In the area of governmental information for and services to citizens digitalization has certainly become a buzzword. Framed within the discourses on e-government or e-governance – or differ­ent mixtures of the two – various analyses have tried to point out, or even anticipate possible consequences of the appropriation of digital technologies, mainly the internet, in governmental services.

On the one hand, these analyses have pointed out a great deal of opportunities connected to the incorporation of the internet into governmental information and services. Policy makers have been quick to point to the increased accessibility as a great opportunity for the citizens; in Sweden this vision of accessibility has even been referred to as ‘24:7-governmental agencies’. Academics, among others, have also suggested that the digitalization of information and services opens up new possibilities for citizen control of governments.

On the other hand, a number of problems have also been identified. For instance, the digitalization of public registers holding personal information has been interpreted as a threat to the citizens’ integrity: Will digitalization bring a new surveillance society? The most frequently debated prob­lem, however, at least within research, has been the fear of digital divides. Will the internet create digital cleavages between different groups of citizens?

So far, however, neither the hopeful nor the dystopian analyses have made enough efforts to critically evaluate their claims. Such evaluations can start from different points of departure, and in this paper the starting point is the citizens as users of governmental information and services through the internet: What patterns of inclusion and exclusion emerge as a governmental agency digitalizes its information and services by making them increasingly internet based?

The paper presents statistical data from a survey of 762 unemployed citizens using the Swedish Public Employment Service, a governmental agency that has come to rely specifically heavy on internet based information and service. The initial analysis of data reveals interesting differences between social groups in terms of both perception and use of the internet – in general – and the resources offered by SPES in particular. For instance, the users’ various degrees of education is a strong, determining factor when it comes to use of internet SPES’ services.

The paper starts from a conceptual elaboration of various notions of e-government and e-gov­ernance. Thereafter, the survey data is described and elaborated on before moving into a discus­sion of the wider significance of the findings: What does data suggest in terms of patterns of in­clusion in and exclusion from a society in which governmental agencies, to an increasing extent, use the internet for their information and services?

This book is based on the collaborative work and experience from Swedish researchers in an new and promising field of scientific and management oriented inquiry: guided tours. The book represents a wide range of scientific perspectives such as organizational theory, human geography, architecture, ethnology and technology.

The chapters are divided into three themes: Guided tours as a phenomenon, Guided tours and guidebooks and finally Guided tours: their production, content and use. And your guides - the authors - will provide various kinds of insights. We will follow the history of guidebooks and their followers, experience the smell of sage and find out how a guided tour at a construction site can be performed. Let's take a walk...

Hur gör ett företag som gör mer än det tidigare gjort för sin personal vid en nedläggning? Varför gör det överhuvudtaget mer än det tidigare gjort, eller ens behöver? I denna bok analyseras telekomföretaget Ericssons nedläggningar i Norrköping och Linköping under åren mellan 1999 och 2002. Författaren visar hur nedläggningarna utvecklades i samspel med sociala institutioner och i interaktion med fackliga organisationer såväl som bemanningsföretag, Trygghetsrådet och kommunala och statliga myndigheter. Här förfäktas idén att företagets agerande hängde samman med att etablerade organisationer genom sin tröghet till förändring hade skapat utrymme för nya organisatoriska lösningar i samband med rationaliseringar: bemanningsföretagen kunde nu ta över personalansvaret.

Författaren gör också en genomgång av tidigare forskning om nedläggningar och personalinskränkningar, varvid modeller redovisas som förknippats med företag som ansetts ha tagit socialt ansvar när de lagt ner eller minskat på sin personal.

