Karlstad University Research Articles

Determining the Most Consensus-Based Assessment Method for Social Sustainability—Case Study of a Suburb of Karlstad, Sweden

An assessment method for sustainability was developed by the authors in a previous article. Many social sustainability assessment methods rely on assessors’ subjective judgments, which can be problematic. This study aims to examine the level of consensus different assessors can achieve using various assessment methods and to compare their results with an assessment made by one of the authors, to reduce subjectivity. A selective sample of engineering students from Karlstad University were surveyed to test and compare three as-assessment methods against the initial assessment. The three methods are: Woxnerud’s (the authors’) method, Jan Gehl’s twelve quality criteria, and a structured survey. Seven student groups conducted the first assessment, followed by 12 individual students who performed the second and third assessments. The objectives were to determine whether multiple assessors could reach a consensus using each method, identify which method yielded the most consensus and was most effectively implemented, and measure each method’s consonance rate in relation to Woxnerud’s initial assessment. The first method achieved a 75.0% assessor consensus and 98.4% consonance. The second method achieved a 67.0% assessor consensus and 75.0% consonance. The third method achieved a 50% assessor consensus and 91.0% consonance. This limited study suggests that a subjective method, such as an assessment method for social sustainability, can yield somewhat similar results, and in addition, Woxnerud’s method is more objectively applicable than the two other methods tested in this article.

Is there something that connects the diversity of historical narratives?

The interview with Kenneth Nordgren from Karlstad University, Sweden, addresses key questions about transcultural dialogue, the role of historical thinking, and the challenges of teaching history. The starting point is the question of how transcultural dialogue and historical thinking have changed in recent years from the perspective of the interviewee. The interview also discusses how transcultural academic exchange can be promoted, taking into account different educational contexts and social values. It further considers how to ensure that the academic debate is not dominated only by socially or economically privileged groups. Other topics include the role of digitalisation and online communities in history education, and the benefits of cross-disciplinary approaches. The extent to which current global challenges such as pandemics, wars and climate change underline the need for increased transcultural exchange in history education will also be addressed.

First-line managers´ perceptions of missed nursing care in community health care for older people-A phenomenographic study.

First-line managers in Swedish communities have responsibility for that care to older people is provided, staffing is sufficient and the budget is balanced in their unit. It is a struggle with limited resources due to a growing population in need of care. This can lead to missed nursing care. The aim was to describe first-line managers´ perceptions of missed nursing care in community health care for older people. A qualitative design with a phenomenographic approach, interviewing 24 first-line managers. Ethics approval for the study was received from the Research Ethics Committee at Karlstad University (Dnr HNT 2020/566). The results are shown in six descriptive categories containing 15 perceptions. The descriptive categories are 'occurrence of missed nursing care', 'becoming aware of missed nursing care', 'reasons for missed nursing care', 'missed nursing care has consequences for the older persons', 'missed nursing care has consequences for the staff' and 'taking action to decrease missed nursing care'. It is important for first-line managers to become aware of the existence and reasons for missed nursing, as it has consequences for older people and staff. Managers need to take missed nursing care seriously in order to work with improvements for maintaining good quality of care and patient safety.

