The article describes the research project “Independence in writing a graduationthesis: the experience of journalistic and pedagogical education in Russia andSweden”. This three-year interdisciplinary project is being conducted at theUniversity of Södertörn (Sweden) by researchers from the faculties of journalismand teacher education. The focus of the article is the interpretations ofindependence in journalistic education, especially in relation to the Russianpractice. The text examines the concept of the project, the main directions of thestudy and features the ongoing research at the stage of its implementation.

Предлагаемая вниманию статья представляет исследовательский проект «Самостоятельность в создании индивидуальной квалификационнойработы: опыт журналистского и педагогического образования в Россиии Швеции». Трехлетний междисциплинарный проект проводится в Университете Сёдертёрн (Швеция) исследователями факультетов журналистики и педагогики. Фокус статьи – интерпретации самостоятельности в журналистском образовании, прежде всего, применительно к российской практике. Текст описывает концепцию проекта, основные направления изучения вопроса и представляет исследование в стадии егореализации.

Syftet med denna konferenspresentation är att redovisa erfarenheter från ett pågående forskningsprojekt som undersöker hur begreppet självständighet förstås och användas på olika nivåer, i olika utbildningsprogram i högre utbildning. Undersökningen är fokuserad till två utbildningsprogram: journalist- och lärarutbildning, i två olika länder: Ryssland och Sverige. Sedan Bolognadeklarationen 1999 har begreppet självständighet fått stor betydelse inom den högre utbildningen. Detta inte minst när det gäller det självständiga arbete som alla studenter på kandidat- och masterutbildningar måste genomföra för att kunna ta ut in examen. Självständighet är dock ett begrepp som kan tolkas på olika sätt i olika sammanhang. Eftersom självständighet är ett centralt begrepp i många styrdokument på olika nivåer är det rimligt att utbildningens praxis, alltså hur undervisningen genomförs, påverkas av hur självständighet som begrepp förstås och används. Tveksamheter i hur självständighet kan förstås och används i praktiken kan leda till osäkerhet och kan till och med vara ett hinder för studentutbyte och även försvåra internationell jämförbarhet i enlighet med intentionerna i Bolognadeklarationen. I projekts studeras hur studenters självständighet kommer till uttryck när de genomför sina självständiga arbeten. Projektet genomförs i tre delstudier: för det första genom att studera lokala styrdokument, för det andra genom att undersöka interaktionen mellan lärare och studenter i samband med handledning och för det tredje genom att undersöka tillsynsmyndigheters och studenter åsikter och uppfattningar om självständighet. Den teoretiska ramen för studien är sociokulturell, där sammanhanget för att skriva ett självständigt arbete är av särskild betydelse. Projektet studerar både makroperspektiv genom analys av styrdokument, och mikroperspektiv genom analys av interaktionen vid faktisk handledning. Dessutom har projektet en jämförande ansats, med fokus på skillnader i ideologiska eller värdebaserade perspektiv mellan de två länderna. En uttalad målsättning är att projektet ska bidra till att fylla kunskapsluckor och utveckla teoretiska ramar om just studenters självständighet i samband med handledning av självständiga arbeten. En annan målsättning är att projektet också ska bidra till att ge verksamma lärare i högre utbildning en teoretisk grund och ett meta-språk för att diskutera och lyfta iakttagelser från sin egen praxis i samband med handledning av självständiga arbeten, vilket i sin tur bör leda till pedagogisk utveckling. Ytterligare en målsättning är att projektet ska bidra med ny kunskap till forskningsområdet högre utbildning och internationalisering. Projektet är beräknat att pågå fram till 2018. 

Since the Bologna Declaration in 1999, independence is a concept that has gained much importance in higher education. Within the Bologna cooperation, an overall European framework has been developed with general learning outcomes and competences for different examination levels. In this framework, independence is a central concept to describe progression. Concerning independence, the independent project on the undergraduate level, also called bachelor essay or degree project, has a special role in ensuring and maintaining the relevant learning outcomes (e.g. Prop. 2004/05, Prosser & Webb 1994), partly due to its pre-dominance as a means of assessing student performance (cf. Lillis 1999, Scott 1999, Turner 1999), and is therefore of special relevance here.

Consequently, independence has become increasingly important in higher education in Europe, in steering documents as well as assessment criteria. Due to different epistemologies in, as well as between, countries (e.g. Fox 1994, Cadman 1997), the different understandings of independence are both varying and complex and needs to be further examined. The complexities and variations also stem from a general problem of implicitness rather than explicitness in higher education (e.g. Lillis 1999, Scott 1999, Turner 1999), for instance regarding independence.

Independence is however a concept which could be understood in different ways in different contexts. Since independence appears to be a central concept in many steering documents on different levels it is reasonable that the higher education practice is influenced by how independence, as a concept, is understood and used. Ambiguities in how independence is understood and used in practice can lead to uncertainty and may even be a barrier to student exchange and hamper international comparability in accordance with the intentions of the Bologna Declaration. The aim of this paper is therefore to explore how the concept of independence is used in steering documents in different countries, Sweden and Russia more specifically, and by that capture different perspectives and meanings of the concept of independence.

In this study, a substudy of a three-year research project, we focus on steering documents since the national and local steering documents form the legal basis for the practice of producing independent projects. The steering documents consist of learning outcomes, assessment criteria, instructions and descriptions concerning the independent project. All national and local steering documents relating to the independent project are collected in a corpus, and then analyzed and compared.

