Att leva som andra - En kvalitativ studie av anställda inom handikappomsorgens tolkningar av och arbete mot målsättningen att leva som andra.

Sammanfattning: People with disabilities have made an historic journey towards increased self-determination and rights but there is a long way to go. The purpose of this study was to examine how the employees at group-homes for developmentally disabled people interpret the legislated goal to live like others in Lagen om stöd och service till vissa funktionshindrade (SFS 1993:387). The study consists of five qualitative interviews with employees at three different group-homes for people with developmental disabilities. I found that the employees where ambivalent towards the goal and struggled with it. The employees where torn between accommodating the self-determination of the residents and making this fit in with the norms and values of the society around them. The employees constructed images of society and of their work and these images came in conflict with the residents self-determination. The empirical material is analyzed using theory’s such as Berger and Luckmanns generalized other and The Individualized Society by Bauman.