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(2021)This study examined the relationship between maternal resources and child well-being in an attempt to outline which maternal resources, potentially could serve appropriate for facilitation of children’s developmental processes. Data from a Finnish sample of 52 mother-child dyads with children aged between 6–16 (29 boys), were analyzed. The children’s well-being was assessed via measures of life satisfaction and 5 positive psychological characteristics (engagement, perseverance, optimism, connectedness and happiness). The resources of the participating mothers were assessed via measures of; awareness of strengths, mindfulness, Mindful parenting (listening with full attention, emotional awareness of self and child, self-regulation in the parenting relationship, non-judgmental acceptance of self and child and compassion for self and child) and positive emotions. An Experience sampling method (ESM) and a web-based questionnaire were used to collect data from the participating mothers, and the children self-reported on their own well-being via a questionnaire, aided by their parents when/if necessary. Results showed that the mothers’ interpersonal Mindful parenting more specifically; emotional awareness of self and child, self-regulation in the parenting relationship and non-judgmental acceptance of self and child, were positively related to their children’s life satisfaction experienced within their family. The mothers’ mean Mindful parenting and Mindful parenting subscales non-judgmental acceptance of self and child and compassion for self and child, where negatively related with their children’s ability to engage in activity. In conclusion, the mothers’ Mindful parenting resources, shown to be significantly positively related to their children’s well-being could potentially be more efficient in supporting their children’s development, in contrast to the significantly negatively related resources which may even serve as counterproductive.
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(2019)Tutkimus tarkastelee Chilen pakolaisten toimijuutta muistitietotutkimuksen keinoin. Työn päämäärä on purkaa perinteisiä pakolaisuuden käsitettä.
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(2023)This thesis examined the role of China as a factor in the European Union’s enlargement policy towards Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. In relation to the Belt and Road Initiative, these five Western Balkan countries (WB5) have received substantial investments and other forms of financial input from China in 2013–2021. Characteristic for this is that large parts of this cooperation has been forged away from the public eye. Meanwhile, the relationship between China and the EU has turned dubious, causing the EU to increasingly “riskify” inbound Chinese investments. While the existing academic literature has highlighted the problems that these investments have caused for the region’s enlargement prospects, the extent to which the EU has responded to this phenomenon has received only slight attention. The purpose of this research has been to discover what concerns the EU has expressed over China, to analyze how these concerns are reflected in the EU’s enlargement policy towards the Western Balkans, and uncover the concrete measures through which the EU has mitigated China’s influence in the region. The results have been discussed in conjunction with the theoretical framework to provide new empirical literature on how the EU’s structural foreign policy, arguably the primary form of enlargement policy, functions in a contested setting, and how norms are diffused through the enlargement process. The research problem was addressed by employing framework analysis to an extensive body of official documents that have been produced by the European Union in 2013–2021. The analysis indicated that the EU’s concerns over China, primarily in relation to cooperation causing non-alignment with the EU’s rules, the neglect of economic and environmental sustainability and the distortive effects of state ownership and subsidies, have been reflected in the enlargement policy from 2018 onwards. After this the phenomenon has featured in multiple strategies and other official documents, albeit in an implicit fashion where China has only rarely been mentioned by name. The analysis showed that the EU has sought to re-assert its leadership by focusing especially on increased political steering and engagement, regional integration, connectivity and other infrastructure, public procurement legislation, and the environment and energy. By imposing various conditions to the fields where China-WB5 cooperation has been prevalent, the EU has achieved that the relationship has become largely subordinate to the EU-China relationship and the space for independent Chinese actions has narrowed. From a theoretical point of view, the thesis concludes that the new EU-norm – China and its investment activities constitute a potential risk – was embedded in the EU’s enlargement policy and that the EU has sought to enable the conditions through which alignment with this norm is possible. In a contested setting, the EU’s structural foreign policy appears to have placed emphasis on the structures rather than the sustainability of such. In such a context, it is a rather flexible mode of conducting foreign policy due to its adaptability to new realities. The EU’s structural foreign policy equally demonstrated an absorption capacity due to the successful combining of different objectives into coherent policies.
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(2023)China, as a rising power, has transformed the global aviation market. Since the 1990s, China has flexibly used "aviation diplomacy" to bring its political ties with Europe closer. Is the $37 billion aircraft order between China and Airbus in 2022 a continuation of China's “aviation diplomac” with Europe? This thesis aims to analyse the political and diplomatic behaviour of Chinese and European Airbus in civil aviation through a historical comparison, especially in official documents and leaders' statements. It also examines the birth and development of 'aviation diplomacy', focusing on how China has used this diplomatic strategy. Another point is the analysis of Airbus as a product of European political and economic alliances. The paper argues that understanding China's 'aviation diplomacy' strategy is essential for studying China-Europe relations.
