Browsing by Subject "paikka"
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(2015)Objectives. Communication is a basic human activity, and one that is also crucial for business. For those communicating with international audiences, lack of knowledge regarding how people communicate across cultures might create misunderstandings and in the worst case, conflicts. The research purpose of this thesis was to identify cultural discourses about nature and the environment that would illustrate deeply held values and beliefs about nature. The theoretical approach utilised in the thesis was Cultural Discourse Theory. This approach originates from the Ethnography of Communication tradition and contemplates not only the linguistic aspects of discourse, but also the context in which discourse is produced, utilised and maintained. Previous research has shown that communication is cultural and that both culture and communication can influence the way nature is constructed. The research question is aimed to identify beliefs and values about nature, personhood, and relationships hold by seven Finnish professionals of the environment working in the forest company UPM. Methods. The research material was collected through seven semi-structured interviews conducted in Finnish language and translated to English. The interviews were recorded digitally and lasted approximately one hour. To ensure confidentiality, the participants were given aliases and their real names were not disclosed publicly. The research participants reviewed the excerpts of text in the original language (vernacular Finnish) and also reviewed the translations to English language. The material was displayed in both Finnish and English language and analysed applying the Cultural Discourse Analysis (CuDA) method. The CuDa method proposed five analytical tools through which the research data could be analysed: dwelling, relations, feelings, action and identity. In this thesis the data was examined in light of the tools or themes of dwelling, relations, identity, and in some cases that of action. Results and conclusions. The research results indicate that three main discourses are present in the discourse of environmental professionals about nature. For the participants nature was a place to relax and calm down, to be with themselves and to maintain a sense of continuity. The values related to these discourses were peace, privacy, autonomy, identity, spirituality, and continuity as a way to preserve what is valued. The main value hold by the participants is that of continuation or sustainability. Further research could build upon the notion of sustainability as a cultural discourse. Research related to other business areas could be useful to understand how a deeply held value about nature like sustainability is common across businesses/industries.
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(2016)Objectives. Today migration and mobility have become easier and more common, which will affect people's relations to place. The purpose of this study was to examine the link between identity and place from the perspective of an individual, who belongs to diverse groups. This means that the meaningful places for identity formation were not necessarily mutually shared with the larger group. The aim was, above all, to bring out an individual's perspective on the importance of place in identity building process and to determine the impact of changed places due to occurred migration for an individual and his identity construction. The research task is to describe, analyze and interpret the significance of place for identity formation process for young adults who once lived in at least two countries. The link between identity and place occurs in the research groups place relationships and social contacts, which have evolved in the context of migration. Methods. The research data consisted of three interviews of young adults who had lived in at least two countries. All of the people from the research group had dual nationalities of both parents' homelands. From all of the interviewees one of the parents was Finnish and the other from another European country. Theme interview was used as the method of collecting data. It was conducted by individual interviews, which utilized theoretical frameworks main themes. These themes were identity, place, migration and social relations. The data was analyzed by means of a qualitative research by using the narrative analysis. Following the content analysis, the data was coded in various categories, which allowed us to examine the formation of identity in relation to place. The analysis referred the theory but didn't connect only to it because it also arose from the data. Results and conclusions. The research result shows clearly that the place and changes of place has an importance for the construction process of identities. Examining the link between identity and the place the uniqueness of the experience and the individual's personal perspectives were emphasized. The upper categories of the analysis; identity, location, migration and social relations, were a useful in presenting the results of the study. However, the upper categories had a lot of duplication and only by violating the structure by joining the categories together the actual research results were brought out. The research results were formed by the interactive whole of place and identity, which reflected the research groups' experiences of how meaningful the place had been in their identity formation. It showed also how a wide range of individual factors contributed to the formation of a sense of belonging as well as the relevance of the place. Due to migration, the changes of places played a big role in shaping the re-search groups identities. The migration affected the identities, relations of place and social relations to change toward the diverse cross boarder and diasporic manifestations. However, the research groups' reports were strongly personal and contained a lot of unique features. References to cross-border and diasporic identities, open understandings of place and widespread connections in addition to cross-border relationships were common to the entire research group. However, it should be borne in mind that the diasporic, hybrid, and the cross-border identities shouldn't be seen only connected to place, but identity should always be remembered identity consisting of a variety of factors. In addition to place the constructs of identity consist of various factors, ranging from situations and different life paths.
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