33 research outputs found
"Taking Culture to Court" - Considering the Use of the Concept of Culture in a Cultural Defence
No full textThis thesis is a result of an initial interest in multiculturalism – how states to deal with cultural plurality and the role of the concept of culture in this process – which led to a particular interest in the use of “culture” as a defence plea in courts; what is referred to as a “cultural defence”. With reference to two empirical cases it explores the legal, political and anthropological discussion on the cultural defence and how the concept of culture has been presented in the trials. The argument of the author is that there needs to be a focus on the very concept of culture itself before it can be decided if and how we should accommodate culture in court. In particular it is argued that an essentialist notion of culture cannot be at the base of a cultural defence as a cultural defence needs to adjust to the changing nature of culture and acknowledge the issues related to culture and authority. This argument is in part driven by alternative notions of culture and cultural representation such as those provided by Wikan, Barth, Ardener and Baumann
Tenacious Documents : Exploring the Allure of Documentation in Swedish Compulsory Schools
No full textThe Swedish education authorities are up against a tenacious problem. Teachers have for years expressed dissatisfaction over increasingly prolific and pervasive demands for documentation that hijacks time that could have been invested in pupils’ learning. Over the past 15 years different Swedish governments have sought to remedy this problem but to no avail. The ‘burden of documentation’, as it is commonly referred to in Sweden, persists. The Swedish education system is not unique in facing this problem, but offers a particularly germane case for the study of it due to the concerted efforts, and joint failure, by actors from across the chain of governance to solve the problem. This thesis sets out, then, to understand the tenacity of documents through exploring the allure of documentation in Swedish compulsory schools. It asks how documents and the work of documentation alternately, and at times simultaneously, come to be understood as solutions to problems and as problems in and of themselves. Methodologically and theoretically, the problem is approached by foregrounding the documents as material semiotic artefacts. Through ethnographic fieldwork at schools, semi-structured interviews with school staff and document analysis, the thesis employs a performative understanding of documents, where documents and the practices that go with them are conceptualised as multifaceted, unpredictable and constitutive of the social relations that they enable and enact. The arguments that emerge draw on Science and Technology Studies, Institutional Ethnography and ethnographic, or practice-oriented, approaches to documents. The analytical chapters demonstrate how documents tend to have multiple purposes, both intended and unintended. These multiple purposes often appear as self evidently co-existing in the manner they are outlined by various key actors who define teachers’ document demands, such as governing educational agencies and digital learning platforms. In practice, however, they are frequently in considerable tension and conflict with one another. What is more, despite being deeply concerned with the everyday ongoings at schools, the teachers experience that the documents tend to become detached from the very processes that they are meant to be implicated in, such as quality work or counteracting degrading behaviour. This thesis examines how this detachment and distancing happens in the everyday ongoings of schools.The thesis concludes that we must understand these tenacious documents as existing in an unresolvable tension between realising democratic ideals and perpetuating domination. It is argued that this tension does not primarily exist on an ideological or ideational level but is socio-materially produced in the everyday activities of school staff
What Kind of Tool Is This? : Exploring the Role of the Incident Report in Counteracting Degrading Behaviour in Schools
