Browsing by Subject "ethnography"

This thesis is about the sociocultural phenomenon of start-up entrepreneurship. Contemporary society is home to a growing obsession towards entrepreneurship, with entrepreneurial action regarded as a possible solution to a wide spectrum of social problems. Entrepreneurial action and the acquiring of an entrepreneurial way of thinking and operating is widely considered to contribute to the common good, in reality having potential for a positive impact on society. Hence entrepreneurship is promoted in social policy and education in an effort to educate citizens towards entrepreneurial agency. All in all, an interesting shift is happening with entrepreneurs positioning themselves as producers of the common good ”making the world a better place one pizza at a time”, while farmers traditionally identifying as ”producers” are becoming more ”entrepreneurial”. Entrepreneurial agency as a new form of agency suitable for any individual in almost any field of action originates from the neoliberal discourse and the emphasis on individual freedom and entrepreneurialism. Like Margaret Thatcher famously stated, ”there is no society, there are individual men and women”. This highly individualistic approach to the reorganisation of society and the reinforcement or restoration of the class dominance of a small global elite was voiced as an alleged antidote to the perils of socialism, and culturally connected to the positive ideals of the entrepreneur as a free, self-reliable, innovative and efficient individual. This was the neoliberal re-invention of the entrepreneur that transformed the idea of the entrepreneur as primarily a business operator to that of the morally worthy individual simply doing the right thing. The fruits of the labour would then trickle-down as collectively beneficiary. This thesis is an ethnographic study on start-up entrepreneurs in the Greater Helsinki start-up ecosystem working to promote their companies. Through interviews and observational data, this thesis studies the start-up entrepreneur as the epitome of this contemporary entrepreneurial agency. Start-up entrepreneurship sometimes referred to as ”entrepreneurialism on steroids”, is a form of often tech-related entrepreneurialism aimed at fast growth with the help of investments - a sort of ”rags to riches” narrative. But the work is demanding with statistically most start-up companies destined to fail, with a very small percentage becoming successful in finding markets, growing and returning the investments while providing lucrative ”exits” for the founders. Utilising positioning theory this thesis focuses on three themes related to start-up entrepreneurs: their identifications and boundary work in separating them as a specific social group, the outspoken motivations behind their actions and the troubles that arise from their endeavours. Through dress code, speech norms and the acceptance of the Weberian idea of the entrepreneur as ”a special actor” and capable problem-solver, the identity of the start-up entrepreneur is constructed and ritualistically verified in events like SLUSH. The origins of the neoliberal discourse are interestingly present in these motivations, with a majority of the interviewees emphasizing the altruistic side of their social entrepreneurialism and the importance of freedom in life. They are free to achieve. But on the other hand, the possibility of unimaginable financial gain brings certain ambiguity to the situation. In the words of one interviewee: ”Anyone who says they don´t dream of getting rich in a start-up company is lying.” Finally, among all the positive hype that surrounds successful start-up companies and entrepreneurship partly due to the way they are portrayed in the media, there are problems ahead for many. Stress and financial troubles combined with the shame and possible debt resulting from going bankrupt manifest themselves as severe physical symptoms, mental health problems, insomnia and burnout. This can in turn have a dramatic impact in dictating the lives of the start-up entrepreneurs. Following the ideas of critical entrepreneurship studies and contributing to the lack of research on the topic, this thesis suggests that due to the influence of the neoliberal discourse on the way entrepreneurship is framed and celebrated as well as the severity of the resulting problems for many, there should be a more critical and analytical approach to the seemingly value-free promotion of entrepreneurship. It is necessary to ask whose interests are actually getting promoted through increased entrepreneurial agency, and whether the alleged promotion of common good is in fact contributing to any issues other than the convenience of the every-day lives of the middle-class.

