The new "liquid" media environment involves a range of new professions, practices and practitioners (Deuze 2011). Based on a rich ethnographic study containing personal interviews and participant observation, this paper looks at semi-professional Influencers in the social media marketing industry and asks how these new branding professions and their practices emerge and institutionalize. Specifically, the material draws on data collected between 2011 and 2015 among women Influencers in the ‘lifestyle’ genre in Singapore who advertise products and services in the industry verticals of Fashion, Beauty, and Electronic goods on blogs, Twitter, and Instagram.

This chapter builds upon data from different multi-sited ethnographic projects that have been conducted and are ongoing in different geopolitical and digital spaces. This chapter is framed within sociocultural, dialogical and decolonial perspectives which highlight that learning is a situated and distributed process where communication is collaboratively achieved. In these traditions, while the rich potentials and dimensions of human communication in concert with intellectual and material tools are recognized, attention in analysis has tended to be dominated over the decades by an “oral language bias”. The findings presented in this chapter raise epistemological and pragmatic challenges related to the very doing of ethnographic fieldwork and illustrate some closely related theoretical and methodological issues, specifically in settings where linguistic heterogeneity is the norm.

Activity-Based Working and Working from home are two ways of working that have been implemented by many organizations during the past years. However, the strike of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused firms to work from home until restriction of the ongoing pandemic have alleviated. Previous research has investigated the impact on employees when working activity-based respectively working from home during the pandemic with both positive and negative outcomes regarding communication and effectivity among other aspects.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate how the COVID-19 experience have impacted employee’s attitudes toward activity-based workspace post-pandemic.

The study was following a qualitative research approach by conducting a case study. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and analysed to identify themes to gain a more in-depth knowledge of the findings.

The findings confirms that the post-pandemic way of working is a mixture of activity-based working and increased desire of working from home. This depends on the matter of task and individual’s needs, much like the activity-based theory. What has changed is the perception of working from home that has showed employees benefits of increased focus and effectivity. The activity-based office will also provide effectivity, but with the link to socializing and physical communication advantages that working from home cannot offer. Organisations can use these findings to be better prepared when implementing activity-based workplaces and/or adapting to the challenges that the “new” working way may cause in the post-pandemic era.

Purpose

Academics recently identified a lack of research regarding who should guide interactions in virtual social networks when risks appear. Data shows that organizers are usually less active than other users in this context, which can lead to negative reactions among attendees. This research examines if and how virtual social network communication guided by an official source (vs a nonofficial source vs control group) reduces perceived crime risks and trust before the event, leading to lower ambivalence and higher intention to attend. The study was conducted in Colombia, a country where many individuals face this type of risk.

Design/methodology/approach

First-year university students (N = 210) from Colombia were invited to a “Welcome Cocktail”. Two weeks before the cocktail, they were divided into three groups (70 per condition) to receive information. In Group 1, participants were invited to be part of a WhatsApp group administered by one of the organizers. In Group 2, they participated in a WhatsApp group administered by a student. Group 3 was the control (i.e. no virtual communication established before the event). One week after the meeting, they were gathered again and answered a questionnaire, which measured perceived crime risk, trust, ambivalence and intention to attend.

Findings

Participants in the WhatsApp group administered by an official source perceived lower risk and higher trust in the organizers, which led to lower ambivalence towards the event and higher intention to attend it. The relationship between ambivalence and intention to attend is moderated by the nationality of the participants (locals vs foreigners), such as, at equal levels of ambivalence, foreigners show lower intention to attend the event.

Originality/value

This is the first study that compares different approaches on a virtual social network to reduce perceived crime risk in event management. The results present new findings on how the presence of an official source can mitigate this risk, and which potential attendees (i.e. locals vs foreigners) are especially benefited from it. The findings are particularly useful for managers in regions where attendees face crime risks every day, and might feel low trust towards public and private institutions, such as in Colombia.

The nomination and appointment of World Heritage sites ential a willingness from UNESCO and its member states to recognise the value of cultural and biological diversity on Earth by protecting representative or threatened cultural landscapes on behalf of all mankind and for all times. After recommendation from UNESCO, it has become increasingly popular among member states to nominate sites including living indigenous cultures, in order to provide these sites with international protection, and in order to benefit from the World Heritage status. However, the ways in which these kind of sites are protected differ greatly between states and particular sites. Whereas one indigenous people may own the land of the World Heritage site and have considerable influence on how the site is managed, another indigenous people may remain politically marginal and only play a symbolical role as carriers of indigenous culture. This paper intends to compare the situation for the indigenous people in four structurally similar World Heritage sites: Laponia in Sweden, Tongariro in New Zealand and Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Kakadu in Australia.

