Applying for money The encounter between social workers and clients--A question of morality

Abstract

The facts of household finances generally obtain their meaning from the moral stand ards of everyday life: it is in relation to these standards that we evaluate our personal finances. Persons who lack money and apply for social welfare compensation generally have to turn to a public social welfare bureau where their eligibility is assessed by a professional social worker. The central question for the present study is how social workers and clients deal with the morally delicate question of personal financial deficits and how this question should be processed in a formal and institutional setting by formal means. This problem is discussed through an analysis of conversations between social workers and clients at social welfare bureaux in the municipality of Stockholm, Sweden. In pursuing a formal inquiry the social worker is conducting a moral search: the social worker has to determine the moral character of the client and the circum