| 1. |
- Persson, Marcus, Universitetslektor, 1975-, et al.
(författare)
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Caregivers' use of robots and their effect on work environment : a scoping review
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of technology in human services. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1522-8835 .- 1522-8991. ; 40:3, s. 251-277
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite the lively discussion on the pros and cons of using robots in health care, little is still known about how caregivers are affected when robots are introduced in their work environment. The present scoping review fills this research gap by mapping previous studies about the relation between robots in care and caregivers’ working life. The paper is based on searches in four databases for peer-reviewed articles about robots in care settings, published 2000 to 2020. The 27 included papers were examined with the questions of 1) how robots are used by caregivers, and 2) how robots affect caregivers’ work environment. The analysis shows that the use of robots can affect both the physical and the psychosocial work environment, in positive as well as in negative ways. Robots are used in care settings to reduce physical and mental demands of the caregivers, but they can, in fact, increase caregivers’ workload. Thus, the review indicates that robots can improve the quality of work, but that they seldom work as a shortcut to increased efficiency or time effectiveness.
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| 2. |
- Persson, Marcus, 1975-, et al.
(författare)
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Working with Robotic Animals in Dementia Care : The Significance of Caregivers' Competences
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies. - : VIA University College. - 2245-0157. ; 13:3, s. 49-69
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Robotic animals are increasingly discussed as a solution to challenges connected to the aging population and limited resources in care. While previous research focuses on the robots’ effect on the patients’ well-being, there is a general lack of knowledge regarding the hands-on experience of caregivers’ use of robots. Therefore, the aim of the study is to explore the competences that caregivers draw upon when facilitating interaction between residents and robots. The study was conducted through ethnographic observations and interviews with caregivers at dementia care homes in Sweden. The notion of ‘competence’ is understood as knowledge about the ways of working and social norms that are valued within a community of practice, which members develop through engagement in the community. The findings show that caregivers’ use of robotic animals as caregiving tools rests on embodied, social, and ethical competences.
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| 3. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Robotic animals in dementia care : Conceptions of animality and humanity in care organizations
- 2022
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Ingår i: The Oxford Handbook of Animal Organization Studies. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 9780192848185 - 9780191943485 ; , s. 409-C27.P103
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Robotic animals in the shape of cats, dogs, and seals are increasingly used in dementia care. The robots are built to respond to users’ touch and talk for various purposes such as calming, activating, or entertaining patients. Drawing on media representations, marketing materials, reports of experts, and interviews with care workers we take a closer look at the ideas of animality that shape the robots and their application in care organizations. We find that the robots’ animality is described as connecting with a fundamental mammal aspect of our humanity. At the same time, concerns are raised that patients risk being dehumanized when robots replace human-to-human interaction, and the robots are thus treated as a threat to patients’ human dignity. The chapter discusses how notions of animality and a biopolitical understanding of the human as mammal play an integral role in robotized care organizations.
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| 4. |
- Persson, Marcus, et al.
(författare)
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Making robots matter in dementia care : Conceptualising the triadic interaction between caregiver, resident and robot animal
- 2024
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Ingår i: Sociology of Health and Illness. - : WILEY. - 0141-9889 .- 1467-9566.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While previous research studies have focused on either caregivers' or residents' perception and use of social robots, this article offers an empirical and theoretical examination of joint activities in triadic human-robot interaction. The symptomatology of dementia creates an asymmetrical relation wherein the impetus to employ a robot often originates from the caregiver. Drawing on field work and video recorded interactions in dementia care homes, the article investigates how caregivers draw on embodied resources to involve residents and robot animals in interaction. The analysis demonstrates how caregivers promote commitment and encounter resistance with residents. We draw on the theory of sociomaterial interactionism to study situated interaction between bodies in a meaning-generating process. By re-conceptualising the theoretical notions of manipulation and recruitment, the article offers an approach for studying orientations that distinguish between reciprocity of agential objects. We show that caregivers usually distinguish between interactions with people and machines by anticipating a specific response from the robots (manipulation), while they invite participation in a broader sense from residents (recruitment). Social friction arises, however, if caregivers act upon the residents as embodied objects in manipulative ways.
