Children’s outdoor play is decreasing. One factor is children's increased use of technology. Contributing to an existing research project, Hållbara Lekmiljöer i Staden by Uppsala University and KTH, the aim of this research project is to investigate the potential role technology could play in children’s outdoor play if integrated within outdoor environments. A further aim of the project is to understand how children use and repurpose (appropriate) their surroundings for play, and whether evidence of one child's play can influence a future child’s play. After a review of relevant literature and previous work, the project conducted a workshop to understand how children conduct outdoor play. Through analysing the behaviours and activities of the children during this workshop (obtained via observations and interviews), three play patterns involving natural materials emerged. These include collecting materials, constructing structures using the materials, and destroying materials. The former two, alongside appropriation and technology, became themes for ideation and inspired the design process, which ultimately produced The Drum. The Drum is a digital-physical play artefact that allows children to create patterns based on their combination and types of touch interactions. Children used the technology to facilitate their play, successful appropriations due to three design features: a recognisable output medium, portability, and small design. However, these features were unable to influence future play and behaviour due to the lack of development of The Drum and the research setup. Therefore, further development of The Drum and a better research setup are suggested as actions for future work.

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This dissertation examines the academic and social goals that three second-grade English language learners in a U.S. urban school bring to their blog-mediated academic writing practices, and the interrelated nature of those goals. This study aims to bridge the dichotomy between approaches to studying computer-mediated language and literacy development that are oriented toward academic goals inside school, and those that are oriented toward social goals outside school. The study also aims to investigate connections between language use and language development by highlighting linguistic features of semiotic choices that the students made for their texts. This builds upon recent research studies of literacy practices that focus only on situated uses of literacy in various social and cultural contexts (Christie & Martin, 2007). In this study, learning is defined as appropriation and language is defined as a semiotic system, from sociocultural perspectives that capture the transformative nature of tool-mediated practices (Bakhtin, 1981; Halliday, 1985; Kress, 1998; Vygotsky, 1978). Ethnographic data collected over the course of a year include students’ texts, blog comments, videotaped classroom interactions, interviews, instructional materials, and school documents. Analysis of the data examines student goals, semiotic choices employed by the students, and roles adopted by the students, in the social processes of learning academic genres. Systemic functional linguistics is used to analyze register variables across texts and blogging comments, to examine changes in the students’ uses of linguistic resources. The findings demonstrate that students appropriate blogging for both academic and social goals, and compose their texts by drawing on linguistic features appropriate for goals related to the audiences reading their blog posts. Writing for meaningful goals and for wider audiences encourages ELLs to become more invested in learning, and to use linguistic patterns in context-dependent ways. The study concludes with a discussion of the significance of social goals in developing critical academic literacies (Gebhard, Harman, & Seger, 2007), and implications for K-12 educators who are attempting to open up curricular spaces in which all stakeholders collaboratively work toward transformative learning experiences for ELLs (Willett & Rosenberger, 2005).

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Studiens syfte är att skapa en ökad förståelse för gatukonstpraktiken, dess problematik samt eventuella brottsförebyggandeåtgärder. I studien används termen gatukonst som ett samlingsnamn för både graffiti och gatukonst.Praktiken tar idag form under komplexa förhållanden vilka ofta skapar diskussioner kring utövarnas motiv, derasförhållningssätt till det offentliga rummet och deras praktik som en ingång till tyngre kriminalitet. För att kunnadiskutera brottsförebyggande åtgärder behöver således praktiken förstås djupare utifrån utövarnas egna beskrivningarav den. Denna förståelse skapas genom en kvalitativ metod bestående av halvstrukturerade intervjuermed tre personer som har eller har haft kontakt med gatukonstpraktiken. Utöver intervjuer undersöks enomdiskuterad metod med lagliga väggars brottsförebyggande potential genom en temporär laglig gatukonstvägg.Väggens främsta syfte är att testa hur det som privatperson fungerar att söka om tillstånd för en tillställning avdetta slag i det offentliga rummet. I samband med undersökningen har två icke-utövare av gatukonst kunnatintervjuas och 14 uttalanden från olika individer insamlas. Det har varit nödvändigt att intervjua individer somkommer i kontakt med praktiken och de som påverkas av den för att få en förståelse från flera olika perspektiv ompraktikens problematik och för att kunna belysa det offentliga rummets möjligheter för inkluderande.För att diskutera gatukonstpraktiken kopplas den insamlade empirin med teori. Den teoretiska ramen bestårav Zygmunt Bauman, Jeremy Till, Tim Cresswell och Peter Bishop och Lesley Willams för att diskutera platsbegreppetoch dess ständiga föränderlighet. Därefter följer en beskrivning för att definiera det offentliga rummet,där författaren Sören Olsson används. Vidare följer en diskussion om vad det offentliga rummet är och inte ärutifrån Don Mitchell. Social ordning diskuteras utifrån Rolf Lidskogs syn på begreppet. Därefter används HenriLefebvres för att diskutera hur ett socialt rum produceras. Vidare beskrivs begreppet appropriation utifrån LinaOlsson som använder både Michael de Certeau och Lefebvre för att beskriva begreppet. Teoridelen avslutas medN. John Habrakens teorier om territorium. Samtliga av dessa teoretiker visar sin relevans i resultatet där teorier,begrepp och insamlad empiri kopplas med undersökningen med den temporära lagliga gatukonstväggen.Resultatet visar att fler lagliga väggar är en trolig metod för att successivt förbättra förutsättningarna förpraktiken och allmänhetens syn på den. Studiens resultat visar även att gatukonstutövare inte är den homogenagrupp som tidigare forskning vill se den som. Dessutom har studien via undersökningar kunnat visa upp flerautövares olika motiv, vilka inte har varit att vandalisera. / The purpose of this study is to understand the practice of street art, its problems and possible crime prevention methods. The study uses the term street art as a collective description of both graffiti and street art. Street art practice takes form under complex situations which often are discussed through practitioners motives, their approach to public spaces and the practice as an entrance to heavier crime. To be able to discuss and analyse crime prevention methods, the practice of street art needs to be understood on a deeper level through practitioners own description of it. This understanding is created through qualitative interviews based on semi-structured questions with three interviewees who have or have had contact with the practice of street art. In addition, the discussion around legal walls for street art as a crime prevention method is researched with a temporary wall for street art. The primary purpose of the wall is to examine what it’s like as an ordinary citizen to seek permission for this kind of event in public spaces. During the research, two non-practitioners of street art are interviewed and 14 participants opinions are collected. It is a necessity to interview individuals who come in contact with, or who inany way is affected by the practice of street art to be able to understand several sides of the problems that comes with the practice. With this we have been able to highlight the public space and its possibilities for inclusion. To discuss street art practice, empirical observations are linked to theory. The theoretical framework consists of Zygmunt Bauman, Jeremy Till, Tim Cresswell and Peter Bishop and Lesley Williams who discusses space as a constantly changing phenomena. A discussion then follows in which Sören Olsson defines the public space. In addition, Don Mitchell is used to describe the public space in further detail. Social order is discussed through Rolf Lidskogs approach. Henri Lefebvres theory about how social space is created is then discussed. The term appropration is described through Lina Olssons interpretation of Michael de Certeau and Lefebvres definition of it. The final part of the theory chapter is based on N. John Habrakens theories about territory. All these theorists mentioned above show their relevance in the result chapter where theories, terms and empirical observations are linked to the research with the temporary legal wall for street art. The result shows that more legal walls is a credible method in gradually improving the conditions of street art as well as improving the public perceptions of it. The result also shows that street art practitioners cannot not be seen as what earlier studies would call a homogeneous group. Furthermore, the study shows through its research, different practitioners motives, in which none have been to vandalize.

