Browsing by Subject "hallintamentaliteetti"

Objectives. This thesis examines the European Union higher education governance. Previous research has shown that political steering of higher education institutions has strengthened over the recent decades, and growing convergence between the education policies of European states. The purpose of the thesis is to examine the kinds of thinking according to which the Union governance seeks to shape the space it governs, and what kind of position the higher education occupies in the picture. The European Union hasn´t got educational policy competences for steering educational institutions, but previous research has shown that the Union nevertheless does practice education policy steering. Methods. In this thesis, the European Union higher education governance was scrutinized by analytics of governing with the data consisting of Higher Education for Smart Specialization manual, produced by the European Commission. The HESS Manual is directed to the Union Member States regional administrators with a higher education policy competence and responsible for regional development. The manual instructs regional administrators to carry out such regional governance and higher education steering model reforms that serve the political objectives of the Union. The analysis of HESS Manual was carried out by Peter Millers and Niklas Roses analytics of government, according to which the HESS Manual was scrutinized as a technology of government, with the aim of specifying characteristic thinking of Manual and therefore of governing. Results and conclusions. The thesis demonstrates that the characteristic thinking of the Union values economic and technological progress and seeks to harness both the governed space and the higher education towards this ambition. The thesis also shows that according to the characteristic thinking of the Union, existence must be earned through contributing to political objectives. The thesis shows the Union governs by setting prerequisites to resources in an environment which requires economic resources.

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan uuskeynesiläisten DSGE-makrotalousmallien joukkoon lukeutuvaa valtiovarainministeriön Kooma-mallia genealogisen hallintamentaliteetin näkökulmasta. Kooma-mallia käytetään valtiovarainministeriössä ennustamiseen ja erilaisten politiikkatoimien vaikutusarviointien laatimiseen. Teoreettisena viitekehyksenä tutkielmassa sovelletaan Michel Foucaultin tunnetuksi tekemää hallintamentaliteetin näkökulmaa, jossa tarkastellaan kansantaloustieteen tietomuotoihin ja turvallisuuden tekniikoihin pohjautuvaa vallan muotoa. Hallintamentaliteetin näkökulmasta Kooma-malli kehystetään tutkielmassa tietynlaisiin tietomuotoihin nojaavana rationaalisena teknologisena käytäntönä, joka mahdollistaa hienovaraisen talouden poliittisen hallinnan. Tutkimusmenetelmänä sovelletaan niin ikään Michel Foucaultin kehittämää genealogista analyysia, jonka keskiössä on nykyisyyden olemassaolon mahdollisuuksien kriittinen tarkastelu. Tavoitteena on horjuttaa asioiden pintatasolla ilmenevää yhtenäisyyttä ja luonnollisuutta tarkastelemalla niissä piileviä epävarmuuksia ja virheellisyyksiä. Huomio suunnataan asioiden syntyperään ja polveutumiseen sekä niissä vallitseviin