| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- McCrory, Gavin, 1990
(författare)
-
The unseen in between: Unpacking, designing, and evaluating sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts
- 2022
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We live in a time of compounding ecological and social change. Given its uncertain and urgent nature, contemporary forms of governance are experiencing tension between controlling the present and nurturing collective capacities to enact transformative change. Amidst a wave of interest in transitions and transformations in-the-making, labs in real-world contexts have entered the discussion. Labs have emerged as appealing, novel and highly complex entities that situate and localize engagement around complex sustainability challenges. Labs carry a systemic view of change; they comprise alternative and experimental approaches; they carry a normative assumption that research has plural roles; and they hold an explicit learning orientation that infuses knowledge with action. Given the unfolding of labs in the real world, my involvement in their design, and ongoing interests in treating both meanings and processes of sustainability, this thesis is organized around a curiosity. Its overarching aim is to investigate how sustainability-oriented labs could be unpacked, designed and evaluated in the context of sustainability transitions and transformations. Underlaboured by a critical realist philosophy of science, this thesis investigates sustainability-oriented labs by way of a qualitative-dominant, case-based research strategy. It does this across three overlapping research phases, culminating in four appended papers. In research phase one, we adopt a systematic review of sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts, exploring and classifying a global sample of labs according to their engagement with sustainability. In paper I, we identify and unpack 53 sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts. Through a mixed-methods analysis, we explore the distribution and diversity of these labs, discerning the research communities which conceptualize labs and the dimensions of their practice. In Paper III, we present an empirically grounded typology, arriving at six different types of sustainability-oriented labs: 1) Fix and control, 2) (Re-)Design and optimize, 3) Make and relate, 4) Educate and engage, 5) Empower and govern and 6) Explore and shape. In research phase two, paper II presents a qualitative case-based inquiry into Challenge Lab (C-Lab), a challenge-driven learning environment. Paper II conceptualizes challenge framing as embedded within an open-ended learning process, both on a level of practice and space. Experiences related to framing in C-Lab shed light on how students situate themselves and see their role within existing challenges, how they navigate limits to knowledge in complex systems, and how they self-assess their own sense of comfort and progress. In addition, we introduce three dilemmas that are not owned by teachers or students but emerge, as contradiction, within the learning space. In research phase three, paper IV presents a multi-case comparison of evaluation practices in various sustainability transition initiatives. We conceptualize and compare the role of evaluation as a tool that can enhance the transformative capacity of sustainability-oriented labs and its broader family of transition experiments. This thesis and its appended papers provide practical-experiential, empirical-conceptual and methodological contributions on the topic of sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts. In addition, it contains a layered account of an undisciplinary doctoral journey. I do this by (1) reflecting upon each research phase, (2) providing transparent accounts of positionality in relation to my research, (3) conceptualizing and reflecting upon undisciplinarity as a process of becoming, and (4) providing a mobile autoethnographic account of staying on the ground as part of a broader commitment to interrogate knowledge practices. Moving forward, I find myself motivated by three convictions: (1) transformations are needed, and labs are invitations in between dualisms, (2) invitations hold the possibility of flipping big assumptions and ethical practices, and (3) transformations presuppose fundamental change from within both research and education knowledge systems. They hinge upon the questioning of what both are, who they are for, and what they might need to become. In conclusion, they compel us to think big, start small, and act now.
