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- Olofsson, Helén, 1965-
(författare)
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Skriftbruk i fordonsverkstaden : En studie av läs- och skrivstrategier i mötet med arbetslivets texter
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the study was to describe the reading and writing activities that takes place in vehicle repair workshops and to elucidate how people experiencing low reading-and-writing ability describe their encounters with text in working life. Reading and writing are considered in the study from an educational-philosophical and special educational perspective. This study of literacy was inspired by ethnographic methods. The empirical material consists of field notes from ten participatory observations in vehicle repair workshops, photographs from the workshops and three interviews. To see patterns in how literacy was used, literacy events were taken as the unit of analysis. The literacy environment, community of practice, reading path and technical surroundings are analytical concepts in the thematic presentation of results. Central literacy practices were characterized primarily by reading, often via computer, for information needed for solving problems. The type of reading was often non-linear, given the multimodal texts and choices in computer environments. In addition, semiotic systems and several languages were interpreted. It is important to understand how information is organised and how to handle the technology. Technology provides support structures e.g. pictorial support and translation programmes. Writing out words, button-pushing and keyboard entry to register and search for information through the use of measurement instruments and in computer-generated text environments, were central. Literacy events were embedded in the work tasks and in ongoing learning, and many literacy practices included items of both reading and writing. Social skills, plus recognizing one’s problems and asking for help, were useful strategies for handling the demands of reading and writing in working life, as were allowing time and creating concentration for the task. Interpreting pictorial matter, using technology, copying text and noting down things to remember were further strategies. Implications of the study are that effective strategies for managing the demands of reading and writing that are required in the working place should begin in school. Significant is the teachers’ approach to handling the students’ frustration when studies are not working out as expected. Caring teachers, positive energy and not giving up make a difference. General education teachers need special educational resources in the upper-secondary school in order to counteract school failure and to enhance students’ learning.
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| 2. |
- Wilhelmsson, Anna-Britta
(författare)
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Everyday life experiences among relatives of persons with mental disabilities
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis, which consists of two articles and a policy analysis of the document SOU (Swedish Government Official Report), laying the ground for psychiatric reform, deals with everyday life experiences among 18 close relatives of persons with mental disabilities. This study was conducted among relatives of people with mental illness within a health care district in Northern Sweden. Relatives living in the community were recruited through advertisements in daily newspapers. The criterion for participation in the study was that the interviewees should be close relatives of persons with mental illness. This is an explorative, descriptive study using inductive qualitative content analysis of individual interviews with relatives of people with mental disabilities. The interviews focused on experiences of communicating with persons with mental disabilities in daily life situations. Articles I and II were analysed by means of qualitative content analysis. In order to deepen the understanding of the relatives’ situation and the consequences of the psychiatry reform, I put the relatives’ statements in a concluding dialogue in dialogue with an analysis of the policy documents that form the basis of the psychiatry reform. The overall aim was to illuminate and understand what the reform of psychiatric care in Sweden has meant for Swedish relatives of persons with mental disabilities in the light of the content of the Swedish psychiatry reform and its policy documents. Mental disability is one of the most serious health problems facing Europe today. For example, statistics reveal that between 20 and 40 percent of the Swedish population suffer from some forms of mental disease, ranging from grave psychoses to less serious anxiety and fear. The reform of psychiatric care in Sweden has passed much of the rehabilitation and daily care of these people on to their families. The results indicate that they feel guilty about not providing enough support for their relatives, whom they perceive to be in a vulnerable position. Family members wanted to be supportive, but felt that they also needed support in the form of better information, consistency throughout the various levels of care, and professional therapy for themselves as well. The result of this study shows that children of parents with mental disabilities want assistance, opportunities for participation in care, and information about their parents’ illness. Relatives feel that they need a kinder reception from the health care system, which should take better care of the whole family. All relatives could relate positive experiences, through open dialogue and relevant information gained from the staff in the hospital, related to timely care and support from care personnel The result indicates that the reform of psychiatric care in Sweden has put the light on the relatives, but for the relatives there is still no consensus among the different care providers, county municipal, and national social services who are involved in treatment.
