Kärt barn har många namn : Hur problematisk skolfrånvaro framställs som socialt problem

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine how problematic school absenteeism is produced, depicted and negotiated as a social problem. It aims to do so by studying texts produced by three different parties with a shared responsibility for children and youths experiencing problematic school absenteeism in Sweden: the families, the school system and affiliated authorities, as well as therapy providers commissioned by the social services. The research questions asked are how these different parties describe problematic school absenteeism as a social problem in texts, and what the consequences for the discourse are based on these problem descriptions. The analyzed texts are an article for debate published in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, written by a parent of a child with problematic school absenteeism, a report written by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate, Skolinspektionen, and a handbook about working with problematic school absenteeism, written by a research team employed by a company specialized in therapies for children and youths with varying social issues.  Theoretically this study mainly departs from Bronfenbrenners (1979) ecological systems theory, the theoretical framework of Foucault (1982), mainly concerning discourse, and the methodological approach of Bacchi (2009) What’s the problem represented to be. The analysis uses Bacchis methodology, by posing specific questions aimed at the three different texts.  The results of this study show that problematic school absenteeism as a social problem is depicted differently throughout the different texts – often using different strategies and perspectives in describing and defining the issue. The study also finds a commonality among the texts regarding their perspective on parental strategies and influence in relation to problematic school absenteeism, where this factor is generally not scrutinized.  One of the major conclusions drawn from this study is that the discourse generally tends to subjectify the child or youth into being somewhat interchangeable with the social problem at hand, especially in the cases where the term hemmasittare (Swedish for home sitter) is used.  The conclusions made from this study are mainly applicable on the instance of these three texts but are thought to also be of use in further investigations concerning critical discourse analysis applied to problematic school absenteeism as a social problem.