Danish Context Research Articles

Word and truth — a look at Johannes V. Jensen’s journalism. Part 1

Since the establishment of the Johannes V. Jensen Centre at Aarhus University in 1993, studies of the Nobel Prize winner have shifted from the biographical to the textual. At the same time, the publication especially of early works with critical commentary has intensified. The present article traces some themes throughout a half-century of Jensen’s journalism which was first assembled in book form in 2014 under the title Word and Truth. The material brings more nuance to impressions of the poet’s opinions and positions, also because the anthologizing of his journalistic works has until now and for good reason skimmed only the cream. Now the dregs are considered as well, and even this portion of Jensen’s work impresses with its linguistically seductive energy and fascinating images. Most of the articles Jensen himself agreed to have reprinted and they were included in the so-called mythic volumes. Jensen regarded myth as a special genre, his own reply in all modesty to what H. C. Andersen had done for the fairy tale. Jensen’s journalism spans also biographically from the poet’s native soil in Jutland to distant parts of the world, with the capital as well as rural Tisvilde as important stops along the way. The poet’s efforts to protect nature and the implied archeological interests (not only in a Danish context) are reflected in a number of articles. Just as meaningful, but modernity-oriented, is an enthusiasm for technical development, machinery, traffic on land, sea and air. Life’s origins and the development of the species are viewed in a Darwinist perspective. The present article’s second part deals with Jensen’s tradition-bound understanding of the relationship between the sexes and, in that connection, with his fear of “sexual confusion” often mentioned, most painfully in the 1907 intimidation of his colleague Herman Bang. Finally, attention is given to the part of Jensen’s journalism which portrays his own travels and his writings on others’ contributions to the genre of travel literature.

Word and truth — a look at Johannes V. Jensen’s journalism. Part 2

Since the establishment of the Johannes V. Jensen Centre at Aarhus University in 1993, studies of the Nobel Prize winner have shifted from the biographical to the textual. At the same time, the publication especially of early works with critical commentary has intensified. The present article traces some themes throughout a half-century of Jensen’s journalism, which was first assembled in book form in 2014 under the title Word and Truth. The material brings more nuance to impressions of the poet’s opinions and positions, in part because the anthologizing of his journalistic works has, until now and for good reason, skimmed only the cream. Now the dregs are considered as well, and even this portion of Jensen’s work impresses with its linguistically seductive energy and fascinating images. Jensen himself agreed to have most of the articles reprinted, and they were included in the so-called mythic volumes. Jensen regarded myth as a special genre, his own reply in all modesty to what H. C. Andersen had done for the fairy tale. Jensen’s journalism spans also biographically, from the poet’s native soil in Jutland, to distant parts of the world, with the capital as well as rural Tisvilde as important stops along the way. The poet’s efforts to protect nature and implied archeological interests (not only in a Danish context) are reflected in a number of articles. Just as meaningful, but modernity-oriented, is an enthusiasm for technical development, machinery, and traffic on land, sea, and air. Life’s origins and the development of the species are viewed with a Darwinist perspective. The present article’s second part deals with Jensen’s tradition-bound understanding of the relationship between the sexes and, in that connection, his fear of “sexual confusion” often mentioned, most painfully in the 1907 intimidation of his colleague Herman Bang. Finally, attention is given to the part of Jensen’s journalism that portrays his own travels and his writings on other’s contributions to the genre of travel literature.

Prolonged Grief Disorder: An Implementation Gone Awry and a Researcher Going Gonzo

In this article I discuss the muddled implementation of Prolonged Grief Disorder in a Danish context. I do this by drawing on my fieldwork, which has been ongoing during the last couple of years. I begin by describing how my initial research design suffered a breakdown that mirrored the breakdown in the implementation of the Prolonged Grief Disorder diagnoses. This breakdown became defining for my work and through the application of what I call gonzo sociology I was able to critically engage in the field of grief research in Denmark. I describe what gonzo research is, and then, following this, I tell the story of how I stumbled into the field of grief research in Denmark and the process of realization I went through. The article is thus structured as a narrative that relays both how I came to embrace gonzo research as a form of methodology, but also the story of what my encounters in the field showed me. I do this because I cannot separate the story of how I went about it from what I came to discover—methods, theory and results are intertwined. Gonzo research aims at going into the field and participating, co-creating the discoveries and pushing the boundaries for research, both in its way of doing research and in its way of reporting said research. Thus, the form of the article is alternative and balances between journalistic endeavor, academic research and autoethnography.

