1,721,031 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
De usynlige klassekammerater? En analyse af forældres forskellige betydninger for folkeskolen - mellem fællesskab og faglighed
No full textThe thesis focuses on the Public school system in Denmark, and the historic development producing it. The current policy process on education politics is characterized by opposing value systems and ideologies. On one hand, the neoliberal, individualistic values focusing on increased formal knowledge, testing and elite orientation. And on the other hand, the collectivistic values, concerning inclusion of children with special education needs, due to an increasing number of pupils with diagnosed disabilities or social difficulties. Inspired by the theories of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and his concepts of social rules and symbolic power in the constructed field, the main aim is to examine how attending children’s parents act differently in light of recent tendencies and to understand the social meaning of the conflicting positions.The thesis focuses on the Public school system in Denmark, and the historic development producing it. The current policy process on education politics is characterized by opposing value systems and ideologies. On one hand, the neoliberal, individualistic values focusing on increased formal knowledge, testing and elite orientation. And on the other hand, the collectivistic values, concerning inclusion of children with special education needs, due to an increasing number of pupils with diagnosed disabilities or social difficulties. Inspired by the theories of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and his concepts of social rules and symbolic power in the constructed field, the main aim is to examine how attending children’s parents act differently in light of recent tendencies and to understand the social meaning of the conflicting positions
"Et andet fokus i din undervisning" - en konstruktion af feltet for organisering af KVLs uddannelsesaktiviteter.
No full textThis thesis provides insight into the changes in regulation, organisation and practise of university education in Denmark. The thesis examines the changes in the educationalstructures at The Royal Veterinarian and Agricultural University (the KVL – Den kongelige Veterinær- og Landbohøjskole) as an example of the possible. The thesis shows both the rationales of the changes and alternative rationales of regulating, organising and practise of university education. The purpose of the thesis is not only to describe the changes but also to understand and explain the dynamics of the changes. By uncovering these dynamics, the thesis shows what interests benefits from the changes. Hence, the thesis questions the present way of regulating, organising and practising university education by showing that other rationales could be taken in to onsideration. The problem of the thesis is studied by the use of two methods: qualitative interviews with agents in the field, and a historical study of the power struggles at both institutional, national and European level regarding the regulation, organisation and practise of university education. Both methods are conducted with inspiration from the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Following his approach, both the interviews and the historical study are double readings, which enable the thesis to overcome classical dichotomies in the social sciences such as subject/object, structure/agency etc. through discussions with other theoretical approaches (interactionistic and Michel Foucault) the thesis is positioned within the academic field. Following Bourdieu, the interviews are therefore conducted and analysed with a dispositional approach. Thus, the answers are not read as sociological explanations but as social explanations rooted in the social context and in the specific trajectory of the agent, and as such accounts which call for sociological explanations. Within the theoretical approach of the thesis, the interviews provide an insight into how the social conditions are seen from different points of view. Through the historicization, the change in the relation between these different points of view are studied. In order to achieve a deep insight into the historical power struggles the thesis studies, though reading of different internal magazines, how different changes have altered the relation between different positions and thereby the structure of the field as a whole. In the thesis, the interviews are presented as ‘tales’ from the field; a form of presentation inspired by the collective work “Weight of the World” (Bourdieu et al., 1999). The tales show three different points of view on the regulation, organisation and practice of the education at the KVL. These three points of view take into consideration different interests, in this thesis categorised as organisation of the education at the KVL for the good of the economy, the science or the participants. These three rationales are later found in the historicization. The economic rationale represents a view towards the organisation of the educations according to both the market and the economy of the institution. According to this, the educations should be organised in a way that secures that the students’ production is economically efficient and that the alumni can be employed. The scientific rationale represents a view towards the organisation of the education which emphasises to pass on to the students the specific scientific discipline with its inherent problems, techniques and theories. The last rationale represents a view towards the organisation of the education for the good of the participants. According to this, the educations should be organised in a way so that the students are able to acquire a critical insight into the subject according to their individual preconditions. This