| 1. |
- Larsson, Magnus, 1983-
(författare)
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National environmental evaluation systems : guiding towards sustainability?
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Dealing with environmental threats is one of the largest, if not the largest, challenge contemporary societies face. One way to better deal with this challenge would be to produce knowledge that can be used to improve environmental work and environmental policy and thus ultimately contribute to sustainable development. National environmental evaluations, which this thesis explores, could potentially fill this function because they are supposed to generate applicable and useful knowledge for improving environmental policy and practice for a sustainable transition. However, what different environmental actors view as useful knowledge varies, and needs to be empirically investigated. Against this background, the aim of this thesis is to investigate whether, and how, national environmental evaluation systems contribute to key actors’ environmental work and sustainable development. The thesis explores two national environmental evaluation systems in Sweden.Method: A mixed methods approach is applied that combines three methods. Firstly, a narrative synthesis is developed and applied to compile a list of sustainable development effects from national environmental evaluations. Secondly, a critical program theory is used to investigate the evaluation system’s underlying logic and to assess the likelihood of it achieving its intended effects. Thirdly, a directed content analysis is used to explore the usability and use of environmental evaluations and evaluation systems. The methods are applied to various documents, interviews with key actors, and observations at two environmental seminars.Results: The results show that, to contribute to sustainable development in the context of evaluation systems and network governance, environmental evaluations need to be of sufficient quality and meet different stakeholders’ knowledge needs. However, only some evaluations meet this demand. The main value of national environmental evaluations and evaluation systems is that they reinforce the national objectives, provide a recurrent report on achievement of objectives, and push actors to take responsibility to improve their environmental work.
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| 2. |
- Almgren, Magnus, 1972, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping Systems Security Research at Chalmers
- 2011
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Ingår i: First SysSec Workshop (SysSec 2011). - 9780769545301 ; , s. 67-70
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers University has a long tradition of research in systems security, including security metrics, attack detection, and mitigation. We focus on security issues arising in four specific environments: (1) backbone links, (2) sensor networks, (3) the connected car, and (4) the smart grid. In this short summary we describe recent results as well as open research questions we are exploring.
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| 3. |
- Benerdal, Malin, Doktor, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
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Democratic values in evaluation systems – a circle that can be squared?
- 2021
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration. - : Göteborgs universitet. - 2001-7405 .- 2001-7413. ; 25:3/4, s. 63-83
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper is concerned with the interlocking of democratic values and evaluation systems. A central issue in evaluation has been adherence to democratic values by speaking truth to power or taking an inclusive approach to evaluands. In parallel with these democratic endeavours, evaluation design has increasingly moved from ad-hoc evaluations toward evaluation systems. The question we raise in this paper is how compatible the democratic endeavours of evaluation are with the rise of evaluation systems as the modus operandi. We apply this question to the case of the Swedish school system and its built-in evaluation system: systematic quality work (SQW). In order to explore the research question, school principals were asked to articulate how the democratic mission is visible in their SQW. The results indicate that prominent managing logics at different school levels seem to affect how well democratic values are incorporated into the SQW, highlighting the need to address the institutional and governing setting of evaluation systems in combination with the actors’ roles and decisions in accordance with the democratic evaluation literature.
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| 4. |
- Eckerberg, Katarina, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Knowledge, policy, and expertise : the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution 1970-2011, by Susan Owens, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015
- 2016
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Ingår i: Environmental Politics. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0964-4016 .- 1743-8934. ; 25:4, s. 761-763
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Recension (refereegranskat)
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| 5. |
- Engström, Andreas, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Lead aprons and thyroid collars: to be, or not to be?
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of radiological protection : official journal of the Society for Radiological Protection. - 1361-6498. ; 43:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wearing lead aprons and thyroid collars for long periods of time has a subjective component: to balance the effective dose reduction with the effort of carrying a heavy load. Occupational radiation exposure has decreased dramatically in the last century within the health care system. During the same period the use of lead aprons and thyroid collars has also gone up. Therefore, a question that may be raised is: how safe is safe enough? In order to promote stakeholder involvement, the aim of the present study was to investigate staff's experience of discomforts associated with wearing lead aprons and thyroid collars for long periods of time, and also to investigate staff's willingness to tolerate personal dose equivalent (expressed as radiation dose) and the corresponding increase in future cancer risk to avoid wearing these protective tools. A questionnaire was developed and given to staff working in operating or angiography rooms at Skaraborg Hospital in Sweden. The results from the 245 respondents showed that 51% experienced bothersome warmth, 36% experienced fatigue and 26% experienced ache or pain that they believed was associated with wearing lead aprons. One third of the respondents would tolerate a personal dose equivalent of 1 mSv per year to avoid wearing lead aprons, but only a fifth would tolerate the corresponding increase in future cancer risk (from 43% to 43.2%). In conclusion, discomforts associated with wearing lead aprons and thyroid collars for long periods of time are common for the staff using them. At the same time, only a minority of the staff would tolerate a small increase in future cancer risk to avoid wearing them. The present study gives an example of stakeholder involvement and points at the difficulties in making reasonable decisions about the use of these protective tools.
