RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Anbjørg Ohnstad

Associate Professor of Psychology

Primary Theme

Invisible or on display?

The development of identity and identity-creating processes for lesbians. Dilemmas and challenges in the self-understanding of the marginalised.

Research Problems

·        What are identity-creating processes? How is self-understanding created in the interaction with significant others? Who are significant others for lesbians? Representations of masculinity and femininity as developmental pre-conditions for the formation of identity among lesbians.

·        How is self-understanding a formative product of the heterosexual and homosexual discourses?

·        How can themes that are riddled with shame be deconstructed? Once they are deconstructed, how can they then be reconstructed into new stories that are important in a woman’s life?

·        What are the strategies for negotiating or navigating, in societies that have differing parameters for homosexuality?

·        Which historical discourses have an impact upon women’s histories?

Method

A qualitative study will be made involving ten women. Clinical notes that were produced to promote therapeutic conversation will be systematised. The clinical notes will be supplemented by conducting new interviews. A group-interview will be conducted for women who have not had therapy.

Theoretical Perspectives

Differing theoretical perspectives will be employed.

·        A social-psychological discourse analysis that studies the constitution of identity in a perspective focusing upon power and gender.

·        Phase theories that focus upon the personal and social factors of a negotiation process- “The Coming Out Process”.

·        A communications perspective that emphasises processes of interaction.

Organisation and Funding

The project is organised in association with The University of Oslo, Institute of Psychology. The research is a part of my doctoral studies. OsloUniversityCollege is financing 50% by providing me with a doctoral research stipend. The other 50% is financed by teaching on the Bachelor in Social Work programme (25%) and by fulfilling my research duties at work (25%).

 Anbjørg Ohnstad

Associate Professor of Psychology

Primary Theme

A textbook in psychology for health and social workers

This is a co-operative project by faculty members in various university colleges who teach psychology to students in health and social work. Participants include faculty members from OsloUniversityCollege, VoldaUniversityCollege, BodøUniversityCollege and DiakonhjemmetUniversityCollege.

Research Problems

My chapter titles are:

·        Life-long Development

·        Power and Powerlessness

·        Attitudes from a Queer Perspective

Method

Other textbooks will be scrutinised and experiences from clinical and educational work will be applied to the task of writing these three chapters.

Theoretical Perspectives

I will attempt to explicate and apply diverse theories in the field of psychology.

Organisation and Funding

The textbook will be published by CappelenAkademiskeForlag in 2004 or 2005.

Mons Oppedal

Associate Professor of Law

Primary Theme

The research will explicate the statutes relevant for acute decision-making and action in the Law Governing Child Welfare Services enacted on the 17th of July 1992. The project aims at fulfilling requirements leading to a doctorate in law.

Research Problems

The research problem addressed in my thesis questions the existing law regarding the regulation of materials and processes in the statutes that deal with acute need in the LawGoverningChildWelfare Services. To what extent is existing law being applied? Is there a need or a reason to make changes in the existing law? There are three research problems under study in this project; one that is concerned with legal dogma, one that is concerned with the sociology of law and finally, one that is concerned with the character of legal policy.

·        Legal dogma

Do the statutes in question merely regulate decision-making and action, in situations where a child or children are in acute need, or do these statutes obligate public authorities to act? Material conditions and procedural conditions that are necessary to make and maintain rulings will be thoroughly scrutinised. TheEuropeanConventiononHumanRights and other sources of Norwegian law will be studied.

·     The sociology of law

To what extent are the legal rulings in question followed? Available research-based knowledge will be applied. In addition, my own research findings will be utilised. Finally, use will be made of other sources of knowledge, including newspaper reports, documents based upon experience, etc.

·        Legal policy

Is there a need to change existing rules and regulations?

Method and Theoretical Perspectives

In the day to day practice of child welfare legislation, the areas of conflict between parents and publicly supported child welfare services dominate. The analysis will attempt to discover just how these conflicts are regulated. In addition, the thesis will attempt to evaluate the rules and regulations that provide children with rights and influence when they are seen as being in acute danger.

Organisation and Funding

The project aims at fulfilling requirements in the doctoral programme in the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. 

OlavHove

AssociateProfessorofSocialPolicy

Primary Theme

What have we learned from the comparative research in social assistance?

Research Problems

What are the most central themes and research problems in this field of inquiry? What are the sources of data, the research methods and the theoretical approaches being applied to this field of study? What are the most interesting findings? I will summarise, compare and contrast, and evaluate various research studies and discuss the relevance of social research for the development of Norwegian social policy.

Method

The literature in this field of research will be studied and scrutinised. Bibliographies will be written that concern themselves with the most important studies. In particular, the bibliographies will identify the primary themes, research problems, sources of data and methods of analysis that have been utilised. Theoretical approaches and major findings will be described and explicated. Judgements will be made about the relevance of these studies for circumstances in Norway. In addition, other sources of data will be used.