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(2016)Työssä tutkitaan sitä, kuinka chewatyttöjen initiaatiorituaali, chinamwali, rakentaa sosiaalista sukupuolta. Rituaali on tärkeä aikuistumisriitti tytöille ja sitä harjoitetaan tutkimusalueella yleisesti. Initiaatiorituaalin läpikäyminen tekee tytöistä naisia chewakulttuurille ominaiselle tavalla ja on hyvin tärkeä koko chewayhteisölle. Tutkielman aineisto on kerätty kolmen kuukauden kenttätyöjakson aikana kesällä 2004 Itä-Sambiassa, Kateten piirikunnan alueella M’chepan ja Undin kylissä. Aineisto koostuu osallistuvasta havainnoinnista, haastatteluista ja rituaalin aikana tehdyistä laulujen tallenteista. Laulujen sanoitukset muodostavat keskeisen osan aineistoa. Tutkimuksessa initiaatiorituaalia tarkastellaan sosiaalisen sukupuolen rakentajana ja siirtymärituaalina. Pääpaino analyysissa on sosiaalisen sukupuolen rakentumisessa. Tutkimus pohjaa sekä feministisen antropologian teorioihin sosiaalisesta sukupuolesta ja sen rakentumisesta että perinteisempiin siirtymärituaaliteorioihin. Yhdistämällä näitä kahta teoreettista tarkastelukulmaa tutkimuksessa on kyetty rakentamaan mahdollisimman kattava kuva chewatyttöjen initiaatiorituaalista. Chewayhteisössä naisten ja miesten roolit ovat hyvin tarkkaan rajatut. Chewakulttuuri asettaa kuitenkin enemmän odotuksia naisten käytöstä ja toimintaa kohtaan. Tämän vuoksi tyttöjen sukupuolittunut kasvatus aloitetaan jo varhaislapsuudessa. Tyttöjen naiseksi kasvamisesta ja oikeanlaisen naisen roolin omaksumisesta huolehditaan tarkasti ja tässä tärkeässä roolissa on tyttöjen initiaatiorituaali. Tutkimuksessa todetaan, että chewatyttöjen sosiaalisen sukupuolen rakentuminen tapahtuu laajemman rituaalisen jatkumon kautta. Jatkumo alkaa jo tyttövauvan syntymästä, kulkee varhaislapsuuden mallioppimisen kautta pikkutyttöjen tanssileikin, visudzon, läpi aina ensimmäisiin kuukautisiin liittyvään rituaaliin ja päättyy lopulta chinamwaliin. Tutkimuksessa on keskitytty analysoimaan etenkin visudzon ja chinamwalin opetuksia ja lauluja, sillä näiden avulla piirretään näkyviin chewayhteisössä vallitseva ideaalinen naisen malli, joka tyttöjen halutaan omaksuvan. Rituaalien opetuksien kautta tuodaan myös esiin, millaista naiseutta chewayhteisössä arvostetaan ja tuetaan. Tämä taas antaa pohjan tyttöjen omalle naiseuden kokemukselle ja sille miten he rakentavat omaa sosiaalista sukupuoltaan. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä on, että chinamwalilla ja muilla rituaalisen jatkumon osilla on merkittävä rooli tyttöjen sosiaalisen sukupuolen rakentumisessa. Ne vaikuttavat erittäin vahvasti tytön naiseksi kasvamiseen ja antavat selkeät raamit sille, millaisen naisen roolin chewatyttöjen toivotaan omaksuvan. Rituaali luo ideaalista naisen mallia omassa kulttuurisessa kontekstissaan. Tämän naisen mallin omaksumisessa on kyse silloin myös kulttuuristen moraalisäännösten ja tabujen oppimisesta sekä oman kulttuurin tuntemuksesta. Chinamwalin voidaankin sanoa rakentavan tyttöjen sukupuolta sekä sosiaalisesti että kulttuurisesti. Koko rituaalisen jatkumon läpikäymisellä tytöt saadaan kasvatettua chewakulttuurin mukaiseen naisen rooliin ja toisaalta myös yhteisön täysivaltaisiksi jäseniksi. Tutkimuksessa nähdään myös, että chinamwali tulee säilymään jatkossakin elinvoimaisena, koska sillä on tärkeä rooli chewakulttuurin ylläpitäjänä ja uusintajana.
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(2016)The aim of this study is to understand the fundamental features of China’s economic transition since 1992. In order to do so, the central features of China’s transition are reviewed, most notably the main economic reforms, the firm-level resource reallocation, productivity differences between state-owned and private enterprises, moderate wage growth and rising income inequality, financial market imperfections and the central macroeconomic indicators: accumulation of foreign surplus and high aggregate investment and savings rates. A growth model consistent with China’s growth experience is built to give a clear qualitative explanation to China’s puzzling phenomena: Why does a country accumulate a foreign surplus despite of high domestic rate of return to capital? Why does a country’s rate of return to capital remain high in spite of a high investment rate? The cornerstones of the model are heterogeneity in productivity, reallocation of resources and asymmetric financial imperfections. The enterprise sector is divided into private and state-owned enterprises. Private enterprises are more productive, but due to the discrimination by the financial sector they must rely on internal savings, while state-owned enterprises are less productive, but survive in equilibrium due to better access to external financing. If the entrepreneurial savings are large enough, private enterprises gradually outgrow state-owned enterprises. Financial integration of state-owned firms and labor mobility sustains the rate of return for both types of firms during the transition. Moreover, the aggregate rate of return to capital increases due to the composition effect. The accumulation of foreign surplus originates from the financial imperfections. The wage earners deposit their savings to the banks, which in turn, can either invest to domestic enterprises or in foreign bonds. As the transition progresses the volume of high-productive financially constrained enterprises increase while the volume of low-productive externally financed enterprises decrease. Hence as the volume of state-owned enterprises decrease, a higher amount of domestic savings is invested into foreign assets by the financial intermediaries causing the foreign surplus to increase. After the transition is over, the economy is dominated by private enterprises and capital accumulation is subject to diminishing return to capital. The main contradictions with China’s experience are frictionless labor market, financial market laissez-faire environment and the prediction that state-owned enterprises fully fades from the economy. Despite of these simplifications, the model gives a clear qualitative explanation to China’s puzzling phenomena of sustained return to capital and growing foreign surplus. The simplifications allow the model to focus on the main differences between E and F firms, that is to say the heterogeneity in productivity and asymmetric financial imperfections.
