Drawing on the study of knowledge and action as a reference, this thesis explores how practitioners in two different firms perform their practice, 'knowing' and 'acting' simultaneously. It argues that types of knowledge, activities, individuals and context are interwoven at the moment of acting. However, this relationship is not static. The empirical work in a local labour placement company and in a multinational consultancy firm shows that practitioners resort to a host of different expressions of knowledge (or bundle of knowledge) when acting. Therefore, the prevailing role of explicit knowledge and the need for being a precedent in order to be applied is called into question.The empirical work also reveals that the bundle of knowledge is not static. It evolves over time and at the same time the prevailing type of knowledge varies depending on the type of practice and the practitioner's level of expertise. Therefore, the results underscore the fact that the relationship between knowledge and action is more dynamic and that both interplay simultaneously. Finally, this research shows that formal company categorisations (senior/junior) describe different practices rather than correspond to differential stocks of formal knowledge. This means that even when experts and novices apparently seem to be doing the same job, their actions are different as they are constituted through different combinations of knowledge types and orders of relevance. These results seem to point toward the fact that the essence of expertise resides in the expert's ability to reframe. He is able to reconstruct practice, whether by reframing his tasks or the overarching context.

Current methods of robot task teaching and learning have several limitations: highly-trained personnel are usually required to teach robots specific tasks; service-robot systems are limited in learning different types of tasks utilizing the same system; and the teacher’s expertise in the task is not well exploited. A human-inspired robot-task teaching and learning method is developed in this research with the aim of allowing general users to teach different object-manipulation tasks to a service robot, which will be able to adapt its learned tasks to new task setups. The proposed method was developed to be interactive and intuitive to the user. In a closed loop with the robot, the user can intuitively teach the tasks, track the learning states of the robot, direct the robot attention to perceive task-related key state changes, and give timely feedback when the robot is practicing the task, while the robot can reveal its learning progress and refine its knowledge based on the user’s feedback. The human-inspired method consists of six teaching and learning stages: 1) checking and teaching the needed background knowledge of the robot; 2) introduction of the overall task to be taught to the robot: the hierarchical task structure, and the involved objects and robot hand actions; 3) teaching the task step by step, and directing the robot to perceive important state changes; 4) demonstration of the task in whole, and offering vocal subtask-segmentation cues in subtask transitions; 5) robot learning of the taught task using a flexible vote-based algorithm to segment the demonstrated task trajectories, a probabilistic optimization process to assign obtained task trajectory episodes (segments) to the introduced subtasks, and generalization of the taught task trajectories in different reference frames; and 6) robot practicing of the learned task and refinement of its task knowledge according to the teacher’s timely feedback, where the adaptation of the learned task to new task setups is achieved by blending the task trajectories generated from pertinent frames. An agent-based architecture was designed and developed to implement this robot-task teaching and learning method. This system has an interactive human-robot teaching interface subsystem, which is composed of: a) a three-camera stereo vision system to track user hand motion; b) a stereo-camera vision system mounted on the robot end-effector to allow the robot to explore its workspace and identify objects of interest; and c) a speech recognition and text-to-speech system, utilized for the main human-robot interaction. A user study involving ten human subjects was performed using two tasks to evaluate the system based on time spent by the subjects on each teaching stage, efficiency measures of the robot’s understanding of users’ vocal requests, responses, and feedback, and their subjective evaluations. Another set of experiments was done to analyze the ability of the robot to adapt its previously learned tasks to new task setups using measures such as object, target and robot starting-point poses; alignments of objects on targets; and actual robot grasp and release poses relative to the related objects and targets. The results indicate that the system enabled the subjects to naturally and effectively teach the tasks to the robot and give timely feedback on the robot’s practice performance. The robot was able to learn the tasks as expected and adapt its learned tasks to new task setups. The robot properly refined its task knowledge based on the teacher’s feedback and successfully applied the refined task knowledge in subsequent task practices. The robot was able to adapt its learned tasks to new task setups that were considerably different from those in the demonstration. The alignments of objects on the target were quite close to those taught, and the executed grasping and releasing poses of the robot relative to objects and targets were almost identical to the taught poses. The robot-task learning ability was affected by limitations of the vision-based human-robot teleoperation interface used in hand-to-hand teaching and the robot’s capacity to sense its workspace. Future work will investigate robot learning of a variety of different tasks and the use of more robot in-built primitive skills.