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| 5. |
- Petersson Troije, Charlotte, 1971-
(författare)
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Turning Work Inside Out : Exploring Outdoor Office Work
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Why don't we usually work outdoors? While some professions require it, most white-collar workers remain indoors, sedentary, and screen-bound. Yet, the potential benefits of outdoor work on health, well-being, learning, and creativity are significant and underexplored, especially given the demands of today's knowledge-intensive work life. The aim of this thesis is to explore the potential of integrating the outdoors into everyday work life by bringing office work outdoors. To accomplish this, the thesis identifies ways by which the potential of outdoor office work may be enabled, in this case through an interactive research approach. This exploration was conducted through the ‘StickUt Malmö’ interactive research project, the Danish ‘Pop Out!’ project, and an interview study within the project ‘Concepts for the Sustainable Office of the Future’, culminating in four papers and a final discussion. In ‘Outdoor Office Work – An Interactive Research Project Showing the Way Out’ (Paper I) it was shown that a range of work activities could be brought outdoors, both individually and collaboratively, and that outdoor office work (OOW) was associated with experiences of well-being, recovery, autonomy, enhanced cognition, better communication, and social relations, but also with feelings of guilt and illegitimacy. Conditions of importance were found in the physical environment, and in the organizational culture, and not the least concerned managers’ attitudes towards OOW, and to autonomy and trust in general. In ‘Greenspace as Workplace – Benefits, Challenges and Essentialities in the Physical Environment’ (Paper II) insights into key aspects of the physical environment relevant for the experienced benefits and challenges of workers exploring OOW were captured through the themes of Simplicity, Safeness, Comfort and Contact with Nature, whereas Sociality, Well-being, and Functioning stood out as the main experienced benefits, and Digital dependency and Illegitimacy as challenges to overcome. Based on an interview study with white-collar workers practicing OOW on a regular basis, a conceptual framework was developed and presented in ‘Unlocking the Transformative Potential of Outdoor Office Work – A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study’ (Paper III). The categories practicing outdoor office work, challenging the taken-for-granted, enjoying freedom and disconnection, feeling connected and interdependent, promoting health and well-being, enhancing performance, and finally, adding a dimension, make up ‘The Lotus of Outdoor Office Work’; a model visualizing the experienced benefits and challenges of OOW, highlighting the dynamic relationship between the practice of working outdoors on one hand, and how this challenges the system in which white-collar work traditionally takes place, on the other.Through a combined theoretical and case discussion in ‘Critical Interaction – Challenging Dualisms by Bringing Office Work Outdoors’ (Paper IV), the possibilities and circumstances under which an interactive research approach may be critical and contribute to learning and knowledge development in the context of exploring OOW was elaborated upon. It was concluded that an interactive research approach can do so by challenging taken-for-granted dualisms, being critical with support from closeness as well as distance, engaging in both action and reflection, and by encompassing both practical and academic interests and outcomes. In conclusion, exploring OOW is a relevant and sustainable way to enhance work life. However, challenges exist, such as the need for a supportive outdoor environment and an organizational culture that values trust and autonomy. The primary challenge lies in societal norms that separate mind and body, perpetuating the belief that white-collar work is incompatible with physical activity. The exploration of OOW turns ideas about work inside out, revealing that only certain activities are traditionally recognized as ‘work’.
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| 6. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Black Cats and White Lies : Human-Robot Interactions in Dementia Care
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Robotic animals in the shape of cats, dogs and seals have become increasingly popular in dementia care during the last two decades. These robots are used both to make the user calm and passive and to engage users in interactions. Based on ethnography at four nursing homes and in-depth interviews with caregivers, the present study explores the use of white lies in interactions between robots, care recipients and caregivers. Findings suggest that the robots have the greatest impact on users when they believe the animal robots to be real animals. However, according to The Swedish National Council on Medical Ethics, caregivers should not lead users to believe that the robots have capacities that they do not in fact have, and that caregivers should avoid any misconceptions by giving users information about the nature and functions of the robots. We identify three different strategies that caregivers use when using the robots in care practice. First, caregivers make sure to be fully transparent about the robots, and give users straightforward information about the robots’ limited capacities. Second, caregivers can adhere to users’ own misconceptions about the robots. Third, some caregivers simply tell users with severe dementia that the robots are real, and act as if they wore. All approaches involve challenges: when caregivers tell ‘the truth’, users often forget this information, or choose to ignore it and approach the robots as animals. When caregivers follow or support the idea of the robot ‘as real’, this often leads to amplified misconceptions, potentially disproved by relatives. In conclusion, all three strategies risk nourishing white lies, but a special kind of “caring lie” that many interviewed caregivers support.
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| 7. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Deceptive devices in dementia care : The journal, the camera, and the robot
- 2024
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Caregivers are dissuaded from using deception in dementia care in Swedish policies. However, guidelines in other countries have a more positive approach to deceptive practices when these are used in the best interest of patients. Research also shows that lies and deception are widely used in dementia care. Based on interviews with caregivers and ethnographic visits to nursing homes in Sweden, this paper examines the use of technology in deceptive practices in the care of people with dementia. Three technological devices are in focus: the online patient journal, the security camera, and the robotic animal. The journal allows for a smooth transition of knowledge between caregivers, enabling a person-centered care. However, the patient is often unaware of this circulation of knowledge by which the patient becomes known to everyone without necessarily knowing anyone. The camera makes it possible for caregivers to watch over patients without having to enter their rooms, which means that they do not have to disturb them with unnecessary and inconvenient visits. Paradoxically, the technology thus breaches the patients’ integrity in order to secure it. Last, the robotic animal works particularly well when it is perceived to be a real animal; yet, both policies and previous research caution against using a robot to create an illusion of a living being. The paper argues that to handle these dilemmas, the devices need to be understood in context: deception is not built into healthcare technology but is instead generated in the relationship between caregiver, patient, and technological device.
