931 research outputs found
"Thou Shalt Make No Graven Maps!": An Interview with Gunnar Olsson
No full textThe author spoke with renowned Swedish geographer Gunnar Olsson about maps, GIS and the power of imagination in both history and geography
Beyond ‘Needy’ Individuals: Conceptualizing Information Behavior
No full textUnderstanding information users and their behavior is a question of central importance for information
research and practice. The paper challenges several aspects of existing approaches to understanding information behavior, including: the focus on individual cognition at the expense of social and affective factors; the construction of information users as defined by their areas of ignorance and uncertainty, rather than their expertise; and the focus on purposive rather than non-purposive information behavior. It argues that only by addressing these weaknesses and developing new research strategies and theoretical frameworks which focus attention on the social processes and relationships which underpin users’ information behavior can we hope to develop a truly holistic understanding of the relationship between people and information. The paper uses the author’s study of information behavior researcher’s constructions of an author (Brenda Dervin) to illustrate how a social constructivist approach can both build on existing approaches to information behavior research and address some of their weaknesses. It argues that social constructivist approaches provide a theoretical lens through which information researchers can gain a clearer picture of information users not as ‘needy’ individuals to be ‘helped’, but as social beings, experts in their own life-worlds
Commentaries from Erik J. Olsson
No full textIn this chapter, the author argues that there are cases in which a nonexpert’s autonomously-formed belief is based on evidence that would otherwise be sufficient for justification, but where this belief is rendered unjustified by (potential) evidence which the nonexpert fails to take into account. He gives various examples in support of his claim. One involves Roger, a food scientist for a large food corporation, who is also an enthusiastic cook. The rules of thumb he has derived from his cooking experience are very reliable, but not as reliable as the scientific method he masters. The author reports that he has argued, in earlier work, that the source of the “ought” is in the normative expectations others are entitled to have based on a person’s participation in various social practices. He thinks that his account underpins a kind of “social-epistemic bootstrapping”, which he thinks is “happy”
”Jag tror att det var rätt i tiden” - En studie av beslutsprocessen bakom införandet av sprutbytesprogrammet
No full textAuthor: Mattias Olsson Title: “I think the time was right” A study of the decision making behind the needle exchange programme Supervisor: Eva-Malin Antoniusson Assessor: Mats Hilte The aim of this Bachelor thesis is to highlight the decision making process of the Scanian politicians regarding the local needle-exchange programme by using Kingdons agenda-setting theory. It is based upon interviews with five Scanian politicians. I have come to the conclusion that the HIV-epidemic was the one thing that enabled the making of the first programmes. The social services and doctors specialized in drug abuse were the two groups with the most influence on the political decision making
Meaning and authority: the social construction of an 'author' among information behaviour researchers
No full textIntroduction. The study explores the social processes that influence the construction by academic (information behaviour) researchers of the meaning/s and significance/s of an author and her work prominent in the literature of their field (Brenda Dervin). Method. Semi-structured qualitative interviews, based in part on the 'Life-Line' and 'Time-line' techniques developed by Dervin and her collaborators. Participants were purposefully sampled to reflect a range of experience levels and conceptual approaches.. Analysis. The study adopted an inductive approach to data analysis, based on the 'constant comparison' approach of Glaser and Strauss. Feedback from participants was sought throughout the analysis process via email. Results. 'Interactions and Relationships' describes the social contacts involved in their construction of the author; 'The Role of Existing Constructions' deals with participants' existing knowledge and understandings; and 'Accepted and Contested Constructions' demonstrates how they drew on their existing constructions in order to accept or contest the constructions of the author conveyed to them Conclusion. Participants' constructive processes involved drawing on their previous experience ('existing constructions') in order to accept or contest the constructions of the author conveyed to them in each new encounter. Participants' constructive processes had two interdependent aspects: the construction of meaning and the construction of authority
"Ta en sup - å va' som folk?" - studie av en läsardebatt kring föräldrars alkoholvanor på Aftonbladet.se
No full textAuthor: Anette Olsson Title: Have a drink – be a sport? Study of a reader debate concerning the drinking habits of parents on Aftonbladet.se. Supervisor: Håkan Jönson The aim of this study is to through a readers debate, sparked by an article in the media, look at as to whether the drinking habits of a parent could be considered as being problematic or not. I chose to view the debate from a social constructionist perspective. As such I looked for the underlying themes of the debate. I found that the child was portrayed as a victim who suffered great harm. The parent, when portrayed as an offender, was someone selfish who by drinking alcohol put their child’s wellbeing at risk. Alcohol was debated as whether being a poison or a substance to enjoy. Also the risks of getting caught in substance abuse were discussed. Keywords: alcohol, parenting, child neglect, media, social constructionis
The construction of the meaning and significance of an 'author' among information behaviour researchers : a social constructivist approach
No full textUniversity of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.This study identifies and explores the social processes that influence the construction by academic researchers of the meaning/s and significance/s of an author and her work prominent in the literature of their field. It examines the construction by 15 information behaviour researchers of Brenda Dervin and her work, using semi-structured interviewing and inductive analysis techniques.
