| 31. |
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| 32. |
- Fors, Vaike, 1969-
(författare)
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The Missing Link in Learning in Science Centres
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Science centres have been identified as an important resource in encouraging teenagers to choose higher education in science and technology. This is of interest to society, since there seems to be a problem in getting sufficient numbers to do so. And accomplishing this is sometimes described as a fatal question for a nation’s future prosperity and development. Still, there is an international trend where teenagers fail to visit science centres. Through research, little is known about what is interesting or useful to the public, as well as how to reach those who are ‘unengaged’. Considering teenagers as exponents for what distinguishes today’s society makes their apparent unwillingness to participate in science centres interesting to study with regards to what culture, history and ideology these centres were initially produced. Hence, from this point of view, what is missing in science centres that would make them interesting for the young people of today? Many studies of learning in science centres have come to focus on visitors who visit voluntarily and how well the embedded messages in the exhibits have been acknowledged by these visitors. This study focuses instead on teenagers who are reluctant to participate in science centres, with their perspective of science centres as the point of departure, specifically what kind of social activities are formed in their encounters with science centre exhibits. This encounter is regarded as an encounter between the two different practices of the science centre and the teenagers. The applied theoretical perspective is mainly assembled from socio-cultural theories of learning. This research is a microanalytic study of five teenagers who were equipped with video cameras and asked to film a visit to the local science centre, Teknikens Hus. The films were later discussed in a focus-group interview consisting of the teenagers and the researcher. Visual ethnography provided the theoretical framework for this research design. The results showed that the teenagers want to use exhibits to have the authority of interpretations and the possibilities to contribute to the meaning of the activity. At the same time, they want to use the exhibits in a way that the activities become places for developing social identity. To negotiate the meaning of the exhibits there is a need for an openness that may be constrained by too inflexible and limiting exhibit designs. This pattern is described as two different forms of participation in the exhibits; ignoring or extending the intended meaning of the exhibits. Meaningfulness also demands a closeness created by connections between the exhibit and the user’s personal experiences. This pattern is described as two different ways in which the teenagers identified the exhibits; exhibits which they dissociated from or to which they had an ongoing relationship. Providing a space for negotiation seems crucial to inviting teenagers into opportunities of meaningful experiences, even more significant than any specific physical feature in the exhibit. The teenagers’ agenda, in which forming practices where they can express themselves and contribute to the meaning seem to be very important, appears not to be greatly enabled by science centre exhibits. In this situation they learn to not participate. Science and technology represented in this matter show a ‘ready-made’ world that they cannot change. The missing link in learning in science centres is here described as the part of the meaning making process where the teenagers get to re-negotiate the meaning of the activities in the centre and use the exhibits as tools to accomplish this.
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| 33. |
- Vidman, Åsa, 1960-
(författare)
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Det är så mycket som kan spela in : en studie av vägar till, genom och från sjukskrivning baserad på intervjuer med långtidssjukskrivna