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| 6. |
- Engström, Andreas, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Lead aprons: to be, or not to be?
- 2024
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Ingår i: European Congress of Radiology.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present study shows that discomforts associated with wearing lead aprons for long periods of time are problematic for the staff using them. At the same time, only a minority of the staff would tolerate a small increase in future cancer risk to avoid wearing them. The present study gives an example of stakeholder involvement and points at the difficulties in making reasonable decisions about the use of radiation protective tools.
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| 7. |
- Larsson, Magnus, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Controversial issues for principals in Sweden : an exploratory approach
- 2023
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Ingår i: ECER 2023 Programme.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Controversial issues (CI) are a part of everyday life in schools’, inside and outside the classroom. How principals understand and manage these issues are therefore an interesting topic of inquiry. In this paper we set out to examine, from the theoretical standpoint of agency, principals understanding of what a CI is and how they can and cannot be managed. CIs has been a recurring topic in the educational literature for the last four decades (Hand & Levinson 2012; Anders & Shudak 2016) and in a globalised world characterized by polarisation and mediatisation the need for schools to handle CI has potentially become increasingly salient (Larsson & Lindström 2020). However, what is perceived as a controversial issue differs between contexts and can change rapidly.The primary focus in the literature concerning CIs is teachers and teaching situations. This paper takes another point of departure focusing on principals and how they understand and manage CIs. Even though CIs are present outside formal teaching situations at the school, research on principals’ understandings and management of CIs are scarce and seldomly explicitly addressed. In addition, international educational policy discussions have underscored the importance that principals (not just teachers) manage and develop strategies in relation to CIs (Council of Europe, 2017). The aim of this paper is to explore how principals understand and manage CIs, more specifically the following research questions are applied:What do school leaders understand as controversial issues in the Swedish education system?How and why do school leaders manage controversial issues in the Swedish education system?To categorize and analyse what principals understand as CIs (RQ1) the literature on what constitutes a CI is invoked. There is an ongoing debate on what criteria should be applied to deem something a CI (cf. Anders and Shudak, 2012). This debate differentiates between behavioural, political, epistemic, social, and theoretical criteria for defining an issue as controversial. However, this debate is primarily grounded in the question what teachers should (and should not) teach as a controversial issue which means that several of the criteria are unapplicable in principals professional practice. Based on the literature and the specific professional practice of principals’ we apply the following definition: a controversial issue is any issue that creates opposition or disputes at an organisational or societal level in schools and pre-schools.In order to analyse how principals manage CIs (RQ2) we build on Emirbayer and Miche’s (1998) conceptualisation of agency as well as Eteläpelto et al (2013) conceptualisation of professional agency. Emirbayer and Miche’s (1998, p. 953) argue that agency should be seen as ‘temporally embedded process of social engagement’ informed by and directed towards the past, future, and present. This is complemented by Eteläpelto et al’s (2013) understanding of professional agency, which is dependent on professional knowledge and competencies as well as specific conditions of the workplace. Taken together, we understand professional agency as a dynamic concept rooted in temporal dimensions that emerges in relation to socio-cultural conditions of the workplace and professional identity, knowledge, and experience.Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used: The empirical part of the study is made up of 29 interviews with principals in Sweden. In the selection process we elected a heterogenous sample aiming for maximal variation among the principals (Ritchie & Lewis, 2013). This process started with identifying central categories of principals to make sure that the sample would include principals in different contexts and with different prerequisites. This, in turn, allows our mapping of principals’ understanding of controversial issues to include several different points of view. The categories used in the selection process was: including both men and women (gender); principals working in schools from different education stages (education stage): whether the school was placed in a central or rural setting (city-countryside) and whether the principal was experienced or novel (professional experience).Since the research on principals understanding of CIs is limited, we elected an exploratory approach to make sure that we did not steer the principals’ understandings of what a CI is for a principal. However, to provide some sort of guidance we presented the respondents with the following generic definition of a CI in the beginning of all interviews: by controversial issues we mean issues that arouse strong feelings and/or divide opinion in schools, communities, and society. After the respondents was asked to give a brief professional background, the respondents were invited to bring up the most pressing controversial issue in their role as a principal. To each controversial issue a set of follow up questions were asked including: “why is this a controversial issue; who are involved; who are affected; how do you manage this issue?”