In focussing theoretical attention on social processes, the study seeks to address critiques of prevailing approaches to information behaviour research, such as: a focus on individual cognition at the expense of social and affective factors; a construction of information users defined by their areas of ignorance and uncertainty, rather than their expertise; and a focus on purposive rather than non-purposive information behaviour.
Conceptually, the study has been influenced by a range of theoretical approaches from both information behaviour research and a variety of other disciplines, including Dervin's Sense-Making and Foucauldian discourse analysis.
The study found that participants' initial contact with the author and her work, and the subsequent important events in their relationship, occurred not because of purposeful searching, but rather 'socially' - as a part of non-purposive events and relationships related to the participants' role as academic researchers. The source most frequently discussed by participants was informal discussions with colleagues, and participants' interactions with 'author texts' were commonly mediated by their interpersonal communication. The study found that the significant influences on participants' constructive processes were people and texts with whom they had a long-term relationship.
Participants' constructions of the author and her work were an essentially social process. Their sense-making was inextricably linked to their social context/s: their interactions with their colleagues and mentors; their engagement with the literature and theories of information science and other fields; their research interests and specialisations; and their educational and cultural backgrounds. Participants' constructive processes largely involved elaborating existing constructions - radical changes in construction were both rare and traumatic. Participants' constructions were neither objective nor wholly subjective, but intersubjective - based on shared understandings, conventions and social practices.
Participants' constructive processes had two interdependent aspects: the construction of meaning and the construction of authority (knowledge/power). Participants' informal behaviour, as well as their engagement with formal information sources, involved constructions of authority. Their constructions of the authority of their informant/s determined whether they accepted or rejected the constructions of the author conveyed to them. Participants were able to strategically use shared constructions to add to the credibility and authority of their own wor
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A Norwegian grey zone: Knut Rød, Victor Lind and 'The crucial year, 1942'
No full textThis article uses Primo Levi’s concept of “the grey zone” to explore Knut Rød’s involvement in the transfer of 532 Norwegian Jews from Oslo to Auschwitz in 1942. Rød, the police chief in charge of the operation, was subsequently exonerated of any crime on the grounds that he had simultaneously used his position to help members of Milorg – the Norwegian Resistance. The legal and moral basis of this verdict has been questioned by the artist Victor Lind in a series of artworks, including his “countermonument” The Perpetrator (2005)
The Author / as Editor / as Producer. Preliminary Notes on the Aesthetic Function of the Editor
No full textIn Walter Benjamin’s ”The Author as Producer”, the writer is urged to identify with the worker in terms of a producer – i.e. not only on an ideological level, but with regards to the technological conditions of production within a given historical moment – in order to become both politically and aesthetically effective. This, in turn, must take place through an elimination of the demarcation lines between specific mediums and their affiliated competences. In this sense (at least according to Benjamin, in 1934), doing away with the ’barrier’ between text and image, for instance, would be a way of escaping a bourgeois production apparatus. One aspect of this idea of the author as producer, is that the author here assumes the figure of what is essentially an editor: someone who identifies, collects, modifies, constellates and distributes cultural artifacts – regardless of medium, regardless of publishing surface; a practice that is not medium specific, and implies an unconstrained mobility between different technologies of cultural production and distribution. One consequence of the general digitalization of contemporary culture is that the distinction between the figure of the author and the editor has become eminently uncertain. Can Benjamin’s 1934 reflection on cultural production be beneficial for developing tools to describe what one could call an recent editorial turn of artistic practice? Is this assumed ’turn’ actually a longer historical process, made visible by the emergence of digital editing (in a broader sense)? And in what ways can it help to uncover hitherto hard to discern aspects of historical art and literature
Festskrift till Robert Påhlsson
No full textRobert Påhlsson planerar att gå i pension under våren 2022 och därför har hans vänner och kollegor valt att hylla honom med en festskrift. Robert är en skicklig akademiker som lämnat betydande bidrag på det skatterättsliga området, men han är också en omtyckt person som haft stor betydelse för den skatterättsliga miljön i Sverige och i Norden. Flera av författarna har knutit an till Roberts egna alster, och där finns mycket att välja bland, eftersom hans produktion både har djup och en synnerligen imponerande bredd.Medverkande författare: Richard Arvidsson, Martin Berglund, Jan Bjuvberg, Jane Bolander, Inge Langhave, Katia Cejie, Mattias Dahlberg, Nick Dimitrievski, Patrik Emblad, Katarina Fast Lappalainen, Ole Gjems-Onstad, Anders Hultqvist, Mats Höglund, Jan Kellgren, David Kleist, Eleonor Kristoffersson, Magnus Kristoffersson, Peter Koerver Schmidt, Börje Leidhammar, Christina Moëll, Jérôme Monsenego, Claes Norberg, Stefan Olsson, Jan Pedersen, Roger Persson Österman, Henrik Stensgaard, Dennis Ramsdahl Jensen, Pernilla Rendahl, Christer Silfverberg, Teresa Simon-Almendal, Kristina Ståhl, Bo Svensson, Mats Tjernberg, Bertil Wiman, Frederik Zimmer och Bo Svensson.</p
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