"Full kontroll i barnehagen?" - en studie av styring og styringsmentalitet.

Sammendrag: Avhandlingen fokuserer på hvordan ansatte i barnehager skaper og regulerer barns (og ansattes) muligheter i barnehagen gjennom diskursive praksiser og ulike reguleringer av tid og sted. Gjennom en pragmatisk tilnærming, brukes Michel Foucaults begrep styringsmentalitet som omdreiningspunkt for analyser av et empirisk feltarbeid gjennomført i to barnehager i Finnmark. Gjennom å bruke Foucaults begrep disiplinærmakt vises det hvordan møter mellom mennesker, mennesker og sted og mennesker og tid, har regulerende og disiplinerende effekter på barn og voksne i barnehagen. De teoretiske orienteringene i denne studien er sosialkonstruksjonisme, sosiokulturell tilnærming og poststrukturalisme, de teoretiske perspektiver hentes hovedsakelig fra Foucault og andre som har videreutviklet hans teorier. Foucaults teorier bidrar i denne avhandlingen med kunnskap om og forståelse for hvordan kunnskap produseres gjennom og i diskurser. Praksiser og lingvistiske kategorier vil dermed være sosialt og historisk situert. I avhandlingen brukes Foucaults forståelser av makt, diskurser og disiplin til å analysere møter og samspill mellom mennesker i barnehagen. Det presenteres empiriske data fra et feltarbeid, som blir analysert og diskutert i forhold til det teoretiske grunnlaget for avhandlingen. Den empiriske delen av avhandlingen er delt inn i fire kapitler; hvorav tre omhandler ulike aspekter av hvordan styring og regulering foregår i barnehagen og et siste avsluttende kapittel som oppsummerer studiens funn gjennom en diskusjon relatert til hovedspørsmålet: Hvordan foregår styring av barn og ansatte i barnehagen gjennom barnehagens styringsmentalitet? Avhandlingen viser hvordan både barn og ansatte inngår i og skaper regulerende mønstre for hva som regnes som «god barnehageatferd» i barnehagehverdagen. Både barn og ansatte møter ulike reguleringer av hva som blir regnet som normalt å gjøre, og blir regulertgjennom et nett av ulike styringsteknikker som omfatter reguleringer av rom,tid og kropp. Ulike teknikker for styring som sjelden opererer alene, men i relasjon til hverandre. Det brukes ulike typer reguleringer overfor barn fordi barna beskrives som forskjellige, og ulikhetene baseres på egenskapertilskrevet det enkelte barn. Gjennom de egenskapene barn blir tilskrevet av personalet, konstruerer personalet noen forventninger knyttet til hva det enkelte barn kan eller har mulighet til å gjøre. De styringsteknikkene som brukes opptrer ikke i et vakuum, men vil være styrt av barnehagens styringsmentalitet.Summary: The dissertation focuses on how employees in kindergartens create and regulate children's (and employees) opportunities in kindergarten through discursive practices and different regulations of time and place. Through a pragmatic approach, Michel Foucault's term is used as the basis for the analysis of empirical fieldwork carried out in two kindergartens in Finnmark. Using Foucault's concept of disciplinary power, it is shown how meetings between people, people and place and people and time have regulatory and disciplinary effects on children and employees in the kindergarten. The theoretical orientations in this study are social constructionism, socio-cultural approach and poststructuralism, the theoretical perspectives are obtained mainly from Foucault and others who have further developed his theories. Foucault's theories contribute in this dissertation with knowledge and understanding of how knowledge is produced through and in discourses, that is, practices and linguistic categories that are socially and historically situated. The dissertation uses Foucault's understanding of power, discourses and discipline to analyze meetings and interaction between people in kindergarten. Empirical data is presented from fieldwork, which is analyzed and discussed in relation to the theoretical basis for the dissertation. The empirical part of the dissertation is divided into four chapters; three of which deal with different aspects of how governance and regulation take place in the kindergarten, and a final chapter that summarizes the findings of the study through a discussion related to the main question: “How does the kindergarten’s governmentality influence the management of children and employees in the kindergarten?” The dissertation shows how both children and employees enter into and create regulatory patterns for what is considered "good kindergarten behavior". Both children and employees meet different regulations that are considered to be normal, and are regulated through a network of different management techniques that include place, time and body regulations. These are various techniques of power that rarely operate alone, but in relation to each other. Different types of child-based regulations are used because the children are described as different, and the inequalities are based on attributes ascribed to the individual child. Through the characteristics of the children given by the employees, the employees constructs, expectations related to what the individual child may or has the opportunity to do. The techniques of power used do not act in a vacuum, but will be controlled by the kindergarten´s governmentality.Digital fulltext not availabl

