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This Master’s thesis is concerned about the political and normative consequences that rise from viewing migration and refugees as a security threat. The issues of migration and asylum cross thresholds of state sovereignty and human rights. It has been found that liberal democratic states offer moral justifications for controlling entry of aliens, however this is ethically problematic. The unit of analysis is the European Union because the current refugee crisis has challenged the role of the EU as a promoter of human rights and questioned the whole European integration project as well as the meaning of the EU as a community of values. This thesis attempts to answer the following research question: how the European Union has securitized its migration and refugee policy in the Common European Asylum System. Copenhagen School’s securitization theory serves as theoretical framework of this thesis because the deepened and widened understandings of security have allowed other issues than military to be included in security: political, societal, economical, environmental. Construction of security issues has three steps: 1) an issue is described as an existential threat, 2) that require emergency measures and 3) justifying actions outside the normal bounds of political procedure. In order to complement the securitization theory this thesis will utilize Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis in order to deeply study the meanings of discourses that produce the social reality. After the analysis it is concluded that despite ideal assumptions of the EU as a place of refugee and exile, the practices in place show a different picture. It is evident that the focus is on how to protect the EU from refugees, not how to offer protection for refugees. The EU is the referent object that needs protection through exceptional measures and has the legitimacy to justify these actions outside normal policy procedures. This questions the normative role of the EU. Refugees are portrayed as a danger to the society, and they lack active role, which is highlighted in the right to freedom of movement. The EU has securitized migration and refugee policies by hard policy implementation: focus on border control, increase in surveillance and building fences. Thus, it has become evident that state sovereignty triumphs over the respect of human rights.

Förändringar i arbetslivet har lett till att gränserna mellan arbete och privatliv har blivit suddigare – det går att arbeta när och var som helst, vilket kan göra det svårt att koppla av. Balans mellan arbete och privatliv innebär individens subjektiva upplevelser om hur väl hen kan kombinera sina roller i dessa sfärer, och sociala signaler från nyckelpersoner i individens liv spelar en avgörande roll i uppfattningen av denna balans. Tidigare forskning visar att balans mellan arbete och privatliv har positiva samband med arbetstillfredsställelse, det vill säga den övergripande bedömningen som individen har om sitt arbete, medan obalans har visat sig ha samband med utbrändhet. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka sambandet mellan balans mellan arbete och privatliv samt arbetstillfredsställelse i Finland, med fokus på personliga-, familj/partner-, och organisatoriska faktorer. Utifrån syftet bildades tre forskningsfrågor: 1) finns det ett samband mellan balans mellan arbete och privatliv samt arbetstillfredsställelse bland finländska arbetstagare? 2) Finns det ett samband mellan arbetstillfredsställelse och en organisationskultur som stödjer balans mellan arbete och privatliv? 3) Finns det skillnad mellan de som har familj eller partner och de som inte har familj eller partner? För att förstå betydelsen av arbetskrav och -resurser i individens arbetsattityder användes Job Demands-Resources modellen (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) som teoretiskt ramverk. Studien baserades på det finska urvalet av European Social Survey (ESS) omgång 10, vilket begränsades endast till de respondenter som arbetar i en organisation och har en chef/arbetsledare (n = 687). Samband undersöktes med regressionsanalys och skillnader mellan de med och utan familj eller partner undersöktes med medeltalstest. Resultaten visar att autonomi över arbetstider och socialt stöd från ledaren är resurser som ökar anställdas arbetstillfredsställelse. Däremot identifierades förväntan av övertid som ett krav som minskar arbetstillfredsställelse. Detta pekar på att organisationer bör skapa en stödjande organisationskultur som är känslig för anställdas behov. Resultatet tyder också på att sambandet mellan balans mellan arbete och privatliv samt arbetstillfredsställelse innebär en social dimension i och med att individen tolkar sociala signaler från andra: då individen uppfattade att familjen/partnern är trött på hens arbetspress minskade arbetstillfredsställelsen. Dock fanns det inga signifikanta skillnader i varken balans mellan arbete och privatliv eller arbetstillfredsställelse mellan de med familj/partner och de utan familj/partner. Resultaten tyder på att balans mellan arbete och privatliv och dess samband med arbetstillfredsställelse är mångfacetterat och att det behövs ytterligare forskning inom området.

