Tää on mun Stadi : Helsinki Munkkiniemen yhteiskoulua käyvien yhdeksäsluokkalaisten nuorten silmin : tapaustutkimus Helsinki-mielikuvista

The research of regional images as well as that of regional and residential preferences has long traditions in cultural geography. Particularly, the humanistic criticism from the beginning of the previous millennium and the cultural turn at its end have channeled interest on people's images and on the geography of the mind in general. My master's thesis continues this tradition. In my case study I have attempted to depict Helsinki and its regions as they appear in the images of ninth-graders of the co-educational school of Munkkiniemi, i.e. 'Munkka students'. I also pursue to briefly map the origin of those images. The objective of the study is to offer such knowledge on regional images that can be utilized both in further research and also in the youngsters' own experience of the world when teaching geography. My data consist of answers to a survey, provided by 98 ninth-grade youngsters, conducted in May 2015. I carried out the survey in the co-educational school of Munkkiniemi as a semi-structured questionnaire survey. I requested the youngsters to list their top three choices for the most and least pleasant, safe and beautiful districts. The youngsters had the opportunity to justify their choices. I also examined the youngsters' images on Helsinki as a whole as well as their own perception of the origin and authenticity of the regional images canvassed in the survey. I visualized the youngsters' regional choices in respect to different attributes on the map of Helsinki through a GIS-database join. Consequently, the maps illustrate how often different districts rank among top three choices of Munkkiniemi youngsters in respect to each aforementioned attributes. When analyzing open answers I used data classification and quantification of the qualitative data. In addition to the youngsters' own home districts and the district of Munkkiniemi, the top three districts in terms of positive attributes were most often the districts in the vicinity of Helsinki city center. Instead, districts belonging to the eastern and north-eastern greater districts of Helsinki were often judged in a more negative manner. The results of my study are in line with previous studies. At the same time these results raise questions on the possibilities offered by regional images in the field of regional differentiation research. Youngsters consider their regional images to correspond to the reality of such regions quite well. In terms of the preference of living, the most relevant attributes were the location close to the city center and good connections. They also often referred to the tranquility, beauty, safety and services of the area. The safety of the area was enhanced by the people, tranquility and prosperity of the area and lack of certain unsocial activities. Where attributes related to nature and built-up environment appeared as essential factors of beauty, the least beautiful areas were characterized first of all by their built-up environment. Their own experience was one of the most often used justifications by the youngsters when ranking the most pleasant and safe areas. Instead, at the negative end of those attributes, youngsters referred to the reputation of the area more often than to their own experience. As a whole, Helsinki appeared to the youngsters as a city-center-oriented capital where you travel by tram. For many of them Helsinki reminded of home.