"Att ta kaptensrollen över sitt eget liv" : Socialt arbete tillsammans med utsatta människor i en brukarförening

Volunteer and service user organizations play an important role in order to meet the needs of marginalized people in Sweden. These organizations operate within civil society and are characterized by experiential knowledge and peer support. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain knowledge on how a service user organization can organize their work as a means to offer support to marginalized people with experience of exclusion, addiction and homelessness. Furthermore, this study examines how a service user organization can be understood as a resistance against structures of power. Empirical data was collected with semi-structured interviews with four practitioners working in a service user organization based in Stockholm. The empirical data was interpreted and analyzed through postmodernism and resistance theory. The study reached the conclusion that according to the organization first-hand experience is fundamental in order to help marginalized people due to their possibility to identify with the practitioner. Secondly, the findings show that the practitioners had to enact as translators during meetings with clients and governmental agencies, to enable a constructive dialogue and mutual understanding. The study also displayed that the organization exercise less visible forms of ‘every day resistance’, due to their dependence upon the power which they oppose a resistance against