This research analyzes the Word of Faith Fellowship (WOF), a female-led Evangelical church that social scientists have not yet studied. My thesis explores how a female leader operates within a patriarchal space and why WOF owns a Holocaust Museum. I conducted content analysis of the church and museum websites, Google reviews, and visited the museum in person. My research highlights the limitations of current taxonomies of religion in sociology. I address this oversight, argue for the re-introduction of “cult” as an analytical term, and propose a rubric for cult identification. I suggest that WOF is a sectarian cult with similar features to other female-led cults. I also find that the group expresses philosemitism through the museum and the tragedy of the Holocaust to pursue church legitimacy. I thus expand on current understandings of philosemitism and posit the concept of tragedy appropriation to describe narrative theft at the group level.

In an era of global-scale climate change, agricultural production faces a unique challenge due to its reliance on stochastic natural endowments, including temperature, precipitation, and water availability for irrigation. This dissertation presents a series of essays to examine how agricultural producers react and adapt to challenges presented by climate change and scarce irrigation water allocated through the prior appropriation doctrine. The dissertation approaches the problem from three distinct perspectives: institutional differences, climate and water availability, as well as producers' expectation on future endowments. Chapter 2 presents an institutional perspective, in which I investigate how different water allocation mechanisms within the prior appropriation doctrine result in differences in producers' crop allocation decisions. I find that water users in irrigation districts are able to plant more water-intensive crops than farmers outside irrigation districts. Chapter 3 presents the interaction between nature and human systems, in which I examine how the physiological complementarity of temperature and water availability diffuses from crop yield (at the intensive margin) to crop allocation strategies (at the extensive margin). Using a theoretical model I show that the observed complementarity reflects a combination of two mechanisms: yield impact through physiological complementarity, and adaptation response through shifting crop allocation patterns. Using an empirical model, I find that farmers adapt to changing climate conditions by growing more profitable crop mixes when presented with more growing degree-days (GDD), precipitation and groundwater access. Chapter 4 presents a behavioral perspective, in which I test how producers' expectation formation processes lead to short term over-adjustments to weather and water availability fluctuations. Using a fixed-effect regression on lagged weather and water realizations, I find that agricultural producers engage in a combination of cognitive biases, including the availability heuristic and the reinforcement strategy. Adopting these alternative learning mechanisms causes farmers to significantly over-react to more recent fluctuations in weather and water availability when making ex ante acreage and crop allocation decisions. / Ph. D. / In an era of global-scale climate change, agricultural production faces a unique challenge due to its reliance on variable natural factors, including temperature, precipitation, and water availability for irrigation. This dissertation presents a series of essays to examine how agricultural producers react and adapt to challenges presented by climate change and scarce irrigation water allocated through the prior appropriation doctrine. Chapter 2 presents an institutional perspective, in which I investigate how different water allocation regimes result in differences in producers’ cropping decisions. I find that irrigation districts benefit its users by allowing them to plant more water-intensive crops than farmers outside irrigation districts. Chapter 3 presents a natural science perspective, in which I examine how temperature and water availability jointly affect agricultural production and adaptation. I find that farmers significantly adapt to changing climate conditions by growing more profitable crop mixes when presented with higher temperature, precipitation, and groundwater access. Chapter 4 presents a behavioral perspective, in which I test how agricultural decision making are affected by how producers form expectations over future climate. I find that agricultural producers engage in a combination of cognitive biases when forming expectations, and as a result over-react to more recent fluctuations in weather and water availability when making acreage and crop allocation decisions.