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(2011)The Master’s thesis is qualitative research based on interviews of 15 Chinese immigrants to Finland in order to provide a sociological perspective of the migration experience through the eyes of Chinese immigrants in the Finnish social welfare context. This research is mainly focused upon four crucial aspects of life in the settlement process: housing, employment, access to health care and child care. Inspired by Allardt’s theoretical framework ‘Having, Loving and Being’, social relationships and individual satisfaction are examined in the case of Chinese interviewees dealing with the four life aspects. Finland was not perceived as an attractive migration destination for most Chinese interviewees in the beginning. However, with longer residence in Finland, the Finnish social welfare system gradually became a crucial appealing factor in their permanent settlement in Finland. And meanwhile, social responsibility of attending their old parents in China, strong feelings of being isolated in Finland, and insufficient integration into the Finnish society were influential factors for their decision of returning to China. Social relationships with personal friends, migration brokers, schools, employers and family relatives had great influences in the four life aspects of Chinese immigrants in Finland. The social relationship with the Finnish social welfare sector is supportive to Chinese immigrants, but Chinese immigrants do not heavily rely on Finnish social protection. The housing conditions were greatly improved over time while the upward mobility in the Finnish labour market was not significant among Chinese immigrants. All Chinese immigrants were satisfied with their current housing by the time I interviewed them while most of them had subjective feelings of being alienated in the Finnish labour market, which seriously prevented them from integrating into the Finnish society. In general, Chinese immigrants were satisfied with the low cost of accessing the Finnish public health care services and affordable Finnish child day care services and financial subsidies for children from the Finnish social welfare sector. This research also suggests that employment is the central basis in well-being. Support from the Finnish social welfare sector can improve the satisfaction levels among immigrants, especially when it mitigates the effects of low-paid employment. As well, my empirical study of Chinese immigrants in Finland shows that Having (needs for materials), Loving (needs for social relations) and Being (needs for social integration) are all involved in the four concrete aspects (housing, employment, access to health care and child care).
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(2011)This is a study on the changing practices of kinship in Northern India. The change in kinship arrangements, and particularly in intermarriage processes, is traced by analysing the reception of Hindi popular cinema. Films and their role and meaning in people´s lives in India was the object of my research. Films also provided me with a methodology for approaching my other subject-matters: family, marriage and love. Through my discussion of cultural change, the persistence of family as a core value and locus of identity, and the movie discourses depicting this dialogue, I have looked for a possibility of compromise and reconciliation in an Indian context. As the primary form of Indian public culture, cinema has the ability to take part in discourses about Indian identity and cultural change, and alleviate the conflicts that emerge within these discourses. Hindi popular films do this, I argue, by incorporating different familiar cultural narratives in a resourceful way, thus creating something new out of the old elements. The final word, however, is the one of the spectator. The 'new' must come from within the culture. The Indian modernity must be imaginable and distinctively Indian. The social imagination is not a 'Wild West' where new ideas enter the void and start living a life of their own. The way the young women in Dehra Dun interpreted family dramas and romantic movies highlights the importance of family and continuity in kinship arrangements. The institution of arranged marriage has changed its appearance and gained new alternative modes such as love cum arranged marriage. It nevertheless remains arranged by the parents. In my thesis I have offered a social description of a cultural reality in which movies act as a built-in part. Movies do not work as a distinct realm, but instead intertwine with the social realities of people as a part of a continuum. The social imagination is rooted in the everyday realities of people, as are the movies, in an ontological and categorical sense. According to my research, the links between imagination and social life were not so much what Arjun Appadurai would call global and deterritorialised, but instead local and conventional.
