The aim of this two year master thesis is to study the knowledge production within the field of Textile Studies at Uppsala University, with special focus on the use of artifact documentation as a research method. With domain analysis as a theoretical framework, ontological and epistemological assumptions as well as historical and social aspects are studied in relation to the research process. Qualitative research methods are used, including interviews, observations and text analysis. In the analysis of the knowledge processes in the field, perspectives on tacit knowledge and the concept of documents, are used as a theoretical basis. In the field of Textile Studies, the artifacts are used as one of the main objects of study, along with archival and pictorial sources. The main epistemological assumptions are that artifact analysis is dependent on a knowledge base, where technical handicraft skills, contextual knowledge and practical experience of object observation are the most important qualifications.

The main purpose of this study is to examine differences and similarities concerning teamwork and interactive skills among preschool children while they interact with an Ipad respective a number of selected traditional artifacts. The traditional artifacts chosen for this study are small Lego blocks, JovoToys (click and construct system) and large puzzles. The study takes its starting point on the basis of both a social- and a learning perspective when different groups of preschool children in the ages from three to five years interact in fellowship groups with respective artifact. Primarily the main focus is to examine differences and similarities that appear from without the social perspective.The overall objective is to identify what eventual differences and similarities can be found purposely on both what is happening in the social interaction between the preschool children themselves but also what is taking place in the interaction between the children and each artifact. This study will also via theoretical frameworks create an understanding why eventual differences and similarities exist.The results are based on both a literature review and a field study.

Navigating to different locations isn?t always easy. Imagine then how it is for people with a visual impairment to walk across the street or to get from one point to another. The Swedish Association of the Visually Impaired (SRF) has pointed out that today's society is not sufficiently accessible to people with visual impairment and there are improvements that need to get done. Technology is something that has evolved a lot this last decade and occurs today almost everywhere in our environment.In some areas, technology has facilitated people's daily life very much and we have therefore chosen to examine whether a combination of several technical functions integrated into the fictive artifact called Eyenavster can facilitate outdoor orientation and increase the accessibility for people with a visual impairment.Qualitative data collection methods have been used in this study by six interviews to answer our question.

My aim is to provide knowledge about ways of understanding Intranet as a communication artifact. Today organizations plan to update their technology so as to make the communicative functions of Web 2.0 come true. With this objective in mind organizations will be prepared to meet social demands among staff. After interviewing intranet managers I have compiled qualitative data in categories. My approach is influenced by a phenomenographic approach.

When the Iron spirals investigated in this paper saw the light again no one looked at them as nothing more than decoration. It was first during the 2011 excavation in Old Uppsala that the symbolism of the items no longer could be ignored. The spirals of Old Uppsala lay along the walls of the great hall, which stood upon one of the human constructed plateaus in the area. The hall had been burned down and then cleared of all lumber. Then the iron spirals had been placed in the positions and then everything was sealed with a layer of clay.A study of the artifact began with the purpose to contextualize and interpret the iron spiral.

My aim is to provide knowledge about ways of understanding Intranet as a communication artifact. Today organizations plan to update their technology so as to make the communicative functions of Web 2.0 come true. With this objective in mind organizations will be prepared to meet social demands among staff. After interviewing intranet managers I have compiled qualitative data in categories. My approach is influenced by a phenomenographic approach.

Studies of modern communication media such as Cell Phones and so called Instant Messengers are popular today. This study focused on these modern techniques, focused on parents as a target group and on what is important for them in everyday communication.By exploratory using three focus groups it became clear that the children, and the link to them was the absolute most important thing for the parents. It became clear that this link to a great extent today exists through the mobile phone.In a following study a Mobile Instant Messenger called My Friends was introduced. It was used by two families during two weeks to see how it would change the communication within the family. The focus was to see how problems with availability were handled, it turned out that:My friends had a more obvious way of indicating availability than the Cell Phone had.

The aim of this qualitative respondent investigation is to delve into the various views that teachers have concerning the ?One-to-One project?, as well as the use of computers as an aid in teaching. One-to-One means that teachers and students will be equipped with a laptop they can use at home and at school.This essay looks at how several factors have changed as a result of this. These factors are threefold: the role of the teacher, the teaching experience, and the student´s learning process. In order to answer the mentioned questions, four interviews have been conducted at two different high schools in southern Norrland.

The foundation for a museum is the collection. To collect, preserve and display is what constitutes a museum. But the process of deciding which object´s should be saved, and which objects should not, are based on values. It is also values that make people inclined to donate objects to museums. How and why we value a museum determine if and why we donate.Objects themselves could be said to have a biography just like people.

Abstract The purpose of this essay is to find difficulties and risks in the re-engineering process when restructuring to Model-View-Controller (MVC). A thoroughly theory study has been conducted to be able to understand the important steps in the re-engineering process. The methods and concepts of this essay are re-engineering, UML, system development life cycle, design patterns and MVC. The science approach used is design science where the artifact being developed are a set of models.In the analysis phase of the process the system is analyzed. The result of the analysis is notes of difficulties found and models showing the structure of the system.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the theoretical developments on social entrepreneurship. Our purpose is to create a better understanding of the phenomenon leading to new insights. We have categorized the knowledge of the concept into social economy, social ownership, social innovation and social missions. Drawing from our theoretical review we have chosen four empirical illustrations, Grameen Bank, Wikipedia, Basta Arbetskooperativ, Jörn Hälsogemenskap, and we have shown how these fit into the general description of the social entrepreneur. With help of our illustrations we show that it is complicated to pin point the core of social entrepreneurship as they each have separate structures, innovations, social missions and operate close to different sectors.

The tablet is a new IT-tool which have started to get introduced into school, but research is still missing and especially in the pre-school environment. The purpose with this study is to investigate teachers uptake, how they use the tablet in everyday pedagogy work as well as the organizational conditions that that facilitate and hinders. Through my observations and interviews in a Swedish K-5 school I have found that the teachers find tablets more appealing to use in comparison to computers. These findings are partly supported by Davis et al.?s (1989) TAM-theory who considers there to be three types of aspects that affect the way individuals adapt to technology.

We live in a high tech era of electronic media, which is changing our lives (Giddens, 1999). Apps are examples of technologies that affect our lives. An interesting question in this context is what apps will have for significance; on one hand for the development of technology, and on other hand for humans? relation to technology. Since the development and change process are central issues in the science of education I will explore the development of applications.

The purpose of this essay was to investigate affecting factors concerning social workers in social services assessments with cases of abuse. We wanted to see if social workers in social services tend to make different assessments of the need of substance abusers care. Our survey was carried out as a vignettesurvey with complementary interviews as means to deepen the outcome results.Our survey showed that the included social workers in social services in some senses make different assessments when it comes to choice of effort put in for the client. We shed light on different factors and circumstances, which could bear meaning for the social workers in social services assessments. Examples of factors were the social workers in social services age, gender, working experience and attitude towards substance abusers..

Today significant resources are provided to improve the digital work environment within the Swedish healthcare to create efficiency, good work environment and patient safety. Despite this, major flaws are shown by the lack of communication between the eHealthcare systems. This becomes a stress factor among healthcare professionals because of increased administration and decreased physical contact with patients. The purpose of this study is to create a understanding of the concept of interoperability at different levels in the eHealthcare systems. This has been conducted through a qualitative interview study at a healthcare center where the respondents have been describing their digital work environment and the way it works today.