This master’s thesis aims to provide a broader and deeper knowledge within the areas of migration and integration. The study tasks are how the diaspora community is involved in the overall migration and integration process in a host state and what role social networks play in different phases of migration. There are four essential conceptual features of the migration phenomenon are identified in the study: migration, integration, diaspora community, and social networks. These concepts are analysed focusing on the factors of migration, integration process, how diaspora community and social networks work. The analysis is done using a comprehensive case study on the Bangladeshi diaspora community in Finland. The study material is collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 Bangladeshi student migrants living in Finland. As a potential migrant group as well as an underexamined study group, student migrants are chosen the study participants. A thematic analysis of the data is carried out to unveil the underlying meanings of how student migrants narrate their experiences as an immigrant. The themes identified are used to critically reflect on and explore the aspects and dynamics of the nexus between diasporas and social networks in migration and integration. This study outcomes identify education as the major pull factor for the student migrants considering Finnish high quality of research facilities, education environment, and the fee-free study system. It also marks that both personal and social networks have a strong role in migrant’s decision of choosing Finland as their destination. The role of technology becomes prominent in the current age in terms of gathering information, admission procedure, and visa processing. This is even more realised due to the absence of the Embassy operation and other official communication channels. The study finds the diaspora community’s role is increasingly becoming significant in the present context, they provide migrants with access to information, job conditions as well as settling them with finding accommodation, education places, emotional support, and comfort of belonging in a host country. Within this journey of a migrant, social media platform has appeared as a crucial part of social networks and diasporas in terms of communication. Facebook groups have become a major communication channel. Additionally, the Corona situation has made online engagement among people more visible. Nonetheless, this diaspora-social network-migration-integration nexus can play both a supportive as well as a critical role for migrants as the experience varies.

Syftet med föreliggande magisteravhandling har varit att utreda vad som gör att ett barnskyddsärende blir föremål för omedelbart ingripande av socialjouren. Detta har undersökts genom att studera socialjourens socialarbetares syn på tematiken utifrån deras egna yrkeserfarenheter. Studien genomfördes med avstamp i den kvalitativa forskningstraditionen och det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer med sex behöriga socialarbetare verksamma på en socialjour i Finland. Det empiriska materialet analyserades med hjälp av teoristyrd innehållsanalys. Följande tre forskningsfrågor har besvarats: 1) vilka faktorer anser socialarbetarna vara avgörande för att ett barnskyddärende blir föremål för omedelbart ingripande? 2) hur motiverar socialarbetarna sina beslut i bedömningsförfarandet? 3) vilka utmaningar möter socialarbetarna i sitt arbete? Av studiens resultat går det inte att påvisa någon enskild specifik faktor som gör att barnskyddsärende uppfattas vara akut. Studiens resultat visar att kontexten är avgörande i alla socialarbetares beskrivningar. Barnets ålder, bakgrundsinformationens betydelse, vem som gör anmälan samt tidpunkten på dygnet visar sig vara de mest avgörande faktorerna som inverkar på ingripandet enligt socialarbetarna. Framförallt barnskyddsituationer som berör små barn med drog- eller alkoholpåverkade föräldrar, var situationer som ansågs av socialarbetarna alltid kräva ett akut ingripande av socialjouren. Beslutsfattandet i brådskande barnskyddsärenden framstår som en komplex helhet där multipla faktorer samtidigt inverkar på beslutets utfall. Studiens resultat visar att socialarbetarens handlingsutrymme i beslutsfattandet ter sig vara relativt brett. Socialarbetarnas yrkesmässiga bedömning, arbetserfarenhet och vissa fall även värderingar visar sig spela en nyckelroll i beslutsprocessen, och socialarbetarna egna bedömning visar sig vara i centrum då beslut fattas. Barnskyddslagen finns alltid i grund för beslutet och ger mandat samt plikt att agera, men socialarbetarna gör självständigt beslutet av vilka handlingsalternativ som är rimliga i de akuta barnskyddssituationerna. Studiens resultat visar även att barnskyddsarbetet som sker utanför tjänstetid i socialjourer är ett utmanande arbete. Av socialarbetarna krävs det en förmåga att klara av att hantera det osäkra som ständigt finns närvarande i bedömningsarbetet av barnskyddsärenden samtidigt som socialarbetarna har ett stort ansvar att axla. Även om socialarbetarna för det mesta anser att stödet i arbetet är tillräckligt, framgår det trots allt att socialarbetarna tidvis känner sig ensamma i arbetet. Studiens resultat synliggör den komplexitet som brådskande barnskyddsarbetet de facto präglas av, och att detta arbete kräver en hög yrkesexpertis av socialarbetarna, där arbetserfarenheten verkar spela en betydande roll för hur socialarbetarna klarar av att handskas i de mångfacetterade barnskyddsituationerna. Även om socialarbete som profession bygger på lagar, teorier och regelverk, visar studiens resultat att socialarbetarnas beslut också till en stor grad påverkas av dennes egna värderingar, livserfarenhet och arbetserfarenhet.