|
|
| 3. |
- Johansson, Erika, 1969
(författare)
-
HOUSE MASTER SCHOOL: Career Model for Education and Training in Integrated and Sustainable Conservation of Built Environments
- 2008
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Based on a participatory action research methodology and approach (AR), this dissertation explores the core theoretical problems and opportunities of education and learning for sustainable development (ESD) within the cross-disciplinary area of integrated and sustainable conservation of built environments. The main purpose has been to develop an epistemological framework for integrated lifelong learning, ethics and advanced research (R&D) and to provide a new sustainable education and career model for the field to be applied in the Dalecarlia region and on a national level within the Swedish construction industry at large; i.e. the House Master School (HMS). This includes the development of a new professional “House Master”; a new conservation and sustainable building „process manager‟ or engineer at the interface between various disciplines and with an emphasis on high quality and traditional crafts and design, refurbishment and reuse, preventive conservation and long-term maintenance of the built environment. The HMS is developed according to the principles of integrated lifelong learning, ESD and the Bologna Model for higher education in Europe and will be implemented as part of a well-coordinated training strategy, nationally as well as internationally, including initiation of specific training and exchange programs and R&D. The Swedish approach to transdisciplinary case study research (TCSR) and educational system development has been used as placed in an international context. An outline and assessment of the contribution of action research, critical systems thinking and complexity theory is provided as part of the overall research methodology and design.The main aim of this R&D project has been to promote a sound understanding and conceptualization of meta-theoretical foundations, functions, structures, drivers, needs and dynamic applicability of methods to support integrated lifelong learning and ESD, research and development within the Swedish building sector and to provide a new innovative education and career model, which if implemented successfully, would have a direct impact on the environment, the economy, community and sustainable development processes at large. By using the HMS Model as a case study, this research entails a commitment to socially transformative research - i.e. the methodology is grounded in a vision of educational and organizational change based on an integration of ecological and conservation values. This includes an identification of deficiencies and needs in existing education and training systems, including an assessment of anticipated qualification and emerging learning needs with anemphasis on integrated architectural conservation, construction maintenance and crafts education and training. The aim is to provide new and enhanced career opportunities for young construction students, particularly engineers, skilled trades and craftspeople, as well as for other professionals in need for continuing professional development (CPD) and training in this field.This dissertation demonstrates the epistemological basis, an appropriate conceptual framework and an organizational and methodological design for educational change and development, integrated lifelong learning and ESD for the construction and architectural heritage field at large. If proved successful, the HMS Model may be used as a demonstrative and be adapted and transferred to other relevant sectors, regions and/or countries. It argues that an appropriate education and conservation policy and an integrated life cycle approach are important factors for obtaining sustainability and lifelong learning and for launching new sustainable education and training programs, new products and processes, enterprises, R&D, standards and principles for the future. The central argument is that sustainability/ESD is an ongoing multi-dimensional learning process that seeks and requires cultural change through (a) transdisciplinary education, learning and research, (b) multidisciplinary team- and networked approaches to educational development and change and (d) participatory and communicative action between various disciplines, institutions, NGOs, companies/SMEs and stakeholders. A key lesson derived from this research is the need for preventative systemic thinking and increased stakeholder participation in architectural conservation and construction projects and in inter- and cross-disciplinary research (R&D), in urban and rural development planning and especially the planning for such education and training.
|
|
| 4. |
- Landzelius, Michael, 1958
(författare)
-
Dis(re)membering Spaces: Swedish Modernism in Law Courts Controversy
- 1999
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The dissertation addresses the public controversy, as reflected in newspaper coverage, over the 1936 Law Courts Annex in Göteborg, Sweden. The controversy is conceived as a tension-filled, multi-layered conjuncture of urban rivalry within the nation-state. The politico-differential pair modernism/conservatism and the spatio-differential pair Stockholm/Göteborg are traced out and shown to be formative for subject positions both in the controversy, and in scholarly work during the subsequent six decades.To disentangle the conjuncture, subjects’ spatial sense-making is contextualized with respect to a politicized built environment, and to practices characterized by polysemy, contestation and resemanticization, through which volatile meanings and identity effects are continuously renegotiated. This understanding is elaborated in relation to a notion of power as concerning asymmetries of spatial reach with regard to individuals’ influence and control over practices.From this position, the law courts controversy is unfolded through a multi-factor analysis on several spatial scales, from the nation-state to architectural solutions. It is demonstrated that in the Swedish 1930s, no building but the Law Courts Annex was executed in overt modernism on a site of key symbolico-political significance. The established projection of modernism onto Stockholm and conservatism onto Göteborg is deconstructed. The study shows how the law courts project crystallized into a unique conjuncture entangled in questions of: national and local struggles between fractions of the dominant class; governmental efforts to impose new norms and forms of dwelling and discipline; aesthetic purification and élitism; and conjoined interests of real estate capitalists, functionalist planners, and reformist politicians.The law courts controversy is shown to have been embedded in transpositions of ethics, politics, space and aesthetics. New spaces of commoditized visibility were related to the Law Courts Annex, and a gendered imagery of buildings and female human bodies as homologous were invoked together with notions of sexual and bodily hygiene. The controversy is unfolded as concerned with conditions of identity formation and subjectivity in a space of unseen visibility, and the building is unveiled as a classed and gendered space for the production of humans as mass ornaments with apractic postural models.In conclusion, established scholarly discourse on the Law Courts Annex and the controversy is unveiled as a third-order simulacrum through which the annex since the late 1930s has been produced and preserved as a counterfeit, as a historical simulacrum of the particular imagery of a discourse disconnected from existing traces of the past.
