A Promise of Inclusion: On the Social Imaginary of Organised Encounters between Locals and Refugees

The present study contributes an empirical analysis that makes explicit a central social imaginary underpinning organised cultural encounters between ‘locals’ and immigrants: that contact between individuals who would not otherwise meet can lead to long-term inclusion of immigrants. While research on why local populations fear or exclude newcomers is important, our study draws on interviews with locals involved in community initiatives in Norway in the wake of the refugee influx in 2015 to enquire into ideas that guide locals’ practices seeking to include. We find that a ‘promise of inclusion’ forms part of a social imaginary underpinning the organised encounters studied here, featuring ideals of meeting as equals and reciprocity in social relationships while also unveiling how practices of inequality operating within the encounters are common. Emphasising the extent to which it is possible to manage the risk of power inequalities, the study adds to the ongoing academic conversation on organised encounters by distinguishing between power inequalities operating within organised encounters and inequalities operating within the imaginary of the encounter itself. Whereas the research participants are often aware of this paradox, their motivations and approaches are still informed by the social imaginary and guided by the promise of inclusion.publishedVersio

Local responses to hostility to new asylum seeker centres in Norway

This article investigates disagreement over how to respond to the establishment of asylum seeker centres in local communities. Building on interviews with individuals in one rural and one urban community in Norway, we analyse experiences and outcomes of the neighbourhood information meetings organized by the Directorate of Immigration before opening the new centres. We demonstrate that such meetings hold a broader social function, and they become arenas to raise concerns and manage disagreement among neighbours. When anti-immigrant opinions expressed at the meetings are published in the media, community members counter the negative place representations that are not aligned with their own self-identification. We identify three strategies of contestation deployed to counter negative media coverage: foreseeing conflict, claiming exceptionalism and mobilization to volunteer. Broader implications involve immigration authorities’ management of conflict when establishing such centres; their scope should not be limited to host-guest relations but should include horizontal contestation within the community.publishedVersio

Bruk av vergemål i ettervern? Brukermedvirkning, kontinuitet og samhandling: forhold ved vergemålsordningen som kan påvirke hvordan vergemål kan brukes i ettervern

I oppgaven undersøkes hvordan vergemål kan brukes for unge voksne som mottar ettervern etter barnevernloven. Det er gjort en kvalitativ dokumentanalyse av lovforarbeid, lovverk og dokumenter fra Statens Sivilrettsforvaltning. Det er brukt hermeneutisk tilnærming i analysen, hvor forhold som kan påvirke hvordan vergemål kan brukes i ettervern er kategorisert, analysert og diskutert med utgangspunkt i teori som omhandler blant annet skjønnsutøvelse, brukermedvirkning, normalisering og styring. Det tas utgangspunkt i en sosialkonstruktivistisk forståelse av at kunnskap ikke anses som endelig, eller objektiv, men som produsert innenfor en kontekst. Implikasjoner for praksisfeltet er i fokus, og forforståelsen av vergemålsordningen som en sosialfaglig velferdsordning ligger til grunn for oppgaven. Problemstillingen som blir belyst lyder: Hvilke forhold ved vergemålsordningen knyttet til brukermedvirkning, kontinuitet og samhandling kan påvirke hvordan vergemål kan brukes i ettervern. Det diskuteres at vergemål potensielt kan brukes for å bidra til kontinuitet og med råd og veiledning for å bidra til økonomisk stabilitet. Samtidig ser det ut til at vergemålsordningen inneholder en dobbelthet både når det gjelder forståelsen av brukermedvirkning og selvbestemmelse, og i synet på vergehaver. På grunn av dette, og på grunn av stor grad av individuell skjønnsutøvelse hos vergene knyttet til selvbestemmelse og medvirkning, fremstår graden av ivaretakelse av grunnleggende sosialfaglige verdier i vergemålsordningen som tvetydig. Dette omhandler fremfor alt den underliggende muligheten for vurdering av samtykkekompetanse, og i ytterste konsekvens fratakelse av rettslig handleevne, i kombinasjon med manglende kompetansekrav til verger. Det fremkommer også at rammene for samhandling mellom ettervernet og verge er uklare, og at dette er knyttet til vergers mandat og ordningens organisering. Det kan også se ut som at vergemålsordningen ikke primært er tilpasset unge voksne som lever aktive liv

Epistemic Justification in Multiple Document Literacy: A Refutation Text Intervention

This study investigated the effects of a refutation text intervention on Norwegian teacher education students’ (n = 150) beliefs about justification for knowing and their subsequent performance on a multiple document literacy task. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions in which they read a refutation text that promoted the conception that an appropriate way to judge the trustworthiness of information about educational topics is to rely on personal understanding and practical experience, the expertise of the author, or comparison of multiple sources. Results showed that participants’ beliefs about epistemic justification were strongly influenced by the intervention. Beyond effects on self-reported justification beliefs, effects on participants’ selection of documents varying in terms of the expertise of the author and the stance toward the issue discussed across the documents were observed, as well as effects on how participants justified their document selections, processed the selected documents, and finally used them in their written task products. As such, the effects of the intervention targeting beliefs about epistemic justification transferred to various stages of the multiple document task.publishedVersio