Speaking truth through power: Conceptualizing internal whistleblowing hotlines with Foucault’s dispositive

This article is an examination of the various ambivalences, limitations and dilemmas that are associated with the internal whistleblowing hotline – which is conceptualized as a management technique that strives to contain, codify, constrain, standardize, and neutralize acts of speaking up against illegal or unethical practices. In other words the interest is on what happens when the critical practice of whistleblowing or ‘speaking truth to power’ is sought institutionalized and transformed into a practice of ‘speaking truth through power’ – that is, through the managerial instrument of the whistleblowing hotline. The article argues that the Foucauldian concept of dispositive can help explain how a seemingly expedient and pragmatic technique such as the whistleblowing hotline, is in fact riddled with complexity and contradiction, which in turn creates a series of dilemmas and limitations related to aim and function the hotline. The analysis thus shows how the internal whistleblowing hotline can take different forms depending on the dispositive permeating it. Empirically, the analysis is based on descriptions of the use and function of internal whistleblowing hotlines in a Danish context.

Community Work as Opposition

A number of tensions pertaining to social problems and human suffering become apparent when analysing community work in a Danish welfare setting. As a source for critical reflection, we discern some of these challenges, but also potentials, which relate not only to a Danish context, but to challenges in any highly institutionalized welfare system. Three community work social enterprises serve to exemplify the objectives of addressing social problems by fostering participation and empowerment. To enhance and include the voice of service users, the programmes attempt to cultivate human resources as opposed to perceived formalism and a subsequent diminishment of the potentials of community inclusion. The formalistic governmental agendas are perceived to be unable to appreciate the diversity of service users’ individual needs and social challenges, which produces conflicting prospects. Such a dichotomy between formalistic welfare practices and the ideals represented in the three enterprises offers a podium for users, professionals, policymakers and researchers to consider alternative expressions of community work, and how these can address social problems. We maintain that rapidly changing welfare models require an increased sensitivity to human suffering as a position embedded in the habitus and sociological imagination of community work. It is a source for reflection on the role of welfare arenas perceived as spaces in which service users ideally, based on their own social situation, can improve their social circumstances. It is an invitation to reflect on the potentials of community work in a diversity of cultures and practices.

Health-related nudging

The aim of this paper is to present a methodological approach that provides analytical, critical and normative purchase on nudges’ bypassing of reflection, using a combination of multimodal analysis, Foucauldian theory, and Habermas’s (1996) concept of deliberative democracy. The approach is demonstrated using an example of a health-related nudge from the Danish context: healthy product placement in a supermaket. Multimodal analysis highlights how various modes (colour, symbol, front and back, positioning and discourse) contribute meanings to the nudge. A Foucauldian perspective provides critical perspectives on nudges as shaping practices, as short of epistemic content and thus potentially difficult to resist, and as representing a politicisation of public space. Nudges’ lack of transparency is discussed in relation to Habermas’s normative framework of deliberative democracy where recognising public perspectives and ensuring consensus are key. Limitations of the article include a smaller data set; however, the data are used to illustrate the methodological approach. On the basis of the findings, I argue for the importance of furthering critical public discourse on nudging. That way, nudgees may be better positioned to spot nudges, and the implications of policymakers using this technique of governance can be more effectively scrutinised.

Sygeplejerskeuddannelsen i et historisk perspektiv

The nursing profession and nursing education program have been subjects of discussion in both Danish and international contexts, since nursing education originated. In this article we present a Foucault-inspired analysis on how »what a nurse should be able to do« was debated in Denmark in the years 1999-2016.

