumping up the ego: Biographical studies on young people’s doping trajectories This project will provide increased knowledge of different types of pathways to doping, and also contribute to…
Collaborate with us
The department of social work has a responsibility to carry out research that is relevant to society and can be useful outside the academic world.
Investigations and evaluations
Investigations and evaluations
The department is also presented with a number of investigation and evaluation commissions.
The commissions we consider to be of relevance to our research areas are accepted. The distribution and responsibility for who carries out these commissions is a shared responsibility among researchers at the department. The reporting from such commissions is also an important part in the department's work to spread knowledge through evaluating researchers' writing of reports, participation in training days, conferences and panel debates with the aim to spread the results from investigations and evaluations.
The department carries out contract educations and continuously receives requests to create and offer additional courses at first-cycle and second-cycle level in the form of commissions.
We carry out research and education within areas that are important for practical social work:
• Social child care
• Children as next of kin
• Economic vulnerability and overindebtedness
• Violence in close relations
• Migration and integration
• Addiction treatment
• Elderly and disabled care
• Labour market questions
• Supervision
• Law
• Evaluation
Contract education
We offer courses to support the introduction of newly-employed social workers. When there is a need for skills development, we can together discuss courses (that generate credits), single lectures, and more according to your requests and needs.
More opportunities for contract education:
At the department of social work, skills development can take place by studying a master in social work.
On the master programme, you study courses in social work and scientific method and theory at second-cycle level. As a master student, you also write an individual degree project with the possibility to specialise in the field most relevant to your professional life and the area of activity in which you work.
We also offer curses in:
- Family therapeutic course I
- Methods for supervision in social work I and II (at second-cycle level)
Supervisor at internship
Would you like to welcome a student to your workplace? During their education, the social workers of the future need to gain practical experience in order to root their theoretical knowledge and develop their own professional identity. By accepting a candidate you gain access to a resource that views your activities with fresh eyes. It is also a good way to establish contact with students who are about to enter the labour market.
As a student, the internship should provide you with experience in social work; for instance, by meeting people in different vulnerable situations to increase the student's understanding of social problems and processes. An equally important part is to understand your part in the professional role and to develop a professional identity. The internship also gives you the opportunity to test your theoretical skills and to formulate questions for your future studies.
Supervisor
Every student is allocated a supervisor during his/her internship. The supervisor's task is to support and encourage the student in different ways in his/her professional development. The supervisor is offered to take a 7.5 credit supervisor course in parallel with having a student on internship.
Internship coordinator and course coordinator
The internship coordinator is responsible for the recruitment of internship positions and supervisors as well as for the placement of the students. The course coordinator is responsible for the students' theoretical assignments and the examination of the module. Both are responsible for providing support to both student and supervisor.
Close collaboration
The internship requires a close collaboration with experienced professionals within different social work activities. The department of social work at Linnaeus University provides support in the form of training and guidance to supervisors.
Interested in becoming a supervisor?
In Kalmar, contact Lena Gustafsson, lena.gustafsson@lnu.se, 0480-44 64 19
In Växjö, contact Kulla Persson Kraft, kulla.persson.kraft@lnu.se, 070-533 49 03
International opportunities
Internationalisation is a natural part of social work that permeates all activities within the subject field. Through the years, we have established a number of collaborations with universities all over the world. Thanks to these collaborations, both students and members of staff have great opportunities to study, do internships, carry out research or teach abroad.
There is also internationalisation at home. At the department of social work, you often meet students, teachers and researchers from international universities.
Our students can choose to study one or more terms at an international university.
It is also possible to carry out part or all of the student placement training period (VFU) abroad. In order to make it easier for students who want to do their VFU abroad, we offer so-called VFU programmes. Today, we have five different programmes in the following places: China, Vietnam, Kamerun och New Zeeland.
Student placement training abroad
Want to learn more about social work in an international context? Do you want to train language skills and develop your intercultural skills? Perhaps, for example, foreign-language studies are something for you. You can choose to do all or part of your internship abroad.