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Despite the extensive introduction of digital technologies in working life and the demand for the public sector, including schools, to digitalise, there is limited research on the relationship between digitalisation and the work environment. The aim of this article is therefore to explore how implementation processes of digital administrative and communication systems and teaching tools interact with work-related demands and resources experienced in schools. The Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) and Job Demand-Resources model (JDR) were used to analyse experiences of digitalisation and the work environment of employees, managers, strategists and health and safety officers in schools in Sweden. The study, based on semi-structured interviews with 25 participants, shows that the lack of resources and a too-high workload were reported as problematic and challenging in the introduction of digital technology. Collegial cooperation and decision-making opportunities, on the other hand, seemed to enhance the digitalisation process and to some extent even bridge over the weaknesses of strained time resources and high workload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing numbers of people are spending more and more time in digital landscapes, with many still unknown consequences for crisis and emergency management. This exploratory, in-depth, qualitative interview study (N = 14) explores conceptions about local and individual crisis and emergency preparedness among a small group of young adults representing the most digitally savvy generation in Sweden. The results show that the respondents exhibit a complex and ambivalent attitude to crisis and emergency preparedness issues. Considering their digital habits and skills, the respondents emphasise their own responsibility, social ties, and expectations of help from the authorities and the local community when describing how they intend to face and manage a crisis in practice. This exploratory study contributes preliminary and tentative theoretical knowledge to a highly limited body of work specifically addressing citizens' crisis and emergency preparedness in a digitalized world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technologies have increased worldwide in the last years. In addition, the pandemic has strengthened digital technologies' roles in education, requiring twenty-first-century skills, such as digital competence, and indicating a new normal. Digitalisation in education creates opportunities that could lead to positive effects if digital technologies are applied correctly. However, applying digital technologies can incorrectly trigger a negative development – for example, increasing workload due to nonfriendly user interfaces in software and reducing the motivation to apply digital technologies in education due to a lack of digital competence. Teachers require access to digital technologies and digital competence related to educational issues that influence equality within and among K–12 schools, thus making school leaders' roles crucial in digitalising education. Three group interviews and a survey were used to collect the data in a network of three municipalities in Sweden. The data have been categorised and analysed with thematic analysis. The results show that school leaders describe the digitalisation process in the form of digital competence for teachers, access to hardware and software, and a shared culture. School leaders explain that clear guidelines, collaboration between teachers, and enough time enable digitalisation in education. However, the lack of support and the lack of resources constrain digitalisation in education. At the same time, school leaders do not often discuss their own digital competence. The school leaders' roles in the digitalisation of K–12 schools are important, requiring digital competence for leading the digitalisation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The slogan "digital first" has become a buzzword for public organisational development at the local, regional, and national levels in Sweden. The slogan alludes to the idea that providing information to and communication with citizens should take place primarily through digital channels. This idea is also popular in other parts of the digitalised world. Obviously, digital solutions have the potential to become pedagogical, reliable, and effective interfaces for governmental interaction with citizens. However, the extent to which they are actually accessible, brought to use, and valued among older adult users (more than 65 years of age) has not attracted much research interest. Drawing on national survey data, collected in November-December 2020, on Swedish citizens (aged 65 to 90 years), this article will start to compensate for this deficit. First, it analyses the extent to which citizens have physical access to required devices and how access is related to material, discursive, and social resources. Second, it analyses resources and usage of important platforms for public services for older adults: the Pensions Agency, health care, e-pharmacy, the Social Insurance Agency, and the Tax Agency. Finally, the article examines outcomes: feelings and attitudes towards experiences of encountering a digitalising society. The article demonstrates how all three levels of divides--access, usage, and outcomes--are clearly related to older adults' access to material, discursive, and social resources, as well as to age and pre-retirement experience with computers. It is comparatively younger individuals with longer formal education and at least average incomes and social networks who benefit the most from digitalised public services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible summary: Many day centres in Sweden closed during the COVID‐19 pandemic.Some day centres provided online activities like FaceTime calls and short films instead.This was to help people keep in touch.Some people with intellectual disabilities also got involved in making films when lockdown lifted.People with intellectual disabilities and staff learned a lot about doing things online and using technology. It would be good to keep this going. Background: The lockdown of a day centre for individuals with intellectual disabilities led to digital activities instead of traditional physical presence. Method: This study is based on 17 interviews with staff of a day centre, directors of day centres and support persons. Findings: