Making sense of complexity in governance: the case of local public management in the City of Stockholm

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.This study found that the problem-solving capacity of a public organization can be understood in terms of the legitimacy of the formulated problems and solutions. Increasing the problemsolving capacity depends on not only the acceptance of problems and how to solve them but also on formal structures and processes. Sensemaking and framing are important keys to unlocking how legitimacy is built, and consequently, how problem-solving capacity is built in a complex organization. We contend that although governance theory recognizes complexity through concepts such as networks and multi-levelness, empirical research tends to downplay what complexity can entail, thus limiting the theoretical development and practical usability of governance theory. Using complexity as a sensemaking framework, we analyze how the top-tier managers of a capital understand the challenges and solutions of coping with rapid growth. We argue that although complexity theory is no panacea to unlocking the difficulties of public sector challenges, it can be a valuable guide to future research on governance.publishedVersio

Mapping the Margins: Navigating the Ecologies of Domestic Violence Service Provision

Work addressing the negative impacts of domestic violence on victim-survivors and service providers has slowly been contributing to the HCI discourse. However, work discussing the necessary, pre-emptive steps for researchers to enter these spaces sensitively and considerately, largely remains opaque. Heavily-politicised specialisms that are imbued with conflicting values and practices, such as domestic violence service delivery can be especially difficult to navigate. In this paper, we report on a mixed methods study consisting of interviews, a design dialogue and an ideation workshop with domestic violence service providers to explore the potential of an online service directory to support their work. Through this three-stage research process, we were able to characterise this unique service delivery landscape and identify tensions in services' access, understandings of technologies and working practices. Drawing from our findings, we discuss opportunities for researchers to work with and sustain complex information ecologies in sensitive settings

A scientific perspective on reducing ski-snow friction to improve performance in Olympic Cross-Country Skiing, the Biathlon and Nordic Combined

Of the medals awarded at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, 24% were for events involving cross-country skiing, the biathlon and Nordic combined. Although much research has focused on physiological and biomechanical characteristics that determine success in these sports, considerably less is yet known about the resistive forces. Here, we specifically describe what is presently known about ski-snow friction, one of the major resistive forces. Today, elite ski races take place on natural and/or machine-made snow. Prior to each race, several pairs of skis with different grinding and waxing of the base are tested against one another with respect to key parameters, such as how rapidly and for how long the ski glides, which is dependent on ski-snow friction. This friction arises from a combination of factors, including compaction, plowing, adhesion, viscous drag, and water bridging, as well as contaminants and dirt on the surface of and within the snow. In this context the stiffness of the ski, shape of its camber, and material composition and topography of the base exert a major influence. An understanding of the interactions between these factors, in combination with information concerning the temperature and humidity of both the air and snow, as well as the nature of the snow, provides a basis for designing specific strategies to minimize ski-snow friction. In conclusion, although performance on "narrow skis" has improved considerably in recent decades, future insights into how best to reduce ski-snow friction offer great promise for even further advances

Framgångsrik Förändring – ett nationellt kommunforskningsprogram om hantering av förändrade ekonomiska förutsättningar och besvärliga situationer

Programmets innehåll har vuxit fram i samtal mellan forskare från de fem forskningsmiljöerna och företrädare för de kommuner som har uttalat intresse för att delta i programmet. Intresset har kommit till uttryck i samtal med kommunföreträdare som har berättat om erfarenheter från besvärliga situationer, erfarenheter som behöver analyseras och ställas i relation till andra kommuners erfarenheter och på så sätt rusta organisationen för framtiden. Intresse för att utveckla kunskap har också uttryckts i form av utmaningar som behöver hanteras. Det kan handla om utmaningar i form av att kunna skapa bra förutsättningar för stora och växande industriföretag i kommunen, om utmaningar relaterade till hög ungdomsarbetslöshet och de påfrestningar detta innebär på välfärden, om utmaningar relaterade till befolkningsutveckling eller utmaningar som har att göra med infrastruktursatsningar och svårigheter att få till stånd sådana. Sammantaget innebär programmet en mångsidig, djuplodande, problematiserande och lösningsorienterad fokusering på kommuners handlande i besvärliga situationer som kan uppkomma till följd av förändrade förutsättningar . Inom ramen för programmet söks förklaringar till hur anpassning sker till förändrade villkor och varför vissa organisationer lyckas bättre än andra att framgångsrikt förändra verksamhet och organisation. Erfarenheter av besvärliga situationer kommer att beskrivas och tolkas till grund för utveckling av resonemang kring hur förändrade förutsättningar kan bemästras

