Introduction: This thesis proposes new ways to think about change, a much discussed yet under-defined concept within organisational studies. The vast majority of existing work focuses on processes of organisational change, i.e. the management of change, whilst a small minority considers change in organisations, offering theories of change at the individual level. This study aimed to reverse the established research order by exploring individual interpretations of experiences of change at work to enrich and inform our understandings and indicate further and alternate areas for study. Methods: A Foucauldian theoretical lens was utilised to consider how ideas about change in the workplace have been constructed over time and why we think about change the way we do. A mixed methods approach was utilised. Bibliometric analysis and meta-narrative review were used to explore the development of the concept of change within organisational studies. A qualitative study was then conducted within the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence and National Health Service in England as organisations generally acknowledged to have undergone sustained, significant change over time. In-depth interviews (n=40) were conducted together with documentary analysis of materials volunteered by participants in order to investigate what individuals mean by change, how they distinguish between change and that which remains relatively constant (i.e. between change and stability), and how relationships are affected by change in organisations. These data were analysed using deductive and inductive analytical frameworks. A reflexive approach was adopted throughout data collection and analysis. How these insights might inform further research into change in organisations was then discussed in the context of related literature. Results: Six themes emerged from the investigation, namely: i) uncertainty at work; ii) progress and change; iii) dissonance and division; iv) definitions and boundaries; v) risks and vulnerabilities; vi) the role of stability. Participants described an organisational context dominated by change, most particularly frequent, imposed changes involving re-structuring and job moves. Change was seen to have created divisions between employees and the organisation, their colleagues and their sense of self, highlighting dissonance between personal/ professional and organisational values. Change was seen to go beyond the boundaries of the organisation into social and intimate worlds beyond work. Accounts of change included vulnerabilities for the organisation (e.g. reduced performance and employee dis-identification) and for individuals (e.g. employees’ well-being and the potential for discrimination). In contrast, stability was a neglected but important consideration for participants. Conclusion: This study suggests the normalisation of change as an everyday undertaking at work, contributing to individual and organisational uncertainty and vulnerability. This indicates not only a need to more clearly define change as a subject for study, but also a lack of consideration of stability as a source of certainty and balance. The use of change as a mechanism of control has contributed to a growth of managerialism and individualism and there is a need to better understand the troublesome effects of imposed change and its associated risks within and beyond the organisation. Conversely, the dynamic effects of organic change may offer significant benefits in allowing the organisation to adapt in accord with the wider environment.

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Syftet med denna studie var att utifrån ett maktperspektiv undersöka hur juridisk, ideologisk och ekonomisk styrning tillsammans med uppföljning och utvärdering påverkar och påverkas av förskolechefens pedagogiska ledarskap i förskolan. Fokus har varit kvalitetsbegreppet, systematiskt kvalitetsarbete och dess eventuella påverkan på förskolans praktik och förskolechefens möjligheter att genomföra sitt pedagogiska ledarskap. De metoder som använts är dokument och litteraturstudier, intervju med några få öppna frågor samt en ytlig form av diskursanalys av enkätsvar från en tidigare av annan forskare genomförd studie. Som analysverktyg har även olika begrepp ur Michel Foucaults maktanalytik använts. Studieobjektet i studien har varit pedagogiskt ledarskap i och styrning av förskolans kvalitetsutvecklande praktik, som del i ett större sammanhang. Kunskapsobjektet var de diskurser om makt (olika former av styrning) och ledarskap och eventuella konflikter mellan dessa perspektiv som finns i förskolechefens praktik. Studiens resultat visade att styrsystemets fyra delsystem alla existerar som parallella dominerande diskurser i Förskolechefens operativa praktik, vilket påverkar dennes möjlighet att fatta beslut och genomföra handlingar. Slutsatser som kan dras utifrån denna studie är att metodvalet för systematiskt kvalitetsarbete har inverkan på Förskolechefens pedagogiska ledarskap och även indirekt på förskolans praktik.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka vilka diskurser som framträder när förskollärare talar om det standardiserade observationsmaterialet TRAS. Studien bygger på en kvalitativ metod där sex förskollärare har deltagit i semistrukturerade intervjuer. Den insamlade empirin har sedan analyserats och tolkats utifrån en diskursanalytisk ansats för att förstå bakomliggande diskurser. De diskurser som är framträdande och som diskuteras är den moderna synen och den postmoderna synen på kunskap och utveckling. Resultatet visar att den moderna och postmoderna diskursen löper parallellt i förskolans verksamhet. Förskollärare verkar vilja uttrycka sig i termer av det postmoderna perspektivet men i talet om det standardiserade observationsmaterialet TRAS blir det svårt att undvika begrepp som kan härledas till den mer moderna synen på barns utveckling och lärande. Förskollärare finner svårigheter att fylla i det standardiserade observationsmaterialet då kunskap är beroende av kontext. När ett barns kunnande fylls i studeras barnet i särskilda planerade eller oplanerade situationer. Förskollärarna bedömer först barnet enskilt för att sedan diskutera i arbetslaget. Barnet studeras från ett vuxenperspektiv och tränas utan vetskap för att nå en viss kunskap. Därmed uteblir lärprocessen i jakten på den sanna kunskapen. Tiden är en avgörande faktor vilket påverkar att materialet inte används som en integrerad del i verksamheten. Den sanna kunskapen som materialet eftersträvar exkluderar mänsklig mångfald som samhället präglas av i vår tid.

