Programmes and policies to support ecological sustainable development and the practice of implementation is a question of innovation rather than known and taken for granted procedure. This thesis argues a priori models concerning stability in the social sciences, and human geography especially, are less able to help us understand this practice and planning in such unstable situations. Problematic in common understandings of planning and policy implementation concerning sustainability are the dualisms between physical-social spaces and between rationality-contingency. The first dualism makes it hard to grasp the interaction between humans and nonhumans. The second dualism concerns the problem of how to capture change without resorting to reductionism and explanaining the evolving projects as either technically, economically, or culturally rational. The scope of the thesis is to test resources from actor-network theory as a means of resolving these dualisms. The case is the Stockholm Local Investment Programme and the new district of Hammarby Sjöstad. The programme’s objective was to support the implemention of new technologies and systems, energy efficiency and reduced resource-use as well as eco-cycling measures. The case-study follows how the work with the programme unfolded and how administrators’ efforts to reach satisfactory results was approached. In doing this, the actors had to be far more creative than models of implementation and traditional technology diffusion seem to suggest. The recommendation is to take the instrumentalisation framing the plasticity of a project in planning seriously – as innovativeness is not a special but the general case. Hence, to broaden our tools and understanding of planning a human geography of planning projects is pertinent.

This study uses Actor – Network Theory as a lens to present a case study of the process by which Indiska Magasinet, a large Swedish retailer, has defined and developed its conceptualization of Corporate Social Responsibility. Actor – Network Theory offers a valuable tool to examine the inter-actor negotiations that precede a conceptualization of Corporate Social Responsibility. The study results are primarily based on interviews with two prominent Indiska personnel in decision-making positions. At the instigation of the writers, the Indiska personnel told stories about the company’s way of working with Corporate Social Responsibility. In doing so, they described four principle examples of how inter-actor negotiations resulted in significant developments in Indiska’s approach to Corporate Social Responsibility. Their stories also highlighted shared values and legitimacy as the main reasons that Indiska allows other actors to influence its conceptualization of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Electronic Patient Records (EPRs) are becoming standard tools in healthcare, lauded for improving patient access and outcomes. However, the healthcare professionals who work with, around, and despite these technologies in their daily practices often regard EPRs as troublesome. In order to investigate how EPRs can prompt such opposing opinions, this project examines the EPR as a collection of communication genres set in complex contexts. In this project, I investigate an EPR as it was used on the Nephrology ward at a large, Canadian, urban, paediatric teaching hospital. In this setting, this study investigates EPR-use in relation to the following aspects of context: (a) the visual rhetoric of the EPR's user-interface design; (b) the varied social contexts in which the EPR was used, including a diversity of professional collaborators who had varying levels of professional experience; (c) the span of social actions involved in EPR use; and (d) the other genres used in coordination with the EPR. <br /><br /> This qualitative study was conducted in two simultaneous stages, over the course of 8 months. Stage one consisted of a visual rhetorical analysis of a set of genres (including the EPR) employed by participants during a specific work activity. Stage two involved an elaborated, qualitative case study consisting of non-participant observations and semi-structured interviews. Stage two used a constructivist grounded theory methodology. A combination of theoretical perspectives -- Visual Rhetoric, Rhetorical Genre Studies, Activity Theory, and Actor-Network Theory -- supported the analysis of study data. This research reveals that participants routinely transformed EPR-based information into paper documents when the EPR's visual designs did not support the professional goals and activities of the participants. <br /><br /> Results indicate that healthcare professionals work around EPR-based patient information when that genre's visual organization is incompatible with professional activities. This study suggests that visual rhetorical analysis, complemented with observation and interview data, can provide useful insights into a genre's social actions. This research also examines the effects of such EPR-to-paper genre transformations. Although at one level of analysis, the EPR-to-paper-genre transformation may be considered inefficient for participants and so should be automated, at another level of analysis, the same transformation activity can be seen as beneficially supporting the detailed reviewing of patient information by healthcare professionals. <br /><br /> To account for this function in the transformation dysfunction, my research suggests that many contextual factors need to be considered during data analysis in order to construct a sufficiently nuanced understanding of a genre's social actions. To accomplish such an analysis, I develop a five-step approach to data analysis called 'context mapping. ' Context mapping examines genres in relation to the varied social contexts in which they are used, the span of social actions in which they are involved, and a range of genres with which they are coordinated. To conduct this analysis, context mapping relies heavily on theories of "genre ecologies" (Spinuzzi, 2003a, 2003b; Spinuzzi, Hart-Davidson & Zachry, 2004; Spinuzzi & Zachry, 2000) and "Knotworking" (Engestrom, Engestrom & Vahaaho, 1999). Context mapping's first three steps compile study data into results that accommodate a wide range of contextual analysis considerations. These three steps involve the use of a composite scenario of observation data, genre ecologies and the description of a starting point for analysis. The final two steps of this approach analyse results using the theory of Knotworking and investigate some of the implications of the patterns of genre use on the ward. <br /><br /> Through context mapping analysis, this study demonstrates that EPR-based innovations created by a study participant could result in the generation of other improvisations, in a range of genres, by the original participant and/or by other collaborators. These genre modifications had ramifications across multiple social contexts and involved a wide range of genres and associated social actions. Context mapping analysis demonstrates how the effects of participant-made EPR-based variations can be considered as having both beneficial and detrimental effects in the research site depending on the social perspective adopted. Contributions from this work are directed towards the fields of Rhetorical Genre Studies, Activity Theory research, and Health Informatics research, as well as to the research site itself. This study demonstrates that context mapping can support text-in-context style research in complex settings as a means for evaluating the effects of genre uses.

