Mobile unemployment in a post-industrial society: The case of Sweden

Since the early 90s, every region in Sweden has been struck by high unemployment, especially among young persons. In the same period, there has been an overrepresentation of unemployed among inter-regional migrants. Increasingly, however, this mobility does not lead to employment. Yet, there are largely economic factors explaining this mobility. There seems to be a dual spatial pattern of this phenomenon. Preferably, unemployed migrate to (a) metropolitan regions and to (b) rural areas. This indicates that the phenomenon is multifaceted. Mobile unemployed have different backgrounds and different aspirations. Unemployed migrants to rural areas are predominantly low cost seekers who do not look for a regular job any longer. Unemployed migrants to metropolitan regions are to a large extent recent immigrants and/or young persons attracted by the informal segments of the urban labor market. The aim of the paper is to describe emerging patterns of inter-regional migration of unemployed, to analyze the socio-economic careers of different migrant groups, and to analyze factors leading to mobile unemployment. The factors analyzed include changes in the welfare system and in labor market policy. Finally, the paper will discuss the regional economic consequences of the emerging pattern and the policy implications.

Boundary dialogues in user-centric innovation

This paper is based on a user-centric innovation project, Free2Ride, which is seen as an example of community interaction that overcomes boundaries. Free2Ride aimed at developing a piece of ICT safety equipment consisting of a sender (on the horse) and a receiver (application in a smartphone) to be used by equestrian club members during their everyday riding activities. We will answer the research question of what the characteristics of a boundary dialogue in user-centric innovation activities are. The aim of the paper is to propose a model describing the characteristics of boundary dialogue in user-centric innovation that involve different communities of practices such as ICT developers, users and researchers. We applied a combination of research approaches consisting of action research and engaged scholarship approach. The theoretical framework for analyzing our findings is communities of practices with a specific interest in boundary spanning and learning dialogues. Our contribution is a model describing the characteristics of boundary dialogues in user-centric innovation. An important element of that model is the mental wandering, inwards and outwards, by core members in a community. We discuss the temporal as well as the symbolic nature of the mental wandering during the boundary dialogue in user-centric innovation activities

A business simulator for reality mining

The paper invites interested teachers, researchers and practitioners to share insights and suggestions for development of a data generator/business simulator for reality mining data, to be used in e.g. ERP, BI and DW classes. The proposed setting for the simulation is a shopping mall, a facility known to most students. Using Bloom’s revised taxonomy as a framework for ensuring that student learning outcomes also are considered, the finished “package” will both contain the simulator, an initial set of exercises for student engagement, and academic discussion forums on further development of application and teaching cases. Building on results from a 2014 prototype, student interview data supports the many positive effects of business simulation in IT education found in literature. A new, very basic prototype will be built in 2015, constructed with great flexibility to embrace community input. As with any emergent research project, much in initial specifications may be changed underway. AMCIS TV LINK: https://youtu.be/VqnakfLK6x

The Dynamics Of Interaction: Exploring A Living Lab Innovation Process From A Community Of Practice Perspective

This paper is based on a living lab project, which is an open, user-centric, innovation approach, where several actors from industry, user groups and academia are involved. The research question is: How can interaction dynamics be understood in a living lab innovation process? We applied an action-oriented research approach, where the empirical results are from The Find Project (TFP), which aim is to customize an ICT product based on the needs of a user group. The findings are analyzed from a community of practice perspective where three different communities, i) researchers from Halmstad Living Lab (HLL), ii) ICT developers (ICTD) and iii) next of kin of demented elderly persons (NOKD), represented the unit of analysis. We identified situations and activities that played a vital role for the innovation process in terms of boundary interaction dynamics. The contribution of our research to innovation theory is a combination and further exploration of the boundary spanning and communities of practice theories. We have developed a conceptual model describing the dynamics in boundary interactions of an ICT innovation process with regard to boundary objects-inuse and brokering. The conceptual model highlights two different levels of brokering: i) inner-level brokering and ii) outer-level brokering

Dynamics in an innovation boundary context: exploring a living lab process from a community of practice perspective

