This ethnological study represents personal experiences about the voice of a place and its instrumentality in the Swedish Arctic, based on interviews and observations. The appearance of the voice is connected to the existential meeting between humans and different kinds of bodies, from non-physical beings with metaphysical appearance to non-human bodies such as silicates (sand), rhizomes and animals. The metaphysical voice of a place can be understood as the genius of a place, a spirit or ancestor. It can be understood as a real sound in old forests, tactile feeling in the underground mine and as a whole culture dwelling in a region. The instrumental agency of the place-voice acts through personal characters found in places and is a potential tool in creating liminal places and use of the place creativity.

In the thesis I ethnographically study the process of interconnecting and mutual influencing of human and non-human entities in case of the visually impaired persons and the compensation devices based on computer technology. I examine this process, which I call "the technification of blindness", in symmetrical terms. The main theoretical inspiration for the study is the interplay of technology and the health-inconvenienced body and its consequences which are based on the Actor-Network Theory and related material-semiotic tools of social-science research. My aim is to analyse processes which enable/not allow to manage everyday activities to visually impaired persons in the Czech Republic, while they are using computer technologies and their relation with wider processes of accessibility. I trace mutual influencing of human and non-human entities on a specific configuration of visually disabled body with specifically modified personal computer, and with a touch-screen smart-phone. The study shows how the specific form of portable electronic and computer-based devices, which are specially adapted to seeing users, is what excludes blind and visually impaired persons from the interaction with computer technology. Such a cooperation and visual orientation of blind persons is allowed only thanks to...

Despite the destructive and limited nature of fossil fuels, most human-made systems are dependent on the use of oil, gas and coal. Especially agriculture relies on diesel machinery, fertilizer, transport, and cooling systems that are commonly powered by non-renewable energy sources. This independent project in design specifically focuses on the dependency on fossil fuels within agriculture. With the investigation “Vägen mot fossiloberoende jordbruk” (Utredningen om fossiloberoende jordbruk, 2021), or “Pathway to fossil independent agriculture”, Sweden is aspiring to make farming fossil-free by 2030. Consequently, a lot of responsibility to invest in new technologies and alternative energies lies on farmers. In collaboration with Länsstyrelsen Kronoberg, the author explores how farmers can be supported to transition towards renewable energies, focusing on the Swedish region Kronoberg. Through participatory design and design research, notions of fossil fuel (in)dependency are being explored in collaborative ways. Here, the farmers become the ‘experts of their experience’ (Sanders & Stappers, 2012). This independent design project examines ways to transition towards fossil fuel independent agriculture in Sweden, existing challenges and potential solutions. To communicate the complex network of energy and agriculture in Kronoberg to Länsstyrelsen, the author designed an Actor-Network-Model, which highlights the necessity of systems thinking and collaboration.

För nästan hundra år sedan, lades grunden för det som senare kom att benämnas som human relations. HR-perspektivet med Mayos “Hawthornsstudie” i spetsen, innebar ett skifte i hanterandet och synsättet av människor i organisationer. Taylorismens organisatoriska kontroll och effektivitet byttes ut mot människors behov och välmående. Numera är HR-diskursen mångfacetterat och dess nuvarande existens ses som relativt självklar i många sammanhang. Men i och med den nya teknologiska eran, som numera innefattar artificiella intelligenta (AI)-enheter, gör att HR-perspektivet inte bör negligera dessa nya aktanters involvering. Med hänsyn till AI-enheternas ökade inkludering i organisationers och individers vardagliga leverne, räcker det nuvarande HR-perspektivet inte till. Förbiseendet av en AI-enhets inflytande på individer och organisationer i kombination med att det nuvarande HR-perspektivet inte beaktar eller kan hantera en ny “aktör” i sammanhanget, ansåg vi vara högst problematiskt. Problematiken synliggörs inte minst i våra två exemplifierande fall Trelleborg och Kungsbacka kommun, där AI-enheter skapat oro och medfört konsekvenser för både organisationen och individen. Uppsatsens huvudsakliga syfte har varit att bidra till en ökad förståelse för hur en AI-aktant bör inkluderas och beaktas i det nuvarande HR-perspektivet. Uppsatsens bidrag till HR-området gjordes genom att presentera ett nytt HR-AI perspektiv, som inkluderar AI-enheter på ett högst medvetet sätt. Det befintliga HR-områdets breda spektrum, gjorde att vi valde att utgå från särskilda HR-grundantaganden, som i sin tur underbyggdes av en redogörelse för HR-områdets vitala delar. Genom inkluderandet av Latours Actor Network Theory (ANT) i kombination med en kvalitativ metod med en hermeneutisk ansats, möjliggjordes därmed en resa in i rhizomatiska resonemang, som i slutändan ledde fram till det nya perspektivet, HR-AI.  Vårt nya HR-AI perspektiv belyser därmed AI-enheter som centrala aktanter i sammanhanget, vilket gör att det nya perspektivet betraktar och behandlar AI-enheter som komplexa samt unika aktanter med nio unika behov. AI-enheternas behov bör i sin tur matchas med organisationens och individens behov, för att därigenom uppnå en “win-win-win” situation. Exemplifierande av fallen i kombination med uppsatsens analys, visar därmed att AI:s behov bör tillgodoses och beaktas som vitala för en organisation och individ. HR-AI perspektivet innehåller även flertalet praktiska “goda idéer”, för hur aktörer kan hantera och inkludera den nya medarbetaren.

