Högskolan i Skövde

Gustav Jonson's theory of the social heritage characterized social work in Sweden during the 1960s and onwards. The social policy issues debated then were about class society, labelling and alienation. After thirty years of professional work as a social worker, I find it interesting that the work still focuses on the theory of the social heritage and methods for breaking it. The aim of this study is to examine possible explanations to why this is so. The empirical material is taken from interviews with senior social workers. Issues examined are how they perceive social work and the theory of the social heritage. The results of the interviews have been processed based upon narrative analysis and reported in the form of meta-narratives. The stories provide a historical view of social work, encounters, situations and contexts. The final discussion is about how the social heritage is created, identified and carried forward. The conclusions show that the social heritage is a social construction created by the society and its inhabitants.The issue then, is to understand and to relate to this context, creating security control and balance in it. As a phenomenon, the social heritage can come to act as conservation and thus become a counterforce to change. Based on discussion and conclusions, it appears that efforts to break the social heritage are questionable. The study is a social psychological qualitative study worked with from a social constructionist perspective.