Introduction The research interest in this paper relates to innovation and learning and the intertwining of these during an innovation process. Generally, innovation activities could be understood as all scientific, technological, organizational, financial and commercial steps which actually lead to, or are intended to, the implementation of innovations In this paper we apply a community of practice perspective on a living lab process, which is a user-centric innovation process, where several actors from industry, user groups and academia are involved. We will present findings from an ICT innovation process where an organization (the ICT developers) collaborate with a user group consisting of people not belonging to an organization, but driven by an interest: caretaking of a demented person, such as wife, husband, father or mother (the next of kins), and researchers from Halmstad Living Lab. From a community of practice perspective, we can see how different community groups engage in a heterogeneous interaction where a mix of different world views is to be handled The research question in the paper is: How can a boundary context, such as a living lab process, be understood and facilitated from a community of practice perspective? The empirical findings result from a project called The Find Project (TFP). The aim of the TFP was to customize an ICT product based on the needs of a user group. The ICT product that should be customized consisted of a sender and a receiver that worked together in a mission to find missing objects. There were about fifteen people involved in TFP: three researchers from Halmstad Living Lab (HLL); three ICT developers (ICTD) and the group of eight next of kin's to demented elderly persons (NOKD). The contribution of our research to innovation theory is a process model describing several implications for how dynamic activities in an innovation boundary context (such as a living lab process) can be understood as well as facilitated by different support mechanisms. From our findings we have found that essential mechanisms of the boundary context are vital important for facilitating interaction and learnin

No stain, no pain – A multidisciplinary review of factors underlying domestic laundering

Today\u27s washing appliances are much more efficient than those of a decade ago, but the environmental benefits of this efficiency are counteracted by shifts in consumer behavior. Initiatives to reverse these shifts have often proven futile, indicating a basic lack of clarity on why we clean our clothes. This article is an explorative review with the aim of identifying dominant factors that shape how we do our laundry. The results can be used both as an introduction to laundry research in general, as well as a baseline for future interdisciplinary research. Three guiding principles are presented that describe the most influential factors underlying laundering: (1) technology changes conventions, while social context dictates technology acceptance; (2) technological solutions are often suggested to influence consumers, but individual concerns seem to override the effect of such interventions; (3) consumers are guided by social conventions, rooted in underlying psychological dynamics (e.g. moral dimensions of cleanliness). Looking at these principles it is understandable why interventions for sustainability are failing. Many interventions address only a part of a principle while disregarding other parts. For example, consumers are often informed of the importance of sustainability (e.g. “washing at lower temperature is good for the environment”), while questions of social belonging are left out (e.g. “many of your neighbors and friends wash at lower temperature”). To increase the possibility of a lasting change, it would be beneficial if instead all of the three principles could be addressed given the specific consumer group of interest

Mind the (reporting) gap—a scoping study comparing measured laundry decisions with self-reported laundry behaviour

Purpose: Many environmental assessments of consumer products and household services rely on self-reported data. Life cycle assessments of domestic laundering are no exception. However, potential discrepancies between self-reported behaviour and actual everyday decisions are seldom investigated due to practical challenges in collecting relevant data. This means that environmental impacts relying on such self-reported data are much more uncertain than previously acknowledged. Method: Laundering data was collected at the Chalmers’ HSB Living lab (CHSBLL), a combined multi-family house and research facility in Gothenburg. The collection was both done passively (through the washing machines) as well as actively (through surveys to the tenants). RFID-readers were also installed in the machines and a number of clothing items tagged, allowing for identification. The site-specific data was later supplemented with a large statistical representative study for domestic laundering of Swedish households. This unique data quality allowed the comparison of passively collected data with survey data from tenants in a real-life setup, while validating the results from a national perspective. Result and conclusions: The results suggest that consumers have trouble remembering personal choices regarding domestic laundering, meaning that self-reported data are more uncertain than previously thought. In general, the participants overestimated the amount of laundry they washed and underestimated their frequency of washing. Additionally, many participants showed an interest in changing to alternative wash programs although this change failed to materialize when they were presented with this option in real-life. The findings have potential consequences for environmental assessments and implicate those previous estimations underestimate emissions per kg laundry washed

Dynamic Water Balance Modelling for Risk Assessment and Decision Support on MAR Potential in Botswana

Botswana experiences a water stressed situation due to the climate and a continuously increasing water demand. Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is considered, among other measures, to improve the situation. To evaluate the possibility for increased water supply security, a probabilistic and dynamic water supply security model was developed. Statistically generated time series of source water availability are used in combination with the dynamic storages in dams and aquifers, and the possible supply is compared with the demand to simulate the magnitude and probability of water supply shortages. The model simulates the system and possible mitigation measures from 2013 to 2035 (23 years), using one-month time steps. The original system is not able to meet the demand, and the estimated volumetric supply reliability in the year 2035 is 0.51. An additional surface water dam (now implemented) will increase the reliability to 0.88 but there will still be a significant water shortage problem. Implementing large-scale MAR can further improve the reliability to at least 0.95. System properties limiting the effect of MAR are identified using the model and show how to further improve the effect of MAR. The case study results illustrate the importance and benefit of using an integrated approach, including time-dependence and future scenarios, when evaluating the need and potential of MAR