Abstract
The purpose of this article is to present a case study of one teenager’s story of leaving home. The point of analysing this particular narrative is to gain more knowledge and understanding of how young people present and account for such a dramatic event as running away from home or being thrown out. A further aim is to see how social services’ efforts are reflected in the narratives. I intend in the article to focus on three issues. How does this young person present himself in his narrative? How is the situation in itself (being thrown out/running away) represented? In what light do the social services appear? The empirical material underlying this article consists of two studies treating the subject of running away from home/being thrown out:one from the youth and the parent perspectives (Sjöblom,1995) and one from a social services point of view (Sjöblom, 2002). The article discusses the importance and consequences for these adolescents in their development towards adulthood and the lack of a young people’s perspective and emphasis on the sanctity of the family within the social services.Social services dominated by a family perspective with the aim of reintegrating adolescents into an often dysfunctional family appear in a mainly controlling and disciplinary role, where the young people’s individual survival strategies are not given enough attention or taken seriously.