Embedded Intelligent Systems (EIS) is the joint research field of the four collaborating laboratories at the School of Information Science, Computer and Electrical Engineering (IDE) at Halmstad University. The research of the four labs is integrated into a strong concerted research environment within embedded systems (EIS) - with a perspective reaching from the enabling technology via new system solutions and intelligent applications to end user aspects and business models. It is an expanding research area with many applications, not least ones that exist in everyday life.EIS is an important research environment contributing to the regional Triple Helix innovation system Healthcare Technology which the region has pointed out as a prioritised development sector. With its strong connections to both established and new, expanding firms hived off from the university, the research environment is active in the Healthcare Technology Alliance, a network of around sixty companies, counties and health care providers in south-western Sweden with the aim of developing the region into a leading arena for the development of health technology products and services. Several projects together with these participants concern both research and technology transfer.An integrated gender and gender equality perspective in innovations within the health technology area is necessary in order to be able to meet the needs of an ageing population with quality innovations. The relevancy of a gender perspective is clear in relation to the fact that about 70% of all those older than 75 years are women. Older women are on average cared for in hospital twice as long as men, partly due to differing disease panoramas, but also because men are more often cared for in the home by a woman while the women who live longer more often live alone. With the expansion of home-help and home nursing new needs follow and it is likely that a gender perspective will become necessary for the development of products and services that can make daily life easier for the elderly. The gender perspective also has relevance from the point of view of care staff. New technology is developed for application within the health and care sector where the larger professional groups consist mainly of women. The technology, most often designed by men, is used by women. With this in mind it is clear that an important aspect of good innovations is that the end users are involved in the innovation process.Based on an awareness of the need for a more articulated gender perspective within the research environment, in order to meet the needs expressed above, an application for a gender inclusive R&D project was handed in to the VINNOVA programme Applied Gender Research in Strong Research and Innovation Environments. The G-EIS project (Gender Perspective on Embedded Intelligent Systems - Application in Healthcare Technology) was approved and started in 2009. The project involves researchers from the EIS research environment as well as representatives from companies and the public sector.The project participants are on the whole agreed on the need for a gender perspective in the R&I environment, but struggle with the meeting of two epistemologically opposed theories of science. The understanding within gender studies that research and production both create reality and are informed by it is not always accepted within the areas of natural science. Engineering and other technological sciences not only consider aspects of science to be separate from reality, but also seek positivistic proof in research, something not always possible in the more qualitative research of the social sciences. Researching how these two perspectives meet within this specific project is the topic of this paper.

Syfte: Projektets syfte är att undersöka vilka bilder som Sportbladet målar upp av fotbollsspelaren Zlatan IbrahimovicMetod: Netnografi och kritisk diskursanalys

Teori: Existentiell hermeneutik och kritisk diskursanalys

Resultat: Bilden av Zlatan Ibrahimovic målas upp av journalisten som i sin tur blir påverkad av läsare som skriver kommentarer till artiklarna

Boken ger en överblick över organiseringen och den diskussion och problematik som präglar politik och förvaltning i ett pluralistiskt modernt samhälle. Frågan är t.ex. hur enskilda individers och gruppers behov av frihet och självbestämmande kan förenas med behovet av ömsesidiga hänsynstaganden och gemensamma, kollektiva angelägenheter i en demokrati. Att arbeta i politiskt styrd verksamhet innebär att man möter både praktiska och etiska problem som skall lösas i samråd med många andra inblandade aktörer. I ett avslutande kapitel i boken behandlas därför etiska frågeställningar som präglar den offentliga förvaltningen.

Innehåller en översikt och analys av dels den statliga styrningen av krisberedskap på kommunal nivå, dels rapporter och uppsatser av krishanteringen i Hallands län i samband med stormarna Gudrun (januari 2005) och Per (januari 2007).

Implementering av politiska reformer berör centrala statsvetenskapliga problemområden. I artikeln diskuteras, med erfarenheterna från implementeringen på lokal nivå av rättighetslagen LSS, möjligheter och hinder att via sociala reformer skapa rättvisa levnadsvillkor för personer med omfattande funktionshinder.

Denna rapport behandlar frågor som rör dagens och morgondagens boende för målgrupper inom LSS. Handläggare och chefer från åtta kommuner i Skåne som arbetar med dagens boende eller ansvarar för planering och utveckling av boendeformer har i en FoU-cirkel diskuterat problem och möjligheter inför framtiden. Deltagarna har identifierat och lyft viktiga frågeställningar att arbeta vidare med ute i kommunerna för att möta brukarnas behov och önskemål

Föreliggande volym redovisar i första hand en stor konferens 17 april 2008 om Säkerhet och Sårbarhet på Högskolan i Halmstad. Den är ett uttryck för hur vi försöker möta de olika förväntningarna på en framgångsrik högskola. Den är inte en utpräglad forskningsrapport men innehåller både forskningsuppsatser och presentationer från olika myndigheter och organisationeri Halland. Arrangemanget har genomförts i samverkan med Länsstyrelsen i Halland och Region Halland.