Paper Bags vis-à-vis LDPE Bags: Gleanings from Peer-reviewed E-LCA Publications

Fossil-plastics or paper? Or for that matter, bio-plastics and paper? This is a well-entrenched question in academic research, industrial, social and policy-making circles. As environmental life-cycle analyses (or more appropriately, sustainability analyses) show time and again, no single product or process or mode of operation is a ‘total villain’. There are goods and bads, and at times, more of the one than the other. This paper, which is based on a course-report written by the first author at Karlstad University (Sweden), restricts itself to a review of publications which have opted to compare paper bags with low density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic bags, on the basis of their environmental impacts. Environmental impact categories include the global warming potential, energy demand, fossil fuel depletion, water usage, acidification, eutrophication, and a range of toxicities – human, terrestrial, freshwater-aquatic and marine-aquatic. The articles were obtained through Google Scholar, read and reviewed to glean the results presented therein. The ‘What’, ‘How’ and ‘Where’, so to say were studied carefully to understand the reasons behind any differences or similarities detected. On the basis of this focused review, even though no new knowledge is being added, the common belief that the paper bag is environmentally superior to the LDPE alternative is further consolidated. However, if one focuses on water usage and would assign a high weightage to that environmental impact, LDPE perhaps may score a few ‘brownie points’ over paper. One must also not forget that plastics (LDPE in this instance) can be recycled without significant deterioration in its functional properties. In a circular economy (the bioeconomy part of which gradually will expand over time), while introducing more and more bio-based products into the technosphere by way of trans-materialization is recommended, plastics will still continue to exist – albeit in much smaller amounts – and it would be perfectly fine if the degree of recycling is augmented significantly. Speaking of a holistic sustainability analysis, the socio-economic aspects of a choice between LDPE and paper bags must also be factored in, and studied. Much-desired change happens when the top-down meets the bottom-up somewhere midway.

Narrative Didactics in Mathematics Education: Results from a University Geometry Course

Abstract In a Swedish second semester course on Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry in mathematics education at Karlstad University, a bridging teaching strategy comprising elements from Mathematics, Didactics, History, Literature, and Technology was applied by using the concept of Narrative Didactics and Digital Interactive Mathematical Maps developed by the Professorship for Didactics of Mathematics at the University of Passau, Germany. The complete assessment of the teaching strategy comprised both an evaluation of the technological and the narrative didactical scaffolding and was partly analysed previously concerning especially the technology acceptance aspect, while here we broaden and deepen the evaluation analysis of the application of narrative didactic elements. Regarding the latter, at the end of the course, students were asked to formulate a short historical-oriented narrative motivation for a school topic of own choice with the help of information provided by the timeline of the Mathematical Map. A representative example of these art-combining products is presented and evaluated according to elements of narrative didactics. Results indicate a fruitful, promising, and synergetic connection between different fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics that can lead to a richer and more sustainable learning process in mathematics lessons both at university and school level.

Primary healthcare professionals' experience with patient participation in healthcare service development: A qualitative study.

How healthcare professionals experience patient participation in health service development impacts its use. This participatory study explores primary healthcare professionals' perceptions of developing health services with patient representatives. Four focus group interviews with primary healthcare professionals (n = 26) were conducted. We analyzed data by applying Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis. The healthcare professionals perceived having a complementary interprofessional relationship with the patient representatives and regarded them as colleagues. However, the professionals navigated between a position of authority and collaboration, reconciling the need for participation with its challenges, e.g., to identify the representatives' collective representation among their personal experience, to ensure a more evidence-informed result that they and their colleagues would endorse. Regarding patient representatives as colleagues can blur the line between professionals and representatives' positions and functions and further complicate health service development. Our results indicate a need for skilled facilitators to lead the process. This study identifies issues that professionals are uncertain about when collaborating with representatives to develop primary healthcare services; difficulties that professionals must overcome to collaborate constructively with representatives. Our findings can inform healthcare professionals' education about patient participation on all levels. We have suggested topics to address.

Experiences of the clinical learning environment in peer learning: A mixed method study from bachelor students’ and main preceptors’ perspectives

There is a lack of clinical placements for bachelor nursing students (BNS). Due to this, stringent educational models for clinical practice need to be developed. The aim was to describe bachelor nursing students’ and main preceptors’ experiences of the clinical learning environment during peer learning. This mixed method study was based on a joint project between the Karlstad University and the Region Värmland, Sweden, where peer learning was launched in two geriatric clinical education wards. A total of 23 bachelor nursing student and four main preceptors participated. The data were collected in parallel, qualitative data through focus group interviews and reflective journals, and quantitative data with the CLES + T scale between November 2017 and February 2018. A directed content analysis of all results was performed. The COREQ Checklist was used. The student–patient and the student–main preceptor relationships were important for the students’ development. The students described the educational atmosphere as comfortable and safe and that the staff were knowledgeable about them. Peer learning with close interaction between patients and all staff can create authenticity, which in turn drives the BNSs’ professional development. All staff should be involved in the supervision of the students and include them as members of the nursing team.

