Understanding dynamic, unpredictable, multiple, pluralistic and entangled relations in technology and organization is an inherent endeavor of the Information System (IS) research. However, recent innovation and changes in technology and organizations have posed significant challenges to the existing theoretical and methodological lens to analyze mutually dependent, ensemble, inseparable, ceaselessly intra-actable and constitutively entangled relations in technology and organizations. In line, this study employed sociomateriality as a wider theoretical lens to analyze constitutive entanglements and disentanglements in technology and organization illustrated with a case of E-service of land record in Bangladesh. This study has applied sociomateriality along with intra-actions, diffraction, relational ontology and performativity lens to trace continuous constitutive entanglements and disentanglements in the E-service. Thus, this study identified significance of constitutive entanglement lens through tracing unprecedented changes, unintended consequences and unexpected outcomes from the intra-actions, diffractions, relationalities and performativity in the organizational context and technological process of the E-service. This study has developed ‗action design ethnographic research' (ADER) as an in-depth methodological framework through conducting 'action design research‘ (ADR) in the process of ethnographic research (ER). In line, this study has formulated problems in organizational contexts, designed and redesigned solutions through mutually reciprocal relations between the researcher and clients, conducted concurrent evaluation and identified learning. Consequently, this study has addressed the practitioners' problems through engaging and intervening in the organizational contexts and technological processes of the E-service of land record in Bangladesh. Thus, both the sociomaterial lens and ADER offered potentials to design and redesign the organizational contexts and the E-service processes. Along the line, the study has contributed to theory and practice of IS research through applying sociomateriality and addressing practitioners‘ problems. Therefore, this study has made significant contribution to knowledge and practice.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary C. Kingery-Page / Placemaking for Socially Resilient Site Design is a project focused on clarifying and characterizing social resilience. This project used ethnographic methods to answer the question: what qualities of place affect the downtown community’s desires for a temporary landscape in Wichita, Kansas? Through literature review this project further defined what social resilience meant at the site scale. Social resilience was operationalized as social systems ability to maintain function while promoting social trust, reciprocity, collaboration, and character between networks of varying scales (Putnam 1995). Literature review provided the foundational knowledge on creative placemaking, a design strategy used to improve community prosperity through a sense of place and imageability (Artscape 2014). Place is determined by a user’s surroundings, and more importantly the memory of social engagement on site (Fleming 2007). Creative placemaking design strategies are valuable and specific to location. Therefore, it was imperative I incorporated ethnographic research methods to answer my focus question. Ethnographic research investigates cultural patterns and themes expressed or observed by a community (LeCompte et al. 1991). This form of research is unconventional for the typical site design process in landscape architecture. However, it proved to be effective in determining the most successful site use and organization. The ethnographic research allowed me to inventory and document user’s most desirable site needs and programming through the stakeholder design charrette and individual interviews. In November 2014 the Wichita Downtown Development Cooperation requested our team as a partner in developing a temporary landscape for downtown Wichita, Kansas. The site was already selected with the intention of becoming Douglas Avenue Pop-Up Park. Funding for this project was awarded to the WDDC in the form of a $146,025 grant from the Knight Foundation. Using an iterative community feedback process with five ethnographic interviews, I reevaluated the WDDC’s initial Pop-Up Park plan resulting from a community charrette. Recurring themes from interviews were identity crisis of downtown, outdoor preference, lack of residential amenities, negative perception of active and public transit, downtown lifestyle, Wichita as a place for families, and lack of nighttime activation. Using the recurring interview themes, I proposed a plan conducive to social resilience.

Master of Arts / Department of Communications Studies / Sarah E. Riforgiate / At 47 years old, Lori is a high-functioning businesswoman, matriarch, and contributing member of society. Lori is also diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). From age 3, Lori was violently raped and assaulted by several perpetrators, yet views her multiple personalities as strength, as survival mechanisms, and wants to share her story to help prevent child sexual abuse. Utilizing methods drawn from communication studies, ethnodrama, and autoethnography, this study aims to tell a person’s story in her own words and in a format that can easily be shared with both academic and non-academic audiences. Lori’s story is woven together as an ethnodramatic play that includes original interview transcripts along with an autoethnographic monologue describing the experience of writing someone’s truth when it challenges the hegemonic views of society, and instead embraces the feminist ideals of equality and deconstruction of power. Academic research needs to reach further than academic journals to make a true impact. Through the non-conventional venues of autoethnography and ethnodrama, we can breathe life into our research and provide accessibility to innovative information for those who may need it most.

