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European Journal of Social Work

Historically, social workers have been an integral part of a well-developed welfare state in Sweden. However, due to the neoliberal changes, which have seen the weakening of the support system for vulnerable groups and individuals, the traditional 'solidary role' of social workers has rapidly altered. This has created uncertainty and dilemmas for the identification of many social workers, who still perceive themselves as promoters of 'welfare of the people'. This article dwells, therefore, on neoliberal transformations and the changing professional identity of practitioners. The study is based on a comprehensive empirical work of interviews with social workers. The results show a growing and widespread unease with new professional roles and functions of social workers as bureaucrats within a neoliberalised organisation of public social work. Some social workers still try to find creative and new ways of working in solidarity, while others, although critical, see adjustment to the new organisational frames as a way to continue their work. It is argued that social workers are not passive actors in the process of neoliberalisation of public social work in Sweden but could actively take different stances and choose their own identifications, in order to maintain the solidary role of social workers.

Servants of a ‘sinking titanic’ or actors of change? Contested identities of social workers in Sweden