The purpose of the digital activities was to overcome physical distance and to create "social connectedness" with service users at a day centre. Emphasis was placed on recognisability to meet the needs of the service users. When the lockdown was lifted, service users were included in the production of digital artefacts. There were also obstacles to digitalisation: some service users had no access to Internet or tablets at home, some lawyers forbid the use of common digital programmes and service users were denied being visible on social media, support persons lacked digital competence and were reluctant to digital activities. Conclusions: The experiences of digital activities including coproduction of films made individuals with intellectual disabilities active and visible on social media. This might facilitate the possibilities for future digital inclusion in society. The support from staff at the sheltered accommodations was vital and when it succeeded it promoted a more holistic approach to the service users' everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ageing Europeans are today healthier than previous generations and often manage to live independently up to a high age. The proportion of people 80 years of age and older has increased significantly, and with high age the risk of multi-illness and dementia increases. Strong urbanisation processes have changed the demographic structure in rural areas, and young women and men have migrated towards the urban areas to study and work, while older persons have remained behind. This demographic challenge of increasing numbers of persons older than 80 years with care needs living in remote rural areas has become a major European social problem. In tackling this dilemma, many European countries have high expectations for eHealth, digitalisation and welfare technology. In this comparative study of policy debates in Italy, Finland and Sweden, we analyse how – between 2009 and 2019 – the issues of eHealth have been articulated in national and regional policies of the three countries with deep differences in terms of digitalisation and health systems, but with similar ageing populations. We identify in the documents three core topics – the role of technology, the rural issue and responsibility for care. These topics are treated in the documents with differences and similarities between the three countries. Beyond the differences and similarities, the documents reveal both a certain techno-enthusiasm about the role of eHealth in the life of the older adults as well as a limited understanding of the complexity (relationally as well as spatially) of the digital landscape of caring for older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software is at the core of digitalisation and is often claimed to play a central role in innovation and in shaping competition across industries and firms. There are yet few studies of the extent and nature of software development across firms. We employ a unique firm-level survey comprising 3,929 firms across Sweden to analyse the distribution and characteristics of firms that invest in software development and the orientation of their investments. The results confirm that software development activities are present in most industries, but heterogeneously distributed across firms. Internal software development is associated with innovation-oriented large firms in high-tech and knowledge-intensive industries, and is often affiliated with MNEs. The results suggest that software development is comparable to R&D investments and constitutes an example of digital innovation. This strengthens the value of studying software development activities to understand how firms invest in and build competitive advantage in the digitalised economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work presented in this paper is performed in connection to the research project “Reality Lab Digital Railway” (VDJ). The paper contains a description of three parts of the project, i.e. “Rail View”, “Sky View”, and “Maintenance Go”. Infrastructure data was collected through railway vehicle and helicopter, while user needs was collected through interviews, workshop, observations, and document studies. The analysis of qualitative material is mainly based on international dependability standards, e.g. the IEC 60300-series. The result encompass a description of some use cases as well as some specific user needs in relation to a generic maintenance process. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of some results and their application, but also their extension with Artificial Intelligence (AI) as part of digitalised asset management. A tentative analysis model is also described to support the positioning of different digitalisation initiatives within asset management and support their implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is the impact of digitalisation on a public sector organisation: the Swedish Work Environment Agency. Building on internal documents and interviews with labour inspectors and managers, it shows that ICT‐enabled temporal and spatial flexibility increased the social isolation among the inspectors and that standardising technology negatively affected their work practice discretion. The interviewed inspectors considered these problems a managerial responsibility to solve. Management, in contrast, considered isolation a passing phenomenon and judged standardisation and replicability through ICT more important than inspectors' discretion. This study illustrates how new technology in an organisation, although considered necessary, raises questions about how to maintain communities of practice and how to avoid negative effects on the discretion of street‐level agents. It contributes to theory by introducing the concepts of Communities of Practice and street‐level bureaucracy into the discussion of isolation by digitalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital health and welfare technologies and artificial intelligence are proposed to revolutionise healthcare systems around the world by enabling new models of care. Digital health and welfare technologies enable remote monitoring and treatments, and artificial intelligence is proposed as a means of prediction instead of reaction to individuals' health and as an enabler of proactive care and rehabilitation. The digital transformation not only affects hospital and primary care but also how the community meets older people's needs. Community care is often provided by informal