Serving library users during a pandemic: the case of Karlstad University Library, Sweden

During March 2020, all Swedish universities moved their teaching to an online environment due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Karlstad University Library in Sweden made a number of changes in order to reduce the spread of infection while at the same time maintaining a high level of library services to its users. Opening hours were drastically reduced. All study spaces were closed. Most of the staff were working from home. A new virtual reference desk via Zoom was launched to increase the library office hours. Since things happened fast, the internal staff training was done while at the same time providing the new reference service to the users. Some initial mistakes were made but in general, this ‘learn-as-you-go method’ worked surprisingly well.

Editor's Introduction

I am pleased to introduce the penultimate entry in our series of four issues featuring “Screen Shots” curated by a multidisciplinary group of guest editors. Each of these special sections has taken up a vital line of inquiry. The first focused on “Screening Indigenous Bodies” (4.1) and was followed by our issue on “Screening Surveillance” (4.2). In the current “Screen Shot,” edited by Wibke Straube of the Centre for Gender Studies, Karlstad University, our authors address the critically relevant topic of “Screening Non-Binary and Trans Bodies.” As Dr. Straube has offered introductory remarks on this section, I will limit my comments to the three general articles in this issue.

Retraction

Rendel F, Alfredsson CF, Bornehag CG, Sundström BE, Nånberg E. Effects of Di‐isononyl Phthalate on Neuropeptide Y Expression in Differentiating Human Neuronal Cells, Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology 2017, Mar;120(3):318–323 (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bcpt.12670).The above article, published online on 13 September 2016 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editor in Chief, Kim Brøsen, the Nordic Association for the Publication of BCPT and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed following an investigation into the accuracy of the data acquisition conducted by Karlstad University into the accuracy of the data acquisition, which concluded that manipulation had taken place during tests performed on an ELISA equipment in order to achieve a preferred result.

Kvalitetsutveckling av digitala trepartssamtal i svensk yrkeslärarutbildning

This article describes the developmental work of feedback for students during their practicum periods at the vocational teacher education programme at Karlstad University. The vocational teacher education programme is based on distance studies which implies that the students can be spread all over the country. Although the students participate in some campus meetings, the university teachers are not able to visit students during their practicum periods of the programme. A digital conference tool, Adobe Connect, is therefore used for communication with the students and their supervisors in practicum. This article describes the developmental work of using the digital conference tool, which includes a filmed sequence of the student’s teaching. The filmed sequences are later shared and discussed in a group of fellow students and a teacher. The article also describes how a model inspired by the research-based Plato manual of discussing these teaching sequences is taking form. The intention of using this model is to proceed towards a joint research-based approach among the colleagues, and in this way improve the feedback to students regarding teaching strategies and instruction.

Epistemology, Activism, and Entanglement - Rethinking Knowledge Production

Nina Lykke is Professor Emerita at the Unit of Gender Studies, Linköping University, Sweden.She has been an engaged feminist researcher, educator, and activist since the 1970s, duringwhich time she has developed important critiques of epistemologies in science and technology.She has covered topics as diverse as the space race, reproductive technologies, cancer, and death.Lykke has published widely in both Scandinavia and internationally within the field of feministcultural studies of technoscience. Her most well-known publications within the area include themonographies Cosmodolphins (2000) co-authored with Mette Bryld, and Kønsforskning (2008)(in Engl: Feminist Studies (2010)), as well as the edited volumes Between Monsters, Goddessesand Cyborgs (1996) co-edited with Rosi Braidotti, Bits of Life (2008) with Anneke Smelik, andAssisted Reproduction Across Borders (2017) with Merete Lie. She has been pivotal in establishingthe Unit of Gender Studies at Linköping University, with which she has been affiliated sincethe unit’s inauguration in 1999. She has played a major role in the development of the PhDprogramme in interdisciplinary gender studies at Linköping University, which has a strong profilewithin feminist STS. In 2007, she started the Center of Gender Excellence GEXcel, initiallyfunded by The Swedish Research Council, Vetenskapsrådet, and later by the participating Universities,Linköping University, Örebro University, and Karlstad University, Sweden. She has alsobeen the director of the Nordic Research School in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies 2004-2009,and from 2008-2017 she was the director of InterGender, the Swedish-International ResearchSchool in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies. We met with Nina Lykke in Copenhagen, in orderto let her unfold how her own interest in Feminist STS/Feminist Technoscience Studiesemerged, and how she has put feminist cultural studies of technoscience to work from the1980’s until today, through research, teaching, and activism.