ristiriitoihin, joiden tuloksina asiat ovat ilmaantuneet. Tutkielmassa hallintamentaliteettia sovelletaan genealogisesti, jolloin tarkastellaan tietynlaisiin tietomuotoihin ja niihin kytkeytyviin teknologioihin pohjautuvan hallinnan olemassaolon mahdollisuuksia. Tutkimusaineistona käytetään pääosin valtiovarainministeriön instituutioaineistoja, joissa tuodaan julki Kooma-mallin avulla laadittuja laskelmia. Tarkastelussa on erityisesti kevään 2014 Taloudellinen katsaus, jossa Kooma-mallin avulla laadittuja laskelmia hyödynnetään erilaisten finanssipolitiikan keinojen vaikutusten arvioimisessa. Arvioinnit, eli tietynlaisten rationaalisten kehysten kautta muodostetut näkemykset toimenpiteiden vaikutuksista ovat hallintamentaliteetin näkökulmasta keskeisiä käytäntöjä. Tutkielman tutkimuskysymyksinä on 1) miten Kooma-malli voi olla mahdollinen ja 2) minkälaisia ristiriitoja tähän mahdollisuuteen liittyy. Kysymyksiin vastataan tarkastelemalla ensinnäkin hallintamentalisoitumisen historiaa, jonka kautta makrotaloustieteen muodostuminen on sijoitettu osaksi laajempaa länsimaista hallinnallistumisen tendenssiä. Tutkielmassa laaditaan kriittinen rekonstruktio makrotalousteorian ja siihen kytkeytyvien käytäntöjen syntyhistoriasta ja polveutumisesta sekä siinä ilmaantuneista erilaisista problematisoinneista. Tämän kautta Kooma-malli asetetaan laajempaan sitä mahdollistavaan historialliseen talousteoreettiseen ja teknologiseen kontekstiin. Tästä näkökulmasta tutkielmassa tarkastellaan miten Kooma-malli 'on tullut jostain' erilaisten makrotaloustieteellisten ilmaantumisten myötävaikutuksesta. Kooma-mallia tarkastellaan kriittisen historiallisen rekonstruktion ohella luomalla katsaus sen talousteoreettisiin taustaoletuksiin. Taustaoletukset konstituoivat mallissa ilmeneviä tapoja hahmottaa taloudellista toimijuutta sekä taloudellisten suureiden välisiä suhteita ja niissä vallitsevia prosesseja. Taustaoletusten osalta tutkielmassa kiinnitetään erityistä huomiota niissä vallitseviin epävarmuuksiin ja ristiriitaisuuksiin. Esimerkkeinä talousteoreettisista taustaoletuksista tutkielmassa analysoidaan finanssipolitiikan kerroinvaikutuksia, mallien mikroperustaisuutta, rationaalisten odotusten hypoteesia sekä siihen kytkeytyvää ricardolaisen ekvivalenssin teoreemaa. Analyysissa näihin taustaoletuksiin todetaan sisältyvän epävarmuuksia ja ristiriitaisuuksia, jotka liittyvät esimerkiksi finanssipolitiikan kerroinvaikutusten empiirisen tulkinnan tulkinnan vaikeuteen sekä ricardolaisen ekvivalenssin realistisuuteen taloudellisten toimijoiden käyttäytymistä kuvaavana teoreemana. Tutkielman keskeisenä tarkoituksena on tuoda esille Kooma-mallia konstituoivien teoreettisten taustaoletusten syntyhistoriaa ja niihin kytkeytyviä tiedollisia epävarmuuksia ja ristiriitaisuuksia. Valtiovarainministeriössä laadituissa aineistoissa ei olla lainkaan käsitelty Kooma-mallin teoreettiseen taustaoletuksiin liittyviä epävarmuuksia tai yleensä reflektoitu Kooma-mallin avulla laaditun tiedon varmuusastetta. Tutkielmassa on Kooma-mallin olemassaolon mahdollisuuksien genealogisen tarkastelun kautta horjutettu Kooma-mallin avulla laadittujen laskelmien itsestäänselvää, neutraalia tai luonnollista ulkokuorta tuomalla esille niissä piileviä ristiriitaisuuksia ja epävarmuuksia.

