Annika Andersson and Berner Lindström
This study aims to investigate how boundary work is carried out at the incident site during exercises with police, ambulance and rescue services, and how boundary awareness is…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how boundary work is carried out at the incident site during exercises with police, ambulance and rescue services, and how boundary awareness is developed based on this boundary work. Collaboration in emergency work is challenging on many levels. The unforeseen and temporary nature of incidents presents basic challenges. Another important challenge is boundaries between specialised and autonomous emergency service organisations. Knowledge on how exercises are performed to increase the individuals' and organisations' preparedness for future joint-response work is relatively limited.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirically, full-scale exercises involving police, ambulance and rescue services and with repetition of practical scenarios and joint-reflection seminars are studied. Interview data with 26 exercise participants were analysed using thematic analysis. The analytic focus is on how boundaries are identified, negotiated and managed in the participants’ work.
Findings
Much of the work in the exercises was performed within distinct areas of expertise, in accordance with concrete routines, skills and responsibilities. Boundary work was often organised in the form of distribution of labour or creating chains of actions. The exercises shed light on challenges related to other aspects of emergency response, such as a lack of resources, diverging primary responsibilities, time-criticality and hazardous environments. The design allowed participants to explicate boundaries, to test and discuss alternative solutions and to visualise the effects of different solutions, as the scenarios were repeated.
Originality/value
The study found that the boundaries that were identified were often of institutional character, and were also related to the specific scenarios and to the actions taken in the activities. By integrating real-life experiences of collaborative work in the exercise, the exercise gained a certain meaning that was essential for the participants to develop boundary awareness.
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Anne Algers, Berner Lindström and Lars Svensson
More collaborative and open learning models are suggested as part of the paradigm shift in the way knowledge is produced, distributed, and used. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
More collaborative and open learning models are suggested as part of the paradigm shift in the way knowledge is produced, distributed, and used. The purpose of this paper is to explore a work-based learning (WBL) model, based on systemic negotiations between actors from the three parties: the academy, the industry, and the students. The purpose is to investigate how teachers, supervisors, and students value negotiated WBL as a boundary activity and to enhance the understanding of the learning potential at the boundary.
Design/methodology/approach
Activity theory is used as a lens to analyse the results from a survey to the three stakeholder groups and interviews of students. The four learning mechanisms are used to explore learning at the boundary between the two activity systems.
Findings
Diversity and mobility in education and work addressed by the notion of boundary crossing are associated with both challenges and a learning potential. There is a constant dynamic between structure and agency, where structure, the negotiated model, influence the individual agency. When gradually removing scaffolding students can as boundary crossers engage behaviourally, emotionally, and cognitively and have agency to handle contradictions at a local level. However, they did not seem to prioritise both systems equally but instead they were gradually socialised into the activity system of the industry.
Originality/value
When WBL is framed by a negotiated partnership it can manage and customise inherent conflicts of interest and enhance individual learning opportunities at the boundary and can be conceptualised as an open learning practice.
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This paper aims to construct a model explaining migrant health and well-being from a salutogenic perspective. Accounting for the relational, interactional factors impacting on the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to construct a model explaining migrant health and well-being from a salutogenic perspective. Accounting for the relational, interactional factors impacting on the health of forced migrants, the “Relational Model of Sense of Coherence” combines elements from Antonovsky’s theory of salutogenesis with elements from Honneth’s theory of recognition.
Design/methodology/approach
The model has been developed from the empirical findings of a two-year qualitative study with 28 forced migrants in Austria. Besides initial and final surveys on the participants’ perception of health, health literacy and participation, data were gathered in a qualitative, participatory action research setting and analysed by the method of interpretative case reconstruction. The model is applied to the case reconstruction of a female refugee from Iraq explaining the dimensions impacting on her self-perceived status of health and well-being.
Findings
Next to consistency/comprehensibility and load balance/manageability persons need to experience participation/controllability as well as relatedness/self-confidence, recognition of rights/self-respect and social recognition/self-esteem to develop and/or maintain a strong, relational sense of coherence. All six dimensions contribute to feelings of meaningfulness; all components are necessary for a move towards the healthy end of the health-ease/dis-ease continuum.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to theory building in the fields of salutogenesis and recognition by developing a model based on an in-depth, participatory qualitative study with a vulnerable target group.
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Markus Weninger, Gerald Ortner, Tobias Hahn, Olaf Drümmer and Klaus Miesenberger
– The purpose of this paper is to enhance accessibility of graphical information in particular for blind and visually handicapped people.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to enhance accessibility of graphical information in particular for blind and visually handicapped people.
Design/methodology/approach
Prototype development based on an intense analysis of the state of the art and potential technologies with later on heuristic analysis of different approaches to enrich graphical information for better accessibility.
Findings
A novel approach to enhance accessibility named “Intention Tree” for enhancing accessibility. It allows integrating descriptive and navigation information into standard Scalable Vector Graphics and also mechanisms to analyse and aggregate data.
Research limitations/implications
The approach promises interesting new tools for better accessing and navigating graphical information with potential not only for blind and visually handicapped people.
Practical implications
Design prototype for further development.
Social implications
Potential for better social inclusion and participation.
Originality/value
This paper presents a novel and new approach for enhanced accessibility and usability and a new technique for authoring graphical information.
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Observes that the future of mobile communication networks lies not only in how successful people are in deploying technologies (2.5G or 3G with a high degree of coverage and…
Abstract
Observes that the future of mobile communication networks lies not only in how successful people are in deploying technologies (2.5G or 3G with a high degree of coverage and roaming between operators), but also in how well people can create a functioning environment and usage situation for end‐users in which they can get a homogeneous and continuous usage experience, despite the very heterogeneous world in which they, after all, will live. Concepts are advanced that support this observation (network independence, UI/device flexibility, and user experience continuity), and a possible solution is proposed that would take people in that direction (the personal server).