A Fierce Green Fire: Aldo Leopold’s Life and Legacy. New Edition. By Marybeth Lorbiecki. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. $29.95 (paper). xxii + 377 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-19-996503-8. 2016.

<i>A Fierce Green Fire: Aldo Leopold’s Life and Legacy</i>. New Edition. By Marybeth Lorbiecki. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. $29.95 (paper). xxii + 377 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-19-996503-8. 2016.

Affect at the different phases of cognitive behavioral therapy: An evaluation of psychotherapy provided by candidates

The purpose of this study was to investigate the affect, as measured by “Positive and Negative Affect Schedule” (PANAS), its influence on psychopathology, and to examine the effect of changing affect during cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The study was carried out at the psychotherapy training center, Karlstad University. The hypothesis was whether clients with mental disorders have a self‐destructive affective personality (low PA and high NA) and healthy individuals have a self‐actualizing personality (high PA and low NA). Thirty‐two healthy participants and 44 clients participated in the study. The clients were asked to fill in the PANAS once throughout CBT, either during evaluation, treatment or finishing phase, accordingly there were three different groups at different therapy phases. The healthy subjects were also asked to fill in the self‐report scale once. The comparison of the three phases of therapy and the four affective personality types showed a significant difference between the phases of therapy and the four affective personality types: totally 16 (of 22) and eight (of nine) clients measured at the evaluation and treatment phases, respectively, had a self‐destructive personality. However, at the end of therapy five (of 13) clients had a self‐actualizing personality characteristics, while only three of them were self‐destructive. Furthermore, the results indicate that affective personality does not seem to be a basic and stable personality trait, which could be altered by therapy. The affections measured by PANAS may be influenced by psychopathology and CBT, when conducted by candidate therapists it can be effective in terms of affect changes.

Delivering smart specialization in peripheral regions: the role of Universities

Successful mobilization of the resources of universities can have a positive effect on regional economies; even more so in peripheral regions. The role of universities in regional development, innovation and growth comes into even sharper focus with the emergence of ‘smart specialization’ strategies, an ex-ante conditionality for accessing European Structural Funds from 2014. However, partnerships between universities and regions can fail to achieve their early ambitions, often due to a lack of understanding of each side’s drivers and barriers for cooperation. The collaboration between Region Värmland and Karlstad University in Sweden demonstrates a systemic and broad-based view of innovation that fits well within the policy framework of European and national innovation strategies. While recognizing the complexities and tensions inherent in such collaborations, this case study provides valuable insights for other European universities, regions and policy-makers in peripheral places that are seeking to work more closely to support smart specialization.

Student nurses' experiences of undignified caring in perioperative practice - Part II.

