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2.
Sjölander-Lindqvist, Annelie
(författare)
Local Environment at Stake : The Hallandsås Railway Tunnel in a Social and Cultural Context
2004
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
A major trend in facility siting research focuses on economic and psychological aspects of land-use regarding the location of potentially hazardous technological facilities including storage for high-level radioactive waste, landfills, chemical plants, large-scale dams, or waste incinerators. Such facilities frequently have profound environmental impact and are often understood by local citizens as intrusions on their environment that threaten landscape, place, and community. This investigation of local responses to facility siting is grounded in social anthropological theories of landscape and place. The study addresses the social and cultural impacts of the building of a railway tunnel through the Hallandsås ridge in an agricultural area in the southwest of Sweden. This tunnel project has met with technological difficulties and environmental problems such as a lowered groundwater table and toxic contamination of groundwater, soil, and surface water. A principal concern in this dissertation is how homeowners’ perceptions and views of the landscape, place, and locality—that is, their local environment—has been affected by the building of a tunnel beneath their farms and homesteads. The four articles on which the thesis build are derived from anthropological fieldwork carried out among local residents affected by the Hallandsås tunnel project. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, collaborative photography, nature walks, and participant observation at public meetings, between the years 1999 and 2003. The main findings of the study suggest that the construction of the tunnel and the subsequent environmental consequences have given rise to an increased sense among affected residents of the fragility and uncertainty of life systems and people’s livelihoods. Feelings of uncertainty regarding the future of the community and the landscape have stimulated a discourse about local history and collective memories bearing on the local environment. Shared responsibility for nature and the local environment is another theme. The building of the Hallandsås railway tunnel has both reinforced local identity within the rural community of affected residents and incited conflict as to how the natural resources of the area should be understood and interpreted. Groundwater issues play a central role in land-use disputes generated by the tunnel project. Groundwater serves as a ‘boundary object’ bordering the domains of the concerned parties: the local community and the Swedish National Rail Administration.
3.
Jonsson, Fatima, 1972-
(författare)
Hanging out in the game café : Contextualising co-located computer game play practices and experiences
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
What social practices are people involved when staying in a game café? What kind of social setting is the game café? What are the attitudes towards playing computer games at home and in public among parents? What are the media representations of co-located game playing in public? What are the sensory experiences of playing co-located game play in public? This dissertation gives a descriptive and analytical account of the contexts and meanings of playing co-located computer games in public settings such as game cafés and LAN parties. The overall aim with the dissertation is to describe and investigate the social and cultural meanings and contexts of playing computer games in a game café. The research questions have been investigated in four empirical studies.The dissertation shows that people are involved in various social practices and activities aimed at supporting and maintaining social relationships among friends and peers. The game café can be seen as a third place, as it used by players for recreation and an escape from the pressure of home and school, a place which feels like home, is familiar and welcoming. However the game café is a limited third place used by young men who likes to play online and network games. The dissertation also shows how the social environment provides for specific sensory experiences. These sensory experiences involve sitting together side by side slapping each other’s shoulders and legs, eating candies and drinking sodas, listening to music. The representations of co-located game playing in public reproduce traditional gender roles where professional gamers are represented by men and causal gamers are represented by women (and men) as well as construct youth as party lovers. The study also suggests that parents’ attitudes towards their children playing games in public draw on traditional values and ideas about children’s play and social relationships.
4.
Mondino, Elena, 1993-
(författare)
Changes in Hydrological Risk Perception and Implications for Disaster Risk Reduction
2021
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Economic losses caused by hydrological extremes, such as floods and droughts, are exacerbating because of increased anthropogenic activities and global environmental changes. Understanding how individuals and communities interact with hydrological extremes thus becomes fundamental to develop effective strategies for disaster risk reduction. Risk perception plays an important role in determining how individuals and communities respond to the occurrence of an extreme event. This thesis aims at addressing aspects of risk perception that remain largely unknown. They include: i) how flood risk perceptions change over time, ii) the role of previous experiences, and iii) how the perception of flood risk relates to the perception of other natural hazards, such as droughts. The work is based on survey data collected in different study areas – both in Italy and Sweden at the local and national scales – via longitudinal as well as cross-sectional approaches. In relation to the three main objectives, this thesis found that: i) flood risk perceptions evolve differently over time depending on social groups; ii) different types of previous experiences with floods directly influence specific facets of risk perception, with knowledge deriving from the experience also playing an important role; iii) flood risk perception is heavily intertwined with drought risk perception. These results have policy and theoretical implications. Concerning the former, they can inform disaster risk reduction efforts in terms of risk communication and promote an integrated management of hydrological risk. As for the latter, they stress the importance of taking social heterogeneity into account when modelling the interaction between the social and the hydrological spheres, as this can influence the community’s response to extreme events. Fostering human adaptation to climate extremes is a priority. This thesis argues that adaptation can be achieved by promoting the awareness that not only are we at risk, but also that we have the means to address the risk.