rationale sees the students as participants, not only in the actual learning process but also in the process of planning and organising the education activities. The three rationales are represented through the empirical analysis of the thesis. They are found in the tales and through the historicization, but represented with different strength at different times. In short, the historical development has trengthened the economic rationale to the detriment of the other rationales. This means that the educations are reorganised in order to secure an efficient production and that the KVL takes into consideration the demands from the market in reorganising the education. In this process it is important for the managers at the KVL to monitor and evaluate the education in order to secure the quality and efficiency of the production. Thereby, the reorganisation and development of the educations becomes an activity exclusive to the managers. In the period studied, the managerial organisation thus changes from a collective, democratic organisation into a hierarchical, centralised organisation and hence it becomes harder for the participants (both the students and the staff) to raise their voices in the struggles at the KVL. The result of this organisation is, that the managers are able to take the ‘necessary’ economic decisions without involving the participants – who have to live with the decisions. The dynamic of the changes However, the changes have not evolved neither by accident nor necessity. They have evolved through a long struggle between different interests and rationales, not only within the institution itself. The changes have not been imposed through large-scale political projects or through symbolical struggles, but mainly through a series of administrative changes both on a national and institutional level. So to speak, the changes at the national level have been used to strengthen specific positions in the internal institutional struggles at the KVL. In this way, the managerial or economic position at the KVL has used the external pressure in the argumentation for centralising the managerial competences into fewer hands and fewer fora. One can say that by unspoken and even unintentional alliances between the managers at the KVL and a political and bureaucratic social elite, homologue processes have centralised the power at the KVL. The causes of this process are the differences between positions in the field and the different interests constituting them. The consequence for the educations The changes in the regulation, organisation and practice of the educations at the KVL cause a change in the social functions of the educations. Now, the educations are to a higher degree servicing the market and industry rather than training skillful academics in scientific disciplines, or breaking social patterns and providing insight into different scientific problems by means of participants’ orientated education. Thus, it is becoming increasingly difficult to take the sciences and the participants into consideration in the actual planning and organisation of the educations. From the students’ point of view, the consequence of this development is that the struggles about the educational organisation are no longer a matter between the participants (students and teachers) but rather a matter highly influenced by external agents such as the state and the industry. The thesis provides insight into the struggle By pinpointing the different rationales and interests involved in the power struggle at the KVL, this thesis provides an insight which questions the present power structures at the KVL and the university education as a whole. It shows that the changes represent a specific interest but also that the changes could have had different outcome. The thesis shows that there are other interests as well to take into consideration in the regulation, organisation and the practical arrangements of the education at the KVL.This thesis provides insight into the changes in regulation, organisation and practise of university education in Denmark. The thesis examines the changes in the educationalstructures at The Royal Veterinarian and Agricultural University (the KVL – Den kongelige Veterinær- og Landbohøjskole) as an example of the possible. The thesis shows both the rationales of the changes and alternative rationales of regulating, organising and practise of university education. The purpose of the thesis is not only to describe the changes but also to understand and explain the dynamics of the changes. By uncovering these dynamics, the thesis shows what interests benefits from the changes. Hence, the thesis questions the present way of regulating, organising and practising university education by showing that other rationales could be taken in to onsideration. The problem of the thesis is studied by the use of two methods: qualitative interviews with agents in the field, and a historical study of the power struggles at both institutional, national and European level regarding the regulation, organisation and practise of university education. Both methods are conducted with inspiration from the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Following his approach, both the interviews and the historical study are double readings, which enable the thesis to overcome classical dichotomies in the social sciences such as subject/object, structure/agency etc. through discussions with other theoretical approaches (interactionistic and Michel Foucault) the thesis is positioned within the academic field. Following Bourdieu, the interviews are therefore conducted and analysed with a dispositional approach. Thus, the answers are not read as sociological explanations but as social explanations rooted in the social context and in the specific trajectory of the agent, and as such accounts which call for sociological explanations. Within