No full textMy research centres on a topic that will be familiar to many of you – namely the proliferation of paperwork and documentation demands that characterises work in many contemporary organisations. More specifically, I take as my point of departure a crux from the Swedish education sector, namely that there is a broad will – from actors at all levels of the schooling system – politicians, the Swedish National Agency for Education, principals and (of course) teachers themselves – to reduce the amount of documentation work for teachers but despite this will, there is no evidence that the amount of documentation work is lessening. In fact, surveys conducted by teachers’ unions in 2019 and 2021 show that, in some regards, the burden of documentation (as it is commonly referred to in Swedish) is getting more demanding. Documents, then, seem impervious to efforts to eliminate them.My approach to understanding the proliferation and imperviousness of documents has been to foreground the documents themselves. In doing this, I build on other anthropological and sociological research on documents that emphasise the need to bring documents out of their inertia – to see them as more than ‘dead’ things and certainly see them as more than just their content. In this, sometimes called ethnographic, approach to documents it is argued that documents do things – for instance, they enable and constrain action, produce effects. What and how they do things, however, is an empirical question and one that I try to take seriously in my research. This text is the first analytical chapter of my thesis. I’m writing a monography and will havemy final seminar 31st May. It is a work-in-progress
Ihärdiga dokument [Elektronisk resurs] : En studie om dokumentationens dragningskraft i svenska grundskolor
No full textFör en utförlig populärvetenskaplig sammanfattning, vänligen följ länken till höger på denna sidan. De svenska utbildningsmyndigheterna står inför ett seglivat problem. Lärare har under många år uttryckt missnöje över alltmer utbredda och genomgripande krav på dokumentation. En hel del dokumentation stjäl tid som annars skulle kunna läggas på elevers lärande och att utveckla undervisningen, lyder klagomålen. Under de senaste 15 åren har olika svenska regeringar försökt åtgärda detta problem, men utan framgång. Den så kallade "dokumentationsbördan" kvarstår. Det svenska utbildningssystemet är inte unikt i att stå inför en ökad administrativ arbetsbörda, men det utgör ett särskilt relevant fall att studera på grund av de samlade insatserna, och det (hittills) gemensamma misslyckandet, av aktörer längs hela styrkedjan att lösa problemet. Denna avhandling syftar därför till att förstå dokumentens ihärdighet genom att utforska dokumentationens dragningskraft i svenska grundskolor. Den ställer frågan hur dokument och dokumentationsarbete växelvis, och ibland samtidigt, kommer att uppfattas som lösningar på problem och som problem i sig själva. Metodologiskt och teoretiskt närmar sig avhandlingen problemet genom att framhäva dokument som materiellt-semiotiska objekt. Genom etnografiskt fältarbete i skolor, semistrukturerade intervjuer med skolpersonal och dokumentanalys använder avhandlingen en performativ förståelse av dokument, där dokument och de praktiker som följer med dem konceptualiseras som mångfacetterade, oförutsägbara och konstituerande för de sociala relationer som de möjliggör och iscensätter. De analytiska kapitlen visar hur dokument ofta har flera syften, både avsedda och oavsiktliga. Dessa multipla syften framstår ofta som självklara i hur de beskrivs av olika nyckelaktörer som definierar lärarnas dokumentationskrav, såsom styrande utbildningsorgan och digitala lärplattformar. I praktiken är de dock ofta i betydande spänning och konflikt med varandra. Det är även så att trots att dokumenten till synes är djupt involverade i skolornas vardagliga verksamheter, upplever lärarna ofta att dokumenten tenderar att bli frikopplade från de processer de är avsedda att påverka, såsom kvalitetsarbete eller att motverka kränkningar. Denna avhandling undersöker hur denna frikoppling och distansering sker i skolornas vardag. Avhandlingen drar slutsatsen att vi måste förstå dessa seglivade dokument som existerande i en olöslig spänning mellan att förverkliga demokratiska ideal och att upprätthålla kontroll eller dominans. Det hävdas att denna spänning inte främst existerar på en ideologisk eller idébaserad nivå, utan är socio-materiellt producerad i skolpersonalens vardagliga aktiviteter.The Swedish education authorities are up against a tenacious problem. Teachers have for years expressed dissatisfaction over increasingly prolific and pervasive demands for documentation that hijacks time that could have been invested in pupils’ learning. Over the past 15 years different Swedish governments have sought to remedy this problem but to no avail. The ‘burden of documentation’, as it is commonly referred to in Sweden, persists. The Swedish education system is not unique in facing this problem, but offers a particularly germane case for the study of it due to the concerted efforts, and joint failure, by actors from across the chain of governance to solve the problem. This thesis sets out, then, to understand the tenacity of documents through exploring the allure of documentation in Swedish compulsory schools. It asks how documents and the work of documentation alternately, and at times simultaneously, come to