and formal care‐givers, most of whom are women. Gender equality is at the heart of many national strategies, but do all genders have equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities when it comes to community care and its digital transformation? The digital transformation of community care is entangled with how care is provided to older people and the working conditions of community‐care professionals. Current and, even more so, future community‐care systems are and will be partly constituted by networks of technological artefacts. These health and welfare technological artefacts and the discourse surrounding them mediate and constitute social relations and community care. This article looks into how health and welfare technology and artificial intelligence‐based devices and systems mediate and constitute gender relations in community care and presents an argument for reflexivity, embodiment, pluralism, participation and ecology as an alternative strategy to treating community care as one‐size‐fit‐all and being blind to gender‐related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Experiences of the innovative method Reflective STRENGTH‐Giving Dialogue (STRENGTH), which is grounded in a lifeworld perspective and developed to improve quality of care, is described in this study. Innovative thinking in developing health and social care, which may include digital solutions, is required to ensure a meaningful and dignified life in old age. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe experiences of the intervention Reflective STRENGTH‐Giving Dialogue from the perspective of older persons living with long‐term health problems. Method: Individual qualitative interviews were conducted with 27 older persons who participated in the intervention. The older persons wrote notes from each dialogue in booklets, and the booklets became part of the study data, analysed with a Reflective Lifeworld Research approach. Results: STRENGTH is experienced as an opportunity to reflect upon life and identify small and large life projects. Dialogues that lead to change in thoughts and actions influence the older persons' well‐being, sense of balance, joy and meaning in life. There is an experience of STRENGTH as a starting point and a push to move forward in an effort to experience joy and meaning in life when living with long‐term health problems. Conclusions: STRENGTH has the potential to contribute to quality improvement in person‐centred care and enhance meaning in life for older persons living with long‐term health problems. However, the use of a digital tool in this particular context poses challenges that must be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study furthers the understanding of newly graduated students' role in construction firms' efforts to better use digital technologies. The aim is to increase the understanding of the role that newly graduated students play in digital transformation in construction firms. The study is based on 18 semi-structured interviews and three focus group interviews with new graduates and construction managers in Sweden's three largest construction firms. The results show that despite having relevant skills, new graduates play a limited role when they are first recruited, as they struggle to close the "knowledge-experience gap". Gradually, whilst familiarising themselves with how things are done, they act as ambassadors for digitalisation and contribute to the modification of senior colleagues' beliefs about how technology could be used. However, this development is hampered by them getting caught-up in messy everyday activities, which forces them – like other staff – to prioritise urgent issues over important ones. An observed lack of established practices for how to make use of students' skills hampers their involvement further. It has been suggested that urgency might not only be a problem, but a solution in that it is possible to increase the sense of urgency around new way of working with digital technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim with this article is to discuss how changes in technology at workplaces engender both change and restoration of gender constructions within the context of underground mining. The discussions are formed around a constructed case based on material from gender and organizational studies of large-scale industrial mines in different countries, most of them from Sweden. New technologies such as digitalization and automation together with new organizational forms engender changes in mining work, e.g., new types of work tasks, new competence demands, and a move from underground to high-tech control rooms aboveground. One main observation is that the changes challenge the old and recalcitrant blue-collar mining masculinity. On the one hand, the organizational resistance and "lagging" seemed to result in re-gendering and restoration of the male dominance. On the other hand, there were tendencies to adaptation in the workplace cultures, including new ways of forming mining masculinities, perhaps even undoing of gender. The main conclusion is that the most probable development lies somewhere in-between and by analyzing such complex processes of gender, technology, and change future research can get more knowledge of changes of gender constructions in working life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In contemporary society internet and digital competencies are used to perform activities. Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate opportunities and risks of internet use as perceived by the parents of adolescents with intellectual disabilities (ID) in comparison with a national reference group of parents of adolescents. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with group comparisons using a national survey. Analyses were carried out using Fisher's exact test and logistic regression to control for confounding factors. Results: A significantly higher proportion of parents of adolescents with ID perceive opportunities associated with internet use and playing games, and a lower proportion perceive risks with negative consequences, compared with the reference group. Significantly more parents of adolescents with ID perceive their adolescent never use smartphones and social media compared with the reference group. Fewer parents of adolescents with ID have concerns about online risks for their adolescents compared with the reference group. Conclusion and Significance: The results provide new knowledge for occupational therapists to support positive risk-taking in internet-use for adolescents with ID, in collaboration with their parents, to enable the development of digital competencies and digital participation in everyday life in a digitalised society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The drawing of boundaries has been deemed crucial for the shaping of markets. One type of such boundary is the boundary between markets to distinguish alternative market versions in all their heterogeneity. The so-called sharing economy – largely enabled by the current wave of digitalisation – represents a domain comprising many overlapping and contested market boundaries. This article explores how different conceptualisations of the sharing economy prompt strategic efforts to establish alternative market boundaries for the purpose of legitimising specific practices and to advance political and ideological ambitions. It also shows how this "boundary work" reinforces controversies when different processes of drawing boundaries interfere with and potentially threaten each other. Drawing on constructivist market studies, particularly the notions of framing and performation struggles, this article compares three dominating ridesharing platforms in Sweden: Uber, Skjutsgruppen and Heetch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Digitization is for long a key topic in R&D of the European steel industry. • Close to all European steel makers are active in this field. • Especially active seem to be actors in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Sweden. Abstract The digitalisation may have large impacts on the resource efficiency in heavy industries. Downtimes and rejects may be reduced to a minimum by predicting necessary maintenance or reallocating rejects to other final products, among others. Industry has to contribute substantially to the low-carbon transformation if carbon dioxide reduction targets of 80 % to 95 % are to be met. Energy-intensive industries like the steel industry play a major role in this transformation since energy-intensive industries account for about 75% of total industrial carbon dioxide emissions (e.g. IEA, 2009). Visions for factories of the future include concepts such as one site – one tablet – one worker, zero-waste-production and complete recycling. Such major changes are likely to affect resource efficiency, as well. Studies on the current state and future implications of digitalisation in the steel industry are scarce. This contribution reviews policy activities, R&D projects and activities in the field of digitalising the European steel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing digitalization of public administration and increased automation of legal decision-making bears promise to benefit citizens, businesses and other stakeholders through simpler and more efficient civil processes, and thus has great impact on the urban planning and building process. However, automation of decision-making that is directed or constrained by normative systems such as laws, regulations and policies, requires a detailed and accurate representation of these concepts and their constituent parts, and the domain to which they are applied. This paper combines two perspectives on formalisation and classification of legal relations within the urban planning and building domain. In a crossdisciplinary fashion, the paper analyses and describes a small part of this domain at a higher level of abstraction and formalization using two different analysis instruments. Using these tools, we perform structural and conceptual as well as logical analyses of two specific snapshots of a fictitious property subdivision case in Sweden, focusing on the legal relations between different entities and parties involved in the specific situations. The structural analysis uses the Land Administration Domain Model ISO 19152:2012 standard formalism, and the logical analysis is based on the notion of atomic types of legal relations. The paper discusses some of the strengths and weaknesses of the two tools regarding the formal representation of rights, restrictions and responsibilities of different parties in the land administration domain, as well as how the tools relate to each other and how they can be aligned. This paper takes one step towards a deeper understanding of the domain, and identify areas for future research that may provide better conditions for efficient and transparent use of geospatial information, and automation of the property subdivision process and other related civil processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Healthcare managers, in comparison with other healthcare professionals, have an increased likelihood of experiencing technostress at work. Since knowledge about the causes and severity of technostress and about the strategies healthcare managers use to handle it is limited, the aim of this study was to describe their experience of technostress and the actions they employ to address it.Methods: An explorative design based on the critical incident technique was used. In total, 20 healthcare managers (10 women, 10 men) from four hospitals in two county councils in Sweden were purposively selected according to professional background, hierarchical management position, control span, time in the management position, and sex. Semi-structured interviews with regard to critical incidents and actions taken to handle technostress were conducted.Results: Healthcare managers' experiences of technostress (n = 279) were categorised related to three main areas. These involved 'negative aspects of digital communication' (e.g. high workload, invasion of private life, and negative feelings related to digital communication), 'poor user experience of ICT systems (such as illogicality of the ICT system, time-consuming ICT system, or malfunctioning ICT system) and 'needs to improve organisational resources' (e.g. needs associated with digital literacy, user influence and distribution of work and ICT systems). Actions taken to handle technostress (n=196) were described relating to three main areas involving 'culture, norms and social support' (such as good email culture, and co-worker support), 'individual resources' (e.g. individual strategies and competence) and 'organisational resources' (such as IT-related assistance and support).Conclusions: Healthcare managers described negative aspects of digital communication, poor user experience of ICT systems, and lack of organisational resources