The purpose of this study has been to explore how home care workers experience the use of ICT (that is, digital systems for time registration) in their work. The data collection took place through qualitative semi-structured interviews of seven home care employees in two different Swedish municipalities in Stockholm. Furthermore, a thematic analysis was performed by transcribing the interviews and trying to find common patterns or themes. The interviewees statements have been analyzed using two different theories: the role theory and Davies' (1994) theory of clock time and process time. The results show that the home care staff experience that the use of ICT leads to time pressure and stress during the working day. It also appears that the home care staff may experience the time registration system as a control function or monitoring method on them and their work. Other interviewees, on the other hand, describes that the registration of time contributes to increased security for both home care staff and the elderly care recipient. Finally, the results show that ICT is considered to contribute to an efficient and flexible home service work.

The present study explored the effects of the national and cultural contexts on students' mathematics achievement. The study also investigated the nature and magnitude of student-level (level 1), school-level (level 2), and country-level (level 3) factors that are associated with math achievement. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 datasets were used. The main predictors focusing on this study included university admission procedure and the country's culture of mindsets about intelligence at level 3, indicating extra-curricular activities at level 2, growth mindset, and resilience self-efficacy at level 1. Other than main predictors, various predictors including country's characteristics, school characteristics, school climate factors, students' demographic characteristics, and non-cognitive abilities were added in the analysis to examine the main predictors are statistically significant after controlling for other predictors. The findings of HLM analysis showed that mathematics achievement is associated with national and cultural contexts since the study found 31.30% of the total variation was accounted for level 3 in math achievement. Also, the significant findings of the study indicated that university admission procedure was significantly associated with country-mean math achievement while the country's culture of mindsets about intelligence was not at level 3. At level 2, providing extra-curricular activities in school was a significant predictor for math achievement. At level 1, a growth mindset and information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage were positively associated with math achievement. The other significant predictors for math achievement were found in the model. In addition, the study found that the compositional effect of ICT usage explained a significant amount of between schools and countries variance even after controlling for other predictors in the analysis. Moreover, the study found several counterintuitive association phenomena due to shift of meaning. These findings were explained in terms of practical and theoretical implications for policymakers, educators, and researchers to improve students' mathematics achievement. / Doctor of Philosophy / Policymakers and researchers have been concerned about the shortage of students pursuing STEM disciplines in the United States despite the increasing demand for STEM professionals. Since mathematical skills play an important role in a nation's economic development, improving mathematics performance is essential for developing professional STEM workers. Therefore, conducting a cross-national comparative study of mathematics achievement is needed to provide a useful empirical perspective and deeper understanding of mathematics performance. The present study examined the association of diverse predictors at the country-, school-, and student-level with math achievement using multilevel modeling which is also called hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). It was found that university admission procedure was significantly associated with country-mean math achievement at the country-level. Also, providing extra-curricular activities in school was a significant predictor for math achievement at the school-level and a growth mindset and information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage were positively associated with math achievement at the student-level. In addition, the study found the positive compositional effect of ICT usage at school- and country-level which indicates that developing the infrastructure of ICT in school and country should be needed to for high and sustainable students' math achievement. Moreover, the study found several counterintuitive association phenomena due to shift of meaning. These findings were explained in terms of practical and theoretical implications for policymakers, educators, and researchers to improve students' mathematics achievement.