The research I present within this thesis is a meaning analysis of contemporary shamanism for practitioners in the north of Norway and Sweden. I have used ethnographic research methods of observation, participation, conversations, interviews, context research and analysis of written texts. My aim has been to research the meaning of the sacred in the lives of contemporary shamanic practitioners, by using a theoretical framework from psychology of religion made by Paloutzian (2005). By using this frame I have focused on practitioners understanding of spiritual beliefs and ultimate concerns. As to view how these come forth in expressions of self-definition, values, goals, purposes and attitudes. My conclusions have been that contemporary shamanism is viewed as a spiritual understanding of the world that is expressing itself differently within cultural practices and geographical spaces. It is a worldview that is connecting people through shared beliefs and understandings. These understandings create strong values on how we should act with eachother, nature and our own self, as we are viewed as belonging to each other in a spiritual perspective. These values come in conflict with social and political structures built on other values and attitudes. Practitioners speak of a call for change in structures, the need of understanding our history and our belonging with eachother and nature for our own wellbeing and our world to survive. As some engage in social activism and other social engagements, others view their goal as to”walk in beauty”(Gaup 2007).

Some cultures regard pain as a natural part of life compared with the Western culture which believes that pain is something unnatural and that has to be eliminated. Transcultural nursing is a way to learn about and provide culturally fitting and meaningful care to people with different cultures. Tanzania suffers from a lack of qualified health workers due to an increased burden of disease and this affects the quality and supply of effective health services. It has been seen that it is common for patients to get inadequate pain treatment and this results in many different complications. The aim of the study was to describe the nursing care of patients with postoperative pain at a rural hospital in Tanzania. The study was implemented at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi. A qualitative participating observation study with an ethnographic approach was used to collect the data. The data was analyzed by content analysis and resulted in three themes: 1. The role of the nurse, 2. Pain management, and 3. Meeting the patient. The conclusion was that the nursing care around patients with postoperative pain showed an extended collaboration between the nurses and other health care professionals as well as with the patients’ parents. The study further showed that the atmosphere around the patients was positive and calm and that the nurses assessed pain by measuring vital signs and facial expressions.

Urban exploration is a practice of researching, discovering and physically exploring temporary, obsolete, abandoned, derelict and infrastructural areas within built environments. Through charting the rise to prominence of a London urban exploration crew between 2008 and 2011, of which I became an active member, I posit that urban explorers are one of many groups reacting to increased surveillance and control over urban space by undertaking embodied urban interventions in the city that undermine clean spatio/temporal narratives. The primary research questions stem from my attempts to interrogate the practice from the inside out: Who are urban explorers? What does it involve? Why do they do it? What do they think they will accomplish? While the thesis focuses primarily on 220 explorations undertaken with my primary ethnographic group in London between 2008 and 2011, it also speaks to the urban exploration "scene" that has developed over the past twenty years in cities all over the world. The results that emerge from the research both compliment and complicate recent work within geography around issues of surveillance, resistance, hacking and urban community building and lays out a new account, never before outline in such detail, of the tales of urban exploration taking place in temporary cities across the globe. This visual ethnography is comprised of text (75,000 words), photographs (200) and video (10 shorts). the ethnographic video components can be found on the Place Hacking video channel located at http://vimeo.com/channels/placehacking . I suggest watching all 10 short videos before reading this thesis.

