| 1. |
- Bernhard, Iréne, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
-
A digital society for all? : Meanings, practices and policies for digital diversity
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2019. - Honolulu, HI, USA. - 9780998133126 ; , s. 3067-3076
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The concept of digital divides has been on the agenda in research and policy making for at least the last 20 years. But it is still, a challenge to grasp this concept that is so elusive and transforming. Inclusion, access and equality are still key values for democratic governance and must be addressed in particular when forming and contributing to a digital government. This paper seeks to intervene in current debates on digital divides and digital inclusion by analyzing two cases of responses among street-level public administration in relation to e-government services in Sweden. The case studies are strategically chosen and conducted in national agencies and in local public libraries. Three lines of contributions are discussed, firstly thei mportance to care for equality secondly the need to seethe non-users, and thirdly to discuss the potential of putting focus on digital diversity.
|
|
| 2. |
- Eidenskog, Maria, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
-
Changing the world one engineer at a time – unmaking the traditional engineering education when introducing sustainability subjects
- 2023
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. - : EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD. - 1467-6370 .- 1758-6739. ; 24:9, s. 70-84
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The information technology (IT) sector has been seen as central to society's transformation to a more just and sustainable society, which underlines teachers’ responsibility to foster engineers who can contribute specifically to such ends. This study aims to report an effort to significantly update an existing engineering programme in IT with this ambition and to analyse the effects and challenges associated with the transformation.Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on a combination of action-oriented research based on implementing key changes to the curriculum; empirical investigations including surveys and interviews with students and teachers, and analysis of these; and a science and technology studies-inspired analysis.Findings: Respondents were generally positive towards adding topics relating to sustainability. However, in the unmaking of traditional engineering subjects, changes created a conflict between core versus soft subjects in which the core subjects tended to gain the upper hand. This conflict can be turned into productive discussions by focusing on what kinds of engineers the authors’ educate and how students can be introduced to societal problems as an integrated part of their education.Practical implications: This study can be helpful for educators in the engineering domain to support them in their efforts to transition from a (narrow) focus on traditional disciplines to one where the bettering of society is at the core.Originality/value: This study provides a novel approach to the transformation of engineering education through a theoretical analysis seldom used in studies of higher education on a novel case study.
|
|
| 3. |
- Granath, Malin, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
-
The smart meter as a boundary object-insights from an empirical case
- 2023
-
Ingår i: European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2023. - Kristiansand, Norway : AIS eLibrary.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Smart meters are often understood as central devices in the smart, flexible and sustainable electric grid, enabling consumers to adapt their electricity use to current supply. In this study we are interested in how different actors in a Swedish context understand the smart meters and fit them into their locally situated practices and contexts, and we analyze the smart meters with the concept of boundary objects as an analytical lens with the purpose of describing and explaining tensions between actors in intended and actual use of smart meters. The case study builds on empirical material from policy documents, web pages and user forums, and include the Swedish government, authorities, grid operators and electricity suppliers as well as consumers. The main conclusions are that consumers were not included in the design and roll-out of the smart meters, resulting in that the available information requires consumers to be active and resourceful experts.
|
|
| 4. |
- Gustafsson, Mariana S., 1978-, et al.
(författare)
-
Repairment of Unstable Sociomaterial Relations: A study on librarians’ and social workers’ roles and practices in addressing the complex needs of vulnerable groups
- 2021
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this paper we address the increased digitalization of the fabric of modern welfare societies, and the expectations on individuals to be independent and digitally capable that follows from this. We focus on repairment practices aimed at repairing the lives of individuals situated in unstable sociomaterial relations in the context of social care and a public library in Sweden. The aim was to explore repairment practices in two Swedish empirical contexts: one in a municipal library setting, and one in a social service setting. The analysis was conducted with the help of the concept of repairment, understood in relation to feminist STS points of departure of relationality and entanglement of humans and non-humans. We conducted interviews and observations in these two settings and analyzed these with the help of the concept of repair. The analysis shows that in the context of social service, repairment was enacted differently in relation to different interpretations of existing legislation concerning minimal livelihoods, and that in the context of the public library repairment was enacted in relation to expectations of the library visitors to become digitally independent. We also relate these repairment practices to the current pandemic.