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| 8. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
-
Robotic animals in dementia care : Conceptions of animality and humanity in care organizations
- 2023
-
Ingår i: The Oxford Handbook of Animal Organization Studies. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 9780192848185 - 9780191943485 ; , s. 409-424
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Robotic animals in the shape of cats, dogs, and seals are increasingly used in dementia care. The robots are built to respond to users’ touch and talk for various purposes such as calming, activating, or entertaining patients. Drawing on media representations, marketing materials, reports of experts, and interviews with care workers we take a closer look at the ideas of animality that shape the robots and their application in care organizations. We find that the robots’ animality is described as connecting with a fundamental mammal aspect of our humanity. At the same time, concerns are raised that patients risk being dehumanized when robots replace human-to-human interaction, and the robots are thus treated as a threat to patients’ human dignity. The chapter discusses how notions of animality and a biopolitical understanding of the human as mammal play an integral role in robotized care organizations.
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| 9. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Svarta katter och vita lögner : Social robotik i demensvården
- 2022
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Ingår i: Välfärd - för vem? Om arbetsvillkor inom omsorg och gig. ; , s. 15-
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Konferensbidrag (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Katt- och hundrobotar har blivit ett allt vanligare inslag i äldreomsorgen. Robotarna imiterar djurs läten och rörelser och kan användas för att lugna och avleda användare. De kan också användas för att aktivera personer genom att de inbjuder till interaktion mellan vårdtagare, vårdgivare och robot. Robotarna är utvecklade för att skapa en illusion av ett levande djur – en del modeller har ett mekaniskt hjärta som kan kännas genom pälsen, och kattrobotarna kan spinna, med purrande och vibrationer. Det här ställer frågor om transparens och ärlighet på sin spets. Enligt Statens medicinsk-etiska råds riktlinjer ska vårdgivare inte vilseleda patienter om robotarnas egenskaper och kapacitet, eftersom det då gör det omöjligt för patienter att göra ett informerat ställningstagande när de erbjuds att använda robotar. I en pågående studie om sociala robotar i demensvården ser vi dock att det är vanligt att vårdgivare talar om och hanterar robotarna som om de vore verkliga katter och hundar. Genom exempel visar vi hur personalen på detta sätt gör robotarna levande, och hur vårdgivare reflekterar kring sitt sätt att använda robotarna. Ofta är det svårt att dra en skarp gräns mellan sanning och lögn, eftersom personalens agerande ofta handlar om att bekräfta vårdtagares upplevelser. Vi föreslår därför alternativa sätt att förstå det som händer i interaktionen mellan vårdtagare, vårdgivare och robot, för att bidra till en nyanserad diskussion om robotik och vita lögner inom demensvården.
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| 10. |
- Iversen, Clara, Docent, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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En människa bland andra? : Äldre människors begripliggörande av vardagen under covid-19-krisen
- 2021
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Ingår i: Sociologisk forskning. - Huddinge : Sociologisk Forskning, Swedish Sociological Association. - 0038-0342 .- 2002-066X. ; 58:1-2, s. 53-76
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines how older people make sense of their situation in calls to a helpline a few months into the Covid-19 pandemic. By drawing on the sociology of everyday life to analyse callers’ various understandings of the crisis, the article nuances current knowledge about older people’s situation. The thematic analysis shows that the callers make sense of the crisis linked to social relations on a personal, anonymous, and abstract level. The callers’ responses to challenges to their everyday routines – adjustment or critical evaluation – are connected to different approaches to trust: basic trust in a shared social reality with someone or regulating trust in a set of norms independent from that other. Whereas the calls demonstrate very few positive adjustments in personal relations, they show that anonymous and abstract relations serve as important resources for both maintaining and re-evaluating everyday life during a crisis. Although older people’s lack of secure personal relations during the pandemic points to vulnerability, their resourcefulness is apparent in their active engagement in important anonymous and abstract relations.
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
- Persson, Marcus, et al.
(författare)
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Robotic misinformation in dementia care : emotions as sense-making resources in residents' encounters with robot animals
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Sociology. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2297-7775. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Robot animals, designed to mimic living beings, pose ethical challenges in the context of caring for vulnerable patients, specifically concerning deception. This paper explores how emotions become a resource for dealing with the misinformative nature of robot animals in dementia care homes. Based on observations of encounters between residents, care workers, and robot animals, the study shows how persons with dementia approach the ambiguous robots as either living beings, material artifacts, or something in-between. Grounded in interactionist theory, the research demonstrates that emotions serve as tools in the sense-making process, occurring through interactions with the material object and in collaboration with care workers. The appreciation of social robots does not solely hinge on them being perceived as real or fake animals; persons with dementia may find amusement in "fake" animals and express fear of "real" ones. This observation leads us to argue that there is a gap between guidelines addressing misinformation and robots and the specific context in which the technology is in use. In situations where small talk and play are essential activities, care workers often prioritize responsiveness to residents rather than making sure that the robot's nature is transparent. In these situations, residents' emotional expressions serve not only as crucial resources for their own sense-making but also as valuable indicators for care workers to comprehend how to navigate care situations.