Child Abuse in Matilda, The Harry Potter series and Goodnight Mister Tom

Denne oppgaven utforsker hvordan bruk av språk, med spesiell fokus på humor såvel som tiltalende karakterer, kan påvirke yngre lesere og deres forståelse av fysisk og psykisk vold påført et barn av dets verge. Den addresserer hvordan Dahls Matilda og Rowlings Harry Potter serie bruker humor til å dekke over mørkere temaer som barnemishandling og omsorgssvikt, og hvordan Magorian bruker et barns narrativ i Goodnight Mister Tom for å gjøre historien mer passende for barn. Oppgaven går raskt gjennom barnelitteraturens histore, og hvorvidt en voksen forfatter kan være en troverdig formidler av et barns indre liv. Oppgaven stiller spørsmål rundt hvorvidt bruken av humor bidrar til å forenkle og dempe den grove mishandlingen av Harry Potter og Matilda. Den sammenlikner beskrivelsen av mishandling i Matilda og Harry Potter bøkene med Goodnight Mister Tom, som fremstiller et mer eksplisitt bilde av mishandling. Verdien av både kjernefamilien og fosterfamilien diskuteres, såvel som en mors tilknytning til et barn og følgene av et manglende mor-barn forhold.This thesis explores how the use of language, with specific focus on humor, as well as likeable characters, can affect the child-reader and its understanding of physical and psychological violence inflicted upon a child by their parent or guardian. It will address how Dahl’s Matilda and Rowling’s Harry Potter series use humor to mask darker topics such as child abuse and neglect, and how Magorian’s use of child-like narration in Goodnight Mister Tom may contribute to making it more suitable for children. The thesis briefly discusses children’s literature, its history and whether or not an adult writer is a reliable source when depicting the inner lives of children. The text questions whether the use of humor may simplify and play down the seriousness of the abuse Harry and Matilda are exposed to throughout their childhood. It compares the depiction of abuse in Matilda and the Potter series with Goodnight Mister Tom that conveys a more explicit description of violence against a child. The value of family, both foster and nuclear, is discussed, as well as the importance of a mother’s attachment to a child and the repercussions of a lacking mother-child relationship

Interpretive communities of resistance: Emerging counterpublics of immigration alarmism on social media

Debates over immigration have become a defining political cleavage closely related to moral values, perceptions of threat, and the rise of online anti-immigration networks and agitation. Based on in-depth interviews with immigration alarmists, this article discusses how the participants’ anti-immigration position is sanctioned in their everyday social networks and how they find alternative networks online for information, community, and support. This online community takes the form of an emerging counterpublic, characterized by active curation and different levels of participation aimed at optimizing the trade-offs between gaining visibility (moderation and mobilization) and creating an alternative moral community (a “safe space” for peers). Combining notions of interpretative communities of resistance with the theory of counterpublics, the study provides insight into the internal life and values of emerging anti-immigration online communities.Interpretive communities of resistance: Emerging counterpublics of immigration alarmism on social mediapublishedVersio

The Boosted DC Algorithm for Clustering with Constraints

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of the recently proposed Boosted Difference of Convex functions Algorithm (BDCA) when applied to clustering with constraints and set clustering with constraints problems. This is the first paper to apply BDCA to a problem with nonlinear constraints. We present the mathematical basis for the BDCA and Difference of Convex functions Algorithm (DCA), along with a penalty method based on distance functions. We then develop algorithms for solving these problems and computationally implement them, with publicly available implementations. We compare old examples and provide new experiments to test the algorithms. We find that the BDCA method converges in fewer iterations than the corresponding DCA-based method. In addition, BDCA yields faster CPU running-times in all tested problems

Challengers in the journalistic field – A study of alternative media and their relations to incumbents, governance units, the state, and each other

The interaction between alternative and mainstream media is complex and often contentious. Mainstream journalists question the professionalism and political agendas of alternative media, while the latter criticize mainstream journalists for being biased and elitist. This paper investigates the positioning of alternative media in the journalistic field, both as a collective and as individual entities. Using the Strategic Action Field approach, we take an in-depth look at alternative media as challengers, approaching them as less privileged actors in the journalistic field. Through interviews with editors of alternative media in Norway, we engage with, and not merely discuss, antagonistic and agonistic actors in journalism. The study offers a nuanced understanding of how left-wing and right-wing alternative media, both collectively and individually, relate to other social actors in the field including media organizations (incumbents), press organizations and press councils (governance units), funders (state), and other alternative media (challengers). In the article, we identify three different positions, the anti-systemic, the independent and the pragmatic, pointing to different levels of knowledge of the journalistic field and strategic actions amongst alternative media.publishedVersio

Journalism as a Strategic Action Field: How to Study Contestations and Power Dynamics between Professional Journalism and Its Challengers

This paper argues the benefits of approaching the ongoing con- tentions and power dynamics in journalism as a strategic action field (JSAF). This meso-level, actor-centered analytical framework offers insights into how contestations in journalism are decided by the social skills of key stakeholders. JSAF distinguishes between three types of social actors (incumbents, governance units, and challengers), enables comprehension of their position and power, and explains why some actors succeed and others do not in dif- ferent political and cultural contexts. It expands the traditional focus of incumbents in journalism studies by underlining the social skills of often-neglected back players in journalism (e.g., governance units such as associations, centers, and professional networks) and by foregrounding the social skills of challengers. This enables us to study challengers as strategic actors, investigating their motives, ambitions, interactions, and communicative skills to mobilize sup- port and alliances to improve insights into who and what is con- testing journalism today. The need for a JSAF approach comes from the increased contentions and conflicts between professional journalism and various peripheral actors, exemplified by the power dynamics between professional actors and alternative media.publishedVersio