This thesis presents an ethnographic and discourse analytical approach to the construction of Saudi Arabian nationhood in the post-2016 era following the inception of the national, neoliberal economic reform plan Vision 2030. The analysis examines a dual dataset consisting of ethnographic data as well as textual and visual sources produced for the most part in the context of Saudi Arabia’s National Day and Founding Day celebrations. The framework of analysis draws on social constructivist theories of nationalism as well as Marxist approaches to political economy. The work focuses on the interlinkages of contemporary Saudi nationalism, capitalist political economy and the creation of neoliberal-national subjectivities by examining three core research questions. (1) How are national futures envisioned and pasts remembered in the context of state and elite production of nationalism? (2) How are certain femininities produced as national and what are the qualities that make up national femininities in state and elite discourse? (3) How do national celebrations participate in constructing Saudi Arabian nationhood and what are some popular responses to or understandings of nationalism in their context? The analysis shows how the neoliberal economic reform plan Vision 2030 constructs national, neoliberal subjects by projecting the image of a self-governing, economic and youthful Saudi citizen. Vision 2030 also emerges as an economic imaginary of a future techno-utopian Saudi Arabia, where the “giga projects” undertaken under Vision 2030 have been realized through the ambition-turned-labor of ideal citizens. Meanwhile, Founding Day surfaces as an invented tradition seeking to establish continuity with an “authentic” and suitable Saudi Arabian past at a time when the kingdom is in the midst of a period of economic and social change. The production of national subjects also occurs along gendered lines by producing neoliberal-national femininities: women occupy a dual role as both carriers of tradition and symbols of the nation and its modernity. Also popular Founding Day celebrations surface as practices that contribute to shaping subjectivities through the creation of embodied experiences of the nation along with visualizing its glorified past and utopian future. Participants in such events also participate in this subject formation by deciding whether to take part in celebrations and, if so, how.

Previous research has shown that colonization had profound impacts on precolonial Indigenous communities in North America. From the first contact, the explorers’ perception was colored by Eurocentric ideas rooted in European social systems, religion, cultures, and values, which called into question the moral worth and very humanity of Indigenous peoples. In Canada, colonialism introduced Indigenous peoples with a new social order, including new political, social, cultural, and economic structures, as well as a new stigmatized Indigenous identity, which became foundational for subsequent laws, policies, and institutional practices that aimed to erase those very elements deemed problematic. In Canada, Indigenous people have since colonization persistently suffered from poorer health compared to settler and more recent immigrant populations. Research points to both proximal and distal determinants behind the disparities documented in Indigenous health, and suggests that along with contemporary socioeconomic conditions, the distal factors of colonialism, virgin soil epidemics, and policies of subjugation and assimilation have been traumatic and have contributed negatively to the contemporary Indigenous population’s health. This research thesis is located in the field of medical anthropology and examines health, illness, and healing as culturally shaped, personal, embodied, and shared experiences, meanings, and illness realities. The theory used this thesis rests on an embodied meaning-centered approach of illness, which suggests that elements from the psychobiological, sociocultural, symbolic, political, and historical experiential realms blend to form a network of meanings for a sufferer, an embodied experience of an illness world that is shared as part of a community. Situated in the context of colonial history and present health disparities, the research questions of this thesis center on discovering major themes of embodied experiences and meanings of health, illness, and healing in an urban Indigenous community. Altogether eight weeks of daily ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in an Indigenous urban community in Vancouver, Canada, in the spring of 2017. The data for this thesis consisted of fieldnotes, ten individual interviews and one group interview, taped public speeches, photographs, and videos. A thematic analysis identified six significant categories of embodied meanings and experiences of health, illness, and healing in community narratives: colonization and colonialisms, colonization traumas, structural violence, survivance and resilience, reconciliation, and healing with culture. This thesis establishes that colonization and various colonialisms with policies of subjugation and assimilation are seen by community members as profoundly traumatic events with negative impacts on health that persist intergenerationally to this day. Collective memories of colonization and colonialisms inform what it once meant to be healthy, how communities became sick, and how they can become healthy again. Due to contemporary experiences of structural violence and racism, Indigenous community members continue to experience Canada as an enduring colonial space. Healing for community members is achieved by decolonizing minds from the once stigmatized identities introduced by colonization and by reindigenizing their world through reintroducing the original cultures and cultural identities back into their daily practices and healing their perceptions of the self.