This thesis explores young children's constructions of social identities and the implications these may have in young children's everyday lives at nursery. One of the unique elements of this thesis is the multiple and intersectional approach that it adopts while exploring very young children‘s social identities and peer relations. It also explores the links between children's experiences and views with educators' social justice and equity pedagogies. Recent attention has been given to the importance of early childhood and young children's rights and participation in theory, research and policy. In the field of social identities, there has been a growing need for further research to explore the contextual, fluid, complex and intersected nature of young children's social identities, moving away from 'static' and 'fixed' notions of identity. Particular gaps have also been identified in relation to exploring age as part of social identity, to exploring cultural aspects of ethnicity and lastly to exploring multiple understandings of parts of social identities (e.g. multiple 'masculinities' and 'femininities') in early childhood. There has also been a need for further research to explore how young children‘s intersected social identities may impact on pedagogies. This thesis, therefore, seeks to explore the above, basing the analysis on a one year ethnographic and participatory approach which was conducted in two nursery settings in Scotland, one predominantly white and one multi-ethnic. It draws on a plethora of rich and in-depth conversations and experiences with young children, educators and parents/caregivers to suggest the complex, dynamic, context-specific, fluid but also 'experientially fixed' and intersected nature of children's social identities and relationships, and to acknowledge the challenges that are raised both for early childhood practice and policy. It suggests that children construct multiple and complex social identities which are both fluid and experientially 'fixed', engage in dynamic social relationships and express complex and multiple implicit/explicit discriminatory attitudes, which educators are unaware of or choose to disregard. In most cases, age and gender were part of an overt and explicit identification, and were explicitly and overtly discussed as factors of exclusion by both educators and children. In contrast, ethnicity involved a much more complex process. Although ethnicity was often part of an 'ethnic habitus', variations occurred in relation to the extent to which children developed a strong, explicit and overt ethnic identification. Ethnicity was also considered a rather 'taboo' subject of reference regarding exclusion. Moreover, this thesis suggests that discourses of ‗sameness‘, ‗normalities‘ and difference linked to constructions of social identity were salient in children's lives. Common social identities often promoted positive feelings of belonging and reinforced positive feelings of group membership and self identities between children. Strong and positive feelings of self and group identity and difference, or else ‗the other‘, although not exclusively, were very much considered the basis for exclusion and discrimination. However, complexities arose when the concept of the ‗other‘ changed, depending on the context. Difference was seen more positively by children when it constituted part of what was considered 'norm' or dominant. Traditional developmental approaches and children‘s rights-based approaches seem to influence educators‘ practice; however, irrespectively of the educational approach, educators tend to disregard implicit/explicit discrimination that is evident in children's lives. 'Too young to notice' and 'no problem here' attitudes seem to dominate educators‘ practice and raise limitations in dealing adequately with social justice and equity issues. Firstly, this thesis suggests the need to move away from 'dualistic' and oppositional dichotomies that seem to have dominated contemporary research and theory, both in relation to theorising children‘s social identities (e.g. 'fixed'/fluid) and theorisations of childhood (e.g. agents and mature / interdependent and immature). Secondly, there is a need for early childhood pedagogies, practices and policy to 'listen' more actively and closely to young children and to engage with the complex and dynamic nature of their social relationships. It is thus suggested that current early childhood practice should actively promote children-rights based approaches. At the same time, this thesis considers whether we should be moving towards a children‘s human rights-based approach, which promotes children‘s rights and goes beyond children's participatory rights, engaging more actively with issues around fairness, unfairness and respect. This thesis also argues for proactive, anti-discriminatory, reflexive and interventionist social justice and equity approaches in early childhood. Thirdly, there is a general challenge both in policy and practice regarding balancing between universalism (collective identities) and specificity (diversity).

This study describes the attempt to understand the quality of mediation between people within a community of practice. An innovative chefs’ apprenticeship in a dedicated restaurant provides a setting in which to explore what happens when a group of young people are learning to become fully accepted members of a community of practice. The setting, the social enterprise of Fifteen London, is founded on a passionate belief in the learning potential of all individuals, regardless of background. Conducted over a period of five years this ethnographic study tells the stories of the apprentices; the story of the community; and the story of conducting the investigation. A pilot study completed in 2005 revealed that beyond the mediation observed between individuals, apprentices’ felt their experience of the culture of the learning environment had a greater impact. The thesis explores the theoretical implications of these findings. Drawn from a sociocultural perspective, two theoretical frameworks are applied: Mediated Learning Experience (Feuerstein, Miller and Tannenbaum, 1994) concerned with the mediation between people and its effect on human development; and Situated Learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991) concerned with participation in a community of practice. These frameworks were felt to be useful to an analysis which demonstrates that a community of practice can be analysed according to the framework for Mediated Learning Experience. The symbiosis of these two approaches creates a coherent framework for discourse in which to analyse the learning process itself. A description of the community highlights the complexities of learning, and the challenges of attempting to change the course of human development by means of cultural transmission and social enterprise. I conclude that this learning environment serves as a good example of what can be achieved when innovation works hand in hand with moral purpose.

