Diakonalt arbete : Svenska kyrkans sociala arbete

Social work in Sweden has historically been mostly done by the public sector andthe work has been regulated by law. In the last two decades, private and voluntaryactors have played an important role as providers of welfare state; one of theseplayers is the Swedish Church. The aim of this thesis has been to describe thework the deacons perform in the Swedish Church in a medium-sized municipalityin Sweden. To find out how much freedom of action the deacons themselves feelthat they have and if they feel that their work is influenced by the social work thatother performers are doing. In order to reach the goal, a qualitative approach wasused where seven deacons were interviewed. The result is presented according tothemes, which is then analyzed on the basis of The new intuitionalism and systemtheory. The conclusion is that there are similarities in the deacons’ work sinceeveryone has internal duties, offer remedial conversations and help by donatingclothes, money and food. The differences that exist in their work and what theychoose to put their resources on depends on what the parish looks like, theeducation of the deacon, their personality as well as their personal interests.Examples of such work are support groups for people in different stages of life orrelaxing spa days. All the deacons find that they have a lot of freedom in how toperform their work. The work is largely affected by what other performers do,partly because they don’t want to compete with other performers but also becausetheir work is affected by changes in the society, changes that will increase ordecrease their workload. The deacons see their work as a complement to the socialwork offered by the public sector