Un spectre hante les réformes de l'État depuis plusieurs décennies : le nombre des fonctionnaires. Objet d'une attention politico-médiatique croissante ces dernières années, la question des effectifs de l'État est longtemps restée un angle-mort des recherches en sciences sociales. Tout se passe comme si le double discours contradictoire et persistant selon lequel d'un côté la France compterait trop de fonctionnaires, de l'autre l'État serait lui-même incapable de compter ses agents, relevait de l'évidence. Cette thèse de doctorat propose de prendre au sérieux la question du nombre des fonctionnaires en contribuant à une histoire de l'État par ses effectifs en France de 1850 à 1950. À travers l'analyse simultanée du processus de fabrication du nombre des fonctionnaires, de son usage par les contemporains et de l'élaboration d'une politique de la fonction publique, l'objet de cette recherche est double. Il s'agit, d'abord, d'interroger la pertinence d'une application de la notion de " gouvernement par les nombres " à la question des effectifs de l'État. Cette déconstruction du travail statistique et de ses usages politiques doit nous permettre, ensuite, de replacer le matériau quantitatif ainsi analysé au cœur des sources pertinentes de l'histoire de l'État moderne. En somme, il s'agit de proposer une relecture du processus de développement administratif au prisme de l'évolution du nombre des serviteurs de l'État.

Current methods of robot task teaching and learning have several limitations: highly-trained personnel are usually required to teach robots specific tasks; service-robot systems are limited in learning different types of tasks utilizing the same system; and the teacher’s expertise in the task is not well exploited. A human-inspired robot-task teaching and learning method is developed in this research with the aim of allowing general users to teach different object-manipulation tasks to a service robot, which will be able to adapt its learned tasks to new task setups. The proposed method was developed to be interactive and intuitive to the user. In a closed loop with the robot, the user can intuitively teach the tasks, track the learning states of the robot, direct the robot attention to perceive task-related key state changes, and give timely feedback when the robot is practicing the task, while the robot can reveal its learning progress and refine its knowledge based on the user’s feedback. The human-inspired method consists of six teaching and learning stages: 1) checking and teaching the needed background knowledge of the robot; 2) introduction of the overall task to be taught to the robot: the hierarchical task structure, and the involved objects and robot hand actions; 3) teaching the task step by step, and directing the robot to perceive important state changes; 4) demonstration of the task in whole, and offering vocal subtask-segmentation cues in subtask transitions; 5) robot learning of the taught task using a flexible vote-based algorithm to segment the demonstrated task trajectories, a probabilistic optimization process to assign obtained task trajectory episodes (segments) to the introduced subtasks, and generalization of the taught task trajectories in different reference frames; and 6) robot practicing of the learned task and refinement of its task knowledge according to the teacher’s timely feedback, where the adaptation of the learned task to new task setups is achieved by blending the task trajectories generated from pertinent frames. An agent-based architecture was designed and developed to implement this robot-task teaching and learning method. This system has an interactive human-robot teaching interface subsystem, which is composed of: a) a three-camera stereo vision system to track user hand motion; b) a stereo-camera vision system mounted on the robot end-effector to allow the robot to explore its workspace and identify objects of interest; and c) a speech recognition and text-to-speech system, utilized for the main human-robot interaction. A user study involving ten human subjects was performed using two tasks to evaluate the system based on time spent by the subjects on each teaching stage, efficiency measures of the robot’s understanding of users’ vocal requests, responses, and feedback, and their subjective evaluations. Another set of experiments was done to analyze the ability of the robot to adapt its previously learned tasks to new task setups using measures such as object, target and robot starting-point poses; alignments of objects on targets; and actual robot grasp and release poses relative to the related objects and targets. The results indicate that the system enabled the subjects to naturally and effectively teach the tasks to the robot and give timely feedback on the robot’s practice performance. The robot was able to learn the tasks as expected and adapt its learned tasks to new task setups. The robot properly refined its task knowledge based on the teacher’s feedback and successfully applied the refined task knowledge in subsequent task practices. The robot was able to adapt its learned tasks to new task setups that were considerably different from those in the demonstration. The alignments of objects on the target were quite close to those taught, and the executed grasping and releasing poses of the robot relative to objects and targets were almost identical to the taught poses. The robot-task learning ability was affected by limitations of the vision-based human-robot teleoperation interface used in hand-to-hand teaching and the robot’s capacity to sense its workspace. Future work will investigate robot learning of a variety of different tasks and the use of more robot in-built primitive skills.

