The increasingly ubiquitous role of smartphones in our everyday lives causes concerns regarding our relationship with the devices. While some raise the question whether smartphones are addictive (Alter 2017; Lopez-Fernandez 2019), others regard this concern as the most recent manifestation of moral panics (Cashmore, Cleland & Dixon 2018; Leick 2019). Meanwhile advocates of the attention economy argument claim that the problem is the design of technology occupying users’ attention (CHT 2019a-d). Somewhere in between, media and communication studies search for empirical evidence. From this vantage point of ideas this study explores the role of Screen Time, shaping and being shaped by this discourse. As a feature of Apple’s iOS software it is supposed to support users in regulating their smartphone use. Applying the walkthrough method as proposed by Light, Burgess & Duguay (2018) combined with an analysis of user experiences, shows how the technology company shapes a concept of self-regulation for users to adopt to. A concept, which first and foremost follows corporate and not the users’ best interest. This thesis poses the the question whether we are slaves to our screens, but arrives at the conclusion that we carry chains of self-regulation. The question remains, how we can create more sustainable and meaningful environments for protecting our attention.

The motivation for this research comes from the belief that an over reliance on a social constructivist perspective has caused development studies in general, and post-development in particular, to under-theorize the role of discourse in development. A key issue in post-development studies concerns whether or not development organizations depoliticize their interventions. The notion of depoliticization provides a perfect occasion for examining more deeply the role of discourse in development. This research uses the actor-network theory constructivist framework to analyze a USAID funded development program in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan): Mercy Corps' Peaceful Communities Initiative (PCI). The research approach used in this study involved both traditional ethnographic methods and document analysis. The ethnographic case material comes from multiple field visits to PCI offices in Central Asia and multiple visits to a variety of PCI community sites. The documentary evidence comes from a variety of organization and project specific documents. The embedded case studies demonstrate that materiality cannot be easily separated from sociality and that indeed the two are inseparable. Thus development discourse cannot be solely understood as a social phenomenon but could instead be understood as an assemblage of material elements through which both power and sociality flow.

This study addresses the issue of consumers’ wish to shop more sustainable fashion butinstead turning to fast fashion (Islam et al., 2021; Silva et al. 2020; Wang et al., 2022). With that said, this study discusses and examines how marketing benefits the second-hand clothes market in Sweden. Entrenched in market studies of market-shaping, market devices and actor network theory (ANT) (Nenonen et al., 2019; Muniesa et al., 2007; Sayes, 2013), this study depicts the use of market devices in the process of shaping the second-hand clothes market in Sweden. The methodology of the thesis consists of online and offline observations throughout Arkivet’s four market devices: in-store, digital media, website and e-commerce. The results show that Arkivet’s market devices reframe the market, the products within it and the interactions between buyers and sellers, which ties in with the factors necessary for market-shaping (discovering value potential and mobilizing resources) (Nenonen et al. 2019). Based on previous market studies and the observations conducted, this study assembles a newly created model representing the role market devices assume in the process of shaping an existing market.