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
- Petersson Troije, Charlotte, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Unlocking the Transformative Potential of Outdoor Office Work—A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study
- 2024
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Ingår i: Challenges. - 2078-1547. ; 15:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- White-collar workers around the world are reconfiguring their ways of working. Some have found their way out, performing office work outdoors, through walk-and-talks, outdoor meetings, or reading sessions. Working outdoors has proved both invigorating and challenging. This qualitative interview study aims to develop a conceptual framework concerning the implications of white-collar workers incorporating the outdoors into their everyday work life. Applying a constructivist grounded theory approach, 27 interviews with a total of 15 participants were systematically analyzed. Findings evolved around the following categories: practicing outdoor office work, challenging the taken-for-granted, enjoying freedom and disconnection, feeling connected and interdependent, promoting health and well-being, enhancing performance, and finally adding a dimension to work. These categories were worked into a conceptual model, building on the dynamic relationship between the practice of working outdoors on one hand, and how this challenges the system in which office work traditionally takes place on the other. Interviews reflected the profound learning process of the employees. Drawing on the concepts of free space and resonance, we demonstrate how performing office work outdoors may unlock a transformative potential by opening up connectedness and interdependence and contribute to a sustainable work life as well as overall sustainable development.
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| 15. |
- Redmalm, David, 1981-
(författare)
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An animal without an animal within : investigating the identities of pet keeping
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- If the human is an animal without an animal within—a creature that has transcended the animal condition—what is a pet? This creature balancing on the border between nature and culture, simultaneously included in and excluded from a human “we”, is the focus of this thesis. The thesis analyzes the discourses and normative frameworks structuring the meaning of pets in people’s lives. By extension, it analyzes how the boundary between “human” and “animal” is produced, negotiated, and challenged in the relationship between pet and owner.Each of this thesis’ four constituent studies focuses on an aspect of personal relationships between humans and pets: pets as figures for philosophical thinking, the dual role of pets as commodities and companions, the grief for lost pets, and the power issues at play in the everyday life of pet and owner. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s genealogical approach, crossbred with Donna Haraway’s material-semiotic perspective, the analysis exposes the powers allowing pets to occupy these various positions.The thesis demonstrates that pets occupy a special position as boundary creatures in the lives of humans, allowing humans to play with and thus reproduce dichotomies inherent to the contemporary Western worldview, such as human/animal, person/nonperson, subject/object, and friend/commodity. However, pets’ conceptual transgressions may also challenge this worldview. On the one hand, pets are bought and sold as commodities, but on the other, they are widely included in the human sphere as friends or family members. This paradoxical position is accentuated in the construction of a more-than-human home, and it is also visible when pets pass away. This thesis argues that pets, these anomalous creatures, may help humans understand that there are no humans or animals within, only relations between them. Based on this argument, this thesis develops a sociological approach for analyzing the production of humanity and animality in relations between humans and other animals.
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| 16. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Bureaucrats vs. Bunnies : The dilemmas of urban wildlife management
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Municipal hunters and wildlife managers are entrusted with the task of keeping the urban fauna in balance through preemptive measures, and by culling animals. Based on interviews with hunters, municipal officials, and wildlife rescuers in ten municipalities in Sweden, as well as participant observations during hunts, this study identifies the dilemmas that people face as they engage in wildlife management. In conversations about birds, cats, deer, moose, and lots and lots of rabbits, the interviewees paint a picture of a tension-filled task of managing animals that are not quite wild, but definitely not tame. First, there needs to be a balance between invisibility, to carry through smooth culls, and transparency, to maintain the trust of the community. Second, there is sometimes a clash between efficiency and social acceptability, which means that best practices must sometimes be set aside in favor of more aesthetically appealing methods. Last, knowing when to hold your fire is just as central to urban wildlife management as knowing when to shoot—if not even more so. Therefore, to cull or not to cull is the third dilemma of urban wildlife management.
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| 17. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-
(författare)
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Därför kan icke-våld vara väldigt effektivt : Kritiken bottnar i bristande förståelse av socialpsykologi
- 2024
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Ingår i: VLT. - Västerås. - 1104-0181. ; , s. 14-14
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Sedan Rysslands invasion av Ukraina har opinionen i Sverige svängt snabbt – från enträgen alliansfrihet till ohämmad NATO-längtan. Och även om antalet ansökningar om medlemskap till Svenska Freds ökat har dess (nu före detta) ordförande Agnes Hellström mottagit hot och hat för att ha tagit tydlig ställning emot Sveriges Nato-ansökan, mitt under brinnande krig i Europa.Svenska freds arbetar förebyggande mot krig och vill att konflikter ska lösas utan våld. Den vanliga kritiken mot ickevåldsmetoder är att de är ineffektiva, och att de som tror på dem är naiva. Men så behöver det inte vara: den här typen av kritik bottnar i en bristande socialpsykologisk förståelse för hur grupper fungerar. Med kunskap om styrkan i sociala band kan ickevåld vara ytterst effektivt, och därför har också sociala påtryckningar använts av många aktörer, alltifrån Gandhis ahimsa-rörelse till CIA.