Abstract Literary portraits of African Americans’ struggles in the United States for a more equal society have provided valuable insights into the pain and hardship they had to endure for a large portion of the United States’ existence. Ralph Ellison’s famous novel Invisible Man is one of those novels and is the primary source for this study. In this novel the unnamed African American protagonist tries to find a place of his own within a segregated society and has to succumb to the white man’s will to be part of American society. Despite the segregation and subjugation, the protagonist believes that he can progress in American society through education, but his development is constantly thwarted because of his skin colour. Ellison utilizes features from the bildungsroman to highlight how differently education works for African Americans and white people, since the traditional progression of the bildungsroman is not possible for the protagonist despite his trying to follow its traditional pattern. The thwarted progression instead seems to move the plot into another type of progression, namely a spiritual progression. I will therefore conclude that education in Invisible Man creates segregation and subjugation and that the protagonist’s progression is subverted into a spiritual progression. How the protagonist’s journey can be subverted is related to how power structures and discourses influence people’s actions and beliefs. I will use Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish and The Archaeology of Knowledge to explain how power structures and discourses enable segregation, subjugation and a spiritual progression. Furthermore, the result will reveal that, because of surrounding power structures and discourses, the protagonist cannot do anything in this American society other than conform to prevailing power structures or hide himself until he knows how to battle these structures. Keywords: Education; Segregation; Bildungsroman; Michel Foucault; African American. / <p>Literary Bachelor Essay</p>

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Syftet med detta arbete var att försöka få insikt i gymnasieelevers olovliga frånvaro, samt undersöka om detta är ett uttryckt för ungdomars reaktion mot förtryckande sociala och symboliska strukturer där skolan kan uppfattas som en representant för maktens hegemoni. Undersökningen baseras på kvalitativa intervjuer och observationer i ett praktiskt program där olovlig frånvaro var ett prioriterat problem. Med stöd av Foucaults teorier om maktrelationer och ungdomskultur har detta arbete kunnat konstatera att skolk är det mest tydliga och utbredda av alla former av aversion mot skolan.

The purpose of the thesis is to understand how users of Facebook relate to what they publish and to who has access to it. This is analyzed from the perspective of social networking sites as arenas for participatory surveillance, drawing on the Foucauldian notion of power/knowledge as the basis for surveillance. The empirical material consists of four qualitative interviews with users of Facebook. In summary, the users of the site think of it as a natural part of everyday life within the framework of Facebook as a mediated public. The surveillance is not hierarchical in a traditional sense, based on formal power relations, but still shapes the use of the site.

Thesis advisor: Stephen F. Brown / The study of Thomas Aquinas generally focuses on theological questions in his work, and ignores certain aspects of what might be called his "spiritual life." Though there are exceptions to this rule, there are numerous themes in the writings of Thomas Aquinas which have not been given their due. In light of this fact, this dissertation seeks to provide an extended treatment of two components of the work of Thomas Aquinas which receive little attention: the role of spiritual exercises in his writing, and the form of reflexivity--one's understanding of and relation to one's self--he recommends. As a way of approaching these issues, I draw from the work of two historical philosophers, Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault, using the methodological questions they employ in their writings on the classical world. Both Hadot and Foucault argued that there was something different about the way philosophy was accomplished in the antique world, something which was lost as philosophy shifted in the modern period. Hadot's work focuses, in particular, on the use of spiritual exercises in the formation of the person--that is, how a person becomes the ideal form they ought to be. Foucault, on the other hand, focused on the alternative form of reflexivity as found in the work of classical philosophers, and used it for fruitful comparison and critique of the contemporary forms of reflexivity found in the modern world. Both of these thinkers, however, never included in their study the medieval period, or at least not in an extended and meaningful way. Their questions, however, are particularly relevant to the work of Thomas Aquinas, as he offers both an extended treatment of spiritual exercises, as well as a form of reflexivity similar in many ways to classical forms. As a way of highlighting these two topics in Thomas Aquinas, I first provide an overview of the work of Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault as it relates to these topics. I then move onto a discussion of the current state of scholarship on "spirituality" in Thomas Aquinas, and suggest the ways in which this dissertation can improve on this current state. In the subsequent chapters, I begin a discussion of the concept of virtue as found in Thomas Aquinas, and its relation to both spiritual exercises and reflexivity, the description of which in Thomas forms the basis for the next two chapters. Finally, I turn to an in depth application of these methodological questions by turning to two different works of Thomas; first, I turn to his De perfectione spiritualis vitae, a short and rarely read work in which Thomas explains the practices which accompany the formation of a person in charity. Second, I turn to the Summa Theologiae and the cardinal virtues, drawing attention to the presence of spiritual exercises in a work typically treated as merely expositional. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

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