This article considers gender and managerial identities in organizational life, taking the recent change in higher education in Sweden and England with the coming of the new public management as the context in which to explore these issues. In reviewing the literature on gender identity and organization/management, which has moved from a pre-occupation with difference to an examination of the complex inter-relationship between gender and organization, an attempt is made to operationalize the concept of ositionality, using insights from the work of Alcoff and Melucci. It is argued that Academic Shape Shifting is developed by academics during their time in academia, as well as in defensive and proactive response to the recent managerial reforms. A number of indicative responses to the recent changes are identified. These are: the Stressed Professor, the Managerial Advocate, the Administrative Patrician, the Accidental Female, the Academic Chameleon and the Resolute Researcher. As Academic Shape Shifting is used by social individuals in interaction with others, at particular moments in time and in different circumstances, it is concluded that the implications suggest complexity in the changing character of university life, with female academics in middle range positions facing more difficult compromises than their male counterparts. Key words. academic positioning; gender; higher education; identity; new public management; Sweden and England

The public sector in Europe has been subject to much change in recent years, not least because of the pronounced but uneven impact of the New Public Management. But if change is prevalent, gender inequality, gender segregation and gender differences remain persistent - as much in the public sector as elsewhere. Papers in this track explore a number of these gender issues, including how public sector managerialism and leadership is ‘gendered', how managerialism is responded to (and sometimes resisted) by women and men, the patterns of gendered occupational segregation, and the continuing inequalities in opportunity despite decades of ‘equal opportunity' legislation and action. Papers also explore cross-cutting differences of ‘race' and ethnicity and ofsexualities. Generalisation across Europe and the public sector is, of course, problematic and the papers in this track understandably tend to focus on specific countries and specific parts of the public sector with studies of health, higher education and social care predominating. The track will thus provide an opportunity to discuss differences as well as similarities in the form gender relations and inequality take within the public sector in a range of European countries.

In this article, we consider the implications of managerial reforms and performativity in higher education in Sweden and England, following the introduction of new public management and the development of neoliberalism. The article examines some gendered implications by drawing on the experiences of eight experienced female academics. The data are drawn from a dataset of interviews. The first interviews we present were conducted at the beginning of 2001 with two long-serving academics from each country. The rest of the interviews we present were conducted 10 years later, with academics who were, like the previous interviewees, long serving. The same interview questions were used for all the interviews. We found differences between the two countries, in terms of social democratic and liberal traditions, as well as similarities. In the earlier interviews, we found the reforms to be viewed negatively, while the later interviews suggested some accommodation in respect of research and management. Yet, despite this, the female academics in both countries had become increasingly subjected to performativity and were experiencing difficulties in undertaking research as they took on more teaching and administration.

Reports on findings from a research project, which has been examining the development of the New Public Management (NPM), a managerial reform movement for change in public sectors worldwide, and reports on a series of semi-structured interviews with academics in Sweden and England as elements of NPM are introduced into the daily routines of university work. The findings suggest that, despite evidence of common elements of the NPM appearing in Higher Education in the two countries in question, as well as many similarities of experience and response among those subjected to change, there are differences - with academics in England reporting longer hours and increased monitoring of their work than their Swedish counterparts. The article explores the nature of these similarities and differences.

This essay seeks to develop a theoretical framework for public-sector managerial change that draws on social movement theory, an approach located within the domain of political sociology. The essay opens with a brief examination of the literature on the New Public Management and governance which, it is argued, draws on a neo-liberal agenda, displays a tendency to de-centre or marginalize considerations of democracy and politics and offers abstract, top – down, descriptions of change. Approaches to social movement theory are considered, with particular attention paid to two dominant schools: the political process approach and new social movement theory which account for ‘how’ and ‘why’ change occurs. By operating through grass-roots networks, and offering symbolic challenges to the dominant neo-liberal order, social movements help us to see more clearly the limitations of conventional wisdom on public-sector managerial change, and consider resistances, accommodations and messy compromises. The essay seeks to use such insights to re-conceptualize public-sector managerial change.

