Ledelse mellom sterke ideologier og lillebrorkomplekser – en eksplorerende studie i tverrfaglig spesialisert rusbehandling

Background: Substance use treatment has long traditions in Norway, but it was not until 2004 that it became part of the specialist health service, leading to new leadership requirements. The aim of this study was to understand how the field is perceived from a leadership perspective and how leaders perceive their leadership role. Method: The study is based on three focus group interviews with the mentors of 28 network groups. Data were analysed through systematic text condensation. Results: The analysis resulted in a clustering of four aspects the informants reported to characterise their perceptions of their leadership role: the inferiority complex, values ​​in substance use treatment, pragmatic leadership, and subjective leadership. Implications: The analysis shows that informal hierarchies of power, ideology, and expectations of interdisciplinarity in all decisions provide fertile ground for a flat structure and ambiguity in management. The findings reveal the need for measures to strengthen recognition of the field and develop the leadership role. Keywords: Substance use treatment, leadership, drugs, addiction, health, leadership development

Uncertainty in Health Emergencies: Communicating Risks During COVID-19 Response

The world’s fragmented response to the COVID-19 pandemic created fertile ground for mixed messages and inconsistency. The authors analyzed Google-trending insights from five countries (Italy, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France) across three-week time (1–23 March 2020) to document trends in population health anxiety in response to the initial global spreading of the outbreak. The results are expressed in the form of Uncertainty Index (UI), which reflects the total number of Google searches/COVID-19 prevalence and standardized per million inhabitants. The United Kingdom experienced the highest level of health anxiety (UI = 11.5), followed by France (UI = 4.6) and Spain (UI = 3.2). The United States suffered the highest rate of uncertainty in the early stage of the pandemic; the Italian population experienced a balanced level of anxiety. Institutionalizing risk communication during COVID-19 should represent an integral part of the country emergency response.

SoTL and Social Justice

SoTL provides a foundation for democratizing the teacher-student relationship through its fertile ground for establishing more equalitarian roles among teachers and students. This chapter draws attention to the overlap between the values and essential characteristics of SoTL and the field of curriculum studies, which serves to study and examine social dynamics through curriculum inquiry. Through an exploration of forms of inquiry and research that unites curriculum studies (with its emphasis on transgressive education) and SoTL (with a focus on engagement of teachers and learners as educational community), this chapter highlights how research that dovetails SoTL and curriculum studies can provide powerful opportunity for emphasizing social justice.

Adoption and Use of Human Information System Digital Technology for Organizational Competitiveness

Staying competitive in the current digitized workplace era requires, among other things, an adequate and efficient use of modern technology. Human resource information system (HRIS) is one of several tools that helps organizations remain sustainable by providing technology that can help to acquire, store, generate, analyze, and disseminate timely and accurate employee information and activities. Of late, HRIS is slowly gaining prominence in Nepal. A generic model for conditions that are necessary for successful adoption and use of HRIS in Nepali organizations is designed as the models proposed by earlier researchers in a developed context may not work well in a developing context. This sets fertile ground to carry out scholarly inquiry into the domain of HRIS in the Nepalese context. The limitations of present study are mentioned and practical/research implications of the same are discussed towards the end. Researchers are of the opinion that the findings of this preliminary study can be taken up to the next level for carrying out quantitative research in HRIS domain in Nepal.

Work and disability during the Covid-19 outbreak: from the current scenario to possible future perspectives

Ensuring work for people with disabilities today represents an important goal for democratic states and a continuous challenge for policy makers who should always aim to improve targeted placement services. Unfortunately, this goal, although regulated by specific laws, does not always find fertile ground in its applicability, sometimes increasing marginalization and discrimination. In this regard, the Covid-19 outbreak has brought out new forms of exclusion and new needs, increasing, in some cases, inequalities within workplaces. Therefore, starting from the scenario outlined by the pandemic, the paper aims to propose a reflection on the importance of work for people with disabilities, as a tool of self-empowerment that promotes inclusive processes, analyzing the legislative framework regarding access to work for vulnerable people and outlining possible future perspectives to promote inclusion within work places. Lavoro e disabilità ai tempi del Covid-19: dallo scenario attuale a possibili prospettive future. Garantire una occupazione lavorativa alle persone con disabilità rappresenta oggi una conquista per gli Stati democratici e una continua sfida per i policy makers che dovrebbero sempre puntare a migliorare i servizi di collocamento mirato. Purtroppo, tale conquista, sebbene normata da leggi ad hoc, non sempre trova terreno fertile nella sua applicabilità, alimentando, talvolta, i fenomeni di emarginazione e i meccanismi di discriminazione. A tal proposito, l’emergenza sanitaria da Covid-19 ha fatto emergere nuove forme di esclusione e nuovi bisogni incrementando, in alcuni casi, le disparità in ambiente lavorativo. Dunque, partendo dallo scenario delineato dalla situazione pandemica, il contributo intende proporre una riflessione circa l’importanza del lavoro per le persone con disabilità, in quanto strumento di self-empowerment che favorisce i processi inclusivi, analizzando il quadro normativo in materia di diritto e di accesso al lavoro per i soggetti più fragili e tratteggiando possibili prospettive future per promuovere percorsi lavorativi inclusivi.

