Networks of expertise:an example from process consulting

In this paper, we explore how expertise is configured and enacted in consultancy work in public sector organizations. By drawing on recent writings on a sociology of expertise, we analyse expertise as a distributed performative actor-network effect. Through an empirical example from a process consultancy assignment in a hospital, we discern four modes of practice by which a network of expertise comes to work. Firstly, we explore a mode of extending a network of expertise to include more allies. Secondly, we observe a mode of activation where certain parts of the network are made active and present. Thirdly, we explore a mode of brokering between top management ambitions and the everyday medical practice. Fourthly, we see a mode of altering the content of the consultancy process to make it work with the client. Through this analysis, we move beyond viewing expertise as either an attribute to, or a substantial skill of the consultant and advance a heterogeneous social understanding of expertise in consultancy work

Networks of expertise: an example from process consulting

In this paper, we explore how expertise is configured and enacted in consultancy work in public sector organizations. By drawing on recent writings on a sociology of expertise, we analyse expertise as a distributed performative actor-network effect. Through an empirical example from a process consultancy assignment in a hospital, we discern four modes of practice by which a network of expertise comes to work. Firstly, we explore a mode of extending a network of expertise to include more allies. Secondly, we observe a mode of activation where certain parts of the network are made active and present. Thirdly, we explore a mode of brokering between top management ambitions and the everyday medical practice. Fourthly, we see a mode of altering the content of the consultancy process to make it work with the client. Through this analysis, we move beyond viewing expertise as either an attribute to, or a substantial skill of the consultant and advance a heterogeneous social understanding of expertise in consultancy work

Neurocognitive evidence for mental imagery-driven hypoalgesic and hyperalgesic pain regulation

Mental imagery has the potential to influence perception by directly altering sensory, cognitive, and affective brain activity associated with imagined content. While it is well established that mental imagery can both exacerbate and alleviate acute and chronic pain, it is currently unknown how imagery mechanisms regulate pain perception. For example, studies to date have been unable to determine whether imagery effects depend upon a general redirection of attention away from pain or focused attentional mechanisms. To address these issues, we recorded subjective, behavioral and ERP responses using 64-channel EEG while healthy human participants applied a mental imagery strategy to decrease or increase pain sensations. When imagining a glove covering the forearm, participants reported decreased perceived intensity and unpleasantness, classified fewer high-intensity stimuli as painful, and showed a more conservative response bias. In contrast, when imagining a lesion on the forearm, participants reported increased pain intensity and unpleasantness, classified more lowintensity stimuli as painful, and displayed a more liberal response bias. Using a mass-univariate approach,we further showed differential modulation of the N2 potentials across conditions, with inhibition and facilitation respectively increasing and decreasing N2 amplitudes between 122 and 180 ms. Within this time window, source localization associated inhibiting vs. facilitating pain with neural activity in cortical regions involved in cognitive inhibitory control and in the retrieval of semantic information (i.e., right inferior frontal and temporal regions). In contrast, the main sources of neural activity associatedwith facilitating vs. inhibiting pain were identified in cortical regions typically implicated in salience processing and emotion regulation (i.e., left insular, inferior-middle frontal, supplementary motor and precentral regions). Overall, these findings suggest that the content of a mental image directly alters pain-related decision and evaluative processing to flexibly produce hypoalgesic and hyperalgesic outcomes

Making space with data: Data politics, statistics and urban governance in Denmark

In this article we engage with the contemporary data moment by exploring how particular data practices – consisting of census data and statistics - have become embroiled in the making of urban space and governance in Denmark. By focusing on the controversial case of Danish “ghettos” - a state-sanctioned list of marginalised urban areas– we show how Danish data practices of routinely collecting and aggregating extensive census data have become central to ascribing particular urban neighbourhoods as ghetto areas. These data practices spatialise residential housing areas as problematic and influence Danish urban governance. We explore how new forms of data practices for monitoring urban areas arise, and argue that these practices help to maintain the spatialisation of the “ghetto list”. They do so by drawing multiple forms of data together, that visualise and monitor “at risk” areas making them governable and amenable to physical changes. Finally, we show how the state uses data practices to make citizens (and municipalities) accountable; yet, this accountability cuts both ways, as citizens and municipalities also use data to hold the state accountable. We end with a discussion of how our analysis of data practices has implications for how we imagine the scalar hierarchy of the state and the politics of data

Leadership Pipeline: Forbigående ledelsesmode eller solid viden?

The Leadership Pipeline model assumes that what it takes for managers to succeed differs for jobs at different organizational levels. This model has had an immense impact on leadership and talent development over the past decade. However, the research basis behind the model is thin. This article review relevant empirical research in relation to the central Leadership Pipeline assumption: that competences related to successful leadership vary across different levels in the organizational hierarchy. The article concludes that research literature provides evidence for assuming that job content and role demands differs for jobs at different organizational levels. Furthermore, new empirical research suggests that both continuity and discontinuity in competences is at stake during job transitions between organizational levels. However, more research addressing the Leadership Pipeline model specifically is needed. In the conclusion we discuss the limitations in our research design and define the research questions that can be investigated further. In a broader perspective the article contributes with a new perspectives on what the Danish government leaders see that the task of management in the public sector requires. This article is an effort to provide answers to one of the most significant research challenges that arose in the wake of Minnowbrook III Conference: What is the specific nature, function and jurisdiction that characterizes public management