Den snabba utvecklingen med styrning och kontroll genom ny lagstiftning inom skolområdet är bakgrunden till denna nya upplagan av boken "Ansvar och sekretess i förskola, skola och fritidshem". Frågor som rör personalens arbetsrättsliga ställning, skolans arbetsmiljöansvar, diskriminering, mobbning, offentlighet och sekretess , dokumentation och handläggning behandlas ingående.  För att åskådliggöra och analysera konsekvenserna av förändringarna kommenteras gällande lagtexter med aktuella rättsfall.

Syfte:              Syftet med uppsatsen är att kritiskt granska utformning av svenska barnprogram som har målet att vara lärande, för att se på vilket sätt man skapar mening och vilka strategier man använder för att göra programmen intressanta. Målet är att identifiera olika metoder och reflektera över på vilket sätt metoderna förmedlar programmens budskap. 

Metod:           Vi har utfört en kvalitativ analys av tre olika barnprogram utifrån filmteori och semiotik.

Resultat:           Vi har kommit fram till att olika program använder skilda metoder för att förmedla sitt budskap. Metoderna skiljer sig åt beroende på vilken målgrupp man riktar sig, vad man har för intentioner med programmet och vad programmet handlar om. 

The aim of this text is to introduce perspectives, questions and empirical examples regarding children's identity construction in play with dolls and figures that represent women and men in both gender-typed and non gender-typed ways. Videotaped play of two 4-year old boys and three 5-year-old girls in a preschool setting is analyzed from complementary interactionistic and socio-cultural perspectives. The level of plasticity in the toyplay is interpreted. The results suggest ways in wich the gender-plastic character of toy play can be founded in children's intentions as well as in the toys' character as mediating tools. The analysis is based on whether children play with, through, in or beside their toy gestalts. These and other similar distinctions help to differentiate identity consequences in play.

Riksbankens Jubileumsfond har sedan 2009 ett pilotprogram, Flexit,  där forskare inom humaniora och samhällsvetenskap får möjlighet att arbeta som in-house forskare i den privata sektorn under tre år. Flexits syften är att:

• bygga broar mellan humanistisk och samhällsvetenskaplig forskning och näringslivet,
• underlätta kunskapsutbyte och stimulera kontakter så att fler organisationer utanför universitetsvärlden kan se och nyttja kompetensen hos disputerade humanister och samhällsvetare.
• påverka meriteringssystemet så att akademin i högre grad värderar erfarenheter från företagsvärlden, och vice versa,
•  visa alternativa karriärmöjligheter för forskare inom humaniora och samhällsvetenskap.

Två av forskarna från den första omgången, Martin Berg och Susanna Toivanen, berättar om sina erfarenheter inom programmet. Susanna Toivanen berättar hur det är att forska om framtidens kontorsarbetsplatser, och vilka möjligheter och utmaningar det innebär att bedriva forskning i samverkan med ett stort byggbolag. Susanna är verksam som samhällsvetenskaplig forskare på NCC Property Development på företagets kontor i Västra Hamnen i Malmö.

Martin Berg delar med sig av sina erfarenheter av att forska om sociala medier på en webb- och strategibyrå som har ena foten i Malmö och den andra på internet. Martin är sociolog och verksam som forskare på Good Old i Malmö.

Maria Wikse fungerar som samtalsledare.