the theoretical approach of the thesis, the interviews provide an insight into how the social conditions are seen from different points of view. Through the historicization, the change in the relation between these different points of view are studied. In order to achieve a deep insight into the historical power struggles the thesis studies, though reading of different internal magazines, how different changes have altered the relation between different positions and thereby the structure of the field as a whole. In the thesis, the interviews are presented as ‘tales’ from the field; a form of presentation inspired by the collective work “Weight of the World” (Bourdieu et al., 1999). The tales show three different points of view on the regulation, organisation and practice of the education at the KVL. These three points of view take into consideration different interests, in this thesis categorised as organisation of the education at the KVL for the good of the economy, the science or the participants. These three rationales are later found in the historicization. The economic rationale represents a view towards the organisation of the educations according to both the market and the economy of the institution. According to this, the educations should be organised in a way that secures that the students’ production is economically efficient and that the alumni can be employed. The scientific rationale represents a view towards the organisation of the education which emphasises to pass on to the students the specific scientific discipline with its inherent problems, techniques and theories. The last rationale represents a view towards the organisation of the education for the good of the participants. According to this, the educations should be organised in a way so that the students are able to acquire a critical insight into the subject according to their individual preconditions. This rationale sees the students as participants, not only in the actual learning process but also in the process of planning and organising the education activities. The three rationales are represented through the empirical analysis of the thesis. They are found in the tales and through the historicization, but represented with different strength at different times. In short, the historical development has trengthened the economic rationale to the detriment of the other rationales. This means that the educations are reorganised in order to secure an efficient production and that the KVL takes into consideration the demands from the market in reorganising the education. In this process it is important for the managers at the KVL to monitor and evaluate the education in order to secure the quality and efficiency of the production. Thereby, the reorganisation and development of the educations becomes an activity exclusive to the managers. In the period studied, the managerial organisation thus changes from a collective, democratic organisation into a hierarchical, centralised organisation and hence it becomes harder for the participants (both the students and the staff) to raise their voices in the struggles at the KVL. The result of this organisation is, that the managers are able to take the ‘necessary’ economic decisions without involving the participants – who have to live with the decisions. The dynamic of the changes However, the changes have not evolved neither by accident nor necessity. They have evolved through a long struggle between different interests and rationales, not only within the institution itself. The changes have not been imposed through large-scale political projects or through symbolical struggles, but mainly through a series of administrative changes both on a national and institutional level. So to speak, the changes at the national level have been used to strengthen specific positions in the internal institutional struggles at the KVL. In this way, the managerial or economic position at the KVL has used the external pressure in the argumentation for centralising the managerial competences into fewer hands and fewer fora. One can say that by unspoken and even unintentional alliances between the managers at the KVL and a political and bureaucratic social elite, homologue processes have centralised the power at the KVL. The causes of this process are the differences between positions in the field and the different interests constituting them. The consequence for the educations The changes in the regulation, organisation and practice of the educations at the KVL cause a change in the social functions of the educations. Now, the educations are to a higher degree servicing the market and industry rather than training skillful academics in scientific disciplines, or breaking social patterns and providing insight into different scientific problems by means of participants’ orientated education. Thus, it is becoming increasingly difficult to take the sciences and the participants into consideration in the actual planning and organisation of the educations. From the students’ point of view, the consequence of this development is that the struggles about the educational organisation are no longer a matter between the participants (students and teachers) but rather a matter highly influenced by external agents such as the state and the industry. The thesis provides insight into the struggle By pinpointing the different rationales and interests involved in the power struggle at the KVL, this thesis provides an insight which questions the present power structures at the KVL and the university education as a whole. It shows that the changes represent a specific interest but also that the changes could have had different outcome. The thesis shows that there are other interests as well to take into consideration in the regulation, organisation and the practical arrangements of the education at the KVL