Theoretical Perspectives

The field of research is divided into four areas of study: Typology and studies of the method or system of governance, workfare studies, dynamic studies and other studies. Theoretical perspectives within each area of study will be discussed.

Organisation and Funding

The project is associated with the GIV-project entitled ”The status of knowledge regarding foreign and comparative social assistance research”, led by Ivar Lødemel. Most of the time that I am able to devote to researchanddevelopment at work will be used in this project.

Bjørn Riiser

Assistant Professor of Social Work

Primary Theme

An Attempt to Provide Counselling and Opportunities for Personal Development

This is an experimental project that aims at providing individual counselling, groupwork and educational courses for people who are in challenging life-situations. The goal is to increase the quality of life for those who participate and to prevent the onslaught of psychological and somatic symptoms of distress.

Research Problems

The project presupposes that there are many adults in Oslo who find themselves in very challenging life-situations, but who are not heavily involved in relationships with health and social services. How will these people respond to information about the provision of counselling services and other opportunities for personal development? How and where should these services and opportunities be advertised? What are the problems and the developmental and educational needs of adults who strugge with challenging life-situations? Will these adults prefer individual counselling services, groupwork or the provision of educational courses? How can one chart and describe the experiences of adults who use the counselling services and the other opportunities that will be provided? Can the users and the providers of these services and opportunities co-operate to develop new knowledge?

Method

Quantitative and qualitative research methods will be utilised. Assessment techniques and problem-solving processes in social work practice will be implemented. Social groupwork and self-help groups will be provided. Educational and developmental work will be undertaken in courses that will be offered to the adult public.

Theoretical Perspectives

An assortment of theoretical perspectives will be tested. These will include various communication and interactional perspectives, participation, problem-solving, learning and coping perspectives.

Organisation and Funding

The municipality of Oslo has provided The Senior Club with funds to promote voluntary work. An application to fund this project has been sent to The Senior Club. A number of social workers have offered to volunteer their services for a few hours each week in order to support this project. If the project is funded, colleagues and students will be invited to participate. The project will place great importance upon the training and supervision of voluntary workers. The funds that are raised for this project will primarily be used to pay for training and supervision.

Olav Hove

Associate Professor of Social Policy

Primary Theme

Social supports and stigma

Research Problems

This study will attempt to clarify, discuss and compare different theoretical approaches to the concept stigma and to the relationship between stigma and social supports. My goal is to discuss general ideas of stigma and social policy oriented approaches to the study of stigma in society.

Method

This will be a study of the current literature. My method or plan begins by describing the various ways that the concept stigma can be approached, without discussing or evaluating those approaches. Thereafter, I will discuss each approach critically. My discussion will tosomeextent deconstruct those approaches. I will not propose or construct an alternative approach. I consider my critical discussions to be one of the main contributions of my study. A second and equally important contribution are the comparisons that I make and my attempts to place and discuss the various approaches in relationship to one another. In a sense, the differing theoretical approaches constitute a kind of empirical base for the discussions that follow. The comparative discussions will provide my report with a common thread.

Theoretical Perspectives

The theoretical approaches that are treated will include Erving Goffman’s foundational work from 1963, the British discipline called socialadministration as it is represented by Richard M. Titmuss and Robert Pinker, as well as other diverging theoretical, ideological and political approaches – including post-modernism.

Organisation and Funding

The work will be done in order to partially fulfil my duties to engage in research and development projects.

Signe Sundt Rasmussen

Assistant Professor of Social Work

Primary Theme

The history and professional development of social work in Norway. The period of study is 1948 – 1965.

Research Problems

What can today’s social workers learn from yesterday’s social curators? What were the leading ideologies in the period of study and how did those ideologies influence professional development? What were the theoretical foundations for social work and how did social workers understand action (their own abilities to act) in the period of study?

Method

This is a qualitative study. We have already interviewed 20 informants who were active in the field of social work during the time period under study and we will be interviewing many more. The study will include scrutinising many public documents, Norwegian and Nordic journals, textbooks used in that period of time, and documents from the archives of Hospital Curators.   

Theoretical Perspectives

Hermeneutic and phenomenological perspectives will be employed. Sociological theories will be applied, particularly those from the works of Pierre Bourdieu. These will include his analysis of society and the application of central concepts like habitus and symbolic power. We will also be using elements from the works of Hannah Arendt, Zygmunt Bauman and Kari Martinsen.

Organisation and Funding

Members of the research project team are Helga Johannesdottir, Cand. Polit., Laila Granli Aamodt, Cand. Polit., and Signe Sundt Rasmussen, Cand. Socion. The project team will be supervised by Inger Bjørnhaug, Professor in Contemporary History, LillehammerUniversityCollege.

