Boka er en institusjonssosiologisk studie av en anstalt i Stavanger kommune. Undersøkelsen bygger på protokoller og journaler fra anstalten, offentlige dokumenter, avisartikler og intervjuer med sentrale aktører.
Undersøkelsens formål er å vise hvordan ulike prinsipper for behandling av sosial nød nedfeller seg i en konkret organisasjon. Det er særlig lagt vekt på å vise hvorledes "omsorg" og "kontroll" søkes kombinert i ett program for behandling av sosiale avvik.
Et annet formål med studien er å gi en analyse av ulike betingelser for endringer i et sosialpolitisk tiltak. En av hovedkonklusjonene i det foreliggende arbeid er at de ideologiske grunntrekkene har vært de samme gjennom hele anstaltens eksistens, til tross for at det samtidig har skjedd store endringer på det sosialpolitiske området nasjonalt og internasjonalt.
Gruppen av innsatte har samtidig endret seg betydelig over tid. Dette tyder på at anstalten har hatt stor evne til å ta fatt på nye kontrolloppgaver etter som definisjonen av problempanoramaet i samfunnet endret seg. Det samme program er benyttet til å behandle en rekke ulike samfunnsmessige avvik og nødstilstander. Slik framstår anstalten som både uforanderlig og fleksibel.
Undersøkelsen avsluttes med å reise spørsmål om de funksjoner som ble ivaretatt av den anstalten som her er beskrevet, nå er overlatt andre og mer moderne sosial-politiske ordninger.
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Presentation at the 2nd annual Forum for Development Cooperation with Indigenous Peoples, which commenced the 15th-16th of November 2001. The Centre for Sámi Studies hosted the conference at the University of Tromsø, Norway. Full conference report available at http://hdl.handle.net/10037/3003
Målgruppa for denne rapporten er ledere i offentlig sektor med ansvar for kompetanseutvikling på ulike nivåer, spesielt ledelsesutvikling i kommunene. Videre retter rapporten seg mot aktører som arbeider med kompetanseutvikling i offentlig sektor. En tredje målgruppe er arbeidsgiverorganisasjoner i det offentlige som bistår kommunene i tariffspørsmål. Rapporten anviser en mulig framgangsmåte for å ivareta kravene i Hovedavtalens § 7 på en systematisk måte.
Rapporten dokumenterer en modell som i praksis har vist seg å fungere godt overfor en kommune i endring. Modellen ble utviklet av Høgskolen i Tromsø som grunnlag for et kompetanseutviklingsprogram for virksomhetsledere i Lenvik kommune i perioden 2002-2004. Modellen kombinerer formell utdanning og kompetanseutvikling i (den kommunale) organisasjonen og forutsetter visse organisatoriske rammer. Modellen kan kopieres helt eller delvis av andre kompetansetilbydere, men må modifiseres til den konkrete situasjonen som en aktuell oppdragsgiver (kommune) befinner seg i.
Background: The official statistics of persons with mental disorders who are granted disability
pension (DP) in Russia and Norway indicate large differences between the countries.
Methods: This qualitative explorative hypothesis-generating study is based on text analysis of the
laws, regulations and guidelines, and qualitative interviews of informants representing all the
organisational elements of the DP systems in both countries.
Results: The DP application process is initiated much later in Norway than in Russia, where a 3
year occupational rehabilitation and adequate treatment is mandatory before DP is granted. In
Russia, two instances are responsible for preparing of the medical certification for DP, a patients
medical doctor (PD) and a clinical expert commission (CEC) while there is one in Norway (PD).
In Russia, the Bureau of Medical-Social Expertise is responsible for evaluation and granting of DP.
In Norway, the local social insurance offices (SIO) are responsible for the DP application. Decisions
are taken collectively in Russia, while the Norwegian PD and SIO officer often take decisions alone.
In Russia, the medical criterion is the decisive one, while rehabilitation and treatment criteria are
given priority in Norway. The size of the DP in Norway is enough to cover of subsistences
expenditure, while the Russian DP is less than the level required for minimum subsistence.
Conclusion: There were noteworthy differences in the time frame, organisation model and
process leading to a DP in the two countries. These differences may explain why so few patients
with less severe mental disorders receive a DP in Russia. This fact, in combination with the size of
the DP, may hamper reforms of the mental health care system in Russia.
Online self-help groups multiply peoples' possibilities to exchange information and social support. Such possibilities are expected to be of crucial value for the 'new' healthcare user. However, similar to experiences from face-to-face based groups, studies of online self-help groups report high drop-out rates. Knowledge about why this happens is scarce. By means of qualitative interviews and participant observation, this article examines non-participation and withdrawal from an online self-help group for Norwegian breast cancer patients. Five conditions are identified as barriers to use; a need to avoid painful details about cancer, not being 'ill enough' to participate, the challenge of establishing a legitimate position in the group, the organisation of everyday life and illness phases that did not motivate for self-help group participation. I suggest that an adoption of the biomedical explanation model represents an important background for this pattern, an argument which contrasts prominent assumptions about the new healthcare user who does not accept the biomedical 'restitution story' in her efforts to make sense of an illness. A further suggestion is that experiences of self-help groups as arenas for successful coping need to be further considered as a barrier to use.
Denne rapporten er en analyse av historier skrevet i løpet av høsten 2004, i samband med et kulturutviklingsprosjekt ved et norsk foretak i finansbransjen. Narrativ metode ble benyttet i utviklingsprosessen. Materialet besto av 68 historier fra foretakets ulike avdelinger, og oppdraget som medarbeiderne ble gitt, var å ”gi en ærlig beskrivelse av kvaliteten i egen avdeling”. Under kulturutviklingsprosjektet tok foretaket selv ansvar for å behandle materialet og trekke de nødvendige konklusjonene. Hensikten med min rapport var å gi en uavhengig analyse som foretaket kunne sammenligne egne konklusjoner med. Slik sett kunne dette karakteriseres som en ”second opinion studie”.
