Browsing by Subject "technology"

Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract Objectives. The aim of this thesis was to describe, analyze, and interpret how a collaborative virtual reality learning environment (VRLE) can provide opportunities to learn and practice work skills that promote student motivation and agency to learn. The research questions concerned how students perceived their agency and autonomy in different learning environments and how this affected their motivation, as well as the cognitive potential of the VR learning environment and how it promoted agency in learning. The study applied the Cognitive Affordances of Technologies Scale, CATS (Dabbagh, Conrad & Dass, 2010), designed to examine the cognitive potential of technology-supported learning environments (TSLEs) with a focus on the strengths and weaknesses of learning technologies in relation to the affordances in the environment. CATS was developed with the aim to help in improving the cognitive design of TSLEs to support purposeful and meaningful learner activities and learning interactions. Methods. The study involved 14 students participating in a forest machine course at Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences. The students studied both in the VR learning environment and in the traditional learning environment. A mixed-method ethnographic case study approach (Torres Colón, 2020) was used to combine rich qualitative data from on-site observations, interviews, and video observations to complement quantitative data. The aim was to provide a better understanding of the research problems than using either approach alone. In this study, the approach was a pragmatic combination of methods (Seppänen-Järvelä, Åkerblad & Haapakoski, 2019), using all the methods that best enabled the research questions to be answered (triangulation). Results and conclusions. The main results showed that students generally rated their autonomy higher in VR groups than in physical groups, learning in a VR learning environment was meaningful and had a positive impact on students' motivation, and learning opportunities supported students' autonomy through meaningful teacher-student interaction and promoted student agency. A collaborative virtual learning environment, where teachers warmly regulate emotions through meaningful classroom interaction, can provide opportunities for learning and practicing work skills, thus promoting student motivation and agency. The VR environment was shown to provide opportunities for students to explore subjects that are interesting and meaningful to them, increasing students' intrinsic motivation. The teacher's role in supporting students' autonomy and agency is important, as students should be encouraged and guided to use the affordances of the VR environment. Teachers need to monitor, evaluate, and adapt different teaching methods to take advantage of the opportunities offered by technology. In the future, this may help teachers in post-secondary education and skills training and immersive virtual reality (VR) designers to further develop technology to enhance learning in VR.

This thesis is a contribution to the budding discussion within social sciences about blockchain – an emerging technology that, for the last decade or so, has garnered a lot of attention especially with its cryptocurrency applications. More recently, blockchain has started to spread to fields outside of the financial sector as new imaginaries are being projected onto it in e.g. logistics, energy, entertainment, and the humanitarian sector. The study at hand focuses on blockchain in the realm of anti-money-laundering. Blockchain, when applied to cryptocurrencies, seems to propose challenges to the actors who try to prevent money-laundering, and institutional reactions trying to restrict or manage the use of certain blockchain applications have already started to emerge. However, these reactions have also affected the development of the technology itself. As blockchain is an emerging technology and phenomenon, the research conducted for this study is of the explorative kind. Reflecting on ethnographic observation and eight semi-structured interviews with e.g. cryptocurrency activists, NGOs and representatives from tax administration, central bank, foreign ministery, and financial supervision authority, the thesis examines the different imaginaries projected onto blockchain. By applying a combined framework of the global assemblages approach and the concept of practical activity, the thesis investigates the tactics, politics, morals and the subject of blockchain, and attempts to answer the following questions: How is blockchain being applied or resisted, in order to resolve the perceived problems in the field of anti-money-laundering? What is being tried to achieve by the use or resistance of blockchain in this field? Why is blockchain regarded to be of value or a risk? And fundamentally, if examined as a combined entity – who is blockchain? A myriad of interpretations emerge from the data. For many, blockchain holds promise of a better future where individuals have more power over their freedoms and assets. For others, blockchain is challenger that is controlled by no one and allows illicit activities to go unnoticed. For some, blockchain is a threat that should be restricted and governed. The main finding of the study is that blockchain allows many different agendas and imaginaries to be projected on to it. The “original” emancipatory values of blockchain that would allow its users independence, anonymity, immutability, and freedom from central governance seem to be extremely interchangeable with the values of governance and efficiency. The contradictory goals and morals enacted through blockchain have not been resolved. As the juridico-legal attempts to govern blockchain increase, certain blockchain-based actions could go deeper underground, making it more difficult for law-abiding actors to take part in blockchain-based activities. For the humanitarian sector, blockchain holds a lot of interesting potential. Blockchain could be used for e.g. improving access to energy, providing legal identities, and enabling cost-free remittances. The mutually constitutive nature of governance and technology should be taken into account as interpretations are made, so as to not prevent or hinder the development of applications with societally beneficial goals.

