Nous présenterons dans le cadre de cette thèse les résultats d’une étude qualitative basée sur deux logiciels (HôpitalManager et CURSUS 3), implantés à la clinique La Sagesse de Rennes ; étude qui a pour objectif, de souligner les enjeuxcommunicationnels que pose ces outils dans les pratiques cliniques. Ces outils sont considérés aujourd’hui comme des dispositifs de modernisation, de rationalisation, de changementdes pratiques, et des interactions entre le patient, le médecin et les dispensateurs de soins. Ainsi, notre objectif est donc demontrer qu’en plus des enjeux techniques, managériaux, politiques et économiques qui sont identifiés par de nombreuxchercheurs, il existe des défis en termes de communication.Les interrogations que nous soulèverons du point de vue de la recherche en Science de l’Information et de la Communication, autour de ces processus de rationalisation, s’inscriront dans une problématique de changementorganisationnel, de circulation d’information ou encore de normalisation des pratiques professionnelles. Dans cespréoccupations, la technologie déduit tout son raisonnement à partir d’une seule prémisse, celle de la performativité dans les organisations. Ce que nous retenons des travaux d’Orlikowski, réside dans le fait que ce qui compte pour évaluer l’efficacité et la performance d’une technologie n’est pas l’artefact technologique, mais c’est la technologie en pratique(Orlikowski, 2000). Ainsi, notre objectif est de montrer que le discours médico-intégratif, est un énoncé performatif quirepose sur des modalités de communication / We present in this thesis the results of a qualitative study based on two programs (Hopital Manager and CURSUS 3),located at the clinic La Sagesse of Rennes; this study aims to emphasize the communicative challenges posed by thesetools in clinical practice.Those tools are now considered as devices for modernization, rationalization, change of practices, and interactions between the patient, the doctor and caregivers. Thus, our goal is to show that in addition to technical issues, managerial, political and economic factors that are identified by many researchers, they are also challenges in terms of communication.The questions we will raise, from the point of view of research in Information Sciences and Communication, deal with rationalization process, and will be part of an issue related to organizational change, information traffic or standardization practices. Considering these concerns, technology deduces any reasoning from one premise, the one of performativity in organizations. What we choose to select in Orlikowski’s work has to do with the fact that what matters, in order to evaluate the effectiveness and performance of technology, is not technological artifact, but technologies in practice (Orlikowski, 2000). Thus, our goal is to show that the integrative medical discourse is a performative utterance based on communication patterns

BACKGROUND. Researcher have identified a relevance for profit-seeking new ventures to implement “Business Sustainability 3.0” standards in order to face current social and environmental challenges, like scarcity of resources. Research, moreover, suggest that new ventures would me more open to implementing the standards of “Business Sustainability 3.0”. The authors of this thesis initiate this field of research in the context of a new venture in the form of a single case study. PURPOSE. The purpose of this study is to explore the implementation process of “Business Sustainability 3.0” standards in a new venture. The aim is to identify challenges in the implementation process and how they can be approached by new ventures. METHODOLOGY. The implementation process of “Business Sustainability 3.0” standards was researched based on a single case study in a new venture striving to achieve the standards. The authors conducted a semi-structure interview with a sustainability manager within the company. The empirical data was analyzed based on the translation process of the Actor-Network Theory. RESULTS. The authors conclude that a new venture cope with “Business Sustainability 3.0” by making use of being a new venture founded with a specific purpose and by addressing challenges that appear during the implementation process. Two measures are suggested to support addressing these challenges: striving for transparency and internalizing the standards for the company’s compartments. The Actor-Network translation process is considered to be a suitable method when analyzing the integration process of “Business Sustainability 3.0”.