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Syftet med studien har varit att belysa erfarenheter och processer som är relaterade till långtidssjukskrivning, såväl till att bli sjukskriven, till att förbli sjukskriven under lång tid och till insatserna och arbetet för att återgå i arbete. Utgångspunkten har varit erfarenheter, upplevelser och uppfattningar hos personer som på grund av sjukdom eller annan funktionsnedsättning under lång tid varit utestängda från arbetsmarknaden. Studien har genomförts i Arvidsjaurs kommun där 17 långtidssjukskrivna personer intervjuats. Det var 13 kvinnor och fyra män i åldrarna 26 till 60 år varav de flesta var sjukskrivna på grund av problem med rörelseapparaten eller utmattningsdepression och liknande. Intervjuerna var öppna med karaktär av dialog, och analysen siktade till att förstå de konstruktioner de långtidssjuka skapat för att bringa mening i sin livssituation. Vid analysen framgick att intervjuerna förutom det som var direkt relaterat till studiens syfte – orsaker till sjukskrivning, om att vara sjuk under lång tid samt om stöd och hjälp för att kunna återgå i arbete – också handlade om hur sjukdom kan förstås, om könsskillnader samt om långvarig sjukdom och moral. Det övervägande intrycket är att informanterna ser sjukskrivningen som en konsekvens av många olika samspelande faktorer. Några har också varit med om olyckshändelser som endera bidragit till eller direkt orsakat sjukskrivningen. Bland annat beskriver de flera olika arbetsmiljöproblem som bakomliggande orsak. Dessa problem kan kopplas till den benägenhet att ta på sig stort ansvar som kvinnorna i studien ger uttryck för. Men tillvaron har varit kravfylld även utanför yrkesarbetet. Annat de tänker kan ha lett till den långvariga sjukskrivningen är hinder de upplevt i de olika hjälpsystemen. De flesta har också upplevt frustration och besvikelse över stödet och rehabiliteringen. Rehabiliteringsaktörerna upplevs inte beakta önskemål och initiativ från de långtidssjuka. De aktörer som beskrivs mest är hälso- och sjukvård samt Försäkringskassa. Informanterna är ambivalenta till de vanligaste insatserna – läkemedel och sjukgymnastik – från hälso- och sjukvården, och Försäkringskassan har upplevts som alltför regelstyrd och passiv. Det de efterfrågar är samtal och socialt stöd. Att vara långvarigt sjuk och därför utestängd från arbetsmarknaden ter sig olika beroende på tidigare erfarenheter, den totala livssituationen och vilka symtom man har. Med tiden har de fått kunskap som medfört att de kan undvika sådant som utlöser symtom, men kunskapen har då också fått en disciplinerande effekt. Informanterna har haft svårt att acceptera att de inte längre kan utföra sådant de tidigare gjort eller att de ska ha livslång värk. Relationerna till andra har förändrats och de sociala kontakterna har minskat. Informanterna i denna studie har problem som inte är uppenbara för omgivningen, vilket medfört att de upplever sig ifrågasatta. Överhuvudtaget har normen att man ska arbeta och försörja sig själv haft inflytande på informanternas situation – dels genom att de arbetat trots symtom av skilda slag och dels genom negativa attityder hos allmänheten. Allmänheten anser att sjuka oftast själva har förorsakat sjukdomen, och den som blivit sjuk ska också göra allt den kan för att återfå hälsa och arbetsförmåga. Många upplever misstro mot att de är sjuka och att andra tror de istället försöker hålla sig från arbete. Informanterna upplever därför misslyckande och skam. Moralen har stort inflytande på hur dessa människor beskriver sina liv – såväl hur de genom att uppfylla normerna till sist blivit sjukskrivna som de attityder de möts av genom att de är sjukskrivna. För att sjukdomen ska få legitimitet måste den också sanktioneras av läkare, så att de upplevda symtomen omvandlas till en diagnos. Diagnoser är socialt konstruerade och förändras över tid, men ger intryck av att vara konstanta. Medicinen uppfattas som en objektiv vetenskap och har också fått stort inflytande på våra vardagsliv, inte minst över sjukskrivning och rehabilitering. Detta trots att problemen många gånger i grunden är sociala. Även de rehabiliteringsaktörer som inte ingår i hälso- och sjukvården tycks ha influerats av medicinen. Rehabiliteringsaktörerna tenderar att förenkla den komplexa verkligheten för att det ska passa in i den uppsättning terapier eller åtgärder den egna myndigheten erbjuder. Arbetslivet och samhället har förändrats så det har skapats en konflikt mellan de normer som präglar arbetslivet och de traditionella förväntningarna. För kvinnorna i studien framstår situationen som extra sammansatt. De upplever att deras behov inte tillgodoses av myndigheterna. Regleringen utgår från att kvinnor och män lever jämställt, men så är inte fallet. Kvinnorna har i långt större utsträckning ansvar för hem och familj än vad män har och uppfostras till att ta hänsyn till andra. Deras egna behov prioriteras inte. Kvinnorna i studien upplever det som en extra påfrestning att inte längre kunna ta hand om barn och familj på det sätt de brukat.