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(2015)Globalisaatio ja kansainvälisen muuttoliikkeen räjähdysmäinen kasvu ovat haastaneet perinteisen maailmankuvamme ja käsityksemme itsenäisistä valtioista. Maahanmuuttoa koskevassa poliittisessa filosofiassa on enenevässä määrin ryhdytty tarkastelemaan kriittisesti valtiosuvereniteettia. Samalla on kyseenalaistettu valtion oikeus rajakontrolliin, maahanmuuton estämiseen ja maahanmuuton kriteerien omaehtoiseen asettamiseen. Rajakontrollin katsotaan usein olevan ristiriidassa liberaalien arvojen ja ihmisoikeuksien kanssa. Pro gradu -tutkielmassa tarkastellaan Christopher Heath Wellmanin valtion rajakontrollia puolustavaa argumenttia. Wellman pyrkii ratkaisemaan valtiosuvereniteetin, ihmisoikeuksien ja rajakontrollin välisen jännitteen yhdistämällä liberaalin ajatuksen yksilön moraalisesta arvosta antiliberaaliin ajatukseen kollektiivisesta oikeudesta itsemääräämiseen. Hänen argumenttinsa rakentuu kolmesta premissistä: 1) valtiolla on oikeus itsemääräämiseen, 2) itsemääräämisoikeuteen sisältyy yhdistymisvapaus ja 3) yhdistymisvapauteen kuuluu oikeus olla yhdistymättä. Näistä kolmesta premissistä Wellman päättelee, että valtioilla on halutessaan oikeus evätä maahanpääsy kaikilta maahan pyrkiviltä yksilöiltä. Wellmanin johtopäätös on radikaali ja jyrkkä. Sen mukaan valtioilla olisi oikeus sulkea ovensa myös kaikkein heikommassa asemassa olevilta pakolaisilta ja turvapaikanhakijoilta. Tutkielmassa käsitellään Wellmanin argumentin premissejä ja johtopäätöstä kriittisesti. Työ etenee Wellmanin argumentin mukaisesti tarkastellen ensin hänen käsitystään valtion itsemääräämisoikeudesta. Argumentti sitoo kollektiivisen itsemääräämisoikeuden poliittiseen legitimiteettiin ja ryhmän kykyyn suojella ihmisoikeuksia. Liberalismin sitoutuminen arvoindividualismiin ja yksilön oikeuksiin asettaa Wellmanin näkemykselle haasteita. Työssä esitetään, ettei Wellman pysty näitä haasteita täysin ratkaisemaan. Tämän jälkeen tarkastellaan argumentin toista ja kolmatta premissiä yhdistymisvapaudesta ja sen ulossulkevasta ulottuvuudesta. Luvussa tarkastellaan kriittisesti Wellmanin näkemystä yhdistymisvapaudesta ja valtiosta yhdistymisvapauden oikeudenhaltijana. Lisäksi esitetään kaksi Wellmanin jyrkän johtopäätöksen haastavaa esimerkkiä kilpailevista oikeuksista. Näistä ensimmäiseen Wellman pyrkii antamaan ratkaisuehdotuksen. Toinen esimerkki osoittaa, että argumentti asettaa poliittisen yhteisön vähemmistön enemmistön tyrannian alle. Viimeisessä varsinaisessa luvussa tutkielman näkökulma vaihdetaan Wellmanin argumentin sisäisestä tarkastelusta valtion alueellisten oikeuksien tarkasteluun. Näkökulmanvaihdos osoittaa, miksi Wellman tarvitsee argumenttiinsa sen eri osat ja lisäulottuvuudet. Luvussa esitetään, että yhdistymisvapaus ei ole vastaus maahanmuutto- ja rajakontrollikysymykseen. Tämän takia Wellman joutuu antamaan itsemääräämisoikeudelle lisäulottuvuuden. Luvun lopussa osoitetaan, että tämä lisäulottuvuus tuo näkemykseen kommunitaristisia haasteita, joista Wellman on pyrkinyt irrottautumaan. Lisäksi näkemys perustuu konsekventalistisiin huolenaiheisiin eikä Wellmanin kannattamaan deontologiseen käsitykseen valtion itsemääräämisoikeudesta. Tutkielman johtopäätöksenä esitetään, ettei Wellmanin kollektiiviseen itsemääräämisoikeuteen ja yhdistymisvapauteen perustuva argumentti tarjoa oikeutusta valtion oikeudelle kontrolloida rajojaan. Argumentti kaipaa tuekseen perustelun itsemääräämisoikeuden lisäulottuvuuden hyväksymiselle.
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(2022)Tutkielma käsittelee kiertotaloutta ja maailmantalouden keskinäisriippuvuuksien vaikutusta sen kehittymiseen globaalilla tasolla ja etenkin Euroopan Unionin kontekstissa. Tutkielmassa päähuomio kohdistuu Kiinan keskeiseen asemaan useiden merkittävien raaka-aineiden, erityisesti harvinaisten maametallien louhinnassa sekä tuotannossa. Kiinan keskeisestä asemasta on tullut riski muille maille, sillä muut maat ovat riippuvaisia Kiinasta kyseisten raaka-aineiden suhteen ja riskit osittain aktualisoituivat 2010-luvun alussa Kiinan asettaessa rajoituksia raaka-aineiden viennille. Tutkimus yrittääkin havainnollistaa pystyykö Kiina käyttämään muiden riippuvuutta raaka-ainetoimituksista ’aseena’, toisin sanoen käyttämään raaka-aineita geoekonomian ja geopolitiikan välineenä. Tutkimuksen toinen keskeinen huomio koskee miten Kiinan toimet, ja maailmantalouden keskinäisriippuvuudet ovat toisaalta nopeuttaneet kiertotalouden kehitystä etenkin EU:n kontekstissa. Tutkimuksen ensimmäinen puolisko esittelee keskeiset konseptit kuten kiertotalouden sekä keskinäisriippuvuuteen liittyvät kansainvälisen politiikan teoriat. Kolmannessa osiossa esitellään maailmantalouden kehittymistä ensimmäisen maailmansodan jälkeisestä ajasta nykyiseen globaaliin talouteen ja huomio kiinnittyy varsinkin kehityskulkuihin, jotka johtivat keskinäisriippuvuuden syntymiseen ja Kiinan aseman vahvistumiseen. Neljäs osio käsittelee Kiinan asemaa raaka-aine louhinnan ja tuotannon keskuksena ja pohjustaa kuudennen osion analyysiä siitä, että käyttikö Kiina vientirajoituksia ’aseena’. Neljännessä osiossa käsitellään myös Kiinan tuontikieltoa muovijätteelle, mikä on osaltaan vauhdittanut kiertotaloutta muilla alueilla. Tutkielman viides osio esittelee EU:n kiertotaloutta ja arvioi kriittisesti EU:n teknologiakeskeistä lähestymisnäkökulmaa kiertotalouteen. Kuudes osio kokoaa aiempien osioiden havainnot yhteen ja pohtii toimiko Kiina strategisesti vientirajoitusten kanssa ja voisiko se toimia tällä tavoin tulevaisuudessa. Seitsemäs osio on lyhyt katsaus kiertotalouden potentiaalisista globaaleista talousvaikutuksista. Tutkimuksen keskeisiin havaintoihin kuuluu epävarmuus Kiinan toimien strategisuudesta, jota on vaikea todentaa. Keskinäisriippuvuuden kasvu ja siirtymä hiilineutraaliin tulevaisuuteen kasvattavat useiden raaka-aineiden kysyntää, joiden kauppaa Kiina hallitsee. Tutkimus havaitsi kyseisestä Kiina-riippuvuudesta irtoamisen olevan haastavaa, jolloin Kiinan keskeinen asema tuskin olennaisesti muuttuu lähitulevaisuudessa. Kiristyvät suurvaltapoliittiset jännitteet tekevät riippuvuuden Kiinasta haastavaksi muille. Loppuhavaintoihin sisältyy myös kiertotalouden välttämättömyys globaalin materiaalikulutuksen kasvaessa. Tutkimuksen kantava teema on myös kiertotaloudesta käytävän keskustelun monipuolistaminen käsittämään myös kansainvälisen politiikan teorioita, joiden määrä on toistaiseksi vähäinen.