This study examines collaborative working in the provision of housing services, explored by focusing on military veterans as the client group. Military veterans are recognised as being over represented in the homeless population and they are one of the few employment groups who usually have to give up their homes when they give up their employment. Therefore, access to services that assist them into housing are likely to be an important resource for them. This study adopted a case study approach and an online survey to obtain empirical evidence to explore the extent of organisations working together to provide housing services for military veterans in Scotland. The work was underpinned by theoretical frameworks in governance, networks and partnership working. Governance theory provides an understanding of how state control impacts on organisational relationships and the fragmentation of public service delivery, with the associated drivers for collaborative working to provide cohesion into the system. Studying governance focuses attention on the blurring of organisational boundaries, which both enable and restrict partnership working. It requires actors to be prepared to take risks beyond their institutional boundaries to work with others; this is a barrier for some practitioners who do not have the remit to take such risks. The findings suggest veterans experience problems at the points of interaction with generic public service providers. Also, there is a perception that this group may have, or develop, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This perception may be over emphasised, however social housing providers are concerned about supporting this group in social housing tenancies. Three themes emerged from the study. Firstly, coherent, rational and strategic drivers for collaborative working exist and are clear. Secondly, the obstacles to this rational objective of collaborative working include differing organisational objectives and ethos and the effects of state control on different types of organisations. Actors have to overcome these barriers to work with others, in networks, in order to provide services resulting in messy and patchy delivery. Finally, service users are left to negotiate the resulting disjointed and chaotic service provision. The thesis concludes that organisational collaborations to house military veterans are relatively new, and the extent of this activity is likely to be low throughout Scotland. Whilst collaborative working does improve housing outcomes for some military veterans, as an overall strategy it fails to deliver for all.

Within the discipline of early childhood education research, the present study will focus on the Swedish preschool curriculum text, using a sociomaterial approach offered by Actor-network theory (ANT). The study adopts ethnographic methods, foremost participant observations in a preschool, to generate knowledge of how the curriculum text comes to act through moments in the everyday preschool work. The doctoral thesis consists of three research papers. Research paper I explores the delayed access to the field through the occurrence of a water leak. Through the focus on the value of breakdowns in ANT, the water leak becomes an empirical event where the researcher is allowed to learn about the mundane objects and practices making a preschool work, such as schedules and lists. Research paper II reports on the case of the curriculum concept of children´s interests (Moberg, 2017). Here, empirical moments are highlighted where the curriculum concept of children´s interests is defined and made to act by children and materialities. Finally, research paper III (Moberg, in press) reports on the case of an evaluation meeting where an evaluation text is to be produced. Here, the curriculum text is highlighted as vulnerable in its inability of embracing pedagogical dilemmas and ambivalence in the preschool everyday work. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 3: Accepted.</p>

Under the Nazi regime in Germany (1933-1945) a calculated killing of chronic “mentally ill” patients took place that was part of a large biopolitical program using well-established, contemporary scientific standards on the understanding of eugenics. Nearly 300,000 patients were assassinated during this period. Nurses executed this program through their everyday practice. However, suspicions have been raised that psychiatric patients were already assassinated before and after the Nazi regime, suggesting that the motives for these killings must be investigated within psychiatric practice itself. My research aims to highlight the mechanisms and scientific discourses in place that allowed nurses to perceive patients as unworthy of life, and thus able to be killed. Using Foucauldian concepts of “biopower” and “State racism,” this discourse analysis is carried out on several levels. First, it analyzes nursing notes in one specific patient record and interprets them in relation to the kinds of scientific discourses that are identified, for example, in nursing journals between 1900 and 1945. Second, it argues that records are not static but rather produce certain effects; they are “performative” because they are active agents. Psychiatry, with its need to make patients completely visible and its desire to maintain its dominance in the psychiatric field, requires the utilization of writing in order to register everything that happens to individuals, everything they do and everything they talk about. Furthermore, writing enables nurses to pass along information from the “bottom-up,” and written documents allow all information to be accessible at any time. It is a method of centralizing information and of coordinating different levels within disciplinary systems. By following this approach it is possible to demonstrate that the production of meaning within nurses’ notes is not based on the intentionality of the writer but rather depends on discursive patterns constructed by contemporary scientific discourses. Using a form of “institutional ethnography,” the study analyzes documents as “inscriptions” that actively interven in interactions in institutions and that create a specific reality on their own accord. The question is not whether the reality represented within the documents is true, but rather how documents worked in institutions and what their effects were. Third, the study demonstrates how nurses were actively involved in the construction of patients’ identities and how these “documentary identities” led to the death of thousands of humans whose lives were considered to be “unworthy lives.” Documents are able to constitute the identities of psychiatric patients and, conversely, are able to deconstruct them. The result of de-subjectification was that “zones for the unliving” existed in psychiatric hospitals long before the Nazi regime and within these zones, patients were exposed to an increased risk of death. An analysis of the nursing notes highlights that nurses played a decisive role in constructing these “zones” and had an important strategic function in them. Psychiatric hospitals became spaces where patients were reduced to a “bare life;” these spaces were comparable with the concentration camps of the Holocaust. This analysis enables the integration of nursing practices under National Socialism into the history of modernity. Nursing under Nazism was not simply a relapse into barbarism; Nazi exclusionary practices were extreme variants of scientific, social, and political exclusionary practices that were already in place. Different types of power are identifiable in the Nazi regime, even those that Foucault called “technologies of the self” were demonstrated, for example, by the denunciation of “disabled persons” by nurses. Nurses themselves were able to employ techniques of power in the Nazi regime.