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| 34. |
- Grönlund, Erik
(författare)
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Microalgae at wastewater pond treatment in cold climate : an ecological engineering approach
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Three types of wastewater ponds in subarctic climates were investigated, each of them highly dependent on microalgae. They were fellingsdams, i.e. wastewater stabilization ponds complemented with chemical precipitation, high-rate algal ponds (HRAPs), and a type of aquaculture interface ponds between a wastewater treatment plant and the natural surrounding. From a microalgae taxa perspective green algae and cryptophytes were dominant in the wastewater ponds. Green algae and cryptophytes were also, together with chryso- and haptophytes, dominating the hypereutrophic and eutrophic stages of the natural lakes. Biomasses in the different types of ponds were of very different order of magnitude. From 100-1000 mg/l in the stabilization ponds during summer and 10-100 mg/l in spring and autumn, 70- 90 mg/l in a HRAP in autumn, to 5-30 mg/l in the most hypereutrophic stage in the natural ponds, 1-10 mg/l in the eutrophic stage, and below 1 mg/l in the oligotrophic stage. The connection between wastewater pond treatment and the field of ecological engineering was recognized. Future development of pond technology may benefit from a stronger connection to the theoretical framework of systems ecology developed in collaboration with the field of ecological engineering and ecotechnology.
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| 35. |
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| 36. |
- Fredriksson, Maria
(författare)
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From Customer Satisfaction to Citizen Interaction : a cooperation model for community development based on Total Quality Management
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Current problems with unemployment and the consequences of cut-down in the public sector need appropriate solutions, where private citizens perhaps take on more active roles than today, individually or in groups. The aim with this doctoral thesis is to contribute to one such solution, which is a cooperation model for societal development in local communities, based on Total Quality Management (TQM) and on the participation of many residents. The model is gradually developed with the help of collected experiences and opinions from three stakeholder groups in two different Swedish communities, as well as from general theories and literature. These groups are the quality-project initiators, the community residents and the local politicians. The disposition of the thesis is accordingly. The thesis contains two case studies. The first one concerns the use of TQM as a support of societal development in a local community. The improvement work is conducted within a non-profit organisation built on voluntary engagement. These experiences have then been compared, in the second case study, to the ones in another community where TQM is not used, but where the ambitions are the same. Here the framework for the improvement work is both a non-profit organisation and a for-profit one. The analyses indicate that TQM can be used with success within societal development, even if some of its tools or methodologies are interpreted in new ways, or not used at all. As TQM should be applied with regard to the type of organisation and its purpose, a certain flexibility is both expected and helpful. As far as management is concerned, the leadership needs to be “softer” and more diplomatic when managing unpaid volunteers, as compared to the situation in a commercial enterprise. Another observation is that the societal work is best conducted within groups, defined by situations or activities in life or in the society. An active resident can join a group according to interest. This is a modified version of the “quality circles” inherent to TQM. In a separate, and more theoretical study, the issue of adopting TQM to new sectors in society is discussed. In both the studied societies, there are difficulties to get residents involved or active, which puts into question the mandate with a large community project that aims at improving the quality of life for all residents. There are also difficulties with finding and renewing the leadership, and with communication with, above all, local politicians. Nevertheless, these politicians are in general positive to private initiatives like the ones in the two communities, and consider such projects very important for the future development of rural areas. They think that the experienced weaknesses can be reduced if the improvement work is distinctly defined and organised, if information and communication improve, and if the active residents become more educated about the procedures and limitations of the political governing of the communities. These and other observations of the two communities lead to a model where a cooperation between societal stakeholders develop in three phases; the start-up, the establishment and the continuation of the work. Each phase is discussed separately, and advice is given how to avoid, or meet, various problems that are likely to appear along the way.
