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Tjora, Aksel

Tjora is Professor in Sociology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and has an adjunct position at NST. He is working with studies of technology in use, mainly by applying detailed ethnographically based studies on cases such as telemedicine, eHealth, and electronic patient records.

Name:	Aksel Tjora
Subject area:	Sociologi
Education:	Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

The main questions behind Tjora’s research are how social, cultural, and contextual factors influence application of technologies, and how the uses of technological solutions may support some forms of (social) interaction rather than others.

To do this, he studies a number of cases within health and medicine, organisations more in general, communities, music technologies, and communication media, like SMS. In addition he is concerned with the development of a Norwegian medical sociology, by convening the annual Norwegian Workshop of Health Sociology.

Biography

Tjora has a combined MSc in computer science and management from the Norwegian Institute of Technology (1991), master-equivalent in sociology (1995) and Dr.Polit (PhD) in sociology defended in 1998. The PhD thesis is a ethnographically inspired exploration of collaboration and use of technology in Norwegian medical emergency call centres.

He has been working with systems development in the Norwegian Telecom, health service research in SINTEF Unimed and has since 1999 been Asssociate Professor in sociology at NTNU. Since 2006 he has been Adjunct Associate Professor at NST.

Selected publications

Lium, J.-T., Tjora, A. and Faxvaag, A. (2008) No paper, but the same routines: A qualitative exploration of experiences in two Norwegian hospitals deprived of the paper based medical record, BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, vol 8, no 2.
Tjora, A.H. (2006) Writing Small Discoveries: An Exploration of Fresh Observers Observations, Qualitative Research, vol 6, no 4, pp. 429-451
Engesmo, J. and Tjora, A.H. (2006) Documenting for whom? A symbolic interactionist analysis of technologically induced changes of nursing handovers, New Technology, Work and Employment, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 176-189
Håland, E. and Tjora, A.H. (2006) Between asset and process: Developing competence by implementing a learning management system, Human Relations, vol. 59, no. 7, pp. 993-1016
Tjora, A.H., Tran, T. and Faxvaag, A. (2005) Privacy vs Usability: A Qualitative Exploration of Patients' Experiences with Secure Internet Communication with Their General Practitioner, Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 7, no. 2, e15
Kaspersen, J.H., Aasland, J., Leira, Håkon O., Ødegård, A., Nagelhus, B., Størset, G., Lundbom, J., Rosenlund, T.T., Tjora, A., Myhre, H.O. (2005) Three-Dimensional Teleradiology for Surveillance Following Endovascular Aortic Aneurysm Repair: A Feasibility Study, Journal of Endovascular Therapy, vol. 12, pp. 196-199
Tjora, A.H. (2004) Maintaining Redundancy in the Coordination of Medical Emergencies, Proceedings from CSCW’04 Chicago Nov. Chicago: Sheridan Printing Company
Tjora, A.H. (2000) The Technological Mediation of the Nursing-Medical Boundary, Sociology of Health & Illness, vol 22, no 6, pp. 721-741
Tjora, A.H. (1997) Caring Machines: Emerging Practices of Work and Coordination in the Use of Medical Emergency Communication Technology, dr.polit. (PhD) thesis in sociology, Department of Social Sciences and Technology Management, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, May 1997

Contact information

You can reach Aksel Tjora on telephone (+47) 980 42 113 or email aksel.tjora@SVT.NTNU.NO

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