Dissertation Malin Ljungberg

Friday December 4 at 10 is Malin Ljungberg defending her thesis "Everyday Life, Caregiving, and Time: Parental Experiences of Co-residing with and Caring for an Autistic Adult Child in a NEET Position"

The dissertation will be given in Swedish.

Opponent: Professor Thomas Strandberg, Örebro University

Main supervisor: Anneli Silvén Hagström
Co-supervisors: Ulla-Karin Schön and Petra Ulmanen

The thesis takes as its starting point a paradox within the Swedish welfare state: while autistic adults are expected, in policy, to live independently, some parents continue to provide care for their adult children as an ongoing part of everyday life. The thesis explores how parents who co-reside with an autistic adult child who is not in employment, education, or training (NEET) narrate and describe their experiences of everyday life and caregiving. Particular focus is placed on how parents describe navigating daily routines, organising their time, and managing caregiving responsibilities within the context of family life and the Swedish welfare system.

Drawing on three studies – a scoping review, an interview study, and a focus group study – the thesis shows how parents who live with and care for autistic adult children become an invisible welfare resource, despite Sweden’s ambitious welfare state where informal care is supposed to be a voluntary complement to the formal support system. The thesis contributes to social work by bringing a neurodiversity perspective into dialogue with theories of the life course, care, and critical theories of time. It calls attention to parents’ accounts of the complex and often overlooked care labour through which they sustain everyday life when formal welfare support does not fully meet the needs of autistic adults.