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“Hello! Can you hear me?” No, nothing—none of the deer out on the open field seem to acknowledge my presence. I try all the tricks of the trade, yet still fail to establish a telepathic connection with these animals. As part of a research project called Reading Pain—which explores how humans’ understandings of nonhuman subjectivity and animals’ experiences of pain have changed from the 1970s until today—I have read several books on telepathic communication with animals. In this presentation, I draw on my own failed attempts at communicating with wild animals to reflect on how different notions of humanity, animality, and subjectivity take shape and collide in animal telepathy literature and practice. The discussion highlights how a seemingly alternative and subversive knowledge community inevitably relies on the conceptual frameworks and knowledge systems it seeks to transcend—remaining, from an epistemological perspective, the same as it ever was. Establishing stable, mutual, and sustained contact with the radically Other will, paradoxically, diminish the otherness of that Other, thereby raising the question of whether contact was ever truly established in the first place. But then, just as I arrive at these conclusions, I hear a faint voice: “Can it be that you mean me? Do I concern you?” 

Aims and Objectives: To add nuance to when and how remote technologies should be used to support dementia care, we examine care workers' experiences of two phone-based digital systems used for monitoring and planning in daily care. Methodological Design and Justification: Short-term ethnography at three care homes, 49 qualitative interviews, and five video-recorded situations provided data for a detailed account of care workers' experiences of the digital systems. Latour's concept of “presence in absence” was used to theorise the emergent theme of distant presence. Ethical Issues and Approval: Participants were given information about the project, asked to provide written consent, and could stop their participation at any time. The study was approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. Research Methods: Ethnographic notes and interview transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis to identify recurrent and meaningful themes. Video recordings were transcribed and analysed using multimodal conversation analysis to illustrate how the technology affected the progression of interaction. Results: The notion of distant presence highlights how digital technology can support care work by enabling presence at a distance: Reducing disturbances and increasing efficiency. At the same time, it captures how digital tools may undermine ethical care when alarms introduce the distant into the present—competing with patients for attention—or when plans fail to adjust to the specific conditions of dementia care. Study Limitations: All participants had worked in dementia care for several years, so the experiences of new care workers were not studied. Conclusions: The findings provide insights into the complexities of how digital tools can both support and obstruct care: By introducing distant presence, digital tools can simultaneously protect patients' integrity and create a false sense of safety.

Background

Association between job demand-control (JDC) trajectories and problem drinking (PD) is still unclear. By utilizing longitudinal data from Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) and multivariate group based trajectory modeling (GBTM), this study aimed to identify JDC trajectories over 12 years in Swedish workforce, investigate their association with PD, and potential role of social support and gender into the association.

Methods

11961 SLOSH participants were selected if, 1) working at least 30% during participation, 2) completed JDC, and alcohol use questionnaires at least three times between 2010-2022. JDC and social support at work were measured by Swedish Demand-Control-Support Questionnaire. PD was measured with CAGE instrument (Cut-down, Annoyed, Guilty, Eye-opener) with a cut-off score ≥2. GBTM was employed to identify JDC trajectories. Generalized Equation Estimating (GEE) models were utilized to investigate longitudinal association between JDC trajectories and PD. Gender-stratified analysis was conducted.

Results

GBTM identified five unique JDC trajectories (Active, Hybrid/mix Strain, High Strain, Passive, Low Strain) among SLOSH participants. “Active” trajectory exhibited 27% [CI: 1.05 – 1.54, p: 0.013] increased odds of PD compared with “Low strain” trajectory. Men showed 33% higher odds of PD in the “Active” trajectory [CI: 1.02 – 1.72, p: 0.035], whereas women in the “High Strain” trajectory [CI: 1.03 – 1.85, p: 0.032] displayed 38% higher odds of PD compared to the reference trajectory. Interaction analysis between JDC trajectories and workplace social support was not significant.

Conclusions

Our study indicates possible association between constant high job demand-control and problem drinking with difference among men and women.

Debatten kring transpersoners rättigheter och könsbekräftande behandling är märklig – det handlar om hur en liten minoritet väljer att leva sina liv. Ändå har det blivit en viktig symbolfråga, särskilt för konservativa. I år har lagrummet för transpersoner blivit allt trängre i både Storbritannien och USA.