Nordic Geographies of Nation and Nationhood

This chapter explores the development of Nordic socio-spatial theories on nation, nationalism, and national identities. We begin by providing an overview of the body of theoretical work on nation by Nordic scholars, with attention to key authors, their main theoretical positions, and methodological orientations. We intend to show how the research area emerged by the early 1990s as a minor theme in Nordic human geography, but then developed and intensified in the subsequent decades, along with the rise of the subfield of political geography in some Nordic countries and Finland in particular. We also describe how the research field transformed in the 2000s, along with the growing interest in globalization and transnationalization. After this we move into reflections on nation and nationalism arising from our own research trajectories, and how they link with and build on the Nordic theoretical traditions. This discussion will situate our chapter both through our own work as Nordic scholars, and through empirical illustrations from Finland and Norway. We conclude by outlining current challenges and new horizons in Nordic theoretical work on nation and nationalism.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Self-Regulated learning and the use of Information and communications technology in Norwegian Teacher education : the project ICT as a factor of change in teacher education

I denne rapporten drøfter forfatterne norsk allmennlærerutdanning med spesiell vekt på de oppfatningene om læring og undervisning som kommer til uttrykk i rammeplanen for utdanningen. Spesielt tar de opp den sterke satsingen på å fremme selvregulert læring gjennom økt bruk av informasjons- og kommunikasjonsteknologi (IKT) i lærerutdanningen. Forfatterne redegjør for forskning som kan tyde på at norsk lærerutdanning preges av tradisjonelle lærings- og undervisningsformer til tross for en slik satsing, og de drøfter i hvilken grad økt bruk av IKT i seg selv egentlig kan bidra til nye former for læring og undervisning. De beskriver og analyserer så innovasjonsprosjektet "IKT som endringsfaktor i allmennlærerutdanningen", hvor bruken av IKT og studentansvar for kunnskapskonstruksjon var tenkt å gjennomsyre alle deler av studiet. Basert på en ekstern evaluering av dette prosjektet, som forfatterne foretok under det først studieåret, argumenterer de for at tilgang til ny teknologi må kobles sammen med direkte støtte til studentenes selvregulering og samarbeidsferdigheter, dersom teknologien virkelig skal bidra til å endre det som foregår i studentenes klasserom

Temporal and visual source memory deficits among ecstasy/polydrug users

Objectives: The present paper seeks to investigate whether source memory judgements are adversely affected by recreational illicit drug use. Method: Sixty-two ecstasy/polydrug users and 75 non ecstasy users completed a source memory task, in which they tried to determine whether or not a word had been previously presented and if so, attempted to recall the format, location and temporal position in which the word had occurred. Results: While not differing in terms of the number of hits and false positive responses, ecstasy/polydrug users adopted a more liberal decision criterion when judging if a word had been presented previously. With regard to source memory, users were less able to determine the format in which words had been presented (upper versus lower case). Female users did worse than female nonusers in determining which list (first or second) a word was from. Unexpectedly, the current frequency of cocaine use was negative associated with list and case source memory performance. Conclusions: Given the role that source memory plays in everyday cognition, those who use cocaine more frequently might have more difficulty in everyday tasks such as recalling the sources of crucial information or making use of contextual information as an aid to learning

A COP Fit For Children: How to support children’s participation

The climate crisis is affecting children and their rights first and worst, and will continue to affect future generations of children. Across the world, a growing global movement of children are demanding climate action, providing leadership on how the climate crisis should be addressed. Despite this, climate events and summits at all levels are rarely inclusive of children. Children are rarely invited into climate negotiations, and if they are, information is often inaccessible to them. This prevents children from participating and raising their concerns at the climate negotiations, the COPs, where important decisions on the future of climate policies are taken. “A COP Fit For Children: How to support children’s participation” sets out how the organisers of COP and states involved in COP can make the climate summit inclusive for all children in the processes leading up to COP, COP itself, and in the follow-up process

Investigating the relations between motivation, tool use, participation, and performance in an e-learning course using web-videoconferencing

Web-videoconference systems offer several tools (like chat, audio, and webcam) that vary in the amount and type of information learners can share with each other and the teacher. It has been proposed that tools fostering more direct social interaction and feedback amongst learners and teachers would foster higher levels of engagement. If so, one would expect that the richer the tools used, the higher the levels of learner engagement. However, the actual use of tools and contributions to interactions in the learning situation may relate to students’ motivation. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between available tools used, student motivation, participation, and performance on a final exam in an online course in economics (N = 110). In line with our assumptions, we found some support for the expected association between autonomous motivation and participation in web-videoconferences as well as between autonomous motivation and the grade on the final exam. Students’ tool use and participation were significantly correlated with each other and with exam scores, but participation appeared to be a stronger predictor of the final exam score than tool use. This study adds to the knowledge base needed to develop guidelines on how synchronous communication in e-learning can be used

Cognitive Load and Learning in the Study of Multiple Documents

This study had two main purposes. First, to test how the availability of documents in multiple document reading might affect students' levels of cognitive load. Secondly, to develop an instrument that captures the different sources of load when working with multiple documents. A total of 125 secondary school students read four short texts on transgenic foods and subsequently responded to an open-ended question that required them to write an essay expressing their personal stance toward the topic. Participants in the experimental treatment condition (n = 54) were allowed to go back to the texts any time during the essay task, whereas their peers in the control condition (n = 71) were not allowed to do so. As hypothesized through the lens of cognitive load theory, the cognitive load arising from cognitive processes that in themselves do not contribute to learning (i.e., extraneous cognitive load) was somewhat lower in the experimental treatment condition, probably due to split attention effects in the control condition. However, no statistically significant differences were found in perceived task complexity or learning task performance. A reliable instrument to measure different sources of intrinsic and extraneous load in multiple document reading is provided. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed