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The purpose of this paper is to reflect on carers’ experiences of being involved in the development of a web-based support programme for carers of people with heart failure (CPwHF), and discuss the challenges related to their involvement in the development process. The focus was on the different phases in the project as well as the methodological challenges and opportunities that occurred in the user group sessions conducted.

This research adopt an explorative design studying a co-design process to develop an information and communication technology based support programme for and with CPwHF. Habermas’ concepts of lifeworld and system are used as a theoretical framework to analyse the co-design process employed in the study.

Reflecting on the co-design approach adopted, the findings highlight the methodological challenges that arise with carer involvement and the possible tensions that occur between researchers’ ambitions to include users in the design process, and the goal of developing a product or service, in the different phases of the design process.

Findings highlight that there is a tension between the system and lifeworld in the co-design process which are not totally compatible. The paper highlights that there is a need to develop flexible and reflexive human-centred design methodologies, able to meet carers’ needs and ideas, and at the same time balance this with proposed research outcomes.

In Sweden, the care of older people and people with disabilities is increasingly carried out by informal carers, often family members, who are unpaid and outside a professional or formal framework. While there is an increasing awareness of the role of carers within service systems and their own needs for support, their involvement in research is underexplored. The purpose of this paper is to explore carers’ views and experiences of involvement in research and development (R&D) work.

A qualitative study was conducted, consisting of 12 individual interviews with carers from different local Swedish carer organizations.

Core findings included carers’ discussions of the perceived challenges and benefits of their involvement in research, both generally and more specifically, in the context of their involvement in the development of a national carer strategy.

Limitations included the relative lack of male carer participants and the convenience sample.

Authentic carer involvement in research demands a high level of engagement from researchers during the entire research process. The provided CRAC framework, with reference to the themes community, reciprocity, advocacy and circumstantiality, may help researchers to understand and interpret carer involvement in research and provide the prerequisites for their involvement.

There is a dearth of studies that systematically examine carer involvement in research. This paper attempts to redress this gap by providing a nuanced analysis of carer involvement in R&D work from the perspective of carers themselves.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the complexity surrounding the implementation of advanced electronic tracking, communication and emergency response technologies, namely, an extended safety and support (ESS) system for people with dementia (pwd) living at home. Results are presented from a Swedish demonstration study (2011-2012) conducted in 24 municipalities.

It is a descriptive intervention study with a pre-post test design. Questionnaires were administered to pwd, carers and professionals at the outset and eight months later. ESS logging data were analyzed.

ESS usage rates varied widely. A total of 650 alerts were triggered, mainly when the pwd was outdoors. Activities were reduced amongst pwd, most likely due to a progression of their disease. Carers noted that pwd were more independent than previously on those occasions when they engaged in outdoor activities. Staff considered that nearly half of pwd could remain living at home due to the ESS, compared with a third amongst carers. In total, 50 per cent of carers felt it was justified to equip their relative with an ESS without their explicit consent, compared to one in eight staff.

A limitation is the amount of missing data and high drop- out rates. Researchers should recruit pwd earlier in their illness trajectory. A mixed-methods approach to data collection is advisable.

Carers played a crucial role in the adoption of ESS. Staff training/supervision about assistive devices and services is recommended.

Overall, use of ESS for pwd living at home was not an ethical problem.

The study included key stakeholder groups and a detailed ethical analysis was conducted.

This article outlines a model for gauging the quality of a partnership approach to research that was developed for use in a Research Centre in West Sweden. The Äldre Väst Sjuhärad Centre has as its main goal the promotion of partnerships between older people and their families, service providers and researchers. In pursuing these goals the Centre adopts a broadly‐constructivist approach to undertaking research that is ‘authentic’ and meaningful to those who take part. In order to make judgements about the quality of its activity the Centre has adapted the authenticity criteria originally suggested by Guba and Lincoln (1989), so that they are more readily understood by older people, carers and service providers. These criteria can be applied at all stages of research activity, and it is suggested here that they can be utilised more widely in order to make inferences about the effects of partnership working in other contexts.

This article describes the aims and philosophy of a research centre focusing on the needs of older people and their family carers in West Sweden (ÄldreVäst Sjuhärad). The Centre aims to promote partnerships between older people, their carers and service agencies in order to improve the quality of life and quality of care. In achieving this aim it has adopted a model of working based on principles taken from a constructivist approach to research and evaluation. The quality or ‘authenticity’ criteria of this approach underpin the Centre's modus operandi and, it is suggested, could from the basis of a more user‐friendly perspective on research.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the development of the quality movement in Sweden since the mid-20th century. The authors are convinced that a summary of the Swedish quality journey so far will offer important lessons for further quality improvements in Sweden and elsewhere.

The authors study how the quality movement has been included in the industrial agenda and how it has been adopted in student curricula and in research. The authors have a focus on how business leaders have learnt, adopted, adapted and innovated with respect to quality development. often in collaboration with academia.

Although the quality movement has fit well with the Swedish culture and that successful corporate leaders have successfully used the specific cultural characteristics there is still a lot to be learnt with respect to the public sector, where the ideas from the quality movement have problem to overcome institutional barriers.

The study is limited to the Swedish context.

There is a serious need to revitalize the public sector by getting leaders and politicians to understand the need for systematic quality improvement.

