Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also referred to as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), is a symptomatically defined and debilitating condition that presents as a range of physiological and psychological effects. Post-exertional fatigue and ongoing low energy levels are cardinal features. Whilst ME-like conditions have been recognised for at least two hundred years, they have been characterised over recent decades by a fiercely contested debate as to whether aetiology is primarily psychological or physiological. ME sufferers experience profound changes to their self-perception, ability to maintain daily routines and activities and how they are perceived in terms of their capacity to carry out social roles, including illness-status. The contested aetiology results in-part from a climate of dualistic thought and the biomedical model upon which ME is treated and theorised. Whilst the effects of ME on self experience have been investigated from various qualitative and quantitative perspectives, the primary purpose of this thesis is to develop a psychosocial framework from which to explore previously neglected dimensions of the effect of ME on self experience. Developing a psychosocial understanding of ME is in keeping with a turn towards post-Cartesian and non-dualistic thinking. The second interconnected purpose of this thesis is to address the role played by the material environment and objects and to conceptualise their importance and relation to self and how it is affected by ME. This is currently absent in the literature on ME. Developing a psychosocial framework suitable for this purpose rested on a synthesis of Actor Network Theory (ANT) and a psychoanalytically influenced use of metaphor and metonymy. At the heart of this synthesis are the notions of relational ontology (Latour, 1997; DeLanda, 2002) and assemblage (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987; DeLanda, 2002; Hodder, 2012). A relational ontology focuses on the relations between disparate objects such as material artefacts, humans, other organisms and concepts and avoids prioritising any one ‘thing’ as more important than another. The notion of assemblage has emerged alongside ideas concerning complexity, chaos and indeterminacy and informs a vocabulary addressing the problem of causality, determination and the stability of social and psychological phenomena (Venn, 2006). As part of a psychoanalytically informed psychosocial framework these concepts enable an exploration of ME by bringing together disparate aspects such as everyday objects, experiences, symptoms and environments in a non-causal, non-dualistic and processual manner. The psychoanalytic element also enables an exploration of the unconscious and irrational aspects of experience, which is most pertinent with regards to the effects of ME. Thus, the premise of this research was to establish a psychosocial methodology and theoretical basis from which to explore the effects of ME on self experience. Moreover, this methodology was designed to engage with the complex, coincident and entangled nature of the symptoms, discourses, objects, material artefacts, environments and non-human organisms that ME appears to be comprised of. Methods were developed which enabled the researcher to be with and explore the day-to-day life and routines of eight ME sufferers in their everyday environments over a six month period. This involved working with the ME sufferers taking part primarily in their own homes and spaces around their home which they frequented, such as shopping malls and even a cemetery; in itself novel in terms of qualitative research into ME. Of these eight sufferers, three were male [age range 49 – 65; earliest formal diagnosis of ME occurring in 2005] and five females [age range 25 – 63; earliest diagnosis 2002]. Two sufferers were in paid employment, one was retired and five were unable to work due to their ME. Due to the extensive nature of the data, only 3 case studies, two male and three female, were selected for in-depth analysis. Cases selected were those that most clearly illustrated central analytic themes. Data comprised talk, audio-visual material and the affective responses of the researcher. Analytic methods were devised which initially adopted a thematic approach before metaphoric and metonymic equivalences were drawn between what ME sufferers discussed and aspects of the routines, objects and environments they were engaged with. This informed descriptions of how these things became networked, in an ANT sense, and how self experience was implicated. A key finding which emerged is the notion of debilitating spaces. This term captures the manner in which, for certain sufferers, the experience and hence the maintenance of ME was intrinsically enmeshed with their immediate physical environment. Further findings discussed include the way in which seemingly everyday objects such as food blenders can be co-opted by sufferers as a means of enhancing their self-experience in light of ME. Overall, the findings of this PhD are discussed in terms of the success and applicability of that premise and its contribution to the field of psychosocial approaches. The key assertion is that the methodology enhances an understanding of ME and its effects, highlighting the variable yet particular nature of ME and its effect on self experience and in incorporating the hitherto unconsidered range of objects outlined above.

