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This thesis reviews the origin and development of 'Internet anti-corruption', a new Chinese online phenomenon. I examine newspaper discourse covering this phenomenon, aiming to show it is discursively constructed in the press based on three typical cases occurring in 2012. The construction of legitimacy on this new phenomenon is the focus of the study. Drawing from the sociological and political perspective of power, this study uses discourse analysis theory combined with media discourse theory, focusing on media discourse, and targets to uncover the power positions and structures in the discourse. Empirically, the study is based on 125 articles. Methodologically, the study utilizes a critical approach of critical discourse analysis to explore the legitimacy strategies and structures of this Internet phenomenon within the Chinese social and political context. The legitimacy is examined with the help of Fairclough’s discourse analysis and van Leeuwen’s framework of legitimation in discourse. This thesis argues that the construction of legitimacy sustained the power relations in China and maintained the state dominance. Nevertheless, it is worth noticing that the social power is recognized in society by being identified as new form of public supervision. Related to the social and political context, online social power in the contemporary China is gaining recognition and acceptance by party state and society in general. However, the dominance of state power on the Internet actions is mainly maintained and reproduced from media discourse. The construction of legitimacy for Internet anti-corruption, in one way, endows relative legitimacy to the Internet users; in another way, it propagates the new presidency and reaffirms the state power. In the end, the legitimation of 'Internet anti-corruption' in media is more likely an effort to legitimize the party-state power over the Internet which reflects its authoritarian nature. The main findings of the thesis concern the construction of public discourse on Chinese online incidents and contribute to the further understanding of public sphere and civil society development.

Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract One of the most critical post-independence issues of nation-building and inclusive national political, economic and social development is inequality between regions and ethnic communities in Namibia. Namibia is a diverse ethno-cultural country, and the plurality of different ethnic and linguistic communities create difficulties considering holistic national development processes since variety of needs should be supported and provided. Although Namibia has been performing well according various developmental indicators since the independence in 1990, a number of ethnic minorities are in vulnerable and marginalized position in the country. The study elaborates the issue of what constitutes the marginalization of ethnic minorities in Namibia in order to understand the mechanisms and forces that maintain certain ethnic communities marginalized in the society, as well as comprehend the developmental impact of marginalization. The question will be examined by investigating three interrelated aspects: 1) The definition and identification of ethnic marginalized communities; 2) How recognition is constituted by the state and what is the impact on the ethnic communities? and; 3) What are the key developmental issues that constitute/maintain the situation? All these issues will be explored by investigating the key interrelated mechanisms and forces that constitute the marginalization of ethnic communities in Namibia including historical patterns of exclusion, ethnic labelling, the state policies and practices, and political and socio-economic citizenship. In order to shed light on the topic, 26 qualitative thematic interviews have been conducted among young Namibian respondents and Namibian and international experts, complemented by a literature review. It was found out, that all respondents as well as the state acknowledge the existence of ethnic marginalized communities and their marginalized position in the country. Further, it is generally acknowledged which ethnic communities are considered to be marginalized. The main argument is, that the situation of certain ethnic communities is worse off in Namibia in relation to other ethnic communities and there are number of internal and external interrelated and partly conditional issues that affect and maintain their marginalization. Firstly, the relation between ethnicity, indigenousness and minority status to marginalization was examined. First and foremost, it was recognized that ethnic background, political and socio-economiccitizenship as well as inidgenousness influence the marginalization of ethnic communities in Namibia.It was also found out that despite the phenomena and terminology regarding indigenousness and minority status are debated and questioned in the Namibian context, the definitions, identification and categorization of these phenomena are applied to some extent. Moreover, the issue of what constitutes the recognition or non-recognition and what is the impact on ethnic marginalized communities was examined. It became evident, that there are different levels and types of recognition. All Namibians are recognized as citizens, but not necessarily as a community that affects the situation of distinct communities e.g. through specific rights or entitlements. The key issue of recognition in Namibia is the official recognition of a traditional authority as per the Traditional Authorities Act (1995). Traditional authorities have power at local and national levels, and they are important e.g. in terms of land allocation. If ethnic community do not have officially recognized traditional authority, they are even in more marginalized position in the country than other marginalized ethnic communities. Lastly, the general political and socio-economic status is one of the strongest determinants that affect and maintain the marginalization of ethnic communities. The key political and socio-economic interrelated internal and external issues identified are e.g. overall discrimination, lack of self-worth and agency, lack of recognition and inadequate political representation, poverty and lack of basic needs, inadequate access to services and opportunities, and lack of secure access to land and resources.

