Marcus Herz
About Marcus Herz
Marcus's research interest and publications are primarily about different perspectives on social work, the people who come into contact with social work, and the meetings that arise there. Other research interests concern migration, racism, gender, masculinity and youth culture. Theoretically and analytically, he moves between and within these different research traditions. Empirically, Marcus has mainly worked qualitatively, often ethnographically, but also with interview studies, follow-up research, document studies and observational studies. Thematically, the research mainly moves within these areas:
Critical, live and agonistic social work:
One field of research is theory development in social work, a work which, despite being theoretical to the highest degree, also problematises and influences how practical social work is carried out. In part, this is published in the book Critical Social Work (Liber), which aims to point out the importance of and the opportunities to develop a social work that is actively critical of one's own practice and reflexive in relation to one's positions of power. This is then further developed in the book Levande socialt arbete (Liber) and in the book Mellan två tider (Student literature) where the focus is on the effects of social policy changes of recent decades. Marcus is currently working together with lecturer Zulmir Bečević (University of Gothenburg) on developing Agonistic social work.
Migration and social work:
Within the framework of this research theme, Marcus has worked on three research projects: EUMARGINS (FP7), "Unaccompanied Refugee Children: Agency and Networks in a Hyper-connected World" (Forte), and “Generating Hope and Dealing with Uncertainty: An ethnographic study of the social dimensions of hope in the Swedish asylum-seeking context” (Swedish Research Council).
EUMARGINS was an EU-funded research project (FP7) that aimed to investigate the experiences of inclusion and exclusion of young people with an immigrant background. Seven cities in seven countries participated.
In the FORTE-funded project "Unaccompanied Refugee Children", young people with residence permits who arrived in Sweden without guardians were followed. The project was run together with Professor Philip Lalander, aiming to capture the young people’s experiences and reflections on their time in Sweden. One result is that the reception system does not respond to young people's needs and wishes. The project methodologically points to the importance of following this group over time and of continuous relational work in research. The project has been published in several articles, books and anthology chapters, including the book Social Work, Young Migrants and the Act of Listening (Routledge).
The ethnographic project "Generating Hope and Dealing with Uncertainty" is funded by the Swedish Research Council and led by associate professor Torun Elsrud, Linnaeus University. It will be finalised in 2024. Marcus' research area primarily follows families who arrived in Sweden as asylum seekers.
The social work of civil society:
An extensive research topic concerns civil society's social work. In terms of projects, this is based, among other things, on four smaller evaluation projects (financed by the Heritage Fund and the Red Cross/ESF), a smaller project on civil society's social work during the COVID-19 pandemic with Philip Lalander, and as a researcher in a larger research program "Between resignation and faith in the future."
The projects have in common that they are social work carried out by civil society. Three projects have a place as a focus and analytical concept: partly a study about civil society in Malmö, partly a study about civil society in Gothenburg, and partly one about establishing oneself in the suburbs of big cities. One project focused on organisations that work with segregation, exclusion, and racism. The Covid project was about the effects of the pandemic and related work. The projects have mainly been ethnographic. The research shows how the demands on civil society to satisfy fundamental social rights have increased while the conditions for work have not improved. Civil society often has to rely on short-term grants and a forced alignment with funders. In addition, cooperation with public actors is usually very fragile. Results have been published in several articles, books and reports.
The research program "Between Resignation and Faith in the Future" highlights aspects such as segregation, divides and racialisation and focuses on young people's formal and informal learning. Professor Ove Sernhede is the program manager, and associate professor Sara Uhnoo is the project manager for the sub-project that examines young people's social mobilisation and self-organisation in the form of activities, groups and projects that emphasise young people's knowledge and learning. The project is financed by Sten A Olsson's Foundation for Art and Culture.
Poverty, precarity and food:
An area that builds further on the research on migration and civil society's social work deals with new poverty patterns, access to welfare, an increased general vulnerability (precarity) of different groups of people and specifically, an increase in food poverty in Sweden. At present, it has led to two publications. A book, Mellan två tider (Student literature), and an article about waiting, time and vulnerability related to a need for donated food to survive.
Masculinity and gender in and outside social work:
Other research interests are gender research and masculinity research. Some have dealt with how gender is constructed and understood in social work, which was, among other things, part of the thesis work, and some have been theoretical work. The book Masculinities – Critique, tendencies, trends (Liber) aimed to summarise and account for our view on masculinity research's merits and future challenges. The theoretical work was later developed in the book The Conundrum of Masculinity (Routledge), written together with Nils Hammarén, Chris Haywood, Thomas Johansson and Andreas Ottemo. Marcus also worked on men and social vulnerability for the national inquiry on Men and equality (SOU 2014:6).