Adgang til medindflydelse: En organisatorisk praksisanalyse af samarbejdsudvalget i Dansk Røde Kors asylafdeling
No full textThis thesis examines the contributory influence of the employee representative on the decision‐making process in the cooperation committee of the Danish Red Cross Asylum Department. The empirical foundation is twofold; constituted by both participant observations and qualitative in‐depth interviews. By applying the organizational theoretical implications of the Bourdieuian Praxeology to this empirical foundation, it is shown, how some of the core notions of the theory – practice, habitus and symbolic violence – are pivotal in regards as to understanding both the possibilities, but mostly the conditions of the influence, that the employees can yield in the cooperation committee. The practice analytical framework facilitates an approach to the cooperation committee, which stresses the crucial significance of the structural setting that is the organization. By understanding the actual practice in the cooperation committee as a correlation between structural restraints on agency on one hand – constituted by both the “cooperation committee‐agreement”, the symbolic power structures of the organization and the habitual dispositional agency – and the free strategic interplay of the particular agent on the other hand, it is grasped how the practice in the cooperation committee is somewhat solidified. The established symbolic order which is profoundly embedded in practice and therefore also in the perception of the members of the cooperation committee, has cemented itself, leaving the committee meetings in an absence of any real kind of decision‐making process. Thus explaining both why the meetings are focusing more on information, than on extending decisions to the employee part of the committee, and why the employees’ perception of contributory influence points more towards a matter of form than on substance or principles.This thesis examines the contributory influence of the employee representative on the decision‐making process in the cooperation committee of the Danish Red Cross Asylum Department. The empirical foundation is twofold; constituted by both participant observations and qualitative in‐depth interviews. By applying the organizational theoretical implications of the Bourdieuian Praxeology to this empirical foundation, it is shown, how some of the core notions of the theory – practice, habitus and symbolic violence – are pivotal in regards as to understanding both the possibilities, but mostly the conditions of the influence, that the employees can yield in the cooperation committee. The practice analytical framework facilitates an approach to the cooperation committee, which stresses the crucial significance of the structural setting that is the organization. By understanding the actual practice in the cooperation committee as a correlation between structural restraints on agency on one hand – constituted by both the “cooperation committee‐agreement”, the symbolic power structures of the organization and the habitual dispositional agency – and the free strategic interplay of the particular agent on the other hand, it is grasped how the practice in the cooperation committee is somewhat solidified. The established symbolic order which is profoundly embedded in practice and therefore also in the perception of the members of the cooperation committee, has cemented itself, leaving the committee meetings in an absence of any real kind of decision‐making process. Thus explaining both why the meetings are focusing more on information, than on extending decisions to the employee part of the committee, and why the employees’ perception of contributory influence points more towards a matter of form than on substance or principles
En historisk konkret analyse af planen om etablering af en akkrediteringsinstitution
No full textEn historisk konkret analyse af planen om etablering af en akkrediteringsinstitution Specialet er en analyse af rationalerne for at oprette akkrediteringsinstitutionen (lovforslaget blev vedtaget 22. marts 2007), der jf. regeringens globaliseringsstrategi skal overtage en række myndighedsopgaver, som tidligere blev varetaget af Videnskabsministeriet; bidrage til at gøre danske uddannelser mere attraktive på det globale uddannelsesmarked og sikre kvalitet og relevans i uddannelserne. I Danmark har man i lang tid været forbeholden overfor akkreditering, fordi akkreditering lægger mere vægt på kvalitetssikring end kvalitetsudvikling, så hvorfor denne kursændring? Svaret er ikke entydigt, men relaterer sig til både en national og supra-national uddannelsespolitisk dagsorden. På baggrund af tre forskellige analysekategorier (styring, finansiering og kvalitet & relevans) fremanalyseres de grundlæggende rationaler for etableringen af akkrediteringsinstitutionen. Der argumenteres for, at diskursen om vidensamfundet og den globale vidensøkonomi har bidraget til at markedsorientere universiteterne og til en udvikling, der har gjort akkreditering af de videregående uddannelser aktuel i Danmark. Efterfølgende relateres planen om etablering af en dansk akkrediteringsinstitution til udviklingen inden for Bologna-processen. Blandt mange deltagerlande betragtes akkreditering som et redskab, der kan fremme Bologna-processens målsætninger (gennemsigtighed, konvergens, sammenlignelighed m.v.). Desuden er akkrediteringer centrale i Bologna-processens eksterne dimension, som handler om at tiltrække (betalende) ikke-europæiske studerende til de europæiske universiteter. Specialet blev afleveret i oktober 2006 på Socialvidenskab på Roskilde Universitetscenter.En historisk konkret analyse af planen om etablering af en akkrediteringsinstitution Specialet er en analyse af rationalerne for at oprette akkrediteringsinstitutionen (lovforslaget blev vedtaget 22. marts 2007), der jf. regeringens globaliseringsstrategi skal overtage