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(2012)The aim of this study was to find out the development outcomes of circular migration between Guatemala and Canada in the individual lives of migrant workers. This circular migration program is based on the needs of Canadian employers in the agricultural sector to recruit foreign low-skilled labor. Local residents are not willing to work under harsh conditions and for low wages often offered by the sector. Thus, Guatemalan farmers travel to Canada to work on a circular basis. In Guatemala the program is administered by the International Organization for Migration and the Guatemalan government. In Canada, the responsible agency is the human resources and skills development department. The theoretical paradigm of this thesis is transnationalism. The connections between migration and development can be found in transnational activities of migrant workers, which take place in a space external to both the origin and destination countries. Positive connections between circular migration and development can be found in activities such as sending remittances, brain circulation and transfer of skills and knowledge. It has been argued that circular migration can result in a triple win situation from which the origin country, the destination country and the migrant can benefit. The method of this thesis is qualitative. Interviews with 25 Guatemalan circular migrant workers were conducted during an internship with the International Organization for Migration. The field research also included a trip to a rural Guatemalan town.All interviewees had travelled to Canada at least once. The interviews were recorded and the interview data was analyzed and coded according to content analysis. Quotes from original data were used to present research results. The interviews demonstrated that the circular migration program between Guatemala and Canada brought some positive outcomes to the lives of individual migrant workers. All migrant workers sent remittances back home to Guatemala. These were used on consumption, education of children, buying land, harvest and debts. The transfer of knowledge did not realize as well as expected. While Guatemalan workers learnt new methods and use of technology in Canada, most concluded that this knowledge did not benefit their work in Guatemala. Circular migration between Guatemala and Canada can be connected to the larger discussion of temporary migrant worker programs and their possible links to development. On the one hand the developed world needs foreign workers for sectors such as agriculture and construction because of aging population, low wages on these sectors and increased wellbeing. On the other hand production is being transferred to low wage developing countries. Temporary worker programs have also received criticism due to restrictions on migrant workers’ rights. Based on this study the program has its flaws while it brings much needed income to the poor rural participant workers’ households in Guatemala.
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(2018)Citizen participation in urban planning has increased in recent decades. In Finland, it is one of the primary objectives of the national Land Use And Building Act (Maankäyttö- ja rakennuslaki), which means participatory planning required in all land use planning. General plan is a document that provides general guidelines for land use and assigns land for different purposes to form a basis for detailed planning and construction. In Helsinki, the latest general plan was accepted by the City Council in 2016. One of the topics that received the largest attention throughout the process was the city's decision to turn its highway-like entry routes into city boulevards that favour pedestrians, cyclist and public transport. This Master's Thesis examines citizen participation in the Helsinki general plan in 2016 with the focus on the city boulevard question. It examines the discussion which took place between the city planners and three groups: other public officials, neighbouring municipalities and individual citizens.The data for this thesis comes from the document called interaction report, in which the planners summarise the comments from these stakeholders and respond to criticism. Through the method of rhetorical analysis, the thesis will seek to answer how the planning decisions are justified, how the planners respond to criticism and how is the planning situation framed for different interest groups. The analysis shows that the main ways to justify the city boulevards were the city's jurisdiction to make this decision, and the collaboration and investigations that had gone into the process. The city boulevard were framed as a city development project that brings growth and benefits everyone. This thesis, more generally, explores the questions of general planning and participation, and gives important insight into the citizen participation process in Finland.
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(2016)In recent years the world has experienced an unprecedented rise of social movements in both democratic and authoritarian states, starting from Spanish Indignados and Occupy Wall Street in the United States to Arab Spring movement for democratization, rights defence movement Wei Tu An in China, or Russian protests for fair elections and democratization of political system in 2011-2012. Despite various goals pursued by these and other similar social movements, locations and means of achieving these goals, all of them shared common features, such as loose horizontal network structure of informal nature, grassroots civic engagement, and extensive use ICT technologies and new media. This new forms of civic engagement, whether successful or not in pursuing their goals, present an interesting case of how technological advancements and other factors affect the development of civil society and the way grassroots political participation is being formed. This work intends to explore theoretical implications for new ways of civic engagement by reviewing it in the perspective of civil society development and placing it in the framework of new social movement theory and organizational theory of network society. Another important aspect that is being explored is the question of how the development of ICT technologies affects the nature of civic engagement in both authoritarian and democratic states. The argument developed in this thesis stipulates that the ICT and the effects of network society contribute to development of new, untraditional forms of political participation. This new forms of civic engagement function on a network basis, feature predominantly grassroots nature and have loose informal structure of horizontal networks. The proposed hypothesis is supported by a descriptive case-study of online-based anticorruption project Rospil in Russia, which includes analysis of how network society features are intertwined in the civil society formations of modern Russia and how it creates prerequisites for an appearance of new forms of civic engagement, despite the growing authoritarian nature of its political regime.