5.
Andersson, David, 1988-
(författare)
Simple Models for Complex Nonequilibrium Problems in Nanoscale Friction and Network Dynamics
2020
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This doctoral thesis investigates three different topics: How friction evolves in atomically thin layered materials (2D materials); How social dynamics can be used to model grand scale common-pool resource games; Benchmarking of various image reconstruction algorithms in atomic force microscopy experiments. While these topics are diverse, they share being complex out-of-equilibrium systems. Furthermore, our approach to these topics will be the same: using simple models to obtain qualitative information about a system's dynamics. In the case of atomically thin layered materials, we will be expanding on the influential Prandtl-Tomlinson model and obtain an improved model constituting a substantial improvement in the theoretical description of friction in these systems. In the context of social dynamics, we will introduce a novel model representing a new approach to consensus rates on social networks in relation to society spanning coordination problems. For the image reconstruction project, our ambition is to investigate a new method for recreating free-energy surfaces based on AFM experiment, however, for this project only preliminary results are included.
6.
Backlund, Kenneth, 1966-
(författare)
Welfare measurement, externalities and Pigouvian taxation in dynamic economies
2000
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis consists of five papers.Paper [1] analyzes one possible way of replacing dynamic Pigouvian taxes by a static approximation of such taxes from the point of view of social accounting. The idea is to approximate a Pigouvian emission tax by using the instantaneous marginal willingness to pay to reduce the stock of pollution. If this approximation is close enough to the correct Pigouvian tax it will be useful for at least two reasons: (i) it brings the economy close to the socially optimal solution; and (ii) it provides information relevant for social accounting by closely approximating the value of additions to the stock of pollution.Paper [2] analyzes the welfare effects of an agreement between countries to slightly increase their emission taxes. The results indicate that such an agreement need not necessarily increase the global welfare level, even if each individual country has set its prereform emission tax to be lower than the marginal social cost of pollution.Paper [3] provides an economic framework for analyzing the global warming problem, emphasizing the use of forests as a means of carbon sequestration. We explore the difference between the decentralized economy and the socially optimal resource allocation, and discuss the appropriate tax system required to implement the first best optimum.Paper [4] incorporates the uncertainty involved in the production of nuclear energy into a dynamic general equilibrium growth model. We compare the resource allocation in the decentralized economy with the socially optimal resource allocation and design the dynamic Pigouvian taxes that make the decentralized economy reproduce the socially optimal resource allocation.Paper [5] treats externalities from nuclear power in a dynamic differential game framework involving two countries, which differ with regard to their nuclear technology. The model is solved numerically, where one country is considered relatively safe and the other relatively less safe.
7.
Danielsson, Ulrika
(författare)
Relationships between information communication technology and psychosocial life environment : Students and young urban knowledge workers in the ICT-era
2007
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Dramatic changes have been taking place in our ways of working and spending leisure time. This relates to the increasing use of ICT (Information Communication Technology) in our lives and is of crucial importance to our future. Today, being physically away from the workplace doesn�t mean that we are necessarily leaving our work tasks behind in psychological terms. The aim of the thesis is to attain a deeper understanding of the relationships between individuals� psychosocial life environment and their use of ICT in order to contribute to the discussion about how everyday use of ICT can affect us. The research is based on two case studies that are presented in research articles. A theoretical framework concerning psychosocial life environment and use of ICT was built upon a review of the literature on environment/role, their relationship to ICT and the boundaries within different roles and environments. The first results in this thesis show that the blurred boundaries between work and leisure begin in school and then continue on into working life. The second result present the different barriers to young women seeking professional roles in the IT-business and the sometimes overlooked fact that every individual has a need to feel needed regardless of whether it is the private or professional role. The third results show that the daily use of ICT creates both needs and activities, but it appears that a sense of lack of control leaves the user feeling negatively stressed. Finally, one example of further research could focus on determining what is the responsibility of the leader of an organization who requires an employee to be reachable any time anywhere?
8.
