Brukarinflytande inom ekonomiskt bistånd : En kvalitativ studie om hur socialsekreterare inom ekonomiskt bistånd förhåller sig till brukarinflytande

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to understand how social welfare secretaries within income support relate to user influence. We evaluated how to implement user influence within systems like income support. We based this study on the experiences of social welfare secretaries with regards to user influence and which possibilities and constraints they believe exist within the implementation of user influence. We chose to use a qualitative method with a hermeneutic approach and interviewed eight social welfare secretaries within the field of income support. The empirical material was interpreted by using Michel Lipsky's theory on Street-level bureaucracy and Michel Foucault's definition of power/knowledge and governmentality. The study came to show that the term user influence does not have one single definition, but several and provides possibilities for interpretation. The implementation of the concept of user influence depends on how it is being interpreted by the social welfare secretaries. Furthermore, within the field of income support there is a limited space for the users to have influence, but it is important to preserve that limited space. The outcome shows that user influence within income support is limited by the space for action and resources of the secretaries and organizations. Since income support is based on an individual assessment it is also of importance that user influence should be treated on an individual basis.