|
|
| 5. |
- Iacobaeus, Helena, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
-
Digitalt utanförskap : en forskningsöversikt
- 2019
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Den här rapporten bygger på en kartläggande litteraturstudie om internationell forskning av digitalt utanförskap. Digitalt utanförskap är ett demokratiskt problem när alltfler välfärdstjänster digitaliseras. Rapportens syfte är att undersöka vilken forskning som har publicerats inom området digital exkludering, samt vilka faktorer som nämns som bidrar till digital exkludering och vilka grupper som studerats som digitalt exkluderade tidigare.ModellEn användbar modell för att analysera digitalt utanförskap har utarbetats av forskaren Jan van Dijk. Den har tidigare illustrerats som en triangel med motivation som bred bas, men utifrån vårt arbete med denna forskningsöversikt föreslår vi att den illustreras som en trappa med stegen: motivation, tillgång, färdigheter, användning. Denna modell visar hur forskningen har gått från fokus på tillgång till digital teknik, till att se det som ett mer komplext fenomen.ResultatResultatet visar att tidigare forskning har förklarat och förstått individuellt digitalt utanförskap utifrån följande faktorer:Bristande motivationBristande infrastruktur/tillgångBristande kunskap och färdigheterLåg socioekonomisk statusBristande tillit/självtillitNär det kommer till samhälleliga faktorer som kan bidra till digitalt utanförskap så nämns:Bristande styrning och ledningMotsatsen till digitalt utanförskap är digital delaktighet och inkludering. Det främsta resultatet visar att det är en pågående process som här liknas vid en trappa. Eftersom den digitala utvecklingen är pågående kan inte digital kompetens och inkludering ses som avslutade processer; människor måste ständigt uppgradera sina kompetenser för att kunna hänga med. Människor som befinner sig på de övre stegen kan dock halka ner vid en förändrad livssituation,som att gå från anställning till arbetslöshet.SlutsatserDet saknas enhetliga begrepp om vad som avses med digitalt utanförskap, inkludering och kompetens, vilket kan försvåra jämförelserDigital inkludering är pågående process, som människor kan halka efter iDigitalt utanförskap kan förstås utifrån situationer snarare än utifrån människors karaktär eller identitet (som implicit innebär att det kan undvikas)Digitalt utanförskap kan handla om komplexa samband mellan flera faktorerDigitalt utanförskap kan förekomma i olika sociala grupper och ålderskategorierRapporten har en sammanställning över faktorer som lyfts fram i tidigare forskning som gynnsamma för insatser som syftar till digital inkludering. Det handlar om faktorer som i stort återspeglas i ovan nämnda modell:MotiveraSkapa tillgångFrämja färdigheterFrämja användningIdéer för fortsatt forskningMed slutsatsen i tidigare forskning om att digital inkludering är en pågående och komplex process eftersom den digitala tekniken ständigt utvecklas behövs fortsatt forskning som visar hur olika faktorer hänger samman och kan bidra till inkludering eller exkludering. Det behövs även fortsatt forskning om olika grupper, till exempel nyanlända och migranter samt människor med olika funktionsvariationer. Att fokusera på hur olika situationer påverkar digital delaktighet och inkludering framstår som relevant. Mer tillämpad forskning om hur offentliga digitala system och tjänster designas inom ett svenskt sammanhang skulle också vara värdefull, liksom utvecklandet av nydanande metoder för att studera digital delaktighet.
|
|
| 6. |
- S. Gustafsson, Mariana, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
-
Technology Mediated Citizenship : What Can We Learn from Library Practices
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Electronic Participation. - Cham : Springer. - 9783030581404 ; , s. 109-120
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Advanced digital societies in democratic societies are conceived to besustained by informed, active and responsible citizens. While internet and informationtechnologies are both hailed for their empowering potential for the citizensto express their civic and political rights, they also pose considerable literacy andusage challenges, and thus can raise exclusionary thresholds for these same aspirations.Digital skills and information literacy as preconditions for tapping intosuch technology potential, can thus affect theway citizenship is practiced and conceivedby the members of society. Based on an extensive field study at Swedishlibraries practices with helping and educating clientswith awide diversity of questionsrelating to digital technologies and e-services, we examine both empiricallyand conceptually how citizenship is practiced in an advanced digital society, ina universal welfare state. The analysis focused on citizenship practices in dailyactivities when technologies mediate participation and interaction among the public,civic andmarket actors. The conclusions contribute to the conceptualization ofcitizenship act and agency and elaborates on citizenship as a performative process.