This thesis evaluates the utility of Stephen Gill’s concept of new constitutionalism in understanding the functioning of the European Economic and Monetary union (EMU) in 2015– 2020. New constitutionalism is defined as legally locked in rules-based market discipline. The thesis has two research questions: 1) To what extent does the concept of new constitutionalism aptly describe the economic policy space of EMU member states? That is, to what extent the EMU, with its associated rules and criteria, constrains the economic policies of its member states? 2) To what extent are new constitutionalist principles “locked in” in the EMU? That is, to what extent is new constitutionalism really constitutional in the EMU? Chapter 1 outlines Gill’s contributions on new constitutionalism in the EMU, defines the key terms and introduces the research problematic. Chapter 2 evaluates the effects of EMU membership on economic policy space. This chapter draws extensively on data on fiscal deficits and levels of public debt well as the fiscal stimulus packages implemented in the context of the corona pandemic in EMU states and other advanced economies. It is shown that although average levels of debt have been lower in EMU states than in advanced economies overall, none of the major member states have remained within the required limits for public debt in this period. This renders the applicability of the concept of new constitutionalism dubious. Similarly, although EMU states stimulated their economies less than other advanced economies in response to the corona pandemic, this was not due to pressure from EU institutions as Gill’s argument would suggest. Chapter 3 addresses the political contingency in the application of rules-based market discipline in the EMU. Most notably, beyond the extreme case of Greece in 2015, there has been a reluctance by the European Commission to discipline member states for breaking the fiscal rules. The last two sections of this chapter consider the extent to which the actions of the European Central Bank have undermined market discipline in the EMU, and the pertinent question of whether the corona pandemic has ushered in a fundamental change in economic thinking in the EU. Drawing on this analysis, it is argued that the concept of new constitutionalism most aptly described the situation faced by Greece in 2015, but its applicability has subsequently waned. Specifically, the concept of new constitutionalism fails to capture the political contingency and flexibility in the application of both fiscal rules and market discipline in the EMU. Chapter 4 is dedicated to the second research question – that is, to what extent new constitutionalist principles are constitutionalised in the EMU. This chapter analyses the practical possibilities for EMU reform. However, given the unanimity requirement between member states for fundamental reform of the EMU, it is here that Gill’s argument about new constitutionalism being “locked in” is found to have the most applicability. The overall argument of this thesis is that the original Maastricht vision of the EMU has not come to fruition. In fact, the EMU experience illustrates that attempts to impose fixed visions of order onto social systems tend to produce disorder. While the eurozone crisis itself was generated by unbalancing tendencies inherent in the EMU, it has subsequently survived only through circumvention of its rules.

Immigration to Finland has seen a significant rise since the 1990s. The adaptation of immigrants to the society is a relevant and popular theme in public discussion. This study explores the opportunities of immigrants to adapt to and become members of the Finnish society, as reported by Finnish respondents. Acculturation is an extensively studied field, but it has rarely been studied through social markers of the receiving society, or through the opinions and attitudes of the native majority population. In this study, a new angle is introduced through the analysis of acculturation opportunities for immigrants from the perspective of the native Finnish. The study was carried out with a quantitative method. The SPSS tool was used for handling data. The data material has been gathered with a questionnaire sent to students at the University of Helsinki and at Aalto University (N=198). The outline of the questionnaire is borrowed from that of a larger research project, where Singapore, Canada and Japan are studied in addition to Finland. The central research questions are: first, who fits in, secondly, is it possible to fit in, and thirdly, what factors predict why some people are more reluctant than others to accept immigrants as parts of the ingroup. The theoretical background of the study is based on John W. Berry’s acculturation studies. The theoretical models used are the Interactive Acculturation Model (IAM) and the Relative Acculturation Extended Model (RAEM), which have been derived and elaborated from Berry’s work by other researchers. In order to support the analysis and discussion of results, a number of hypothetical models have been used, such as G.W. Allport’s contact hypothesis, the similarity attraction hypothesis and the culture distance theory. The results were analyzed through the creation of three dimensions of acculturation, i.e. sociocultural adaptation, socioeconomic adaptation, and social psychological adaptation. The results indicate that Finns set greatest expectations for acculturation in the social psychological dimension, followed by the sociocultural dimension and lastly by the socioeconomic dimension. For the most part, Finns are confident that immigrants can achieve these expectations with relative ease regardless of the dimension of acculturation. In addition, the study found that certain factors, such as greater perceived threats, explained greater expectations of acculturation.