en række myndighedsopgaver, som tidligere blev varetaget af Videnskabsministeriet; bidrage til at gøre danske uddannelser mere attraktive på det globale uddannelsesmarked og sikre kvalitet og relevans i uddannelserne. I Danmark har man i lang tid været forbeholden overfor akkreditering, fordi akkreditering lægger mere vægt på kvalitetssikring end kvalitetsudvikling, så hvorfor denne kursændring? Svaret er ikke entydigt, men relaterer sig til både en national og supra-national uddannelsespolitisk dagsorden. På baggrund af tre forskellige analysekategorier (styring, finansiering og kvalitet & relevans) fremanalyseres de grundlæggende rationaler for etableringen af akkrediteringsinstitutionen. Der argumenteres for, at diskursen om vidensamfundet og den globale vidensøkonomi har bidraget til at markedsorientere universiteterne og til en udvikling, der har gjort akkreditering af de videregående uddannelser aktuel i Danmark. Efterfølgende relateres planen om etablering af en dansk akkrediteringsinstitution til udviklingen inden for Bologna-processen. Blandt mange deltagerlande betragtes akkreditering som et redskab, der kan fremme Bologna-processens målsætninger (gennemsigtighed, konvergens, sammenlignelighed m.v.). Desuden er akkrediteringer centrale i Bologna-processens eksterne dimension, som handler om at tiltrække (betalende) ikke-europæiske studerende til de europæiske universiteter. Specialet blev afleveret i oktober 2006 på Socialvidenskab på Roskilde Universitetscenter
Inden for rummelighedens grænser
No full textThe thesis will deal with teaching in the Danish Folkeskole (Primary and Lower secondary school for 7-16-year-olds). Its aim is to examine the current practice of teaching as a result of symbolic struggles in education policy, and of the historical changes that the Folkeskole has undergone from the 1960’s until today. I will look deeper into the institutional conditions of the teaching role, and consider the link between this and the alarming fact that the Folkeskole is currently facing a shortage of 2000 educated teachers. Biefly: my analysis shows that the ideology of Danish schools has become elitist due to an increasing focus on formal knowledge. With the school system’s increasing emphasis on stricter political control, teaching has become more dependent on formal scholarly standards as well as economical demands. As a direct result of this the teachers are obliged to spend time on administration and documentation. Simultaneously the number of pupils with difficulties in the regular classes has risen, while funding necessary to address these challenges has not. Formally the Folkeskole is supposed to be more inclusive of pupils with special needs than earlier, but in practice the social and pedagogical considerations are given low priority. For instance, the formal demands on teaching legitimise teachers focussing more on successful students and less on pupils with special needs. My conclusions have been drawn in part from an empirical study involving interviews with three teachers and a principal in order to gain an insight into the (logic of) practice in the Folkeskole. The focus of these interviews is on the social effects of their practice, and their stories are used to identify the underlying structures in the field of teaching and the different positions that dominate it. Inspired by the ideas of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and his concepts of field, habitus and capital, I construct the field of teaching analytically and identify the contending positions and their influence on practice in the Folkeskole. My aim is partly to explain why certain pedagogic practices are considered right and meaningful under the specific conditions of teaching today.The thesis will deal with teaching in the Danish Folkeskole (Primary and Lower secondary school for 7-16-year-olds). Its aim is to examine the current practice of teaching as a result of symbolic struggles in education policy, and of the historical changes that the Folkeskole has undergone from the 1960’s until today. I will look deeper into the institutional conditions of the teaching role, and consider the link between this and the alarming fact that the Folkeskole is currently facing a shortage of 2000 educated teachers. Biefly: my analysis shows that the ideology of Danish schools has become elitist due to an increasing focus on formal knowledge. With the school system’s increasing emphasis on stricter political control, teaching has become more dependent on formal scholarly standards as well as economical demands. As a direct result of this the teachers are obliged to spend time on administration and documentation. Simultaneously the number of pupils with difficulties in the regular classes has risen, while funding necessary to address these challenges has not. Formally the Folkeskole is supposed to be more inclusive of pupils with special needs than earlier, but in practice the social and pedagogical considerations are given low priority. For instance, the formal demands on teaching legitimise teachers focussing more on successful students and less on pupils with special needs. My conclusions have been drawn in part from an empirical study involving interviews with three teachers and a principal in order to gain an insight into the (logic of) practice in the Folkeskole. The focus of these interviews is on the social effects of their practice, and their stories are used to identify the underlying structures in the field of teaching and the different positions that dominate it. Inspired by the ideas of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and his concepts of field, habitus and capital, I construct the field of teaching analytically and identify the contending positions and their influence on practice in the Folkeskole. My aim is partly to explain why certain pedagogic practices are considered right and meaningful under the specific conditions of teaching today
