Unitarian ideals and professional diversity in social work practice—the case of Sweden

Attempts to articulate a common core of social work are numerous as is the claim that there exists a ‘true’ or general social work. This article presents results from research on the organisational settings of Swedish social work. Social work managers in 100 middle sized municipalities have been interviewed by means of an extensive interview manual. Data are analysed using quantitative methods. The results demonstrate that since the 1980s specialisation has become the strongest organisational trend. Functional specialisation (division of child welfare, social assistance and social work with substance abusers) is the standard way of organising social work and in many municipalities specialisation has gone much further. An integrated or generic organisational model, which was the imperative of the 1970s, seems to exist only in the smallest municipalities. Some of the organisational changes can be described as short-lived fashions. Specialisation as such seems, however, to be an institutionalised strategy to solve social problems and as a response to expectations from the environment. These results are discussed against the background of the notion of social work as a coherent profession with an identifiable common core and a mutual arsenal of methods.