This thesis sets out to investigate what frames are used in the U.S. media to discuss responsibility for climate change. Particularly, the study seeks to identify what frames are used to discuss action for climate change mitigation. The normative framework for analyzing responsibility is established by the social connection model by Iris Marion Young, which presents a forward-looking approach for addressing responsibility for issues of structural injustice. The theoretical framework of this thesis derives from existing literature on climate change, the media, and media framing. The study was conducted using a qualitative method of frame analysis. Data for the study was collected from the digital contents of three popular news media outlets in the United States: CNN, Fox News Channel, and The New York Times. The data consists of news articles that were published online in December 2019. The results of the study indicate that responsibility for climate change mitigation is rarely approached directly in the media. Rather, it is implied through discussions about what actions should be taken. The study identifies four main frames of responsibility. The first frame emphasizes the conflict between the younger and older generations and deems that collective efforts are required to address the situation. The second frame accentuates the political division over the issue of climate change by casting blame upon Asian nations while downplaying the respective responsibility of the United States. Similarly, the efforts of the Democratic party are ridiculed. The third frame emphasizes consumer action through practical efforts but does not promote buying less as a possible solution. Lastly, the study identifies a frame, in which corporate responsibility is approached in two ways: to hold highly polluting industries accountable and to promote green business as a solution. The study finds that the framing employed by Fox News Channel emphasizes the economic disadvantages of climate change mitigation and sees it as an issue of causal responsibility for Asian nations. On the other hand, the findings of the study suggest that the media coverage of the youth protests against climate change often yield notions of collective responsibility and frame the issue of responsibility in a more contextualized setting. The findings of the study support existing research of how media frames the issue of climate change and how polarization affects the framing. Through the application of the social connection model, the findings of this study contribute to the literature of news framing of climate change by demonstrating how the issue of responsibility is framed.

In this thesis, I analyse Helsinki’s city strategy for 2017-2021 through questions of community membership, social inequality and immigration. Building on Benedict Anderson’s ‘imagined communities’ I analyse the community building and citizen-making processes that the city strategy describes. The purpose of the study is to unveil the underlying values of the strategy, which functions as a guide for political decision-making and thus is sociologically interesting. Through the theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis I illuminate how the city image, the city community and its residents are imagined. I argue that Helsinki is imagined as an international metropolitan forerunner, where social inequality is pictured as an economic problem, and immigration is pictured as a source of unemployment. Growth is an important factor of Helsinki’s identity as a leading city, and it is recognised that growth may increase social problems. Helsinki’s way of handling social differentiation is used for identity construction, where economic productivity rises as a central factor beside social welfare. Immigration, which counts for the positively perceived growth, is, however, mainly described as a problem. Immigrants are discussed in a very generalising manner and mainly in terms of employability, and it is further underlined that the residents’ worth is measured in their economic contribution to the community. My conclusions are that there is a conflict between the welfare society and the idea of economic productivity in Helsinki, as the strategy aims to please audiences interested in both functioning welfare services and innovative business possibilities. I argue that the prejudiced idea of problematic immigration and of integration as employment only does not contribute to the picture of Helsinki as an internationally attractive city for immigrants, and it contradicts the previously mentioned welfare society aspirations.

This thesis studies national and local ownership of Namibia’s education and training sector improvement programme ETSIP. ETSIP is a 15-year programme implemented during 2005-2015 following a sector-wide approach. The aim of the programme is to facilitate the transition of Namibia into a knowledge-based economy. This study aims to provide insight into how ownership of the ETSIP policy process is realised nationally and locally, in particular how regional officials in the Namibian education sector view the ETSIP policy process, how they see their role in it and to which degree to they have been able to influence and control the process. The approach in this study is qualitative and the viewpoint constructionist looking at reality constructed through people’s perceptions, interpretations and actions. The data consists of interviews and informal discussions with regional and national education officials, newspaper articles and ETSIP policy documents. The study highlights that national ownership is a vague term due to many actors and views within a country. It confirms Castel-Branco’s argument that ownership has to be understood in context, in a contested and changing environment. A new strategic plan for the Ministry of Education is being prepared and this might affect ownership to ETSIP. The rhetoric of ownership in ETSIP policy documents follows international commitments of increasing aid effectiveness but the documents lack a comprehensive analysis of how national and local ownership would be realised. The documents reflect a narrow understanding of ownership as commitment to predetermined policy choices. Whitfield’s and Frazer’s distinction of narrow and broad definitions of ownership is found in the interviews. Commitment to ETSIP is regarded essential but insufficient for ownership. Local commitment to ETSIP principles and aims is realised fairly well but if ownership is viewed broadly, as influence and control, then ownership is weak. There has been little influence from regional level in the ETSIP planning process and there is lack of control over the implementation of ETSIP, in particular lack of control over financial resources. Tujan’s notion of democratic ownership highlights the need to change and broaden the ownership agenda to consider the local level. This study suggests that an enabling environment for local ownership would require changes in institutional culture and the strengthening of institutional legitimacy. It would require political leadership, trust, a culture of responsibility and accountability, enhanced information sharing, broad participation, dialogue and collaboration. Most importantly there is a need and demand for local control over decision-making and resources.