No description available.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att med utgångspunkt i aktör-nätverksteori undersöka relationerna genom vilka de forskningstexter (som används i kompetensutvecklingsinsatsen Läslyftet) tillsammans med andra aktörer producerar översättningsprocesser med förmågan att förändra och påverka pedagogernas sätt att tänka och prata om det vardagliga arbetet med läsning i förskolan. Tidigare studier om hur forskning och vetenskaplig kunskap används i utbildningspraktiker efterfrågar ytterligare kunskap som begreppsliggör forskningsanvändning i praktiken. Med utgångspunkt i aktör-nätverksteori undersöks i föreliggande studie i vilka relationer som forskningstexter och forskningsbaserade begrepp tillsammans med andra aktörer producerar en skillnad för pedagogers tankar och utsagor om det praktiska förskolearbetet. Genom observationer av planerings- och utvärderingsmöten samt en fokusgruppsintervju av och med deltagande pedagoger undersöks de relationer som upprättas mellan olika aktörer i praktiker inom Läslyftet. En spårande analys genomförs för att undersöka vilka relationer som upprättas och förändrar och påverkar varandra. Genom att följa fyra olika spår i det empiriska materialet synliggör studien att forskningstexterna deltar i relationer med andra aktörer så som specifika begrepp, barnböcker och dokumentationer som producerar översättningsprocesser som förändrar hur pedagogerna pratar om sin praktik. De huvudsakliga resultaten av studien visar att texternas (i egenskap av forskning) aktörskap uppstår och är beroende av de idéer, tankar och ord som pedagogerna uttrycker och som också förändras i sina sammankopplingar med varandra och andra aktörer. Resultatet synliggör ett nätverk som uppstår i och genom dessa relationer med förmågan att producera kraft och ge effekter för pedagogernas förändrade tal om förskolans praktik / The aim of this study is to examine the relations through which the research texts (used in Läslyftet) together with other actors produce translation processes with the ability to change and affect the educator’s way to think and talk about the everyday work of reading in preschool. Previous studies on how research and scientific knowledge is applied in educational practices inquire for additional knowledge that conceptualizes research used in practice. Based on actor-network theory this study examines the relations that research texts and research-based concept together with other actors produce a difference for educator’s thoughts and statements about the practical preschool work. Through observations of planning and evaluation meetings along with a focus group interview of participating educators, the study examines the relations established between different actors in practices within Läslyftet. A tracking analysis was performed to examine the relations established and transform and affect each other. By following four different traces in the empirical material, the study makes visible that the research texts participate in relations with other actors such as specific concepts, children books and documentations which produces translation processes that changes how the educators talks about their practice. The main results of the study show that the texts (in the capacity of research) ability to act occurs and is dependent on the ideas, thoughts and words that the educators express and that also changes in their interconnections with each other and other actors. The result highlights a network that is emerging in and through these relations with the ability to produce a force and give effects for the educators´ changed talk about preschool practice

This study documents the problematic translator-publisher relationship in the case of the English translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s Le deuxième sexe. The socio-historical investigation of the case study demonstrates that the 1953 translation was complicated by several factors: the translator’s lack of philosophical knowledge, the editor’s demands to cut and simplify the text, the publisher’s intention to emphasize the book’s scientific cachet, and Beauvoir’s lack of cooperation. The investigation focuses on two aspects: the translator’s subservience and the involvement of multiple actors. Primarily concerned with the interaction between the translator and other actors, this study seeks answers that require investigation into historical documents and the work of other scholars critical of The Second Sex. In this enquiry, more than one hundred letters between the translator, H. M. Parshley, and the publisher, Knopf, are thoroughly analyzed. The study combines Bruno Latour’s and Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological concepts in order to provide a more detailed and encompassing examination within the context of Translation Studies. The letter correspondence is the primary evidence on which the study’s conclusions are based. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

<p>  </p> <p>This dissertation explores multimodal composing strategies enacted by technical and professional communication (TPC) writers during and post-COVID-19 period. The researcher presents an investigation into a course unit project and pedagogical approach framed around the idea of multimodal composition in an upper-division professional writing class with transnational students majoring in management, economics, health science, aviation technology, mathematics, computer engineering, accounting, consumer science, biology, and agronomy in a large research university in the Midwest. This study advocates a multimodal approach to teaching writing in its expanded sense with multimodal career unit project assignments in multiple media and modes, including resumes/CVs, personal statements, LinkedIn profiles, video profiles/resumes, job position analyses, and rhetorical and mode analyses. This project presents implications for instructors of technical and professional communicators who are aiming to develop and update their curricula and teaching pedagogies situated in multiple modes across global audiences, for multiple purposes, and in a variety of media.</p>

This thesis examines the roles played by digital information and communication technologies in a Swedish public library’s three-year long renovation project. As a case study of technology-influenced collaboration in a cultural heritage institution, this study addresses a gap in digital humanities research on the practical details of sociotechnical collaboration, as well as a lack of documentation of an ongoing trend of renovations and rebuildings of Swedish public libraries.  A large number of internal materials produced at the library during the course of its renovations was studied, and semi-structured qualitative interviews with three of the cultural heritage workers involved were conducted. Reading these materials with an actor-network theory approach, an account was constructed of the renovation project and the usages therein of digital technologies, in order to examine these technologies as actors and their effects on the project. It was found that, throughout the project, information and communication technologies were used to think, plan, organize, discuss, and make decisions about the work, that limitations and affordances of these technologies shaped how they could be used, and that this thus had effects on the project. Digital technologies are shown to have been active and agential, and avenues for future research are suggested.

