Social work is a discipline within the social sciences that encompasses education and training at all educational levels, as well as research, often in collaboration with organisations outside academia. It is concerned with how social problems emerge, and how they can be prevented, managed or treated on individual, group and societal levels, and also with its preconditions and organisations.

About the Department

At the department, the focus is on classical social questions of social inequality and welfare policy, maladjustment and social interventions among children, youth and families, substance abuse, addiction and treatment, ageing and elderly care, and disability and rehabilitation, as well as the organisation of social work, its practices and working conditions. Our programmes and research are driven by both practical and theoretical knowledge interests.

Education at Social Work

The Department of Social Work provides education at bachelor's and master's levels. You can also take on of our many independent courses in the fields of social work, disability and rehabilitation science, or social psychiatry.

Bachelor's level

Master's level

Courses offered in English

Research environment at Social Work 

Research is conducted at the Department of Social Work in a number of different fields relating to issues concerning social problems and work on social change. This involves research not only into individuals and groups, but also into how social conditions can be used in a welfare perspective. 

Focus areas

Children, youth and family

The research within this area concerns children, youth, families and parenthood in a post-modern contemporary society, which is characterised by particular complexities and vulnerabilities.

Among other things, we focus on:

  • the living conditions of children and families in situations that are both individually and structurally challenging
  • everyday life of young people, with a special focus on identity issues and resistance
  • on family politics and the conditions for parenthood
  • the collaboration between actors who are involved in social child care

Contact: Lars Plantin

Disability and rehabilitation research

The Department of Social Work studies disability in relation to social vulnerability, social justice, living conditions and norms. The research includes a broad view of physical, mental and cognitive disabilities, with a focus on social exclusion and barriers to participation. Obstacles to participation are studied both based on lack of opportunities for participation on equal terms and based on societal conditions for citizenship and equal health.

An important task of the research group (FURE) is to analyse the interaction between individuals and society and to illuminate issues of disability and rehabilitation from several different perspectives.

Substance abuse and addiction

The research within this area concerns the problems that may arise as a result of drug misuse for individuals and the people closest to them, as well as for society. The control, support and care systems of society are also at the centre of this research.

Most of the research focuses on illegal narcotics, but there is also research on alcohol abuse. Some areas have been elucidated in a number of projects, and those areas are primarily: 

  • living conditions, lifestyles and risk-taking among persons with drug problems
  • social and medical problems as well as mortality among persons who inject drugs
  • treatment and care of persons with substance abuse and addiction, within the social services and health care
  • drugs policy in Sweden and internationally

The use and misuse of, and the addiction to, drugs need to be analysed from a social perspective and related to social, cultural and political factors. Among other things, the consequences of individualisation, medicalisation and economisation are analysed in our research, with regard to individuals as well as the healthcare system and drug policy.

The research is often based on an actor perspective, where the individuals’ reasons for drug use and the various functions and areas of use are central. Both qualitative and quantitative methods (interviews, surveys, register data, ethnography) are used, and in our projects, we like to cooperate with practitioners, user organisations and persons with drug experiences of their own.

Contact: Torkel Richert

Structural and ecosocial inequality

The research within this area concerns questions at the interface of welfare and poverty issues, social policy, production patterns, working life and labour market, housing and the housing market, as well as migration regimes.

The interest is directed towards unequal conditions and opportunities, and precariousness, and also at how contemporary technologies, such as evaluation and digitalisation, interact with those circumstances. This includes an interest in ecosocial inequality regarding the connection between welfare and resource distribution issues, on the one hand, and ecological and physical as well as social dimensions of sustainability, on the other.

Contact person

Professor Carin Cuadra

Ageing

The research within this area deals with the living conditions of the elderly from the perspectives of gender, ethnicity, migration and embodiment in care, but also with the organisation of both traditional and new forms of elderly care in the wake of demographical changes and increasing differences in social conditions and longevity. Furthermore, the research concerns working conditions and the restructuring of the welfare state, as well as the growing dependence on technological infrastructure, such as digitalisation.

Contact person

Professor Finnur Magnusson

Research environment at Social Work 

Research is conducted at the Department of Social Work in a number of different fields relating to issues concerning social problems and work on social change. This involves research not only into individuals and groups, but also into how social conditions can be used in a welfare perspective. 

Researchers, Publications and Projects

Contact the institution's researchers with your questions and proposals for collaboration.

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Research about Covid-19 and the pandemic

Researchers at the department have examined covid-19 and the corona pandemic from several perspectives in recent years. Some central themes have been ageing and covid, relatives' experiences, distance learning, the impact on relationships and sexuality, living conditions during the pandemic, and how the conditions for social work have been affected for, for example, social services and women's shelters.

Contact

Social Work seminar

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Research environments

Centre for Sexology and Sexuality Studies

The Centre for Sexology and Sexuality Studies carries out multidisciplinary research on sexuality from social science,...

Disability and Rehabilitation Studies

Research on the field of disability and rehabilitation (FURE) brings together a group of researchers and doctoral students at...

Global and Glocal Health (GGH)

The Research Platform Global and Glocal Health (GGH) – Improving Knowledge for Health from a Multicultural and Equality...

People, Places and Prevention

Why do people commit crime? The overall aim of the research platform is to contribute to a better understanding of the causes...

Studies in Housing and Welfare

Studies in Housing and Welfare (SBV) is a research group and a cross-disciplinary research environment. It deals with housing i...

Doctoral studies

Most of the research at the Faculty of Health and Society is interdisciplinary, which opens up opportunities for new and exciting areas of research beyond the subject divisions that have traditionally existed between medicine and social sciences.

Research subject

Social Work

The research subject social work concerns traditional social issues regarding the welfare of children and families, substance...

Collaborate with us

Our research is carried out and developed in close cooperation with local stakeholders, national organisations and agencies, as well as with international cooperation partners. Research training is conducted more than 20 doctoral students, some of whom are recruited via the graduate school for professionals in the fields of health, nursing and welfare.

Contract courses

We can offer continuing professional development for your staff in the form of courses tailored to meet your wants and needs. You will get access to the latest research and to the disciplinary range offered by the University.

Contact Mikael Matteson for more information about contract courses

Contact us

Niagara

Nordenskiöldsgatan 1, Malmö +46 40 665 70 00
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