In recent years, operating theatre nurse students' education focused on ethics, basic values and protecting and promoting the patients' dignity in perioperative practice. Health professionals are frequently confronted with ethical issues that can impact on patient's care during surgery. The objective of this study was to present what operating theatre nursing students perceived and interpreted as undignified caring in perioperative practice. The study has a descriptive design with a hermeneutic approach. Data were collected using Flanagan's critical incident technique. Operating theatre nurse students from Sweden and Norway participated and collected data in 2011, after education in ethics and dignity. Data consisting of 47 written stories and the text were analysed with hermeneutical text interpretation. The study was approved by the Karlstad University's Research Ethics Committee. The findings show careless behaviour and humiliating actions among health professionals. Health professionals commit careless acts by rendering the patient invisible, ignoring the patient's worry and pain and treating the patient as an object. They also humiliate the patient when speaking in negative terms about the patient's body, and certain health professionals blame the patients for the situation they are in. Health professionals lack the willingness and courage to protect the patient's dignity in perioperative practice. In the discussion, we have illuminated how professional ethics may be threatened by more pragmatic and utilitarian arguments contained in regulations and transplant act. The findings reveal that patients were exposed to unnecessary suffering; furthermore, the operating theatre nurse students suffered an inner ethical conflict due to the undignified caring situations they had witnessed.

The Discourse of Place and Contact: Swedish Pioneers and Native Americans in the Smoky Valley

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size AcknowledgementsFunding from the Department of English and from the Faculty of Languages at Uppsala University supported my research on this topic. I am indebted to Dag Blanck, Gunlög Fur, and Harald Runblom for comments that prompted me to look at contact narratives from the Smoky Valley. Preliminary versions of this paper were presented to the Nordic Association of American Studies, Karlstad University, May 24–26, 2013; The Fourth Workshop on Heritage Languages in America, University of Iceland, September 19–21, 2013; the Twelfth Nordic Conference for English Studies, organized by the Nordic Association for English Studies, Uppsala University, October 10–13, 2013; and the Critical Discourse Workshop, Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University, June 9, 2014. I thank the audience members in those settings, as well as an anonymous reviewer, for their perceptive comments. My work on this paper has also benefitted at various stages from the expertise shared by Lars Åstrand, Åke Eriksson, Barbara Hoffman, Sharon Hoffman, Charlotte Jalkéus Anderson, Lenora Lynam, Anette Månsson, Lorna Nelson, and John Stratton. Any shortcomings in this paper, however, are my responsibility.

Introduction to JAME Special Issue on QUIS 13

We welcome you for the fourth time to a special issue on QUIS. Quis (Quality in Services) is an organization founded in 1988 by service researchers at Arizona State University, Karlstad University, and Warwick Business School who wanted to bring together the growing international community involved in studying services marketing and management. QUIS has grown over the years to now be considered as the world's leading biannual symposium on service research and brings together the best interdisciplinary academic research and management practice from around the world. This year's symposium, QUIS 13, drew more than 200 attendees from over 30 countries presenting 130 competitive papers. It was held in June, 2013 at Karlstad University which was also the site of the first QUIS conference in 1988.In this issue we again offer five of the best papers that we think will be of interest to our readers as management scholars. Emphasizing the world wide interest in services and the management of service organizations, these papers we selected are written by authors from six different nations, none of which is the United States. These show the importance and extent of the work being done outside the USA on services. The first two papers are focused on the increasing research interest in how manufacturing organizations are expanding their strategic focus to incorporate the service component of their product offerings. The first of these is "A Novel Categorization of Industrial Services- Analysis of Service Offerings of Manufacturing Companies" by Heini Lehtonen and Hanna Kostama of Aalto University's School of Science in Finland. This paper presents a managerially oriented, yet theory-based, industrial service classification that can be used as a practical tool for structuring, analyzing, comparing and communicating industrial service portfolios that the authors term COIN. The second paper on the topic of integrating services into a product organization's innovation strategy is "New Service Development in Manufacturing Firms: Do the Basic Rules Apply?" by Lars Witell, Linkoping University, Sweden, Bo Edvardsson, Karlstad University, Sweden, Thomas Meiren, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, Germany, Adrienne Schafer, University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland. The purpose of this paper is to test hypotheses about new service development (NSD) in manufacturing firms. This study investigated 785 NSD projects to learn the role of the NSD strategy, how to use resources, how to organize, and the development process to use. …

Book Review: Two on Development Communication Saving the World: A Brief History of Communication for Development and Social Change, by Emile G. McAnany and Communication, Media and Development: Problems and Perspectives, edited by Florencia Enghel and Karin Wilkins