We have received funds from the labour union FO, which is a union for social workers, child welfare workers, and milieu therapists and a member of the LO, the largest labour union in Norway. We expect to be working on this project for many years to come. We have also received funds from FORSA, an organisation of social workers doing social research. The funds will finance three articles, one from each project member, to be published in Norwegian or Nordic journals of social work. These publications are expected within the year. My working titles include ”When casework came to Norway.” ”What is Social Casework?” ”How was casework mediated and received in Norway?

Mai Njå

Assistant Professor of Social Work

Primary Theme

”ClimbingoutoftheLabyrinth”

Solution-oriented therapy, narratives in social work practice and treatment that are aimed at making changes.

Research Problems

How can ideas and principles derived from solution-oriented therapy help social workers and clients that are engaged in a change-making process? How can ideas and principles from narrative therapy contribute to the co-operation between social workers and clients engaged in change-making processes?

Method

I will be applying notes from many years of teaching and consulting in social work. I will be interviewing informants.

Theoretical Perspectives

I will be applying solution-oriented therapeutic approaches, ideas connected to the concept co-construction, ideas from narrative therapy, ideas from theories that underscore the importance of language and meaning, and ideas from social constructionism.

Svein Alve

Assistant Professor in Psychology

Primary Theme

” Coping with Stressful Events in the Community – A Study of Adults Suffering from Spina Bifida”   

Research Problems

Objective: Learning to cope effectively with stressful life situations and lifelong health problems is of major importance for adults living with spina bifida (SB). The general aim of this study is to investigate the psychological aspects of coping with stressful events for adults who suffer from spina bifida within the community. 

Method

Material and methods: Fifty-seven Norwegian adults ( 38 females and 19 males) participated in a postal survey in 2002. The mean age for participants was 30.7 years. In addition to a semi-structured assessment guide, the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL), the Impact of Events Scale (IES), The Lazarus Revised Ways of Coping Checklist (WCC-RO, and the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFS), were used. Medical factors, including cognitive problems influencing everyday activities, presence of shunt, number of shunt revisions, pain, fatigue, and co-morbidity were also assessed with single-item variables. Mobility impairment was assessed on the basis of the adults’ response to an 11-item self-report questionnaire.

Theoretical Perspectives

During the past few decades, the improved possibilities of treatment, including that of shunt treatment and revisions, have increased the chances of adult survival for persons with (SB). Present studies of persons with SB have focused largely upon neurophysiological, cognitive and language problems associated with the disease. Few studies have focused upon the emotional adjustment of these adults, although they are at considerable risk for developing psychological distress.

Importantly, cognitive distress factors have long been presumed to play a major role in the etiology, maintenance and treatment of clinical depression among non-cognitively disabled persons. A major obstacle in studying psychological distress in persons with cognitive disabilities has been the assumption that such individuals are not capable of experiencing affective disorders. Earlier reviews, however, have shown that persons with cognitive disabilities experience a full range of affective illnesses, although manifestations may differ depending upon the degree of cognitive impairment. Moreover, due to the fact that SB is a multi-disability, it could be assumed that psychological distress in adults is associated with medical factors such as progressive neurological impairments and secondary morbidities such as shunt dependence, pain, fatigue and reduced mobility and sensory problems.

Organisation and Funding

My contribution is based upon the research and development resources built into my position at work. The project is being carried out in co-operation with M.H. Kalfoss district nursing home. 

Svein Alve

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Primary Theme

Polyclinical group therapy is an important form of treatment for those who hope to resume employment. The aim of long-term group therapy is to enable an increase in self-esteem, to improve skills for coping with stress and to reduce vulnerability. In theory, group therapy should lead to better social functioning and to a better adjustment to the requirements of the work-world.

Research Problems

The goal of this research is to evaluate the benefits of long-term polyclinical group therapy. The research team wants to assess the following: changes in symptoms, changes in inter-personal over-sensitivities, changes in abilities to function at work, the factors that can predict good results from treatment.

Method

The study focuses upon 32 patients who have participated in group therapy at the sanatorium at Modum Bad. The following questionnaires have been utilised at the start of group therapy, after one-year’s treatment, when treatment was terminated and one year after the termination of treatment: Symtom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, IIPSAS (social adjustment scale). Most of the patients also participated in a semi-structured interview in order to secure an optimal diagnosis, SCID.

Theoretical Perspectives

Group therapy is a form of treatment that is often provided in various and differing sectors within psychiatric services in Norway. This considerable clinical activity is seldom evaluated. An interesting research problem might be one that questioned the indicators for providing analytic group therapy. When is it a good idea to choose analytic group therapy as treatment? In light of other forms of treatment, which patients would most benefit from participation in analytic group therapy? To the extent that this study can document good results for a group of patients with complex problems, i.e., a relatively low level of symptoms and a high degree of interpersonal problems, it may be able to indicate which patients have the best prospects for benefitting from long-term group therapy.

Organisation and Funding

My contribution is provided by the research and development resources built into my position at work. The project is to be carried out in co-operation with Per Anders Øien, Chief of the Clinic at the Modum Bad Sanatorium, Eva Berg, Diakonhjemmet HospitalAS, and Egil Martinsen, Director of Research at Modum Bad Sanatorium.

