Desafíos en el proceso de investigación de la informalidad en hospitales públicos

En este trabajo se muestra la cocina de una investigación, es decir cómo se construyen los momentos que la componen y cómo se relacionan entre sí. Esta experiencia tuvo como objetivo analizar el proceso de construcción de políticas públicas en las organizaciones hospitalarias de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, haciendo foco en las acciones informales desarrolladas en su interior. Luego de una introducción para ubicar al lector en la temática, se explica la selección del marco teórico y la discusión acerca de los elementos conceptuales que aporta cada disciplina para repensar la informalidad. Luego se presentan los objetivos y la hipótesis de trabajo inicial, mostrando por qué la metodología cualitativa resultó el mejor abordaje para dar cuenta del fenómeno de estudio, dado que desde el sentido común, la informalidad en la administración pública tiende a ser confundida con prácticas discrecionales para satisfacer intereses propios. Se da cuenta de la estrategia analítica y cómo los lineamientos de la teoría fundamentada permitieron construir categorías que contribuyeran a redefinir algunos conceptos teóricos que explican el modo en que opera el aspecto informal de la organización. Como conclusión, se muestra la línea narrativa que integra y explica la articulación de los distintos componentes de dicho proceso, los cuales permitieron dar especificidad al concepto de informalidad a nivel teórico y empírico

Imagining an interdisciplinary doctoral pedagogy

There has been a great deal of discussion about the need for interdisciplinary, applied research to service the needs of the knowledge economy and to solve the broader complex theoretical problems of the twenty-first century. This is known as 'Mode 2' knowledge production. Yet, university research higher degree programs continue to be largely disciplinary-based. While there has been a rise in the number of research students working on industry-related, applied projects, very few research students gain exposure to interdisciplinary research processes. This paper explores several examples of interdisciplinary doctoral programs based in North America and Australia and seeks to draw upon examples of undergraduate interdisciplinary learning and epistemology. In reviewing this theoretical work and a number of strategies implemented at an Australian university, the paper begins to imagine an interdisciplinary doctoral pedagogy.

Disabled volunteers : an analysis of the experiences of wheelchair-users who volunteer

Following grounded-theory methodology, this thesis provides an analysis of the volunteering experiences of 47 wheelchair-users. It challenges the traditional image of volunteering which tends to conceptualise non-disabled people as the instigators of voluntary action (the helpers) and disabled people as the recipients of volunteerism (the helped). It also begins to fill a notable gap in academic knowledge about the volunteering experiences of disabled people. The literature review showed that contemporary conceptualisations of disability were unsuitable for this thesis. Thus, an organising framework is proposed which acknowledges that disabled peoples’ experiences may be influenced by medically and socially constructed factors – or by a combination of both acting simultaneously (medical-social factors). Having conceptualised disability for the purposes of the study, the thesis then provides an account of the research methodology used. This is followed by a presentation of research findings. An analysis of the volunteers’ demographic, epidemiological and background characteristics is provided and their perceptions of the benefits of, and barriers to, volunteering highlighted. This is followed by an analysis of their volunteering experiences. Theory is developed in order to explain the volunteers’ experiences from the approach outlined within the organising framework. The final part of the thesis adopts a reflexive approach to contextualise the research processes from the writer’s own perspective as a disabled person conducting research into the lived experiences of other disabled people. The thesis concludes by highlighting the implications of the study for future social research.

Aprender investigando. Una experiencia formativa en el ámbito de la enfermería = Research teaching processes used as a methodological strategy in the education of healthcare professionals

Este trabajo tiene como propósito presentar y valorar, desde la perspectiva del alumnado participante, un proyecto de investigación-formación puesto en marcha durante el curso 2003-2004 en la elaboración del trabajo de tesina, fin de carrera, en la Escuela de Enfermería de Vitoria, dentro del programa de Licenciatura Europea de Enfermería. Constituye el punto de partida de un proyecto a largo plazo, iniciado con la intención de desarrollar principios teóricos y procedimientos prácticos que nos permitan sistematizar procesos formativos que, centrados en la investigación, articulen la teoría y la práctica e integren una perspectiva comunicativa y cooperativa.