During the last few years, numerous journal articles aiming at discerning the impact and possible meanings of social network sites (SNS) such as Facebook and Twitter have been published. It is often argued that SNS significantly diverge from earlier forms of web communities since they are centred around the individual actor rather than themes of interest. An important aspect of these changes is that SNS allow for the construction of a public or semi-public profile through which it is possible to put on display a list of shared social connections which, in turn, makes it viable to browse the social connections of other users. Although being important aspects of SNS, these observations do not account for the automated data processing of harvested personal information that constitute the very motor of these sites. Drawing on an analysis of an extensive empirical material consisting of approximately 470 self-reflexive diary entries on the subject of Facebook use, authored by people between the ages of 22 and 68 together with an exploration of the ways in which Facebook gathers and processes personal and interactional data in order to provide what is assumed to be an enhanced user experience, this paper aims at establishing a sociological understanding of the interrelationship between social practices and automated social structures on Facebook. Taken as a whole, this paper contributes to an understanding of SNS by relating social practices to the automated social structures that (for commercial reasons) emerge within SNS thus rendering creative identity performances problematic. In so doing, it provides an important account of how bodies, selves and technologies intersect and relate to new forms of power in contemporary communicative capitalism. 

Taking its point of departure in a critical discussion of the imagined dividing line between physical and digital spaces, this chapter demonstrates a socio-spatial turn in Internet studies and sets out to explore the meaning of locative technologies as an illuminating example of how such spatial boundaries increasingly collapse. Being empirically grounded in an analysis of twelve qualitative interviews with users of the applications Foursquare and Gowalla, this chapter focuses on the interplay between what is termed electronic flâneurs and digital geographies and demonstrates in what ways the use of locative technologies provokes changes at two levels in the social realm; first, by adding a communicative digital layer to the spatial organisation of physical space and second, by adding a spatially bound layer to interactions in digital space.

The last few years have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of services and applications that facilitate online social interaction of various kinds. Contemporary accounts of the social web most often take their point of departure in an analysis of Social Network Sites (SNS) such as Twitter and Facebook. In contrast to such an endeavour, this paper shifts focus from the social realm of SNS to social interactions that occur through and around amateur sex-cam services such as cam4.com, which is a service claiming to be ”the largest worldwide webcam community”. Cam4.com allows the users to broadcast themselves while having sex, masturbating or simply engaging in exhibitionist practices of different sorts. Every broadcast is accompanied by a public chat which provides a possibility to communicate with the viewers as well as a ”tip box” through which viewers can make economic transactions to the broadcasting user. These transactions are often closely related to the bodily sexual practices of the users and it is frequently said that a certain amount of tips is required for making an orgasm (or similar activity) taking place. This paper takes its point of departure in an analysis of various forms of social interaction on cam4.com in order to establish an understanding of the relationship between bodily practices and communicative acts in light of the electronically mediated setting by which their performance is facilitated and interconnected. This analysis, in turn, is related to a broader theoretical framework that builds upon a critical assessment of the works of George H. Mead (1934), Judith Butler (1990) and Anthony Giddens (1992) together with a reconfiguration of Jodi Dean’s (2005, 2010a, 2010b) notion of ”communicative capitalism” which designates a very specific form of late capitalism which is materialised in the bits and bytes of the network society. Taken as a whole, this paper provides a deeper understanding of the processes involved in contemporary online (bodily) communication while at the same time positioning these microsociological matters in a broader macroscopical theoretical framework.

During the last few years, numerous journal articles aiming at discerning the impact and possible meanings of social network sites (SNS) such as Facebook and Twitter have been published. It is often argued that SNS significantly diverge from earlier forms of web communities since they are centred around the individual actor rather than themes of interest. An important aspect of these changes is that SNS allow for the construction of a public or semi-public profile through which it is possible to put on display a list of shared social connections which, in turn, makes it viable to browse the social connections of other users. Although being important aspects of SNS, these observations do not account for the automated data processing of harvested personal information that constitute the very motor of these sites. Drawing on an analysis of an extensive empirical material consisting of approximately 470 self-reflexive diary entries authored by people between the ages of 22 and 68 together with an exploration of the ways in which Facebook gathers and processes personal and interactional data in order to provide what is assumed to be an enhanced user experience, this paper aims at establishing a sociological understanding of the interrelationship between social practices and automated social structures on Facebook. This paper provides an important contribution to contemporary sociological studies of new media by relating social practices to the automated social structures that (for commercial reasons) emerge within social network sites thus rendering creative identity performances problematic.