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| 18. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-
(författare)
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Håller vi på att förlora förmågan att känna skam? : Skam kan leda till utanförskap
- 2024
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Ingår i: VLT. - Västerås. - 1104-0181. ; , s. 7-7
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Med den senaste tidens hänsynslösa skjutningar och sprängningar, där oskyldiga fallit offer för våldet och angrepp riktats mot anhöriga till gängmedlemmar, verkar det som om vi har nått en ny bottennivå där ingenting är heligt för organiserade kriminella. Därför efterlyser Carin Götblad, polismästare vid Nationella operativa avdelningen, ”en kultur där vi skämdes” i en intervju i DN. Götblad talar om skamlösheten hos ”ett narkotikapåverkat ungdomsgäng” och om vikten att tillrättavisa ”en åttaåring som skriker på biblioteket” – två skilda företeelser som här ses som symtom på ett samhälle på väg åt fel håll. Är det så att vi kollektivt håller på att förlora förmågan att känna skam?
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| 19. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-
(författare)
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Kan robotar ljuga för människor?
- 2023
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Ingår i: VLT. - Västerås. - 1104-0181. ; 2023-10-22
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Under det senaste året har användningen av chattrobotar diskuterats flitigt – datorprogram som genererar läsbar, korrekt formulerad text med hjälp av artificiell intelligens. Men den här texten handlar inte om supersmarta AI-robotar som lurar oss att de är människor. Den handlar om små lurviga djurrobotar, styrda av nästan löjligt enkla algoritmer. Inom äldreomsorgen, framför allt inom demensvården, har dessa batteridrivna robotdjur blivit allt vanligare under de senaste åren. Robotarna, som rör sig enligt repetitiva mönster, skäller, jamar och spinner, används för att ge lugn och avkoppling till användaren, och studier har visat att de kan minska blodtryck och stress. De fungerar också som ett hjälpmedel som vårdgivare kan använda för att samtala med användare. Men robotarna har debatterats flitigt – skulle den mänskliga kontakten med omsorgspersonal nu delvis ersättas av robotar?
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| 20. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-
(författare)
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Kommunjägare är medlare mellan människor och vilda djur
- 2023
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Ingår i: VLT. - Västerås. - 1104-0181. ; 2023-08-03
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Visste du att jägare är ute på jakt mitt i stan medan du sover? Kommunjägare skjuter regelbundet djur i tätbebyggda områden, vanligtvis kråkfåglar, duvor, gäss och kaniner, för att minska nedskräpning och störande ljud, stoppa spridningen av parasiter och sjukdomar, och förhindra viltolyckor och skador på egendom. Kommunjägare kan också avliva skadade djur och ”problemdjur” – älgar som förirrat sig ut på motorvägar eller in på skolgårdar, eller rådjur som förstör växter i botaniska trädgårdar.
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| 21. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Lockdown Fauna : The Beastly Topology of the COVID-19 Pandemic
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, photos and news articles began circulating in social media about animals making unexpected appearances in urban areas. Photos were published in news media of dolphins in the canals of Venice, a record number of flamingos in Mumbai, wild boards in Barcelona, and undaunted urban foxes in central London. While some of these stories were proven to be false, such as the Venice dolphins, other stories turned out to be misleading. The animals who allegedly showed up in, returned to or overcrowded certain areas were in fact there all along, but had not gained wider attention until now. Although several of these stories are lacking in credibility, they can be seen as indications of humans’ understanding of themselves and their relations to nature and other animals. As such, they differ from typical romanticizations of a pristine nature untouched by human hand, as the depicted sceneries are human-built environments. Rather than a dream of a pure nature in a distant past, but a future in which humans picture their own downfall. We suggest that lockdown fauna imageries express a happy misanthropy and an optimistic apocalypticism that capture human self-understanding in a society characterized by pandemic and environmental crises.
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| 22. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Our Lives Without Us : Urban Animals in News Reports and Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- 2022
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, photos and reports of animals making unexpected appearances in urban areas began to appear in social media and news outlets. These images and stories—from which humans were largely absent—included dolphins in the canals of Venice, a record number of flamingos in Mumbai, drunken elephants in the Yunnan province in China, wild boards in Barcelona, and undaunted urban foxes in central London. In the Nordic countries, the boundary between the urban and the rural was blurred by sightings of wild animals in city centers, challenging the myth of a wild Nordic nature, untouched by human hand. Many of the stories were proven to be either false or misleading, such as the Venice dolphins and the drunken elephants. The animals who allegedly showed up in, returned to, or overcrowded certain areas were in fact there all along, but had not gained attention until now. Although several of the stories are lacking in credibility, they can be seen as indications of humans’ understanding of themselves and their relations to nature and other animals. As such, they differ from typical romanticizations of a pristine nature untouched by human hand, as the depicted sceneries are human-built environments. Rather than a dream of a pure nature in a distant past, the images and reports imagine a future without humans. We suggest that lockdown fauna imageries express a happy misanthropy and an optimistic apocalypticism that capture human self-understanding in a society characterized by pandemic and environmental crises. However, these seemingly misanthropic imaginaries also contain fantasies of a future where humans coexist peacefully with other animals, and where the discomforts and inequalities of urban life have been eradicated.