be understood as solutions to problems and as problems in and of themselves. Methodologically and theoretically, the problem is approached by foregrounding the documents as material semiotic artefacts. Through ethnographic fieldwork at schools, semi-structured interviews with school staff and document analysis, the thesis employs a performative understanding of documents, where documents and the practices that go with them are conceptualised as multifaceted, unpredictable and constitutive of the social relations that they enable and enact. The arguments that emerge draw on Science and Technology Studies, Institutional Ethnography and ethnographic, or practice-oriented, approaches to documents. The analytical chapters demonstrate how documents tend to have multiple purposes, both intended and unintended. These multiple purposes often appear as self evidently co-existing in the manner they are outlined by various key actors who define teachers’ document demands, such as governing educational agencies and digital learning platforms. In practice, however, they are frequently in considerable tensionand conflict with one another. What is more, despite being deeply concerned with the everyday ongoings at schools, the teachers experience that the documents tend to become detached from the very processes that they are meant to be implicated in, such as quality work or counteracting degrading behaviour. This thesis examines how this detachment and distancing happens in the everyday ongoings of schools. The thesis concludes that we must understand these tenacious documents as existing in an unresolvable tension between realising democratic ideals and perpetuating domination. It is argued that this tension does not primarily exist on an ideological or ideational level but is socio-materially produced in the everyday activities of school staff
El delito informático en la legislación colombiana
No full textPara abarcar el tema de la delincuencia informática cabe resaltar que este tópico se originó con el auge del internet en el mundo a mediados de los noventa y así fue aumentando proporcionalmente con su desarrollo en el ámbito internacional. Se debe entender como delito informático toda acción u omisión realizada por un ser humano mediante un medio tecnológico que cause daño a personas sin que su autor se obtenga un beneficio propio o para terceros. En esta especialidad de delito intervienen el sujeto activo, el cual posee características particulares como lo son los conocimientos elevados acerca del funcionamiento de la informática y de cuáles eran sus debilidades, mientras que el sujeto pasivo es indeterminado, debido a que cualquier esfera social es
susceptible a este nuevo y complejo flagelo. En Colombia se tipificaron estas conductas punibles con entrada en vigencia de la Ley 1273 de 2009, después de una prolongada y lenta evolución legislativa, que adoptó experiencias internacionales de países en donde ya venían enfrentando esta problemática. Dicha ley brindó un marco jurídico sostenible en el cual se permitiera sancionar con severidad y efectividad la delincuencia informática además de reducir los índices de impunidad que se registraban por la atipicidad de muchas conductas realizadas a través de medios tecnológicos.To cover the issue of cybercrime is worth noting that this topic originated with the rise of the Internet in the world in the mid-nineties and it was increasing in proportion to its development internationally. It should be understood as computer crime any act or omission by a human being through a technological medium that causes harm to people without the author to obtain a benefit or for others. This specialty of offense involved the offender, which has particular characteristics such as high knowledge about the workings of the computer and what their weaknesses, while the victim is unknown, because any social sphere is susceptible this new and complex scourge. In Colombia, classify this conduct punishable with effective date of Act 1273 of 2009, after a long, slow change in legislation, which adopted international experiences of countries which were already facing this problem. This law provided a legal framework in which sustainable allow severely punish cybercrime and effectiveness while reducing levels of impunity that were recorded by the unusualness of many behaviors made through technological means.Barrios Solano, Santiago Andrés-d06f0c43-e27b-4e47-a8bc-94199058abab-
An assessment of potentially inappropriate medications to improve senior consumer safety in an outpatient mental health setting
No full textPurpose of Project: To improve older adult consumer safety within a large outpatient mental health organization (pseudonym: “Jersey Health”) by identifying potential problem areas of prescribing safety through use of a medication chart review.