|
|
| 5. |
- Svensson, Ingrid, 1987
(författare)
-
Institutional work across multiple levels: The case of strategic public facilities management in the making
- 2021
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The research in this thesis deals with the implementation of strategic planning measures in public facilities management organizations (PFMOs) and the development of strategic public facilities management (SPFM). The aim is to increase the understanding of how individual and organizational actors work with strategic public facilities management and how this influences both public facilities management organizations and the institution of public facilities management. Data were collected through interviews, observations, shadowing, a survey, notes from a workshop and readings of organizational documents. The practice-oriented theoretical lenses of institutional work, institutional logics and sociomateriality have been applied when analyzing the data. In the thesis it is discussed how old practices, characterized by short-term measures as response to urgent maintenance needs of buildings, is associated with negative connotations. Together these practices constituted the old practice of public facilities management (PFM) and associations to lack of planning makes it an unwanted practice. On the other hand, the new practice of PFM, characterized by planning for the future, is associated with positive connotations of strategic and long-term planning measures. For SPFM to be realized, it is argued that these two practices, and the logics associated with them, can co-exist. The institutional logics of PFM are discussed in relation to when the new and the old practice o PFM are imbricating each other. The findings show how it is not the logics presence per se that is of importance for actors and for how practices change and develop, but how these logics are understood and acted upon. In addition, findings show how different types of actors engage in different types of institutional work, at different organizational levels, in both external and internal dimensions during the implementation and development of SPFM. Positioning work, a specific type of institutional work prevalent in PFMOs, has been highlighted. Positioning work includes taking new space and placing it in the organizational nexus and is aimed at providing PFMOs with a new position within their institutional field. Moreover, together with humans, several objects were found to be part of the change processes in several ways; objects were shown to attack and, thereby, disrupt established institutions and were also found to justify preferred routes. Through acts of safeguarding and emotional regulation, objects also took part in maintaining practices. The focus has been on conceptualizing current challenges for PFM as a multi-logic challenge, i.e. the challenge is to integrate different perspectives in practice. The importance of recognizing the aspects of pre-reflexive agency for successful change work in an institutional setting constituted by several different logics and professional backgrounds is acknowledged. How actors’ levels of agency are not constant but dependent on their social positions and their abilities to identify and combine different forms of institutional work has also been shown. Different objects were shown to be part of the change processes studied as institutional implements and emotional implements and, as such, actively involved in institutional work.
|
|
| 6. |
- Ahlborg, Helene, 1980
(författare)
-
Walking along the lines of power. A systems approach to understanding co-emergence of society, technology and nature in processes of rural electrification
- 2015
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many African governments, international and local organizations involved in development policy and practice consider rural electrification (RE) to be a priority. In the absence of electric grid infrastructure, rural populations rely on, for example, diesel generators, batteries and solar panels for their electricity supply and on kerosene, wood and charcoal for lighting and heating purposes. Increasingly, renewable energy technologies in small-scale decentralized systems are promoted as a complement or an alternative to the extension of national grids. Large-scale and small-scale RE processes differ in many respects. However, both are troubled by the gap between expected and actual outcomes. This thesis scrutinizes the assumption that ‘electricity brings development’. It shows the importance of asking questions related to the encounter between local societies and externally introduced technology in order to understand how and why RE processes in general, and decentralized RE in particular, unfold in particular ways – with short and long-term consequences for life in rural areas. In this thesis, I bring together socio-technical approaches, philosophical debates on human power and conceptualizations of scale. This allows me to explore RE processes and the points of intersection between society, technology and nature that are important for shaping the outcomes for different actors, and producing certain kinds of development. Together, these perspectives help us see how electrification processes are inherently political with on-the-ground dynamics embedded in and influencing more long-term development processes at higher societal levels.The thesis presents a synthesis of four empirical studies and combines broad and general analyses – of Tanzania’s and Mozambique’s energy sectors and RE prospects, and the role of democracy and institutional quality for public electricity provision in African countries – with two case studies of decentralized generation and micro-grid distribution in Tanzania. A fifth paper explores dimensions of scale, which are central to the theoretical and methodological approach of the thesis. The theoretical contribution is an analytical framework for studying processes of system formation in decentralized RE. It can guide further research and assist interdisciplinary communication around the complex challenges involved in RE processes. Furthermore, the thesis develops a conceptualization of the multiple workings of human power in electrification processes, which helps us understand how social inequality is maintained and contested. The conclusion is that even small-scale systems of local generation and distribution can be powerful enough to redirect processes of social and economic change and bring accompanying shifts in social identities, people’s use of and understanding of spaces, and the distribution of material resources.The thesis contributes to existing knowledge by developing conceptual tools for understanding the ‘messy’ human aspects of socio-technical change in relation to technical and ecological elements and processes. For the actors involved in RE processes, the thesis helps illustrate why conflicts of interest can be expected to emerge and where points of friction can occur. These are the points that require the continuous attention of actors involved in order to create positive feedbacks and avoid negative spirals. One of the conclusions is that actors involved in RE processes may contribute to the sustainable functioning of energy systems and positive outcomes by creating processes for dialogue, negotiation and learning.