In many countries across the world, and especially in Europe, we have seen an increasing concern with management as a key component of new governance and policy reforms in healthcare (Dent, 2003). In this chapter we focus on the new management of healthcare and the gendered actors who work to deliver the human services involved. By ʼnew’ management, we are referring to what has been called New Public Management (NPM), thought to have developed in many countries around the world from the 1970s onwards with the purpose of reducing costs, increasing efficiencies and accountabilities, and generally enhancing the quality of human services and experience of users (see Chandler et al., 2002; Dent et al., 2004; McLaughlin et al., 2002). Accordingly, our focus is on the management and implementation of healthcare, and of those involved in its delivery. In the middle of these processes are the new managers, often professionals, charged with responsibility for delivery. This is not to suggest that healthcare, like other human services within the public realm, has not been managed and organized in the past. It is rather to point to the growth of a new group or cadre of workers involved in the implementation of the new work regimes who draw on private sector management techniques and mindsets in their attempt to achieve the desired ends. We consider these changes with particular reference to gender (Barry et al., 2003).

In many countries across the world, and especially in Europe, we have seen an increasing concern with management as a key component of new governance and policy reforms in healthcare (Dent, 2003). In this chapter we focus on the new management of healthcare and the gendered actors who work to deliver the human services involved. By ʼnew’ management, we are referring to what has been called New Public Management (NPM), thought to have developed in many countries around the world from the 1970s onwards with the purpose of reducing costs, increasing efficiencies and accountabilities, and generally enhancing the quality of human services and experience of users (see Chandler et al., 2002; Dent et al., 2004; McLaughlin et al., 2002). Accordingly, our focus is on the management and implementation of healthcare, and of those involved in its delivery. In the middle of these processes are the new managers, often professionals, charged with responsibility for delivery. This is not to suggest that healthcare, like other human services within the public realm, has not been managed and organized in the past. It is rather to point to the growth of a new group or cadre of workers involved in the implementation of the new work regimes who draw on private sector management techniques and mindsets in their attempt to achieve the desired ends. We consider these changes with particular reference to gender (Barry et al., 2003).

In many countries across the world, and especially in Europe, we have seen an increasing concern with management as a key component of new governance and policy reforms in healthcare (Dent, 2003). In this chapter we focus on the new management of healthcare and the gendered actors who work to deliver the human services involved. By ʼnew’ management, we are referring to what has been called New Public Management (NPM), thought to have developed in many countries around the world from the 1970s onwards with the purpose of reducing costs, increasing efficiencies and accountabilities, and generally enhancing the quality of human services and experience of users (see Chandler et al., 2002; Dent et al., 2004; McLaughlin et al., 2002). Accordingly, our focus is on the management and implementation of healthcare, and of those involved in its delivery. In the middle of these processes are the new managers, often professionals, charged with responsibility for delivery. This is not to suggest that healthcare, like other human services within the public realm, has not been managed and organized in the past. It is rather to point to the growth of a new group or cadre of workers involved in the implementation of the new work regimes who draw on private sector management techniques and mindsets in their attempt to achieve the desired ends. We consider these changes with particular reference to gender (Barry et al., 2003).

In this article we consider organisation, gender and higher education, and what we term the routinisation of inequality, drawing on an empirical research investigation in Sweden and England. We understand the idea of as historically contingent human creations that reflect an imagined past as well as the interests, values, hopes and intentions of present members as they converge and diverge on specific issues at different times and in different places. We argue that the reproduction of inequality is an assumptive process, largely unchanging and not seen as exceptional or out of the ordinary in universities and that this is connected in the present period with increasing neo-liberalism in conjunction with the new managerialism. The main conclusion is that whilst inequality is experienced negatively by those it affects adversely and who would wish otherwise, it has become ingrained in everyday life as a part of our present taken for granted assumptive world. Consideration is given to future prospects.

Social work is now an organised occupation on all continents of the world (Barnes and Hugman 2002). Despite sharing a common basis however, the specific organisation and practice of social work is likely to vary between countries. In a general sense, local discourses concerning citizenship and the provision of welfare might contribute to the shaping of national configurations. If the typology offered by Esping-Anderson (1990) is relied upon, social work within the social democratic context of Sweden may well contrast with social work in the United Kingdom, which has evolved within the context of a liberal welfare regime. At the beginning of the twenty-first century however, the idea that nation states can retain their individual difference has been contested: globalisation is said to erode national borders and impact upon economic policies, social life, the construction of social problems and the welfare policies and practices that are pursued (Wilding 1997). One global trend is for neo-liberalism to modify or possibly even replace social democratic and liberal welfare regimes.According to Powell (2001), the implications of the neo-liberal discourse for the welfare state are ‘catastrophic' in that the fundamental commitment to distributive justice and social citizenship has gone. Policy theorists such as Clarke and Newman (1997) argue that neo-liberalism constructs welfare professionals such as social workers as expensive resources, pursuing their own interests and patronising the clients with whom they work. Whilst welfare services and some associated professionals may be required, this discursive framework dictates that these should be limited in number and remit and provided by the private and voluntary sector rather than the state. Importantly, market conditions should apply: the market in welfare would reduce cost and introduce ‘choice' for welfare ‘consumers' (Harris 2003). In consequence, the social work relationship is transformed as clients become ‘service users', ‘stakeholders' or customers in a service transaction. This paper considers the various ways in which neo-liberalism is impacting upon the provision of welfare in Sweden and the UK, but most specifically the way in which social work is currently being constructed and re-constructed. This has the potential to implicate the organisation, management and practice of social work. Commonalities and differences between social work in Sweden and the UK are identified in the light of the contrasting welfare histories, but also the way in which neo-liberalism is embraced and resisted