The Cult of the Martyr: The Symbol of Stanisław Wacławski and Rituals of Violence in the Warsaw Student Milieu of the 1930s

The Cult of the Martyr: The Symbol of Stanisław Wacławski and Rituals of Violence in the Warsaw Student Milieu of the 1930sViolence was a key element of the interwar radical habitus and was particularly affirmed in far-right movements, which found fertile ground for their ideas among students. However, the influence of the systems of ideas advocated by ideologues on student masses seems limited and indirect. Student support for antisemitism and extremism cannot be explained only by cultural conditions, ideology or political engineering. What is needed here are intermediate stages, linking radical ideology with the actions of social actors. I argue that the intermediary function was performed by the symbol of Stanisław Wacławski, a student and member of the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski) who was killed during the antisemitic riots in Vilnius in 1931. The figure of Wacławski was a key element of antisemitic discourse in far-right press and was used by academic societies to construct the annual ritual of violence in the 1930s. I employ the micro-sociological approach and draw on Randall Collins’ theory of “interaction ritual chains” to show that the factors behind the mobilization of ordinary students for collective violence and a chauvinistic agenda included also emotions and personal relations, and not only political identification and advertising. Kult męczennika. Symbol Stanisława Wacławskiego i rytuały przemocy w warszawskim środowisku studenckim lat trzydziestych XX wiekuW habitusie międzywojennych radykałów przemoc grała kluczową rolę i była szczególnie afirmowana w ruchach skrajnie prawicowych, które znajdowały podatny grunt dla swoich idei w środowiskach studenckich. Jednak wpływ systemów idei głoszonych przez ideologów na masy studenckie wydaje się ograniczony i pośredni. Poparcia studentów dla antysemityzmu i ekstremizmu nie można tłumaczyć jedynie uwarunkowaniami kulturowymi, ideologią czy inżynierią polityczną. Potrzebne są tu etapy pośrednie, łączące radykalną ideologię z działaniami aktorów społecznych. W niniejszym tekście dowodzę, że funkcję taką pełnił w środowisku akademickim symbol w postaci Stanisława Wacławskiego, studenta i członka Obozu Wielkiej Polski, który zginął podczas antysemickich zamieszek w Wilnie w 1931 roku. Jego postać stanowiła kluczowy element antysemickiego dyskursu prasy skrajnej prawicy i była wykorzystywana przez stowarzyszenia akademickie do konstruowania corocznego rytuału przemocy w latach 30. Aby pokazać, że czynnikami, które wyjaśniają, w jaki sposób zwykli studenci byli mobilizowani do zbiorowej przemocy i pozyskiwani dla szowinistycznego programu, były również emocje i osobiste relacje, a nie tylko identyfikacja polityczna i agitacja, stosuję podejście mikrosocjologiczne i czerpię z teorii „łańcuchów rytuałów interakcji” Randalla Collinsa.

Motifs of the crisis of the Russian family and national statehood in the epic trilogy of Boleslav Markevich (“A Quarter of a Century Ago”, “The Turning Point” and “The Void”)

In Soviet times, Boleslav Markevich's novel trilogy was unconditionally considered to be among the most orthodox anti-nihilistic works. However, already contemporary to the author, conservative criticism considered the nihilists to be the artistically weakest heroes of this trilogy. What is in the centre of Boleslav Markevich's narrative, is the historical fate of the Russian nobility, which suffered a crushing defeat during the “great reforms” of the 1860s, rather than nihilists. Boleslav Markevich shows that that defeat was associated with a deep spiritual crisis of the enlightened part of the nobility, which supported the national statehood, with the latter preserving the moral foundations which strengthened the Russian family. In his trilogy, Boleslav Markevich depicts the rapidly growing crisis of those spiritual foundations, which was a fertile ground for flourishing of Russian nihilism. In this case, Boleslav Markevich is close to Fyodor Dostoevsky, who in the novel “Demons” for the first time had showed the continuity between cultural nobles and nihilists who are their heirs, the spiritual children of the latter. The lack of faith in fathers gave rise to nihilism in sons. That is why Boleslav Markevich’s focus is on the nobility rather than on Russian nihilists as, due to which that writer turned out to be a thoughtful art historian.

Cyber-jihad in the Western Balkans

During the last two decades, the growing threat of Islamic terrorism has raised numerous security challenges for both states and non-state actors. Cyberspace is weaponized by actors who conduct malicious activities, in order to achieve their goals. Terrorist organizations reflect the darker side of cyberspace. Terrorists use cyberspace to collect data, raise funds, conduct propaganda, spread radical ideologies and hate speech as well as for the purposes of radicalization, recruitment and operational planning. Social media platforms provide a fertile ground to extend the radical ideologies, to spread terror and to connect with people who share the same views. ISIS is considered a pioneer in utilizing the benefits that cyberspace offers. The Western Balkans is a region where ISIS is recruiting foreign fighters and lone-wolves. The European Union is the driving force for the activation of Western Balkans in countering cyberterrorism and developing relevant strategies.