R??sum?? : Le pr??sent essai doctoral vise ?? d??finir les facteurs de risque ou de protection de l???engagement paternel chez les p??res ayant eu recours ?? la m??diation ordonn??e (Mo) et ?? l???expertise psychosociale (Exp). L?????tude de 222 dossiers l??gaux et la r??alisation de 22 entrevues repose sur une approche exploratoire dont les donn??es quantitatives et qualitatives ont ??t?? recueillies de fa??on ponctuelle (entrevues) et en r??trospective (analyse des dossiers). Cet essai pr??sente ?? notre connaissance des donn??es originales. L'analyse des tendances d??mographiques nomm??e ?? analyse populationnelle dynamique ?? et les donn??es qui en sont issues sont appel??es ?? donn??es populationnelles ??. Elles tracent un portrait des p??res qui tient compte du contexte social dans lequel ils ??voluent et situent les ??chantillons sur la courbe normale ou selon le crit??re ??valu??. Cette m??thode d'analyse soutient avantageusement le mod??le ??cologique de Bronfenbrenner (1979). Les r??sultats indiquent qu???au-del?? des proc??dures de cour, le facteur de risque le plus important ?? l???engagement paternel est la difficile communication avec l???ex-conjointe appel??e ?? communication d??gradant le lien parental ?? dont les deux piliers sont la d??pr??ciation et l'obstruction. Le conflit qui oppose les parents est de longue dur??e et se prolonge parfois sur une d??cennie. Cette intensit?? de conflit discrimine le profil des p??res utilisant la m??diation ordonn??e de celui des p??res utilisant la m??diation volontaire. ?? ce conflit sont associ??s des co??ts psychologiques chez les p??res et leur famille, mais ??galement des co??ts financiers attribuables ?? la longueur des proc??dures de cour. Ces co??ts constituent ??galement un facteur de risque tout comme les caract??ristiques des couples pr??sentant des ??carts d?????ge, de valeurs et de culture. Les recommandations de l???expertise et les ententes de la m??diation ordonn??e ont un effet de courte dur??e sur le conflit qui oppose les parents. Les p??res per??oivent l???expertise comme un facteur de protection de leur engagement, car leur capacit?? parentale y est reconnue et les recommandations que contiennent les expertises influencent les d??cisions de la cour. La capacit?? des p??res ?? valoriser leur r??le parental et les strat??gies utilis??es pour contrer une communication d??nigrante sont ??galement des facteurs de protection. De ces constats se d??gage une s??rie de recommandations visant tant la recherche que les interventions cliniques. // Abstract : This doctoral essay seeks to define the risk or protective factors of paternal involvement among fathers who have recourse to court-ordered mediation (Mo) and custody assessment (Exp). An examination of 222 legal cases and the 22 interviews which were conducted is based on an approach that is exploratory (both quantitative and qualitative), case-by-case (interviews) and retrospective (case-file analysis), which to our knowledge is innovative in many ways. The analysis of demographic trends called "population-based dynamic analysis", while the data derived from it are called "population-based data". They paint a portrait of fathers that takes into account the social context in which they find themselves and place the samples on a normal curve or in accordance with the criterion being evaluated. This method of analysis favorably supports Bronfenbrenner???s ecological model (1979). The results indicate that beyond court procedures, the most significant paternal-involvement risk factor is difficult communication with the ex-wife, called "communication detrimental to the parental relationship", which is based on two major pillars: depreciation and obstruction. These pillars present a conceptual affinity with parental alienation, negative co-parenting and restrictive gatekeeping. The conflict between the parents is long-lasting, sometimes extending over a decade. This conflict intensity distinguishes the profiles of fathers using court-ordered mediation from those using voluntary mediation. Psychological and financial costs for the fathers and their family associated with the length of court procedures constitute a risk factor as well, as do the characteristics of couples of differing ages, values and cultures. Court custody assessments and court-ordered mediation have a short-term effect on parental conflict. However, fathers perceived court custody assessments as a protective factor for their paternal involvement because their parenting ability is thus recognized and recommendations contained in the assessments influence court decisions. The ability of fathers to enhance their parenting role and the strategies they use to counter derogatory communications are also protective factors. These findings result in a series of recommendations aimed both at research and clinical interventions.