The following thesis aims to provide insight into barriers for Saudi Arabian women pursuing STEM careers. The thesis is a collaboration with Nokia and UN Women and relates to their project that aims to globally further women’s possibilities to join Nokia and advance inside Nokia. Today, while Saudi women’s educational participation is higher than ever, participation in the labor market is still relatively low; understanding the discrepancy will make it easier to apply targeted actions to support Saudi women in pursuing a career at Nokia. The data is collected with four comprehensive interviews with women currently working at a STEM company in Saudi Arabia. Findings from the empirical data are analyzed with thematic analysis (TA) and a realist framework. The findings are divided into four main themes: comfort, stereotypes, family, and pressure of being a working woman. The themes are divided into subthemes further supported by direct quotes from the participants. The main themes present how the interviewed women perceive that there are some people in Saudi Arabia who still carry and produce dated opinions about women. According to the women these opinions affect some Saudi women’s opportunities, self-esteem, and freedom of choice. The interviews indicate that the barriers for women pursuing a STEM career in Saudi Arabia are complex and while some barriers are very individual, some are also collectively experienced. Based on the findings, this thesis suggests focusing on educating men, making pursuing a career and earning own money more accessible for women, continuing championing women in STEM, developing policies to support equity in the workplace, as well as finding ways to increase contact between men and women before they enter the office as necessary priorities for Nokia Saudi.

This thesis studies the basic income grant proposal in Namibia. The proposal suggests a monthly grant of N$100 (approximately 10€) to all those Namibian citizens who do not receive the state pension. This thesis concentrates on the Basic Income Grant (BIG) Coalition and on its work. The formation and transformation of the coalition during the time period between 2003 and 2009 is analyzed with the help of data collected during two field work periods in 2008 and 2009. The data includes interviews, newspaper articles, observations and other background material. The analysis of this material is mainly conducted from organizational viewpoint. The final part of the thesis applies the results to the theory of Mosse, whose propositions about policy and practice will be discussed in relation to the basic income grant pilot project. The thesis argues that social legitimacy has been a vital resource for the work of the BIG Coalition and it has sought for it in various ways. The concept of social legitimacy originates from the resource dependence perspective of Pfeffer and Salancik, who propose that organizations are dependent on their environments, and on the resources provided by the surrounding environment. This thesis studies the concept of social legitimacy in the context of resource dependence theory. Social legitimacy is analyzed in the relations between the coalition and its environment, in the formation of the coalition, in the responses towards criticism, and finally in relation to the propositions concerning policy and practice. The work of the coalition in the pilot project will be analyzed through the propositions of Mosse concerning policy and practice. The results will describe and analyze key events in the formation of the BIG Coalition from the South African proposal until the end of the basic income pilot project. This BIG pilot project conducted in 2008-2009 is one of the most well-known activities of the coalition. The clashes between the coalition and its environment will be analyzed through four case studies. It will be shown that the project has been conducted in order to gain more legitimacy to the basic income grant proposal. The conclusion questions the legitimacy of the BIG Coalition as a research and development organization, and requests for more transparent research on the basic income proposal in Namibia.