In my research I examined violence in secondary school from the point of view of the students. I asked, how the students themselves defined violence. I focused on who was considered to be someone who has information on the phenomenon or power to define it. In previous research it has been reported that mundane, everyday violence has been studied less than extreme acts of violence. In my research, I drew attention to the mundane aspects of the phenomenon and what it is at its limits. I tried to determine why some things were named violence, when others were not. In my research I regarded violence as gendered, since I wanted to study the phenomenon as a structure rather than as attached to specific individuals. In my understanding, violence and power are inseparably linked. Therefore I chose to approach the phenomenon from the perspective of a feminist theory. Key concepts in my research were violence, gender, school and agency. I used feminist ethnography as a method to both produce and analyze the data. In feminist ethnography it is essential to interact as respectfully as as possible with the people who are being studied as well as to maintain a critical attitude toward knowing and the hierarchies related to knowledge. The ethnographer tries to understand the world of the people she studies by participating in it. In feminist ethnography attention is drawn to power relations as well as in the intertwining differences. The data consist of field notes and interviews. For two weeks I observed the school days of the students of one seventh grade in one school located in the Helsinki metropolitan area. My observation covered classes, breaks and meal times, but I did not follow the students if they left the school grounds unless the classes were held there. I interviewed 17 of the 18 students in the class, in pairs or individually. Half of the interviews were done individually and the other half in pairs. There were 12 interviews in total. According to my research, the student's status in the social hierarchy, their position regarding the norms in the society and the discourses related to violence or bullying in society were some of the factors that influenced the way the students defined violence or were affected by it. Violence in school appeared to be so normal that often it was not even noticed or regarded as such. An atmosphere was maintained actively where the possibility of violence was always present. The teachers used the threat of violence as a resource to emphasize their message. Gendered structures were also entwined with the normalization of violence. Violence or the threat of it was linked in particular with the correct representations of masculinity. In addition to gender other differences affected how it was possible to be present in school and how violence could be defined or used as a resource. According to my research, racism, homophobia and gendered structures limit the students' agency. The students seemed to be struggling to understand situations from other person's points of view and to understand the consequences of their actions. On the other hand, the teachers did not seem to understand the students' perspective. I too shared the difficulties with identifying and naming violence. My conclusion is that even though no one is able to distinctly define violence, it is not to be accepted. Based on my research, violence should always be intervened, despite the difficulties of defining it.

The purpose of this study was to examine child-ethnographers’ views on life in classroom. The child-centered approach of the study involves children’s active participation in data-collection. The aim is to give children a voice in research and practice. The study is part of the research project "Children tell of their well-being – Who listens? Listening to children's voices and receiving their stories” (TelLis, 1134911) financed by the Academy of Finland. The research data were collected by using a research method "Children as ethnographers" (Hohti 2010). 29 pupils worked as co-researchers and observed their classroom during an eight-month period in 2010 when they were on the 3rd and 4th grade. The data consists of 52 writings of the pupils and some stories. The analysis focused on the classroom action described in the narratives. The analysis revealed that children drew attention mainly on pupils' action in the classroom. The action took place in three layers of the school: the formal school, the informal school and the physical school. The power was constructed between the official script and the pupils' counterscript that both affected the classroom interaction. Children's writings showed that there was tension between pupils' agency and control of the school institution. The pupils' competence in the official layer was gendered: there were notably more observations of boys' activity in the informal and physical school.

