Browsing by Author "Airaksinen, Anni"

The important aspects of empowerment are good self-esteem and an ability to set goals for oneself. These are related to an optimistic view of the future and faith in one’s dreams. Empowerment is an individual process, but it can be supported by subtle solutions. Siitonen (1999) has developed a theory of empowerment which is classified into four sub-processes which are goals, capacity beliefs, context beliefs, and emotions. Doing things by hand, setting goals, feeling competent by succeeding, and getting positive feedback from others, are significant sources of satisfaction and they also support personal growth and empowerment. Today a lot of social interaction happens in social media and in virtual communities. Craft as a hobby has also found it’s place in virtual communities. The aim of this study was to understand and interprete empowerment through individuals experiences about hobby craft in virtual communities. Qualitative data was collected using electronic form during spring 2018. The form was shared through craft-themed Facebook-group called “Käsityön ystävien vinkkipankki”. The form included instructions about how to answer, backround questions, three open questions, supporting questions, and a possibility to share thoughts about the subject. The data was collected from 120 respondents and it was analyzed from 89 respondents with discretionary sample. The data was analyzed by content analysis and using Atlas.ti. –program. Data were compared to the empowerment theory by Siitonen (1999). The conclusion of this stydy is that crafts virtual communities have possibilities to empower individuals and crafts as a hobby have many meanings that support one’s empowerment process. For individual, the most important factors were feeling of success, setting goals, development of self-image by positive feedback ja development of one’s skills, as well as the meanings of craft as hobby that support mental health. In craft-themed virtual communities the most important factors for making empowerment possible for individual were sense of community, abetment, and positive feedback, as well as shared experiences that create sense of warm and safe atmosphere. Repondents also metioned that shared rules and boundaries were importat in creating a sense of community.