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| 3. |
- Löfmarck, Erik, 1974-
(författare)
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Den hand som föder dig : En studie av risk, mat och moderskap i Sverige och Polen
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a study of how mothers of young children relate to risk in everyday life, with an emphasis on the invisible risks associated with modernity in general, and with food in particular. It explores variations and similarities in how mothers deal with risk in two cultural contexts: Sweden and Poland. The study is based on twenty qualitative interviews with university educated mothers of small children in Stockholm and Warsaw. While risks more generally challenge how we “get on” with our lives, mothers of young children in particular have a special relationship to risk. During pregnancy and breastfeeding they are subject to all kinds of risk minimization efforts, and mothers are ultimately held "infinitely responsible" for their children's welfare by society. Women's transition to parenthood then makes for a particularly interesting case as to how risks manifest in everyday life. The theoretical framework draws on modernization theory, combined with insights from cultural theory. In addition, various contributions from sociological and psychological risk research, family sociology and research on parenting and motherhood are used to highlight contextual aspects and to interpret the empirical results. Two aspects of the mothers’ relationship to risk and food are examined in this study: firstly, their risk constructs, i.e. what they perceive as ‘risky’ with regards to food; and, secondly, their risk management strategies, i.e. how they deal with identified risks on a practical and cognitive level. The overall risk management depicted in this study is characterized by reflexivity, critical thinking, information retrieval, attention to scientific evidence, purposely transferred trust, confidence and the ability to make fairly sophisticated tradeoffs between risks and other aspects of life. Neither the Swedish nor the Polish mothers then conform to popular notions of ‘security junkies’ or ‘paranoid parenting’. Nonetheless, the comparative approach demonstrates how contextual differences, such as general trust levels and family policy, influence both the risk constructs and the employment of different risk management strategies.
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| 5. |
- Wall, Erika, 1978-
(författare)
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Riskförståelse : Teoretiska och empiriska perspektiv
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis introduces the concept of ‘sense-making of risk’ (riskförståelse) for the purpose of the theoretical and empirical study of the individual’s sense-making of risk. Particular weight is attached to an examination of the term’s various components, its compass, and the relationship between sense-making of risk and behaviour. The premise is that risk is created and defined by the common conceptions that exist within the framework of a specific social context; the effect is to focus attention on the significance of social and cultural contexts. To provide a full picture of sense-making of risk, and risk behaviour, and to study these phenomena using a variety of methodological perspectives, the data was gathered from both polls and focus-group interviews. It is in the first article, based on a focus-group interview study, that the concept of sense-making of risk is introduced: the empirical results demonstrate that it can be used to chart how young people with similar risk perceptions differ in their understanding of a variety of risks. A theoretical model is proposed that establishes that there are two dimensions to the individual’s sense-making of risk. The second article considers young people’s risk behaviour in traffic milieus. The principal conclusion drawn in this study is that the individual’s sense-making of risk is insufficient to explain behaviour in relation to risk: the spatial context must also be taken into account. The third article focuses on the relationship between place attachment and sense-making of risk, and demonstrates that various aspects of place attachment have implications for the individual’s sense-making of risk. The fourth and final article offers a cluster analysis. The article’s most important result is its refinement of the theoretical concepts. Structure of meaning is singled out as the basis for the individual’s sense-making of risk. In its empirical application the concept was shown to be useful in studying the behavioural differences between various social groups, since grouping by structure of meaning furnishes an explanation for variations in risk and risk-reducing behaviour. The introductory and concluding chapters assemble the studies’ findings and offer a full account of the concept of sense-making of risk. The thesis’ most important conceptual contribution is to the question of how the individual arrives at a personal sense-making of risk. However, it will fall to future studies to establish the concept’s general applicability by considering its theoretical ramifications and empirical implementation. In this way, sense-making of risk can take its place in a specifically sociological conceptual apparatus that focuses on how the individual relates to risk.
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