Medverkan och inflytande : om brukarnas roll i socialtjänstens kunskapsutveckling

The main purpose of this essay was to study the program "Nationellt stod for kunskapsutveckling inom socialtjansten" ("National support for knowledge development within the social services") from the National Board of Health and Welfare on the basis of how such a development, as represented by the program, could affect clients' possibilities to participation and influence within the social services. To respond to the purpose I used the following questions at issue: * How is client participation and client influence defined in the program? * What arguments for and/or against client participation and client influence are stated? * Which patterns and similarities/differences are possible to discern between the municipalities and universities that participated in the program when it comes to client participation and client influence? The study was conducted as a document analysis. I studied documents from the program both on a national and a local level. The essay uses empowerment theories and theories concerning client participation and client influence. The main conclusions were that on the national level the authors of the documents spoke with caution about their view on client participation and client influence and expressed that it had to be balanced against the rights of the citizens and the social workers for example. On the local level the participating universities and communities had designed their projects so that they contained very different levels of client participation.