A estrutura do controle de grandes empresas interfere na competição de mercado, bem como na estabilidade financeira deste. Estudos internacionais pesquisaram o controle das empresas em seus países, outros expandiram tal visão para as empresas transnacionais, realizando uma análise a nível mundial, ambas com o objetivo de descrever a disposição dos principais controladores em uma estrutura de rede. Dessa maneira, o problema central deste trabalho consiste em verificar a disposição dos acionistas de grandes empresas no Brasil e, para isso, tem como objetivo principal analisar a rede de controle formada por acionistas e empresas listadas na BM&FBOVESPA no ano de 2018 com uso da técnica de Redes. Os dados utilizados para elaborar a rede foram obtidos através do Economatica. Como resultado, foi observada uma rede com uma componente gigante composta por 726 atores e uma rede de acionistas com baixa densidade, alta modularidade e caminho médio indicando características de rede mundo pequeno, com atores centrais de grande influência na estrutura. Os resultados contribuem para a compreensão da atual estrutura de participação no mercado acionário brasileiro, pois evidencia e quantifica as relações entre acionistas e empresas. Espera-se que este estudo colabore para novas investigações acerca das particularidades do mercado financeiro brasileiro. / The structure of the control of large companies interferes in the market competition, as well as in the financial stability of this one. International studies have researched corporate control in their countries, others have expanded such a view to transnational corporations by conducting a worldwide review, both with the purpose of describing the disposition of the major controllers in a network structure. Thus, the main problem of this work is to verify the disposition of the shareholders of large companies in Brazil and, for this purpose, its main objective is to analyze the control network formed by shareholders and companies listed on BM&FBOVESPA in 2018 using Networks. The data used to elaborate the network were obtained from Economatica. As a result, it was observed a network with a giant component composed of 726 actors, with low density, high modularity and medium path indicating network characteristics small world, with central actors of great influence in the structure. The results contribute to the understanding of the current structure of participation in the Brazilian stock market, since it evidences and quantifies the relations between shareholders and companies. It is hoped that this study will contribute to further research on the particularities of the Brazilian financial market.

The following thesis presents an empirical investigation of hybrid war in eastern Ukraine, drawing on the insights from Actor- Network Theory and New Type Wars theory. Taking a different route in studying a complex phenomenon of hybrid war, this study focuses on the social-material networks which constitute the hybrid war. This thesis aims to identify the actors and analyse their interactions at different stages of war. Actor-Network Theory will be used in this research to ask the questions, what role do the non-human actors play in hybrid warfare in eastern Ukraine, and how do they affect the dynamics of war. Highlighting the significance of non-human actors, this thesis aims to contribute to the existing literature on hybrid warfare in eastern Ukraine and thus shed light on the peculiarities of this phenomenon.

Carbon is a metric at the centre of contemporary debates. It is invoked to explain responses to climate change and justify political decisions over the economy and environment. Its ubiquity might suggest that the definition of carbon is broadly agreed upon, but along with greenhouse gas (GHG) measurements, articulating carbon as a commodity has incorporated debates over sustainable development (SD). The use of market-based mechanisms to manage carbon quantities results in articulations of the concept that reinforce consumption as a means to achieve public policy aims, but these are also contested. This research examines the concept of carbon to explore what might be taken-for-granted or overlooked when carbon is invoked. The research takes an ethnographic approach to carbon by examining offsetting – paying for reductions in GHG emissions at one location to make up for a continuation or increase of emissions at another. The novelty, complexity and lack of trust in carbon offsetting have resulted in numerous voluntary standards to improve consumer confidence in this commodity. The standard organisations’ position in codifying, measuring and accrediting carbon makes them valuable sites at which to describe the materialities of the concept. I use data collected from the administrative offices of two voluntary carbon offset standards in 2010-11 to explore what is included and excluded within carbon as it was enacted at these sites. Carbon is described in this research as an assemblage and a multiplicity – it is articulated in varying ways by actors within offset markets. Through the work of standards organisations, the “orthodoxies” of offsetting are identified as taken-for-granted features of carbon. In contrast, the position of SD is identified as variable across different articulations of carbon. Using a post-Actor Network Theory approach innovatively combined with Suchman’s typology of legitimacy, this diversity in carbon is not normatively evaluated; instead the focus is on how assemblages of carbon differentiate the legitimacy of SD as a feature of offsetting. Some take SD for granted as an inherent aspect of offsetting, for others it is a desirable feature, but not necessary. Alternatively it could be offered as an add-on possibility without suggesting SD implied better offsetting, and for others offsetting was best enacted without assembling SD concerns. Exploring carbon as an assemblage demonstrates the continuous and flexible constructions of carbon as a commodity and concept. When examined in detail, the marketing strategies and technical rules of different standards produce varying articulations of carbon. Furthermore, this research explores how the work of voluntary carbon offset standards excludes the scrutiny of sites of consumption of offsets. This exclusion, as with the integration of SD, is notable for the differences in how it is articulated by standard staff – challenged by some, taken-for-granted by others but with diverse rationales for each position. These features are informative in relation to the roles ascribed to voluntary standards across other commodities as well as in relation to carbon. Attending to the multiplicity that exists in the daily practices of offset markets suggests possibilities for those looking to stabilise or reform the concept of carbon as well as understanding the activities of voluntary standards.

