Master of Science

thesisHistorically, women have legally been excluded from participating in direct combat, but in December 2015 the Department of Defense made the groundbreaking decision to open all combat-related positions across the military to women. In this thesis I aim to show that from a feminist and egalitarian point of view this decision was the right decision. In this thesis I plan on proceeding in the following way: in Chapter 2, I am going to review the history of women in the Armed Forces, and I will explain how the Armed Forces have legally justified the decision to keep women out of direct combat. In Chapter 3, I will set forth what I call the "traditionalist's view" on what it means to be a combat soldier, as a way of framing, and thus understanding, the opposition to women in combat roles. Next, to put this into perspective, I am going to argue that the ontological category of ‘woman' should be understood in the context of social construction and power. Against this backdrop the traditionalist's assumptions about sex and gender become particularly problematic. In Chapter 4, I will present two arguments for why women should be allowed to serve in combat positions. First, the exclusion of women from combat is based on social fictions about what it means to be a ‘woman', and to move forward these works of social fiction have to be dispelled. Second, since women are already serving on the frontlines in today's modern, asymmetrical warfare, it makes no sense to uphold the combat exclusion policies. Finally, in Chapter 5, I am going to carefully consider three major objections to women in combat positions: women are naturally physically weak, women disrupt male bonding and unit cohesion in the military, and women are sexual distractions who put the mission at risk. Chapter 6 concludes that the new policy announced by the Department of Defense is the right policy for an integrated military that is both progressive and effective

Structure as Architecture

Problem: How does collaboration between architects and engineers work? Which are the advantages and disadvantages in the collaboration? How can you make the cooperation better? Object: The purpose of this thesis is to make a connection between architect students and engineers, to find the differences between us and to try to collaborate. We wanted to know how difficult the cooperation could be, if there were any difficulties at all and what the reasons were. We were interested in how you could make architecture develop in better collaborations and if the structure could be expressed in architecture. Method: The method was here to make ourselves Ginny pigs. We were ourselves supposed to collaborate in form finding. The form finding project was the architect competition, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. An outer form of the museum was found quite fast and the modifications were the large discussion areas. We have then discussed both the problems in our collaboration and what other people have written and said. Conclusion: With a better cooperation you can make more interesting buildings. If the engineer understands what the architects want, which impressions and expressions, he can try to find a solution that fits that but still is structurally efficient. And if the architect under stands how the engineer thinks, and how different structures work, he can try to find solutions that will hold, but withoutdestroying the architectural design. This means that with a better understanding of each others needs we could help each other find the best solutions

How Differences in Motivation and Identification Shape Four Types of Student Experiences with Problem-Based Learning

This article examines why students experience Problem-Based Learning (PBL) environments differently and discusses considerations for improving PBL environments to support a more diverse student population. Based on theoretical perspectives regarding motivation, identification, and learning, we present a new typology consisting of four types of students with distinctly different ways of creating motivation and identity in a PBL environment. While some principles in the examined PBL model motivate and validate certain types of students, the same principles can also challenge identification or result in demotivation among other types of students. Both results are important to consider when developing an inclusive PBL environment. The typology can serve as a theoretical framework for understanding, analysing, and discussing how and why students experience contemporary or new learning environments differently. Additionally, the typology provides a tool for organizations and teachers to motivate and validate students with different type characteristics and improve PBL practices accordingly

What do Social Processes mean for Quality of Human Resource Practice?

Well implemented human resource practice (HRP) is linked to increased performance, innovation, and the well-being of both managers and employees. In the literature, a distinction between the hard and the soft HRM-models is drawn: the hard model focuses on employees as a cost, whereas the soft HRM-model treats them as a potential Nielsen (2008a). However, little is known about the informal aspects of HRP and which social processes actually lead to implementation success or failure. The purpose of this paper is to develop a concept of social processes between managers and employees that can increase the implementation and quality of HR-performance Two studies of HRP within two manufacturing companies are used to illustrate the pros and cons of this new theoretical concept from a performance perspective. Involvement, commitment, and competence development are identified as key aspects of the quality of HRP. Moreover, a good psychological working environment and systematic priority of HRP are essential contextual factors that can enable or hinder social processes. Otherwise, production pressure and power relations between managers and employees can hinder the implementation of the new concept. The concept of social processes can help HRP to contribute on social processes between managers and employees as important aspects of quality in work with human resources. However, the influence of team organization and the social processes between employees needs to be explored further

The care of the self and the meaningful four-day workweek

Those who find their work meaningful often need to be more committed. Over-commitment, in turn, frequently results in stress, personal conflicts, and burnout. Such over-commitment, in other words, leads to employees needing to take more care of themselves. This paper considers the prospects for meaningful self-care in the context of working time reduction. For this, we consider the case of the four-day workweek, asking employees of such organizations to explain how they make meaning out of their newly found time off. Conceptually, we rely upon the work of Michel Foucault, particularly his analysis of the care of the self. On its basis, we coded five self-care practices: (1) rest and recuperation, (2) professional and personal development, (3) domestic work, (4) balancing work, and (5) additional work. We conclude by highlighting the theoretical and practical implications of work reduction for the analytical, ethical, and practical pursuit of meaningful work

Time management between the personalisation and collectivisation of productivity:The case of adopting the Pomodoro time-management tool in a four-day workweek company

Time-management technologies and their adoption into daily working life have been discussed as solutions for managing individual productivity and as problems that intensify individualised productivity, enhance the norms of busyness and disconnect colleagues from one another. However, drawing on the case study of a company that implemented a four-day workweek, this paper argues that this is not always so. In our case company, a digital marketing agency, the Pomodoro time-management tool led to the personalisation of productivity and instances of collective working towards better work-life balance. We end the paper by suggesting that this fruitful adoption of time-management habits can be understood through John Dewey's notion of habit. Deweyan habit allows us to know how time-management habits are plastic and open to change while always being part of a material and social assemblage. We argue that these two features explain why time-management tools might lead to personalising productivity and enhanced neoliberal self-discipline. At the same time, these features point to how time-management habits under the right circumstances can be part of cooperation and better work-life balance.</p