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- Abalo, Ernesto, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Digitalisering och social exklusion : Om medborgares användning av och attityder till Arbetsförmedlingens digitala tjänster
- 2008
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This research report focuses on the users of e-government in a social science perspective. Our aim is to study how different social groups, registered at the Swedish Public Employment Service, relate to the internet, the agency and the services offered on its website (www.ams.se). The field of e-government research is dominated by studies that centre attention on the supply side (videlicet research investigating the entrance of IT in organizations and the implications that new technology have to these), while usercentred research (demand side) is still scarce. Our study, focusing on how citizens relate to the internet in general and e-government in particular, therefore helps to bridge a knowledge gap within the field. Our survey is based on a questionnaire sent to 2 000 randomly selected persons, all registered at the Swedish Public Employment Service. Of these, 762 job seekers responded, which gives us a frequency rate of 40 percent. The questions asked were related to the job seekers’ usage of and attitudes towards the internet in general and the agency’s webpage in particular, but also to their attitudes to the Swedish Public Employment Service. The main results show that social factors, particularly education, play a major role for the job seekers’ ability to use the web based services offered by the agency. People with a lower educational level are less inclined to use the agency’s website, and at the same time they experience the site as more complicated to use. We also found a strong link between the relations to the internet (access, usage, experience and attitudes) and the relations to the agency’s website. Those with advantaged internet relations – mostly well educated people, white collars and people living in bigger cities – also use the agency’s website more diligently and tend to have more positive attitudes towards it (and vice versa). Thus, its necessary to talk in terms of digitally well equipped and less well equipped groups. The unequal relations to the internet in general and the agency’s website in particular not only indicate that e-government is more suitable for the digitally well equipped, but that it in fact exclude those with less digital resources. This new kind of exclusion has great implications for the job seekers’ possibilities to enter the labour market, and to act their role as citizens. If e government also means a reformation of the citizen role – in the sense of increased individual responsibility towards the government - not bridging the digital divide will carry even more exclusion to those that’s already excluded.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Anders, 1957-
(författare)
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Numerical Conformal Mappings for Waveguides
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Acoustic or electro-magnetic scattering in a waveguide with varying direction and cross-section can be re-formulated as a two-dimensional scattering problem, provided that the variations take place in only one dimension at a time. By using the so-called Building Block Method, it is possible to construct the scattering properties of a combination of scatterers when the properties of each scatterer are known. Hence, variations in the waveguide geometry or in the boundary conditions can be treated one at a time. Using the Building Block Method, the problem takes the form of the Helmholtz equation for stationary waves in a waveguide of infinite length and with smoothly varying geometry and boundary conditions. A conformal mapping is used to transform the problem into a corresponding problem in a straight horizontal waveguide, and by expanding the field in Fourier trigonometric series, the problem can be reformulated as an infinite-dimensional ordinary differential equation. From this, numerically solvable differential equations for the reflection and transmission operators are derived. To be applicable in the Building Block Method, the numerical conformal mapping must be constructed such that the direction of the boundary curve can be controlled. At the channel ends ,it is an indispensable requirement, that the two boundary curves are (at least) asymptotically parallel and straight. Furthermore, to achieve bounded operators in the differential equations, the boundary curves must satisfy different regularity conditions, depending on the boundary conditions. In this work, several methods to accomplish such conformal mappings are presented. The Schwarz–Christoffel mapping, which is a natural starting point and for which also efficient numerical software exists, can be modified in different ways in order to achieve polygons with rounded corners. We present algorithms by which the parameters in the mappings can be determined after such modifications. We show also how the unmodified Schwarz–Christoffel mapping can be used for regions with a smooth boundary. This is done by constructing an appropriate outer polygon to the considered region.Finally, we introduce one method that is not Schwarz–Christoffel-related, by showing how one of the so-called zipper algorithms can be used for waveguides. Keywords: waveguides, building block method, numerical conformalmappings, Schwarz–Christoffel mapping, rounded corners method, approximate curve factors, outer polygon method, boundary curvature, zipper method, geodesic algorithm, acoustic wave scattering, electro-magnetic wave scattering