In the last several decades, the abortion debate has grown increasingly controversial and polarized worldwide. The citizens’ initiative OwnWill2020, which aimed to update the Finnish Act on Induced Abortion, sparked the discussion in Finland as well. By examining abortion discourse in the Finnish parliament, this thesis aims to get a view of the meanings of abortion in Finland at this time of legislative change. The material consists of the speeches in the minutes of the referral debate on the citizens’ initiative OwnWill2020. These are analyzed by Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis framework. The thesis draws on concepts such as biopower and subject positions from Michel Foucault. These concepts, together with feminist and feminist Foucauldian theory on the politics of the body and reproductive rights, situate the debate on reproductive rights as a site of power and negotiation. The findings revealed three main abortion discourses: the self-determination discourse, the child’s rights discourse and the woman’s well-being discourse. The most significant difference in the discourses was their meanings of the embryo/fetus. Two of the discourses were built on biopower, while the third discourse criticized it. By ascribing subject positions to the pregnant person and the embryo/fetus, the three abortion discourses produce new norms of pregnancy and motherhood. The results of the thesis suggest that Finland’s position as a model country in gender equality is questionable, at least based on the utterances of Finnish Members of Parliament.

The recent presidential elections in Finland in the spring of 2024 sparked widespread discussion on the acceptability of a gay presidential couple in the media, and speculations about whether candidate Haavisto’s sexual orientation had affected the election results. The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on a question that has intrigued researchers for decades. What makes a good leader and who is likely to be accepted as a leader? Discursive research in Social Psychology has contributed to the study of political communication and rhetoric. However, in recent years, research in Finland has primarily focused on the study of populism. Recently, scholars have opted for a broader exploration of the Finnish political sphere, not focusing on populist voices only. In the US, scholars have acknowledged that presidential elections intensify tensions between partisan identities and increase affective polarization in society. This thesis responds to the appeals from researchers by exploring how the meanings of presidential leadership are constructed in lay discourse across the political spectrum. In the present study, the theoretical framework of the Social Identity Approach to Leadership has been employed, as it emphasizes a mutual relationship between a leader and followers. Further, as the interest lies in talk, Critical Discursive Psychology has been employed to explore the meanings that presidential leadership holds and the identities it makes available for candidates and followers. The material consists of interviews with 55 participants across the political party field, discussing the topic of presidential leadership by reflecting upon three hypothetical presidential candidates. The results reflect the multi-faceted levels of meanings that presidential leadership holds in Finnish society, which have been portrayed by the three identified interpretative repertoires and eight subject positions. The role of a president was perceived as prestigious, involving the conveyance of morals and values to the nation. The findings aligned with the Social Identity Approach to Leadership, which posits that followers are engaged actors in the social identity process of leadership. While positioning candidates, the interviewees simultaneously positioned themselves and the nation. Typicality of a candidate was endorsed in positioning, while homosexuality was resisted as an acceptable quality for a presidential leader. The discursive negotiation of a homosexual leader formed an ideological dilemma of tolerance versus homophobia. The other two repertoires (modern nation and conservative nation) were drawn from the perceived values of the Finnish nation. The positions within these repertoires aimed at “othering” opposing partisans and formed ideological counterparts, which resulted in the negotiation of an ideological dilemma liberal equality versus conservative values. These findings reflect the increasing opposition of the political spectrum in Finnish society. The study illustrates that the meanings of presidential leadership function as an incentive for broader identity negotiations and calls for further research in co-examining opposing views across the political and ideological spectrum to shed light on the wider socio-political context in Finland.

This thesis explores the pathways to participation of migrant women in the Helsinki capital region in Finland. The research questions are: how do migrant women residing in the Helsinki region experience sport and physical activities? Do sports and physical activities provide means for integration of migrant women living in Helsinki? Do sport and physical activities lead to generating feelings of belonging in Finland? The study explores the environments, social histories and social networks which lead to the activation and sustained participation of migrant women in sports and physical activities and provides a critical assessment from the experience of a migrant woman on how life in sports in a new country. The theory of sports participation and belonging has been explored in the Nordic countries (Walseth, 2006; Agergaard et al. 2010) and this study hopes to provide a Finnish contribution to that debate. Studies reveal that health, well-being and activities in sports are influenced through maternal lines (Nowaki, Radzinska, Rynkiewicz, 2009), family background, socialization and habitus. The study assesses the common thesis that participation in sports can develop a feeling of belonging among migrant groups in the Nordic countries (Walseth, 2006; 2008, 455, 459; Zacheus, 2014). Twelve women from around the world, living in the Helsinki Capital region participated in the study. Qualitative interviews were used for narrative and contemporary accounts on their lives in sports. The study takes an intersectional approach and a standpoint approach (Harding,1987), to give a voice to a marginalized and belittled group of sport participants. Figurational perspective and Bourdeausian theory serve as the theoretical framework for the study.