Svein Alve

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Primary Theme

The development of psychometric instruments for measuring anxiety, depression, and self-confidence in adolescents.

Research Problems

Validating and standardising these measuring instruments.

Method

These measuring instruments have been tested upon different groups of older children, adolescents and adults. In the continuing work to validate these instruments, plans have been made to test them upon adolescents residing in child welfare institutions, in co-operation with The State Agency for Child Welfare and Family Welfare, Eastern Regional Office.

Theoretical Perspectives

Instruments for measuring psycho-social relationships and psychological health, in adults, have existed for quite awhile now. These are increasingly used in clinical practice and in clinical research. At the same time, instruments to measure psychological health and psycho-social relationships for children and adolescents are seldom seen. Internationally, such instruments are beginning to become available. Still, utilising these instruments becomes a problem because they have not been standardised for use in a Norwegian context.

Organisation and Funding

My contribution is provided by the research and development resources built into my position at work. The project will be carried out together with Per Nerdrum, Associate Professor of Psychology at OsloUniversityCollege.

Svein Alve

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Primary Theme

How do social workers and social work students perceive a single parent client? This is an experimental study exploring the social perception of gender.

Research Problems

This study concretely explores patterns of differential treatment and their implications for understanding how gender is constructed by social workers and by students of social work.

Method

This will be an exploratory experimental study carried out with practising social workers and social work students in Norway. Each respondent was presented with a case history of a single unemployed parent experiencing a number of problems. After reading the case history, the respondents were asked to answer a series of questions aimed at eliciting perceptions of the client’s needs and problems, and how social work skills and interventions could be used to help the client out of these difficulties. About 50% of the respondents were provided with a case history describing the client as a woman, while the remaining respondents were provided with a case history describing the client as a man. In all other respects, the case histories were identical. Statistical analyses of responses will give information about whether the gender of the client affected the perception of the client’s needs and the social work interventions that were chosen.  

Theoretical Perspectives

In face to face interaction, gender is most often experienced as a very salient variable. Various research findings reveal gender differences. Several research studies also confirm that gender has an important influence on social perception and call forth dissimilar patterns of expectation and action. Only a small number of research studies have explored how client gender influences the perceptions of social workers when assessing the client’s problems. Furthermore, little is taught in social work educational programmes about differential perception and treatment of clients due to gender.

Organisation and Funding

My contribution to this project is based upon the research and development resources built into my position at work. Paul Thyness, Associate Professor of Social Administration at OsloUniversityCollege, has contributed to the development of the project idea and to the practical work necessary for the project’s completion.

Paul Thyness

Associate Professor of Social Administration

Themes

1.      I will be editing a volume of the NordicJournalofSocialWork (NordiskSosialtArbeid).

2.      I will be preparing a compendium for students in practical field work placements abroad.

3.      I will attempt to establish new field work placements in foreign countries.

4.      I will complete the book entitled Boligsosialt arbeid (SocialWorkPracticeinHousingEstates)

 Karin Haarberg Aas

Assistant Professor of Social Work

Primary Theme

The importance of skill-development training courses, for the personal experience of developing competence, for students in the Bachelor of Social Work programme.

Research Problems

The project will attempt to find out to what extent students themselves attach importance to the skill-development training courses when considering their own development of competency as social workers. What do students find to be useful in these courses? What do they find to be less useful? What are the conditions within these courses that promote increased self-understanding and an increased ability to engage in dialogue and reflection? How do students evaluate their competencies after completing these courses? After completing their supervised field work training? After practicing social work for one year? How do they evaluate the importance of the skill-development courses for the development of their own competencies?

Method

The project will have quantitative and qualitative elements. All students who complete the skill-development courses will be asked to fill-out a questionnaire. After the data has been analysed, follow-up studies will be made after completion of the field work requirement, and then after one year of employment as a social worker. In addition, 6 or 7 students will be asked to participate in in-depth interviews and in focus interviews.

Theoretical Perspectives

The project will be influenced by an assortment of theoretical contributions. The required readings in the Bachelor in Social Work programme will be one source of theoretical literature that will be scrutinised in this project. In the recent past, a great number of research papers have pointed to the importance of the relationship between the helper and her client. Theories concerning competencies in interpersonal relationships and how those competencies can be developed will be central for this study. Perspectives from the philosophy of science will be applied.

Sigrun Hoel

Assistant Professor of Law

Primary Themes

1.      Elucidating social assistance from a humanrights perspective

2.      Problems associated with the obligation to respect confidentiality

3.      Demands for treatment and rehabilitation in the Law Governing Social Security – How are these demands being addressed?

A Short Summary

Regarding theme 1. The European Declaration of Human Rights is a convention that almost totally forbids enforced labour. The same can be said for a number of other conventions that bind Norwegian practices. One of the questions I will raise asks ”to what extent can workfare be seen as being enforced labour, from the perspective of human rights?”.