This paper is about a process of a nascency of new doctors, and how it is possible to approach this topic from the viewpoint of social anthropologist. As a starting point, I use actor-network theory, which is one of the social science paradigms focusing on materiality. I consider it (on the basis of work by Bruno Latour and other scholars, who are dealing with this field), to be a remarkable actor in matters connected with human action, and thus an appropriate subject for an anthropological inquiry. Since the topic concerns medicine in the Czech Republic nowadays, I contribute to the knowledge of medical anthropology, which does not have such a strong academic base here as in the Anglo-Saxon world. Special attention is dedicated to a detailed description of activities leading to the formation of the text of this thesis. Reflexivity, on which I put emphasis, shall serve as the foundation of the context of genesis of an anthropological knowledge and also to describe the ethical concerns of the research. The main methods are observation and semi-structured in-depth interviews with twelve informants, who were medicine students or medicine faculty graduates.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the physical environment and children’s play and actions. We want to find out how the environment affects children’s behavior and whether it goes in harmony with the preschool teachers thoughts and educational purposes or not. Furthermore, the aim is to investigate how the children act in the environment and if and how objects affect children’s play and interaction in a certain direction. In order to do this, we observed children’s free play in two different rooms at a preschool on three different occasions. To document our observations we used field notes. We supplemented the observations with three interviews with professional preschool teachers. This was done in order to capture the preschool teacher’s views of the environment versus the children’s behavior in it. In our analysis of our empirical data, we used Bruno Latour’s actor network theory. This study is based on children's actions, but also on educators' perspectives. We want to point out that the purpose is not to show right or wrong, but rather to highlight the educational environment from different perspectives while focusing on inclusion and participation. The result indicates that the environment and materials affect children’s play to a greater extent than expected. The teacher’s communicated a clear educational idea about the “home room” in the interviews. While dressing gowns and roleplay had a central place in the “homeroom”, it was harder to identify an educational idea in the larger common room. On the other hand, the observations indicated that the building toys had a relatively high force of attraction with the children in the larger room.When it came to inclusion, the educators talked about inclusion based on the availability of different materials but also that the available material connects to children’s interests or not. Emphasis was also put on assistive devices to support children with special needs, such as linguistic difficulties.