Presentation at the 9th annual Forum for Development Cooperation with Indigenous Peoples, which commenced the 21st-23rd of October 2008. The Centre for Sámi Studies hosted the conference at the University of Tromsø, Norway. Full conference report available at http://hdl.handle.net/10037/2994
This article aims to provide more insight into advantages and challenges of conducting action research with the intention to improve health care. Action research is distinctive in the sense that the researcher has a dual role as both researcher and implementer of the program studied. The article is based on two Norwegian action-oriented studies that aimed to explore the potential role of online self-help groups for breast cancer patients and adolescents with mentally ill parents respectively. We argue that action research can contribute both to the generation of knowledge, as well as a greater sense of ownership to the program among those who are intended to use it. Nonetheless, a potential conflict between the researcher's pursuit of data, and ethical considerations became apparent in the contexts studied here. Bearing these challenges in mind, we still conclude that action research offers an important contribution for the further development of health care services.
In this article, I explore the communication in an online self-help group for Norwegian
women with breast cancer, aiming to add further knowledge to the question of whether the online context functions as a “liberating realm” for alternative discourses about illness. My analysis is conducted within an action oriented frame and is based on participant observation
of the online communication and qualitative interviews of women who participated in the
group. Based on the analysis, I argue that proposals of a replication of dominating offline discourses in online communication are affirmed. More precisely, the argument is that a “socially desirable” story about the cancer “hero” was further circulated in this online context, and that experiences of resignation and meaninglessness were not woven into the communication. Offering some reflections on this process, I suggest that it has active and voluntary aspects that need attention in further research.
This article relates to the fast growing research literature on innovation by adopting a phenomenological perspective of change and how change comes about. We visited nineteen farms in Norway in a project on farm-based tourism. Results show highly differentiated products but similar routes in transforming a farm no longer seen as economically viable, into a way of doing life and doing work that brings a complex of considerations together. The concept of imaginative horizons is used and seen as characteristic of the transformative process of turning the farm into a farm based tourist enterprise. The same transformation becomes a way of keeping the relationship and interdependence between the past and the present vivid and meaningful.
Presentation from the project “Democracy and Indigenous Rights” (between UiT and Sami University College) at the 11th annual Forum for Development Cooperation with Indigenous Peoples, which commenced the 24th-26th of October 2010. The Centre for Sámi Studies hosted the conference at the University of Tromsø, Norway. Full conference report available in Munin at http://hdl.handle.net/10037/2941
Norge har, i likhet med flere andre stater i den vestlige verden, investert betydelige beløp på innføring av informasjons- og kommunikasjonsteknologi (IKT) i helsesektoren. Til tross for politisk optimisme viser forskning at mange teknologiprosjekter feiler. Forklaringene på feilslåtte teknologiprosjekter er mange og til dels ulike. Det er likevel en klar tendens til å kategorisere IKT-utfordringene enten som teknologiske eller som organisatoriske. Denne artikkelen viser at det er mer til saken med å forstå utfordringene med bruk av IKT. Med utgangspunkt i en empirisk analyse av hvordan telemedisin både blir brukt og ikke tatt i bruk i svangerskaps- og fødselsomsorgen argumenterer Dyb for hvordan en materiellsemiotisk tilnærming er et godt inntak til å belyse mangfoldet i hva som skjer når ny teknologi blir innført i helsesektoren. Til slutt drøfter hun hvordan en materiellsemiotisk tilnærming dermed også er et godt inntak til refleksjoner omkring helsepolitiske teknologiforståelser.
The NPM portfolio offers several solutions to improve organisational performance and . One of the most crucial of them is to split up integrated organisations into more autonomous operational units. The idea of arm’s length government is gaining ground in Norwegian local government and has materialised itself through the proliferation of agencies, especially in the shape of different forms of local government bodies and enterprises. Agencies are regarded as useful organisational designs for promoting transparency and, in consequence, better fiscal and political control. They are supposed to provide a more output oriented type of democracy. But does this form of government actually improve transparency and are Norwegian municipalities attuned to and prepared for this type of democracy? This article builds on case studies of local government enterprises in two municipalities. Here we ask: how transparent are the activities and outputs of these agencies; do they have specified contracts; do they have easy-to-follow structures and are the owners in control? Our findings make us question local governments’ ability to accommodate the form of transparency associated with agencies and output oriented democracy. In our cases, arm’s length government has not led to the intended increase in transparency and political control, mainly because of weak contractualisation between local government and agencies, complex ownership structures, lack of interest among average local politicians, side-lined municipal administrations and even mayors striving to get the information and the influence they deem necessary and legitimate.
Since the end of the Cold War, a flourishing network of collaboration has grown up between Russia and neighbouring Nordic countries in the European North, especially Norway. The Barents Euro-Arctic Region (BEAR) was established in 1993 by several North European states and regional administrative entities in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Its aim is to promote relations across the old East-Westdivide in the European North, and enable joint projects in a number of areas, including trade and industry, student exchange and indigenous issues. In addition,Russia and Norway are pursuing various bilateral schemes focused on a particular problem or challenge in the North. One of them is the Joint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission, which manages the valuable fish resources in the Barents Sea.In various bilateral and multilateral partnerships, Norway is working to address the environmental problems on the Kola Peninsula. This article gives a brief overview of these cooperative arrangements.