Citizenship pluralism and national identity

The lecture is about how citizenship should be understood and conceptualized in liberal and plural societies. The main questions is: what is good citizenship and what kind of political identity should be protected. There will be a discussion of the difference between liberal and republican conceptions and a critical David Miller’s claim that democratic welfare states need to be supported by national identity. Keywords: Citizenship, Liberalism, Republicanism, National identity

Populism and the pandemic. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro leading the country in times of COVID-19

While there are many studies on the buzz-word populism, there are far fewer studies on how populism effects crisis management. When the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 disease a global pandemic on March 11th, no one knew that Latin America would be declared the epicentre of the pandemic by WHO on May 26th , and still be the epicentre over a year later. Although Brazil is a relatively advanced state compared to most of its Latin American neighbours, the first half of 2020 with the pandemic proved challenging for Brazil. Brazil performed worse than what could be expected in terms of deaths and infected, given its level of medical expertise. Previous research defines populism in two main categories; one school of thought refed to as the ideational approach views populism as a thin ideology which gets adopted by a leader who already possesses a main ideology. Populism thus becomes a strategic approach, supplementing an addition underlying ideology. The second school of thought to understanding populism, is the Essex school which understands populism to be a discourse, where the pure people versus the corrupt elite are the core of what constitutes populism. I adopt the ideational approach in this study. Studying COVID-19 had me face challenges given its ongoing character, in addition to the nature of the pandemic this study is performed during. I could not travel to Brazil, nor conduct interviews. Given the limitations, the study analyses a large sample of qualitative data: 6325 Brazilian newspaper publications. After analysing and structuring the policy responses from Bolsonaro chronologically, I looked into what constituted Brazil’s populist President Jair Bolsonaro’s crisis management in his response to COVID-19 via McKee et al. (2020) four mechanisms of populism; (1) Blaming outsiders and victims, (2) Contempt for institutions, (3) Denialism and (4) Suspicion of elites. Contrary to what was assumed, Brazil did experience large numbers of deaths and infected compared to neighbouring countries. My findings indicate that Bolsonaro’s crisis handling showed large signs of his populist approach, which in turn I found to be marked by blaming outsiders and victims, contempt for institutions, denialism, and suspicion of elites. A report for the Universidade de São Paulo concludes that Bolsonaro and his government actively worked for the virus to spread, wanting it to resume the normal economic activity the pandemic threatened, as soon as possible.MasteroppgåveSAMPOL350MASV-SAP

Implementing Virtual Reality in K-12 Classrooms: Lessons Learned from Early Adopters

Copyright © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. This is the authors' version (post-print) of an article published in Smart Education and E-Learning. This version will be available 2023.06.07 after an embargo period of 24 months .There is very little research on K-12 education outside designated research studies on how teachers use VR for learning. This study addresses gap in research by asking: How did teachers start with VR and how do they use it? We interviewed nine teachers from different primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary schools—who had one to five years of experience with VR—among the first to include VR in their teaching, making them early adopters. All schools used HDMs, but the number, brand, and model varied. VR was used to teach various subjects and topics, but mostly for a limited part of the lesson. Due to the limited number of HMDs, the teaching was often organized as stations, where the students took turns using the HMDs and working on other tasks related to the theme. This requires good planning from the teacher and a certain degree of self-regulation among the students, as the teacher’s eyes and ears are on the student(s) wearing the HMDs. The early adoption of VR sometimes encountered challenges related to technical (e.g., firewalls) or ethical issues (e.g., privacy), but some argued that for innovation to happen, it was necessary to “act first and ask later”.acceptedVersio

Implementing operational envelopes for improved resilience of autonomous maritime transport

A promising potential commonly associated with autonomous ferries is the realization of low- or unmanned passenger transport. With the ability to provide flexible around the clock services, it can provide new and better mobility solutions for coastal cities around the world, and for cities located along rivers and inland waterways. However, operating an autonomous passenger ferry require that safety functions, today being handled by trained onboard safety crew, are maintained and approved according to current rules and regulations. Since few concrete suggestions so far have been published on how to solve this issue, new safety solutions must be developed, including new technology, processes and operational concepts. This lack of studies and work for developing automated and autonomous safety solutions stands in contrast to – up until now – the strong industry focus on developing systems and solutions enabling safe navigation. As a response, this paper suggests the implementation of operational envelopes for improved safety and resilience of autonomous shipping and ferry operations.publishedVersio