Det her er ikke standarder - en konstruktion af feltet for arbejde med senhjerneskadede i Danmark
No full textThe aim of this thesis is to examine the current condition of ‘the field for working with clients struck by late brain injury in Denmark’. It is estimated that approximately 50,000 people in Denmark live with some kind of permanent consequences following a sudden brain injury. The scope is to examine what implications the present state of the field has on the working conditions for the executing professions in the field. The term ‘profession’ meaning the people who in practice work with clients struck by a brain injury, either in the process of rehabilitation or during counselling. The development in the structure of the field is examined from the genesis of the field in the middle of the 1970’s and onwards. The timeframe of the examination concludes with the recent reform of the Danish public sector – the ‘structural reform’ which took effect in January 2007. As a result of the radical reform of the public sector, the responsibility for the services (rehabilitation, counselling) aimed at clients with brain injuries are moved from the regional level (‘amterne’) to the municipalities (‘kommunerne’) – the local level. Consequently, the responsibility for the clients demanding highly specialised care caused by brain injuries are moved from the 14 counties to the 96 new municipalities. These municipalities have minor or no experience dealing with clients with these highly complex conditions. The above sums up the empirical framework for the thesis and the questions of interest are: What will happen to the ‘field for working with clients struck by late brain injury in Denmark’ in a new context where the municipalities are the main authority in the field? And in what way will it affect the executing professions in the field? By deploying as a theoretical and methodological frame the reflexive, sociological tools of Pierre Bourdieu, i.e. the concepts of field, habitus and capital, the field is constructed throughout the thesis and the contending positions in the field is brought to light. More precisely the thesis identifies that the main struggle for ‘how to work with brain injured clients in Denmark’ are between positions aiming at making the practical work either more orientated towards the bureaucratic field (the municipal economy and the ability to govern the care) or towards positions focused on the care and service for the clients. In the analyses it is suggested that the executing professions in the field have their own field specific habitus centered mainly on the care for the clients. This habitus focuses on the coordination of the complex work with the clients (involving different layers and institutions in the bureaucratic field and many different professions) and on structuring an optimal ‘case’ for the clients characterised by timing and flow in the care. This habitus is now put under severe pressure by external regulations. The ‘toolbox’ of Pierre Bourdieu is put to work in an empirical context. This toolbox is used for structuring the design of the thesis, which is based on: 1)4 qualitative interviews, so-called field analytical interviews, with 4 former advisers in the Danish public sector, each working in the field of public service for people with disabilities (mainly brain injury) in the former counties. All four have changed their jobs as a result of the reform. 2)Participating observations (and objectivations) with some of the advisers doing their daily job. 3)A thorough registrational (‘registrant’) analysis of the periodical ‘Fokus’ from 1995-2006. During the socio-historical construction of the field, it is pointed out that the field was relatively autonomous from the genesis and until the latest reform of the Danish public sector. The field was autonomous in the sense that it developed its own ways (forms of practice) to deal with, rehabilitate and council the clients in the field. The field, and the executing professions, distinguished themselves from other fields and from other clients with other handicaps. The struggle of how to work with the clients was mainly kept inside the field and among the internal hierarchies in the field meaning that the contending positions, represented by different professions working with different stages in the rehabilitation process, were struggling over field specific stakes but generally aiming at improving the care for the client. In the latest history of the field a shift in the orientation of the interest of the work for the clients is identified and made visible – now it is not the client’s need, but the economy of the municipalities that are the raison d’être of the activities in the field. This shift is mainly caused by the latest reform in the public sector. The reform is bringing a whole new institution, VISO, to life. VISO is an institution that can help the municipalities in the most specialized cases demanding the most specialized competences (which would be the case in many brain injury cases) if the municipalities decide to use VISO and pay for the suggested services for their clients. The municipalities are now fully responsible for financing the service for the clients that suffer from a sudden brain injury and thus it is up to them to structure this service and to decide which direction the service should take: Should it be based on the practical knowledge inherited in the habitus of the executing professions? Or should it rather be centered on initiatives that are more cost-efficient? Much of the empirical evidence in the thesis points in direction of the latter. The thesis also points out, that it is still a very open question if the municipalities will even see and recognise that clients are struck by brain injuries, due to the lack of specific knowledge about this handicap. If