Saving the World: A Brief of for Development and Social Change. Emile G. McAnany. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012. 208 pp. $47.95 hbk, $25 pbk.Communication, Media and Development: Problems and Perspectives. Florencia Enghel and Karin Wilkins, eds. Nordicom Review 33 (September 2012, special issue).The book and the special issue of Nordicom Review are paired here because, beyond the coinciding year of publication, they contribute the articulation of the expansion of the field of development communication at its intersection with media and social change. Saving the World offers a historical overview of the discipline, while Communication, Media and Development takes on recent case studies theorize about the present status of the field. The meeting of these two publications, at least in this review, should point the growth of the discipline.Both are well written and edited, and clearly organized. Saving the World, authored by Emile G. McAnany, the former Walter E. Schmidt Professor of at Santa Clara University, belongs the History of Communication series edited by Robert McChesney and John Nerone. It documents the history of communication's role in social change, ascertains the present moment in this context, and offers a scheme for judging the successes and failures of such projects. The editors of Communication, Media and Development are Florencia Enghel, PhD, candidate at Karlstad University, Sweden, and Karin Wilkins, professor at the University of Texas, Austin. The two assembled an impressive group of authors feature in the special issue, which is a collaboration between the peer-reviewed journal for media and com- munication researchers in the Nordic countries, Nordicom Review, and the Swedish web magazine Glocal Times.Drawing from the author's professional experience with communication for devel- opment and social change, Saving the World starts from Daniel Lerner's 1958 primer on modernization (which, interestingly, is only referenced once in the Nordicom Review collection). It then acknowledges the early names of the field and examines the conceptualization of the discourse on communication for development and the UN and UNESCO's institutional assumptions and beliefs carried into practice (p. 45). The book then moves through the 1970s and early 1980s dependency phase, initiated in academic discussions and (very) gradually translated into policy, the participatory paradigm traced Brazilian Paulo Freire and his 1968 Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and it ends with the most recent paradigm shift toward social entrepreneurship.The book chooses specific case studies illustrate the historical stages, including rural Indian radio; educational television in American Samoa, El Salvador, and Mexico; Tanzanian farm forums; Brazilian, Ecuadorian, and Canadian literacy and media participatory projects; and the model of social entrepreneurship in sites such as an Indonesian news agency, the Ugandan village phone project, Indian technology training, and the human rights advocacy group Witness.A notable shortcoming in McAnany's narrative is the absence of context prior Lerner's initial theorizing, and even prior President Truman's 1949 proclamation to help developing countries modernize, which the author arbitrarily takes as starting point for the historicizing of the new field (p. 13). The colonial past is ignored in the book, despite the wealth of scholarship in a variety of disciplines that has traced colonial thinking the present. …

Swedish nurses’ perceptions of influencers on patient advocacy

A limited number of studies have shown that patient advocacy can be influenced by both facilitators and barriers which can encourage and discourage nurses to act as patient advocates. This study's aim was to describe Swedish nurses' perceptions of influencers on patient advocacy. Interviews with 18 registered nurses from different Swedish clinical contexts were analysed using the phenomenographic method. Ethical revisions were made in accordance with national legislation and guidelines by committees for research ethics at Karlstad University. Three levels of hierarchically related influencers on patient advocacy were found in the descriptive categories. The fundamental influencer, the nurse's character traits, was described in the perceptions that advocacy is influenced by nurse's having a moral compass, having control over the care situation, being protective and feeling secure as a nurse. The second most vital influencer, the nurse's bond with the patient, was expressed in the perceptions of knowing the patient and feeling empathy for the patient. The third level of influencers, the organisational conditions, was described in the perceptions that the organisational structures and organisational culture influence patient advocacy. The results correspond with findings from earlier research but add an understanding that influencers on patient advocacy exist at three hierarchically related levels. The nurse's character traits are the fundamental influencer to patient advocacy, but in order to be comfortable and secure when advocating for patients, nurses also need to be familiar with both the patient and the situation. A supposition could be that all influencers interact, which needs to be further addressed in future studies.