This thesis is about the sociocultural phenomenon of start-up entrepreneurship. Contemporary society is home to a growing obsession towards entrepreneurship, with entrepreneurial action regarded as a possible solution to a wide spectrum of social problems. Entrepreneurial action and the acquiring of an entrepreneurial way of thinking and operating is widely considered to contribute to the common good, in reality having potential for a positive impact on society. Hence entrepreneurship is promoted in social policy and education in an effort to educate citizens towards entrepreneurial agency. All in all, an interesting shift is happening with entrepreneurs positioning themselves as producers of the common good ”making the world a better place one pizza at a time”, while farmers traditionally identifying as ”producers” are becoming more ”entrepreneurial”. Entrepreneurial agency as a new form of agency suitable for any individual in almost any field of action originates from the neoliberal discourse and the emphasis on individual freedom and entrepreneurialism. Like Margaret Thatcher famously stated, ”there is no society, there are individual men and women”. This highly individualistic approach to the reorganisation of society and the reinforcement or restoration of the class dominance of a small global elite was voiced as an alleged antidote to the perils of socialism, and culturally connected to the positive ideals of the entrepreneur as a free, self-reliable, innovative and efficient individual. This was the neoliberal re-invention of the entrepreneur that transformed the idea of the entrepreneur as primarily a business operator to that of the morally worthy individual simply doing the right thing. The fruits of the labour would then trickle-down as collectively beneficiary. This thesis is an ethnographic study on start-up entrepreneurs in the Greater Helsinki start-up ecosystem working to promote their companies. Through interviews and observational data, this thesis studies the start-up entrepreneur as the epitome of this contemporary entrepreneurial agency. Start-up entrepreneurship sometimes referred to as ”entrepreneurialism on steroids”, is a form of often tech-related entrepreneurialism aimed at fast growth with the help of investments - a sort of ”rags to riches” narrative. But the work is demanding with statistically most start-up companies destined to fail, with a very small percentage becoming successful in finding markets, growing and returning the investments while providing lucrative ”exits” for the founders. Utilising positioning theory this thesis focuses on three themes related to start-up entrepreneurs: their identifications and boundary work in separating them as a specific social group, the outspoken motivations behind their actions and the troubles that arise from their endeavours. Through dress code, speech norms and the acceptance of the Weberian idea of the entrepreneur as ”a special actor” and capable problem-solver, the identity of the start-up entrepreneur is constructed and ritualistically verified in events like SLUSH. The origins of the neoliberal discourse are interestingly present in these motivations, with a majority of the interviewees emphasizing the altruistic side of their social entrepreneurialism and the importance of freedom in life. They are free to achieve. But on the other hand, the possibility of unimaginable financial gain brings certain ambiguity to the situation. In the words of one interviewee: ”Anyone who says they don´t dream of getting rich in a start-up company is lying.” Finally, among all the positive hype that surrounds successful start-up companies and entrepreneurship partly due to the way they are portrayed in the media, there are problems ahead for many. Stress and financial troubles combined with the shame and possible debt resulting from going bankrupt manifest themselves as severe physical symptoms, mental health problems, insomnia and burnout. This can in turn have a dramatic impact in dictating the lives of the start-up entrepreneurs. Following the ideas of critical entrepreneurship studies and contributing to the lack of research on the topic, this thesis suggests that due to the influence of the neoliberal discourse on the way entrepreneurship is framed and celebrated as well as the severity of the resulting problems for many, there should be a more critical and analytical approach to the seemingly value-free promotion of entrepreneurship. It is necessary to ask whose interests are actually getting promoted through increased entrepreneurial agency, and whether the alleged promotion of common good is in fact contributing to any issues other than the convenience of the every-day lives of the middle-class.

This thesis is a part of Development through Sports discussion, particularly from gender perspective and its effort to improve women’s position and status in developing countries by using sport as a tool. The study aims to depict the position and effects produced by gender in the field of sport and education by the means of ethnography. The perspective of the study is holistic in its attempt to acknowledge the impact of Tanzanian society, economy and politics for girls’ and women’s position within sport and education. The study was carried out with 7-week long fieldwork in a Tanzanian teacher training college. The college was a boarding school and the study focused mainly on students of physical education. The data of the study was collected with participant observation, informal discussions, semistructured thematic interviews and structured survey questionnaire. Also study material used in the college was collected, such as course outlines and directions given to the students. The interviews were analysed with thematic analyse. The space of girls and women in the masculine field of sport in Tanzania is narrow and challenging. For sociocultural reasons, it is difficult for women to obtain the motorical and psychosocial skills needed in teaching physical education in childhood and youth. It is more difficult for girls and women to have access and to move in masculine spaces that in addition to sport and sporting fields, is salaried work done outside home. Salaried work is necessary for financing the studies, but acquiring the money has moral effects. The morally acceptable financiers of women’s education are families – fathers and husbands mainly. Moral conflicts are caused if a woman acquires the funding through transactional sex and/or uneducated, physical labour. By moving in these masculine, independent spaces of sport and money, the morality and value of a woman can be questioned and thus inhibit the development of women’s position in society and women’s financial independence.

