Social work investigations into honour problematics

The purpose of this project is to enhance understandings of how social workers investigate and document matters that involve honour problematics.

The main study is a document analysis of the documentation supplied by social workers and family law secretaries to be used in court cases.

Critical discourse analysis is used to investigate the different ways in which honour practice (including honour based violence and oppression) are problematised in court cases involving custody and social services placement of children and youths in homes (such as foster care). The document analysis is complemented by interviews with practicing social workers.

The project is motivated by a well-documented knowledge gap among social workers concerning how honor related problems can and should be dealt with.

This project uses an approach that is different from the interview studies that prevail in previous research about honour problematics in Swedish social work. The focus is on the production of texts about honour generated by social workers themselves.

A systematic description of this text production will provide a picture of the knowledge and needs for improvement inherent in existing social work.

On the academic level, the project is a development and expansion of the theory and method generated in my doctoral thesis, which investigated honor problematics in the criminal courts. It also extends my empirical interest in the honour based violence question in Sweden.

On a practical level, the purpose of the project is to generate better understandings among social workers about how social work investigations involving honour are constructed and what the investigations achieve, in the courts and for clients.

Research results will be presented through journal articles (academic level) and a book manuscript (practical social work level).