This BC Digitization Survey Results presentation was one of several presentations delivered at the BC Digitization Symposium 2008 held on December 1 & 2, 2008. For more information, please visit the BC Digitization Symposium 2008 website at: http://symposium.westbeyondthewest.ca.

R??sum?? : Le pr??sent essai doctoral vise ?? d??finir les facteurs de risque ou de protection de l???engagement paternel chez les p??res ayant eu recours ?? la m??diation ordonn??e (Mo) et ?? l???expertise psychosociale (Exp). L?????tude de 222 dossiers l??gaux et la r??alisation de 22 entrevues repose sur une approche exploratoire dont les donn??es quantitatives et qualitatives ont ??t?? recueillies de fa??on ponctuelle (entrevues) et en r??trospective (analyse des dossiers). Cet essai pr??sente ?? notre connaissance des donn??es originales. L'analyse des tendances d??mographiques nomm??e ?? analyse populationnelle dynamique ?? et les donn??es qui en sont issues sont appel??es ?? donn??es populationnelles ??. Elles tracent un portrait des p??res qui tient compte du contexte social dans lequel ils ??voluent et situent les ??chantillons sur la courbe normale ou selon le crit??re ??valu??. Cette m??thode d'analyse soutient avantageusement le mod??le ??cologique de Bronfenbrenner (1979). Les r??sultats indiquent qu???au-del?? des proc??dures de cour, le facteur de risque le plus important ?? l???engagement paternel est la difficile communication avec l???ex-conjointe appel??e ?? communication d??gradant le lien parental ?? dont les deux piliers sont la d??pr??ciation et l'obstruction. Le conflit qui oppose les parents est de longue dur??e et se prolonge parfois sur une d??cennie. Cette intensit?? de conflit discrimine le profil des p??res utilisant la m??diation ordonn??e de celui des p??res utilisant la m??diation volontaire. ?? ce conflit sont associ??s des co??ts psychologiques chez les p??res et leur famille, mais ??galement des co??ts financiers attribuables ?? la longueur des proc??dures de cour. Ces co??ts constituent ??galement un facteur de risque tout comme les caract??ristiques des couples pr??sentant des ??carts d?????ge, de valeurs et de culture. Les recommandations de l???expertise et les ententes de la m??diation ordonn??e ont un effet de courte dur??e sur le conflit qui oppose les parents. Les p??res per??oivent l???expertise comme un facteur de protection de leur engagement, car leur capacit?? parentale y est reconnue et les recommandations que contiennent les expertises influencent les d??cisions de la cour. La capacit?? des p??res ?? valoriser leur r??le parental et les strat??gies utilis??es pour contrer une communication d??nigrante sont ??galement des facteurs de protection. De ces constats se d??gage une s??rie de recommandations visant tant la recherche que les interventions cliniques. // Abstract : This doctoral essay seeks to define the risk or protective factors of paternal involvement among fathers who have recourse to court-ordered mediation (Mo) and custody assessment (Exp). An examination of 222 legal cases and the 22 interviews which were conducted is based on an approach that is exploratory (both quantitative and qualitative), case-by-case (interviews) and retrospective (case-file analysis), which to our knowledge is innovative in many ways. The analysis of demographic trends called "population-based dynamic analysis", while the data derived from it are called "population-based data". They paint a portrait of fathers that takes into account the social context in which they find themselves and place the samples on a normal curve or in accordance with the criterion being evaluated. This method of analysis favorably supports Bronfenbrenner???s ecological model (1979). The results indicate that beyond court procedures, the most significant paternal-involvement risk factor is difficult communication with the ex-wife, called "communication detrimental to the parental relationship", which is based on two major pillars: depreciation and obstruction. These pillars present a conceptual affinity with parental alienation, negative co-parenting and restrictive gatekeeping. The conflict between the parents is long-lasting, sometimes extending over a decade. This conflict intensity distinguishes the profiles of fathers using court-ordered mediation from