Storbritanniens högsta domstol slog fast i april att två begrepp, ”kvinna” och ”kön” – så som de förekommer i Equality Act 2010 – ska tolkas som biologiskt kön och inte könsidentitet. Storbritanniens Equality Act är en lag som syftar till att skydda människor från diskriminering på basis av kön, könsidentitet, etnicitet eller ”ras”, religion, sexuell läggning, ålder, funktionsnedsättning, civilstånd, graviditet och moderskap. 

Att generalisera om generationernas särarter kan vara riktigt roligt, som generation Y:s vurm för ankelstrumpor eller att medlemmar av generation Z verkar märkligt fästa vid sina vattenflaskor. Men generationsgeneraliseringar kan bli problematiska när bredare karaktärsdrag framställs som självklara sanningar, som om de vore åldersrelaterade naturlagar. 

Är du en boomer (född 1946–1964), handfallen när det gäller att hantera digital kommunikation, men ändå bekväm i din lägenhet eller villa inhandlad till reapris, långt före de senaste decenniernas bostadsrally?

En programledare försöker tvinga till sig en kyss från en kollega och kommentatorer i Aftonbladet, Expressen och Dagens Nyheter har en analys av vad som hände. Trots att de inte var där. Och deras slutsats? Metoo har gått för långt – den löst sammanhållna rörelse som blossade upp på allvar i och med åtalet av filmproducenten Harvey Weinstein, som senare dömdes till fängelse för våldtäkt och sexuellt ofredande. Rörelsen gick ut på att historier om övergrepp i arbetslivet delades offentligt, ofta i anonymiserad form. 

Utifrån vad jag läst i nyhetsrapporteringen har en programledare på SVT, en ”profil”, försökt kyssa en yngre kollega under en fest på arbetsplatsen. Lite senare samma kväll försökte han på nytt, trots att kvinnan uttryckte att hon var obekväm redan vid första försöket.

This talk draws on news articles, scholarly literature, and examples from a study of municipal hunting and wildlife management to explore the biopolitics of rabbits in their varied roles as pets, pests, and life partners. By thinking with rabbits, the presentation examines both the possibilities and limitations of applying a biopolitical lens to human–animal relations. Biopolitics, as a mode of governance, aims to optimise human life—where violence is the exception. For non-human animals, however, violence is often the norm. Only occasionally are they granted a human-like status, selectively attributed to certain animals in contexts such as homes, shelters, or sanctuaries. As a result, the suffering of non-human animals is frequently overlooked, and we often lack the conceptual tools to adequately address or even recognize animal pain. The talk will move across a range of settings where rabbits thrive: tunnels beneath motorways, soccer fields and urban parks, animal shelters, and a rabbit exhibition in a small Swedish town that goes dramatically awry. Through this exposé, the presentation offers a way to reflect on the diverse forms of power humans exert over other animals—and how rabbits, as liminal creatures, unsettle and challenge conventional modes of human control.

Based on in-depth interviews with care workers and observational visits to nursing homes, this study investigates how care workers address residents’ frequent misperceptions of robot cats and dogs as real animals. The analysis focuses on two aspects: how care workers handle the fact that residents often mistake the robots for real animals, and how their approach to deceptive practices relation to the robots is related to emotional labor. Three main strategies are identified and explored: telling the truth, remaining vague, and lying. While the first strategy prioritizes ethical guidelines over residents’ wellbeing in the moment, the second two strategies are facilitated by physical and verbal cues, as well as storytelling in collaboration with colleagues and residents. Each strategy also entails a dilemma, as each carries its own ethical challenges.

Humans have an ambivalent relationship to rabbits: they are popular pets but are also widely used in the fur industry and as laboratory animals. As urban wildlife they are commonly considered to be pests. In any case, humans are preoccupied with their proliferation: they either breed them or inhibit their thriving through culling or other kinds of interventions. This essay draws on news articles, scholarly work, and examples from the authors’ study of municipal hunting and wildlife management, to discuss the biopolitics of killing, culling, and caring for rabbits. By thinking with rabbits, the essay interrogates the blind spots of Michel Foucault’s and Giorgio Agamben’s conceptualizations of biopolitics and furthers a theoretical understanding of the management of non-human life. Biopolitics aims to optimise human lives—a governing where violence is the exception. For non-human animals, in contrast, violence is the rule and an elevated political status is the exception, attributed selectively to some animals in ‘zones of distinction’ like homes, animal shelters, and sanctuaries. By bringing focus to such zones, the essay sheds light on the wider workings of the biopolitical and anthropological machines and points towards a way out of the biopolitical rabbit hole.