Endringsledelse som suksessfaktor ved innføring av en nye samhandlingsløsning – med fokus på kunnskapsdeling og samhandling : en casestudie

Denne oppgaven undersøker hvordan en organisasjon kan dra nytte av omgivelsens endringer og den teknologiske utviklingen i markedet, ved å implementere en ny samhandlingsløsning. Hensikten med studien er å forske på hvordan Kunden kan gjennomføre en vellykket implementering av en ny samhandlingsløsning, dra nytte av den og dermed oppnå gevinster i form av økt kunnskapsdeling og samhandling. Oppgaven tar for seg tre forskningsspørsmål som skal bidra til å besvare oppgavens problemstilling: (1) Hvilke forventninger blir det sett for seg i forhold til kunnskapsdeling og samhandling, (2) hvilke motivasjonsfaktorer påvirker kunnskapsdeling og samhandling ved bruk av en samhandlingsløsning, og (3) hvordan endringsledelse påvirker de identifiserte motivasjonsfaktorene. Studien vil fokusere på endringsprosessen i forhold til Kundens opplevelse og forståelse av prosessen, nytteverdien av samhandlingsløsningen, samt barrierene og motivasjonsfaktorene for kunnskapsdeling og samhandling. Casestudie er gjennomført ved en kvalitativ forskningstilnærming, i form av dybdeintervjuer og observasjoner. Dybdeintervjuene består av kandidater fra både Leverandør- og Kundesiden. Det er utarbeidet fire intervjuguider som tar for seg prosjektlederne fra både Leverandør- og Kundesiden, prosjektgruppen, samt de ansatte som ikke er direkte involvert i endringsprosjektet på Kundesiden. Det er gjennomført observasjoner ved ulike møter hos Kunden, samt dokumentstudier av relevante dokumenter for å få bedre kontekstforståelse av endringsprosjektet. Studien viser at organisasjonen i flere år prøvd å innføre en ny samhandlingsløsning, som skulle bidra til økt kunnskapsdeling og samhandling, noe som ikke gikk som forventet. Funnene i studien viser at Kundens endringshistorikk har medført høye forventninger og bekymringer for hvordan den nye samhandlingsløsningen vil påvirke de ansattes arbeidsmetoder og rutiner. Det trekkes frem at det har oppstått barrierer i forhold til kunnskapsdeling og samhandling. Det kan tyde på at årsakene har kommet fra lite støtte fra ledelsen, tidligere problematikk med dagens samhandlingsløsning, samt at det i utgangspunktet ikke har vært noe kultur for kunnskapsdeling og samhandling fra før av. På bakgrunn av dette, blir det uttrykt at det er bekymringer for hvordan denne endringen vil være forskjellige fra de tidligere endringene som har blitt gjennomført, noe som muligens har bidratt til at de ansatte er likegyldige til endringen.This paper examines how an organisation can benefit from surrounding changes and technological advances within the market by implementing a new collaboration system. The purpose of this study is to analyse how the customer can achieve a successful implementation of a collaboration system, benefit from it, and as a result gain rewards in terms of increased knowledge sharing and collaboration. This paper addresses three research questions, which will aid interpretation of the following issues: (1) Which expectations are assumed regarding knowledge sharing and collaboration, (2) which motivating factors affect knowledge sharing and collaboration by using a collaboration system, (3) how change management affect the identified motivating factors. The study will focus on change management in relation to the customers experience and understanding of the process, the utility value of a collaboration system, and the limits and motivating factors for knowledge sharing and collaboration. Case studies are built on qualitative research by depth interviews and observations. The depth interviews consist of candidates from both Distributors and Customers. Four interview guides have been prepared to cover project managers from Distributors and Customers, the project group and employees who are not directly involved in the change project on the customer side. Observations from several meetings with the customer have been completed, in addition to document studies of relevant documents to gain a better contextual understanding of the change project. The study uncovers that, for many years, the Customer’s organisation has been pushing to improve today’s collaboration system to be put into place, which would contribute to increased knowledge sharing and collaboration, but failed to succeed. The findings in this study shows that the Customer's history of change has resulted in significant expectations and concerns for how the new collaboration system will affect the employee's working methods and routines. It is emphasised that barriers have arisen in relation to knowledge sharing and collaboration, potentially caused by deficient support from the management, preceding issues with today’s collaboration system, and initially the lack of culture for knowledge sharing and collaboration in the first place. Based on these details, concerns are expressed about how this change will be different from the previous changes, which may have resulted in the employees feeling indifferent about the latest change