Towards new work arrangements: The case of telecommuting

Telecommuting is an example of novel ways of organizing work now being implemented in technologically advanced nations. It is the major industrialized countries that have provided the circumstances and the incentives to experiment with new approaches. These approaches were created within, and co‐exist with these models of social organization. They also embrace some elements that undermine basic tenets of industrial models. Telecommuting is discussed below as an example of newly evolving work arrangements which illustrates the interplay of tensions between existing models of work organization and innovative ways of ordering tasks. This paper is based upon graduate research in Rural Extension. The conceptual framework was created by synthesizing material from interdisciplinary sources and primary data collection included in‐depth interviews with key informants engaged in telecommuting.     

Tensions of Accountability: Scientists,Technicians and the Ethical Life of Data Production in Astronomy

ABSTRACT

Laboratory ethnographies have emphasized the importance of trust and accountability among scientists and technicians when working in co-presence. But what happens to their relations when data production is outsourced, widely separating scientists and technicians? In contemporary astronomy, observing has largely become a service that observatory staff members do for researchers. This has increased the efficiency of telescope use while also resulting in arrangements prone to some researchers’ dissatisfaction and a raised visibility of technicians’ work. Attending ethnographically to situated evaluations reveals that some data-using researchers and data-producing technicians typify each other as moral figures: staff observers come to be seen as objects of blame and scientists as excessively demanding users. Wherever data travel, the quality and quantity of data can serve as ethical affordances for assigning blame to staff technicians. By contrast, the moral figure of the excessively demanding data user does not travel beyond the observatory, and the social accountability of interactions that visiting astronomers experience in the observatory’s control room is confined to its situated enactment. As scientist–technician interactions have become discontinuous and fraught, moral figures and ethical accounts thus travel unevenly in the landscape of data production, and the importance of social interactions remains often unrecognized.     

The Mutually Constitutive Relationship between Place and Identity: The Role of Place‐Identity in Discourse on Asylum Seekers and Refugees

Recent discursive research has shown that constructions of place may function to regulate social relations and reinforce particular notions of belonging. However, extant discursive research on place‐identity has so far neglected the mutually constitutive relationships between constructions of place and identity in legitimising people's presence. To address this gap, this study, undertaken in Scotland, applies the notion of place‐identity to the discursive analysis of interviews with asylum seekers and refugees, people who work in organisations that support asylum seekers and refugees and locals who live in areas where asylum seekers and refugees tend to be housed. The analysis suggests that constructions of asylum seekers’ and refugees’ countries of origin as dangerous, and the host society as relatively problem‐free, function to constitute their identities as legitimate and to justify their presence in the host society. Moreover, constructions of place may work to portray refugees and asylum seekers as benefiting the local community and as belonging more than certain other locals. In contrast, constructing the host society as ‘full’ functions to oppose their presence through portraying them as not being able to belong. This demonstrates the mutually constitutive roles of place and identity in legitimising or resisting people's movement and belonging. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

伏隔核和中脑腹侧被盖区内食欲素在吗啡奖赏中的作用

实验采用条件性位置偏爱（CPP）模型考察中脑腹侧被盖区（VTA）和伏隔核壳区（NAcSh）内食欲素（orexin）在吗啡奖赏中的作用。Wistar大鼠分为盐水训练组和吗啡训练组。3轮吗啡（或盐水）匹配训练前,双侧VTA或NAcSh内给予OXR1拮抗剂SB334867（VTA: 0, 1, 5μg;NAcSh: 0, 1, 3μg）;或2轮吗啡（或盐水）匹配训练前NAcSh内给予orexin A（0, 2, 4, 6μg）,观察其对吗啡CPP建立的影响。结果表明,VTA内给予SB334867抑制吗啡CPP建立,并存在剂量效应关系;NAcSh内给予SB334867或orexin A均未影响吗啡CPP建立,而orexin A可增加吗啡处理大鼠的运动性。以上结果表明,VTA和NAcSh内的orexin在吗啡奖赏中扮演的角色不同,可能调控成瘾行为的不同成分     

Local communities responding to ecological challenges—A psycho‐social approach to the Natura 2000 Network

