QC 20101206

Worried voices in the Swedish road maintenance and operations industry claim that innovations and technical development has ceased in the last decades. One hypothesis is that it is an effect of the public tendering reform introduced in 1992. Since 2001, the Swedish railroad industry has also introduced public tendering and awarded contracts to private contractors. This study examines the validity of these claims by analyzing the incentives to innovation in the past and at present. The analysis is concluded by proposals how the innovative climate can be improved between the road and rail administrations and their contractors.

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The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse purchasing strategies and their interdependence with the production process and supplier relationships in industrialized housing. The thesis is a multiple case study of four Swedish industrialized timber-housing manufacturers. The case studies included interviews with top managers concerning purchasing, production and supplier relationships. Production is considered the heart of the company. Therefore, to gain an in-depth knowledge of how production affects purchasing and thus supplier relationships and vice versa, observations were made to study the production process. Many different parts and competences need to be coordinated in the creation of a house. In the West, the construction industry has been heavily criticized for low efficiency and effectiveness. Conclusions from the case studies showed that codevelopment, customization and secure deliveries are regarded highly by industrial house builders and to obtain them, long-term relationships with suppliers are preferred. Industrialized house builders are argued to have more long-term relationships with their suppliers than traditional on-site builders. Industrial house builders choose their suppliers based on the purchased products’ value-in-production rather than price. Product and process innovations created in collaboration with suppliers seem to be a way to enhance the production process of houses. Through the site resource of the factory, industrial house builders have the potential to refine their processes in win-win partnerships with suppliers for a more efficient and effective production of houses, as onsite work is harder to standardize and control.

Klassrumsbedömning i matematik på gymnasienivå är en licentiatstudie med en intention att närma sig, fånga upp samt förstå och tolka lärares ageranden, tankar, upplevelser och reflektioner inom och om bedömningen i matematik i gymnasiet. En annan avsikt är delvis att fylla i luckan mellan det målrelaterade kursbedömningssystemet och det praktiska fältet med en kvalitativ forskningsstudie om lärarerfarenheter från gymnasiets matematikkurser.Studien kan inte på något sätt betraktas som uttömmande. Den är selektiv till sin natur. Det finns många andra faktorer som också påverkar de deltagande lärarnas handlingar, funderingar och beslut inom bedömningsfältet av vilka endast ett fåtal berörs av studien. Det finns även så många matematiklärare utanför studien. Lägg likaså till mer eller mindre involverade och intresserade organisationer och institutioner.Intervjuer och fokusgruppsamtal med ett antal matematiklärare från diverse gymnasieskolor har spelats in och detaljerat analyserats genom transkriberingar. Den metodanalytiska och den teoretiska ansatsen från grundad teori har succesivt lett till urskiljandet av åtta typer av bedömningsstrategier: den intuitiva, den inväntande, den kontinuerliga, den likvärdiga, den målinriktade, den provinriktade, den undervisningskopplade samt självbedömningsstrategin och till en teori om hur lärare beskriver och reflekterar om bedömning i matematik på gymnasiet. Strategierna uppvisar en rikedom i lärarnas resonemang om bedömning. Teorin har avslutningsvis fört studien till ett antal begrepp och tillhörande kategoriseringar som har underättat förstaelsen av lärarnas handlingar och resonemang inom matematikbedömningen på gymnasiet. / Classroom Assessment in Mathematics at secondary school level is a licentiate study with the intention to approach and interpret teachers’ actions, thoughts and experiences of assessment in mathematics. Another intention of the study is to, through qualitative research on teachers’ experiences of the mathematical courses, bridge the gap between the target-related course system and teachers ́ practical work. Finally, the intent is to provide qualitative formative feedback of the course assessment regarding teachers ́ evaluation strategies. A more qualitative feedback from evaluation, analysis, discussion and reflection will undoubtedly lead to improved mathematics assessment.There are many other factors that also affect teachers’ activities, thoughts and decisions within the assessment area of which few are only concerned within the study. In the present study, interviews and focus-group discussions have been conducted with a group of secondary mathematics teachers. All interviews were tape recorded and detailed analysed in order to give an insight into teachers ́ thoughts and action and further, their experiences of assessing students ́ mathematic knowledge. The analytic and theoretical method of the grounded theory has gradually led to eight assessment strategies and a theory of how the teachers describe and reflect on assessment in mathematics at upper secondary school. Those strategies were: the intuitive, the awaited, the continuous, the equivalent, the target-related, the test-oriented, the instruction-connected and self-assessment strategy. Finally the theory that was grounded out of the data brought a number of concepts and their categorizations. In turn the concepts and the categorizations have facilitated the understanding of the teachers’ activities and thinking in mathematics assessment at upper secondary school.The study gives an important insight into teachers ́ assessment strategies and the reason for their actions, something which has implication for mathematics education in upper secondary school as well as teacher education practices.