La Responsabilité Sociétale des Entreprises (RSE) est actuellement associée à la satisfaction des intérêts des parties prenantes. Toutefois, cette notion de partie prenante suscite plusieurs difficultés : Qui sont-elles ? Comment prendre en considération leurs intérêts quand il s’agit de parties prenantes « muettes » ? Telles que les actants non humains. La théorie des parties prenantes est omniprésente dans les travaux portant sur ce sujet. Néanmoins, cette théorie représente quelques handicaps quant à l’identification des parties prenantes de l’entreprise. Pour y remédier, la théorie de l’Acteur-Réseau offre une analyse plus féconde aux actions qui se déploient dans l’environnement des entreprises. En ce sens, le cadre théorique hybride convoqué, permet de suivre les cheminements des acteurs et de décrire les innovations sociales qui en découlent. En outre, nous proposons, une articulation entre plusieurs concepts, principalement la RSE et le concept de la coopération que nous avons esquissé et qui se fonde sur les jeux de « traduction » tels qu’ils ont été décrits par Michel Callon (1986) dans son analyse des controverses sociotechniques. De fait, cette recherche a pour objectif de retracer les frontières des réseaux des entreprises touristiques de la ville d’Essaouira à l’aune de la question « qui compte ? » restée largement sans réponses. Le cadre théorique mobilisé et qui se situe entre la théorie des Parties Prenantes et la théorie de l’Acteur-réseau nous a permis de contourner les limites qui ont débouché auparavant sur des réseaux réduits. Suivre les traces des acteurs sans avoir à censurer les arguments et les actions nous a permis de retracer des réseaux panoptiques des entreprises étudiées. Ces entreprises sont situées à la ville d’Essaouira qui a connu une dynamique touristique remarquable depuis le début des années 2000. Les différents opérateurs se sont employés de valoriser les différentes potentialités dont jouit la ville. D’où l’intérêt de suivre cette mouvance qui mêle des acteurs hétérogènes. De plus, ce travail a l’intérêt de mettre l’accent sur la capacité des actants-parties prenantes à surmonter les conflits qui résultent des usages concurrents des ressources du territoires pour concevoir une stratégie collective de RSE qui se fonde sur l’agrégation des différents intérêts. Ce faisant, nous avons fait le compte-rendu d’une controverse qui aurait pu éclater entre le dirigeant d’une maison d’hôte implantée dans un village marginalisé et « une foule » d’acteurs impactés par ce projet. Nous avons suivi le cheminement pour donner à voir les jeux d’intéressement et d’enrôlement qui ont abouti à la création d’un réseau coopération faisant des ressources de ce territoire le moteur de cette innovation sociale. / The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is actually related to the satisfaction of the interests of the stakeholders. However, this notion of the stakeholders creates many difficulties: who are these stakeholders? How to take into consideration their interests when it the stakeholders can’t express their requests, like non-human actors?The Stakeholders theory (SHT) is always used in works dealing with CSR. However, the SHT didn’t resolve some important questions just like how to identify the members of a firm’s environments. The Actor-Network theory (ANT) is an interesting framework in understanding the actions displayed in the social environment of firms. In this work, we tried to use both theories in order to follow the processes of the environment’s actors and describe the social innovations that were developed. Moreover, we suggest an articulation between various concepts, especially the CSR and the cooperation concept which we have hinted to and which is based on “translation” games exactly as they were described by Michel Callon (1986) in his controversial socio-techniques analysis. Besides, the objective of this research is to redraw the touristic company network boarders of Essaouira city, in terms of the question “who counts?” that is still without answers. The mobilized theoretical framework, which is set between the theory of the stakeholders and the theory of the network-actors, allows us to bypass the limits that previously unblocked on some cut networks.Following the actor’s footprints without censuring arguments and actions allowed us to retrace some panoptic networks of some firms. These firms are set in Essaouira city which has known a remarkable touristic dynamism since the beginning of 2000.The different operators were in charge of valuing the different potentials of the city. Namely, the interest of following this movement which scrummed the heterogeneous actors.In addition, this work will emphasize the capacity of the stakeholders’ actors to surmount the conflicts resulting in the concurrent uses of territory resources, and conceive a collective strategy of SRE based on the aggregation of different interests. In this regard, we have reported an argument between the managers of a guest house located in a marginalized village and a “crowd” of agents impacted by this project. We followed the progress in order to see the profit-sharing and the enlistment games that resulted into the creation of a cooperation network making resources of this territory the engine of this social innovation.

No description available.

The problematization of waste surplus informed numerous decisions on local, national and international levels. However, the waste pollution problem is far from being solved. This paper attempts to explore an alternative way of organizing waste using the Actor-Network Theory, which argues for equality between humans and nonhumans. We are taking this approach and recognising the role of waste as an essential actor in the decision-making process around waste management. Based on a case study of a second-hand shop, so-called Överskottet, where wasted materials are being transported and processed by people with special needs. We showcased how these alternative ways can be implemented. This shop is part of a collaboration between the Waste Management Department and the Social Services Department of Gotland’s municipality, namely, Region Gotland. This collaboration is a perfect example of the connection between the material and the social. In our study, we are analysing connections between waste and humans on different levels (i.e. municipality departments, humans and wasted materials) and show how these connections create a collaborative network that has both social and environmental impact. We account for factors that strengthen and factors that weaken, thus destabilising the collaboration network. Finally, we highlighted how these collaborations require adapting the existing policies surrounding waste management.

During the first half of the 20th century, lake lowering was a common practice for agricultural drainage in Sweden. Although this phenomenon led to drastic changes in the Swedish landscape, it has been remarkably understudied. Furthermore, previous research on lake lowering, and on the adjacent subject of hydropower, has mostly taken a social constructivist approach. In contrast, the aim of this study was to generate a posthumanist, symmetric account of a lake lowering project, where the non-human actants involved in the network were seen to act. This in order to better understand the driving forces and power relations emerging in a large technical project. The study took the form of an actor-network analysis of the lowering of Lake Tämnaren in the south-east of Sweden. The analysis consists of a chronological account of the project between the years 1923-1967. During the years predating 1950, investigations into both material and social matters were carried out by two engineers who became spokespersons of the many collectives of actants affected by the lake lowering. In the years between 1950-1953 when the project was carried out, the spokespersons’ accounts of reality were challenged, with varying results. After the works had been completed, the question of maintaining a suitable water level in the lake remained controversial and concerned managing the newly built dam. In brief, the conclusions of the study highlight the role of material agency in transporting and changing power between actants in a network. Forms of material agency were for example: the lake flooding, the hardness of soil, or the floodgates of a dam remaining open.