Den teknologiska utvecklingen har bidragit till att arbete kan utföras under mer flexiblaformer. Syftet med studien var därför att undersöka om skillnader i upplevelsen avinformations och kommunikationsteknikens krav (IKT-krav) påverkade möjligheterna att dragränser mellan arbete och fritid. Metoden för datainsamling var kvantitativ och 31enhetschefer erbjöds möjlighet att delta i studien genom att besvara en webbenkät.Svarsfrekvensen uppgick till 58 % (N = 18). Studiens huvudresultat visade på signifikantaskillnader i förhållande till mental distansering från arbetet, där de som upplevde låga IKTkravskattade förmågan till mental distansering högre och de som upplevde höga IKT-kravskattade förmågan till mental distansering lägre. Det betyder att när kraven om tillgänglighetoch förväntningar på respons ökar på enhetscheferna, så är upplevelsen att förmågan tillmental distansering minskar. Utövad gränsstrategi visade inte på några signifikantaskillnader. Resultaten betraktas med försiktighet eftersom deltagarantalet är lågt. Någragenerella slutsatser bör inte dras men den praktiska relevansen är av värde i sammanhanget. / Technology development has contributed work to be performed under more flexible forms.The aim of the study was to investigate if information and communication technologydemands (ICT-demands) affected the ability to create boundaries between work and leisure.The method of collecting data was quantitative and 31 managers for different units in thehealth and care sector had the opportunity to participate by answer an websurvey. 58 %responded and the main result showed significant differences in order to psychologicaldetachment. Those who experienced low ICT-demands estimated higher ability topsychological detachment from work, and those who experienced high ICT-demandsestimated the ability to psychological detachment lower. This means that when demands likeavailability and response expectations increases among the managers, the sense of beingaway from work decreases. Boundary management on the other hand, does not show anysignificant differences in experience. The results are considered with caution as the numberof participants are low. Some general conclusions should not be drawn but the practicalrelevance is of value in the context.

Home adpats to different life stages of family members. It provides an envrionment for kids to explore and learn. It balances the private life between adolescent and parents. However, it is different for families with Down syndrome because of their slow life path and demaning for time. This project aims to explore how might we improve the family relationship during the transition of living together in the context of a family with Down syndrome. I concentrate on the family plan for independent living: cooking-related activities. It is a long-term life project which demands time and higher motivation. From the research, parents have control over the learning process, which can influence young adults' confidence in making decisions and parents' building trust in their abilities. How might we support the process of collaborative learning for parents and DS young adult to achieve the long-period life project? Take the food planning as an example, this project explores touchpoints of trust building, learning transfer and decision-making points. "COOKIES" is a platform that connects different learning scenarios and on-going practice together. It helps to transfer the learning from outside home to the home cooking context. It motivates young adults with DS to leveling up missions defined by themselves. Parent's ambition is balanced with DS young adult's exploration. With the ability learned in this process, it can also influence several other domains of life choices.

The social relation between the platform firm and its users is defined by engagement with platform infrastructure and the rendition of this engagement into data. This type of data is often compared to gold, oil, and other fungible goods. User-data, however, are not generally accounted for as intangible assets and their value, economic and otherwise, is not transparent. I problematize a priori assumptions about a direct line from data to capital by asking: How do platform firms realize value from user-data? I engage the question through structural analysis by abstraction in an intensive case study of two transnational platform firms. I use qualitative content analysis to analyze annual and earnings reports, terms of service agreements, and internal documents from 2017 through 2023 with Atlas.ti data analysis software. The findings reveal a perceptual disconnection between user-data inputs and artificial intelligence (AI) related service and product outputs. I argue that the platform functions as digital real-estate to extract monetary and data rents and securitizes its users through a process of mystifying the relationship between user-data and AI related products, services, and infrastructures. I posit the processes of AI mystification and user securitization as mechanisms of value realization that suggest the dilation of an entrenched social relation rather than a divergence from capitalism. The study places financialization as a critical factor in data seeking and calls for the inclusion of the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sectors in future research of data and AI in political economy. I suggest a focus on data as property and its ownership and control as regulatory articulation points for future policy formation. / Doctor of Philosophy / The social relation between the platform firm and its users is defined by engagement with platform infrastructure and the rendition of this engagement into data. This type of data is often compared to gold, oil, and other fungible goods. User-data, however, are not generally accounted for as intangible assets and their value, economic and otherwise, is not transparent. I problematize a priori assumptions about a direct line from data to capital by asking: How do platform firms realize value from user-data? I engage the question through structural analysis by abstraction in an intensive case study of two transnational platform firms. I use qualitative content analysis to analyze annual and earnings reports, terms of service agreements, and internal documents from 2017 through 2023 with Atlas.ti data analysis software. The findings reveal a perceptual disconnection between user-data inputs and artificial intelligence (AI) related service and product outputs. I argue that the platform functions as digital real-estate to extract monetary and data rents and securitizes its users through a process of mystifying the relationship between user-data and AI related products, services, and infrastructures. I posit the processes of AI mystification and user securitization as mechanisms of value realization that suggest the dilation of an entrenched social relation rather than a divergence from capitalism. The study places financialization as a critical factor in data seeking and calls for the inclusion of the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sectors in future research of data and AI in political economy. I suggest a focus on data as property and its ownership and control as regulatory articulation points for future policy formation.