|
|
| 7. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
-
Addressing digital diversity: Care matters in vulnerable digital relations in a Swedish library context
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Science and Public Policy. - : Oxford University Press. - 0302-3427 .- 1471-5430. ; 48:6, s. 841-848
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As societies become increasingly digitalized, the requirements for inclusion continuously increase. In a Swedish public, municipal, library context,it is common that individuals who face difficulties related to digital technologies come and ask for help. In this paper, we explore care in relationsconstituted by individuals and digital technologies and analyze how care matters for digital inclusion. It builds on field studies in a Swedish librarycontext and includes qualitative interviews, focus groups, and observations of employees working to support individuals with digital needs. Inorder to analyze the material, we apply the concept of care. In the concluding discussion, we argue first for viewing individuals as sociomaterialentanglements of relations constituted by humans and non-humans, second that these soc
|
|
| 8. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
-
Addressing Digital Diversity in an Advanced Information Society : Ethics of care in a Swedish library context
- 2019
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of the paper is to use the concept of ethics of care in order to explore and reconceptualize the entangled relations that come into play when employees (librarians and others) in a Swedish public librariy context work to support citizens with digital problems. Application of ethics of care lens is interesting in this context from at least two perspectives. It can be used as a theoretical lens to analyze the librarians’ care practices in their mission for digital inclusion and addressing digital diversity needs. By uncovering the entanglements of relations between the librarians, the services, the visitors of the library, and the digital technologies, it opens for a contribution to the reconceptualization of digital citizenship (Mossberger et al, 2008) in relation to digital divide and participation, as well as access to services and opportunities. A care ethics lens is also valuable in terms of uncovering tensions and value conflicts that arise from normatively conflicting principles that govern public administrations in practice, such ex. New Public Management (Giritli Nygren, 2009; Rose, Persson, & Heeager, 2015), or service manufacturing logics governed by business rationale (Cordella, Paletti, Chun, Adam, & Noveck, 2018; Gustafsson & Wihlborg, 2019).
|
|
| 9. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-
(författare)
-
Att utveckla framtidens informationssystem : Problematiska gränsdragningar mellan det sociala och det tekniska
- 2018
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Den här rapporten handlar om relationen mellan tekniska och sociala aspekter av en verksamhet, i kontexten analys och utveckling av informationssystem. Den empiriska kontexten för rapporten utgörs av en förstudie i polisorganisationen som genomfördes under 2016-2017 med syfte att undersöka möjligheterna att utveckla ett nytt ledningsstödsystem. Studien genomfördes som en fallstudie med deltagande observationer av möten, intervjuer, samt projektdokumentation ligger till grund för analysen. Det empiriska material som ligger till grund för studien är en rapport som fokuserar på verksamhetsanalys av polisorganisationen, och framförallt de delar av rapporten som beskriver verksamhetens nuvarande förmågor och behov relaterat till ett nytt ledningsstödsystem. Rapporten analyserades med hjälp av analytiska begrepp såsom socioteknisk teori, deltagande design och sociomateriell teori. Analysen visar att det i beskrivningarna av verksamhetens förmågor finns en viss övervikt av tekniska formuleringar, något som kan förstås på flera olika sätt. Dels kan det förstås som att det tekniska och det sociala hänger så intimt samman i moderna organisationer att tidigare gränsdragningar mellan dessa har spelat ut sin roll. Det kan också förstås som en otydlighet som går bra att bibehålla i en förstudie och utifrån ett verksamhetsperspektiv, men kan komma att behöva tydliggöras ifall det kommer till konkret utveckling av ett ledningsstödsystem. Övervikten av tekniska formuleringar ger också intryck av en viss teknikoptimism. Slutsatsen är att gränsdragningar mellan tekniska och sociala aspekter av en verksamhet blir betydelsefulla på olika sätt i olika faser av design av informationssystem, något som man behöver ta hänsyn till vid utvecklingen av informationssystem mer generellt.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
| 11. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-
(författare)
-
"Det talar vi inte om" - Problematiska tystnader inom e-förvaltning
- 2010
-
Ingår i: Förvaltning och medborgarskap i förändring. - Lund : Studentlitteratur. - 9789144055626 ; , s. 273-294
-
Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- innehåll: Inledning, E-förvaltningsprojektet, Verksamhetsutvecklingsprocessen, Teoretiska utgångspunkter för analysen, Att lyssna till tystnader, Forskningsmetod, Vilket slags deltagande, Översättning av situerad kunskap till ett automatiserat system, Vad skulle hända med handläggarna, Vad sägs i en tystnad, Alternativa artikulationer av e-förvaltning.