Sacred but not holy: Awe, spectacle, and the heritage gaze in Danish religious heritage contexts

Sacred but not holy: Awe, spectacle, and the heritage gaze in Danish religious heritage contexts

Mediating imaginaries

The aim of this article is to illustrate how visions of the future—sociotechnical imaginaries— mediate and thus shape sociotechnical practices involving educational robots in a Danish school context. In the analysis I show how imaginaries are manifested both in technological artefacts, teachers’ discourse and in policy documents from political bodies such as the OECD and the Danish Agency for Digitisation (DIGST). To show this manifestation, I apply two concepts: The Science and Technology Studies (STS) concept of ‘sociotechnical imaginaries’ as formulated by Sheila Jasanoff (2015) and the concept of ‘mediation’ known from postphenomenological tradition. I develop an analytical framework based on these two concepts and coin a third — ‘symbolic mediation’ — to present and analyse a case study based on an ethnographic field study that included semi-structured interviews conducted in a Danish school setting. The case study shows how the use of the robot NAO—an educational technology—is driven by two related imaginaries that both serve as arguments for implementing and using the robot—the imaginary of the digital future and the imaginary of educational optimization.

Hvad er professionsforskning?

This paper presents a discussion of what research in professions and professional work means, both generally, and in a Danish context. Initially we present a summary of the origins of the term profession, and the oldest occupations understood to be professions. Central questions when defining this origin is what constitutes the base of professional knowledge and whether such a base is specific to each profession. However, what such knowledge may be has proven hard to agree on, since such knowledge is what research in professions and professional work strive to produce. The paper instead proposes a different way to describe and categorize research in professions, which does not presume any one definition of neither profession nor knowledge. Instead, we suggest summarizing the different research practices found in the field, by way of three axes of difference: 1. Research in professions for – describing the different institutions and agents for whom the research is being produced. 2. Research in professions through – describing the different theoretical perspectives and assumptions upon which the research is based. Finally 3. Research in professions withdescribing the empirical methods and methodologies, which the research employs. On each axis, we exemplify a number of positions found in the field of research in professions. In conclusion, the paper points out correlations between positions on the three axes, which are indicative of the debates and struggles taking place in the field of research today.

PARADIS - A process integrating tool for rapid generation and evaluation of holistic renovation scenarios

Recent research in building renovation seeks methods for the development of more holistic renovation scenarios that live up to a broader set of sustainability objectives and criteria, and that involve more stakeholders in the earlier stages of the design process. This paper presents a methodology for development of a Building Information Modeling (BIM) based decision support system PARADIS, which generates and evaluates optimal and holistic renovation scenarios tailored toward the renovation of dwellings in a Danish context. PARADIS supports the renovation sector with the following features: (a) optimizing the selection process of renovation alternatives, and the generation of renovation scenarios, through specific renovation typologies and constraints; (b) evaluating standard sustainability Key Performance Indicators (e.g. energy consumption, investment cost, indoor thermal comfort, etc.) over the generated renovation scenarios; and (c) visualizing the generated renovation scenarios for ease of comprehension by the designers, and for enabling discussion between expert stakeholders (i.e. engineers, contractors, facilities managers) and non-expert stakeholders (e.g. building occupants, owners, etc.). PARADIS thus supports informed decision making for optimal renovation scenario design. The first complete integrated toolchain, including a ready-to-release prototype of the PARADIS Revit plug-in, is demonstrated in this paper and empirically evaluated on a large apartment block in Denmark.