In the face of climatic changes and environmental problems, indigenous knowledge is increasingly being accepted as an alternative to Western science in conservation policies. While indigenous knowledge may help indigenous empowerment, it is also placed under the control of the authorities whose science and strucutres it is meant to challenge. Indigenous knowledge is therefore the subject of a two-way appropriation by indigenous peoples as well as environmental authorities. This process is illustrated by the Sami reindeer herders in the World Heritage site of Laponia in Arctic Sweden, who are negotating a new joint management scheme with Swedish authorities, including a Sami majority on the park board. Sami indigenous knowledge will form the basis for the new management policies, but with minimal changes to existing national legislation. While the Sami will gain some political control, Swedish authorities will also gain access to and control over Sami indigenous knowledge, hence a two-way appropriation.

Conservation management systems which include indigenous traditional knowledge have increasingly been recognized by international conservation authorities as complementary or even superior to the more conventional conservation approach. Many indigenous peoples, including the Maori in New Zealand and the Saami in Sweden, have actively promoted their traditional knowledge as pivotal for sustainable development, and are now gaining more control over the management of their traditional areas. However, perceptions of traditional knowledge and its relation to sustainable development often differ between indigenous peoples and conservation authorities, and posit a challenge to the formulation of conservation policies.

The new "liquid" media environment involves a range of new professions, practices and practitioners. Based on a rich ethnographic study containing personal interviews and participant observation, this paper looks at semi-professional Influencers in the social media marketing industry and asks how these new branding professions and their practices emerge and institutionalize. Specifically, the material draws on data collected between 2011 and 2015 among women Influencers in the ‘lifestyle’ genre in Singapore who advertise products and services in the industry verticals of Fashion, Beauty, and Electronic goods on blogs, Twitter, and Instagram.

This case study is conducted through ten weeks of field studies in South-Eastern Uganda. Both authors have received funding from Minor Field Study scholarships. These scholarships were provided by Sida, Sweden's government agency for development cooperation. This entails that the authors are contract bound to comply with the terms and regulations established by Sida and Jönköping University as well as write and submit a report to the Swedish Council of Higher Education upon return to Sweden. 

Without the substantial contributions from the local community in Kamuzinda and neighbouring villages, this thesis would not have been completed. First and foremost, profound gratitude is expressed to the many people who contributed to making this study a reality, be it big or small. This includes our supervisor Åsa Westermark, who has been of great help and guidance throughout the entire research process. Secondly, we want to thank Uganda Child Care Sweden for a productive collaboration, with special recognition to Ponsiano Nyombi and Rebecca Nanyanzi for their welcoming hearts and support throughout our entire stay in Uganda. Lastly, we are forever grateful to the people who brought us into their homes and were willing to share their life stories with us. It is your participation and kindness that made this thesis possible.

Aim: To describe how diabetic immigrants from Somalia experience everyday life in Sweden and how they manage diabetes-related problems, with inclusion of a gender perspective. Background: To treat and care for minority populations successfully, healthcare staff in Sweden must thoroughly understand the illness experiences of different ethnic groups. However, no studies have so far been reported that focus on immigrants from Somalia with diabetes. Design: Descriptive, qualitative interview study with 19 diabetic adults born in Somalia and now living in Sweden. Method: Cross-cultural interviews with the aid of an interpreter. The transcribed interviews were subjected to qualitative latent content analysis, resulting in sub-themes and themes. Results: Four themes emerged: experience of distress in everyday life; everyday life continues as before; comprehensibility gives a feeling of control; and being compliant. A major finding was the variation in how the participants managed the fasting month of Ramadan. Several participants fasted and did not see the diabetes as an obstacle, others did see it as an obstacle or indicated that fasting was not compulsory for a sick person. Conclusions: This study provides healthcare staff with information about how a minority group experience and manage diabetes. The results indicate the importance of considering cultural background, as well as religious traditions such as Ramadan, in diabetes care. They also indicate that men and women differ in their reaction to diabetes and that care should be adapted to this. Relevance for clinical practice: It is important to develop evidence-based guidelines for diabetes care in ethnic groups that are fasting during Ramadan to prevent complications and promote relevant self-care. Further, the prescribed dietary advice must be culturally appropriate.