Aktuella disputationer

Under 2000-talet har digitala teknologier tagit en alltmer självklar plats inte bara i den mänskliga-teknologiska tillvaron, utan även i barn- och ungdomslitteraturens gestaltningar av den. I sin avhandling belyser Jakob Olsson hur digital teknik såväl representeras som didaktiseras i samtida litteratur för unga läsare, samt hur dessa böcker kopplar upp sig mot en vidare, digital diskurs där ungas relation till tekniken ofta står i centrum. I särskilt fokus står samtidens mediestrider och vuxenvärldens många och delvis motstridiga budskap, där unga människor samtidigt ska omfamna tekniken och hålla den på armlängds avstånd.

I avhandlingen kombineras kvantitativa metoder med läsningar för att inventera och analysera de tekniska och teknikanvändande gestalterna i böcker utgivna under perioden 2000–2019. Där framträder en komplex och spänningsfylld bild av det som vuxenvärlden tror att unga vill och behöver läsa om den digitala tekniken.

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You sit in a quiet room at your local healthcare clinic. Tests are run, assessments made, and your data is woven into the threads of an electronic health record. Or perhaps you find yourself in the social care office, where the social worker listens intently to your concerns, gently nodding as your words are documented as data, one keystroke at a time. Care is assembled as data is aligned.

Today, digital data has become a prerequisite for public care. Increasingly, more aspects of who we are as care subjects and what public care does in its practices depend on data, which also normalizes its production, use and utilization. This process is called datafication.

This study explores datafication within Swedish public care, focusing on how data emerges and how it affects the subjects of care, as well as the data that is produced, processed, and utilized in public care settings. The research employs an ethnographic approach, rooted in the theoretical framework of assemblage as articulated by Deleuze and Guattari. By examining the practical and socio-technical dimensions of datafication, the study uncovers how small, seemingly inconsequential practices aggregate to influence broader ramifications for care subjects of Swedish public care, and for public welfare in general.

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What happens to work relationships in the aftermath of organisational change? While the processes of reorganisation have been extensively studied, this workplace study of administrative staff at a Swedish university examines the evolving roles, relations, and positions of departmental administrators years after previous restructurings have taken place.

The results are presented in four research papers, focusing on aspects such as loyalties, technology, belongings and visibility, that together paint a picture of the administrators as being in an indeterminate position between different actors, expectations and organisational logics. This position comes with both risks related to the tension between management and academics, and possibilities in terms of increased agency as individuals as well as a group.

This case study is situated within broader trends in society, such as new public management and the transformation of gendered occupations. While set within a university, the transformation of management doctrines and administrative work is also well known to be occurring in other sectors, such as healthcare, education and law enforcement making the findings in this study relevant to other settings.

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