those using voluntary mediation. Psychological and financial costs for the fathers and their family associated with the length of court procedures constitute a risk factor as well, as do the characteristics of couples of differing ages, values and cultures. Court custody assessments and court-ordered mediation have a short-term effect on parental conflict. However, fathers perceived court custody assessments as a protective factor for their paternal involvement because their parenting ability is thus recognized and recommendations contained in the assessments influence court decisions. The ability of fathers to enhance their parenting role and the strategies they use to counter derogatory communications are also protective factors. These findings result in a series of recommendations aimed both at research and clinical interventions.

What do executives do, and how do their actions impact on the company’s results? Questions such as these are constantly targeted in leadership research. Despite thousands of reports in the field, there is no consensus on what the concept of leadership entails. Nor can companies and organisations be said to have a clear idea of what executives actually do. Nevertheless, the investments in leadership development seem to indicate that executives are considered vital to the company’s results. The vague notions about what executive work entails, together with assumptions concerning their importance to the company or organisation, lend a certain magical aura to their work. In this study, executives are regarded as a professional category, and are consequently examined with a qualitative method whereby the professionals begin by reflecting in writing on their skills, and then take part in a group discussion on their skills based on their written reflections. This method, known as the dialogue seminar method, has been used on other professional categories with good results. Since executives have not previously been studied in terms of their skills, the results have been compared to leadership research. Leadership studies with a gender perspective have shown that gender impacts on the likelihood of obtaining and practising executive positions and skills. Therefore, the results of this study have also been analysed from a gender perspective. The skills of executives and other staff are described as the capacity to follow rules, i.e. interpreting rules and then applying them in concrete situations. A rule says nothing about how it should be followed, however. If the way in which a rule should be followed were to be described in a rule, another rule would be needed to describe how that rule should be followed, and so on, ad infinitum. Thus, rules must be interpreted as something that requires access to an “archive” of examples. One specific executive skill consists of developing co-workers’ rule-following skills. For executives, following the rules involves making decisions based on tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge, in turn, is based on an inner vision of what is taking place right now in the organisation, and what is crucial to customers, employees, the organisation and the world at large. It also includes understanding people’s urges, thoughts, needs, wishes, and what they are saying. Tacit knowledge develops in the interplay between reflecting over examples and taking strategic action. Decision-making situations can often be unclear and contradictory. Therefore the executive’s skills must include the ability to handle uncertainty in three different ways. The first is by being honest about the fact that all decisions cannot be made, and that some decisions take time. The second is explaining to employees that an organisation cannot be entirely regulated by guidelines, and that judgement in the form of reflected experience is therefore a crucial element in all action. The third is coping with the fact that an executive position does not automatically entail being able to make the right decision. Thus, the executive must accommodate uncertainty in the world at large, the employees’ uncertainty, and his or her own uncertainty. Empirical analysis also highlights another aspect of executive skills. Executives need to be fast, not merely in the sense of having a high work capacity, but in the sense of never saying no or questioning deliveries. Above all, comparisons with leadership research reveal differences in the interpretation of empirical data. The way in which executives follow rules, for instance, is also described in research on leadership, but only as a phenomenon linked with