. After the respondent had brought up their most pressing CIs questions intended to help to broaden the respondents’ perspective was applied. These questions entailed aspects such as: previously encountered controversial issues; controversial issues regarding teaching situations, norms and values, or connected to the larger society or the immediate community.To answer the first research question the answers from the respondents were categorised thematically. First, any issues brought up by the respondents that fell outside our broad definition of CI were sifted out. After that the controversial issues were thematically organised into specific topics (religion, sustainability, racism, LGBTQI etc) and types of controversial issue (social, political, behavioural etc.). To answer the second research question the respondents answers to how they handle and manage controversial issues were analysed through the concept of professional agency as depicted above.Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings: Preliminary results concerning the first research question show that themes concerning segregation, racism, LGBTQI and religion are recurring examples the principals give of CIs. Apparent difference can be found between the different categories of principals. For example, pre-school principals deal with CIs concerning the relation with parents claims to a larger extent than other principals. In addition, several issues brought up by the principals are not deemed controversial given the definition applied in this paper. The most salient of these issues are interpersonal issues between principals and teachers or other school staff. When these issues are not clearly connected to an organizational and/or a societal level they were not deemed a controversial issue.Preliminary results concerning the second research questions show that how principals relate to and understand social-temporal aspects of their professional work influences how they perceive the CI at hand and have consequences for how they manage the CI. For example, how the principal understands racial tensions at his or her school influences whether s/he manages the issue proactively or simply deals with the issue as it flares up. Even though this paper is a first step in mapping and understanding CIs for principals more research is needed to provide a better understanding of how principals understand and manages controversial issues.References: Anders, P. & Shudak. (2016) Criteria for Controversy: A Theoretic Approach. Thresholds in Education, 39(1), 20–30.Council of Europe (2017) Managing controversy – Developing a strategy for handling controversy and teaching controversial issues in schools. A self-reflection toll for school leaders and senior managers.Emirbayer, M. & Mische, A. (1998) What is agency? American journal of Sociology, 103, 962-1023.Eteläpelto, A., Vähäsantanen, K., Hökkä, P. and Susanna Paloniemi, S. (2013) What is agency? Conceptualizing professional agency at work, Educational Research Review, 10, 45-65.Hand, M. & Levinson, R. (2012) Discussing controversial issues in the classroom. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(6), 614-629.Larsson, A. & Lindström, N. (2020) Controversial societal issues in education: Explorations of moral, critical and didactical implications. Acta Didactica Norden, 14(4), 1-6.Ritchie, J., Lewis, J., McNaughton Nicholls, C. and Ormston, R. (2013) Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers. SAGE.
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| 8. |
- Larsson, Magnus, 1983-
(författare)
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EFFEKTER AV MILJÖÖVERVAKNING OCH ANVÄNDNING AV MILJÖÖVERVAKNINGSDATA
- 2020
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Denna rapport ämnar att ge en inledande beskrivning om hur miljöövervakningen och miljödata är tänkt att komma till användning för olika aktörer samt om och i så fall hur den faktiskt kommer till användning för dessa aktörer. Miljöövervakning är en omfattande verksamhet som har bäring på nationell, regional och lokal nivå. Utvärderingens begränsade omfattning innebär att endast nedslag i några områden av den svenska miljöövervakningen kommer att göras. Rapportens slutsats är att kunskapen om miljötillståndet skulle vara mindre och miljöarbete som initierats utifrån miljödata skulle troligen inte komma till stånd eller initieras senare om det inte fanns ett miljöövervakningssystem som tillhandahåller aktuell miljödata. Åtgärder och beslut på nationell, regional och lokal nivås skulle baseras på sämre underlag. Vidare skulle det vara svårare för lokala aktörer att utföra sin miljöövervakning om inte nationell miljöövervakning fanns på plats eftersom den nationella miljöövervakningen ger en vägledning och kan hjälpa till att prioritera i det lokala arbetet med miljöövervakning. Detta gäller såväl stora som små kommuner.Avslutningsvis så finns det också en möjlighet att kostnaden skulle bli högre i slutändan eftersom små studier skulle behövas genomföras vid varje enskilt behov av kunskap vilket skulle kunna innebära större kostnaden än om ett miljöövervakningssystem finns på plats. Rapporten pekar också ut ett antal områden som behöver studeras ytterligare.