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(2020)This study examines the climate responsibility, a sub-category of corporate social responsibility (CSR), of two oil companies, ExxonMobil and Shell. The study is a comparative case study of the climate responsibilities of two private oil companies, that makes use of academic literature and recent primary sources of the case companies, such as sustainability reports and statements. The study has a theoretical emphasis, and at first, it discusses the theoretical debates involving CSR. The separation of ownership and control in corporations that occurred in the early 20th century enriched the later discussion about the contradictions between capitalism and CSR, which was emerging slowly. From the 1970s, the practice of CSR became more familiar, and for instance, the orthodox liberal viewpoint became more positive about it: It was possible to combine profit-maximizing and CSR. Later, in the 21st century, governance studies gave a new perspective on interdisciplinary CSR studies. The study shows that climate responsibility might differ extensively between two same-sized oil companies. ExxonMobil’s climate responsibility has changed in the past twenty years: First, the company doubted whether climate change was true. Later, it admitted that it is a fact, and the company has committed to the Paris Climate Agreement. However, it commits to greenwashing regarding finding solutions. The company emphasizes its expertise and authority and is against government climate regulation. For ExxonMobil, the responsibility remains on the level of talk. It is not attempting to withdraw from oil. Shell’s climate responsibility, however, materializes in practice, too, even though the company has committed to greenwashing in the past. Shell has invested substantially in renewable energy sources and states that it aims to transform its business model to correspond with ambitious climate objectives. Further, contrary to ExxonMobil, Shell relies on a climate scenario, which follows an estimate that global warming from the pre-industrial era will not exceed 2°C. The study underlines that instrumental factors can explain the forms of corporate climate responsibility. However, the study does not exclude institutional, relational, nor philanthropic reasons for climate responsibility. This study discusses broad instrumentalism, which includes profit-maximizing and pursuit of corporate power. Profit-maximizing explains the form of climate responsibility that both companies practice. ExxonMobil’s climate responsibility speech is explained by maintaining a reputation and advertising matters, that is, short-term profits. However, its climate responsibility in practice remains modest, even irresponsible: The company is not withdrawing from oil nor investing in renewable energy sources. That is because, whereas the new oil resources are becoming harder and harder to exploit, ExxonMobil has relatively large oil resources compared with other oil companies. In turn, Shell’s climate responsibility is explained, especially by the long-term profits. Shell has relatively low oil reserves. Thus, it prepares for future regulation and positions as a progressive actor regarding energy transition to maximize profits in the 22nd century. Also, the case companies differ in the way they pursue corporate power. In the case of ExxonMobil, its climate responsibility speech is an attempt to pursuit corporate power against government regulation and to obtain autonomy. On the other hand, in climate issues, Shell highlights cooperation with the government and other stakeholders instead of self-regulation through its CSR. In the end, the thesis discusses the implications of the results to a broader question of global climate governance. When sustainability has become a growing business, and there are challenges in global climate governance, it is important to recognize the limits of climate responsibility, and more broadly, the limits of corporate social responsibility as a long-term solution. However, in the short term, the climate efforts of corporations are necessary to fill the regulatory gaps of global climate governance.
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(2020)The focus of this thesis is on the recent changes in ethnic and class relations that have taken place in Bolivia since the beginning of the 21st century with the expansion of the economic middle class and the rise of the indigenous movements, Evo Morales and his socialist party to political power. This is approached through the medium of coca leaf, a key symbol of the Central Andean indigenous peoples, and its chewing that has recently been appropriated by all social layers of Bolivia. The recent popularity of coca challenges the race-based class structure of Bolivia, where prejudices on indigenous peoples have been epitomised in coca. The realities of social change are investigated by looking into the contemporary perceptions that Bolivians have towards coca, and how its increasing use reflects the changing identities and relations between different social layers. The city of Tarija was chosen as the primary field site as coca is commonly chewed there publicly. As previous anthropological research on coca has mainly been conducted in rural surroundings, this thesis illuminates how the leaf is used by the urban population of Bolivia. The principle research questions are: How is the chewing of coca leaf perceived and practiced by the different layers, of the contemporary society of Tarija, and how does this contribute to the production of separate ethnic and class identities, but also national and departmental unity? This thesis is mostly based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Bolivia between 3 December 2018 and 23 February 2019, of which two months were spent in the city of Tarija and it surroundings, while one month of supplementary research was conducted in other parts of Bolivia. In addition to participant observation, the material collected included 14 recorded interviews as well as 63 informal interviews. Besides ethnographic data, this thesis also analyses the history of coca leaf at the epicentre of racial and social relations of Bolivian society, which also includes its place as one of the main ingredients of the global drug trade. As the perceptions surrounding coca are linked to its possible narcotic qualities and medical applicability, an analysis of the medicinal value of the coca leaf is included to provide a background for the claims made by the interviewees. To approach the multiple meanings of the coca leaf, this thesis employs a locally engaged theory. Anthropological concepts and theories of multiple origins are employed and applied throughout the ethnographical analysis to build a multi-sited and encompassing understanding of coca chewing. The identities are approached from an intersectional perspective to show the complexity of identity building, where gender, age, race and class are in interaction with each other. The reasons that members of different groups give for coca chewing and how these reasons work to create differences between the chewers are analysed to demonstrate how the traditional upper and middle classes of Tarija do not partake in the key symbolism that coca has for the Central Andean indigenous peoples. Instead, they perceive coca as an ancient medicine, a national emblem that works to create unity between all Bolivians by connecting them to their shared indigenous roots, while the chewing of the leaf for work-related reasons, as a stimulant, is perceived to be practiced mainly by the rural population and the working class. By further differentiating the zones of coca production to traditional producers and narcotraffickers, and as also demonstrated with an analysis on the public chewing of coca, this thesis argues that through coca chewing, the traditional upper and middle classes are able to overpass the racism previously employed in demonstrations against Evo Morales and his socialist party. Their new rhetoric highlights national unity regardless of class or ethnicity in the name of democracy. The ambiguous relation that the people of Tarija have towards coca reflects the ambiguous relations that exist between the different social layers of the city. The increasing popularity of coca reflects the social change that has diluted the colonial race-based boundaries between social classes, but also the limits of this change, as many of the prejudices and stereotypes previously attached to race and coca, instead of disappearing, have been reassigned to low income levels and political affiliation.
