Ett nödvändigt ont. En diskursanalys av den mediala debatten kring konsulter inom socialtjänsten. SQ4562,

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the occurrence of private consultants within the municipal Swedish social service organisation. To this aim, this study chose to analyse the professional debate and how these consultants are constructed within newspapers and professional journals by the application of discourse analysis and critical theory of organizations on the material. Two of the largest newspapers in Sweden and four professional social work journals was chosen for this study and out of 316 articles, 66 were, selected for analysis. The findings of the study were that private consultants within the municipal Swedish social service organisation were mainly constructed as “a necessary evil” and that there is an ongoing discussion about demarcation on the use of these consultants. The study further found that theories of NPM (New Public Management) and privatisation can be applied to explain the phenomenon. The affect this can be interpreted to have on social work is that the municipal Swedish social service organisation could be evolving towards more control and standardization within the organisation.