Methodology: A retrospective chart review (guided by 2019 American Geriatrics Association Beers Criteria) examining potentially inappropriate prescribing trends of PIMs and polypharmacy for senior consumers over a one-year period in this outpatient setting.
Results: 25.6% of all prescriptions issued to seniors were PIMs, and 53.8% of the total sample were prescribed one or more PIMs. Benzodiazepines were the most frequently prescribed PIMs. The polypharmacy rate was only 5.0%, but medications prescribed to consumers in other settings were omitted from this study so this number is likely much higher.
Implications for Practice: Jersey Health should set a quality improvement target of lowering their PIM rate, specifically targeting their high benzodiazepine prescription rate, and aiming deprescribing interventions at both prescribers and consumers. Further, the true rates of polypharmacy were not detected as Jersey Health’s electronic medical record (EMR) does not integrate primary healthcare information with behavioral healthcare information. Jersey Health should consider an alternative EMR that will link their consumers’ behavioral and primary health information together to enhance medication transparency and reduce the risk for drug-drug interactions and polypharmacy.DNPIncludes bibliographical reference
Svininfluensan i svensk medierapportering : En studie om Aftonbladets och Svenska Dagbladets ledarsidor
No full textThe purpose of this study was to understand Aftonbladet’s and Svenska Dagbladet’s opinion pieces discussion regarding the swine flu of 2009, the safety measures, the vaccine and the massvaccination that happened during the pandemic. To answer these questions, the author read Aftonbladet’s and Svenska Dagbladet’s opinion pieces. The study concluded that Aftonbladethad a negative view of how the pandemic was handled, and they criticized Sweden's dependency on pharmaceutical companies. Svenska Dagbladet had another perspective; they believed that the Swedish government handled the pandemic well and that the country was well-prepared for future pandemics. However, both newspapers stated that the side effect of narcolepsy, which some people were affected by after taking the vaccine, was unacceptable
Svininfluensan i svensk medierapportering : En studie om Aftonbladets och Svenska Dagbladets ledarsidor
No full textThe purpose of this study was to understand Aftonbladet’s and Svenska Dagbladet’s opinion pieces discussion regarding the swine flu of 2009, the safety measures, the vaccine and the massvaccination that happened during the pandemic. To answer these questions, the author read Aftonbladet’s and Svenska Dagbladet’s opinion pieces. The study concluded that Aftonbladethad a negative view of how the pandemic was handled, and they criticized Sweden's dependency on pharmaceutical companies. Svenska Dagbladet had another perspective; they believed that the Swedish government handled the pandemic well and that the country was well-prepared for future pandemics. However, both newspapers stated that the side effect of narcolepsy, which some people were affected by after taking the vaccine, was unacceptable
Tech Solutionism and Temporal Imaginaries : Healthcare Professionals Engaging with Digital Futures in Caring for Older Adults
No full textAn examination of inter-hemispheric conjugacy in a subauroral polarization stream
No full textDuring geomagnetically disturbed conditions the midlatitude ionosphere is subject to intense poleward directed electric fields in the dusk-midnight sector. These electric fields lead to the generation of a latitudinally narrow westward directed flow channel in the subauroral region called a subauroral polarization stream (SAPS). If the magnetic field lines are treated as equipotentials, electrodynamic events such as SAPS are expected to occur simultaneously at magnetically conjugate locations with similar features. In this paper we present simultaneous observations of a SAPS event in both hemispheres made by midlatitude SuperDARN radars with conjugate fields-of-view. We analyze the relation between the geomagnetic conditions and the characteristics of the channels such as latitudinal location, electric field, total potential variations across the channels, and Pedersen current. The results suggest a strong correlation between the strength of the ring current and the latitudinal location of the channel. An inter-hemispheric comparison of the characteristics of the channel indicates that the potential variations across the channels are similar while the electric fields, Pedersen currents and latitudinal widths of the channel exhibit differences that are consistent with equal potential variations. We attribute these differences to seasonal differences in ionospheric conductivity between the hemispheres and magnetic distortion effects in the inner magnetosphere
