Working Across

Editoria

The Evolution of Research on Sustainable Business Models: Implications for Management Scholars

Business models that lead to reduced consumption of resources and energy and support a Circular Economy can help businesses address the world’s pressing environmental problems. At the same time, they are concepts that have taken decades to garner serious attention in management literature. In this paper we review patterns in scholarship across a wide range of disciplines (sciences, humanities and management) on the Circular Economy and related business models like Extended Producer Responsibility, Product Service Systems, Collaborative Consumption, Sharing Economy, and Voluntary Simplicity. From this review, we discuss how business scholars might learn from these trends, and the implications for future research on business models that will help lower material consumption

Forord

[Dette nummeret er scannet og konvertert med OCR. Skrivefeil vil forekomme, og søk kan feile selv man ser ordet i pdf-dokumentet!]Dette er første nummer av arbeidsskriftet NOA (norsk som andrespråk) utgitt av Institutt for norsk som fremmedspråk ved Universitetet i Oslo. Gjennom arbeidsskriftet vil vi distribuere artikler innenfor fagområdet norsk som andre- og fremmedspråk tolket i vid forstand. Vi vil gjerne ta inn mellomspråksstudier, pedagogiske studier og studier av grammatiske emner som er av interesse for forskere og lærere i norsk som andrespråk eller fremmedspråk. Selv om arbeidsskriftet er knyttet til et spesielt institutt, vil vi også gjerne ta imot bidrag fra andre fagmiljøer. Arbeidsskriftets målgruppe er både forskere og lærere ved høyere læresteder og lærere for fremmedspråklige elever i skoleverket. For at artiklene skal kunne na fram til en så vidt vid målgruppe, bør de ikke være mer tekniske rent spraklig enn hYll emnene krever. Men de kravene som stilles til lesernes innsikt i fagterminologi og lingvistiske og pedagogiske bakgrunnskunnskaper vil måtte Vllriere en hel del fra nummer til numm~r og avhenge mye av emnenes art

Company welfare and social work ethics: a space for social work?

This article deals with company welfare and social work ethics. If social work is concerned with welfare and distributional issues, we would assume company welfare to be an issue of great relevance to social workers, so why do we not come across any social workers in our fieldwork? This calls for the simple question “where do social workers work?” or rather “how come social workers do not work in private companies?” We explore into the combination of social work and private companies with special reference to social work ethics to discuss private companies as a job arena for social workers. We argue that in a sector aiming at profit, social workers may trigger employees enthusiasm, but employer scepticism. However, by avoiding a less stereotyped notion of private companies, company welfare and social work we claim that certain social work ethical principles would be of joint interest to the involved, but more so in certain contexts than in others. The article consists of six sections. After the introduction, we take a closer look at company welfare followed by a section on social work where we focus on ethical principles and work arenas for social workers. In section four we present our data from some private companies in Norway and Tanzania as a point of departure to our discussion in section five on private companies as a potential job arena for social workers. The complexity of company welfare does not call for simple answers. In the conclusions, section six, we therefore argue that the ethical principles of social work make it an interesting and relevant competence in managing company welfare, though not unproblematic in the homeland of profit. However, contextual complexity invites contextual responses

Reflecting on Female Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery and (Dis)Empowerment

This project aims to unwrap some of the complexities related to female beauty and the body. It reflects on the second wave radical feminist view that beautifying the female body serves to attract male approval via the male gaze, both of which are deeply entrenched in patriarchal power. This perspective positions cosmetic surgery as a disempowering act for women. In riposte, we turn to third wave liberal feminist ideas to engage with the narratives of ten participants who tell of their personal experiences of, and motivations for, undergoing a cosmetic intervention. We undertake an in-depth exploration of these lifeworld experiences and the interplay of subjectivity and intersubjectivity in the women’s encounters. Findings suggest that a cosmetic intervention is often obtained for the self as opposed to satisfying the “other.” Importantly, cosmetic interventions allow a process to occur in which an individual’s physical body becomes better aligned to her sense of self. From this liberal feminist perspective, cosmetic surgery is positioned as an empowering act.Dziekan Wydziału Ekonomiczno-Socjologicznego (B18112CZAS1175.01; MPK: 2122524000)

Beauty and the Cosmetic Secret

Cosmetic surgery is often linked to the perception that women who resort to cosmetic interventions to alter their physical appearance are vain, superficial, and narcissistic. Few investigations have acknowledged and explored the individual’s personal motivations and experiences of her action and choice with regards to aesthetic surgery. By focusing on subjective experience, alternative insights can be gained on the cosmetic procedure(s) and on how their reshaped body influences an individual’s lifeworld experience. The article explores the perceived benefits and consequences of reshaping, enhancing, and/or reducing a perceived flaw or shortcoming of the body. From this exploration the focus moves to the individual’s subjective and intersubjective perceptions: how she motivates and justifies her physical transformation whilst keeping private, and at times hiding, her surgical intervention. Drawing on narratives from several women, we attempt to understand how they experience cosmetic surgery in terms of their personal sense of self and their everyday social reality.Dziekan Wydziału Ekonomiczno-Socjologicznego (B18112CZAS1175.01; MPK: 2122524000)

“Hi, Madam, I have a small question.” Teaching QM online: Guide to a successful cross-cultural master-course

A few years ago Centre of Development Studies at my Faculty, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, started an online Master’s Programme in Development Management. The programme was implemented by a network of universities from the North (University of Agder/UiA) and the South (Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana) recruiting students from across the world. The evaluation is very positive characterising it as a big success. I will now look into one particular element of this study, teaching the qualitative methodology (QM) courses with a special focus on the South context. Each course QM included has been sectioned into modules based on a variety of students` activities including student-student and student-tutor/teacher interaction, plus a number of hand-ins across topics and formats. Evaluation of the students` performance is based on both online group activity and written material submitted either into the individual or the group portfolio. My focus is twofold. First, how did we teach qualitative methodology and how did that work? Second, what about the contemporary focus on neo-colonial methodology and our QM courses? In a wider perspective the study is part of foreign aid where higher education is a means to transfer competence to the South. As such this study works to enable and to empower people rather than being trapped in the old accusation of sustaining dependency (Asad 1973, Ryen 2000 and 2007a). This study then is embedded in a wider North-South debate and a highly relevant illustration of the potentials, success and hazards, inherit in teaching QM

The Promise

Editorial:The Promis