Understanding and improving subjective measures in human-computer interaction

In Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), research has shifted from a focus on usability and performance towards the holistic notion of User Experience (UX). Research into UX places special emphasis on concepts from psychology, such as emotion, trust, and motivation. Under this paradigm, elaborate methods to capture the richness and diversity of subjective experiences are needed. Although psychology offers a long-standing tradition of developing self-reported scales, it is currently undergoing radical changes in research and reporting practice. Hence, UX research is facing several challenges, such as the widespread use of ad-hoc questionnaires with unknown or unsatisfactory psychometric properties, or a lack of replication and transparency. Therefore, this thesis contributes to several gaps in the research by developing and validating self-reported scales in the domain of user motivation (manuscript 1), perceived user interface language quality (manuscript 2), and user trust (manuscript 3). Furthermore, issues of online research and practical considerations to ensure data quality are empirically examined (manuscript 4). Overall, this thesis provides well-documented templates for scale development, and may help improve scientific rigor in HCI

Current challenges in HCI-research: quantifying open experiences, warranting data quality, and developing standardized measures

The three manuscripts that make up this dissertation represent three chal- lenges of modern human-computer interaction (HCI) research and provide new in- sights, strategies, and recommendations for other researchers in this domain. The relatively new and fast-moving field of UX-research as yet provides insufficient theo- retical groundwork in certain areas of interest. The first manuscript depicts the way in which a mixed-method approach, including qualitative and quantitative strate- gies, was able to reveal new dimensions of interest in the domain of challenges and avatar death in player experiences, a field previously characterized by a lack of the theoretical frameworks needed to address certain phenomena. Recent research in HCI is further complicated by the increasing trend of online data collection, a method which is concerned to provide insufficient data quality and therefore prone to failed replications or false effects. The second manuscript therefore aimed at providing a systematic analysis of a crowdsourced sample and practical recommen- dations, applying various measures to detect inattentive behavior. Lastly, a lack of common conceptual definitions, including the according measuring instruments, im- poses another challenge on UX-researchers. The third manuscript revolves around the development and validation of a measure for trust on the web, a domain which previously lacked common concepts and measures

Strategic communication in women\u27s rights organizations: Tools, challenges and best practices

Despite rapid globalization and tremendous expansion of the number of women\u27s rights organizations, international attention to the issues of women and girls remains rather low. While some women\u27s rights networks and organizations leap to prominence, others do not receive recognition and public support. I wanted to know why. I interviewed 13 directors and communication managers of women\u27s rights non-governmental organizations to see how they manage communication. I used a convenience sample that included a wide range of geographical locations and sizes of NGOs. The interviews were held via Skype. I conducted a theme analysis of transcribed interviews. The participants indicated various communication goals, which included increased visibility, higher credibility and the engagement of multiple stakeholders. The leaders felt that although having a communication specialist in an NGO is important, executives must also be engaged in delivering effective communication strategies. Relationships with employees, donors and governments were said to be particularly important. The best practices in communication included truth and honesty, and new ways of community involvement through technology. Among the most cost-efficient types of technology, participants named mobile phones, social media, and blogs. The main communication challenges for women\u27s rights NGOs they identified were those associated with media relations and misuse of communication tools, as well as lack of resources and funding for communication goals. Generally, while some participants were dissatisfied with current communication strategies, most of them expressed hopeful and optimistic feelings about communication strategies in their NGOs. Through this thesis, I argue that the relative success of non-governmental organizations for women\u27s rights is not random. I emphasize the impact of strategic communication, particularly via the Internet, on women\u27s rights organizations. Strategic communication is an important public relations and/or marketing tool that allows the organization to enhance its overall strategic positioning and achieve visibility, accountability and sustainable development. As a feminist activist working for women\u27s NGO and scholar, I believe the results of this study will contribute to the understanding of both women\u27s rights NGOs and the larger social movements in which they exist, in the context of new communication practices, digital activism and information technologies

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality

The Political Economy of the Nigerian Government Amnesty Program in the Niger Delta: 2009 - 2018