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan, millä tavoin humanitaariset kansalaisjärjestöt kuvaavat terrorismin torjunnan ja humanitaarisen avunannon välistä suhdetta sekä terrorismin torjunnan vaikutuksia humanitaariselle avunannolle, kansalaisjärjestöille ja avunsaajille. Tämän lisäksi analyysi peilaa näitä kansalaisjärjestöjen teksteistä esiin nousevia näkökulmia laajempiin humanitarismin valtasuhteisiin, humanitaariseen hallintoon ja sen hierarkioihin. Analyysin apuna käytetään Foucault’laiseen valtakäsitykseen pohjautuvaa Mitchell Deanin hallintamentaliteetin käsitettä, Gramscin teoriaa hegemoniasta sekä kosmopolitanistisen vahinkoperiaatteen käsitettä. Tutkielman empiirisenä aineistona on humanitaaristen kansalaisjärjestöjen ja niiden työntekijöiden lausuntoja ja kannanottoja, mielipidekirjoituksia sekä raportteja. Analyysin menetelmänä hyödynnetään kriittistä diskurssianalyysia. Analyysi on jaoteltu kolmeen eri osioon – humanitarismi ja turvallisuus, humanitarismi ja vastuuvelvollisuus sekä humanitarismi ja vallitsevat valtarakenteet – joiden mukaan analyysi etenee ja joihin humanitaaristen kansalaisjärjestöjen terrorismin torjuntaa kommentoivia tekstejä peilataan. Tutkielmassa havaittiin, että terrorismin torjunnan diskurssi vaikuttaa siirtäneen myös humanitarismin diskurssia enemmän länsimaisten valtioiden geopoliittisten intressien suuntaan. Lisäksi analyysi osoitti, että humanitaarisilla toimijoilla on myös terrorismin torjunnan kontekstissa kaksijakoinen rooli – toisaalta ne uudentavat vallitsevia valtarakenteita ja toisaalta niihin liittyy myös vastahegemonista potentiaalia. Tämän lisäksi analyysi havainnollisti, että humanitaariseen hallintoon liittyy sekä pakottavaa että suostutteluun perustuvaa valtaa.

My aim in this study is to outline what kind of circumstances urban policy as a new form of societal governance provides for political agency of citizens. I am looking at the nature of this governance and the way it works between citizens and the city organization in projects seeking to promote the involvement and influence of citizens. I am especially interested in how these goals are promoted on behalf of the city organization, how citizens are addressed, what kind of agency seems to be called for, and what kind of tensions may arise during this process. I formulated my research material from project documents produced in the Pilot Experiment for Local Democracy in the city of Helsinki. Some of my own observation notes from various events connected to the pilot experiment were also added to the material. I approached some of my research material in relation to the strategic program of the city of Helsinki to delineate the most common strategies of the city concerning citizen participation. I analyzed my material by applying a Foucault-oriented discursive approach and theoretications of new governance and political agency. In light of my analysis, I conclude that seeking to promote citizens' possibilities for local participation and to influence the city organization simultaneously ends up defining and limiting the terms and preconditions for such actions in many ways. It seems that project work as a form of governance is significant considering how the contents and goals of citizen participation and citizens' agency itself is to be formed. According to my analysis, projectified governance works firstly by feigning invisibility, i.e. guiding the attention from actual ambitions and goals to the form of actions to "the right way" of governing those actions. Secondly, it works by sharing more and more power and responsibility among different agents, simultaneously limiting the possibilities of this agency. This kind of governmentality can be seen to set its sights on being efficiently internalized through the ideal of active citizenship and consensual collaboration between the city organization and citizens into so-called participatory local democracy and citizen agency. On the other hand it may also enable new possibilities for describing the genuine political agency of the citizens in urban policy. In order for these possibilities to open up, I consider it crucial to bring forth continuous critical conversation and to question what it is that is actually being pursued by projects seeking to promote citizen participation, what it is that is actually done, and what kind of consequences these questions have from the perspective of political agency.