The A, B, Cs of physical activity, play and motor learning

A substantial amount of international research has documented children’s need for explorative, experiential and challenging physical play. Through versatile and all-round varieties of play forms and play environments children will develop basic movement skills and learn how to master their body in different and challenging situations. Children’s play is motivated through curiosity and fantasy of exploring the environment and this allows them to master their own bodies and learn to move in a variety of different ways. This symposium will consider how the abilities of: agility, balance and coordination (‘the A,B,Cs’) are stimulated and developed through different and open-ended affordances of play within four different European countries. The purpose of this is to share how the same early movement abilities (A,B,Cs), are developed according to context, culture and environment. The four countries have been chosen as their natural or adapted environments are varied, but they are all used to enhance and help the children to explore, engage in movement that develop their A,B,Cs. Different kind of A,B,C’s will be demonstrated: Finland through focusing on the use of snow and ice. Belgium through focusing on the use of water and aquatic activities, using the specific CEReKi approach. Norway through focusing on the use of the woods and forest environments and England through the use of beach, sand and indoor environments. The use of tools and equipment to help support the children’s development will be examined as well as the role of the teacher to help aid the early movement skills within each different natural or adapted environment. Photography and illustrations will demonstrate how the A,B,C’s are developed differently within each country. Paper one - Finnish perspective The purpose of this presentation is to concretize affordances of Finnish nature during winter – ice and snow. Ice is fascinating slippery surface. It challenge children’s balance and agility constantly, when they are moving or playing on the ice. Children need to activate all their neuro-muscular systems to coordinate their body limbs to keep their balance. Controlling their bodies in different postures while standing or moving helps motivate their play. Therefore, moving on the ice can be seen as playing with own body and trying to keep the balance. Beautiful white snow is free mattress for children: children are attracted to jump, run, throw, dive, cave, lay, roll, spin and use their creativity and desire to make whatever they imagine to try. These physical activities are excellent stimulation for the movement. Moving in the snow slows down children’s movements and they need to use more strength than without snow. Nordic children are lucky to have attractive winter affordances, ice and snow to tempt them physically active play. Challenging surfaces and materials demand concentration, which is prerequisite for development of physical abilities and motor coordination. The seasonal variation with changing affordances may be one reason causing good motor competence of Nordic children. Paper two - Belgium's perspective The aquatic environment is generally for children a source of pleasure and fulfilment. However, water presents physical characteristics for which the humans are not fundamentally constituted. The ability to move in the water is governed by different rules that the child must appropriates in a progressive way. For example the child has to move from the vertical position to the horizontal position in water. Propulsion uses more the upper limbs than the lower limbs. Water resistance changes the speed of segmental movements and breath must be controlled. The aquatic environment should be discovered in a suitable, progressive and fun way. This is what is proposed with the CEReKi original water familiarization method developed in Belgium. The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate how an original arrangement can stimulate the agility, balance and coordination (ABC’s) of the child in the water through active play. Specially adapted equipment is introduced into the pool to provide a stimulating environment, allowing children to evolve according to their desire and level. This presentation will show how a synthetic fibre net, bars, floats, a metal cage or slides can be used to develop children's aquatic ABC’s in an adapted and affording environment. Paper three - Norwegian perspective Children learn movements and gain bodily experiences by exploring different environments. Through bodily experiences, children explore details and quality of movements such as balance, coordination, speed, agility, force and endurance Children develop perceptual-motor skills through natural spontaneous interaction with the environment. The materiality of the environment affords challenges and experiences that promote motor learning and the children respond by exploring, discovering and face the challenges by mastering perceptual motor skills in context with the environment. This presentation will demonstrate how children’s physical play is stimulated and developed through different and open-ended affordances of play “How to encourage explorative and problem-solving play” “How do landscapes promote motor learning and mastering of bodily competence?” Approaches: * Children’s play and learning through experience will be demonstrated through a video of a natural play space * Open-ended affordances of landscapes will be presented Literature and case studies showing the contextual environment- child relationship in learning fundamental motor skills will be discussed. Multifunctional and challenging environments seem to have promotive effect on children’s physical and explorative play and should therefore be encouraged as a pedagogical approach in motor learning. Paper four - English perspective. Nowhere within the UK is further than 70 miles (113 kilometres) from the coast, and England is made up of 2728 miles (4,422 km) of coastline. The coastline has a variety of natural textures from flat sandy dunes to steep white cliffs such as those found at Dover. The beach and coastline offers English children an almost Jurassic exploration, as it is the place that is full of beauty, history and fossils, with many schools having weekly or daily ‘beach school’ in which the children, learn, explore and play on the beach environment. The photographs and illustrations provided in the paper will show how the abilities of agility, balance and coordination are developed through a variety of ways using the sand and beach environments. For example the fine and coarse sand are ideal for sensory touch development with children from very young age. Both the actual outdoor environments of the beach and rock pools as well as sand pits, sand boxes and water boxes within indoor settings are used to develop physical curiosity, through hiding objects that the children have to use fine motor skills to dig out, to use pincers to help develop their grasping, reaching and coordination skills

Determination of kinetic constants from the co-digestion of dairy cow slurry and municipal food waste at increasing organic loading rates

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Are Safe and Resilient Systems less Effective and Productive?