Innovation is an important theme in economics and economic history because modern societies with sustained economic growth are based on constant creation and employment of new technology. This thesis studies the role of individuals and organisations in creating innovations in Finland in the period 1880-1940. A debate in economic history of innovation concerns the notion that innovation was driven by individual inventors without support of formal training and an organisation around them until late 19th century. The alleged transition from independent to dependent innovation created by formally trained inventors within firms in the early 20th century implies that innovation activities would have intensified in the period and, using more of state-of-the-art knowledge, would have produced more innovations of a higher quality. The novelties of this thesis are its focus on independent inventorship in Finland and exceptional focus on inventor careers through biographical or prosopographic data. Finland is an interesting object of study due to a research gap. Finnish technological development has been studied before in literature. However, earlier literature has not addressed the question of independent and dependent innovation in Finland. Literature using historical Finnish patent data has addressed other themes such as patenting by foreigners before the First World War and technology markets. The major data source in this thesis is the Finnish patent database created in a research project at the University of Helsinki. It contains data on patents registered in Finland in 1842-1940 of which I use data on years 1880-1940. I measure this increased quality and complexity of inventing through a quantitative measure, the duration of patents. The variable is used often in quantitative historical literature to measure the quality of patents. As an additional indicator of patent quality, I check the distribution of technological International Patent Classifications (IPC) of patents. I study the distributions by looking at individual and organisation patentees from Finland, Sweden, Germany and the rest of the world’s countries to assess the role of technology and human capital transfer from abroad to Finland. I also use additional prosopographic or biographical data on 93 Finnish inventors with patents in the Finnish patent database between 1910 and 1940 except for two inventors with biography patents prior to 1910. I take the biographical data from two biography databases of Finnish Literature Society (Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura), the National Biography of Finland and Talouselämän vaikuttajat. I match the data in biographies with patent data in Finnish patent database. I use these biographies to assess in more detail the formal training, career paths, international connections, economic sectors of work and social background of inventors. The main contribution of this thesis is showing that most inventors worked in organisations when inventing in Finland in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Besides independent inventors actually being dependent, the official patent data seems to show that firms, particularly foreign firms from Sweden and Germany, were important drivers of innovation and economic growth in Finland since the early 1920s. Foreign firms were particularly important in high-tech sectors like chemistry. Independent innovation was rare in Finland already in the late 19th century and early 20th century as innovation was largely carried out by firms and, when studied through prosopographic data, allegedly independent inventors were actually working in or for firms in some way. The results of this thesis are similar to earlier literature on other Nordic countries. The results on biography patents reveal that the official patent data understate the professional and social background of inventors. Even though many inventors were presented in official patent records as engineers, most of the inventors in the biography sample, around 50-60 per cent, were managers, board members or owners of firms when inventing. Inventors had clear occupational continuity in their career. Most inventors had a lot of formal training as over 60 per cent of biography patent inventors had an academic education. Many inventors had education and work experience from abroad, mostly from Germany, Sweden, the USA and Russia. Most inventors had worked most of their career or the second longest term of their careers in someone else’s firm or their own firm. However, there is speculative evidence in this thesis that work history in the public sector or the academia can help inventors to provide high quality technology. The social mobility of inventors was low as most inventors had an upper middle-class or high social background: most inventors were either engineers, managers or non-technical experts and so were their fathers.

This qualitative study explores the consumption process of recorded music from the perspective of individual consumer. Data was collected by interviewing 11 active music consumers between the ages of 20 to 31. The interviews followed the form of a semi-structured interview. Analysis of the data is divided into three parts. Music consumption is being examined by its economic, symbolic and functional aspect. Hence the focus is on studying 1) the purchasing of music, 2) records as tangible objects and 3) the role of technology in recorded music consumption. The purpose is to find out how the new music consumption practices and the changes in general brought by the digital revolution are being perceived among the music consumers. In addition, the study compares the consumption processes of the physical and digital recordings and examines the dimensions and meanings associated with them. In the study, the physical recordings appear as significant objects to their owners. They hold different kinds of symbolic meanings of past situations and events in life. In addition to the symbolic meanings, the object value is increased with aesthetic qualities of sound recordings, such as fine album covers. Because of the perceived value of ownership of physical recordings, especially vinyl records are proved to be great objects to collect. At the same time physical recordings can be seen in a different light: as unnecessary matter taking up too much space at home. Digital music services can be seen as eco-efficient and as such, a good alternative to the consumption of physical recordings. The sense of ownership is clearly connected to tangible objects in this study. The interviewees find it hard or impossible to perceive digital files as something they can own, and therefore they are not that willing to pay for them. Instead, the interviewees respond more openly to paying for music streaming services. In the consumption process of physical recordings, digital music often acts as an informant. The study shows that the purchase of recordings has become much more rational than before the digitalization. On a general level, the willingness to pay for music is clearly influenced by consumers' values, ethics and sense of duty. The effortlessness of digital music consumption practices is seen as positive, but compared to the consumption process of physical recordings they are regarded as inferior from the experiential point of view - as an act of "mere listening". Overall, the impact of new technologies on recorded music consumption comes out bipartite. It is mentioned to simplify and diversify the music listening possibilities, but on the other hand it brings challenges for active listening. Furthermore, the consuming of music in the digital media is seen to have a single-use nature, which again may prevent deep musical and emotional bonds from developing.