as potential technostress creators. These problems were handled by taking action related to culture, norms and social support, and individual as well as organisational resources. All these features, along with consideration of healthcare managers' job demands and resources in general, should be incorporated into actions monitored by healthcare organisations to improve or maintain a sustainable digitalised environment for healthcare managers.Trial Registration: Regional Ethics Board in Linköping #2017/597-31. Registered 20 March 2018. URL not available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The future of elder care is affected by care robots. • Elderly care regime experiences destabilization due to various pressures. • Inertia exists in both technological development and socio-institutional adaptation. • Advancing and hindering elements in transition are both technical and social. • The advancing and hindering elements can be drivers for different future scenarios. Robots are not yet typical in daily use in elder care services, but recent studies suggest that they will soon be mainstream. In this study, we focus on the future of elder care, affected by the emergence of care robotics. We tackle the socio-technical transition—a multi-level change with a re-configuration of social and technological elements of the system—of elder care. The transition in the elder care system and the conditions of the embedding the robots in welfare services and society in three European countries, Germany, Sweden and Finland, are examined. Our qualitative study focuses on current situation in the use of robots in elder care as well as advancing and hindering elements in embedding robots into society and elder care practices. According to the results, there is a shift towards using robots in care, but remarkable inertia exists in both technological development and socio-institutional adaptation. Advancing and hindering elements in transition are both technical and social – and increasingly interrelated, which needs to be considered in management and policy measures to promote successful future transition pathways. The change of attitudes and embedding robots into society is promoted, for instance, by raising relevant knowledge on robots at different levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Healthcare services are being increasingly digitalised in European countries. However, in studies evaluating digital health technology, some people are less likely to participate than others, e.g. those who are older, those with a lower level of education and those with poorer digital skills. Such non-participation in research - deriving from the processes of non-recruitment of targeted individuals and self-selection - can be a driver of old-age exclusion from new digital health technologies. We aim to introduce, discuss and test an instrument to measure non-participation in digital health studies, in particular, the process of self-selection., Methods: Based on a review of the relevant literature, we designed an instrument - the NPART survey questionnaire - for the analysis of self-selection, covering five thematic areas: socioeconomic factors, self-rated health and subjective overall quality of life, social participation, time resources, and digital skills and use of technology. The instrument was piloted on 70 older study persons in Sweden, approached during the recruitment process for a trial study., Results: Results indicated that participants, as compared to decliners, were on average slightly younger and more educated, and reported better memory, higher social participation, and higher familiarity with and greater use of digital technologies. Overall, the survey questionnaire was able to discriminate between participants and decliners on the key aspects investigated, along the lines of the relevant literature., Conclusions: The NPART survey questionnaire can be applied to characterise non-participation in digital health research, in particular, the process of self-selection. It helps to identify underrepresented groups and their needs. Data generated from such an investigation, combined with hospital registry data on non-recruitment, allows for the implementation of improved sampling strategies, e.g. focused recruitment of underrepresented groups, and for the post hoc adjustment of results generated from biased samples, e.g. weighting procedures.

Introduction: Older persons with functional limitations often need assistance from home care staff to thrive and continue to live in their home environments. Reablement, a proactive, preventative approach administered by home care staff, stimulating active engagement of the older person, is often recommended. Even though reablement has a potential to become a new rehabilitation model and has been implemented in different countries in various degrees, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the process of establishing reablement, the theoretical underpinnings and the conditionality and outcomes in different contexts. This knowledge is needed before full-scale recommendations can be made for implementation in specific contexts., Aim: This study protocol aims to present a feasibility study of the intervention, ASSIST 1.0, a theory-based reablement programme, which includes coaching of home care staff and digitally based smart products, in a Swedish context., Methods and Analysis: This feasibility study will evaluate the perceived value and acceptability of ASSIST 1.0 intervention programme regarding fidelity, reach and dose, and potential outcomes by using a pretest and post-test design involving an intervention group and a control group (n=30) of older persons living at home, needing home care services. Qualitative interviews with home care staff delivering ASSIST and the older adults receiving the intervention as well as their significant others will be conducted to explore aspects affecting the intervention., Ethics and Dissemination: This study has been approved by the regional ethics board. The results of the feasibility study will form the base for refinement of the ASSIST programme and for the subsequent planning of a full-scale randomised controlled trial investigating the effect of the programme on a larger scale. Dissemination will include peer-reviewed publications and presentations at national and international conferences as well as information to involved stakeholders., Trial Registration Number: NCT03505619., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)