Information systems (IS) are widely acknowledged to be central for contemporary organizations. Along with the increasing importance of new IS in organizations, a school of thought has developed over the last few years that claims that IS and organizations mutually shape each other. While new IS shape organizational structure and behavior, the actual role and importance of IS in organizations is largely dependent on the organizational setting. However, questions of how IS and organizations mutually shape each other have remained largely unexplored.    The purpose of this thesis is to create better understanding of the design and use of IS in an organizational context. Actor-network theory (ANT) is used as a theoretical perspective to gain an understanding of how IS and organization influence each other. An interpretive case study approach was used for data collection. The case study was conducted in the municipal organization of Umeå, Sweden, over a period 36 months that covered the design process and use of a new IS. Semi-structured interviews, participant observations and document analysis were used as data collection techniques.    The findings indicate that the municipal organization became intertwined with technology by mobilizing a significant amount of allies in the IS adaption process. It was also found that the character of the IS in the organization was multi-faceted, and there were different versions of the application available for different actors. A new organizational behavior was established as a result of the design and use of the IS. While the new IS contributed to making more available the complicated financial aspects of the municipality, it also contributed in reinforcing a certain view on decision-making that was focused on organizational resources rather than on organizational objectives. The organizational changes that took place were of a constant nature, and there was no closure of the change processes as new issues continuously surfaced that needed attention.    The concept of evolving multi-purpose networks is coined to describe and analyze the character of the technology dependent organization. The concept of negotiation loop is coined to describe and analyze the processes of IS adaption, where the role and meaning of the IS changes as new actors are enrolled to the network. An evolving multipurpose network is changeful as negotiation loops continue after the IS is established in the organization. The notation of evolving multipurpose networks is meant to stimulate reflection both for researchers and practitioners, underscoring the negotiated character of IS in organizations. It is meant to allow a better understanding for how the design and use of IS in an organizational context is a process of mutual influence between the IS and organization. / digitalisering@umu

No description available.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

During every summer Olympic Games, the sport of gymnastics rises briefly to the world’s attention as the public admire the incredible skills and feats performed by fit muscular bodies on a range of apparatus. The gymnastics they watch consists of performances in which bodies assemble with apparatus. This thesis utilises an Actor Network Theory (ANT) perspective to follow this assembling of gymnastics in the five codes of competitive gymnastics competed in New Zealand: women’s artistic gymnastics, men’s artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampolining and competitive aerobics. This thesis is a descriptive ethnography of the world of high performance gymnastics. It begins by examining some of the controversies that have operated to both criticise and rework the sport. Next, the gymnasts are followed through the selection processes that lead them to become members of national squads and teams. It then moves to the training gymnasium and examines the variety of non-human actants that work in the gymnasium to assemble gymnastics. The next two chapters examine how gymnasts are found to enrol and assemble with video technologies and sports science professionals in their efforts to improve performance. Following this, gymnasts are observed to produce a routine at a competition which is translated into a score and ranking through the highly complicated and laborious process of judging. Finally, the thesis concludes with the story of Angela McMillan, New Zealand’s most successful athlete within the gymnastic codes. Throughout are a range of accounts from participants, together with observations, describing attempts to secure the stabilisation of gymnastics as an actor-network that produces internationally successful athletes. All the networks followed involve a continual process of enrolling, un-enrolling, translating and mediating, with power constantly shifting and being shared between various heterogeneous actants including coaches, parents, the national federation and the international federation. At times these networks stabilise with particular actants, such as sports scientists or technologies, being enrolled, while at other times the paths of the networks come to an end as particular assemblages or actants, such as physical ability tests, are no longer enrolled. In contrast to a perception that successful high performance sports include key actors and resources, this thesis shows how the networks that produce high performance gymnasts are highly unpredictable and messy, with humans and non-humans both equally influential in affecting every branch of the networks. Processes such as talent identification, training and judging are found to be complicated and unstable.

Zugl.: Hamburg, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2008

Denna uppsats bygger på en observationsstudie. Under två veckor observerades en forskargrupp vid en av de prekliniska institutionerna vid Karolinska Institutet. Under observationen var forskargruppen med om en organisatorisk flytt till en medvetet utformad byggnad med en tänkt vision gällande ökad interaktion och samarbete. Genom att studera rummet ur ett sociologiskt perspektiv var syftet att se vad mer som kan påverka beteende utöver den rumsliga utformningen. Rummets påverkanseffekt undersöktes genom studiet av samspelet mellan rummets strategiska utformning och de observerade forskarnas beteende. Studien utgick från följande två frågeställningar: Hur tar sig visionen med Biomedicum i uttryck i den strategiska utformningen av byggnaden? samt Hur gör forskarna för att markera territorium i en ny miljö?. För att besvara frågeställningarna användes ett teoretiskt ramverk bestående av Actor-Network Theory samt Kärrholms teori om territorium och territoriella produktionsformer som kompletterades med Certeaus definitioner av strategi och taktik. Utifrån observationen kunde vi se exempel på två olika produktionsformer gällande territorium: territoriell strategi samt territoriell taktik. Den territoriella strategin kunde vi se exempel på i utformningen av Biomedicum. Regler kring användandet av rummet och rummets utformning användes för att främja målet med Biomedicum, vilket bland annat formulerats som att möjliggöra samarbete mellan forskare. Från forskarnas sida kunde vi se olika exempel på territoriell taktik. Den slutsats vi kunde dra av vårt resultat är att det inte endast är det rumsliga som påverkar. Rummet hade visserligen en stark påverkanseffekt men forskarna kunde kringgå den genom territoriell taktik.