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Gillberg, Claudia
(författare)
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Transformativa kunskapsprocesser för verksamhetsutveckling : En feministisk aktionsforskningsstudie i förskolan
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Denna avhandling hade två syften. 1. Att i ett organisations-, professions- och pedagogiskt samverkansperspektiv studera några förskollärares möjligheter och hinder för utvecklingen av en genusmedveten pedagogik. 2. Att bedriva kvalita-tiv forskning utifrån antaganden om forskning för social rättvisa, som ett bidrag till metodologiutveckling. Följande frågeställningar belyste dessa syften: Hur skapar förskollärare utrymme för reflektion och kunskapsprocesser över tid; vil-ka individuella och kollektiva handlingar utför förskollärare över tid; vilka bi-drag till verksamhetsutveckling kan en studie av detta slag göra? Med feminis-tisk pragmatism som vetenskapsteoretisk grund tillämpades feministisk aktions-forskning som satte förskollärarnas frågeställningar i centrum. Under tre års tid ägde regelbundna träffar rum för gemensamma reflektioner, utvärderingar och planeringar av pedagogiska handlingar. Enskilda och gruppintervjuer, deltagande observationer samt en stor mängd mejl-, telefon- och brevutbyten kompletterade datainsamlingen. Den analytiska forskningsberättelsen växte fram under åter-koppling till förskollärares handlingar och i ljuset av förskollärares diffusa pro-fessionstillhörighet. Handlingarna tolkades utifrån de i feministisk aktionsforsk-ningsmetodologi inneboende principerna vad, vem och kritiska händelser över tid. Organisations- och professionsteoretiska analyser visade att förskollärarnas handlingar varken erkändes som professionella av den kommunala arbetsgivaren eller föräldrarna. Förskollärarnas behov av professionell erkänsla var stort, men när den uteblev, visade sig det långsiktiga utvecklingsarbetet vara av stort värde, därför att förskollärarna lyckades åstadkomma pedagogiskt sett meningsfulla förändringar, vilket understryker den temporala aspekten av organisatoriska för-ändringar underifrån. Förskollärarnas kollektiva handlingar började rota sig i en gemensam värdegrund. Formen av utvecklingsarbetet - att samarbeta med en al-lierad utifrån - var avgörande för skapandet av utrymme för reflektion och kol-lektiva handlingar. Kollektiva handlingar möjliggjordes i hög utsträckning tack vare enskilda deltagares mod att bryta tystnader om orättvisor i den egna verk-samheten. En slutsats är att det är möjligt att åstadkomma organisatoriska för-ändringar över tid genom en radikal öppenhet för agency. Transformativa kun-skapsprocesser kan åstadkommas om erbjudanden till ett genuint deltagande i ett förändringsarbete lämnas och mottas. Genom en problematisering av termer som handling, deltagande, emancipation, social rättvisa och kunskap gjordes ett me-todologiskt bidrag till feministisk aktionsforskning.
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| 5. |
- Jansson, Andreas, 1978-
(författare)
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Collective Action Among Shareholder Activists
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study addresses the problem of explaining the emergence and viability of coalitions among shareholder activists. The formation of coalitions for purposes of shareholder activism is generally unexpected from a theoretical perspective. Potential shareholder activists typically rely on the exit mechanism rather than becoming actively involved in the governance of corporations, and they tend to be in a prisoner’s dilemma type of situation, which has a non-co-operative outcome. Moreover, unless co-operation can be expected from others, no individual shareholder will make costly contributions to a coalition. Still, minority shareholder coalitions exist. The purpose of this study is to develop a model that accounts for the emergence and viability of minority shareholder coalitions. Two ideal-typical minority shareholder coalitions are developed: the offensive minority shareholder coalition, and the defensive minority shareholder coalition. These are based primarily on contractual theory (transaction cost economics, agency theory and property rights theory) and take form under the assumption that economic ends alone motivate actors. The offensive minority shareholder coalition emerges to seize an opportunity to increase share price by means of voice; it is led by a coalitional entrepreneur who carries all costs, thereby inducing co-operation from passive shareholders. The defensive minority shareholder coalition emerges to safeguard the members’ investments from risks of expropriation, which arise from increasing costs of using the exit mechanism; it is characterised by widespread active participation, since free riding further increases the risk of being expropriated. The model integrates the ideal types with results from three case studies of minority shareholder coalitions. These case studies show that under certain conditions, coalition members act as if they consider the effects of their actions on their reputation within networks of shareholders; this has implications for a coalition’s emergence and viability. The case studies further show that controlling shareholders, under certain circumstances, will tend to act as if they consider the effects of their actions on their public image as perceived by relevant (present or future) stakeholders; this places a shareholder coalition in a different bargaining position.