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| 23. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-
(författare)
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Pets as Holy Anomalies
- 2021. - 2
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Ingår i: Animals and Society. - New York : Columbia University Press. - 9780231551045 ; , s. 201-203
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Pet owners commonly speak of their pets as friends or family members, and pets of middle-class and upper-class owners often enjoy greater privileges than many humans, at least with respect to the amount of money spent on veterinary bills, insurances, grooming, and accessories. But pets are also members of the wide category of “animals,” and as such they are bred, bought, and sold as commodities and lack individual rights. This essay explores the ambiguity surrounding pets—these liminal creatures who lead a life on the threshold between nature and culture.
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| 24. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-
(författare)
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Små gulliga parasiter : Människa, djur och natur i Sara Granérs satir
- 2022. - 1
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Ingår i: En mänsklig natur. - Örebro : Örebro universitet, sociologiämnet. - 9789187789632 - 9789187789649 ; , s. 169-186
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- I kapitel 11 tar sig David Redmalm an den tecknade satiren som redskap för att belysa och problematisera människans förhållande till naturen. Han utgår här från Sara Granérs samhällssatiriska serieteckningar i en essä som med hjälp av filosofer och miljösociologer undersöker spänningsfältet mellan natur och människa. Kapitlet innehåller även en intervju med Sara Granér.
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| 25. |
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| 26. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-
(författare)
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The Centaur Turned Upside Down : Animal riders and minded horses in the riding school
- 2022
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- It is somewhat a cliché to say that we do not understand ourselves as humans until we have mirrored ourselves in the eyes of an animal. But as Giorgio Agamben has pointed out, this mirroring is never a perfect reflection, but a play with mirrors through which different kinds of humanity are conjured up depending on the positioning of the mirrors. In this talk I will discuss this mirroring act through the example of interspecies relationships in riding schools. The figure of the centaur is often used to describe riding: the upper half of the centaur is a rational and reflexive human, leading the lower, equine half of pure muscle. However, pupils’ accounts and observations of riding lessons turn the figure of the centaur upside down—the riders come to understand horses as human-like, minded beings, while they simultaneously recognize animal aspects of their own being. In the lecture I will show how this mirroring act comes about and discuss its implications for human-animal studies. To fully understand this trick with mirrors, we need to look not only at what humans do, but also at how nonhuman animals manipulate the hall of mirrors with their actions, their resistance, and sometimes by their mere presence.
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| 27. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-
(författare)
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Toilet paper and pangolins : Magical thinking during the Covid-19 pandemic
- 2021
-
Ingår i: The European Sociologist. - Paris. - 2415-6426. ; :46
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Pangolins are boundary creatures; they exist on the boundary between human and animal, village and wilderness, the human world and the spirit world, and mundane life and ritual purity. It is because of their ambiguity that they have gained a special status in Lele society – and in other societies as well. Pangolins are hunted in several regions in Asia for their scales, sought after for their use in traditional medicine. The extensive exploitation of pangolins is believed to be a key to understanding the Covid-19 crisis. According to one theory, humans contracted the virus from pangolins, who were in turn infected by bats. Douglas underlines in a foreword to the 1975 edition of Implicit Meanings that ”it is an anachronism to believe that our world is more securely founded in knowledge than one that is driven by pangolin power” – “our world” meaning a globalised modern culture. In times of crisis, according to Douglas’ observations, the Lele would put their trust in the senior pangolin man of the village and in the Pangolin initiation and feast. Toilet paper, in contrast, is the pangolin of the moderns. The members of the modern global culture thus put their trust in advertised sanitary products and engage in ritual hoarding of toilet paper rolls, hoping that the paper rolls will magically purify the impure. Some feast on toilet paper pastries, filled with cream and covered in toilet paper patterned marzipan, which became popular in Sweden during the toilet paper shortage.
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| 28. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-
(författare)
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Vem granskar forskarna?
- 2023
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Ingår i: VLT. - Västerås. - 1104-0181. ; 2023-06-08
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Under Nürnbergrättegångarna efter andra världskrigets slut ställdes nazistiska krigsförbrytare till svars. Bland dem fanns forskare som hade använt människor, främst judar och andra personer tillhörande minoriteter och utsatta grupper, i plågsamma och ofta dödliga experiment i vetenskapens namn. Här hade forskare, som ska arbeta i mänsklighetens tjänst, använt människor på ett hänsynslöst sätt för att generera forskningsresultat. Rättegångarna väckte frågan: Vilka åtgärder skulle kunna garantera att detta aldrig skulle ske igen?