|
|
| 12. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-
(författare)
-
"Do you work on IT or what?" – Configurations of Heterogeneous Actors in Information Systems Design
- 2009
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In systems design a number of different categories are used, and some of these are problematic. The purpose of the paper is to explore how heterogeneous actors were configured during a systems design project. The empirical material for the study was gathered through the use of ethnographic methods, and analyzed with the help of diffraction. The conclusions are that in the project a range of agencies were configured, and these were sometimes enabling, and sometimes restricting. Furthermore the administrative officers (mostly women) in the project were configured as business experts, and this categorization made invisible their contributions as systems designers.
|
|
| 13. |
|
|
| 14. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-
(författare)
-
Entanglements of Participation, Gender, Power and Knowledge in IT Design
- 2010
-
Ingår i: PD 2010 - Participation :: the Challenge. Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 2010. - New York, NY, USA : ACM Press. - 9781450301312 ; , s. 111-120
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper I discuss how participation in IT design depends on how actors and IT design is defined. The argument is that participation is intertwined with gender, power and knowledge. The empirical basis for the paper is an ethnographic study of a business process analysis in an IT design project in a Swedish government agency. The frame of reference is constituted by ideas from PD and theories from feminist technoscience, and a central concept is sociomaterial practices. The empirical material is analysed with the help of agential realism. Based on the analysis I discuss how participation in IT design in various ways is intertwined with gender, power and knowledge. One major conclusion is that the women who were the central knowers in the business process analysis became visible as participants. This is related to the debate about women’s participation in IT design.
|
|
| 15. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-
(författare)
-
"For me it doesn't matter where I put my information": Enactments of Agency, Mutual Learning, and Gender in IT Design
- 2010
-
Ingår i: Gender Issues in Learning and Working with Information Technology: Social Constructs and Cultural Contexts. - : IGI Global. - 9781615208142 - 9781615208135 - 1615208135 ; , s. 65-82
-
Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In information technology (IT) design it is essential to develop rich and nuanced understandings of messy design realities. In this chapter Karen Barad’s agential realism is used as an analytical approach in order to obtain such a multifaceted understanding of a local IT design project. The purpose of the paper is to explore entanglements of agency, mutual learning, and gender in a business process analysis. The main argument here is that these issues were inextricably intertwined with each other and with the sociomaterial relations of which they were part. All empirical material used in the chapter was collected with the help of ethnographic methods. Finally the chapter concludes with a discussion about agential realism as an analytical approach.
|
|
| 16. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-
(författare)
-
Gendered Boundaries in IT Design
- 2010
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this paper I will discuss normalization processes and their gendered consequences in and for IT design. The objective is to explore how organizational norms related to boundaries between business and IT in an IT design project were enacted, with a focus on the consequences for the involved actors, and for IT design as a practice. My argument is that these norms were in some instances reproduced – and consequently worked as normalizing norms – and in some instances challenged and transgressed. However, the transgression of these norms was met with considerable resistance. The empirical material of the paper was gathered through ethnographic studies of an IT design project in a Swedish government agency, which administrates a part of the Swedish public social insurance system. One project objective was to improve the work situation for the administrative officers who worked with a particular social insurance, but lacked a satisfactory IT support for their work. Additionally, there was a second – and as it turned out more prioritized – project objective; to rationalise the administrative process through an automation of parts of the administrative process. The empirical material that was gathered was analysed diffractively. The analysis shows how in the project meetings and discussions the norms were sometimes reiterated and thus worked as normalizing norms, and how they were sometimes challenged and transgressed. I will especially focus on one of the project participants – Sonja – who transgressed the boundaries between business and IT, and thus made visible and challenged organizational norms about how things were done. Her initiative was met with resistance, and she became a person who did not fit into the existing organizational structure. The analysis points to how organisational norms in some instances work to produce organizational stability, rather than to facilitate change. Part of this organizational stability was the norm of IT design as a technological practice, and that women did not participate in this practice. The analysis will be discussed in relation to the question of how women are being removed from IT design practices – and hence how IT design remain a male dominated practice.