During the last 50 years, people have become considerably more physical and virtually connected due to a more modern and mobile world, and new technologies for collaboration and communication, such as mobile phones, satellites and internet. Next era will likely be the introduction of autonomy that is still in its start phase. By increased global mobility and transport, people and transport solutions expect to be more efficient and productive. At the same time, the development implies challenges due to continuous technological and context changes, resulting in potential new risks and accidents. However, are safety and effectiveness two poles at the same dimension, meaning that increasing one means decreasing the other? Or - Is it possible to increase productivity and effectivity and at the same time maintaining safety? The purpose of this paper is to increase the awareness of adequate planning in order to improve resilience/safety and effectivity. Planning is important to cope with opportunities and challenges, and theoretical perspectives on planning and management may be useful. The paper uses scenarios from autonomous shipping to illustrate increased system complexity and interrelations between components.publishedVersio

En kvantitativ studie av skadeproblematikk på Krigsskolen ved FHS – Hvilke tiltak bør Krigsskolen gjøre for å legge til rette for et redusert skadeomfang?

Det vil aldri være mulig å forhindre alle skader som oppstår som følge av fysisk aktivitet, men det bør være en klar målsetning å minimere risikoen. Militær aktivitet vil i likhet innebære risiko for skader, hvilket fordrer et fokus rundt skadeforebyggende tiltak. Vår nysgjerrighet har videre dyrket seg rundt hvordan kadettene opplever skadeutviklingen på skolen, og munnet ut i problemstillingen: Hvilke tiltak bør Krigsskolen gjøre for å legge til rette for et redusert skadeomfang? Problemstillingen er besvart med kvantitativ metode gjennom en tverrsnittsundersøkelse. Med manglende data for skolens skadeomfang var spørreundersøkelse en egnet metode for å anskaffe riktig og utfyllende svar på dagens virkelighet. Spørreundersøkelsen ble gjennomført for samtlige kadetter på operativ linje ved Krigsskolen. Med påfølgende statistikk lagt til grunn, ble det gjort funn som svarte til høyt skadeomfang blant kadettene. Studien har kartlagt manglende bevissthet rundt informasjon om rapportering og innmelding av skader. Det anbefales videre et system som sørger for ivaretakelse av informasjonen som blir meldt inn. Dedikert fagfolk som sitter på aktuell informasjon, kan dermed fatte nødvendige tiltak for å redusere risikoen tidlig. Denne studien vil gi et øyeblikksbilde som er gjeldende for de kadettene som går på Krigsskolen i dag, og er dermed ikke et grunnlag for generalisering

Justicia, reconocimiento y participación

Philosophical theories of justice tend to view justice either as questions of recognition or as questions of redistribution. In order to become “neutral” among the plurality of the good life in modern democratic societies, liberal theories have been limited to redistribution. According to Nancy Fraser, the most general meaning of justice is parity of participation. Equal opportunities to participation presupposes just redistribution as well as and recognition of culture, gender and sexual preferences. She proposes a conception of recognition, not linked to the idea of identity politics, but to a concept of status. Fraser has delivered a theory of justice that makes it possible to decide whether claims of recognition are legitimate or not. If claims for recognition are justified in a conception of justice that is agreeable from a common public perspective, a liberal theory does not need be restricted to distributive justice.Las teorías filosóficas tienden a ver la justicia como una cuestión de reconocimiento o de redistribución. Para ser “neutral” ante la pluralidad de nociones de la vida buena en las sociedades democráticas modernas, las teorías liberales se han ceñido a la dimensión distributiva. De acuerdo con Nancy Fraser, el significado fundamental de la justicia es la paridad en la participación. La igualdad de oportunidades para participar presupone la redistribución de los recursos así como el reconocimiento de las preferencias culturales, de género y sexuales. La autora propone una concepción del reconocimiento que no está vinculada a la política de la identidad, sino al concepto de estatus. Fraser ha ofrecido una teoría de la justicia que hace posible decidir cuándo las demandas de reconocimiento son legítimas y cuando no lo son. Si las demandas de reconocimiento están justificadas en base a una concepción de la justicia que está acordada desde una perspectiva pública común, entonces la teoría liberal de la justicia no necesita restringirse a la dimensión distributiva