Regarding theme 2.  Social work in housing estates is a relatively new area of practice. I have lectured on this theme by discussing the professional obligation to respect confidentiality as it applies to the social work done in housing estates. My lectures will be reorganised into an article on this subject. This work will be done in co-operation with Paul Thyness, Associate Professor of Social Administration.

Regarding theme 3. Odd Einar Dørum, Norway’s Minister of Justice has recently pointed out that we have much too little knowledge about the way in which our Social Security Laws function. I was a legal consultant for the Social Security Claims Court, 25 years ago, and I helped Tove Stang Dahl with her study of the rules used to determine when recipients of social security benefits were entitled to higher allocations and how those rules were being practiced. I am planning to make a similar investigation of my own concerning appeals made to the Social Security Claims Court regarding unreasonable demands that recipients undergo treatment and rehabilitation in order to receive social security payments.

May-Britt Solem

Adjunct Social Researcher

Primary Theme

Parents´ perception of coping in families with children having behaviour problems

May-Britt Solem, OsloUniversityCollege, Faculty of Business, Public Administration and Social Work and Sogn Centre for Child and Adolescence Psychiatry, University of Oslo. 

Background

Important protective factors in families involve the child in having a confident and intimate relationship to at least one of the parents (Rutter 1985). Good conditions for adolescence involve among others the possibility to experience praise and confirmation, which promote confidence, self-esteem and resilience in handling mild stress. Children with behaviour problems need especially to learn to cope daily demands and routines in school and in their spare time. The more problems, the better coping strategies are required. Increased knowledge in coping will contribute to a new understanding of family interaction and increased competence in family treatment.

Aims

Quantitative study:

This study will make a map of and examine patterns between parental locus of control and stress, parental coping strategies and their sense of coherence in relation to parents mental health and children symptoms, by comparing a group of parents with children that have behaviour problems to a group of parents with children that have internal problems.

Quality study:

Explore differences and similarities in the parents coping strategies (emotional, cognitive and behaviour strategies) in the two groups. Contextualising the narratives and expose the invisible and non-reflected strategies that parents are using. This means to grasp all types of considerations and adjustments parents make to promote resilience for their children having problems in daily life.

The questions to be answered

Are there differences between patterns of parents perceptions of control, stress and coping strategies in the two groups? How are the the parents perceptions of coping related to the childs symptoms and the parents own mental health? Are the quantitative and the qualitative findings congruent and complimentary?

Methods

The parents are going to answer the following: 1. Child Behaviour Checklist. 2. The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory. 3. Sense of Coherence. 4. Nijmegen Child Rearing Situation. 5. COPE. 6. Questions concerning perception of social support. 7. Global Assessment Scale.

All families will be interviewed in accordance with an interview-guide that will be based upon the experiences of a pilot study. Finally, a clinical assessment of relations in the family will be made, using the Global Assessment of relational Functioning Scale.

Monica Kjørstad

Assistant Professor of Social Work

Primary Theme

Elucidating the challenges and ethical dilemmas that social workers face when implementing the social policy known as workfare. Social work as a discursive practice.

Research Problems

·        How does implementation of workfare effect inclusion/ exclusion (marginalisation)?

·        What are the most compelling ethical dilemmas generated by the implementation of workfare? What are the challenges and ethical dilemmas that impinge upon a social worker’s ethical positioning?

·        To what extent is there room for professional and ethical ruminations and doubt in the practice of social work? How much room to manoeuvre do social workers really have?

·        How do the social workers who implement workfare experience the policy? How do they legitimate the policy to themselves and others?

·        How and to what extent do social workers experience the impact of existing social policies upon their practice? Do social workers experience that they have an impact upon social institutions and social policy-making?

Method

The study has a multi-dimensional design. Various qualitative methods will be utilised, including observation, interviews, case conferences, focus groups, participant seminars and the analysis of relevant documents.

Theoretical Perspectives

The investigation begins by describing the municiple office of social welfare as being a border-guarding or delimiting institution. These offices determine who are to be included and who are to be excluded from receiving social assistance of various kinds. Central perspectives in this study include seeing the practice of social work as professional practice, and considering the ethical position of social workers in the context of bureaucracy.

JannickeHeyerdahl-Larsen

AssistantProfessorofSocialWork

Primary Theme

Acknowledging the Other and the Self and the development of an appreciative form of communication between the two.

Research Problems

My first presupposition is that a lack of self-respect can lead to dominating behaviour by social workers in their face-to-face meetings with clients. My second presupposition is that the same lack of self-respect can result in powerlessness and submission when social workers face the rigidities of the system within which they are employed.