unusual situations, as when executives need to take emergency action in unforeseen circumstances, or make decisions in cases that are not covered by the general rules, rather than as a day-to-day occurrence. Similarly, there is a difference in perspectives on handling uncertainty. In leadership research, this is described as the executive dealing with something that has gone wrong and putting it right. In the study at hand, the concept is expanded, to demonstrate that the executive’s actions can involve accommodating the worries that this uncertainty breeds within the organisation. Empirical data do not show any differences in the descriptions of the executive skills of women and men. Women and men practise these executive skills similarly. Men’s tendency to identify themselves with senior management, however, is interpreted as a sign of homosocial structures in the organisation. The fact that men are more ambivalent than women faced with the opportunity and responsibility of promoting change consequently indicates that admittance into a homosocial structure restricts their freedom of action. There is a difference, however, between the executive skills of women and men in that women, unlike men, have to relate to the issue of their own gender. Their approach to this can vary between two leadership discourses; one that is gender-neutral, and one where gender is significant. Women’s knowledge of how gender is constructed in organisations, in leadership and in other structures and processes, is thus included in the tacit knowledge that comprises their skills. Keywords: executive, manager, management, leadership, gender, skills, tacit knowledge, follow rules, breaking rules, rules, decision-making, accommodate uncertainty, homosocial structures. / Vad en chef gör och vilken betydelse chefens agerande har för företagets resultat är frågor som ständigt sysselsätter ledarskapsforskare. Men trots många tusen studier finns det inom forskningen inte någon gemensam uppfattning om vad begreppet ledarskap innebär. Inte heller inom företag och organisationer finns någon tydlig bild av vad chefer egentligen gör. Däremot visar till exempel satsningar på ledarutveckling att cheferna uppfattas som mycket viktiga för företagets resultat. Otydligheten i vad chefers arbete innebär tillsammans med föreställningen om chefens betydelse för företag och organisationer resulterar i att bilden av chefers arbete får inslag av magi. I den här studien ses chefskap som ett yrke och undersöks därför med en kvalitativ metod som innebär att yrkesutövare först skriftligt reflekterar över sitt yrkeskunnande och sedan i grupp diskuterar yrkeskunnandet utifrån de skriftliga reflektionerna. Metoden som kallas dialogseminariemetoden har använts i andra yrkesgrupper än chefer med goda resultat. Eftersom chefers yrkeskunnande inte tidigare undersökts som yrkeskunnande har resultaten jämförts med ledarskapsforskning. Att kön har betydelse för förutsättningarna att få och att utöva chefskap visas i ledarskapsforskning med könsperspektiv. Därför har även studiens resultat analyserats ur detta forskningsperspektiv. Yrkeskunnande för såväl chefer som medarbetare beskrivs som regelföljande det vill säga att tolka regler och därefter agera i en konkret situation. En regel säger ingenting om hur den ska följas. Om följandet av en regel skulle beskrivas i en regel skulle följandet av denna regel behöva beskrivas i en regel och så vidare i all oändlighet. Istället måste regler tolkas något som kräver tillgång till ett ”bibliotek” av exempel. Ett specifikt yrkeskunnande för chefer är att utveckla medarbetarnas yrkeskunnande i form av regelföljande. För chefer innebär regelföljande att fatta beslut utifrån tyst kunskap. Den tysta kunskapen bygger på en inre bild av vad som händer just nu i verksamheten och är viktigt för kunder, medarbetare, organisation och omvärld. Samt en förståelse för vad människor drivs av, tänker, behöver, önskar och säger. Den tysta kunskapen byggs upp i ett växelspel mellan reflektion över exempel och ett strategiskt agerande. Ofta är beslutssituationerna otydliga och motstridiga. Det innebär att chefens yrkeskunnande innebär att härbärgera osäkerhet på tre olika sätt. Det första genom att stå för att alla beslut inte kan fattas och att vissa inte kan fattas snabbt. Det andra genom att tydliggöra för medarbetarna att verksamheten inte går att fullt ut styra med regelverk och att omdöme i form av reflekterad erfarenhet därför är en viktig del i allt handlande. Det tredje genom att hantera insikten om att chefspositionen inte automatiskt innebär att