There has been great scholarly interest in examining the management, proliferation, and dynamic articulations of borders through an actor-network lens in recent years. In tracing the networks of Mohamed Harkat, the irregular arrival of a particular group of Tamil migrants, and Deepan Budlakoti, I demonstrate how the border is a fluid entity composed of socio-technical actors dispersed across time and space capable of producing varying degrees of membership statuses. In exploring the cases of these non-citizens, this thesis aims to understand what each of these multi-level networks tells us about the notion of borders and bordering practices alike. This study contributes to the expanding literature that situates the border as a fluid and malleable entity that is made up of interwoven socio-technical practices, discourses, symbols, institutions, and networks through which power is dispersed and the binary distinctions between membership and non-membership increasingly become layered concepts.

Improvement in information sharing and communication about the foreign aid resources between the donors and the aid-recipient countries have always been considered very important. In recent years, the integration of advanced technology in the area of aid coordination has received a tremendous amount of attention. The following thesis studies the influence of technology in the area aid coordination within the context of Afghanistan. Guided by the Actor-Network Theory, the thesis examines how the social and technological aspects of the Development Assistance Database (DAD), as an advanced aid information management technology, influences aid coordination and information sharing between the donors and the government of Afghanistan. Using a case study methodology, the research also investigates whether or not the DAD adheres to the principles of aid effectiveness. The findings reveal that although technology had a profound impact in the area of aid management in Afghanistan, there are several areas that still face challenges. The present study highlights these challenges and recommends the appropriate solutions.

This research comprises three interconnected studies that, when considered together, attend to the dissertation’s purpose of presenting an integrated conceptual framework for ambush marketing in the Olympic Games. This has been accomplished in two ways: (1) the use of institutional theory, supported by network theory, as a lens to view and understand evolutionary processes in Olympic sponsorship and ambush marketing and (2) the use of grounded theory to build a conceptual framework of ambush marketing from the findings. Broadly, the model suggests the evolution of ambush marketing is partially impacted by, and an outcome of, institutional forces and considerations. Study I examines the process of institutionalization in the evolution of Olympic sponsorship during its most critical period of growth. It is argued that three key periods of change for sponsorship and two for ambush marketing exist during this time. Furthermore, these periods of change, most specifically concerning anti-ambush marketing practices, suggest the institutionalization of anti-ambush marketing legislation in the Olympic Games. Study II examines how Olympic ambush marketing stakeholder power and transfer of sponsorship and ambush marketing knowledge has influenced institutional processes toward the state of anti-ambush legislation as institutionalized brand protection. Centrality measures suggest the International Olympic Committee and Organizing Committees for the Olympic Games demonstrate the greatest stakeholder influence within the Olympic ambush marketing network. It is further argued the influence resulting from the structure of Olympic ambush marketing networks impacts the institutional processes of objectification and sedimentation. Study III examines the contemporary state of Olympic sponsorship evidenced by institutionalized legislated brand protection. While direct marketing implications of anti-ambush marketing legislation are minimal, it is argued the practice represents a portion of a regime of brand protection and that public relations outcomes of legislated brand protection must be carefully managed as part of a brand management strategy. Similarly, proportionality and managing expectations are arguably important in the understanding and application of such laws. Finally it is suggested that while the Olympic Movement may be viewed as an early adopter of anti-ambush legislation in the mega-event field, the individual character of each Olympic Games will interfere with complete isomorphism.

Empirical studies that reviewed e-government status in developing countries found that e-government research scholars preferred to ask, ‘What is happening?’ rather than ‘Why is it happening?’. This showed little use of theory when it came to e-government study. Although high failure rates can happen anywhere, e-government research seemingly forgets to raise the question of why. To fill this gap, actor-network theory (ANT) was employed by this thesis as an analytical lens to investigate the failure case study of the Smart ID Card project, which was expected to revolutionise Thai public services with a single multi-propose ID card. Critical realism was the philosophical standpoint that framed the basic thinking in this study. It was intended to reflect on the e-government failure phenomenon; query its realities, and find a new set of answers. To achieve the aim of this study, both documentary research and in-depth interviews with relevant key persons were conducted, in order to synthesise the casual relationship and failure mechanisms in the Smart ID Card project. Firstly, the lens of ANT observed the causes of failure that originated from the problematization process, which referred to the role of the focal actor, the Cabinet, and less room for other actors (e.g. main public agencies and citizens) to negotiate in forming the actor-network of the Smart ID Card project. This led to unrealistic, unreachable objectives in the actor-network and opened the door to failure right from the beginning. Secondly, the interessement process, which had great importance in locking actors into position, was incomplete. Thus, the focal actor failed to enact standardisation, laws, regulations and a budget through negligence or lack of concern. This resulted in the failure of both human and non-human actors to enter the actor-network. Thirdly, the uncontrolled chaos in the enrolment process weakened endurance of the actor-network in facing its obstacles, for example, the emergence of a counter-network, which aimed to attack the main actor-network, the transformation of a non-human actor (Smart ID Card) that became a Trojan actor, and the instability of the focal actor. These obstacles brought disassociation among actors in the actor-network and led to the final moment, the betrayal. Fourthly, the betrayal resulted from errors in the earlier moments, which caused betrayal everywhere in the actor-network. All relevant human and non-human actors betrayed the actor-network by not working or supporting it properly in attempting to achieve its goals. Finally, the actor-network of the Smart ID Card project collapsed and could not function to reach its objectives. This meant that the Smart ID Card project did not revolutionise Thai public services as planned. This thesis is one of few theory based-works that contribute to the use of ANT modification as a unique vehicle for investigating failure phenomenon, especially in e-government projects in developing countries. The lessons learned from the story of failure in this study provide new solutions that open the door to successful e-government development.

Denna uppsats bygger på en observationsstudie som undersöker den aktivitetsbaserade kontorsmiljön utifrån hur den fysiska platsen och miljön styr och styrs av de människor och objekt som befinner sig på platsen. Syftet är att bidra till en djupare förståelse för hur makt kan manifesteras genom att handlande möjliggörs, uppmuntras och begränsas i fysiska rum, såväl av objekten som av människorna som befinner sig på platsen. Till skillnad från tidigare studier i fältet, som främst har fokuserat på hur det aktivitetsbaserade arbetssättet påverkat de anställdas hälsa, välmående och motivation, så ämnar denna uppsats att deskriptivt kartlägga den studerade kontorsmiljön och hur interaktionen mellan aktanter på arbetsplatsen ter sig. Detta görs genom att genomföra en deltagande observationsstudie på en arbetsplats med aktivitetsbaserad kontorsmiljö. Genom att utveckla och använda en teoretisk ansats baserad på främst Actor network theory utgångspunkter, Akrich (1992) begrepp script och de Certeaus (1984) begreppspar strategier och taktiker analyserar vi våra observationer på arbetsplatsen i strävan att undersöka hur aktanters handlande styr och styrs av den miljö de är en del av på kontoret. Studiens resultat visar att den aktivitetsbaserade kontorsmiljön i flera avseenden inte skiljer sig, eller skiljer sig marginellt, i praktiken från så kallade traditionella kontorslandskap. Kontorets utformning är beroende av de sociala och arbetsrelaterade relationerna mellan kollegor, som många gånger i högre grad förklarar strukturen på nätverket och dess möjliggörande av ett visst sätt att handla. Vidare visar analysen att vissa aktanter blir obligatoriska passagepunkter som definierar, formar och styr sin omgivning i relativt hög utsträckning. Produkten av relationerna på kontoret är den makt som manifesteras. Denna makt finns i alla typer av handlingar, men visar sig också vara en del av traditionellt studerade makrostrukturer som exempelvis intressekonflikten mellan arbete och kapital.