In the article entitled ”I dialog med klienten – dominans eller svaghet” ( In Dialogue with the Client – domination or weakness) by Torben Berg Sørensen, published in the 4th volume of Nordisk Sosialt Arbeid (TheNordicJournalofSocialWork) 1994, Sørensen argues that the social worker has all the power in conversations with their clients. Social workers do most of the talking and they send a series of self-deprecatory signals to their clients about their own insecurities. The social workers that Sørensen studied all wanted to engage themselves as equals in their meetings with clients, but their practices, unfortunately, functioned in a repressive manner.

I read the article as testimony to the idea that meetings between social workers and their clients are often characterised by confusing and offensive communication. As a teacher, I tried to remedy the situation. I did so by offering some of my students the opportunity to participate in an action-research project when they were busily learning how to do social work in practical fieldwork placements. The project aimed at training students to use non-violent communication in order to contribute to increased self-respect and self-realisation.

Gandhi often said and wrote ”One must strengthen oneself” (Gandhi 1999). ”The object appears to one to be that of showing the most excellent way to attain self-realisation”. He wrote, ”what I want to achieve – what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years, is self-realisation” (Næss 1947). The central focus of non-violence is self-realisation, self-respect and independence, and this is true for the individual and for the nation. If one is able to develop these qualities in oneself one may be able to function in a non-violent way to Others and to oneself.

The co-operative project I initiated included 10 students and myself and the goals of the project were the following:

·        To increase self-respect and self-assertion in work situations that require social workers to ”toe the line”.

·        To test whether non-violent communication and non-violent thinking would lead to self-assertion and increased self-respect.

·        To systematise and publish the results of the action-research project.

Method

This will be a qualitatively designed action-research project. My students have given me permission to use their log-books from the course in non-violent communication that I initiated. I wrote a log-book as well, and I have taped two conversations with students aimed at providing me with evaluation materials. I will write the first-draft of an article based on the aforementioned materials. Thereafter, I intend to engage in a dialogue with the students on tape so that the final product will also be a product of dialogue. In this way I hope to be able to produce an article about non-violent communication by engaging in non-violent communication and as a consequence of non-violent communication.

Theoretical Perspectives

Non-violent communication, communication that acknowledges the Other and the self. The ideology of non-violence.

Organisation

The course I have initiated will have eight meetings.

Ragnhild Hansen

Assistant Professor in Social Work

Primary Theme

The development of methods in a comparative study of social work in England and Norway.

Research Problems

To develop and explore a methodical approach for comparing the decisions made and the practical actions taken by social workers in two countries. Social workers in both countries will be critically reviewed and evaluated by experienced colleagues from another country.

Method

A qualitative study will be made involving 12 social workers – 6 from each land. These will be recruited from three fields of practice: child welfare, youth work/ the care and treatment of offenders, and psychiatric social work within municipal social services. A combination of research practices will be utilised. These include case presentation, reflections about one’s own professional contribution and development in group discussions, and in plenum discussions.

Theoretical Perspectives

Knowledge in practice (cases, contexts, dialogue) and reflections on professional action.

Focus groups versus group supervision and social work methods.

The role of research / the role of a moderator

Organisation and Funding

No external financing is contemplated. The research will be financed by the research and development function built into my position. I will be analysing data that has already been collected in England and Norway. My research will require supervised support.

Michael Seltzer, Ph. D.

Associate Professor

Primary Theme (I)

Ethnographic analyses of a therapeutic community for recovering heroin addicts in Hungary.

Research Problems

With the help of models and concepts developed in ethnographic and linguistic studies of therapeutic communities and similar total institutions as well as anthropological understandings of 12-step ideologies and drug and alcohol addiction developed by Gregory Bateson, Maria Swora, Carl Thune and Philippe Bourgois, this study focuses on:·        What processes in therapeutic communities contribute to deconstruction of the identity/habitus of the heroin addict?·        What processes in therapeutic communities contribute to the construction of the identity/habitus of the addict in recovery?·        What roles in the above processes are played by the complex of rituals and other symbols constituting the core structures of therapeutic communities? Method A qualitative ethnographic study of a therapeutic community begun in September 2003 was concluded in August 2004.  This completed investigation has yielded a substantial body of field notes.  At present, these are being analyzed in a frame partially making use of informants from the community with whom I established relationships during the period of the study. In addition, the data for this study of a hierarchic therapeutic community in Hungary featuring a 12-step ideology will be compared with data gathered by the sociologist Arild Thomassen in his study of a hierarchic therapeutic community for drug addicts modelled after the Phoenix House system in Norway.  At present, negotiations are in process to add a third set of data drawn from an ethnographic and discourse analytic study of a 12-step therapeutic community for alcoholics carried out in Finland and led by Professor Ilkka Arminen.   Theoretical Perspectives

A range of theoretical models and constructs will be employed – drawing primarily from cultural anthropological and sociological theories.  Prominent among these are:

·        Models of drug/alcohol addiction and recovery developed by cultural and social anthropology

·        Understandings of the language, social constructionist and narrative aspects of 12-step programs in therapeutic communities, prisons and other total institutions.