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| 9. |
- Larsson, Magnus, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation in management by objectives : a critical analysis of Sweden’s national environmental quality objectives system
- 2016
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Ingår i: Evaluation. - : SAGE Publications. - 1356-3890 .- 1461-7153. ; 22:2, s. 190-208
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article investigates what can be achieved by one particular management by objectives system – i.e. the Swedish National Environmental Quality Objectives system and its evaluation function. A critical programme theory analysis is first developed to reconstruct the programme theory of the National Environmental Quality Objectives system. Next, the robustness of the programme theory is analysed in terms of internal consistency, theoretical support and empirical support. The results indicate that, while some assumptions underlying the National Environmental Quality Objectives system are valid, the National Environmental Quality Objectives’ programme theory has low validity in several respects. The evaluative knowledge the system produces is only partly relevant to or useable by local actors and industry. While the state of the environment is observed and measured in the monitoring and evaluation reports, the direct effects of environmental policy and work are not evaluated, which is a main weakness of the National Environmental Quality Objectives system. It is unlikely that the current evaluation function can effectively support achievement of the National Environmental Quality Objectives environmental objectives. The article suggests that evaluations in support of network governance are more likely to support National Environmental Quality Objectives achievement and sustainable development.
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| 10. |
- Larsson, Magnus, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping controversial issues among Swedish principals
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Controversial issues (CI) are a recurring part of everyday life in schools’, inside and outside the classroom. How principals understand and manage these issues are therefore an interesting topic of inquiry. In this paper we set out to examine, from the theoretical standpoint of agency, principals understanding of what a CI is and how they can and cannot be managed. CI has been a recurring topic in the educational literature for the last four decades (Hand & Levinson 2012; Anders & Shudak 2016) and in a globalised world characterized by polarisation and mediatisation the need for schools to handle CI has potentially become increasingly salient (Larsson & Lindström 2020). However, what is perceived as a controversial issue differs between contexts and can change rapidly. In order to analyse how principals manage CI we build on Emirbayer and Miche’s (1998, p. 953) conceptualisation of agency. They argue that agency should be seen as ‘temporally embedded process of social engagement’ informed by and directed towards the past, future, and present.The primary focus in the literature concerning CI is teachers and teaching situations. This paper takes another point of departure focusing on principals’ and how they understand and manage CI. Even though CI are present outside formal teaching situations at the school, research on principals’ understandings and management of CI are scarce or lacking. In addition, international educational policy discussions have underscored the importance that principals manage and develop strategies in relation to CI. The aim of this paper is to explore how principals understand and manage CI.To be able to investigate how principals understand and manage CI a definition, sensitive to principals’ practice, must be put forward. Since this is lacking in the literature the first step is to provide a conceptualization of CI, based on the ongoing scientific debate, but from a principal’s perspective. The empirical part is made up of interviews with 29 principals in the Swedish education system, who are asked about what CI they are confronted with and how they manage these issues.The analysis was conducted in two steps. First, the CI articulated by the principals were thematically organized to provide an overview of what CI are prevalent. Second, the principals’ description of how they managed CI was analysed through the lens of Emirbayer and Misches (1998) depiction of agency. Preliminary results show that themes concerning segregation, racism, hbtqi and religion are recurring. In addition, how principals relate to and understand their past, future, and present with regards to the CI at hand have consequences for how they manage the CI.Anders, P. & Shudak, N. (2016) Criteria for Controversy: A Theoretic Approach. Thresholds in Education, 39(1), 20–30.Emirbayer, M. & Mische, A. (1998) What is agency? American journal of Sociology, 103, 962-1023.Hand, M. & Levinson, R. (2012) Discussing controversial issues in the classroom. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(6), 614-629.Larsson, A. & Lindström, N. (2020) Controversial societal issues in education: Explorations of moral, critical and didactical implications. Acta Didactica Norden, 14(4), 1-6.
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