Exploring barriers and facilitators to knowledge transfer and learning processes through a cross-departmental collaborative project in a municipal organization

This study aims to explore barriers and facilitators for knowledge transfer and learning processes by examining a cross-departmental collaborative project in the municipal organization. It is based on a R&D collaboration between University West and a Swedish municipality. Design/methodology/approach: To explore the barriers and facilitators, the data collection was made through observation of the project implementation process, as well as 20 interviews with public servants and external actors. To conduct a systematic qualitative-oriented content analysis, the article constructs and applies a theoretical analytical framework consisting of different factors influencing knowledge transfer and learning processes within a municipal organizational setting

Rape culture focus group transcripts

The purpose of the research was to get a picture of how Swedish youth relate to issues of sexual violence in the #metoo era. The study consisted of three focus groups with young people aged 18-23. They were shown clips from three films (Sixteen Candles, Redacted, Hip Hip Hora) in which young people interact within different contexts (such as in school) and were asked to compare the films with their own high schools or perceptions of other contexts in Swedish society. The films’ subjects revolve around gender attitudes and attitudes toward sexual harassment/violence and two of the movies are teen movies depicting the discourse around these issues in school contexts among teens. The study tries to understand whether anything changed about the conversations regarding these attitudes after metoo. The data consists of the transcriptions of the focus group interviews. Interview transcriptsSyftet med forskningen var att få en bild av hur svensk ungdom förhåller sig till frågor om sexuellt våld i metoo -eran. Studien bestod av tre fokusgrupper med unga i åldern 18-23 år. De visades klipp från tre filmer (Sixteen Candles, Redacted, Hip Hip Hora) där unga människor interagerar inom olika sammanhang (t.ex. skolan) och ombads att jämföra filmerna med sina egna gymnasieskolor eller uppfattningar om andra sammanhang i det svenska samhället. Filmernas ämnen kretsar kring könsattityder och attityder till sexuella trakasserier/våld och två av filmerna är tonårsfilmer som skildrar diskursen kring dessa frågor i skolsammanhang bland tonåringar. Studien försöker förstå om något förändrats i samtalen kring dessa attityder efter metoo. Data består av transkriptionerna av fokusgruppsintervjuerna. Intervjutranskrip

Malcolm X och Martin Luther King Jr : två retorikanalyser

Forskningsrapporten består av två texter: ”Möjlig retorik i en omöjlig revolution. Malcolm X’ tal ’The Ballor or the Bullet’ och ”Bibelnarrativ och typologisk tematik i Martin Luther King Jr:s tal ’I See the Promised Land’. I den första analyseras hur de fyra olika temana politik, internationalism, våldsanvändning och kultur finns representerade och används som retoriska funktioner i talet. I analysen framkommer att Malcolm talar från olika positioner beroende på vilket av dessa fyra teman som står i centrum och att de retoriska stilgreppen är betydelsebärande i förhållande till detta. Dessutom analyseras hur Malcolms ideologiska grundsyn representeras i talet och vilka konsekvenser denna har samt förhållandet mellan politiskt och retoriskt handlande. I den andra analyseras på vilka sätt berättelser, teman och funktioner från Bibeln finns representerade i Martin Luther King, Jr.s sista tal. Förutom en empirisk genomgång av Bibels närvaro i talet analyseras också hur detta ger en specifik retorisk identitet till King och hur han använder denna identitet för att ge en religiös betydelse och kvalitet till den egna kampen. Av speciellt intresse är användningen av Jesus- och Mosesfigurerna och dessas relation till King själv samt den funktion typologi fyller i talet

Who Are We Now Then? The Swedish Welfare State in Political Memory and Identity

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the Swedish welfare state underwent a crisis which led to a transformation of society that has continued up until today. The main node of this has been an adjustment to the global ideological trend of privatization and individualism with a down-sized public sector ruled by market logic. Parallel with this Sweden has also changed from being relatively mono- cultural to becoming a more multicultural nation. Throughout these processes one constant has been how the memory of the traditional Swedish welfare state has been used and fought over by different political parties. This article deals with the struggle to appropriate this memory. The Social Democrats, in power for most of the twentieth century, are seen as the architects of the Folkhem (“The Home of the People”). But it was also the Social Democrats who – under pressure from global economy – initiated the neoliberal transformation through a series of decisions in the 1980s. Rhetorically they have treated this in two ways: one is through arguing that nothing really changed and one is through pointing out how much has changed but without acknowledging their own part in it. The ruling right-wing party The Moderates has done so through changing their rhetoric from criticizing the Social Democratic welfare state to now being the only ones representing its core values and the only ones capable of adapting them to a new situation. Furthermore, the Folkhem-metaphor has also been central for the xenophobic far-right (Sweden Democrats), claiming that the demise of the welfare state is the result of excessive immigration

