<p>Small and medium-sized enterprises badly need new knowledge. Their need is constantly increasing due to the market demand for custom-designed products, which means companies must be more flexible. Wood processing companies are having difficulty establishing contact with academia in order to meet this need.</p><p>In investigating the form and content of research collaboration, nine situations have been studied with the aid of participatory observation to determine what characterises situations where learning occurs. Situations where researchers collaborate with operators and production managers have been selected because of the key role that those in such positions play when research findings are to be applied in the wood & timber industry. Analytical tools of a pedagogic/didactic nature have been used when interpreting the material.</p><p>The results show what is needed if research collaboration is to succeed. Both parties must have room for reflection, and must give due consideration to the basic assumptions and problem areas they have in common. Enterprises must be sophisticated enough to collaborate with academia. In approaching their task, researchers must emphasise dialogue, equal standing and respect, and they must seek to ensure that collaboration proceeds in the right direction. In the case of small and medium-sized enterprises, a link between the researcher and the company is often required.</p> / <p>Små och medelstora företag har ett stort behov av ny kunskap. Behovet ökar kontinuerligt pga. marknadens krav på kundanpassning vilket medför krav på större flexibilitet hos företagen. De träbearbetande företagen har svårigheter att komma i kontakt med akademin för att tillgodose detta behov.</p><p>För att undersöka former och innehåll vid forskningssamverkan har nio situationer studerats med hjälp av deltagande observation för att utreda vad som kännetecknar de situationer där lärande uppstår. Situationer där forskare samverkar med operatörer och med produktionschefer har valts ut på grund av dessa yrkesgruppers nyckelposition när det gäller tillämpning av forskningsresultat i träindustrin. Analysverktyg med pedagogisk/didaktisk anknytning har använts vid tolkningen av materialet.</p><p>Resultaten visar förutsättningar och villkor för en lyckad forskningssamverkan. Det måste finnas ett utrymme för reflektion för de som samverkar liksom att gemensamma utgångspunkter och problemområden måste uppmärksammas i samverkan. Det måste finnas en mogenhet hos företag för att kunna samverka med akademin. Forskarens arbetssätt måste präglas av dialog, jämbördighet och respekt och forskaren har ett ansvar för att samverkansprocessen går i rätt riktning. För små och medelstora företag är en länk mellan forskningen och företaget ofta nödvändig.</p>

Small and medium-sized enterprises badly need new knowledge. Their need is constantly increasing due to the market demand for custom-designed products, which means companies must be more flexible. Wood processing companies are having difficulty establishing contact with academia in order to meet this need. In investigating the form and content of research collaboration, nine situations have been studied with the aid of participatory observation to determine what characterises situations where learning occurs. Situations where researchers collaborate with operators and production managers have been selected because of the key role that those in such positions play when research findings are to be applied in the wood &amp; timber industry. Analytical tools of a pedagogic/didactic nature have been used when interpreting the material. The results show what is needed if research collaboration is to succeed. Both parties must have room for reflection, and must give due consideration to the basic assumptions and problem areas they have in common. Enterprises must be sophisticated enough to collaborate with academia. In approaching their task, researchers must emphasise dialogue, equal standing and respect, and they must seek to ensure that collaboration proceeds in the right direction. In the case of small and medium-sized enterprises, a link between the researcher and the company is often required. / Små och medelstora företag har ett stort behov av ny kunskap. Behovet ökar kontinuerligt pga. marknadens krav på kundanpassning vilket medför krav på större flexibilitet hos företagen. De träbearbetande företagen har svårigheter att komma i kontakt med akademin för att tillgodose detta behov. För att undersöka former och innehåll vid forskningssamverkan har nio situationer studerats med hjälp av deltagande observation för att utreda vad som kännetecknar de situationer där lärande uppstår. Situationer där forskare samverkar med operatörer och med produktionschefer har valts ut på grund av dessa yrkesgruppers nyckelposition när det gäller tillämpning av forskningsresultat i träindustrin. Analysverktyg med pedagogisk/didaktisk anknytning har använts vid tolkningen av materialet. Resultaten visar förutsättningar och villkor för en lyckad forskningssamverkan. Det måste finnas ett utrymme för reflektion för de som samverkar liksom att gemensamma utgångspunkter och problemområden måste uppmärksammas i samverkan. Det måste finnas en mogenhet hos företag för att kunna samverka med akademin. Forskarens arbetssätt måste präglas av dialog, jämbördighet och respekt och forskaren har ett ansvar för att samverkansprocessen går i rätt riktning. För små och medelstora företag är en länk mellan forskningen och företaget ofta nödvändig.

Employable humanists. A qualitative study on humanist students' views on employability. The crisis of the humanities is a controversial debate in the media and within academic settings. Because of lack of request for humanists in the labor market, the question of humanistic skills and employability is becoming increasingly important. The concept of employability importance not only echoes within the economic discussions, but also on everyday agenda in the academic world and takes a large part in the communication between the university and the students. It is therefore important to get answers to the question whether there is conformity in the interpretation of this concept between the university and the students. The aim of this desk study is to examine how the concept of employability has its significance in the academic communication and how the responsibility for employability is portrayed. This is done by studying how the concept of employability is formed and how the responsibilities outlined in texts from Career Center at the University of Umeå, and by comparing study results with the students' perceptions of the concept of employability and responsibility. The study has a qualitative disposition and consists of two main methods: qualitative interviews with focus groups to explore students' views, and critical linguistic analysis of texts with a focus on metaphor analysis and syntax analysis which are also supplemented by the multimodal text analysis. Results of this study indicate that the concept of employability takes a central part of the university’s communication. There are many common starting points in the interpretation of the concept and the responsibility between the university and students. Both the Career Center at Umeå University and students believe that actual knowledge, skills, experience as well as network forms the meaning of the concept of employability, and has a big importance in the student’s position on the job market. However, because the students look at the use of the concept of employability in the texts as acceptance to the social ideological perception of the individual as objects, there is some criticism of the use of the term employability in the university’s communications.