Early prioritization of the United Nation’s goals for sustainable development in construction projects

The building sector holds great potential and responsibility in achieving several of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs). This study presents preliminary findings of an exploratory study aiming at investigating how the SDGs can be successfully implemented in construction projects in a Danish context. A focus group workshop was held with academic experts within building design and the SDGs. The participants discussed which aspects were important throughout the different phases of new construction projects for successful implementation of the SDGs, and the roles of the included actors. The results showed that the participants highlighted SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 17 (partnerships for achieving the goals) as the most important throughout the different phases, from the programming phase to demolition or renovation. SDG 3 (health and well-being), was seen as the most important factor during the occupation phase, and the main positive effect of a successful design process. A “phase zero” was proposed to ensure a common ground and understanding the SDGs among the involved actors before the programming phase. Several barriers for implementing the SDGs in Danish building projects were identified in the study, including the need for local indicators, transfer of knowledge between the involved actors, and lack of user involvement. The results indicate that there is a need for rethinking and supporting strong partnerships among the different actors, improve knowledge management, and ensure targeted educational material regarding the SDGs towards all actors involved in the building process, including the building owner, advisors, craftsmen and users.

Adults as non-traditional students in the tertiary education of Denmark and Ukraine: comparative discourse of structural, psychologic and pedagogic peculiarities

Today with the demand of a knowledge-based society to adapt workforce to modern flexible and innovative production, sustainable and coherent adult education becomes an integral part of the European education system. The article offers a comparative analysis of the structural models, principles and new political initiatives of adults training in tertiary education systems of Ukraine and Denmark. The Danish context is the most important for the development of adult education policy in Ukraine as Denmark has gained a unique experience in creating of democratic adult training system existing as a component of lifelong learning. Multiple sources in Ukrainian, European and Danish educational environments at various time points from 2000 till 2020 have been used in data collection for this study. Adult education in Ukraine requires a substantial adjustment at the legislative, structural and technological levels. Based on a comparative analysis of the adult education systems characteristic features of Denmark and Ukraine, the author has substantiated suggestions for the construction of efficient adult training models in higher educational institutions of Ukraine.

The Rebuilding of Fragmented Memories, Broken Families and Rootless Selves among Danish Care Leavers

Many care leavers share a sense of fragmented or absent memories and a feeling of being abandoned and rootless. In this article I examine how some care leavers in a Danish context attempt to reconstruct fragmented memories and fragile relationships through tangible and creative practices and processes by which memories and relations are created, repaired, strengthened, and shaped. Understanding their engagement with the past as transformative memory-work, and family and kinship as acquired through practice, I describe some of the specific preconditions for care leavers when it comes to memory-making and family formation. Next, I illustrate how care leavers in different ways deal with broken family ties and how their practices and reflections transform their personal history and the way they relate to others and position themselves in society.

Between a rock and a hard place: State-led territorial stigmatization, informal care practices and the interstitiality of local community workers in Denmark

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to explore the relation between territorial stigmatization and community work in Denmark. In the paper, we firstly explore territorial stigmatization, relating it to the Danish context. We show how territorial stigmatization in Denmark happens via a complex amalgamation of bureaucratic practices which identify particular areas as problematic ‘ghettos’, and how this leads to top–down interventions upon many local residential areas, including local community work. Following this, we draw on participant observations in practices of local community work, and interviews with local community workers, to explore how they practically negotiate these particular political constructions of their work. We argue that local community workers come to take on interstitial roles—that is, they come to be in-between the state and authorities and the local communities themselves. This complex double role is what we call an interstitial position, meant to signify how Danish local community workers are both part of territorial stigmatization and simultaneously trying to escape from and undo this very role.

Unemployment and learning: the depoliticisation and taboos of work(lessness)

This article analyses how the learning – understood as an aspect of individuals’ life-historical experiential processes – of long-term vulnerable unemployed individuals in a Danish context is affected by the neoliberal organisation of the employment system and back-to-work policies and practices. In doing so, a psychosocietal approach to the study of adults’ learning – in which learning processes are explored from the standpoint of the subject – is applied: an approach that is analytically sensitive to the dialectic interconnectedness of subjective and objective conditions of learning during unemployment, that is, of embodied and life-historical experience, conscious as well as unconscious, and the cultural and sociopolitical embeddedness of work(lessness). In seeking to understand the ambiguities related to learning during long-term unemployment, the article argues for the usefulness of applying a broader concept of adults’ learning in addition to a recognition of negative experience. Through the life history of Richard, the article demonstrates how the neoliberal organisation of back-to-work practices – emphasising the standardisation of methods, the maximisation of efficiency, self-reliance, social discipline, externally determined learning goals and the self-transparent subject – conditions the learning processes of vulnerable unemployed individuals in ways that lead to blockages of experience, differentiated forms of self-alienation and defensive, self-preserving psychodynamics: hence, constituting challenges to learning, solidarity and self-realisation while acting as a catalyst for a reproducing subjective embodiment of societal processes relating to the depoliticisation of work.

