Homelessness as a construction : A qualitative content analysis

The purpose of this study is to analyze the social services' guidance document for assistance to residents in the city of Malmö and its impact for the social work with homelessness in Malmö. The study based its empirical data on a qualitative content analysis of the social services' guidance document for assistance to residents in the city of Malmö. In the analysis, the guidance document was encoded and thematized according to a code frame. Through this we saw how homelessness was constructed in the document. We found similarities and differences in how the document constructed homelessness and how previous research described the phenomenon. By applying organizational theory and social constructivism to these differences, possible consequences for the practical social work with homelessness in Malmö appeared. Our main results show that the guidance document seen as an act of instrumental rationality can lead to social workers ending up further away from the clients problems and closer to the organization's way of working. Furthermore, the social services' use of compelling categories can lead to the social work with homelessness creating power structures and maintaining unequal conditions in society. Finally, the social work is at risk becoming a normative practice where the social services maintain assumptions and interpretations about the concept of a home as something linked to a fixed geographical point. As a result of this, homelessness could be perceived as something deviating in relation to this concept and the social services are involved in maintaining this perception