Esta tese apresenta um estudo sobre o processo de produção da Mídia Ninja tendo por guia teórico-metodológico a Teoria Ator-Rede (TAR). A investigação procurou compreender as redes de mediação e o papel dos objetos técnicos na ação do coletivo, bem como relacionar o tipo de trabalho realizado pela Mídia Ninja com os estudos de comunicação e jornalismo. O método de pesquisa utilizado foi inspirado na etnografia, aplicando a técnica da observação participante em dois momentos distintos (maio e junho de 2015, fevereiro de 2016), aliado à documentação em texto, vídeos, fotos e entrevistas de momentos significativos do coletivo em 2013. Em sua primeira parte, a tese apresenta algumas das principais noções da TAR, como a relação de simetria entre sujeitos e objetos, e as aproxima com a mídia e jornalismo. Na sequência, foi descrito o início da Mídia Ninja como coletivo de mídia estabelecido a partir do Fora do Eixo, uma rede de produção cultural com diversos pontos espalhados pelo país, e tornado mundialmente conhecido a partir da cobertura das manifestações de junho de 2013 no Brasil. Na segunda parte, a análise rastreou três momentos entre junho e julho de 2013 para acompanhar o processo de início do uso de um software de transmissão ao vivo, o TwitCasting, e perceber quais foram os deslocamentos produzidos na produção de narrativas ao vivo no coletivo. Depois, a descrição focou nos fluxos de produção da redação Ninja, realçando os espaços, os modos de convivência e a organização ao mesmo tempo fixa e volátil de seus participantes. Por fim, foi possível perceber alguns objetos técnicos como mediadores determinantes no processo de produção de informação da Mídia Ninja, e a dificuldade de definir previamente o "mosaico de parcialidades" da ação Ninja enquanto jornalismo ou ativismo, já que tudo é performado de acordo com a situação envolvida e o movimento realizado pelos atores. / This thesis presents a study about the production process of the Mídia Ninja having Actor- Network Theory (ANT) as a theoretical-methodological guide. The investigation sought to understand mediation networks and the role of technical objects in the collective action, as well as to relate the kind of work done by the Mídia Ninja with the studies of communication and journalism. The research method used was inspired by ethnography, applying the technique of participant observation in two different moments (May and June 2015, February 2016), allied with documentation in text, videos, photos and interviews of significant moments of the collective in 2013. In first part, the thesis presents some of the main notions of ANT, such as the relation of symmetry between subjects and objects, and approaches them with media and journalism. In the sequence, the beginning of the Mídia Ninja was described as a media collective established from Fora do Eixo, a cultural production network with several points spread throughout the country, and made known worldwide from the coverage of the manifestations of June 2013 in Brazil. In the second part, the analysis tracked three moments between June and July 2013 to follow the process of beginning to use a live streaming software, TwitCasting, and to perceive the displacements produced in the production of live narratives into the collective. Then, the description focused on the production flows of the Ninja newsroom highlighting the spaces, the ways of living together, and the organization that is both fixed and volatile of its participants. Finally, it was possible to perceive some technical objects as determining mediators in the production process of the Mídia Ninja information, and the difficulty to define previously the "mosaic of partialities" of the Ninja action as journalism or activism, since everything is performed according to the situation involved and the movement carried out by the actors.