Purpose - The paper seeks to offer a consideration of the adequacy of the concept of abeyance in accounting for women's movement processes in non-social movement organisations in periods characterised by quiescence rather than insurgence.

Design/methodology/approach - The article is primarily conceptual.

Findings - By extending the political process school of social movement theory, which relies heavily on visible activism to explain movement success, to include the new social movement approach, it is contended that underlying processes of change, associated with the values and affiliations of those involved in non-social movement organisations, become clearer. Less visible processes are identified through the variable rhythms and multiple, discontinuous experiences of women's movement supporters characterised as concealed adherents, informal networkers, and fellow travellers who can include male supporters.

Research limitations/implications - Limitations: as the paper is primarily conceptual, there is a need to develop the practical implications beyond those mentioned below. Implications: there is a need to reorient research into organisational change to take fuller account of social movement processes.

Practical implications - It is recognised that the literature on organisational and managerial change in non-social movement organisations needs to take account of the differing experiences and potential strategies of those likely to be affected.

Originality/value - Originality of the paper lies in the use of insights drawn from the field of political sociology to enrich understanding of gender and organisational change.

This article considers change in academe in Sweden and England, focusing on gender equity and the new public management reforms. In drawing on social movement theory, it is argued that public sector agendas in these countries have been affected by the influences of their respective women's movements as well as by the new public management. The article explores these developments through the experiences of a group of employees whose voices are heard infrequently in the literature, those in middle-level academic positions in universities who are responsible for delivering change. It is argued that the rational, hierarchical, masculine discourses of the new public management offer challenges to women's movement supporters, whose influences and responses are examined. It is contended that the use of social movement theory, as a vehicle through which to conceptualize change, offers a number of insights. These are: the contribution made to gender equity by women who are not self-defined feminists or strongly committed to equal opportunities, known as femocrats; the contribution made by some supportive men to gender equity; and the potential for future collective opposition to the new public management from women's movements.

Considers how women & men manage & organize the processes of urban governance in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India, & London, UK, reporting findings from in-depth interviews & discussions with both female & male politicians & administrators (Ns not specified). Results suggest, contrary to the prevailing view, that women & men operate in both different & similar ways. (1) Women & men are both capable of operating in caring & aggressive ways & both display a concern for the duties of office. (2) However, it is argued that women generally enact the processes of office in different ways than men, balancing responsibilities of home, paid work, & office with no real demarcation between public & private realms, while men tend to compartmentalize their lives, dealing with different aspects of home, paid work, & office in turn, with little or no overlap between them. (3) It is shown that there is a tendency for men to objectify relationships & act more abstractly in their dealings with others, while women treat relationships as social situations to be (re)negotiated over time using a range of styles that can be characterized as both tender & tough, with women seen as flexible, competent, approachable, & highly respected by all concerned. Implications are considered for women's increasing presence in local governance. 61 References. Adapted from the source document.

A Delay-Tolerant Network (DTN) is a necessity for communication nodes that may need to wait for long periods to form networks. The IETF Delay Tolerant Network Research Group is developing protocols to enable such networks for a broad variety of Earth and interplanetary applications. The Arctic would benefit from a predictive velocity-enabled version of DTN that would facilitate communications between sparse, ephemeral, often mobile and extremely power-limited nodes. We propose to augment DTN with power-aware, buffer-aware location- and time-based predictive routing for ad-hoc meshes to create networks that are inherently location and time (velocity) aware at the network level to support climate research, emergency services and rural education in the Arctic. On Earth, the primary source of location and universal time information for networks is the Global Positioning System (GPS). We refer to this Arctic velocity-enabled Delay-Tolerant Network protocol as "GPSDTN" accordingly. This paper describes our requirements analysis and general implementation strategy for GPSDTN to support Arctic research and sustainability efforts