det går att fatta rätt beslut. Chefen härbärgerar således omvärldens osäkerhet, medarbetarnas osäkerhet och den egna osäkerheten. I analys av empirin framkommer också en annan aspekt av chefers yrkeskunnande. Chefer måste vara snabba, inte bara i betydelsen att ha hög arbetskapacitet utan också som att aldrig säga nej till eller ifrågasätta leveranser. Jämförelsen med ledarskapsforskning visar framför allt på skillnader i tolkningen av empirin. Chefers regelföljande beteende beskrivs till exempel även inom ledarskapsforskningen. Men där beskrivs det som något som sker ibland, att chefen gör en brandkårsutryckning när något oväntat händer eller fattar beslut i de fall som inte hanteras av regelverken, inte som något som sker ständigt. På samma sätt finns en skillnad i synen på hanterandet av osäkerhet. Det beskrivs inom ledarskapsforskningen som att chefen hanterar det som gått fel och ställer allt till rätta. I denna studie utvecklas begreppet genom att visa att hanterandet för chefen kan innebära att härbärgera den oro osäkerheten medför i organisationen. Empirin visar inte några skillnader mellan kvinnor och män i beskrivningarna av chefers yrkeskunnande. Kvinnor och män utövar chefskap på samma sätt. Männens identifikation med högre chefer tolkas dock som tecken på homosociala strukturer i organisationen. Att männen är mer ambivalenta än kvinnorna till både möjligheten och det egna ansvaret för att driva förändring innebär då att upptagande i en homosocial struktur begränsar handlingsutrymmet. Däremot finns det en skillnad mellan kvinnors och mäns yrkeskunnande som chefer på så sätt att kvinnor till skillnad från män måste förhålla sig till sitt kön. Kvinnorna väljer att hantera detta genom att växla mellan två ledarskapsdiskurser; en könsneutral och en där kön har betydelse. Kvinnornas kunskap om hur kön görs i organisationer, i konstruktionen av ledarskap såväl som i övriga strukturer och processer, är således en del i den tysta kunskap som utgör deras yrkeskunnande. / <p>QC 20120514</p>

This thesis examines the Swedish political response to the challenges posed by gene technology, seen through the prism of governmental commissions. It discerns and analyses continuities and changes in the Swedish political conception of gene technology, over the course of two decades, 1980–2000. This is done by thematically following ideas of “risks” and “ethics” as they are represented in the inner workings and reception of three governmental commissions. The Gene-Ethics Commission (1981–1984), the Gene Technology Commission (1990–1992) and the Biotechnology Commission (1997–2000) form the empirical focal points of this analysis. The first two provided preparatory policy proposals that preceded the implementation of the Swedish gene technology laws of 1991 and 1994. The last one aimed at presenting a comprehensive Swedish biotechnology policy for the new millennium. The study takes into account the role of governmental commissions as arenas where science and politics intersect in Swedish political life, and illuminates how this type of “boundary organisation”, placed on the border of science and politics, impinges on the understanding of the gene technology issue. The commissions have looked into the limits, dangers, possibilities and future applications of gene technology. They have been appointed to deal with the problematic task of distinguishing between what is routine and untested practices, realistic prediction and “science fiction”, what are unique problems and what are problems substantially similar to older ones, what constitutes a responsible approach as opposed to misconduct and what it means to let things “get out of hand” in contrast to being “in control”. Throughout a period of twenty years, media reports have continued to frame the challenges posed by gene technology as a task of balancing risks and benefits, walking the fine line between “frankenfoods” and “miracle drugs”. One salient problem for the commissions to solve was that science and industry seemed to promote a technology the public opposed and resisted, at least in parts. For both politics and science to gain, or regain, public trust it needed to demonstrate that risks – be it environmental, ethical or health related ones – were under control. Under the surface, it was much more complicated than “science helping politics” to make informed and rational decisions on how to formulate a regulatory policy. Could experts be trusted to participate in policy-making in a neutral way and was it not important, in accordance with democratic norms, to involve the public?