Seven to ten percent of the energy used globally goes towards powering information and communications technology (ICT): the global data- and telecommunications network, the private and commercial datacenters it supports, and the 19 billion electronic devices around the globe it interconnects, through which we communicate, and access and produce information. As bandwidth and data rates increase, so does the volume of traffic, as well as the absolute amount of new information digitized and uploaded onto the Net and into the cloud each second. Words like gigabit and terabyte were needless fifteen years ago in the public arena; now, they are common phrases. As people use their networked devices to do more, to access more, to send more, and to connect more, they use more energy--not only in their own devices, but also throughout the ICT. While there are many endeavors focused on individual low-power devices, few are examining broad strategies that cross the many boundaries of separate concerns within the ICT; also, few are assessing the impact of specific strategies on the global energy supply: at a global scale. This work examines the energy savings of several such strategies; it also assesses their efficacy in reducing energy consumption, both within specific networks and within the larger ICT. All of these strategies save energy by reducing the work done by the system as a whole on behalf of a single user, often by exploiting commonalities among what many users around the globe are also doing to amortize the costs. / Ph. D.

This study took a novel experimental approach from the field of cognitive linguistics to quantitatively describe the impact of culture on the use of mobile information and communication technology (ICT) in the context of peace and conflict. Beginning with the hypothesis that ICT reflects a mono-cultural perspective for collecting and organizing information, this study tested how a failure to adapt at a cognitive level resulted in distorted narratives. This distortion has problematic implications for democratic participation in postconflict contexts and in data aggregation initiatives that inform policy decisions related to governance, election monitoring, human rights abuse reporting, and conflict management more broadly. Fieldwork from the Acholi region of Uganda supported the conclusion that current ICT tools used in conflict management contexts fundamentally distort the narratives they were designed to collect at a cognitive level. Findings from this research also presented avenues for software development around a new variable for cultural communication preference.