This thesis studies the development of Ethiopian education policy discourse from na-tion-building perspective. Nation-building is examined from three supplementary as-pects: technologies of truth, governmentality and historical change, to describe how it has been discussed in chosen policy documents. Ethiopian Education and Training Policy (ETP) and Education Sector Development Pro-grams I–V (ESDP) between 1994 and 2015 were analyzed with Michel Foucault’s con-cepts for analytics of governance: power, knowledge and subjectivity, and governmen-tality. Critical discourse analysis with Foucauldian concepts was used as a methodologi-cal framework in this research. Nationhood is produced in the education policy documents from one side with integra-tive strategies and civics education, and from other side with regional language and de-centralization policies. Education policy discourse appears to seek balance between ‘one nation’ and ‘multination’ perspectives. The national subjectivity ethos is described with expectations for acquired attitudes and values on individual level. Unified nation-ality is presented in the documents’ visualizations. It was found out that integrationist programs are aiming primarily at equity in education system instead of promoting com-mon nationhood. Educational language policies support cultural diversity and regional differentiation. The findings of this research show that nationality ethos appears ambig-uously formed and fragmented in Ethiopian education policy discourse. Nation-building aim has faded in Ethiopian education policy discourse and the primary role of education has shifted into being an instrument for economic growth. This re-search raises concerns about the social sustainability of current policies with weakened nation-building aims and regional disparity. Strengthened democratization of the society and civic education play an important role in influencing national subjectivity for-mation. Further research about citizenship education and its effectiveness in Ethiopia is needed.

This master’s thesis examines the role of health technology as part of biopolitical governance and the emergence of self-tracking as a tool of biopolitical control at a time when the development of technology and its ability to measure diverse information about the human body appears to be still accelerating. The fact that self-tracking devices are becoming smaller and less noticeable seems to be making it easier and more effortless to implement them into one’s life. The aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding about how significant factor health technology seems to be in the transmission of biopolitics to the lives of citizens. The hypothesis for the thesis is that the self-tracking that is happening through health technological devices is part of the strategies of states biopolitics and is used as a tool for remote control of citizens’ lives and bodies. The theoretical framework is based on Michel Foucault’s work that has led to the birth and definitions of the concepts governance and governmentality as well as to the birth of the modern concept of biopolitics. It was important to pay attention to the fundamentalities and development of the modern governmentalities and especially to the key elements of the neoliberal one. The theoretical framework of the thesis also included the definition of the term self-tracking, focusing especially on its emergence and nature in relation to modern society. In addition to this, the idea of a more responsible person created by health consciousness also served as a theoretical starting point for the thesis. Research material for the thesis included Finnish state social and health policy documents and interviews done with individuals that were using a health technological device. The aim of the analysis of the documents was to outline the Finnish state's goals in managing the population and the expectations placed on its citizens. The aim of the interviews was to increase understanding of the impact of self-tracking on the lives of individuals and whether factors in the use of the device reflected to the factors in state’s biopolitical goals and societal norms. The interviews followed the style of a semi-structured thematic interview, and the analyses of the material were performed according to the data-driven analysis models of the qualitative research methods. Based on the analysis of the Finnish state's social and health policy documents, state wants citizens to participate more in society. They are also expected to maintain their well-being and develop their skills in working life for being able to pursue longer careers during their lifetimes. Citizens are expected to take more responsibility for their own lives and to be more resilient to changes in working life. The Finnish state recognizes a healthier, well-being citizen as a more efficient member of society. All interviewees’ understanding and awareness of their health and well-being appeared to have improved as a result of self-tracking. The increase in health consciousness was supported by changes in the use of the device during the years of use. The usefulness and harmfulness of self-tracking, depending on whether the use is on a healthy or toxic basis, was also a strong emerging theme. Among the interviewees' ways of living and acting, the factors of the Finnish state's goals for governing the population could be found. Through the results of the thesis, a self-tracking individual can be seen in many ways as an individual resembling an ideal, neoliberal citizen. This was supported by the observation considering all interviewees about how they have become more aware of their own health and the functions of their bodies by measuring themselves, possessing more power to take care of their health through self-tracking. Perspectives on healthy and toxic self-tracking also described the potential of self-tracking on harnessing individuals to control themselves and to be more responsible. The ease in use of the devices also seemed to play a key role in how well biopolitical goals reached an individual’s life. In addition, the status symbolism formed by the physical nature of the devices also seemed to affect to the reach of biopolitical governing. From the point of view of the state's biopolitical goals, a self-tracking individual could be seen as a more ideal neoliberal citizen particularly in terms of the impact of increased health consciousness and responsibility.