The original contribution of this thesis is through its conceptualisations of human more-than- human encounters on the allotment that break down the boundaries of subjectivities. This work extends knowledge of cultural food geography by investigating how people engage with the matter of the plot and learn to grow food. The conceptual tool by which this occurs is set out as processes of visceral learning within a framework of mattering. Therefore this work follows the material transformations of matter across production consumption cycles of allotment produce. This is examined through processes of bodily adaptions to the matter of the plot. The processes of growing your own food affords an opportunity to focus on the processes of doing and becoming, allowing the how of food growing to take centre stage (Crouch 2003, Ingold 2010, Grosz 1999). Procuring and producing food for consumption is enacted through the human more-than-human interface of bodily engagement that disrupts dualisms and revealing their complex inter-relationships, as well as the potential of visceral research (Roe 2006, Whatmore 2006, Hayes-Conroy 2008). Therefore, this is an immersive account of the procurement of food and the development of food knowledge through material, sensory and visceral becomings, which occur within a contextual frame of everyday food experiences. This study is contextualised in the complexities of contemporary food issues where matters of access, foodism and sustainability shape the enquiry. However the research is carried out at a micro-geographies lens of bodily engagements with food matter through grow your own practices on allotments. Growing food on new allotments is the locus of procurement reflecting a resurgence in such activities following from the recent rise in interest in local food, alternative food networks (AFNs) and food as a conduit for celebrity in the media (Dupuis & Goodman 2005, Lockie & Kitto 2000, Winter 2003). Moreover, the current spread of the allotment is examined as transgressing urban/rural divides and disrupting traditional perceptions of plot users. This allows investigations into spaces where community processes can unfold, providing a richly observed insight into the broadened demographics of recent allotment life.

Bakgrund. Forskningsgenomgången visade sårbarhet som ett kontextuellt fenomen i möte mellan kontrahenterna sjuksköterska och patient utan att själva essensen i begreppet klargjordes, vilket indikerar att det saknas kunskap om begreppet sårbarhet. Syftet. Studiens syfte var att beskriva essensen av begreppet sårbarhet i omvårdandens sociala kontext, det mänskliga mötet. Metoden. Metoderna har utgått från modellen för begreppsanalys av Segesten (2011) och innefattat en induktiv och deduktiv kvalitativ ansats. Resultatet. (Begrepps)analysen resulterade i följande fynd: mottaglig för att skadas, hjärtesår, själasår, skyddslös; modet att vara sårbar, mänsklig värdighet, lyhördhet; ett ovisst livshot, sveket mot omvårdnadens kärna, den tillintetgjorda identiteten; den djupt mänskliga existensen, önskan om oföränderlighet, riktning mot en definitiv förändring. Slutsatsen. Essensen av sårbarhetens mening föds av människans föränderliga existens. Den föränderliga existensen får sin betydelse av livshot, tillintetgjord identitet och sveket mot omvårdandens kärna, vilket begreppsliggörs av den sårbarhet som uppstår i vårdmötet, uttryckt i orden som att vara hudlös, naken och skyddslös. Klinisk betydelse. Studien har bidragit till att klargöra betydelsen av begreppet sårbarhet inom omvårdnadsprofessionen genom att lyfta fram ordets olika begreppsomfång i olika omvårdnadssammanhang. Den kliniska betydelsen för omvårdnaden men även den generella allmänbildningen är att dess betydelser kan utveckla språket från perspektivet sårbarhet. / Background. The background overview of this research presented vulnerability as a contextual phenomenon in the encounter between nurse and patient. The essence of the concept of vulnerability appeared unclear, which indicates that there is a lack of knowledge about the concept of vulnerability. Aim. The aim of the study was to describe the essence of the concept of vulnerability in a nursing social context, meaning the encounter between humans being. Methods. The methods have been based on the model of conceptual analysis of Segesten (2011) and involved an inductive and a deductive qualitative approach. Findings. The concept analysis resulted in the following findings: susceptibility to damage – heartache, pain of the soul, defenselessness; courage to be vulnerable – human dignity, perceptiveness; uncertain threats to life – betrayal of the nursing core, annihilated identity; the profound human existence – desire for immutability, a direction towards a definite change. Conclusion. The essence of the meaning of vulnerability derives from man’s ever-changing existence. The changing existence gets its significance from threat to life, destroyed identity and betrayal of the nursing core, which is conceptualized by the vulnerability that arises in nursing care encounters, expressed in words like skinless, naked and defenseless. Clinical significance. The study has contributed to clarifying the meaning of the concept of vulnerability within nursing professions by unveiling the word's various dimensions within different nursing contexts. The clinical implications for the nursing care, but also the general public education, is that the word’s meanings can develop the language from the perspective of vulnerability.

During recent years there have been noticeable shortcomings in the human encounter of people seeking some form of health care in Sweden. This is something that affects professional education within ‘the welfare state’ and implies that human expectations, societal demands and questions about knowledge, basic values and competence have become pedagogically interesting. The basic aim of the dissertation is - to contribute to a practically, relevant and theoretical in-depth understanding of the learning and teaching of ethics in professional education. By taking nursing education as an example and focussing on the human encounter of the person seeking care, the dissertation aims - by analysis of the pedagogic practice and from a critical-theoretical perspective – to provide a foundation for such an understanding. The research perspective includes a social-philosophical point of departure with a focus on Mead’s interactional view of learning and Habermas’s critical theory of social communication. Methodologically an emphasis is placed on discourse analysis. The results demonstrate how the learning and teaching of ethics in human encounters can be understood as a question of communication of both knowledge and values. In the theoretical reconstruction that follows it is shown how pedagogic actions, learning and competence can be understood as communication of and in particular contextual discourses. The six discourses are: ‘the efficiency-related discourse’, ‘the expert-related discourse’, the ‘care-related discourse’, ‘the communicative-related discourse’, ‘the egocentric discourse’ and ‘the ethnocentric discourse’, all of which are mutually related to each other. The contextual discourses focus on different values. Those that are most conducive to creating pleasant human encounters are the communicative- and the care-related discourses, which also form the foundation for the pedagogic recommendation that makes up the concluding discussion of the dissertation. The recommendation concerns a pedagogical practice that affirms, pays attention to, safeguards and challenges and thus generates creativity, as well as the legitimacy of pluralism. To engage in stimulating pedagogical discussion means being committed, taking responsibility and practicing solidarity in the profession of education. Such a ‘deliberative pedagogy’ creates possibilities for people to develop solidarity of judgement in a society that increasingly demanding that. In conclusion, the recommendation for a new and challenging human encounter-ethical-pedagogy is intended to show that ‘ideals can be realistic’. Normative recommendations do not have to be abstract visions of the future, but can be looked upon as means of focussing on alternative actions, that despite the difficulties are possible to realise – here and now.