This is a sociological ethnography of nine people with dementia living in a private nursing home in central Scotland. It seeks to find an alternative way to view people in this situation, in a field that has been dominated by the medical modeL. By placing the people before the disease of dementia, they can be studied within the same framework as any people. For this study this framework is everyday life sociology with a focus on symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology and dramaturgy. Additionally, by gaining the subjective perspective, we can get close to understanding meaning for these people. The ethnographic methods I use consist of participant observation and interviews. For analysis I employ NUDIST to structure the data and the thesis. The settng, Lavender Wing of Deer View Grange Nursing Home, provides context for the study. This is a culture of surveillance and routines, which can be restrictive, infantilizing and disabling for residents. Despite this culture research findings are of socially active participants. By examining relationships through an interactional framework three thematic areas developed concerned with emotions, interactions and classification. These thematic spheres demonstrate the emotional self, the interactional self and the generalized self of research informants. The emotional is concerned with the most inner and intimate self, often engaging in backstage intimacies and in thought. Significant others share with the interactional self, in frontstage performances, which are more ritualistic. The generalized self interacts with the generalized other, most often consisting of everyone in Lavender Wing and is concerned with classification and boundarydefinition. Within these spheres the described relationships are fluid and change according to the situation, and how participating actors define it. To engage in intimacies, rituals and form, and to shift between them requires social competence and active participation. People in this study demonstrate these. Despite restrictions they offer resistance to the environment and to dementia. They often make profound and metaphorical statements, to which this ethnography gives voice. Keywords Everyday life; interaction; nursing home culture; people with dementia; resistance; self and others; social competence; surveillance.

The thesis is a multi-vocal and localized history of the destruction of ancient Malakulan society through depopulation, migration and conversion, of the salvation of some people who gathered around Christian communities, and of the relationship of these people and their descendants to the places they have left and to the communities in which they now live. The thesis brings a historical perspective to Vanuatu anthropology. Compared to earlier work in anthropological history in the Pacific by Sahlins, Dening and Bronwen Douglas, the main innovation in method is that all historical statements are set in their context, emphasizing the multiplicity of view points and revealing the significance of even minor variations which refer to important local issues, from land disputes to conversion to Christianity. Innovative use is made of funerary inscriptions, local maps and court archives, reflecting local forms of historical literacy. The research is part of a growing interest in Christianity in Oceania, after a long neglect by anthropologists. This is the first historical anthropology of Vanuatu and perhaps Melanesia to consider the long-term social impact of the dramatic depopulation that accompanied the colonial expansion of Europeans. The abandonment of the interior of the island of Malakula and the weakening of traditional links with other islands have reduced the social space of Malakula to the original zone of contact with Europeans, the coastal areas and nearby small islands. I argue that Christianity allowed the people of Malakula to create a new form of sociality in response to these events. The new society has its own time and space organized around the nuclear family meal and Sunday service, which were the two cornerstones of the conversion process, symbolizing the abandonment of former ritual activities and of the segregation of cooking fires according to ritual status. This process of cultural adaptation continues with the appropriation by villagers of the historical perspective of official courts favouring material evidence and legalistic principles in land disputes. Earlier research on Vanuatu was dominated by the themes of 'kastom', a discourse on tradition opposed to Western ways, and of the rootedness of people in place. This double emphasis is linked to the fact that most fieldwork in the country was done in the 1970s before a fifteen years ban on foreign research after Independence in 1980. In the context of the struggle for Independence and the restitution of alienated land, Vanuatu people needed to emphasize indigenous values and attachment to land. Today, priorities on the ground have changed and new types of discourses have come to the fore emphasizing conversion to Christianity and adopting new concepts reflecting a shift in preoccupation from recovering colonial land to the relation between indigenous Christian migrants and original owners.