From the socio-economic turmoil of the 20th century, Japan has repeatedly revealed its resilience. During these trying times, scientific work has been an important element in Japan's economic development. However, the 1990s revealed weaknesses in this “economic miracle.” During this period, several socio-structural factors have contributed to this social landscape. Future successes in Japanese socio-economic spheres will partially depend on scientific work. In this study, it is suggested that identifying structural factors in the Japanese “system” that contribute to its scientific organizations is key to ascertaining a more coherent assessment of scientific work in Japan. This assessment can lead to more in depth analyses of the interconnections between science and society. The focus of this study is on scientific institutes and their organizational structure. The social networks that interconnect these institutes and couple their scientific work with other elements of Japanese culture are essential in the analysis of Japan's scientific enterprise. In the present study, a qualitative case study methodology is used to explore socio-structural networks within the cultural field of scientific work in Tsukuba, Japan. The structure of scientific work in Japan is composed of several cultural and material elements which have been distilled into two themes for evaluative purposes. These themes include cultural factors and scientific production/economic affairs. Through a reflexive-thematic lens an analysis of scientific work is conducted. Central to the method used in this study is a series of structured and un-structured in-person interviews using a format of open-ended questions. Most informants in this study were chosen by administrators of the institutes involved. Although, I did participate in assuring diversity in the sample, there is possible bias inherent in management's choices of particular informants. These interviews were held during the month of October 2002 in five separate university and non-university institutes in Tsukuba, Japan. The findings in this study reveal common, contradictory and idiosyncratic aspects that have important cultural and scientific/economic effects across organizational types. Common attributes include the observation of universal “top-down” organizational hierarchies with networks of labor being accumulated through elite scientists. Generally, informants perceived little to no effect from the national economy on their particular institute's funding of science. Scientists spent an extraordinary amount of time at work and conducted highly specialized work tasks. The publishing activity concentrated among elite scientists while utilization of foreign scientists and contingent workers were segregated. Also, the use of tacit knowledge as a principal training tool was universally observed across institutes. Contradictory attributes include scientists' attitudes toward their work versus the city they live in, government policy versus actual laboratory work, and publishing versus conference presentations. The idiosyncratic attributes focus on levels of organizational formality across organizations. The organizational formality is related to the individual scientists' perceptions of what they enjoyed most about their work. Thus, scientists that enjoyed the 'processes' of their work tended to be located in more formal organizations whereas those scientists who enjoyed “discovery” were situated in less formal organizations. It is likely that the different levels of organizational formality observed in this study are associated with other elements of laboratory culture. Also, the composition of foreigners and women varied remarkably across institutes. Yet, their use in laboratories is relatively similar. / Ph. D.

This research took its point of departure in the aspiration of large-scale change of the construction industry, where existing industry structures has been frequently criticized. To facilitate innovation and change in the Swedish construction industry, a strategic innovation program has been established based on the idea that research, innovation, and development should manifest itself through the mobilization of collaborative and actor-driven networks. Using a strategic innovation program to support inter-organizational collaboration and actor-driven change is a fairly new phenomenon in the context of construction and thus the subject of inquiry for this research. From a theoretical point of view, this can be understood in terms of a transition of a socio-technical system. Therefore, the purpose was to gain a deeper understanding of how a socio-technical transition of the construction industry could be facilitated. The research presented in this licentiate thesis has been conducted between September 2019 – March 2022 and has been a part of a research project called Program Generic Measurement Methods. This research has a qualitative inquiry and has been designed as a longitudinal case study to understand, and follow, this process of change. The data that has been collected consist of document collection, structured interviews, semi-structured interviews and an autoethnographic approach including observations and self-reflection. Actor-network theory, and specifically the concepts related to the translation process and black boxing, has been used as an analytical framework and facilitated the analysis of the collected data. This thesis increases the understanding of how a socio-technical transition in construction could be facilitated by analyzing the events that lead to the development of the strategic innovation program as well as events from the operational part of the program. Key actors in these processes are identified as well as their roles in a transition of the construction industry. The results indicates that this is far from a linear process that contains a lot of negotiation between participating actors. During this process, the role of digitalization changes when the intention of the program moves from its initiators to the actors engaged in different technological niches. A better integration of academia is asked for due to the complexity that digitally driven transition processes brings. Moreover, actors in the construction industry are encouragedto engage in technological niches to interact and collaborate in new, or modified, ways outside traditional construction activities since it stimulates learning and facilitate a deeper understanding of the challenges that actors in the construction process face together.