Event-by-Event Fluctuations in Particle Multiplicities and Transverse Energy Produced in 158.A GeV Pb+Pb collisions

Event-by-event fluctuations in the multiplicities of charged particles and photons, and the total transverse energy in 158$\cdot A$ GeV Pb+Pb collisions are studied for a wide range of centralities. For narrow centrality bins the multiplicity and transverse energy distributions are found to be near perfect Gaussians. The effect of detector acceptance on the multiplicity fluctuations has been studied and demonstrated to follow statistical considerations. The centrality dependence of the charged particle multiplicity fluctuations in the measured data has been found to agree reasonably well with those obtained from a participant model. However for photons the multiplicity fluctuations has been found to be lower compared to those obtained from a participant model. The multiplicity and transverse energy fluctuations have also been compared to those obtained from the VENUS event generator.Comment: To appear in Physical Review C; changes : more detailed discussion on errors and few figures modifie

Flavor Production in Pb(160AGeV) on Pb Collisions: Effect of Color Ropes and Hadronic Rescattering

Collective interactions in the preequilibrium quark matter and hadronic resonance gas stage of ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions are studied in the framework of the the transport theoretical approach RQMD. The paper reviews string fusion into color ropes and hadronic rescattering which serve as models for these interactions. Hadron production in central Pb(160AGeV) on Pb collisions has been calculated. The changes of the final flavor composition are more pronounced than in previous RQMD studies of light ion induced reactions at 200AGeV. The ratio of created quark pairs $s\bar{s}$/($u\bar{u}$+$d\bar{d}$) is enhanced by a factor of 2.4 in comparison to $pp$ results. Color rope formation increases the initially produced antibaryons to 3 times the value in the `NN mode', but only one quarter of the produced antibaryons survives because of subsequent strong absorption. The differences in the final particle composition for Pb on Pb collisions compared to S induced reactions are attributed to the hadronic resonance gas stage which is baryon-richer and lasts longer.Comment: 60 pages + 11 postscript figures (uuencoded and included

Associations between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and various eating disorders: A Swedish nationwide population study using multiple genetically informative approaches

Background Although attention-deficit hyperactivity/impulsivity disorder (ADHD) and eating disorders (EDs) frequently co-occur, little is known about the shared etiology. In this study we comprehensively investigated the genetic association between ADHD and various EDs, including anorexia nervosa (AN) and other EDs (OED, including bulimia nervosa [BN]). Methods We applied different genetically informative designs to register-based information of a Swedish nationwide population (N=3,550,118). We first examined the familial co-aggregation of clinically diagnosed ADHD and EDs across multiple types of relatives. We then applied quantitative genetic modeling in full-sisters and maternal half-sisters to estimate the genetic correlations between ADHD and EDs. We further tested the associations between ADHD polygenic risk scores (PRS) and ED symptoms, and between AN PRS and ADHD symptoms, in a genotyped population-based sample (N=13,472). Results Increased risk of all types of EDs was found in individuals with ADHD (any ED: OR [95% CI]=3.97 [3.81-4.14], AN: 2.68 [2.15-2.86], OED: 4.66 [4.47-4.87], BN: 5.01 [4.63-5.41]) and their relatives compared to individuals without ADHD and their relatives. The magnitude of the associations reduced as the degree of relatedness decreased, suggesting shared familial liability between ADHD and EDs. Quantitative genetic models revealed stronger genetic correlation of ADHD with OED (0.37 [0.31-0.42]) than with AN (0.14 [0.05-0.22]). ADHD PRS correlated positively with ED symptom measures overall and sub-scales “drive for thinness” and “body dissatisfaction”, despite small effect sizes. Conclusions We observed stronger genetic association with ADHD for non-AN EDs than AN, highlighting specific genetic correlation beyond a general genetic factor across psychiatric disorders