The framework for our study is based on a socio-cultural and dialogical perspective (Bachtin 1981; Vygotskij 2001, Lea & Stierer 2000; Lillis 1997; 2003, Linell 2011), which proposes that learning and understanding develop in context, and that the role of language is important when it comes to constructing epistemologies and academic knowledge.

Bachtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: four essays. Austin: Univ. of Texas P.

Cadman, K. (1997). Thesis writing for international students: A question of identity?. English for Specific Purposes, 16(1), 3-14.

Fox, H. (1994). Listening to the World: Cultural Issues in Academic Writing. National Council of Teachers of English: Urbana, IL.

Lea, M. R., & Stierer, B. (2000). Student writing in higher education: New contexts. Open University Press/Society for Research into Higher Education.

Lillis, T. (1997). New Voices in Academia? The Regulative Nature of Academic Writing Conventions. Language and Education, 11(3), 192-207.

Lillis, T. (1999). Whose common sense. I C. Jones, J. Turner. & BV Street (Eds.), Students writing in the university: Cultural and epistemological issues, 127-47.

Lillis, T. (2003). Student Writing as 'Academic Literacies': Drawing on Bakhtin to Move from Critique to Design. Language and Education, 17(3), 182–199. 

Lillis, T. (1999). Whose common sense. I C. Jones, J. Turner. & BV Street (Eds.), Students writing in the university: Cultural and epistemological issues, 127-47. Linell, P. (2011). Samtalskulturer: Kommunikativa verksamhetstyper i samhället. Institutionen för kultur och kommunikation, Linköpings universitet.

Prosser, M., & Webb, C. (1994). Relating the process of undergraduate essay writing to the finished product. Studies in Higher Education, 19(2), 125-138.

Regeringens proposition 2004/05:162 (2005). Ny värld – ny högskola. Prop. 2004/05:162.

Scott, M. (1999). Agency and subjectivity in student writing. In: Jones, Carys, Turner, Joan & Street, (Eds.). Students writing in the university: Cultural and epistemological issues (Vol. 8). John Benjamins Publishing.

Turner, J. (1999). Academic literacy and the discourse of transparency. Students writing in the university: Cultural and epistemological issues. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 149-160.

Vygotskij, L. S. (2001). Tänkande och språk. Göteborg: Daidalos.

The cross-cultural study ”Music in the Digital Age”  focuses on the impact of the Internet on music in everyday life. This article presents the first results from the Russian segment of the study: we look into how the growing Internet access affects the patterns of music-related practices in Russia.  Music is now ubiquitous in the everyday life of young people. It is strongly incorporated in the daily routine, and it is primarily associated with mood regulation and adaption to urban environments. Predictably, the effects of broad access to music result in the integration of online and offline-activities related to music. However, we also observe a contrast of the utilitarian effects of wide access, and the growing demand for materiality and privacy in music.

The research project "Music Use in the Online Media Age" focuses on the impact of the Internet on music use. Whereas the user practices related to music shift from offline to online, from album to single song listening, from recorded to live, from file-sharing to social media platforms, the users’ understanding of music and its role is dramatically evolving. The study reveals that the music-related activities in Russia are mainly concentrated on the social networking website VKontakte. Practices related to this and other platforms form complex folksonomies of online and offline listening, intertwined with experiences of live music. The early findings shed light on the effects of the ubiquity of digitised music on the Internet: the integration of online and offline activities, the decay of emotional investment in music, the diversification of music listening patterns. The debate about the value of music is reflected in the discussion about payment models where locally established consumption practices conflict with moral aspects and where the rejection of the authority of the music industry is combined with the respect for the artistic labour.   

The poster presents early insights from an ongoing study of music cultures among young audiences in Stockholm and Moscow. The 3-year research project ”Music Use in the Digital Media Age” is conducted by a research group at Södertörn University, Sweden. The cross-cultural study focuses on the impact of the Internet on music use and meanings of music in everyday life. Transformations in music use are observed from a user-centred audience perspective. The project sets focus on Moscow/Russia and Stockholm/Sweden: two geo-cultural frameworks in Northerrn and Eastern Europe.

To find new forms for music promotion is an important effort to support both established companies and new entrepreneurs. Russian online music and media landscape is nowadays more diverse than ever. The audience involvement in promoting music on the social media results in decreasing costs for the industry, reaching wider audiences, connecting live and online activities. At the same time, the pleasure driven audience involvement relies on time and energy investment. The presentation sheds light on the practices of users’ activities in music promotion on VKontakte and other relevant Russian SNS.

The Northern Dimension Partnership of Culture (NDPC), a part of the Northern Dimension, Nordic Council of Ministers, together with EU and Russia, has chosen music industry in North-West Russia as one of the key research areas.

The report encapsulates the instrumental information from North-West Russia about the readiness for sustainable cooperation with the music export organizations and music industry professionals of Northern Dimension participating countries.

The document is presented as a structuralized set of information applicable for further collaboration strategies between Nordic, Baltic and Russian music industry operators.

It contains

• Information on key music industry professionals including industry organizations, promoters, venues, festivals, ticketsellers, record labels and distribution, media, artists, operational and strategic networks;
• Information on the networks that these professionals have already established with similar companies / individuals in other countries participating in Northern Dimension;
• list of the most relevant music companies / individual professionals with contact information

The ambition of the study is to create as a sustainable tool of navigation for further cooperation in the music industry in the area of Northern Dimension.