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| 6. |
- Krantz, Joakim, 1967-
(författare)
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Styrning och mening : - anspråk på professionellt handlande i lärarutbildning och skola
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study addresses how political and professional claims directed at teachers change, and in many ways challenge teachers’ professional autonomy, as well as affect preconditions for meaning-making in pedagogic practices. Focus is placed on political steering and its implications for teacher education and teachers’ work in schools. Professional tensions between claims for system-oriented success de-fined as goal achievement versus a communicative understanding are analysed within a conceptual framework of steering and meaning. Based on official educational policy documents as well as teachers’ development projects the analysis revolves around issues concerning core competencies in teacher education and professionalisation processes. The empirical material comprises the Swedish 2001-teacher education reform and the Swedish National Higher Education Agency’s criticism of that part of teacher education which is obligatory for all teacher students (AUO). Moreover, grounds for educational policy that lead to the introduction of individual development plans (IUP) in school are analysed. Additionally, comments on circulated proposals submitted by universities and teacher organisations in connection with Bologna and the IUP-reforms are subject to analysis. In terms of methodology, the study primarily draws upon theories of communicative action, critical discourse analysis and theories of the professions. The results indicate that emphasis in educational policy is placed on the clarification of goals, progression and assessment practices in schools and teacher edu-cation. Thus teachers and teacher educators need to address functional steering claims which demand commitment and loyalty for political reforms. This entails that teachers’ professional autonomy is restricted. Teachers are encouraged to take difficult decisions and act strategically in order to maximise the pedagogic outcome based on economic and political claims for excellence, collaboration, and a clear-cut steering direction. Professionalism now appears to connote quality control by way of more specified formulations and assessments towards learning outcomes. Political rhetoric stipulates as essential that teachers determine knowledge progression and boundaries between the various exam and knowledge levels. Teachers are also to expound internal documentation in order to fulfil system-related claims. The study illustrates how conditions and preconditions emanate from shared profes-sional considerations, competencies and convictions, and that teachers need to be able to discuss these. However, this is challenged by a continuously increasing management by documents. In light of recentralised steering, claims are directed at teachers who are now to create transparency, quantifiable criteria for assessment and employability. Based on the teachers’ development projects, the results indicate that teachers are critical of how the education system is subjected to increasing pressure due to a stream of reforms and evaluations. Politicisation and economisation of education underscore a need for pragmatic and strategic actions within the profession. In contrast to experiences of political lack of vision, impellent user orientation and marketisation, universities and teachers claim that critical communicative-oriented pedagogy boost professional autonomy. Moreover, the study indicates that teachers’ positions and professional identities vary depending on the perceived validity of the political claims. Claims for objectivity, simplification, clarity and functional criteria for assessment are countered by claims for in-depth meaning-making and consideration of the complexity and knowledge instability that is constitutive of pedagogic practices. Ultimately, this study illustrates a professional shift within the teacher body towards notions of objectivity and individualisation, thereby threatening teachers’ critical discussions of their organisation and work.
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| 7. |
- Ramírez-Pasillas, Marcela, 1971-
(författare)
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Global Spaces for Local Entrepreneurship : Stretching clusters through networks and international trade fairs
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many of the insightful writings on clusters identify the role of entrepreneurs as key agents in the formation of firms and clusters. This thesis argues instead that local entrepreneurship is not ceased once firms and clusters are established; local entrepreneurship is about the continuous (re)creation of both businesses and clusters in global spaces. Global spaces for local entrepreneurship emphasises how firms collectively become an agent of continuous renewal. Firms enact an organising context materialising in networks that stretch relations and collaborations according to the issues being dealt with. These networks are localised but are extended beyond the geographical boundaries of clusters. One important example of this, which is in focus in this doctoral thesis, is that firms operating in clusters often interact with actors whom they have met at international trade fairs (ITFs). ITFs are those attractive events that individuals, firms and institutions attend temporarily to exhibit and trade products in foreign and national markets.This thesis is based on the work contained in a cover and five papers. Each paper contributes to the research objective and questions brought forward in the thesis cover. The empirical evidence has been mostly drawn from several case studies conducted in the Lammhult cluster in Sweden. The findings show that firms build their organising contexts in order to stretch the reach and accessibility to local and non-local actors; they jointly co-create potential opportunities. The organising contexts are mapped in networks using three proximity orders. The empirical findings report three types of situations in which there is a potential opportunity for continuous renewal. By emphasising the opportunities that can be originated when a business is not realised or when a new or improved product or process has not been generated yet, this thesis aims to stimulate a theoretical reappraisal of global spaces for local entrepreneurship. With the conceptual development of global spaces for local entrepreneurship, we put forward the idea that such spaces enhance an ability to renew firms and clusters. The underlying reason is that local entrepreneurship is centered on the social interaction between individuals, firms and/or institutions; it materialises in intended and unintended dialogical situations when there is a commitment to the continuous renewal of firms and clusters. Such dialogical situations carry with them an opportunity for co-creating new businesses, new products and new processes.
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