|
|
| 17. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
-
“It’s more important to be fast than to be informed” : Gender, age, disability and ethnicity in relation to IT in the Swedish Rescue Services
- 2016
-
Ingår i: ISCRAM2016 Conference Proceedings. - 9788460879848
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study is work in progress starting with the point of departure that everyday accidents strike unjust, and with the purpose to explore how gender, age, disability and ethnicity are understood, and included – or excluded – in relation to the information systems involved in rescue operations performed. Empirical material was gathered through interviews mainly at the Swedish Rescue Services, and the analysis shows that this kind of information is not included in the involved information systems, and that it is considered rather irrelevant. On the other hand, it is indicated that this information might well be relevant for the performance of rescue operations, discussed in terms of how gender, age, disability and ethnicity are reconfigured in the organization, something that opens up for the design of information systems that are more attentive to these issues, and that might possibly contribute to better supporting those in vulnerable positions.
|
|
| 18. |
|
|
| 19. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-
(författare)
-
Power/knowledge and gender in information systems design
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems. - : IRIS Association. - 0905-0167 .- 1901-0990. ; 31:1, s. 67-102
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper concerns the intersection of knowledge, power and gender in information systems design. This is explored with the help of Foucault’s concept of power/knowledge, and ideas from feminist technoscience studies, and studied in the context of an information systems design project in a Swedish authority. The aim of the paper is to explore how power/knowledge plays out in the everyday practices of an information systems design project, and how this is also a gendered issue. The analysis showed three different configurations of power/knowledge during the course of the business analysis as a result of shifting design conditions. The analysis contains no key, but the project clearly worked towards the enactment of some specific, and differently gendered, futures, which shifted with the different configurations of power/knowledge. The analysis provides an example of how in IS design projects, various realities are enacted, how some gendered realities are being explored, dismissed, and replaced by others. This illustrates how hopes for a better future among some gendered bodies might emerge, but also how these hopes – in the course of the the same IS design project – might be turned down, when other bodies and values become prioritized. © 2019, IRIS Association. All rights reserved.
|
|
| 20. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
-
Repair of Unstable Sociomaterial Relations: A Study on Librarians’ and Social Workers’ Practices in Addressing the Needs of Their Clients
- 2022
-
Ingår i: HUMAN CHOICE AND DIGITAL BY DEFAULT: AUTONOMY VS DIGITAL DETERMINATION, HCC 2022. - Cham : Springer International Publishing. - 9783031156885 - 9783031156878 ; , s. 36-46
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper we address the increased digitalization of the fabric ofmodern welfare societies, and the expectations on individuals to be independentand digitally capable that follows from this. We focus on enactments of repairaimed at maintaining the lives of individuals situated in unstable sociomaterialrelations in the context of social care and a public library in Sweden. The purposewas to explore enactments of repair in two Swedish empirical contexts: one ina social service setting, and one in a municipal library setting. The analysis wasconducted with the help of the concept of repair, understood as maintenance ortransformation. We conducted interviews and observations in these two settingsand analyzed these with the help of the concept of repair. The analysis shows that inthe context of social service, repair was enacted differently in relation to differentinterpretations of existing legislation concerning minimal livelihoods, and that inthe context of the public library repair was enacted in relation to expectations of thelibrary visitors to become digitally independent. The analysis showed that in bothof these contexts repair was enacted as maintenance rather than as transformation.
|
|
| 21. |
- Sefyrin, Johanna, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
-
"We do not talk about this" : Problematical silences in eGovernment
- 2009
-
Ingår i: Electronic Journal of e-Government. - 1479-439X. ; 7:3, s. 259-270
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Swedish public sector is currently in a process of transformation, often referred to as eGovernment. In this paper stories are told of problematic silences in an eGovernment implementation project in a Swedish government agency. eGovernment is discussed as something that is articulated differently by a range of actors in various locations. This enables articulations of multiple eGovernment and the multiple articulations can also be a means to contest dominant and possibly problematic articulations of eGovernment. The dominant discourse of eGovernment is the rationalisation of the public sector as a means of saving public resources. The improvement of quality and availability of public services, and to improve democratic processes are central in the dominant discourse. In this discourse there is a silence about the dismissal of employees in the public sector. There is neither talk about how the public sector is an important labour market for women nor how the rationalisation will affect the employees. Employees’ knowledges are not considered as being a resource for strategic IT-planning, and thus they are not invited to participate in the further design of IT-systems. The purpose of the paper is to explore the participation of the administrative officers in an eGovernment implementation project, and the meanings of eGovernment articulated in the project. Ethnographic methods were used in the collection of empirical material, and central ideas in participatory design and feminist technoscience were used in the analysis. The main argument is that the administrative officers participated in an ambiguous way. They were central actors but were at the same time marginalised within the organisation. The ambiguity regarding how they participated is related to different and more inclusive articulations of eGovernment in the project. The paper is concluded with a discussion concerning how alternative articulations of eGovernment can offer alternatives to the dominant eGovernment discourse.