·        Psychological and sociological framings of identity change among drug and alcohol abusers.  In this respect, theoretical notions of habitus and disposition developed by Pierre Bourdieu will be contrasted with more traditional as well as newer understandings of identity developed by theorists in psychology, sociology, cultural studies and anthropology

  Results to date:

Thus far, theoretical analyses and interpretations of these data have been published as the prefacing chapter to:

·        Craving for Sobriety: A Unique Therapeutic Community in Hungaryby Kelemen Gábor and B. Erdõs Márta. Faculty of Humanities, University of C: Pécs, Hungary, 2004.

·        “The Troubled Happiest Barrack: The Social Context of Drug and Alcohol Abuse in Hungarian Society” – a 10 page manuscript - has been submitted for review as a possible article in the journal Social History of Alcohol Review, July, 2004.

  Organization and Funding

The project has been organized with the assistance of the Leo Amici 2002 Foundation and the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Pécs, Pécs,Hungary.  The funding for the research was made possible by a Senior Stipend awarded me for the academic year 2003/2004 by OsloUniversityCollege as well as by an Erasmus Grant provided me by OsloUniversityCollege.

Primary Theme (II)

Cultural and linguistic framings of therapeutic work with rural families navigating and negotiating their lives in changing contexts of post-modern, modern and pre-modern Norway – continuation of a 5-year project

Research Problem

With the help of models and concepts developed in cultural anthropology, linguistics and post-structural sociology, this study aims at identifying and clarifying the problems and processes involved in therapeutic work with couples and families coming to therapy from a rural society undergoing radical change.

 Method

Through the use of videotapes and observations of therapeutic work with couples and families during a 5-year period, a substantial body of data has been collected and analyzed by a multidisciplinary team having backgrounds in psychiatry, social work, clinical psychology, sociology and cultural anthropology. 

Theoretical Perspectives

Central among the theoretical perspectives employed in treating the data thus far analyzed and interpreted have been ones drawing from post-modernist and modernist thinking about culture in anthropology and cultural studies, discursive and linguistic models, narrative and social constructionist thought and the writings of Michel Foucault, Mikael Bakhtin and Paul Riceour.

Results to date:  

Thus far theoretical analyses and interpretations of these data have been published in international journals under the following titles:

• Co-texting, chronotope and ritual: a Bakhtinian framing of talk in therapy, Journal of Family Therapy 26: 357-382. (with W. Seltzer), 2004.
• Eposz, közös szövegalkotás, és "kivulállóság". A bahtyini elmélet és a konverzáció-analizis integrációja a családterapia kulturális megközelitésében, Pszichoterapia, Volume 10:98-108. (with W. Seltzer, N. Homb, P. Midtstigen), 2001.
• Tales full of sound and fury: A cultural approach to family therapeutic work and research in rural Scandinavia, Family Process39:285-306. (with W. Seltzer, N. Homb, P. Midtstigen, & Vik, G.),  2000.

In addition, theoretical analyses and interpretations of data from the project have been presented at the following plenary, sub plenary and workshop presentations atinternational congresses, conferences and research meetings:

·        Multidisciplinary Team Work in Family Therapy, Invited Workshop, 12th World Congress of the International Family Therapy Association, Oslo, Norway, June (with Seltzer, W., Homb, N., Midtstigen, P. & Vik, G.), 2000.

·        Cultural Anthropology and Family Therapy: When Culture Speaks in the Therapy Room, Invited Co-Presentation, 11th World Congress of the International Family Therapy Association, Akron, Ohio, USA, April, (with Seltzer, W.) 1999.

·        Border Crossings: Therapy/Research  with Family Cultures at the Junctures of Premodernity, Modernity and Postmodernity, Invited Subplenary,  10th World Congress of the International Family Therapy Association, Dusseldorf, Germany, May, (with Seltzer, W., Homb, N., Midtstigen, P. & Vik, G.) 1998.

Additionally, the findings of the research have been presented in papers written for and delivered at the following congresses, conferences and research symposia in the Europe and North America:

Rethinking Talk in Therapy, Invited paper presented at The Bakhtin Centre, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, Great Britain, 27 December 2001 (24 pages)

Changes in Anthropological Research Approaches to Family Therapy, Invited Paper presented at 4th Congress of the European Family Therapy Association, Budapest, Hungary, 28 June 2001 (25 pages)

Looking at Therapeutic Conversation From a Bakhtinian Perspective, Paper presented at Seventh Meeting of the Nordic Network on Language, Interaction and Social Care in the Nordic Welfare Systems, Åland, 4 August, 2000 (19 pages)

Epics, the Carnivalesque and  "Outsidedness: Using Bakhtinian Ideas within a Cultural Framing of Family Therapy, Paper presented at 3d International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference, Birmingham University, Birmingham, Great Britain,  24 June 2000 (24 pages)

Looking at Identity Construction in Client Work: Perspectives from Finland and Norway, Invited paper presented at workshop "Social Work and Social Constructionism", European Association of Schools of Social Work, Helsinki University, Helsinki, Finland, June 1999 (14 pages) (with Jokinen, A. & Suoninen, E.)