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| 29. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-
(författare)
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Vi behöver fler regnbågsflaggor – inte färre
- 2023
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Ingår i: VLT. - Västerås. - 1104-0181. ; 2023-06-29
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Sommar betyder Pridesäsong, och varje år vid den här tiden tänker jag på Budapest Pride, som jag besökte 2017 för att spela in en dokumentär till ett forskningsprojekt. Victor Orbán, Ungerns premiärminister, sätter den traditionella ungerska kärnfamiljen i centrum för sin nationalkonservativa retorik. Enligt Orbán är västerländsk liberalism, invandring och hbtqi-personer de största hoten mot den nationella gemenskapen.
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| 30. |
- Redmalm, David, Docent, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Videographic profanations : A companion to the videography "Pride: Alternative Entrepreneurship Enjoyed"
- 2022
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Ingår i: Organization. - : Sage Publications. - 1350-5084 .- 1461-7323.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article is a companion to "Pride: Alternative Entrepreneurship Enjoyed," a videography about the company Prezi's engagement in the Budapest Pride parade. The aim is to advance video ethnographic methods within Organization and Management Studies (OMS) based on Agamben's profanatory philosophical method, which puts into focus abstract "sacred" concepts and returns them to the sphere of the profane-of the everyday. A profanatory approach of use for OMS accounts for organizations, brands, and management in a way that do not reproduce their "sacredness"-entrepreneurial myths and management cliches. Instead, by opening them up to critical exposure, they can be moved from a "religious canon" of communication strategies, press releases, and policy documents, to everyday profane work. Through a methodological discussion of the videography, we show three ways in which profanation re-positions the myth of alternative entrepreneurship: by engaging in the logic of the sacred, by playing with notions of inside and outside, and by using musical soundtrack as an expressive tool. We suggest that these methodological strategies advance the analytical possibilities within video ethnography, also useful for other organizational phenomena, especially when economic interests are combined with ambitions of social change and ideals of self-realization.
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| 31. |
- Schuurman, Nora, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Interspecies care, knowledge and ownership : Children’s equestrian cultures in Sweden and Finland
- 2023
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Riding became a widespread leisure activity for children in Sweden and Finland during the post-war decades through the emergence of riding schools. Horse yards, especially riding schools, provide a unique context for the analysis of children’s relations to animals and their care in the Nordic countries. Drawing on books and comics published in Sweden and Finland from the 1960s to the present, together with interviews and observations at contemporary Swedish riding schools, we approach this development with a geographical, historical and sociological focus. We ask how children’s equestrian cultures were formed within the spaces of horse yards, especially riding schools, and how caring well was understood and negotiated through different types of knowledge and the idea and practice of horse ownership. As we show in the analysis, despite the increase of written knowledge about horses and their care, situated and relational knowledges based on interspecies interaction prevailed in children’s equestrian cultures. Mutual agencies, guided by knowledges of different types, defined a cultural sphere for children, situated in specific human– animal spaces in which children had a chance to interact with animals and care for them outside the everyday spaces of family and school. In these cultures of interspecies care, ideas of horse ownership carried expectations of continuity where the child–horse relationship was secured and had a chance to develop. The entry to these spatial cultures was through rites of passage characterised by embodied interaction and hands-on care, where children learned to care for animals well.
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| 32. |
- Schuurman, Nora, et al.
(författare)
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Interspecies care, knowledge and ownership : Children’s equestrian cultures in Sweden and Finland
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Children's Geographies. - : Routledge. - 1473-3285 .- 1473-3277. ; , s. 1-14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Riding became a widespread leisure activity for children in Sweden and Finland during the post-war decades through the emergence of riding schools. Drawing on books and comics published in Sweden and Finland from the 1960s to the present, together with interviews and observations at contemporary Swedish riding schools, we approach this development with a geographical, historical and sociological focus. We ask how children’s equestrian cultures were formed within the spaces of horse yards, especially riding schools, and how caring well was understood and negotiated through different types of knowledge and the idea and practice of horse ownership. As we show in the analysis, despite the increase of written knowledge about horses and their care, situated and relational knowledges based on interspecies interaction prevailed in children’s equestrian cultural spheres in which children had a chance to interact with animals and care for them outside the everyday spaces of family and school. In these cultures of interspecies care, ideas of horse ownership carried expectations of continuity where the child–horse relationship was secured and could develop. The entry to these spatial cultures was through rites of passage characterised by embodied interaction and hands-on care, where children learned to care for animals well
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| 33. |
- Skoglund, Annika, Docent, 1977-
(författare)
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Videography – studying ethical uncertainty in alternative entrepreneurship
- 2020
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Ingår i: Society and Business Review. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1746-5680 .- 1746-5699. ; 15:4, s. 305-324
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop videographic methods for the study of alternative entrepreneurship, with a theoretical focus on “ethical uncertainties”, exemplified in this paper by the exploration of evolving actions and unpredictable outcomes in a specific case, the Hungarian company Prezi.Design/methodology/approach – By first situating Prezi’s alternative entrepreneurship in the turbulent Hungarian political context and situation for the Roma population, this study presents how the methodological foundations of organizational videography have affirmed aesthetic immersion, which is of particular use for the study of ethical uncertainty.Findings – Following a methodological exploration of the specific research design and ethnographic reflections on three ways in which ethical uncertainties arise, this study discusses the videographic possibilities to study something as elusive as ethical uncertainty and its link to alternative futures.Originality/value – The political context in Hungary poses many challenges for organizations that attempt to “do good” and create alternative futures. This paper explains how this political context permeates Prezi’s entrepreneurship and research thereof, by highlighting “ethical uncertainty”. The combined contribution (paper and videography) invites the reader to think differently about the authority of research, become a viewer and reflect on their own experiences of ethical uncertainty in alternative entrepreneurship.