Det övergripande transportpolitiska målet i Sverige har sedan 1998 varit att säkerställa en samhällsekonomiskt effektiv och långsiktigt hållbar transportförsörjning för medborgarna och näringslivet i hela landet. Under perioden fram till 2010 har samhällsekonomiska underlag fått en allt tyngre roll i den formulerade transportpolitiken och den statliga styrningen av den långsiktiga planeringen som ett verktyg för att prioritera mellan investeringar i nya vägar och järnvägslänkar. I studien utforskades den samhällsekonomiska analysens roll i den formulerade transportpolitiken och dess styrning av den regionala infrastrukturplaneringen. Studien utgår ifrån ett konstruktivistiskt angreppssätt och en syn på relationen mellan vetenskap/expertis och politik som samproducerad. Det empiriska material som ligger till grund för analysen består av dokument och intervjutranskriptioner. De dokument som har analyserats är publikationer om den samhällsekonomiska analysmetoden, utgivna av myndigheten Statens institut för kommunikationsanalys (SIKA) och dels olika typer av transportpolitiska dokument. Intervjuerna genomfördes med tretton regionala beslutsfattare och en tjänsteman, vilka varit delaktiga i upprättandet av en regional infrastrukturplan i Västra Götaland. Studien visar att samhällsekonomisk analys är en värderingsmetod med stort inflytande i den formulerade transportpolitiken. Trots att den framställs som ett objektivt sätt att utvärdera den samhällsekonomiska effektiviteten hos väg- och järnvägsobjekt, och i förlängningen deras bidrag till det övergripande målet, utgör metodens grunder till stor del en svart låda i den transportpolitiska diskussionen. Detta gäller även hos de intervjuade beslutsfattarna, men de konstruerar den enskilde politikerns omdöme som den viktigaste grunden för beslut. / The study deals with applied cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and the significant role this method has acquired in transport policy in Sweden since 1998. It is a study of a valuation method at the intersection between neoclassical economics, expertise, Swedish transport policy, long term planning and regional decision makers. Specifically, it focuses on the co-production of expertise and politics and how boundaries are drawn between them in relation to valuation. Departing from a constructionist approach to science and expertise, the study is concerned with how CBA and valuation is depicted in various contexts. The empirical foundation of the study concists of documents dealing with CBA, several kinds of transport policy documents and interview transcripts resulting from interviews with thirteen regional decision makers and one regional official. The analysis shows the significant influence of CBA on transport policy. While this valuation method is depicted as an objective valuation tool in planning, its conceptual foundation tends to be black-boxed outside the domain of expertise. This applies also to the interviewed regional decision makers. However, they delimit the space for CBA as a sufficient decision support. In addition, they construct judgment as the most important basis for decisions on infrastructure. Still, it is argued, the black-boxing of CBA in transport policy affect the political landscape negatively: it entails a risk that important political issues are made more inaccessible for public debate.