If future Swedish achievements with respect to healthcare and other social welfare elements are to once again become world-class, the public sector needs to be open-minded and collaborate with the industrial sector and academia to find cost-effective strategies for making quality improvements. However, the private sector must also be alert not to be overtaken by some highly active Asian countries.

Swedish large companies have been very successful in applying quality leadership – however, in the public sector, this has not been the case. Suggestions for improvement are made.

The digitalization of schools has intensified in recent years. It is reflected in policy documents as well as in extensive investments in digital technology and professional development initiatives to promote digitalization. At the same time, attempts are being made to “tame” the same digitization sometimes by regulations banning smartphones in class. This study aims to examine how smartphones are interpreted by vocational teachers in Sweden using the theoretical lens of technological frames.

The data consist of ten semi-structured interviews with vocational teachers, representing eight vocational programs in Sweden.

The results show breadth in how teachers understand, interpret and relate to the smartphone in vocational education. The authors show how the smartphone often forms an integral part of professional work and is thus difficult to separate from vocational teaching and nurturing vocational competencies.

The authors’ contributions include using technological frames to explore how smartphones are interpreted and understood by vocational teachers by demonstrating how they relate to the nature of the smartphone, the strategy for the smartphone and the smartphone in use. The theoretical framework is used to interpret restrictions on technology use, in this case a smartphone, in education. The results could be of interest to researchers as well as to teachers, school leaders and policymakers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evidence for a positive correlation between increased consumption of organic products and potential climate change mitigation via decreased consumption of meat and it is discussed to what extent organic consumption is motivated by climate change concerns.

A fixed effects model together with a factor analysis and ordinary least square are used to analyse household purchase data for 2,000 households in 2006-2010 combined with survey questionnaire data from 2008.

A small but statistically significant correlation between increasing organic budget shares and decreasing meat budget shares is found. People include food-related behaviour such as the purchase of organic food and reduced meat consumption as ways to mitigate climate change. However, other behavioural modifications such as reduction of car usage and household heating are perceived as more important strategies.

Other food-related mitigation strategies could be investigated. The climate effect of different diets – and how to motivate consumers to pursue them – could be investigated. Individual as opposed to household data would supplement the analyses.

Demand-side policies aiming at climate-friendly consumption could be a central factor in combating climate change. Already, food-related mitigation strategies such as lowered meat consumption are established practices among a group of organic consumers. As some consumers believe that climate change can be mitigated by consuming organic food, the authors propose that this is taken into account in the development of organic farming.

The authors propose a shift from analysing the climate-friendliness of production to addressing the climate-friendliness of consumption using consumption of organic food as a case. The authors link stated concerns for climate changes with actual food-related behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a reflective account of the emergence of new marketing theory as seen through the lens of the Nordic School of Service.

The paper is based on documents and the authors' self‐lived history and current involvement (“management action research”).

Northern European scholars, especially from Finland and Sweden, have felt free to design their own theory, at the same time collaborating internationally. Contributions include an early alert to services and business‐to‐business (B2B) marketing being neglected; dissatisfaction with service quality; that the service economy is more than the service sector; and the insight that relationship marketing and many‐to‐many network marketing better represent service reality. A novel service logic abandoning the divisive goods/services, B2B/B2C (business‐to‐consumer), and supplier/customer categories, based on commonalities and interdependencies is arriving. Nordic School methodology is characterised by induction, case study research, and theory generation, to better address complexity and ambiguity in favour of validity and relevance. In the 2000s, the synthesis provided by service‐dominant (S‐D) logic, IBM's service science, and network and systems theory have inspired a lively international dialogue.

The hegemony of the marketing management of mass‐manufactured consumer goods was challenged when services entered the marketing agenda in the 1970s. During the 1980s and 1990s the differences been goods marketing and service marketing were explored and the understanding for relationships, networks and interaction developed. It gradually laid the ground for the integrated goods/services approach that is now the major challenge for service researchers and practitioners alike.

It is unfortunate if developments of marketing in the USA are perceived as a universal standard for marketing. By studying contributions from many cultures and nations in other countries the paper enhances the understanding of the diversity of marketing. This article presents such a case from Northern Europe.

In the present discourse of university politics, collegiality has come to be viewed as a slow force – seemingly inefficient and conservative compared to popular management models. Concerns have thus been raised regarding the future prospects of such a form of governance in a society marked by haste and acceleration. One way to bring perspectives on this contentious issue is to perceive it in the light of the long history of the university. In this article, I derive insights about the shifting state of collegial governance through a survey of an intense period of reforms in Sweden c. 1850–1920 when higher education was allegedly engaged in a process of modernization and professionalization. Drawing on recent work in historical theory and science and technology studies (STS), I revisit contests and debates on collegiality in connection to a number of governmental commissions. Focusing on the co-existence – and collisions – of multiple temporalities reveals that overcoming potential problems associated with heterogeneous rhythms required an active work of synchronization by universities in order to make them appear timely, as higher education expanded along with the mounting ambitions of national politics, focused on centralization, efficiency, and rationalization. The analysis is structured around three focal issues for which collegial ideals and practices, including their temporal characteristics, were particularly questioned: (a) the composition of the university board, (b) the employment status of professors, and (c) hiring or promotion practices. Pointing at more structural challenges, this study highlights how collegiality requires a constant maintenance paired with an awareness of its longer and complex history.