En professionsutbildning utmärks av en spänning mellan teoretisk kunskap och praktisk yrkeskunskap. Vi vet dock inte mycket om hur en professionsutbildning bäst utformas för att förbereda studenter inför yrket. Utifrån tre enkäter, två i Sverige och en i Finland, analyseras nyexaminerade lärares uppfattning om hur förberedda de var för sitt arbete efter lärarutbildningen. Området metodik och praktik hade tydligast samband med känslan av att vara väl förberedd. I flera områden var de finska respondenterna mer kritiska än de svenska. De många positiva omdömena om den finska lärarutbildningen gjorde att vi förväntat oss ett mer positivt resultat i den finska studien.

The amount of spontaneous movement during seated office work was estimated by analysing the tilting movements of a tiltable office chair. Both movement frequency and amplitude range were considered. The seat inclinations and subjective acceptability were also recorded.

The seat was moved more frequently and with a greater range when adjusted 6 cm above popliteal level compared to 1 cm below, or when the backrest was pushed anteriorly or posteriorly compared to a middle position. The greatest acceptability occurred with the highest seat adjustment and the backrest in the middle position. Typing or desk-work influenced movement to a similar extent.

In today's vehicles, the human-machine interaction (HMI) is becoming increasingly complex. The number of in-vehicle comfort functions is increasing as are the number of maneuverable buttons in the vehicle. Haptic interfaces for in-vehicle functions are now commercially available. Thus, haptic interfaces are a realistic approach to an aesthetically and ergonomically improved HMI. That is, without increasing the visual load on the driver. However, as often is the case with new technologies, some haptic interfaces might have been put into operation before being studied and evaluated sufficiently, e.g. being potentially "safety critical". The objective of this paper is to contribute in bridging the gulf between application and research concerning implementation of haptic interfaces for in-vehicle comfort functions. Two studies are reported in the paper. Firstly, a simulator study where a haptic/graphic interface is evaluated against a traditional interface with maneuverable buttons for in-vehicle comfort functions. Secondly, an experimental study that still is in the planning phase. The study aims at investigating the interaction effects between haptic and visual feedback in a haptic/graphic interface.

Pictorial visualization is expected to facilitate communication between industrial professionals when planning working environments and production systems. This hypothesis was investigated by studying how 24 participants including managers, supervisors, machine operators, and occupational health and safety officials, judged three types of computer animated visualization varying in dimensional view (scale and scope of a production line): shop floor view/survey of shop floor; production unit view/semi-survey of production unit; and workplace view/close-up of workplace, in relation to a set of planning issues. The participants participated in a controlled 2-day planning workshop, redesigning a fictitious manufacturing process by means of computer graphics, and then responded to a questionnaire. It can be concluded that shop floor view as well as production unit view are significant for survey planning issues, while all 3-dimensional views are significant for close-up planning issues. Analogously, all dimensional views are significant for technocentric planning issues, whereas only the workplace view is valuable for anthropocentric planning issues.

Preface This Conference, organised jointly by Staffordshire University, the University of East London and the University of Luleå, have so far provided a forum for policy, organisational and multidisciplinary critical analyses of the dilemmas facing the organisation and delivery of health, housing, education, social services and the human services generally. The theme of the conference 2010 was Changes and new directions in Human services. Change has been a leitmotif of the Human Services and the Public sector more generally in recent years; and whilst it is an aspect of all organizational, social political and economic life, it has been especially rapid and far reaching in the human services, exuberated by the turbulence and fall-out from the present to initiate further change in new directions. We accordingly invited papers that examine the responses of public, private and voluntary sector organisations and governments in tackling the contemporary problems facing human services related to the changes and new directions in service delivery and organisational effectiveness (locally, regionally and globally), as well as ethical and gender issues concerning access to labour market, equity and quality of service. This years Dilemmas Conference presents a selection of short papers from the conference. The articles highlight the changes and potential directions of society where wealth is undergoing a shift towards more explicitly neo-liberal society, where the private market takes over part of what has previously been state and local government responsibility which has consequences for people who are in need of social services. These changes affect the welfare state actors in organizations such as education, social work and also affect the employability of the general, and over time these changes can have significant consequences for welfare and social rights. Three of these articles, “The Financial Meltdown and the Crisis of Reproduction: Imaginations of Performance, Participation and Social Justice” by Brigitte Aulenbacher and Birgit Riegraf, Vision: A Source of Innovation, Illusion or Social Control? by Kazem Chaharbaghi and Support and service for persons with intellectual disabilities: A study of changes and consequences in Finland and Sweden 1990 – 2010 Barbro Blomberg, Lena Widerlund, Anne-Marie Lindqvist have been published in a special issue in a Swedish journal called Socialvetenskaplig Tidskrift 2010 3-4, Vol 1. These articles have been published in Swedish in longer versions except for Kazem Chaharbaghis’ article which are the same article however in English in this Dilemmas proceedings.