In this thesis, I study and analyse the first two novels of the American author Dan Simmons’ four-part science-fiction novel series Hyperion Cantos: Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. Through my analysis of the novels’ narrative structures and thematic contents, I demonstrate how works of science fiction are inherently connected to the real world and can offer new perspectives on ideas and phenomena observable in the readers’ current historical reality, despite the speculative and unnatural scenarios they present. My analysis, based on a close reading of the novels and supported by theories within narratology and research on science fiction as a genre, first compares the narrative structures of the novels, focusing on the relationship between story and discourse and shifts in narrative voice, focalisation, and temporal aspects of the narration. In terms of the narrative structures, my analysis shows that Simmons uses two very different narrative structures within the two novels to nevertheless create an interconnected story. He introduces the characters and begins to develop the themes of the novels’ narrative universe with the Canterbury Tales-like structure of Hyperion and continues to develop them and bring them to their conclusions by introducing the novels’ true, unnatural character narrator in The Fall of Hyperion. The thematic analysis demonstrates how Simmons uses a science fiction narrative in a futuristic setting to introduce themes that reflect historical developments in the western world while simultaneously motivating his readers to consider possible future developments in technology. The novels’ technological themes display humanity’s dependence on technology, and how, using these technologies, humanity has expanded in a selfish manner, causing harm to other species and planets. Additionally, Simmons considers the wavering line between humans and technological beings, presenting a possible future scenario where sophisticated AI attempt to take over humanity. The novels’ religious themes also connect to the real world, reflecting historical developments in secularisation and critiquing a blind obedience to God. The combination of these thematic fields also illustrates the pain that is necessary in the process of bringing about meaningful change, and highlights empathy as a core human value.

China’s rise in the 21st century has been a widely discussed phenomenon inside and outside the academia. There is a debate on whether China is a status quo or a revisionist state and the impact its influence might have on the world as a whole. One area of China’s rise has not been widely researched in relation to these questions – technology. China’s technological development has increased during the past decades to a level where its technology competence competes with other technologically advanced countries. The fourth industrial revolution has brought about new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, 5G or cyberspace. These technologies also bring forth new questions and challenges, and they require research not only from the technological perspective but also from a social science perspective. This research investigated the Chinese technology policies by looking at materials that included five speeches, two State Council notices, one journal article, and a journal commentary. The themes of the researched materials revolved around overall technology policies, artificial intelligence, cyberspace, and data. This study employed content analysis as its method. The categorization of the social identities derived from the theoretical framework of Chinese social identity strategies which included five different social identity strategies: Globalist China, Sovereign China, Unified China, Sino-centric China, and Rising China. The materials were analyzed by combining two theoretical frameworks – the social identity theory with a particular Chinese social identity theory framework, and constructivism. The social identity theory was originally invented within the field of social psychology but has been used in the study of international relations to understand rising powers. Chinese technology policies were revealed to employ Rising China strategy as their main strategy. Three other social identity strategies – Sino-centric China, Globalist China, and Sovereign China – were also found in the materials, and these revealed interesting points concerning the overall technology strategies. China was found to be balancing between the status quo and a revisionist state status, and the technology themes and the regions they aim to influence seemingly have an impact on which strategies they employ and how these strategies are implemented.

Algorithms are effective data processing programs, which are being applied in an increasing amount of contexts and areas of our lives. One such context is that of our working lives, where algorithms are being adapted to take over tasks previously performed by human workers. This has sparked the discussion about capabilities and agency of algorithmic technology, and also whether or not technology will be replacing the human workforce. Public discussion has actively taken part in constructing both opportunities and fears related to algorithmic technology, but very little research exists about the impact of algorithmic technology at work. A lot of discussion has also centered around the agency of algorithms, as due to the advances in technology, agency is no longer something only only assigned to, or possessed by human actors. While some research has been done on the construction of algorithm agency, very little research has been conducted to explore the phenomena in the context of work. Research about adapting algorithms in companies is very scarce, and the gap in this research is especially crucial due to its lack of research from a social scientific perspective. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how algorithmic agency (or lack thereof) is constructed in the discourse of five employees of an IT company that has applied an algorithm in their operations. I further want to investigate what consequences these constructs have on the work of the employees and the flow of agency in the company. The theoretical and methodological framework is rooted in social constructionism and discursive psychology and the analysis focuses on the construction of accounts of agency in the context. In order to answer the research questions I have conducted a semi-structured focused interview with each of the recruited employees. The results show that algorithmic agency is constructed in multifaceted ways and several constructs of agency coexist in the discourse of the employees. The agency is constructed as an independent actor with agency, but that this agency is also restricted by its human developers and operational staff intervening in its decisions. While accounts for algorithmicx agency exist, agency is also constructed as something possessed by the developers and company, who develop the algorithm in order to reach certain goals. The results also show that the algorithm is constructed as an enabler and restrictor to human agency, but that the adaptation of the algorithm has also created new flows of agency, where agency flows from human to algorithm and vice versa. This thesis contributes to previous research on agency, algorithms and work by taking a contemporary, employee-centric perspective on agency, not yet taken by previous research. In order to take into account the dynamic processes of agency when adapting algorithmic technology in companies, an extensive social scientific perspective is needed to inform organizational change. In order to achieve this, more qualitative research is needed to further understand the impact of automation on agency and other interpersonal dynamics.