Customer Research on a Group of European Book Publishers: Trends, Modes of Operation and Decision-Making Processes

Työn päätarkoitus oli tuottaa Stora Enson käyttöön tietoa kirjakustantajista, yhdestä yrityksen asiakassegmentistä. Yritys oli kiinnostunut useista asioista, jotka koskivat asiakkaita ja heidän mielipiteitään. Tarkoitus on, että Stora Enso voi käyttää tutkimuksella koottua tietoa oman toimintansa suunnittelun tukena. Kerätty sekundääritieto esittelee eurooppalaisen kirjakustantamisen nykytilaa ja tulevaisuutta sekä teorioita, jotka tukevat tutkittuja aihealueita. Primääritieto kerättiin henkilökohtaisilla haastatteluilla. Otanta koostui kymmenestä kirjakustantajasta, jotka toimivat Suomessa sekä Stora Enson päämarkkina-alueilla. Tutkimus tarjoaa päivitetyn kuvauksen kirjakustantamisesta. Haastateltavien mielipiteet alan trendeistä olivat yhteneviä yleisen mielipiteen kanssa, eikä suuria mielipide-eroavaisuuksia havaittu. Kustantajien toimintatapoja ja päätöksentekoprosesseja voidaan kuvata monimutkaisiksi, koska useat asiat vaikuttavat kirjan syntyyn ja paperin ostoprosessiin. Lisäksi tutkimus esittelee haastateltavien mielipiteitä paperin merkityksestä heidän liiketoiminnassaan.

The use of future-oriented knowledge in regional innovation processes: Research on knowledge generation, transfer and conversion

The importance of the regional level in research has risen in the last few decades and a vast literature in the fields of, for instance, evolutionary and institutional economics, network theories, innovations and learning systems, as well as sociology, has focused on regional level questions. Recently the policy makers and regional actors have also began to pay increasing attention to the knowledge economy and its needs, in general, and the connectivity and support structures of regional clusters in particular. Nowadays knowledge is generally considered as the most important source of competitive advantage, but even the most specialised forms of knowledge are becoming a short-lived resource for example due to the accelerating pace of technological change. This emphasizes the need of foresight activities in national, regional and organizational levels and the integration of foresight and innovation activities. In regional setting this development sets great challenges especially in those regions having no university and thus usually very limited resources for research activities. Also the research problem of this dissertation is related to the need to better incorporate the information produced by foresight process to facilitate and to be used in regional practice-based innovation processes. This dissertation is a constructive case study the case being Lahti region and a network facilitating innovation policy adopted in that region. Dissertation consists of a summary and five articles and during the research process a construct or a conceptual model for solving this real life problem has been developed. It is also being implemented as part of the network facilitating innovation policy in the Lahti region.

Identification of research trends in the field of separation processes. Application of epidemiological model, citation analysis, text mining, and technical analysis of the financial markets

Choice of industrial development options and the relevant allocation of the research funds become more and more difficult because of the increasing R&D costs and pressure for shorter development period. Forecast of the research progress is based on the analysis of the publications activity in the field of interest as well as on the dynamics of its change. Moreover, allocation of funds is hindered by exponential growth in the number of publications and patents. Thematic clusters become more and more difficult to identify, and their evolution hard to follow. The existing approaches of research field structuring and identification of its development are very limited. They do not identify the thematic clusters with adequate precision while the identified trends are often ambiguous. Therefore, there is a clear need to develop methods and tools, which are able to identify developing fields of research. The main objective of this Thesis is to develop tools and methods helping in the identification of the promising research topics in the field of separation processes. Two structuring methods as well as three approaches for identification of the development trends have been proposed. The proposed methods have been applied to the analysis of the research on distillation and filtration. The results show that the developed methods are universal and could be used to study of the various fields of research. The identified thematic clusters and the forecasted trends of their development have been confirmed in almost all tested cases. It proves the universality of the proposed methods. The results allow for identification of the fast-growing scientific fields as well as the topics characterized by stagnant or diminishing research activity.

Aprender investigando. Una experiencia formativa en el ámbito de la enfermería = Research teaching processes used as a methodological strategy in the education of healthcare professionals

Este trabajo tiene como propósito presentar y valorar, desde la perspectiva del alumnado participante, un proyecto de investigación-formación puesto en marcha durante el curso 2003-2004 en la elaboración del trabajo de tesina, fin de carrera, en la Escuela de Enfermería de Vitoria, dentro del programa de Licenciatura Europea de Enfermería. Constituye el punto de partida de un proyecto a largo plazo, iniciado con la intención de desarrollar principios teóricos y procedimientos prácticos que nos permitan sistematizar procesos formativos que, centrados en la investigación, articulen la teoría y la práctica e integren una perspectiva comunicativa y cooperativa

Women in water-related processes in Latin America: current situation and research and policy proposals

Includes bibliography