Tandhygienisters arbete med patienter i ett mångkulturellt samhälle - en studie av migrationsrelaterade frågeställningar och samtal

Sammanfattning: The aim is to illuminate aspects of dental hygienists' work in multiethnic/multicultural societies, with focus on the intersection between the institutional activity and migration, ethnic diversity and culture issues. Hence, a tension between equality and diversity are discussed. The thesis has two analytical approaches, practice and discourse. The focus is on talk-in-interaction with patients (practice) and how the dental hygienist conceptualise their work when treating people with migrant background (discourse). The theoretical and methodological considerations are drawn from the sociological tradition of "Verstehen", Foucault and discourse analysis. The empirical material is based on documented observations (VCR) and interviews with dental hygienists and patients. The analysis of practice suggests that the interaction is organised by the institutional activity type. A patient’s readiness to position oneself as a "knowing subject", opposed to ethnicity, is crucial to how the interaction is structured. Migration related categories and phenomenon are related to the institutional task and understood as situated including practices. In discourse, ethnicity intersects with gender and class. The patient's power resources are of vital importance in a discourse on "immigrant patients". The hygienists relates to culture, in terms of relationship with dental care. References in exclusionary discourses were also found. Based on multilayered findings and theories of multiculturalisms, the concept of culture is discussed in connection to agency, ethics of care and equal treatment.