Homelessness has been described as a wicked problem due to its complexity and persistence. In the past few decades, Finland has implemented strategies and measures to tackle homelessness and to prevent it. The results have been effective, and homelessness has decreased significantly. However, despite the success of these implementations, there are still thousands of homeless people in Finland who lack a place to call home. As it remains, homelessness is one of the most challenging problems facing Finnish society. In Finland the explanations for the homeless phenomenon have usually wavered between individual characteristics and structural factors. Substance abuse and mental health problems, divorce or a break-up, rent arrears and over-indebtedness are usually highlighted as individual factors for homelessness. In Finland, the most significant structural factor for homelessness is the inadequacy and shortage of affordable rental housing. There is a shortage of affordable housing especially in the Helsinki metropolitan area, where homelessness nationally is concentrated. This ethnographic study approaches the homeless phenomenon in Finland by exploring the daily lives of two homeless men who also suffer from substance use problems. The study is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the men’s pathways to homelessness and factors that have contributed to these. This is followed by the men’s conceptualisations of home, what it means to them, and how they make home as homeless people. The second part of the results shed light on the men’s survival strategies, daily activities and their encounters with fellow street people. The data, which consists of fieldwork observations and unstructured interviews, were collected between autumn 2015 and winter 2016. Thematic analysis was applied to analyse the data. The results show that the men’s pathways to homelessness are complex, stemming from both individual and structural factors. Troubled childhoods, lack of education and employment, low levels of income, bad credit, lack of supporting social networks and addiction problems contribute to the men’s situations as homeless people. However, this study shows that many of these factors that are usually considered as individual, are actually more connected to structural factors such as insufficient level of social security and inadequate access to social and health care. The study illustrates that people who are in vulnerable positions to begin with, are more likely to be exposed to these structural factors, the main factor being the lack affordable housing. The participants’ conceptualisations of home show that not all housing is considered home. In adverse circumstances home can be for example a staircase or prison. Furthermore, the research findings show that the everyday life of a homeless person is occupied with attempts to meet basic needs such as eating, washing and finding a place to stay. Much of the men’s daily lives are also devoted to making money, which is usually acquired by stealing. The results indicate that the men’s social contacts consist mainly of people who use substances or are otherwise in similar situations, though encounters with fellow people are not always positive and the threat of violence is often present.

This master’s thesis explores spatial and aesthetic experiences and placemaking in two public spaces in Malmi and Malminkartano in Helsinki. It focuses on two case studies through ethnographic fieldwork in order to evaluate the added value of placemaking in the urban planning practices of the City of Helsinki from the citizens’ perspective. The case studies shed light on the possibilities and risks of placemaking, especially in the context of Helsinki neighbourhoods that are subject to densification and suburban regeneration projects. This research was commissioned by the Strategic Urban Planning Department of the Urban Environment Division of the City of Helsinki. This thesis explores three research questions. It aims to understand how the observed placemaking projects affected the spatial and aesthetic experiences in the public spaces in question. It also examines what kind of attitudes arose among informants regarding public space, placemaking, densification and urban planning in the context of the studied neighbourhoods. Lastly, it assesses the potential of placemaking to improve the spatial and aesthetic experience of public spaces in neighbourhoods undergoing suburban regeneration projects. The theoretical framework of this research utilises theories and viewpoints of human geography and philosophy of urban aesthetics. Building on the study of place and space, it employs the concepts of spatial and aesthetic experience to examine sensory perceptions in public spaces. Additionally, it continues the culture and tradition of qualitative urban planning research. The data was gathered through ethnographic fieldwork during the span of the studied placemaking projects between July and October 2021. The fieldwork entailed participant observation, informal interviews and conversations with informants and autoethnographic observations of sensory, spatial and aesthetic experiences in public space. In addition to the ethnographic data, placemaking theory was utilised to formulate the analyses and results. Based on the data, the observed placemaking case studies had a moderate effect on the spatial and aesthetic experiences in the public spaces in question. However, they raised valuable discussions about local viewpoints and provided important place-based knowledge for urban planners. The ethnographic process revealed both accepting and antagonistic narratives within the local communities regarding densification and the urban planning practices of the City of Helsinki. The latter attitudes did not, however, seem to negatively affect the informants’ conceptions of the studied projects or placemaking generally. Instead, place-driven attempts at making public spaces greener, livelier and more engaging were almost unanimously accepted and welcomed. Consequently, placemaking is proposed here as a viable method to develop and improve the experience of public spaces among citizens in neighbourhoods undergoing suburban regeneration projects. Based on the gathered data and theoretical reasoning, this thesis argues that placemaking is an urban development approach, method and philosophy that can create added value to conventional urban planning practices in Helsinki. Placemaking can improve the experience of public space by vitalising its experiential and sensory qualities, and thus complement technocratic urban planning and construction processes. Placemaking can provide planners with place-based knowledge about local conditions and aspirations that is useful for long-term planning goals. Placemaking can be utilised as a participation method that gives citizens more agency and shows faster impact than other means of participation, further empowering them to reclaim public spaces for communal uses. Placemaking can make public spaces safer and more pluralistic by broadening their usership and increasing vulnerable groups’ presence. By engaging in community-driven placemaking, the City of Helsinki can improve its public spaces in multiple ways and develop its current participatory and urban design practices in alignment with its strategic goals of enhancing the quality of life for its citizens.