When producing an interview report the researcher is put to the test of describing the qualitative interview method in terms of assumed orderly steps and procedures taken during the interview process, while at the same time account for a very social dynamic process. In practice, even the most carefully prepared scenario for a qualitative interview study probably does not correspond to the expectations made. What happens between the plans and the actual interview itself? This issue is investigated by contrasting the actual engagement of the participants in an interview project to how these relationships are accounted for in Master thesis from the Swedish School of Library- and Information Science in Borås. Theory and methodology from Actor Network Theory (ANT) have been applied into the area of qualitative interviews. Three theses have been analyzed highlighting accounts of the crucial first contact, where the study is presented to the interviewees, and interactions with individual and collective actors. It is suggested that qualitative interview, by nature, is a method that one learns from practice, by experience or by the study of how experienced practitioners work. It is also suggested that students can learn from one another by discussing interview practices in there theses. / Program: Informationsspecialist

The education of looked-after children (LAC) in the care of the Local Authority (LA) is supported by government initiatives to reduce the attainment gap that exists between LAC and their peers. Long-term outcomes for LAC pupils are poor (Sebba et al. 2015). The Virtual School (VS) has a statutory role in the education of LAC (DfE, 2014a) and aims to encourage stringent monitoring and intervention for LAC pupils, for example via a personalised education plan (PEP) outlining attainment, strategies intended to accelerate progress, and resources needed for doing so. The PEP process involves termly meetings between pupil, Social Worker and school's designated teacher. The current study uses Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Latour, 1999) as a lens through which to conceptualise change for LAC pupils during the PEP process. Data was collected from three PEP meetings and accompanying documentation in one LA setting, using ethnomethodology, in order to explore the human and non-human actors in the PEP network which are active in creating change for LAC. The analysis made visible the strong role of the PEP document in providing structure for the meeting, along with the instrumental role of the designated teacher and their knowledge of the pupil embodied in non-human entities such as resources, timetabling and grades. The Social Worker influence on the network was less visible. ANT is explored as a material semiotic tool for analysis through a conceptual review of current literature within educational research, with a focus on the construction of research questions. The review demonstrates that ANT can attempt to answer questions about 'how' things came to be and 'who' and 'what' they are composed of. The current research also incorporates an appraisal of evidence-based practice, and a consideration of the implications and dissemination of the findings of the study at LA level and beyond.

'The Company' had introduced 'Being Responsible' a program for the embedding of responsibility-sustainability. Corporate responsibility-sustainability here describes efforts to address entangled cares of responsibility and sustainability. The program showed potential to change the business model, which led to the research problem: 'How can responsibility-sustainability programs change business models?'In this thesis, business models are understood as three dynamically interlinked states: Logics, devices and actor networks. Business model change may happen through the embedding of responsibility-sustainability into any of these states, and through the dynamics between them. Main conceptual lenses are organizational institutionalism and actor-network theory, which are connected through a social constructionist philosophy. Qualitative methods used include an in-depth case study of The Company (104 interviews with 72 interviewees) and thematic analyses of business model descriptions (devices) of FTSE corporations (100 documents).Seven papers study distinct aspects of the research problem: Papers 1 and 2 provide a conceptual basis. Papers 3 and 4 study how the embedding of responsibility-sustainability into the FTSE100s' business model devices changed the logics they described. Papers 5-7 study embedding into The Company's business model actor network. I found how embedding of responsibility-sustainability into the three states of commercial business models happened through three processes: Blending of logics, combination of device elements and translation between actors. Such embedding of responsibility-sustainability led to misalignment and tensions between responsibility-sustainability and the dominant commercial logic. This misalignment in turn fueled the dynamics of change between logics, devices and actor networks. First, this thesis contributes to an emerging literature on the dynamics of business model logics, devices and actor networks. It makes explicit the distinction between these states and illustrates how their dynamics provide novel insight into business model change. Secondly, I showcase how actor-network theory may complement the activity systems study of business models as well as stakeholder thinking in responsibility-sustainability research. Insights into how to use devices to change business models and to embed responsibility-sustainability appear relevant for practitioners.