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(2012)This thesis is an ethnographic study of chadō, the Japanese way of Tea, with particular focus on the social and communal aspects present in a formal Tea event, a chaji. Perhaps as a result of the closed nature of the Japanese way of Tea (an invitation from the host is required in order to take part in a chaji) previous studies of the subject in English have confined themselves primarily to the aesthetic or artistic nature of chadō. In contrast, this study emphasizes the ritual and symbolic aspects of a chaji, examining Tea (the term used to describe chadō within the study), as a transition ritual, the ultimate goal of which is enlightenment or tranquillity. Through a comprehensive analysis of Tea and its practice, the findings of this study suggest that a special social-sphere is created during a chaji, a sphere which in turn fosters a sense of shared community between the participants. As a result of the ritual practice and the manifestation of symbolic communication within a chaji, shared values of respect and harmony are affirmed and renewed among the community. The initial fieldwork for this study was conducted over a period of three months in Kyōto Japan, based on participant observation at the Urasenke school of Tea as well as through conducting interviews with some of the school’s students. This first-hand observation and research was then filtered through the lens of transition rituals as defined by the classic study Rite de passage of Van Gennep and Victor Turner’s conceptualization of society and rituals. In linking the data to these theoretical frameworks, the findings show that in participating in a chaji, Tea practitioners are able to leave the mundane world behind them, moving through a phase of symbolic cleansing, and into the sacred or spiritual realm of Tea. This transition occurs in three distinct phases which Van Gennep defines as separation, transition, and incorporation. The study argues that it is possible to view a sense of shared community among chaji practitioners as taking place not within the realm of structured society, but rather in its margins. As such, the individual participant of a chaji is no longer defined by his or her status or role in society at large; when participating in a chaji, the Tea practitioner is sharing in a 'once in a lifetime' experience of shared communal harmony. The findings also suggest that through its focus on traditional Japanese art forms (ceramics, calligraphy, flower arrangement), Tea operates as a mechanism to create a communal experience with a shared value system. Although chadō is defined by its adherents as being quintessentially Japanese, this study makes comparisons to other consumption rituals in which a communal feeling is achieved among the participants.
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(2020)Despite a stated commitment to the principle of policy coherence for development (PCD), which means taking development policy objectives into account in all policies likely to impact developing countries, the European Union (EU) has shown limited success in prioritising poverty reduction over other policy sectors’ objectives. Especially since the migration crisis in 2015-16, development cooperation appears to be increasingly used for migration management. This thesis examines how migration and development are linked in EU external policy, how the concept of PCD has been considered, and what coherence means, in the context of EU external policies on migration and development. The thesis analyses the concept of policy coherence and the interconnections between migration and development in the European Agenda on Migration (2015), the Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy (2016), and the New European Consensus on Development (2017) and their implementation reports and further communications about migration policy issued by the European Commission between the beginning of the refugee crisis in 2015 and the end of the Juncker administration in late 2019. The document data is triangulated with semi-structured expert interviews, and the data is analysed using qualitative content analysis. Based on the analysis, EU policy considers migration and development linked mainly through the root causes of migration being development problems, although there is also a recognition that migration can contribute to development. Adding to the literature on the securitisation of migration and development, the study finds that migration management is considered a priority for which development cooperation can be used as leverage. This conflicts with the principle of PCD, which the study finds to be largely absent from the policy documents, indicating it is not a priority for EU external policy. The conflict between the EU’s stated normative principles and the instrumentalisation of aid can be considered normative incoherence and organized hypocrisy, which can undermine the EU’s credibility as a global actor and supposedly normative power. Although PCD is not found to be prominent anymore, ‘coherence’ is used across the documents as something to be enhanced. Based on the analysis, ‘coherence’ ascribes effectiveness, unity and credibility to the EU’s holistic, integrated approach coordinating policies, instruments and actors in pursuit of the EU’s overall interests, although these are adapted to each country context. The study suggests coherence may be understood as emblematic of a holistic approach used to legitimise the instrumentalisation of development cooperation for the EU’s overall external policy objectives.
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(2023)The social status of women has greatly improved in the past centuries due to massive worldwide collective efforts by women and their allies. In Finland, despite scoring high on gender equality indexes, women remain a target of gender inequality and patriarchal harm. Hence, this thesis aims to study factors that influence Finnish women’s participation in collective action for gender equality. Building on the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA), perceived injustice is hypothesized as a mediator for the relationship between gender identification and participating in collective action. Moreover, stigma consciousness is hypothesized to moderate the relationship between social identification and perceived injustice. Data was used from a previous cross-cultural project, during which university student participants (N= 250, all women) answered questionnaire items relevant to the hypotheses. The results showed no significant association between gender identification and collective action, nor any significant moderation power for stigma consciousness. Perceived injustice, however, was found to be a significant mediator for the relationship between gender identification and collective action. The rejection of two hypotheses could be explained by a series of limitations regarding the research methods, and the results call for an increase in public awareness of gender-based discrimination.