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| 34. |
- von Essen, Erica, et al.
(författare)
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License to Cull : A Research Agenda for Investigating the Necropolitics of Countryside Culling and Urban Pest Control
- 2023
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Ingår i: Society and Animals. - : Brill Academic Publishers. - 1063-1119 .- 1568-5306. ; 26:3, s. 1-16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper proposes an empirical research agenda for investigating the practices of biosecuritization of wild animal threats in modern society. Previously mostly studied on the lofty biopolitical level of directives on combatting invasive species or culling pests, we outline the conceptual and methodological points of entry for bringing the on-the-ground work of culling out-of-place, unwanted, individual animals and populations. This means a focus on necropolitics as constituted by the norms, everyday professional practices, vernaculars of killing, and identity work by pest controllers in the city and hunters on the countryside. Borrowing from research in the domestic animal killing context, we nevertheless show how wild animal killing is imbued with more spontaneity, remorse, aesthetics, public stigma, and multispecies entanglements, requiring adapted research protocols.
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| 35. |
- von Essen, Erica, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Natural born cullers? How hunters police the more-than-human right to the city
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environment and Planning E. - : SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC. - 2514-8486 .- 2514-8494.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urban areas are a messy more-than-human interface for humans and synanthropic wildlife. Norms for what constitutes a ‘problem’ animal to be culled, a displaced animal to be rescued, or a species nuisance whom one simply has to let live, are undergoing rapid change. We investigate the changing expectations that municipal hunters experience that they have from society in relation to managing problem wildlife in cities. Adding to the literature on the constitution of ‘problem’ animals in human environments, we show what happens to these animals in the practical sense, and what informs this decision. Our point of departure is to ask by what rationales hunters consider lethal interventions in urban nature to be legitimate, and which they find to be morally problematic. In a discussion, we reflect on what this says about, and means for, multispecies coexistence. Through interviews and go-along participant observation with 32 municipal hunters in Sweden, we show how municipal hunters wrestle with growing unease about new custodial roles they are expected to inhabit, as facilitators of the natural order, as garbage collectors of society for unwanted wildlife, and as enforcers of an interspecies code of conduct for the city. Based on this analysis, we discuss the relative standing of reparative, sacrificial, aesthetic, goodwill, practical, categorical and situational rationales for culling. This paints a picture of hunters as more conflicted about their control of urban nature, in challenge with the stereotypical idea of the professional hunter as a ‘natural born culler’. It also shows a city of parallel planes of multispecies coexistence, where some species and animals get a pass more than others.
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| 36. |
- von Essen, Erica, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Social licence to cull : Examining scepticism toward lethal wildlife removal in cities
- 2023
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Ingår i: People and Nature. - : John Wiley and Sons Inc. - 2575-8314. ; 5:4, s. 1353-1363
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The public may sometimes resist orders to cull wildlife, even when these pose a biosecurity threat. Managers and researchers desire to know why this is so.Research overwhelmingly focuses on the role of the species in conditioning resistance but our approach also shows the circumstances, settings, people responsible and methods used that undermine the legitimacy of the cull.We bring these together and use a social licence to operate (SLO) framework to demonstrate how support for wildlife culling in the context of biosecurity may be revoked. In the absence of SLO, resistance to wildlife culling can range from personal unease at seeing a cherished species or a neighbourhood fox being culled, to openly confronting the municipal hunter.By interviewing (n = 32) and following (n = 4) municipal hunter in Swedish cities who cull wildlife individuals or populations deemed to pose a threat to public health, safety or other societal interests, we uncover parameters by which culling wildlife are deemed to be problematic: who performs the culling, when the culling is done, how it is done and where it is done. This leads us to the concept of necroaesthetics: taboo ways of taking animal lives. In a unique perspective, we apprehend two forms of resistance: one that hunters attribute to the public and that of hunters' own unease at performing certain culling interventions. While the public and municipal hunters disagree, they also have similar criteria for opposing culls.We conclude by considering the future of the SLO of culling wildlife for biosecurity, including the subjective nature of its Revocation. This goes toward identifying parameters that make culls likely to produce controversy, hence granting some predictive value for managers in their planning.
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