Segregationen i Trollhättan : en lägesrapport

Trollhättan är en av Sveriges mest segregerade kommuner. Det har bekräftats och diskuterats gång på gång, såväl i studier som i media och i offentlig och politisk debatt. Rapporter om våld, kriminalitet och ekonomisk ojämlikhet, liksom skillnader i tillgången till service, utbildning och resurser, har presenterats upprepade gånger. Som en konsekvens har Trollhättans stad tilldelats medel av DELMOS (Delegationen mot segregation, en statlig myndighet med uppdrag att undersöka och minska segregation) för att i samarbete med Högskolan Väst undersöka segregationen i två forskningsprojekt. Den här rapporten presenterar det första av dessa projekt.I syfte att vara kort och lättfattlig fokuserar rapporten på de variabler som är att betrakta som allra mest centrala för förståelsen av segregation. För det första handlar det om ekonomisk standard, presenterad utifrån hur varje områdes befolkning fördelas över de riksövergripande inkomstkvartilerna. Detta ger en övergripande bild av de boendes ekonomiska ställning och klasstillhörighet. För det andra handlar det om etnisk bakgrund, presenterad utifrån hur stor del av befolkningen i varje område.Medverkande: Trollhättans stad (Krisitina Engstrand)</p

Learning for utopia: from banal to critical Work-Integrated Learning (WIL)

While long part of vocational and professional training, forms of practice-based education like Work-integrated learning (WIL) arenow spreading to academic disciplines like Political Science. The pedagogical entailed in WIL is that student learning requires the theoretical knowledge and practice of both the classroom and theworkplace, and therefore pledges better employability for graduates. At the same time, this promise entails a potential threat to disciplinesthat may call into question the assumptions of market and staterelations. The question thus emerges: is it possible to do critical WIL,and what would it look like? This paper makes a normative case that a critical WIL is both desirable and possible by turning to Hanna Arendt and Richard Turner to differentiate ‘banal’ from ‘critical’education. It further argues that any ‘critical’ educationalprogramme must be based on three principles. First, students must learn about how social systems work and how to be successful inthem, but they must also learn to critically reflect on the systemsthemselves, and to do so in normative terms linked to ending domination. Second, are students required to develop both thedispositions and attributes required for working life, and those required for acting to end domination. Finally, there must besufficient institutional independence of the programme from its partner institutions to protect the critical WIL agenda. These claims are illustrated through reference to a real-world attempt toinstitutionalise WIL in a Political Studies Masters programme inSweden

Learning for utopia: from banal to critical Work-Integrated Learning (WIL)

While long part of vocational and professional training, forms of practice-based education like Work-integrated learning (WIL) arenow spreading to academic disciplines like Political Science. The pedagogical entailed in WIL is that student learning requires the theoretical knowledge and practice of both the classroom and theworkplace, and therefore pledges better employability for graduates. At the same time, this promise entails a potential threat to disciplinesthat may call into question the assumptions of market and staterelations. The question thus emerges: is it possible to do critical WIL,and what would it look like? This paper makes a normative case that a critical WIL is both desirable and possible by turning to Hanna Arendt and Richard Turner to differentiate ‘banal’ from ‘critical’education. It further argues that any ‘critical’ educationalprogramme must be based on three principles. First, students must learn about how social systems work and how to be successful inthem, but they must also learn to critically reflect on the systemsthemselves, and to do so in normative terms linked to ending domination. Second, are students required to develop both thedispositions and attributes required for working life, and those required for acting to end domination. Finally, there must besufficient institutional independence of the programme from its partner institutions to protect the critical WIL agenda. These claims are illustrated through reference to a real-world attempt toinstitutionalise WIL in a Political Studies Masters programme inSweden

Bridging theory and practice through Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) : critical perspectives on the conceptualisations of WIL at a university in Sweden

In this article we interrogate how University of Sweden (UoS), the leading Work-integrated learning (WIL) university in Sweden, represents WIL publicly, discussing this in relation to higher education’s changing role within an increasingly knowledge-based capitalism, in which knowledge and research become subsumed under demands for market utility and student employability. Through analysis of WIL literature we distil a theory-practice ‘gap’ with spatial, institutional, epistemological and pedagogical dimensions that WIL as a field of educational practice tries to ‘bridge’. We use this conception to deconstruct how (UoS) presents WIL to potential students, partners, employers, and society at large. We find that while the university at the central level presents WIL as a synergistic and multi-dimensional activity that bridges the theory/practice divide to produce ‘advanced knowledge’ and employable students, the actual educational programs articulate WIL in a manner which privileges practical usability and employability over theoretical knowledge, in line with an academic capitalist focus on utility. Further, there is a significant difference in how vocational and academic programmes implement WIL. Whereas WIL components seem relatively easily integrated into professional programs present, academic programs must undertake advanced discursive manoeuvres to incorporate WIL’s principles into what would otherwise be quite theory-focused programs.CC -BY 4.0</p