The economic or political economy of conflicts and civil wars in Africa is an expanding field with an increase in research and literature especially in the last few decades. However, less attention has been devoted to the role of political economy in peacebuilding operations/interventions. This dissertation examines the extent to which political economy, specifically its elements in terms of interests, incentives, and institutions shapes the conceptualization, design and implementation of Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) and the prospects for sustainable peace. The Niger Delta Amnesty (NDA) is used as an empirical case study.:CHAPTER ONE GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction 1.1 State of the art 1.1.1 The political economy of peacebuilding 1.1.2 Institutions in rentier states 1.1.3 Resource curse discourse and interests 1.1.4 Wealth distribution and incentives 1.2 Research question 1.3 Problem statement 1.4 Overview of research methodology 1.4.1 Structural framework of the political economy approach 1.4.1.1 Neoliberalism Approach 1.4.1.2 Neopatrimonialism approach 1.4.2 Comment on sources 1.4.2.1 Research design 1.4.2.2 Research method 1.4.2.3 Data generation method 1.4.2.4 Method of data analysis 1.5 Challenges in the field 1.6 The structure of the dissertation CHAPTER TWO HISTORICIZING OIL CONFLICT IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION 2 Introduction 2.1 Analyzing the Origins and dynamics of the Niger Delta Conflict 2.1.1 The Geography and People of the Niger Delta 2.1.2 Pre-colonial Niger Delta and the Emergence of European Trade in Nigeria (1444 – 1850) 2.1.3 Colonial Considerations: Increasing Agitations, Palm oil Production and the Discovery of Oil (1851 – 1960) 2.1.4 Independent and Post Independent Nigeria and the Foundations of the Oil Conflict (1960 – Present) 2.1.5 Militant Movements in the Niger Delta in the Recent Past (1990s – Present) 2.2 Nigerian Political Economy, State Policy Response and the Nature of the Nigerian State 2.2.1 A Survey of the Nigerian Political Economy 2.2.2 State-centric Responses to the Niger Delta Oil Conflict (1960 – 2009) 2.2.2.1 Positive “Carrot” Approach 2.2.2.2 Coercive “Stick” Approach 2.2.3 An Explanation of the Nature and character of the Nigerian State 2.3 Conclusion CHAPTER THREE THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF STATE AND NON-STATE INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA 3 Introduction 3.1 Furthering Institutional Scholarship and Debates 3.1.1 The Mainstream Debate 3.1.2 The Critical School 3.2 State-to-State Institutional Interaction 3.2.1 Institutions as “Rules of the Game” 3.2.2 Differential Power Distribution 3.2.3 Formal Institutional Bargaining 3.3 Non-state Driven Institutional Interlinkage 3.3.1 Institutions as socially shared rules/traditional systems 3.4 State and Non-state Institutional Exchange 3.4.1 Institutional Bricolage 3.4.2 Institutional Credibility 3.5 State, Non-state and International Collaboration 3.5.1 Complexities of NDA and DDR Institutions 3.5.2 Complementarity of NDA and DDR Institutions 3.5.3 Limited Access Order in NDA and DDR Institutions 3.6 Implications of Statutory, Non-Statutory and International Institutions to NDA and DDR 3.6.1 Lack of Coordination 3.6.2 Exacerbation of Conflict 3.6.3 Weak Hybridized Institutions 3.7 Conclusion CHAPTER FOUR CONCEPTUALISING INTERESTS AND INCENTIVES IN THE FRAMING OF THE NIGER DELTA AMNESTY AND DDR PROGRAM 4 Introduction 4.1 Mapping Actor Network Analysis in the Niger Delta Conflict 4.1.1 The Nigerian Government 4.1.2 Oil Communities 4.1.3 Multinational Oil Companies (MNOCs) 4.2 Contested Interests: Actors, Encounters and Entanglements in the Niger Delta 4.2.1 Powerful Versus Powerless Encounters 4.2.2 Elitists Entanglements 4.2.3 Intra and Inter Community Contestations 4.2.4 MNOCs and Niger Delta Communities’ Confrontations 4.3 Conclusion CHAPTER FIVE A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE NIGER DELTA AMNESTY, DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION PROGRAM 5 Introduction 5.1 Amnesty: A Peacebuilding Practice 5.2 The NDA and DDR Program and the Politics of conceptualization 5.3 NDA and DDR Program and the Art of Negotiation 5.4 NDA and DDR: The Practice of Planning 5.5 The Implementation Process of the Niger Delta Amnesty and DDR Program 5.5.1 The Disarmament Phase 5.5.2 The Demobilisation Phase 5.5.3 The Reintegration Phase 5.6 Niger Delta Amnesty and DDR Process: A Shift from a Neoliberal Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards (IDDRS) Principles to a Neopatrimonial DDR Practice 5.6.1 From a people centered approach to a patron-client driven approach 5.6.2 From a flexible, transparent and accountable doctrine to a non-transparent and unaccountable DDR process 5.6.3 Nationally Owned 5.6.4 From an Integrated IDDRS Norm to a non-integrated approach 5.6.5 From a well-planned IDDRS to a haphazard DDR 5.7 Conclusion CHAPTER SIX GENERAL CONCLUSION 6 Introduction 6.1 Main Research Questions and Empirical Findings 6.2 Theoretical and Empirical Contribution 6.3 Potential Concerns for Future Research BIBLIOGRAPH

Towards the collaborative museum? Social media, participation, disciplinary experts and the public in the contemporary museum

This thesis examines the use of social media by museums aiming to establish collaborative relationships with the public. Social media platforms have been widely espoused as transformative in allowing diverse, new or previously excluded audiences to enter into egalitarian, participatory relationships with museums. This thesis deconstructs the concepts of participation and collaboration and identifies the various factors that constrain the extent to which social media enables participatory relationships between previously unequal actors. These factors include the historical disciplinary aims and cultural authority of museums, persistent social inequalities, and the motivations of social media followers. It elucidates crucial questions such as, are various publics enabled to participate on an equal level with each other and with museums? Who benefits from collaborative projects in general and which parties benefit from the use of social media in particular? What are the factors that limit the establishment of collaborative practice? And, conversely, what are the factors that define truly collaborative practice? This research examines museums’ use of and discourses surrounding social media as well as social media followers’ motivations for engaging with museums online. A large body of quantitative and qualitative data gained through in-depth web-based surveys is analysed, primarily using critical discourse analysis, and informed by other critical orientations including media archaeology and the sociology of expertise. The analysis indicates that museums consider social media to be a transformative, democratising technology. However, museums’ acceptance of technologically determinist arguments significantly inhibits positive societal change and the extent to which collaborative relationships can be established with various publics. This research contributes significantly to the existing archaeological and museum studies literature by providing a theoretically and empirically informed critical analysis of the prevailing positive discourses surrounding social media and participation. It has important practical implications for museums in arguing that targeted, critically informed and ethically aware projects are necessary to achieve situations resembling ‘collaboration’. It provides a significant body of data that will inform the formulation and continuation of collaborative projects in museums. Furthermore, it informs broader archaeological debates on involving various publics in archaeological practice. This thesis also demonstrates the importance and effectiveness of critical discourse analysis and related critical approaches for analysing large bodies of qualitative data

Leading Change in a Complex World

Leading Change in a Complex World : Transdisciplinary Perspectives is a transdisciplinary book offering tools for leaders, analysts and students of leadership to navigate in complex and interconnected settings. It proposes an analytical framework based on complexity, relational leadership, and dynamic change. Individual chapters examine these ideas in relation to topical societal, organisational and business challenges such as the changing global security environment, urbanisation, demographic changes, and business-government relations. The leadership roles of heads of states and societal stakeholders are analysed, and versatile leadership and management practices from conflict management to evaluation are introduced. The possibilities for change are examined through global megatrends, shifting global power blocs, changes in consumer practices, as well as those emanating from abstract concepts such as the circular economy.Leading Change in a Complex World : Transdisciplinary Perspectives on poikkitieteellinen kirja, joka tarjoaa johtajille, johtajuuden tutkijoille sekä opiskelijoille työkaluja monimutkaisissa ja kytköksisissä ympäristöissä suunnistamiseen. Kirjassa esitellään analyyttinen viitekehys, joka rakentuu kompleksisuuden, relationaalisuuden ja dynaamisen muutoksen käsitteiden ympärille. Kirjan luvuissa näitä käsitteitä hyödynnetään yhteiskunnan, organisaatioiden, politiikan sekä liike-elämän ilmiöiden analyysiin. Luvut käsittelevät esimerkiksi globaalin turvallisuusympäristön muutosta, kaupungistumista, työvoiman ikääntymistä sekä valtioiden ja yritystoiminnan suhdetta. Johtajuutta tarkastellaan niin valtionjohdon kuin yhteiskunnallisten sidosryhmien toiminnan kautta. Muutoksen mahdollisuuksien tarkastelussa huomio kiinnittyy esimerkiksi megatrendeihin, muuttuviin globaaleihin valtablokkeihin, kulutuskäytäntöihin sekä kiertotalouden mahdollisuuksiin