The (im)possibilities of returning to work after a stroke.
BACKGROUND
What a stroke means for working-age persons has not been sufficiently studied from a sociological perspective.


OBJECTIVE
This article uses the empirical material of a larger study to describe and analyze how institutional practices and discourses influence attempts to return to work after a stroke.


METHODS
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten persons who have had a stroke and ten civil servants and professionals from the Swedish Public Employment Service, the Social Insurance Agency, and different health care institutions. The qualitative analysis was inspired by institutional ethnography.


RESULTS
The analysis shows how persons who have had a stroke and civil servants and professionals in welfare organizations share the same goal: a return to working life for the former. The persons in this study related to, translated, and put into practice discourses of normality and employability in this process. However, there were, at times, conflicting institutional practices between the different organizations.


CONCLUSIONS
Conflicting institutional practices connected to the discourses of normality and employability contribute to the difficulties that persons who have had a stroke face when trying to return to work after recovery.
Maria
M
Norstedt
D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation; D004651:Employment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D036301:Qualitative Research; D062707:Return to Work; D012946:Social Welfare; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D013548:Sweden
Swedish welfare state; employability; normality; the work strategy (arbetslinjen); workability