Petersson, Jesper, 1974
(författare)
Geographies of eHealth: Studies of Healthcare at a Distance
2014
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis examines the proliferation of healthcare services using information and communication technology to overcome spatial and temporal obstacles. These services are given such names as telemedicine and telecare, which are sometimes grouped together as telehealthcare under the umbrella term eHealth. My main argument is that a prevalent and overoptimistic rhetoric of how the possibilities of digitalization are expected to produce a homogenous and ubiquitous healthcare space conceals many of the spatiotemporal complexities involved in introducing telehealthcare and in the overall organizing of healthcare. To counteract such simplifications, I contend that we need a relational understanding of the technical and the geographical as always nested in the social and vice versa. With such an approach, it is arguably possible to begin to tease apart the many spatiotemporal entanglements of these innovations and to trace their political ramifications. This position is developed by integrating perspectives from science and technology studies with insights from human geography. The four constituent papers of this thesis pursue this argument in qualitatively grounded case studies of telehealthcare and its geographies. Paper I looks at various initiatives for fetal tele-ultrasonography, demonstrating that this practice cannot be reduced to a mere transparent relay for the speedy transmission of digital information across space and time. The paper investigates how its introduction could affect medical knowledge production, power hierarchies, and subject positions, for example, the status attributed to the fetal figure. Paper II traces Swedish transformations of telehealthcare. The use of telemedicine to reach those outside medicine’s range has arguably been accompanied by efforts to achieve intra-organizational streamlining via telemedicine. This process has continued with the emergence of telecare for personal use directed toward the overlapping groups of the elderly people and patients with chronic conditions. I contend that this shift can be understood through a geographical lens as attempts to save space and time by keeping as many patients as possible out of costly hospitalization and preventing them from engaging scarce specialist resources. Paper III compares four telemedicine projects in Sweden. In detailing how the purpose of practicing telemedicine differed between these projects in relation to, for example, the specifics of distance, care availability, and treated medical conditions, the paper demonstrates the existence of many versions of telemedicine. Whereas this fluidity could further the spread of telemedicine, it could also cause problems. To various actors wanting to use telemedicine in a homogenous and fixed way for national streamlining purposes, this diversity has generated confusion when they wished to align telemedicine in a preferred direction. The paper concludes that technology travels best when it can contain both fluid and fixed relationships. Paper IV argues that, whatever is claimed about creating a space- and time-independent healthcare by means of telehealthcare, the use of telecare to connect the standardized spaces of healthcare with the fluid everyday lives of elderly people and patients with chronic conditions actually works by unfolding new spaces of visibilities and establishing new temporalities as well. By investigating these spatiotemporalities, I demonstrate how these applications draw together discourses on individual freedom with medically derived algorithms and concerns about how to make best use of scarce healthcare resources.
9.
Turner, Russell, 1975
(författare)
Teenage Kicks – The Differential Development of Drug Use, Drunkenness, and Criminal Behaviour in Early to Mid-Adolescence
2020
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis studies the development of drug use, drunkenness, and criminal behaviour in early to mid-adolescence. Its main aims are to improve knowledge about how and why these three behaviours develop and to contribute towards the development of theory that can have applications in prevention policy and practice. The thesis comprises four studies. Three of these are empirical studies using data from the Longitudinal Research on Development in Adolescence (LoRDIA) project. A general population, prospective sample of over 1500 adolescents was followed annually from age 13 to 15 (grades 7 to 9). Longitudinal within-person and person-oriented statistical analyses were applied. A fourth, theoretical study, applied principles from Critical Realism both to theories of the development of these behaviours, and also to existing empirical studies, including two from this thesis. The results of this thesis found greater complexity and heterogeneity than previously known both in how drug use, drunkenness, and criminal behaviour develop, but also in how they relate to each other. For example, drug use and drunkenness showed less stable patterns over time, compared to criminal behaviour. Criminal behaviour also showed greater statistical risk of being followed by later drug use and drunkenness, but not vice versa. The behaviours were found to cluster together in specific ways with a larger group (80%) who abstained, two smaller groups who infrequently engaged either in crime (9%) or mainly in drunkenness and drug use (9%), and a ‘severe’ 2% who regularly engaged in all three behaviours. This differential development was also shown to be related to different combinations of explanatory factors. This thesis challenges and extends existing knowledge concerning the development of drug use, drunkenness, and criminal behaviour in early to mid-adolescence. Drawing on sociological, criminological and psychological theory, a new formulation of the differential development of these behaviours is outlined. The results and conclusions presented in this thesis have implications for the design of prevention policy and practice and for social work with young people.
10.