Syfte: Studiens syfte var att undersöka och beskriva verksamma arbetsterapeuters förekomst av teknikstress i arbetet och om det förekommer skillnader utifrån ålder. Metod: En kvantitativ metod och en webbaserad enkät användes vid datainsamlingen. Enkäten baserades på den svenska översättningen av enkäten Teknostress bestående av fem kategorier; Teknisk belastning, Teknisk invasion, Teknisk komplexitet, Teknisk otrygghet och Teknisk osäkerhet. Enkäten delades genom den svenska Facebook gruppen “Arbetsterapeuter på facebook”. Vid analysering av påståendena sammanställdes deltagarnas median på samtliga påståenden för att beskriva respektive kategori. Chi2-test användes vid jämförelse mellan åldersgrupperna inom påståenden och kategorier. Resultat: I studien deltog totalt 131 arbetsterapeuter som arbetat mer än 1 år på sin nuvarande arbetsplats. Resultatet visade att det fanns en förekomst av teknikstress inom kategorierna Teknisk belastning, Teknisk komplexitet och Teknisk osäkerhet. Större delen av deltagarna skattade ingen förekomst av teknikstress relaterat till kategorierna Teknisk invasion och Teknisk otrygghet. Det fanns en signifikant skillnad mellan åldersgrupperna 22-40 år och 41+ år på kategorin Teknisk komplexitet och på samtliga tillhörande påståenden. En signifikant skillnad förekom även på påstående 2 och 5 inom kategorin Teknisk belastning. Slutsats: Studien visade att en stor del av arbetsterapeuterna påvisade teknikstress i relation till arbetsbelastning och regelbunden förändring av teknik på arbetsplatsen. Hos majoriteten av arbetsterapeuterna har tekniken ingen påverkan på deras fritid eller anställning. Den största skillnaden mellan arbetsterapeuternas åldrar förekom inom kategorin Teknisk komplexitet. Möjlighet för träning och utbildning i användning av IKT kan stödja arbetsterapeuter i sitt arbete. / Aim: The purpose of the study was to investigate and describe the presence of technostress in the work of practicing occupational therapists and whether there are differences based on age. Method: A quantitative method and a web-based survey were used for data collection. The survey was based on the Swedish translation of the questionnaire Technostress consisting of five categories; Techno-overload, Techno-invasion, Techno-complexity, Techno-insecurity and Techno-uncertainty. The survey was distributed through the Swedish Facebook group “Occupational therapists on facebook”. When analyzing the statements, the participants’ median was compiled on all statements to describe each category. Chi-squared test was used when comparing the age groups within statements and categories. Results: A total of 131 occupational therapists participated in the study who had worked for more than one year at their current workplace. The result showed that there was a presence of technostress within the categories Techno-overload, Techno-complexity and Techno-uncertainty. Most of the participants reported no technostress related to the categories Techno-invasion and Techno-insecurity. There was a significant difference between the age groups 22-40 years and 41+ years in the category Techno-complexity and all related statements. A significant difference also occurred on statements 2 and 5 within the category Techno-overload. Conclusion: The study showed that a large part of the occupational therapists demonstrated technostress in relation to workload and frequent change of technology at the workplace. For the majority of the occupational therapists the technology had no impact on their leisure time or employment. The biggest difference between the occupational therapists’ ages occurred in the category Techno-complexity. Opportunities of training and education in the use of ICT can support occupational therapists in their work.

Denna studie utforskar lärarnas åsikter om användningen av informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) för att främja fysisk aktivitet på fritidshem i Sverige. Genom en kvalitativ ansats analyseras lärarnas synpunkter och strategier för att integrera digitala verktyg, särskilt Exergames så som Just Dance, i undervisningen. Resultaten visar en mångfald av åsikter, från starkt stöd till mer återhållsamma attityder, men en övergripande positiv inställning till användningen av digitala verktyg för att främja fysisk aktivitet är tydlig. Kunskapsutbyte mellan lärare identifieras som avgörande för professionell utveckling, medan tillgången till resurser för digital pedagogik varierar och påverkar i hög grad lärarnas användning av teknologi i undervisningen. Sammantaget betonar studien betydelsen av att integrera IKT på ett meningsfullt sätt för att främja elevernas hälsa och lärande i fritidshemmet.

Yes / The concept of smart city is emerging as a key strategy to tackle the problems generated by the urban population growth and rapid development. It is widely recognised that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) play a key role in addressing some of the urban societal challenges such as improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. Although there are various ICT tools providing intelligence and services relating to energy consumption and monitoring processes, they mostly tend to work in isolation. Therefore, this paper presents the outcomes and impacts of the concept of DAREED which aims to deliver an integrated ICT service platform to drive energy efficiency and low carbon activities at neighbourhood, city and district levels. Furthermore, the research highlights the need for ICT-driven policy making using platforms such as DAREED in the context of e-Government. This paper contributes to the current understandings of e-Government literature in terms of how ICT can help public authorities and stakeholders such as policy makers to achieve and drive energy efficiency. From a practical stance, the paper offers valuable insights to public administrations on how ICT can be used to address pressing societal challenges such as efficient energy use and facilitate better policy making.