
I’m interested in issues of child participation and child-centered approaches to social work. Currently, I am working on a research project that examines how child advocates from Swedish child rights organizations describe their work and what their experiences can teach us about opportunities to develop child-centered perspectives and child participation in social work.
Recently, I completed two research projects in the area of mental health issues of children and youth. One of them explored the historical understanding of mental health issues among vulnerable children and how it influences contemporary perspectives and interventions for them. The other one, focused possibilities to strengthen the mental health development of young children within the Swedish foster care system.
Additionally, I have conducted research on social entrepreneurship in the Swedish civil society. In 2011, I obtained my doctoral degree from the University of Gothenburg with a dissertation on social entrepreneurship among marginalized groups in society. A central theme in the dissertation was how these groups, through their social entrepreneurship, cope with discrimination and exclusion.
Doctoral thesis: Social exclusion for sale - Discourses on social enterprises in Sweden
Link to extended list of publicaitions (University of Gothenburg)
Publications
Displaying of publications. Sorted by year, then title.
Sökes: barnombud. : Om möjligheter att stärka barns delaktighet och trygghet i kontakten med sociala myndigheter
Ulrika Levander
(2024) Research Reports in Social work
ReportStories With Blurred Contours Family Displays of Foster Families and Young Children in Out-of-Home Care
Ulrika Levander
(2024) Child and Family Social Work
Journal articleFrån vanart till rättighetsaktör? : Om förståelsen av psykisk ohälsa bland barn i samhällsvård 1897-2018
Susanna Johansson, Ulrika Levander, Lina Sturfelt
(2022) Institutionsvård i fokus
ReportBarn och socialt arbete : Socialhögskolans årsbok 2019
Staffan Blomberg, Ulrika Levander, Lina Ponnert, Susanna Johansson, Maria Kläfverud, et al.
(2020) Research Reports in Social Work
ReportSamhällsvårdens Svarte Petter. Samtida och historiska kategoriseringar av barn och unga i samhällsvård med psykisk ohälsa
Lina Sturfelt, Ulrika Levander
(2019) Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift, 26 p.19-41
Journal articleKompetent aktör eller psykiskt skör? : Barn- och flickdiskurser i konstruktionen om ungas psykiska ohälsa
Julia Callegari, Ulrika Levander
(2019) Tidskrift för genusvetenskap, 40 p.71-71
Journal articleFrom Popular Movements to Social Businesses : Social Entrepreneurship as Discursive Europeanization
Ulrika Levander
(2018) Europeanization in Sweden : Opportunities for Civil Society Organizations
Book chapterMotståndsberättelser – civilsamhället som arena för att utmana marginalisering och stigman.
Ulrika Levander, Nea Glad
(2017) Socialt arbete i civilsamhället : aktörer, former och funktioner
Book chapterNarratives of social enterprises: It’s construction, contradictions and implications in the Swedish debate
Ulrika Levander
(2016) Routledge Studies in Social Enterprise & Social Innovation , p.232-250
Book chapterSocial Enterprise: Implications of Emerging Institutionalized Constructions
Ulrika Levander
(2010) Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 2 p.213-230
Journal articleSocial Exclusion – an Analytical Aspect of the Social Enterprise : EMES Conferences Selected Papers Series, ECSP-T09-18
Ulrika Levander
(2009)
Conference paperFöretagande i civilsamhället - minskad slutenhet eller urholkad öppenhet : en rapport om Uma Bazaar - ett projekt i den tredje sektorn för att motverka hemlöshet och social utestängning
Ulrika Levander
(2008) Meddelanden från Socialhögskolan
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