|
|
| 7. |
- Annafari, Tsani, 1974
(författare)
-
Understanding mobile service diffusion as an evolutionary process: A study of the Swedish market
- 2012
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to highlight the connections between the diffusion of innovation theory and the evolutionary models for technological changes within the context of mobile communication research. On the basis of empirical findings, the discussion focuses on addressing three research questions: Why should mobile service diffusion be understood as an evolutionary process? How should mobile service diffusion be explained and modelled using evolutionary conceptions? And in what way the evolutionary framework could influence future mobile service diffusion studies?Based on empirical observations and a literature study, this thesis argues that mobile service diffusion involves dynamic, developmental and historical economic process which is comparable to an evolutionary process. Some essential features of evolutionary processes can also be observed empirically along the mobile service diffusion. For instance, the presence of various generations of mobile service technology along the diffusion timeline as well as different intensities of mobile service use, i.e. single subscriptions and multiple subscriptions, indicates that the variation characterizes the diffusion process of mobile service. The cord-cutter population implicitly indicates the presence of selection mechanism of individuals who choose to retain mobile-only communications rather than other type of communication. Similarly the existence of mobile service non-users also implicitly indicates that retention exists along the diffusion process. All these indications suggest that the evolutionary concepts are relevant in order to comprehend mobile service diffusion.To explain and model mobile service diffusion using an evolutionary framework, this thesis underlines the importance of data granularity and the use of a relevant diffusion model. The use of data granularity is critical to represent the variation and to serve as a proxy for making trend projection based on the level of interest. The use of a relevant diffusion model is essential to describe the pattern of the data according to selection mechanisms that determine the diffusion process. The evolutionary variation and selection mechanisms are also considered in two examples of diffusion modelling that address the level of mobile service use and intergenerational technology effects. The results show intuitive trend projections as well as realistic understanding toward the process of mobile service diffusion which are helpful for business strategy and policy planning. However the proposed approach is still unable to address different actors and forces that may internally or externally influence the evolutionary process of mobile service diffusion (i.e. dynamics in pricing, inter-technological substitutions and complementarities, service bundling, etc.). This suggests that future studies in mobile service diffusion should take into account the evolutionary conceptions that could model dynamic interactions of relevant actors and interests in mobile service ecosystem.
|
|
| 8. |
- Bakerson, Aram, 1963
(författare)
-
Från järnvägsstation till kommunikationsnod
- 2010
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- AbstractIn organizational terms train stations were for a long period of time a component of railway transportation. Therefore during the crisis period for railways after the Second World War the stations did not often receive the attention and the resources they deserved. Investments in modernization and refurbishment were the product of assessments made by the railway bodies.The demand for a fast, environmental-friendly and accessible means of transport has caused railway travel to become more attractive again. The development of stations has fallen out of tune with the increasing number of passengers and with the development of railway technology and the urban transport needs. Some of the station's basic functions have lost their importance while the new functions and new services have emerged within the station and its immediate proximity. Travel tradition and travel culture change, urban and inter-urban transportation develop in areas adjacent to the station, which contribute to the advent of new categories of passenger with varied interests and needs. High number of visitors cause train stations to become increasingly attractive for commercial purposes. All this results in the train stations being transformed into complex communication nodes, meeting places in the city with their own structures and logistics.The dissimilarity between passenger categories generates variation in movement patterns and flows, differences in demands for services and in choices of means of transport, requirements of reorganization of the railway station space, and more flexibility in designing the links between operate functions and the station buildings, adjacent and track areas. Changes cause the new trends that physically affect the station building and its proximity in the form of extensions of the stops and access points, the design of the station space, the location of station components of the station and their relationships between functions, services and commercial activities. This thesis "From railway station to Communication Node" is based on a field work of 37 large and medium-size stations in seven countries. Through visits to these places, my own observations on place, and on my own extensive photographic documentation, these stations have been documented in text and imagery. The seven chapters describe and analyze the railway stations with regard to their internal spatial organization, functions, passenger movements and flows through the buildings and adjacent areas i.e. their encounters with the surrounding city. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a broad understanding of the railway stations’ qualities, weaknesses and opportunities in contemporary demands on the station as a communication node in order to develop new prerequisites for planning and the utilisation of space. The intention is that this work will generate a coherent and broad foundation for decisions concerning the alteration of station buildings and give a deeper picture of present day demands regarding the modernisation of stations and their surroundings as well as providing a basis for continued in-depth studies of the various aspects that have been brought to light.