you cannot see the problem, you cannot deal with it.The aim of this thesis is to examine the current condition of ‘the field for working with clients struck by late brain injury in Denmark’. It is estimated that approximately 50,000 people in Denmark live with some kind of permanent consequences following a sudden brain injury. The scope is to examine what implications the present state of the field has on the working conditions for the executing professions in the field. The term ‘profession’ meaning the people who in practice work with clients struck by a brain injury, either in the process of rehabilitation or during counselling. The development in the structure of the field is examined from the genesis of the field in the middle of the 1970’s and onwards. The timeframe of the examination concludes with the recent reform of the Danish public sector – the ‘structural reform’ which took effect in January 2007. As a result of the radical reform of the public sector, the responsibility for the services (rehabilitation, counselling) aimed at clients with brain injuries are moved from the regional level (‘amterne’) to the municipalities (‘kommunerne’) – the local level. Consequently, the responsibility for the clients demanding highly specialised care caused by brain injuries are moved from the 14 counties to the 96 new municipalities. These municipalities have minor or no experience dealing with clients with these highly complex conditions. The above sums up the empirical framework for the thesis and the questions of interest are: What will happen to the ‘field for working with clients struck by late brain injury in Denmark’ in a new context where the municipalities are the main authority in the field? And in what way will it affect the executing professions in the field? By deploying as a theoretical and methodological frame the reflexive, sociological tools of Pierre Bourdieu, i.e. the concepts of field, habitus and capital, the field is constructed throughout the thesis and the contending positions in the field is brought to light. More precisely the thesis identifies that the main struggle for ‘how to work with brain injured clients in Denmark’ are between positions aiming at making the practical work either more orientated towards the bureaucratic field (the municipal economy and the ability to govern the care) or towards positions focused on the care and service for the clients. In the analyses it is suggested that the executing professions in the field have their own field specific habitus centered mainly on the care for the clients. This habitus focuses on the coordination of the complex work with the clients (involving different layers and institutions in the bureaucratic field and many different professions) and on structuring an optimal ‘case’ for the clients characterised by timing and flow in the care. This habitus is now put under severe pressure by external regulations. The ‘toolbox’ of Pierre Bourdieu is put to work in an empirical context. This toolbox is used for structuring the design of the thesis, which is based on: 1)4 qualitative interviews, so-called field analytical interviews, with 4 former advisers in the Danish public sector, each working in the field of public service for people with disabilities (mainly brain injury) in the former counties. All four have changed their jobs as a result of the reform. 2)Participating observations (and objectivations) with some of the advisers doing their daily job. 3)A thorough registrational (‘registrant’) analysis of the periodical ‘Fokus’ from 1995-2006. During the socio-historical construction of the field, it is pointed out that the field was relatively autonomous from the genesis and until the latest reform of the Danish public sector. The field was autonomous in the sense that it developed its own ways (forms of practice) to deal with, rehabilitate and council the clients in the field. The field, and the executing professions, distinguished themselves from other fields and from other clients with other handicaps. The struggle of how to work with the clients was mainly kept inside the field and among the internal hierarchies in the field meaning that the contending positions, represented by different professions working with different stages in the rehabilitation process, were struggling over field specific stakes but generally aiming at improving the care for the client. In the latest history of the field a shift in the orientation of the interest of the work for the clients is identified and made visible – now it is not the client’s need, but the economy of the municipalities that are the raison d’être of the activities in the field. This shift is mainly caused by the latest reform in the public sector. The reform is bringing a whole new institution, VISO, to life. VISO is an institution that can help the municipalities in the most specialized cases demanding the most specialized competences (which would be the case in many brain injury cases) if the municipalities decide to use VISO and pay for the suggested services for their clients. The municipalities are now fully responsible for financing the service for the clients that suffer from a sudden brain injury and thus it is up to them to structure this service and to decide which direction the service should take: Should it be based on the practical knowledge inherited in the habitus of the executing professions? Or should it rather be centered on initiatives that are more cost-efficient? Much of the empirical evidence in the thesis points in direction of the latter. The thesis also points out, that it is still a very open question if the municipalities will even see and recognise that clients are struck by brain injuries, due to the lack of specific knowledge about this handicap. If you cannot see the problem, you cannot deal with it
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