Danish translation, cultural adaptation and initial validation of the Self-Assessment of modes questionnaire (D-SAMQ)

Background The Self-Assessment of Modes Questionnaire (SAMQ) was developed for occupational therapists (OTs) to identify their therapeutic style when interacting with clients. To provide Danish Occupational Therapists (OTs) with access to the SAMQ, a rigorous translation, cultural adaptation and validation are required. Aim To describe the process of translating and culturally adapting the SAMQ into Danish (D-SAMQ) and examining initial validation of the SAMQ in terms of relevance and comprehensiveness in a Danish context. Material and methods A 10-step process for translation and cultural adaptation was followed: (1) Preparation, (2) Forward translation, (3) Reconciliation, (4) Back translation, (5) Back-translation review, (6) Harmonization, (7) Cognitive debriefing, (8) Review of cognitive debriefing results and finalization, (9) Proofreading and (10) Final report. The cognitive debriefing also involved validation. Results Seven OTs and one OT student were included in the cognitive debriefing. Adaptations were made in eight of twenty cases, and modifications regarding the choice of words, sentence structure, and rephrasing were performed. The participants suggested more contextual details in the case descriptions. Conclusion The SAMQ was translated into Danish (D-SAMQ) and adapted and validated by Danish OTs. The D-SAMQ may enable OTs to identify their therapeutic style, and thereby improve the client–therapist relationship.

Socioeconomic Status Gradients in Young Children's Well-Being at School.

This study examines the socioeconomic status gradients in children's well-being at school using data on the total population of Danish public school children age 6-11 (N=147,994). Children completed the national well-being at school survey, an environment-specific self-report of satisfaction with school, social well-being at school, and psychological well-being at school. Data were linked with administrative register data on family characteristics. Regression analysis was used to estimate gradients by parental education and income for each of the three dimensions of well-being at school. Findings indicated that even in the relatively equal Danish context, children from more educated and higher-income families experienced greater satisfaction with school and higher social and psychological well-being at school than their less advantaged peers.

The adaptation of MAIN to Danish


 
 
 This paper describes the process of adapting the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS-MAIN) to Danish and the use of MAIN in a Danish context. First, there is a brief description of the Danish language followed by details of the process of translating and adapting the MAIN manual to Danish. Finally, we briefly describe some of the research contexts in which the current and previous MAIN materials have been piloted and applied.
 
 

Palliative care needs experienced by Danish patients with end-stage kidney disease.

Patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) may have palliative care needs. A tool validated in a Danish context to identify such needs is lacking. The Integrated Palliative Outcome Scale-Renal (IPOS-Renal) aims to identify patients' palliative care needs. The current study is the first phase of a research project translating and validating the IPOS-Renal into Danish. To investigate palliative care needs among Danish patients with ESKD. A literature review was conducted using meta-ethnography inspired by Noblit and Hare. A focus group with health care professionals (HCPs) and semi-structured individual patient interviews were conducted and analysed using Malterud's principles of systematic text condensation. A synthesis of 15 studies, a focus group with 13 HCPs, and interviews with nine patients were conducted. We found that patients with ESKD experienced several symptoms related to physical, social, mental and existential and practical needs. The most prominent findings were fatigue, reduced physical functioning, dizziness, impaired memory, dependency on relatives or HCPs, social isolation and loss of identity. The palliative care needs identified in the Danish patient population are substantiated by the IPOS-Renal questionnaire. However, some Danish patients also appear to struggle with dizziness and impaired memory. These symptoms do not appear specifically in the IPOS-Renal questionnaire but may have to be included in a Danish version.