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| 37. |
- Frishammar, Johan
(författare)
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Towards a theory of managing information in new product development
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis deals with various information aspects of new product development (NPD). In total, the thesis consists of 6 research articles appended in full, and an introductory text that integrates and theorizes with and from these papers.The first paper is a review article examining the literature on and role of information in NPD. The main argument put forward here is that information processing can be understood in terms of three steps: acquiring, sharing, and using information. The second paper is a largescale survey that examines the relationship between market and entrepreneurial orien-tation and performance in NPD. A market orientation is to a large extent about acquiring, disseminating and using market information, while an entrepreneurial orientation partly is about ignoring such information, and instead trying to be innovative, proactive, and take risks. The results show that a market orientation and innovativeness are positively related to NPD performance, and that neither product nor environmental characteristics moderate these relationships. The third paper is also a survey, and investigates the extent to which management of external information is associated with innovation performance. The main findings are that scanning the technological sector of the environment was positively associated with innovation performance, while scanning customers, suppliers, and competitors proved to be negatively correlated with innovation performance. Crossfunctional integration in the form of collaboration as well as using information from the industry environment also proved to be positively related to innovation performance.The last three papers have a centre of gravity in “management of information & environ-ment”, and not so much in new product development per se. Paper four describes and com-pares different information processing approaches (e.g. environmental scanning, marketing research) in order to identify their similarities and differences, but also their underlying con-cepts and the course of events they represent. The main conclusion is that differences exist primarily in terms of focus and scope. Paper five is a review and tentative integration of different perspectives in organization – environment research: the adaptive, the resource-dependence, the cognitive and the population-ecology perspective. The review identifies differences and similarities among these perspectives, suggests tentative conclusions on why the adaptive perspective is so frequently utilized at the expense of the other three, and suggests constructivism as a feasible avenue for combining and integrating these perspectives. Finally, the sixth and final paper deals with information use in the context of strategic decisionmaking. With a case study approach, the questions of why information is used, what kind of information is used, where it is obtained, and how it is obtained were addressed, and the results from this paper are mainly descriptive.The purpose of the introductory text is two-fold. In addition to providing integration of the appended papers, the main purpose is theory construction (i.e. elicitation of constructs and propositions). In the introduction, all six appended papers together with a new literature search and a new pilot case study are used to generate propositions about management of information, information sources, and the need for cross-functional integration in three different phases of the NPD process. In addition, suggestions regarding theoretical connections are made. The introduction text concludes with reflections, managerial implications, limitations, and future research.
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| 38. |
- Halila, Fawzi, 1958-
(författare)
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The adoption and diffusion of environmental innovations
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is an attempt to improve the understanding of the process of adoption and diffusion of environmental innovations. The thesis is based on two research projects. One project deals with the diffusion of environmental innovations and why they are less successful on the market than other innovations. The other project is about the adoption of environmental innovations by Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and how to facilitate the adoption process.There are at least two good reasons why we should support the adoption and diffusion of eco- innovations. One argument from an environmental point of view is that successfully managing the environment is the greatest challenge facing us in the future and the global scenarios for the next decades are not encouraging. Another argument, from an economic point of view, for the need of eco-innovations is that the eco-industry is one of the most growing industries in the world and is likely to be worth around $600 billion worldwide by 2010.However, there are some indications that environmental innovations have a difficult time in gaining success in the marketplace and in spreading among potential customers, possibly more difficulty than some other kinds of innovations have.The overall objective of this thesis is to generate knowledge regarding the adoption and diffusion of environmental innovations. One purpose is to add to our understanding of environmental innovations and to their similarities and differences to “other” innovations. Another purpose is to understand and describe how networks can be used to facilitate the adoption of environmental innovations. The main research questions that I try to answer are:1) How can environmental innovations be classified? 2) Are environmental innovations less successful on the market than other innovations? 3) What are the main reasons for the differences in market success between environmental innovations and other innovations? 4) How could networks be used as a development method to facilitate the adoption of environmental innovations by SMEs?Several different methodological approaches have been used to develop a broader picture of different types of innovations and their development, adoption and diffusion. Two different approaches were used during the first project, dealing with the diffusion and market success of environmental innovations. The first one is mainly based on using questionnaires. The other approach is qualitative and based on case studies. Through a series of case studies of innovators and innovations we tried to achieve a better picture of the actual phenomena.The second project is about the adoption of an organizational environmental innovation by SMEs using a network. Since the goal of this project has been not only to observe the phenomena of the implementation of environmental innovation by SMEs using a network, but also to contribute to the development process, an action-oriented research approach was used in this project.Three main conclusions can be drawn on the basis of this thesis. Firstly, the new innovation classification system developed in this thesis improves the possibilities for distinguishing between innovations that are similar but not identical. A very large proportion of the analyzed eco-innovations are often classified as product redesign innovations. With the help of the new classification system it is possible to discern different types among those classified as product re-Vdesign innovations. Some are rather simple and accordingly classified as product care innovations, while others are classified as minor or major product improvements or even functional innovations. Secondly, our empirical studies results show that the environmental innovations are less successful on the market than “other” innovations. The empirical studies also show that there are mainly three factors which are especially important to consider in the improvement of environmental innovations’ marketing success. These three are: “Realism while evaluating one’s own innovation”, “Access to capital” and “Utilization of network”.Thirdly, to adopt an environmental innovation is not an easy task for small organizations, such as SMEs. But to be a part of and use a network is a possible way to facilitate the adoption process.
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| 39. |
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| 40. |
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