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(2020)Corporate communications and management have had for a long time the conviction that they could project a specific brand identity by communicating a strong vision. Today this view is being challenged, especially with the rise of social media, which has brought more visibility to customer communities and has enabled better tools for customers to communicate with each other instantly, anywhere in the world. People interacting with each other in their communities give an identity to the brands, a collective identity that can be different from the one that corporate communications try to project. It is, therefore, necessary for the brands to understand how customers collectively impact brand identity. The concepts of top-down brand identity models do not work very well in today’s interconnected world. With that in mind, this thesis looks at a bottom-up approach to the brand identity model. It aims to bring further attention to the impact that brand communities have on brand identity. Through a model for collective brand identity, the objective is to make it easier for brands to see their brand identity from a customers’ perspective and enable them to envision their future collective identities. This thesis is conducted as qualitative research including a model, case studies and interviews looking into the brand identity as a collective construction. It initially looks into existing research on collective identity in general as well as in brands. Then, it discusses existing models for brand identity and social movements. Based on the insight from the literature, this study attempts to formulate a model for collective brand identity. It uses the case studies as illustrations and proof of concept for the model. Lastly, four in-depth interviews are conducted to explore further how the model can be applied in real-life in order to study and categorise brands based on their collective identity. This research identifies four main types of collective identity in brands based on the community characteristics and personal sense of belonging, which is, how individual identities relate to that of the brand. These brand types are Influencer, Collaborative, Collective and Outlier. In general, the more collective the brand communities are, the more substantial impact they have on the band’s identity and the higher the sense of belonging to their communities, the more loyal customers they are.
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(2023)Sosiaalipsykologian tieteenalalla on pitkä sosiaalisen identiteetin tutkimusperinne eli keitä ovat me ja keitä ovat he, ja miten nämä sosiaaliset identiteetit vaikuttavat ryhmien välisiin suhteisiin. Kysymys siitä, mikä on meidän ja mikä on heidän, ja tämän kollektiivisen psykologisen omistajuuden vaikutus ryhmien välisiin suhteisiin on kuitenkin tieteenalalla vielä uusi tutkimusalue. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan kollektiivista psykologista omistajuutta vapaaehtoistyön kontekstissa. Teoreettisena viitekehyksenä tutkimuksessa käytetään sosiaalisen identiteetin lähestymistapaa, joka suhteutetaan aiempaan kollektiivista psykologista omistajuutta tarkastelevaan tutkimukseen. Lisäksi tutkielmassa tarjotaan tälle tutkimusalueelle uutta käsitettä: kollektiivista epistemologista omistajuutta, joka viittaa tiedon, narratiivien ja ideoiden omistamiseen. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan tilastollisesti kolmea hypoteesia: 1) Kollektiivinen psykologinen omistajuus ja kollektiivinen epistemologinen omistajuus ovat kaksi erillistä ilmiötä, 2) Sisällön tuottaminen ryhmässä on yhteydessä korkeampaan kollektiiviseen psykologiseen omistajuuteen ja voimakkaampaan epistemologiseen omistajuuteen, 3) Kollektiivinen psykologinen omistajuus on yhteydessä samaistumiseen omistuksen kohteeseen. Tutkimus on tehty Slush-tapahtuman vuoden 2022 vapaaehtoisilta kerätyn kyselyaineiston avulla. Kyselyssä vastaajat oli jaettu kolmeen eri koeryhmään: Ensimmäisessä ryhmässä vastaajat tuottivat sisältöä yhdessä ryhmässä, toisessa ryhmässä he tuottivat sisältöä yksin ja kolmannessa he vain lukivat sisältöä. Aineisto kerättiin joulu-tammikuussa 2021–2022 ja vastaajia oli 174, jolloin 11,8 % vapaaehtoispopulaatiosta vastasi kyselyyn. Puuttuvien vastausten vuoksi tarkastelussa pystytään kuitenkin käyttämään heistäkin vain 51 vastaajan vastauksia. Vastaajien pienen määrän vuoksi tutkimuksessa verrattiin ryhmässä sisältöä tuottaneita kahteen muuhun ryhmään. Tulosten perusteella kollektiivinen psykologinen omistajuus ja kollektiivinen epistemologinen omistajuus ovat empiirisesti erillisiä käsitteitä, tosin lisätutkimusta tarvitaan tuloksen vahvistamiseksi. Sisällön tuottaminen yhdessä vaikuttaa olevan yhteydessä voimakkaampaan kollektiiviseen psykologiseen omistajuuteen, mutta aineisto ei rajallisen kokonsa vuoksi antanut tilastollisesti merkitsevää tulosta, myöskään kollektiivisen epistemologisen omistajuuden osalta tutkimus ei antanut tilastollisesti merkitsevää tulosta. Kollektiivinen psykologinen omistajuus Slush-organisaatiota kohtaan osoittautui olevan yhteydessä voimakkaampaan samaistumiseen Slush-organisaation kanssa. Muiden kollektiivisen omistajuuden mittarien osalta (omistajuus vapaaehtoisten oppaasta ja kollektiivinen epistemologinen omistajuus) tilastollisesti merkitseviä tuloksia ei saatu. Tulokset ovat suuntaa antavia vastaajien pienen lukumäärän vuoksi. Yleisesti tutkielma kuitenkin osoitti, että kollektiivisen psykologisen omistajuuden teemat ovat relevantteja myös vapaaehtoistyön kontekstissa, ja että sosiaalipsykologista tutkimusta kollektiivisen omistajuuden teemoista tarvitaan enemmän.
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