|
|
| 9. |
- Berge, Maria, 1979
(författare)
-
Group work and physics – characteristics, learning possibilities and patterns of interaction
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores group work in physics at university level. The guiding research interest is what happens in the students’ interactions during such (instructional) activities, focusing both on the physics content and group dynamics. The four collated papers are based on empirical data consisting of video and audio-recordings of seven groups of students solving physics problems concerning force and friction in Newtonian mechanics. The students belonged to the Engineering Physics and Bioengineering programmes at Chalmers University of Technology.In line with the guiding research interest, different facets of group work data were analysed using a multi-theoretic perspective at three levels with focus on the content, the context and the components. The three distinct approaches were based on different theoretical frameworks: phenomenography combined with variation theory, positioning theory, and conversation analysis. The results presented in this thesis relate to pedagogical characteristics of the learning situation, learning possibilities and patterns of interaction and all the analytical approaches contribute to all the aspects of the results. The purpose of this design was to achieve a deeper understanding of a complex empirical situation by offering several accounts that are analytically and theoretically differently grounded. The theoretical frameworks have been interpreted, and sometimesadapted, in order to offer analytical strength in reflecting essential facets of the empirical data with respect to the research interest. Each level of analysis uncovered new dimensions of the learning situation, potentially enabling a synthesis of different understandings of group work. This synthesis will inform and support instructional advice for the learning of physics.The results show that learning physics in small groups is a complex and nonlinear process where the students’ learning possibilities differ and have many levels. These learning possibilities take place simultaneously in group sessions and are interconnected, for example, developing through discussion the way of experiencing physics concepts, becoming and being part of a physics or an engineering community and interactively producing answers, as well as communicative and representational tools for learning.
|
|
| 10. |
- Berlin, Cecilia, 1981
(författare)
-
Ergonomics Infrastructure - An Organizational Roadmap to Improved Production Ergonomics
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Improving production ergonomics is a pursuit common to many companies in different industrial sectors. At the core is an aspiration to eliminate risks for work-related musculo-skeletal disorders (MSDs), but modern views on ergonomics have evolved the discipline from a purely physiological, instrumental concern to an organizational, holistic systems-performance discipline (macroergonomics). This modern perspective implies that it is not enough to consider ergonomics as the domain of only ergonomics specialists; nor is it advisable to try improving it in isolation, without paying attention to the influences of the surrounding stakeholders and context. This thesis proposes that the “ergonomics infrastructure” of an organization is made up of the structural, technical, organizational and stakeholder-relational conditions that enable or hinder improvement of ergonomics. These conditions focus on the positioning of different stakeholders towards ergonomics issues, the relations between stakeholders and strategies they use for persuasion, and the influences that arise from industry-specific culture, attitudes and procedural integration (or exclusion) of ergonomics into engineering processes. This in turn affects an organization’s tendency to handle ergonomics proactively (i.e. at the design stage) or reactively (in response to injury, discomfort and compensation claims). It was found that stakeholder influence and relational interactions are of particular importance to the implementation of ergonomics improvements. Ergonomics practitioners who are politically aware and are able to link ergonomics improvements to business and production benefits are best poised to advance an ergonomics agenda. The knowledge gleaned from the work in this thesis has been synthesized, together with relevant theoretical concepts found in the literature, into a “Tentative Framework” which guides empirical data collection aimed at mapping the “ergonomics infrastructure” in an organization. Its step-by-step systematic review of conditions at different hierarchical levels in the organization should serve ergonomics practitioners and managers alike in identifying pathways and roadblocks to improving production ergonomics. This contributes to the branch of macroergonomics literature, which to date has placed little focus on day-to-day ergonomics practice and organizational-relational influences on ergonomics work.
|
|