This thesis aims to assess the usefulness of actor-network theory (Latour, 2005) in understanding the process of implementing mobile phone-based innovations within the broader government-led public sector in less developed countries. An examination of the literature on implementations of innovations involving mobile-phones suggests that previous studies have either focused on the social elements or the physical elements in isolation and have failed to consider how one influences the other. It is proposed that actor-network theory may be able to provide an alternative ontological perspective that bridges this social physical divide and allows the influence of the relationships between the human and the non-human elements to be taken into consideration. In order to assess this, the thesis utilises a single case study from its inception, through development, to its eventual end. The case in question, is the implementation of a mobile phone- based information system known as MADEX. This effort, is a nation-wide project made by the federal government of Nigeria to deploy this innovation within the government-led public health sector. MADEX was designed to support a nation-wide scheme known as the Midwives Service Scheme (MSS); a public sector initiative that was set up to address the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) relating to mother and child health. The main objective of MADEX in its initial stages was to enable the routine reporting of maternal health information from primary health facilities across the country up to the national level (NPHCDA) where this information is required by public health administrators for action - that is regular and timely monitoring of key maternal and child health indicators as well as strategic planning and the setting of priorities. The expectation was that, MADEX will bring about increased information accessibility for monitoring and planning, ensure global transparency and accountability in the area of maternal and child health statistics and promote m-health activities. An interpretive approach using qualitative methods was adopted in this research to obtain and analyse the data acquired through interviews. These interview, were conducted with a total of about 75 participant from across the various levels of the public health system. Whilst initially these events are narrated using a traditional chronological format, the use of such a format hides the complex nature of the relationships that enable the case under study. Actor-network theory therefore provides a means of exposing some of this complexity and as a result can be regarded as a useful methodology for understanding mobile phone innovations deployed in the public sector of LDCs. In addition, the thesis shows that the actor-network perspective allows the process of implementing mobile-phone innovations, to be considered in a manner that demonstrates the complex interdependent relationships between the physical and the social dimensions as well as the impact of non-humans in shaping this process.

O presente estudo se destina a pensar como o cuidado é performado nas práticas realizadas numa escola que segue a proposta da Pedadogia Waldorf, partindo da orientação teórico-metodológica da Teoria Ator-rede (TAR). A proposta é repensar esse espaço através das relações de cuidado que são estabelecidas nas práticas, especialmente através do vínculo que se dá na ação professor / aluno. Percebe-se que os alunos são aqueles os quais se deve conduzir e os professores, aqueles que devem conduzi-los, muitas vezes sem saber ao certo a utilidade do estão ensinando. Mol (2006) propõe que o cuidado tem uma Lógica própria, intitulada por ela como Lógica do Cuidado. Esta se contrapõe à Lógica da Escolha, a qual retrata o cuidado sendo estabelecido por um especialista que indica o que deve ou não ser feito, cabendo a quem é cuidado, seguir as orientações do cuidador. No entanto, uma prática que segue a Lógica do Cuidado, parte da ideia de que, aquele que é cuidado, é tão ator quanto aquele que cuida, uma vez que aquele não é passivo em relação ao próprio cuidado ou as condições em que este se dá. Amplia-se assim a rede do cuidar, sendo considerados todos os atores que a performam, compreendendo o processo de ensino-aprendizagem enquanto um conjunto de afetações, integrando a afetividade e a cognição. O trabalho foi desenvolvido acompanhando uma escola Waldorf, para observação da rotina e de atividades onde são performadas práticas de cuidado, especialmente aquelas que seguem a Lógica do Cuidado, o que nos viabiliza pensar outro devir escola. O campo estudado contribuiu para desconstruir a forma tradicionalmente performada de cuidado, viabilizando pensar a escola enquanto um espaço que amplie as possibilidades de cuidar. / The present study was designed to consider how care is performed in practice conducted in a school that follows the proposal of Pedadogia Waldorf, based on the theoretical and methodological orientation of Actor-Network Theory (ART). The proposal is to rethink this space through care relationships that are established in practices, especially through the link that takes action on teacher / student. It is noticed that the students are the ones who should lead and teachers, who should lead them, often unsure of the utility they are teaching. Mol (2006) proposes that care has a logic of its own, as she headed for Logic of Care. This opposes the Logic of Choice, which portrays the care being provided by a specialist that indicates what should or should not be done, being who is careful to follow the guidelines of the caregiver. However, a practice that follows the logic of Care, part of the idea that one who is so careful is actor as one who cares, since he is not passive about their own care or the conditions under which this occurs. Thus expands network of caring, all of the actors being considered that perform this network, comprising the teaching-learning as a set of affectations, integrating affectivity and cognition. The study was conducted following a Waldorf school for observation and routine activities which are performed care practices, especially those who follow the logic of Care, which enables us to think becoming another school. The field study helped to deconstruct the form traditionally care performed, enabling think the school as a space that expands the possibilities of caring.