Modern life is saturated with advertisements that use images. We see them on our phones, our TVs, on billboards and signs, though very few are memorable or meaningful to us once they have reached the end of their lifecycle. One campaign that challenged the notion of traditional advertisements was HSL’s “Faces of Public Transport” campaign, which ran in autumn of 2013 and winter of 2014 in Helsinki. The HSL campaign featured 526 portraits of people from the Helsinki area who utilize public transportation in a unique and notable campaign in celebration of HSL reaching an annual ridership of one million people in the Helsinki region. The HSL campaign brings up questions about representation, the intersection of identities, and the power of images and the creator of images. Dyer (1997) and Hall (2003), among others, inform the theoretical background of the research on identity and representation, though the main focus of this work is methodological development and practice, specifically in terms of visual research methods and the use of photography as an ethnographic research tool. As the results show, making meaning from images does not produce neat datasets, but instead prompts further interrogation of local, national and global power structures that affect how identities are represented.

In recent years, timber and forest management service sales have increasingly moved into electronic services. Combining this with distant ownership can create a situation where forest owners' knowledge about silviculture and forest management is in danger of diminishing. Poor understanding of the condition of one’s own forest and silviculture increases the need of trust towards the service provider. The purpose of this study is to find out how forest owners currently make timber sales and purchase forest management services. In addition, the focus will be on identifying the factors involved in the sales and purchase decision and how virtual reality fits into timber trade, the purchase of forest management services, and the services of forest owners. In this research, e-services and virtual reality on the customer path rose to special consideration. More specific research setting or research questions were not assigned for this research due to the nature of design ethnography and grounded theory, which are used in this research. Design ethnography and grounded theory methods were chosen as the research approach. The purpose of ethnography is to gain a wholesome understanding of the customers’ behavior, beliefs, and reasons behind their actions. The research was conducted by interviewing forest owners and following their journey during the timber sales and purchase of the forest management services. Methods of grounded theory was used to provide the academic framework for this research. Results show that one of the most important, if not the most important factor in decision-making and choosing a service partner, is trust, which also has an intergenerational influence. Research results showed antecedent trust factors to be customer-based (e.g., previous experience) or company-based (e.g., company values and quality of the services). Other important factors affecting trust and decision making are perceived risk and customer learning, which are interrelation with customer trust. The results of this research indicate that virtual reality can potentially increase customer trust toward the service provider under certain conditions. Virtual reality was also seen as having an impact on customer learning, which allows forest owners to learn the effects of different silviculture practices on their own forest. The results show that every customer segment can benefit from virtual reality. Inspecting the forest plan and seeing the effects of different forestry operations in the virtual reality were seen as the most significant benefits of the virtual reality. In addition, interviewees saw that including the ability to see the visualization of the expected future growth in virtual reality would facilitate decision making.