Most authoritarian regimes now organise national-level elections that allow the opposition to compete against the dictator for political power, albeit on unfair and unequal terms. Although the dictator seeks to contain this element of competition in order to thwart opposition victories and enforce his own rule, the decision to organise competitive elections ultimately rests the fate of electoral authoritarian regimes in the hands of the voters. By deciding to cast their ballots either for the dictator or the opposition, individual voters determine the degree of electoral competitiveness – the margin of victory between the dictator and his challengers – and, consequently, whether the elections lead to continued authoritarian rule or potential democratisation. Yet, with the literature predominantly focusing on authoritarian elections from the perspective of the dictator and the opposition, the question of how and why heterogeneous voters make diverging choices at the polls remains poorly understood. Using Beatriz Magaloni’s theory of voter behaviour under electoral authoritarianism, this thesis explores how the electorate’s socio-demographic heterogeneity translates into conflicting preferences, thus giving rise to different types of voting behaviours that lead the voters to either support or oppose the dictator, and what the consequences of this heterogeneity are for the degree of electoral competitiveness at the aggregate level. The relationship between voter heterogeneity and the degree of electoral competitiveness is tested empirically by employing a random effects regression analysis on time-series cross-sectional data that cover the universe of competitive authoritarian elections held at the national level from 1974 to 2006. Based on this analysis, the author shows the composition of the electorate to be systematically linked to the degree of competitiveness, with the voter’s ethnic affiliation and level of income operating as the primary factors mediating vote choice alongside economic growth. The findings are furthermore found to be robust to a number of alternative explanations that involve the strategies of the dictator and the opposition. Finally, the thesis discusses some of the problems and broader implications of the analysis for the study of electoral authoritarian regimes and electoral competitiveness.

This thesis examines the sociality between mushroom pickers and mushrooms in the Greater Helsinki region of Southern Finland. The focus of the thesis is on interspecies social relations and interaction, and there is an emphasis on the role of place in the material mediation of these relationships. Examining these relationships, a discussion then follows about whether these observations are enough to suggest a “mushroom personhood” in the cultural thought of mushroom enthusiasts. The thesis endeavors to further the understanding of the social interconnections of different lifeforms by examining how mushroomers and mushrooms engage with each other as well as their surroundings in the forest. The thesis is positioned within current debates over the possible causes and fixes for the global environmental crisis. The aim of the thesis is to shed light on the importance of context in mediating relationships between humans and other-than-humans, as well as to consider whether this interspecies sociality might have implications on understandings of personhood in the West. Fungi are a distinct kingdom of organisms, which include mushrooms. In this thesis, the term “mushroom” is used to refer to the visible fruiting bodies of a larger subterranean organism called the mycelium. Mushrooms are picked for sale, consumption, and various other purposes in many countries, and mushroom picking is a common hobby in Finland. The ethnographic data for this thesis was gathered through fieldwork among recreational mushroomers from the Greater Helsinki region over the period of two autumns in 2019 and 2020. This fieldwork comprised of participant observation with sixteen mushroom enthusiasts, supplemented by four recorded unstructured interviews. The ethnographic focus of the thesis is on how humans who engage in mushroom picking express their knowledge of the connections between different lifeforms, and how things like emotion, memory and experience inform their movement and decision-making in the forest. There is a special emphasis on how mushroomers speak about and to mushrooms, and how they describe their appearance and behavior. The primary theoretical framework for the thesis builds on Tim Ingold’s work in environmental anthropology, with a focus on the notion of dwelling. The dwelling perspective is employed to gain a comprehensive understanding of the interconnectedness of different lifeforms within their material environments. Special consideration is given to how the concept of “place” is created by—and conversely mediates—human–mushroom relationships. In this thesis, place is seen as a temporal concept fundamentally emergent in practice, created by an interplay of human and other-than-human activity in a material environment over time. The ethnographic evidence presented in this thesis points to significant sociality, respect, personification, and care between human mushroom pickers and mushrooms. Examples of such sociality range from the use of respectful and caring language in describing mushrooms, to directly speaking to the mushrooms themselves. Furthermore, the ethnographic data include examples of how mushroom pickers perceive mushroom behavior, appearance, and intentionality, and commonly use anthropomorphic language to describe them. The question of other-than-human personhood is discussed in relation to these observations, and the thesis suggests that mushrooms may indeed be considered relational persons within these highly social contexts. Sociality between humans and other species is often overlooked in research on Western societies, especially when it comes to fungi and other non-animals. The thesis presents an example of an attentive and respectful relationship between humans and other lifeforms within a contemporary Western sociocultural context and is thus positioned against the prevalent idea of a hyperseparation between nature and culture in the West.