The Culture Concept in Family Therapy: A View from Cultural Anthropology, Invited paper presented at 11th  Eleventh World Congress of Family Therapy, International Family Therapy Association, Akron, Ohio, USA, April 1999 (20 pages)

Triangulation as a method in analysing videotaped therapeutic conversations, Paper presented at 4th meeting of NORFA network “Language, interaction and social care in the Nordic Welfare systems”, Den social højskole, Århus, Denmark, June 1998 (10 pages)

 Organization and Funding

The project has been organized and partially funded by a district office of the Family Counselling Services of the State Church of Norway as well as by a grant from a local county council.  In addition, my participation in the project has been provided by research and development resources as part of my position at OsloUniversityCollege.  A large part of the expenses incurred in my participation at international meetings has been provided by the faculty of social work at OsloUniversityCollege.  A smaller amount of specified travel expenses has been provided by NORFA: the Network for Research on Language, Interaction and Social Care in the Nordic Welfare systems.  In addition, The Bakhtin Centre of Sheffield University, UK, has supported this research by appointing me as a visiting scholar during the academic year 2001/2002.

Primary Theme (III)

The social function of the sailors’ tavern in the lives of merchant sailors  an ethno historical study – continuation of earlier research.

Research Problem

• What social and psychological processes are involved in the functioning of sailors’ taverns which long have been a part of the maritime milieus of merchant sailors in Europe and elsewhere?
• How can the structure and functions of sailor’ taverns be related to the total institutional environment of the ship?
• Though the tavern clearly contributes to alcohol use and misuse among its patron/boarders, what are the possible countervailing factors of tavern life contributing to their social and psychological well-being?

Method

By combining field notes from earlier ethnographic field work with data drawn from historical and sociological studies, a diachronic and more balanced perspective on a highly stigmatized social phenomenon is developed.

Theoretical Perspectives

Central to the theoretical framings of sailors taverns as sociological and historical are:

• Erving Goffman’s theory of the total institution as an organization for direct as well as indirect identity formation
• Social historical framings of the role of the tavern in the making of a maritime working class and its resistance to capitalism as found in works by the historians Edward Thompson, Marcus Rediker, and Bryan Palmer.

 Results to date:

Thus far theoretical analyses and interpretations of these data have
been published in international journals under the following titles:
 
Haven in a Heartless Sea: The Sailors' Tavern in History and
Anthropology, The Social History og Alcohol and Drugs: An
Interdisciplinary Journal 19:63-93.

Organization and Funding

No external funding for this project is required.  It is financed by the research and development resources of my position. Additional resources for travel and stay at the Caird Library of The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, UK, have been provided by the Faculty of Social Work, OsloUniversityCollege.

Primary Theme (IV)

Ethnicity and social work – discourse, ideology and practice in encounters between social workers and clients having non-Western family background

Research problems

Two questions were prominent in the research:

• How clients with non-Western family background experienced their meetings with the street-level bureaucrats of the Norwegian welfare state
• What were the practices and ideologies of ethnic Norwegian social workers in their encounters with clients having non-Western family backgrounds.

  Methods

The study employed a qualitative methodology.  Two samples, one comprised of ethnic Norwegian social workers and the other of women and men having non-Western family background with experience as clients, were interviewed.  Attention was especially focused on the narratives related by these informants in the course of qualitative interview situations.  A special concern in the interview situations was with eliciting informant discourses about culture conflicts and cultural misunderstandings experienced by them in situations defined as social work.

Theoretical perspectives      

A variety of theoretical perspective informed the research.  Prominent among these were:

• Narrative and discursive ordering and understandings of  experience
• Theories of vulgar and pseudo- scientific racism
• Social psychological and historical framings of stereotypes (e.g. stereotypical dualism)
• Theories of stigma, stigmatization and marginalization 

Results to date:

Thus far theoretical analyses and interpretations of these data have been published in refereed journals under the following titles:

·        Essay review of Generous Betrayal: Politics of Culture in the New Europe by Unni Wikan (University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 2002) in Norsk Tidsskrift for Migrasjonsforskning 4, Nr. 1, 72-82, 2003. (with S. Ylvisaker)

 In addition, the following research report, authored by research associate Signe Ylvisaker, was published:

• Når Omar, Sara, og Samuel forteller: Diskurs, ideology og handling i møtet mellom sosialarbeidere og sosialklienter med ikke-vestlig familiebakgrunn (trans: When Omar, Sara and Samuel narrate: Discourse, ideology and practice in the encounter between social workers and clients of non-Western family background).  OsloUniversityCollege Report Number 16, 2004)

Organisation and Funding

The research for this project was financed by the Norwegian Research Council.