Linköping University Electronic Press
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Making Mining Good: Tracing the semiotics of justification in mineral exploration and mining
No full textWhat does it mean for a business or industry to be and do good? And who can count themselves within the good economy? This article investigates the justification of goodness in mineral exploration and mining and uses the entwinement between value creation and destruction characteristic of mining to trouble notions of goodness in impactful industries. Based on analyses of indepth interviews, ethnographic fieldnotes, and archival materials, the article follows the ways in which mining industry actors seek to negotiate contradictions between creation and destruction; and does so while using an innovative conceptual framework based in Peircean semiotics to open up justification for analysis of the underlying semiotic machinery that actors rely on to signify goodness. Mobilizing this conceptual toolkit, the article investigates how miners and explorers emphasize certain values, or signs, over others and how values are used to assert that some mines and miners do more good than others
Good Economies of Carbon Offsetting: The cyclical dynamics of valuation and critique in voluntary carbon markets
No full textVoluntary carbon markets are based on the idea that the carbon credits sold in markets are both the same, or climatically equivalent to one another, and different, reflecting how, when, where, and by whom they have been produced. This article examines how market actors deal with this tension and value units that are both commensurate and differentiated. Based on existing literature, interviews, and document analysis, I identify and present three instantiations of a good economy of carbon offsetting from the 2000s onwards. Each phase shows how valuation processes iterate between commensuration and differentiation. This is achieved through the development of elaborate sets of complementary valuation practices and tools, such as methodologies for valuing co-benefits, impact scores and overcompensation factors for securing climate impacts, and carbon removal crediting methodologies. While critique is central to driving the move from one good economy to another, this article also shows how the valuation practices of voluntary carbon markets appear locked into repetitive cycles of critique and reform, with recurrent disputes emerging over what to weigh and value and how. This poses new questions concerning how to critique such markets and their valuation practices
Who’s account(able)? Making sense of Instagram in vocational teaching practices
No full textWhile social media in an educational context has interested researchers for a long time, its use in vocational education constitutes a sparsely explored field of research. In this study, we explore how three vocational teachers in Sweden make sense of Instagram in their teaching practice through interviews and analyses of their Instagram accounts over time. Technological frames are used as a theoretical lens to explore how teachers perceive the nature, the strategy, and the use of Instagram at an individual level. Results show that initiatives, motivations, and approaches clearly differ among the teachers and that questions about accountability and expectations on the teacher and the accounts remain vague. Contributions include demonstrating how vocational teachers make sense of Instagram and how it can be linked to different levels of engagement that are rooted in diverse perceptions of how their role and their practice can be supported
Editorial: Migration and successful inclusion – The role of vocational education and training
No full textFrom gaps to transaction: Reflections on a long-term collaborative research practice in VET
No full textThe purpose of this article is to reflect on and theorise collaborative research practices. Research–practice collaborations are widely recognised and encouraged by means of university strategies, policy intentions, and funding requirements. One way to provide for and strengthen collaborative research in education is to form long-term partnerships between schools and universities. In this reflective account, we draw on our own experiences from doing research in the field of vocational education and training (VET) as participants in a long-term collaboration among two social and health care vocational colleges and two university departments. Assisted by Dewey’s pragmatic approach to learning as transaction, we seek to move beyond the binary of ‘research’ and ‘practice’ as constituting a gap to be bridged between two forms of knowledge. Instead, we conceive of the collaboration as an emerging ‘third context’ in its own right created by various activities, all of which involve both theoretical and experiential knowledge
Norwegian higher vocational education: Between academic drift and labour market relevance
No full textNorway has been characterised as a hesitant and slow reformer in higher vocational education (HVE) reform policies. However, a shift can be identified, where HVE has moved from a residual position towards the centre of policy attention. Policies have gradually picked up speed, and there is a turn towards upskilling and labour market relevance policies expanding access to new and more advanced forms of practically oriented types of vocational education and training (VET). The unprecedented growth of Norwegian HVE have created new political controversies and tensions. The systematics of developments and drivers in higher vocational education have not been much explored. We have analysed the structuring of HVE as an organisational field in a Norwegian setting, focusing on three different mechanisms: coercive isomorphy, mimetic isomorphy, and normative isomorphy. We have identified two different types of isomorphic pressure: academic drift and labour market relevance, and their inter-action in the structuring of advanced practical forms of education and training. We argue that the structuring of Norwegian HVE should be interpreted as a sharpening of the labour market relevance profile in Norwegian education rather than academic drift
Adult education, democracy, and totalitarianism: A case study of the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990)
No full textThis article explores the role of adult education in supporting democracy through an examination of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) (1949-1990). This case study presents the institutional landscape, political regulations, and key trends of adult education in the GDR, complemented by insights from educators who worked within the field during the 1970s through 1990s. Two key categories emerge from the findings: (1) ‘Learning society’: Opportunities, access, and control of learning; and (2) Coexistence of conformity and resistance. Interviews highlight the diverse aspects of adult education in the GDR. While some programmes facilitated access to education, culture, and certain professions that would have otherwise been unattainable, the indoctrinative, centralised, and state-controlled education system promoted a predefined societal model and sought to mould a specific personality type, aligning with the vision of a totalitarian learning society, which clashes with the fundamental values of adult education and creates a contradictory situation for adult educators
Made in the EU: Dual Europeanisation and the rhetorical construction of adult education (2000-2022)
No full textThis paper addresses the processes involved in the Europeanisation of adult education, with a particular focus on the limitations of EU policies aimed at increasing adult participation in education and learning. Mobilising relational, multidimensional Europeanisation perspectives as tools for understanding, the research is methodologically supported by the analysis and discussion of documentary and statistical data. The Portuguese case study illustrates the emergence of dual Europeanisation processes in education through national policy options, trajectories and outcomes. This study offers new insights into the role of national contexts in influencing the evolution of European policies. It elucidates the ways in which EU guidelines are either absorbed or accommodated, as well as instances of transformation, inertia or retrenchment in the pursuit of European targets for adult participation in education across member states. This analysis sheds light on shortcomings of outcomes achieved in about two decades of (rhetorical?) construction of European adult education policy
‘For all, by all, with all’: Directors and programme planners as co-creators of racism-critical organisational development in adult education: A case study at the German Volkshochschule
No full textThis article analyses how directors and programme planners at the German Volkshochschule (adult education centre) support racism-critical organisational development. The data is interpreted with qualitative content analysis and based on five interviews conducted with directors and program planners within one Volkshochschule. In order to research the potential avenues of support, the article employs a theoretical framework based on racism-critical leadership approaches. The article argues that through an interplay of leadership characteristics and leadership actions two forms of support empirically emerge: (1) an organisational guiding principle of education for all, by all and with all and (2) a community-driven programme planning challenging the programme planning table and making communities to curators of their own learning pathways. The findings indicate the central role of directors and programme planners in racism-critical organisational development processes and underscore the necessity of continuous organisational self-critique to address racism