Enligt nya riktlinjer för den offentliga omsorgen för äldre och handikappade skall den omorganiseras till öppnare vårdformer. Nu är målet att äldre och handikappade i ökad utsträckning skall kunna bo i sina egna hem, även för de som har stora omsorgsbehov. Det här leder till att personalen från kommunens hemtjänst och landstingets primärvård möter varandra i omsorgsarbetet. I både socialtjänstlagen, 1982, och hälso- och sjukvårdslagen, 1983, uttalas att ansvariga organisationer skall samverka vid utvecklandet av "det nya öppna vårdarbetet" i det enskilda hemmet. Omorganiseringen till öppnare vårdformer har dock redan givit upphov till problem både för dem som behöver vård och omsorg och för personalen i hemvården vars arbetsuppgifter ständigt förändras. Jag menar att dessa problem i hög grad är strukturellt och organisatoriskt betingade och hänger samman med att de personalgrupper som skall mötas i samverkan kommer från två sinsemellan mycket olikartade verksamheter, mänligen socialtjänsten respektive sjukvården. Denna avhandlings huvudsyfte är att beskriva och analysera mötet som sker mellan personalgrupperna i de två organisationerna när de enligt de politiska målsättningarna skall samverka i och samordna det "nya öppna vårdarbetet". Utöver själva mötet mellan de två organisationernas personalgrupper har också respektive organisation i sig studerats. Syftet är att ge en bakgrund till i vilken utsträckning och på vad sätt mötena mellan personalen från de två verksamheterna påverkas av att de kommer från organisationer med sinsemellan olikartade målsättningar, arbetsuppgifter och kompetenser.

This paper is concerned with contributing to an understanding of challenges facing an enlarged European Union, with a focus on issues of social cohesion and solidarity, linked to the idea of a European identity. This is of considerable importance at the present time as changes in lifestyle, immigration patterns, variations in culture and societal trends suggest a widening of differences - between nation states and within their regions - across Europe. Yet, as argued in this paper, it is in the very character of the tensions that the opportunity to build solidarity and achieve integration lie. Recent debates on the concept of democracy indicate a growing intellectual gulf between those, such as Habermas (1995), who seek democratic consensus, and those like Mouffe (1997) who seek acknowledgement of social and political conflict in a political context pervaded by an insistent neo-liberalism. Indeed, approaches from managerial and political elites, in offering top-down prescriptions for change (Pollitt and Bouckaert 2000, Hood 1995), fail to engage employees and electorates lower down the chain. This results in a mismatch with considerable consequences, since it elides the issue of involvement central to decision making in a democratic public sector. Little wonder perhaps that the new public management reforms have been contested (Barry, Chandler and Berg 2007) and political endeavour met with electoral apathy and a concomitant rise in social movement activity (Todd and Taylor 2004: 3) as those in civil society seek to make their oppositional voices heard, suggesting the need to take account of those involved since neo-liberalism is an incomplete project (Clarke 2004)It is accordingly contended that sustainable social solidarity in an enlarged Europe will be built by those who, directly or indirectly, it will affect. The challenge is, therefore, to engage with the ‘contested terrains' (Ellison 2007) embedded within the social processes and networks of European civil society in ‘conflictual democracy' (Balibar 2004:x). In this way, solidarity and integration will take embedded root within a plurality of diverse societies, with conflict resolution transparent and worked through in real-time. Recognition that nineteenth and twentieth century social policy and welfare provision were the fruit not necessarily of elite concession in order to maintain control (Saville 1957-8) but of agonistic labour movement struggle achieved at a price (Thompson 1958), indicates where to look today for the new drivers of social policy: partly through ‘governance' (Newman 2004: 203, 217), but also the autonomous organs of civil society in the guise of new social movements. It is this that the paper explores