Browsing by Subject "narratiivinen lähestymistapa"

The purpose of this study was to examine how adult social work’s expertise appears in the narratives of social workers. Further, the purpose was to examine how social workers narrate and perform their expertise. The context of adult social work is changing and the most noticeable change is still the transfer of supplementary benefit from municipalities to the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela). The changing context places the social workers in a challenging position. The conception of expertise has changed from individual-based knowing. The emphasis is now more on collaboration and expertise is seen to be shared and negotiated. My study was a qualitative research. I conducted seven interviews with social workers who work in adult social work. I analysed the data with narrative methods. In narrative approach story-telling is seen as a natural part of human life. The stories are an expression of the individual life but also the social context where story-telling takes place. My main interest in this study was in narrative episodes which occur in the narration of the social workers. In the narration of the social workers, expertise seemed to be challenging to explain. Expertise was impacted by structural conditions and multi-professional collaboration where adult social work’s expertise is often seen as inferior. Expertise was experienced in the context of changes and continuities. Adult social work’s expertise seems to be personal and emotion-related. Because of the diversity of the adult social work, the social workers were required to use various forms of expertise in their work.