Body monitoring devices are increasingly turning into machines that not only track personal activity but also provide suggestions on how to lead a life that is assumed to be continuously improved. By measuring, interpreting and correlating various data sources, these devices are assumed to provide an understanding that goes beyond everyday self knowledge. Although these devices most certainly can provide information on how to run faster or sleep better, it remains unclear how it feels to gain a deeper understanding of oneself by means of a technological device. This paper approaches this question in an auto-ethnographic study (by the author of this paper) where the Jawbone UP wristband and the ”Smart Coach” insight and coaching ”engine” will be used and the suggestions for improvement slavishly followed during 100 days. This system crunches personal data in various ways in order to provide ”actionable insights and uniquely personalized guidance” (jawbone.com).

During the last few years, a steady stream of journal articles and conference papers with the aim of discerning the impact and possible meanings of social network sites (SNS) have been published. It is often argued that SNS diverge significantly from earlier forms of web communities since they are centred around the individual actor rather than themes of interest. Although providing a solid understanding of the social dynamics surrounding identity performance and self-presentation, most researchers have not sufficiently assessed the interrelationship between the conditions of social interaction on SNS and subjectivity. Being of crucial importance for any understanding of the relationship between participatory action and identity performance, an analysis of the conditions of subjectivity illuminates fundamental social processes of importance to the general understanding of the implications of SNS. Drawing on an analysis of an extensive empirical material consisting of approximately 470 self-reflexive diary entries authored by people between the ages of 22 and 68, the purpose of this paper is to explore the changed conditions of subjectivity on SNS by addressing two interrelated themes. First, this paper aims at understanding the possible implications of the fact that social and symbolic content increasingly becomes delivered to the individual through personalised feeds, thus invigorating a state of interpassivity through which the social network acts on its own behalf. Secondly, this paper strives at understanding what it means that other individuals occupy a salient role in the individual self-presentation. In what ways does this state of affairs affect the processes through which individual subjectivity is continuously enabled and negotiated? This paper explores crucial aspects of the social and interactional terrain of SNS thus attempting to provide a theoretical and conceptual apparatus, mainly by the concepts interpassivity and social network subjectivity, that can further strengthen research on SNS.

The last few years have witnessed an increased development of applications and services aimed at organisational communication and interaction. Instant messaging, enterprise social networks and web-based systems for time tracking are often assumed to facilitate organisational communicative practices. While providing a vast array of possibilities, applications and services of this kind also provoke changes at the level of social interaction and communication in the physical workplace environment. Taking its point of departure in an auto-ethnographic account of processes involved in the author’s becoming part of a digital workplace environment, this paper critically considers core characteristics of organisational communicative technologies as well as their social and material implications. In overall terms, this paper suggests that technologies of this kind allows for a layering of the workplace environment that facilitates the establishment of serendipitous relationships and interactions as well as providing a blurring of the boundaries of corporate positions and hierarchies while simultaneously giving rise to a complex set of surveillance techniques and power relations.

”Det är väl bara att googla ... ” Allt fler forskare och studenter upplever ett behov av att använda sig av internet i sin forskning. I regel uppstår då en rad frågor om hur detta ska gå till. Den här boken ger en grundlig introduktion till netnografin som vetenskaplig metod för att forska om och med hjälp av internet.

Boken bidrar med en förståelse för internet som struktur, artefakt, redskap och umgängesyta samtidigt som en förståelse utvecklas för det sociala och kulturella liv som blomstrar på, med och i relation till internet. Författaren beskriver hela den netnografiska forskningsprocessen – från forskningsfråga till publicerat forskningsresultat – på ett sätt som tar internets villkor och möjligheter på allvar för att kunna utnyttja dess potential. 

Several studies have engaged in understanding how the internet and online platforms increase political engagement through various forms of online participation and leverage social collective action. This article advances this line of research by exploring how social network sites in general and Facebook in particular are fuelled by algorithms that affect and become entangled with social practices on these sites. The article is empirically grounded in an analysis of 66 self-reflexive diaries on Facebook use and studies algorithmic structures on Facebook by exploring how personalized social feeds affect the experienced relationship between self and others as well as the readiness to share information to a network of peers. In contrast to studies that position online platforms as strengthening participatory political action, this article argues that it is necessary to take into account how algorithmic structures affect interpersonal relationships and the experienced ability to engage in participatory practices. © 2014, Masaryk University. All rights reserved.