This critical analysis focuses on my investigations over the past almost 24 years into what I term the ‘Satanic ritual abuse myth’ – or ‘Satanic panic’ – the controversy over recovered versus false memories, and, more recently, the validity of the diagnosis of multiple personality disorder (MPD), now known as dissociative identity disorder (DID). This reflective analysis, written for the PhD by prior publication, explores how my journalism has made an original and significant contribution to knowledge in my own field, investigative journalism, and how it relates to – and has contributed to - the literature in several academic disciplines – the psychology of false memories, the anomalistic psychology of weird beliefs, and the sociology of moral panics. I was one of the first researchers internationally to conclude there was no physical, forensic evidence that Satanic abuse existed. My ‘Making of a Satanic Myth’ feature, published in the Independent on Sunday in 1990, has been cited in the literature, along with key investigations since. I describe the methodology and conduct of research during my continuing investigations into the origins and spread of the ‘Satanic panic’ and related controversies of false memories and multiple personalities. The dissertation itself adds significantly to academic theories and historical accounts of these events from the 1980s until today. Through a wide reading of the literature I have pieced together a forensic chronology which provides a unique overview of a particular era of striking and peculiar phenomena. On reflection, I conclude that my investigations provide evidence for the concept of moral panics created through an ‘explosive amplification’ of anecdote, social and official concern about issues such as child abuse, spread by ‘claims-makers’ and a globalised mass media. Although sporadic claims of Satanic abuse continue I conclude there is still no corroborating evidence.

This research intends to show how visuality, through the mobility of Instagram (a social media platform designed for photo sharing), is modifying individuals’ perception of the world and their mediated lives. It examines how Instagram transforms individuals’ perception of interpersonal relationships, marketing, privacy and surveillance, identity and memory, and communication. It attempts a critical re-reading of the combined interrelations between the concept of mobility (smart mobile devices) and the thematic areas mentioned above. Conducting an empirical examination, it delineates the changing dynamics that digitality determines within the contemporary experience of visual communication. In order to understand visual practices it is important to consider how relationships develop among individuals, visual technologies, practices and images, society and culture (Pink, 2007: 35). A qualitative research method informed by netnography, computer-mediated interviews and visual analysis (Rose, 2007) is employed in this study. Findings show that the ubiquitous use of smart mobile devices guides us towards the development of new forms and conceptions of mobile mediated visualities. The critical analysis of the (embedded) multiple-case study presents the innovative transformations that the mediation and mobility of Instagram bring into everyday relations between human-technologies. Findings show that now that daily life is experienced as a succession of photo opportunities that allow the creation of social networks but do not replace physical relationships. Images figure as a fair means of communication although they cannot fulfil verbal ones. However, the connections that images establish become a valuable part of new social media marketing strategies. With the widespread use of the platform, companies start to monitor users and influence their online behaviour without causing concern in relation to privacy and surveillance issues. The protection of personal information instead is related to the visibility that the contents of images acquire within the virality of the Internet. Within this, the voyeuristic spirit that animates the platform affects individuals’ interest in disclosing self-identity through visual metaphors. The disclosure of visual narrations of the self, at the same time, models the sharing of new networked archives of personal and collective memories. The ephemerality of digital culture is embraced by smart mobile technologies considering the importance that individuals give to the act of producing multimedia contents more than the content itself. Smart mobile devices represent the element of mediation in social instances and they strongly represent the foundation of a new mobile visualities aesthetic. Societies produce peculiar forms of expression and communication that are shaped by the co-presence of individual demands and the current typology of means of communication. Every alteration in the structure of societies has influence on individuals and on means of expression. This thesis shows that in contemporary life visualities have crucial functions in different environments such as business, leisure, and surveillance. Lastly, the triangulation of mediation-mobility-visuality produces a snapshot aesthetic, which radically transforms traditional functions of photography.