The institutionalization of biodiversity conservation through legal instruments has led to mixed reactions at both the individual and community levels, with conflict and resistance co‐existing with support. The overall purpose of this paper is to describe how rural communities living in areas included in the Natura 2000 Network of protected sites, where local practices of land use are regulated by new legal directives, receive biodiversity conservation goals. Previous studies suggest that this reception is strongly shaped by place identification, but their contradictory results demand further clarification. This study examines the role of psycho‐social variables identified by previous studies as potentially relevant moderators of identification: (a) Vested interest in natural resources, (b) evaluation of the designation process of protected areas and (c) institutional trust. It further extends previous research by analysing the support given to contextually relevant ecological practices. Results reveal a positive link between place identification and attitudes in the high vested interest condition and show that support for conservation practices is better predicted in the high vested interest and low trust conditions. The discussion focuses on the relevance of analysing contextually relevant psycho‐social moderators when attempting to understand how local communities' relation with biodiversity conservation is affected by legislative innovation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Swedish Muslims and Secular Society: Faith-Based Engagement and Place

This article sets out to explore how Muslims in Sweden identify with and create social life in the place where they live, that is, in their neighbourhood, in their town/city and in Swedish society at large. In a paradoxical religious landscape that includes a strong Lutheran state church heritage and a Christian free-church tradition, in what is, nevertheless, a very secular society, Muslims may choose different strategies to express their faith, here roughly described as “retreatist,” “engaged” or “essentialist/antagonistic.” Focusing on a non-antagonistic, engaged stance, and drawing upon a combination of authors' interviews, and materials published in newspapers and on the Internet, we first bring to the fore arguments by Muslim leaders in favour of creating a Muslim identity with a Swedish brand, and second give some examples of local Muslim individuals, acting as everyday makers in their neighbourhood, town or city. Third, we also give attention to an aggressively negative Islamophobic stance expressed both in words and in physical violence in parts of Swedish society. In conclusion, we reflect upon the challenges and potentialities of an emotionally engaged, dialogue-orientated Muslim position facing antagonistic interpretations of Islam, and an ignorant, sometimes Islamophobic, environment.     

‘In Our Country it's Just Poor People who Ride a Bike’: Place,Displacement and Cycling in Australia

This study investigates relationships and characteristics of participation in cycling in Melbourne, Australia, as an expression of place and displacement among persons from culturally and linguistically diverse origins including Asia (i.e. Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Japan) and Arab Africa (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Eritrea and Sudan). Using a mixed‐method approach, results indicated that despite a significant number of migrants to Australia with origins in places where cycling is a common mode of transport and activity, a large number of newly arrived and marginalised migrants and refugees are less likely to engage in cycling. Cyclists' identity, citizenship, social‐economic marginalisation and residential geographic isolation significantly impacted on their cycling in Melbourne. Although cycling is considered accessible, environmentally friendly, healthy and functional, the results indicated that this view may only represent and be shared by selected citizens. In short, culturally and linguistically diverse participants identified cycling behaviour differently in Australia in comparison with cycling in their countries of origin. The results contribute to knowledge in highlighting the extent of displacement facing marginalised communities that evolves in everyday practices of local mobility. The study identified a number of paradoxes facing mainstream policy makers, researchers and cycling advocates who tend to take cycling participation for granted as non‐political and universal. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using a Compromise Programming Framework to Integrating Spatially Specific Preference Information for Forest Management Problems

The development of forest management plans is a multi‐criteria problem that usually involves multiple stakeholders. In forested recreational areas or natural parks, stakeholders could include government officials, forest companies and visitors to the area. With the progress of mobile phone technology, preference information (including aesthetic values) can be conveniently obtained from stakeholders while they are in the forest. This paper develops a methodological approach that incorporates place‐specific opinion preference into the development of alternative forest management plans. Through the use of a modified Compromise Programming approach, prospective alternatives are developed, which optimize the opinions of stakeholders and the quantity of timber over time depending on specified parameters. The analysis is based on a small simulated forest holding and place‐specific simulated opinion data. To allow for a comparison between potential stakeholder groups, the opinion data was generated by a method that produced three separate groups. The results indicate the practical use of place‐specific preferences and provide a means to incorporate the information to generate possible alternative plans. In addition, the analysis highlights that by segregating the preference information into groups, the planning of more specific courses of actions can be made. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.