Abstract
This master thesis originates in an interest in how social work with citizens suffering from ADHD is conducted. The aim of the thesis is thus to examine actual execution of social work in regard to citizens with ADHD, as this will provide us with knowledge on how the target group is approached, and which types of individuals our society pursues today. The object of the master thesis is thus to establish which rationalities underlie a particular development project targeted unemployed citizens suffering from ADHD, and to what extend such dominant rationalities impact the target group. In the following qualitative case study, an employment-creating development project in Randers Municipality is the point of departure, and by means of qualitative interviews, observational studies and document analyses, the research question is attempted answered. The research question is further scrutinized with a point of departure in Mitchell Dean´s governmentality analytics, enabling a study of the particular rationalities underlying the government of various sections of the population. This theoretical and analytical strategy serves as a research tool in the examination of the dominant rationalities in the social effort targeted unemployed suffering from ADHD. In continuation hereof, Erving Goffmans theories on social interaction and stigmatization are applied, in order to reach an understanding of the dominant rationalities' impacts on the target group. The study shows that the social effort in Randers Municipality development project draws on various rationalities, and obvious instances of an employment-creating rationality, a risk rationality and a market rationality are present. The master thesis further establishes that these rationalities all share common features from a neoliberal governing rationality. It is in continuation hereof deduced that the target group is assigned a discrediting stigma, as they do not live up to the dominant rationalities in society, and their traits are thus incompatible with the stereotypical idea of how the target group should act.