Mellan himmel och jord : En kvalitativ intervjustuie av sex diakoners upplevelser av sitt handlingsutrymme och sin yrkesidentitet inom Svenska kyrkan

The aim of this study is to examine how deacons that work in the Swedish Church in Stockholm experience their work. Six deacons were interviewed, by using a semi structured method the empirical material was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The deacons in this study comes from a background of social work. The study concerns theories such as discretion and professional identity to substantiate the experience of their work. Deacons are the ones that carry out the church social work but are unknown as a welfare actor in the Swedish society. The interviewed deacons describe the profession as worthwhile and varying, but they also experience disadvantages such as inadequate guidance and management within the Swedish church as an organization. Most of the deacons sees themselves as social workers due to their previous education even after a change to faith-based work. This can be the result of an inadequate education to become a deacon, but also due to that the profession seems as obscure by the people that meets the deacons, by managers and also by the deacons themselves