|
|
| 22. |
|
|
| 23. |
|
|
| 24. |
- Yousefi Mojir, Kayvan, 1980-
(författare)
-
Information Systems Development for Emerging Public Sector Cross-sector Collaborations : The Case of Swedish Emergency Response
- 2018
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Information systems (IS) seem prevalent in modern societies and have resulted in the rapid digitalisation of different societal sectors. One application domain of IS is emergency response, which is responsible for delivering essential services to save lives and minimise environmental damage in both small , frequent and large-scale emergencies. Specific IS applications are in turn used in emergency response to support such aspects as decision-making, communication, information sharing and the dispatching of resources. Public-sector cut-backs and a lack of professional resources have affected emergency response at the same time as natural disasters (e.g. forest fires, tsunamis, storms, terror attacks, and wars in the Middle East leading to mass migration) have intensified in recent decades. At the same time, frequent, small-scale accidents continue to occur on a regular basis, both in urban and sparsely populated areas. As a result, emergency response actors, first responders, are often placed under severe pressure. An emerging trend in response to these challenges, both in Sweden and internationally, is to create cross-sector forms of collaboration, by combining alternative resources from various sectors. Such collaborations are relatively new and involve heterogeneous stakeholders.Therefore, the thesis objective is to explore IS-related opportunities, challenges and needs aimed at supporting heterogeneous actors in emerging cross-sector collaborations in emergency response in order to enable and facilitate future related IS development. To achieve this, a user-centred approach was applied. A baseline study was performed followed by three case studies on ‘co-location of actors’, ‘co-operative use of resources’ and ‘semi-professionals as first responders’ by performing interviews, focus groups, participant observation, Future Workshops, an exercise and an after-action review. The thesis is based on case study research and qualitative research methods. Sociotechnical systems theory, the sociotechnical ensemble view, and network governance were used as the analytical framework. As part of achieving the thesis objectives, experiences from applying user participation in the context of cross-sector collaboration are also presented as part of the results. A context-specific framework developed to systematise and explore various important aspects of cross-sector collaboration in emergency response is also described.The results of this thesis indicate that the needs for IS in cross-sector collaborations vary from simple smartphone applications to manage alarms, positioning and the dispatching of new resources, to more sophisticated tools for sharing and viewing incident data. The results also indicate that these collaborations have the potential (e.g. resource redundancy, pooled competencies to increase total capacity) to improve Swedish emergency response if supported by adequate IS/IT support. The major challenges are organisational, economic and juridical and the most prominent are ambiguities in actors’ tasks and responsibilities, and how to prioritise between ordinary work and ‘new’ first-response tasks. They must be addressed to enable certain IS-functions, e.g. information sharing and positioning of resources The results also highlight several institutional factors (e.g. mutual interest between members, collective problem-solving, secrecy aspects) which are believed to play a key role in the success or failure of the collaborations and which must be adressed in the development of IS-support. The actors also have substantial basic needs for training (e.g. fire extinguishing, first aid) and emergency supplies (e.g. fire extinguishers, healthcare kits).Applying user participation also faced challenges, the major one being the development of a future cross-sector collaboration in a context that does not yet exist, and involving stakeholders from resource-strained organisations in doing so. The stakeholders, and sometimes also the primary end-users, are partly unknown and tasks are undefined. As a response to these challenges, a combination of activities based on multiple design groups, scenario-based Future Workshops, focus groups, the context-specific framework, a practical exercise and an after-action-review was provided. The framework, which was used to support data collection and user participation, includes 15 dimensions each intended to represent important aspects of cross-sector collaboration.The thesis major contributions are the identified opportunities, challenges and need as a ’sociotechnical ensemble’ and generated and from several studies, thus being comparable. The thesis more theoretical contributions is the combined application of the sociotechnical ensemble view and network governance where the studied collaboration forms are characterised as a hybrid form of networks and more traditional government mechanisms and where it is pointed out that network governance lacks explicit IS/IT aspects. In a wider perspective, the research fields of IS and political science may cross-fertilise each other when studying emerging cross-sector collaboration in the public sector. Identified user participation challenges relevant to the cross-sector collaboration context, suggestions on how they can be handled and the context-specific framework are contributions that can be used in practical user-centred IS development in similar contexts.
|
|
