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After the September 11 attacks in 2001 the President of the United States, George W. Bush, declared a global war on terrorism – and a war to rescue the Afghan women from their terrorist men. Feminist scholars and activists worldwide criticized the Bush government for using feminist rhetoric to justify the war. However, the development of this discourse throughout the tiring years of warfare and the co-optation of the U.S. rhetoric by other coalition partner countries have been overlooked in the research. This thesis examines the gendered narratives and the women’s rights rhetoric of U.S. and German state officials in 2001−2002 and 2007−2008. The theoretical framework of this thesis is located on the diverse and interdisciplinary field of feminist security- and international relations studies. The research questions are: How was the Afghan war justified through gendered narratives and rhetorical tools? How did the deployment of women’s rights rhetoric change during and in-between this period? Were there some distinctions in the use of rhetoric and gendered categorizations between the U.S. and German administration officials, two countries with very different foreign policy traditions? The source material of this thesis consists mainly of speeches, press briefings, debates and statements given by the state officials from the United States and Germany in 2001−2002 and 2007−2008. The speech material was collected from the online databases of the U.S. Department of State, the White House, the German Federal Government and the debate records of the German Parliament. The methodological framework of discourse analysis was used for analysing the rhetoric. Especially two tools of discourse analysis were utilized: the analysis of hegemonic discourses and the analysis of rhetoric and argumentation. By de-naturalizing the hegemonic discourses and identifying simplifying narratives, this thesis aims to reveal how discourses can consolidate power, essentialize gender roles and situate the human subjects through discourse to unequal positions of power. However, women’s rights rhetoric practised by major world leaders is not seen as necessarily positive or negative per se: What matters is the framing and the context of the rhetoric. By analyzing the gendered rhetoric, this thesis intends to find more nuanced ways of using and manipulating gendered categories to legitimize domination and control. In the years 2001 and 2002, the first two years of the war, the Bush administration utilized the image of the masculine hero, who must protect his country under threat. Even though this hero could be a woman or man, the virtues that he represented were congenitally masculine: strength, force, heroism and courage. He had to protect the country from a new type of an enemy: the mad, savage- or even animal-like, women-hating terrorist. His sadistic treatment of women was emphasized to show his barbarism. The depiction of a normal and civilized Muslim man was almost non-existent in the discourse, the image of the terrorist Muslim man was dominant. The corruption and human rights abuses of the Northern Alliance members in the Karzai government were left unaddressed. The role of the American woman in this discourse was to be calm, collected and supportive, as embodied in the First Lady, Laura Bush. The Afghan women were treated as one singular, homogenic group in the discourse – as objects to be saved. In the German discourse the masculine protector was not as celebrated as in the U.S., the discourse of the Afghan women was almost identical. The Gerhard Schröder administration also wanted to carry its responsibility towards the women-liberating West. By 2007−2008 the war had turned out to be tiring and extremely challenging, but the masculine protector was still standing strong in the U.S. discourse. There were no signs of hesitation, regret, admitting mistakes or a change of strategy with Karzai’s government, Northern Alliance and its alleged corruption. The situation of Afghanistan’s women was painted as a success story, with no real need to talk about the still prevailing misogyny. There were no separate big speeches discussing the still existing problems in women’s rights sector. The critical voices from the opposition parties were challenging the discourse of the government led by chancellor Angela Merkel in 2007−2008 in Germany. Yet again the German administration utilized the threat of Afghan women falling back in the hands of Taliban and women being massacred to silence the war opposers. Critical voices coming from Afghan women about the warlordization and corruption of Northern Alliance were still ridiculed or silenced, as demonstrated in the case of the Afghan activist and former parliamentarian, Malalai Joya. The voices of silent and grateful women were however accepted easily as representing “all” Afghan women. This thesis sheds new light on the feminist analysis of the War on Terror by demonstrating how easily Bush administration’s rhetoric was co-opted by another coalition country. The analysis shows that even after seven years of warfare, women’s rights were still strongly utilized in the war legitimizing discourse by both countries under scrutiny. This thesis concludes that the utilization of feminist rhetoric by major world powers should not only be criticized but it could also be used to push forward the implementation of feminist policies. The deconstruction of the hegemonic war narratives and listening also to criticism and contestation could open new discursive spaces for building long-lasting peace in Afghanistan.

The thesis is about the landscape ideas of mountain guides on Mount Kenya in central Kenya. The aim of the thesis is to understand how the guides who walk the mountain for a living experience the landscape. The thesis explores theories of landscape as a view, as a way of seeing and phenomenological theories of experiencing landscape. These different perspectives shed light on how the mountain has been conceptualized at different times and by different groups, which all affect the ideas of the guides. The thesis also describes the occupational culture of the guides and trekking on Mount Kenya in detail. Walking as a way of experiencing the landscape is examined theoretically and through ethnographic material. The ethnographic material was gathered during a three-month fieldwork period from May to July 2010 in Kenya. The fieldwork included interviews with mountain guides and participant observation on two treks to the mountain. A phenomenological approach is used in analysing guides’ practices of moving in the landscape. The guides’ landscape ideas are affected by traditional Gikuyu ideas of Mount Kenya, western cultural ideas of climbing and the landscape, as well as their own experiences of moving in the landscape. The Gikuyu ethnic group traditionally saw Mount Kenya as a sacred landscape feature, but it was not traditionally climbed by them. The western appreciation of walking in the landscape and mountaineering has a cultural history that explorers and settlers brought with them, as they named places, formed trails and made maps of the mountain. Western landscape ideas also affected the formation of the national park. In mountaineering, the journey is often as important as arriving. Sacredness on Mount Kenya is today most relevant in the idea of pilgrimage that many tourists have, of a journey in search of transformation. The guides walk and carry for a living and perceive the landscape through constant movement. They have learned to know the routes and landscape in detail. Stories and memories of events on the mountain are tied to the landscape and shared among those who know the mountain. For a guide, Mount Kenya is often sentimentally significant. The mountain is able to encompass varying landscape ideas and the experience of climbing is not the same for everyone.

This collection of articles examines aspects of the evolution of the capitalist state following the global crisis of the 1970s up to the Great Recession beginning in 2008. Drawing from the theoretical work of James OConnor, Nicos Poulantzas and the Amsterdam School of global political economy in particular, the articles deal in turnwith key episodes charting the transnationalisation of the state. Precursors to the neoliberal era are explored in detail, with particular reference to the post-1945 history of the United Kingdom, whose economic and geopolitical importance in many ways made it a pivotal actor on the world stage, as both a standard bearer and a laboratory of neoliberal reform. The global hegemony of the United States, which has acted as the main promoter and enforcer of neoliberalism, is examined with particular emphasis on its financial and economic aspects. The key role of the international financial institutions following the Second World War is discussed. The commodification of health care is treated as a case study of how neoliberal transformation has worked in a particular sector. The evolution of the European Union from potential economic fortress to neoliberal standard bearer is also scrutinised. As an introductory overview concludes, following the global financial crisis of 2007 onwards the developmental path charted by neoliberalism has reached an impasse, marked by both the exhaustion of neoliberalism as a policy agenda and orthodox economics as its ideological ballast. Given the continuities of institutions and personnel, however, there is as yet little sign of a significant change of direction.

This thesis investigates whether the Finnish house market experienced a housing bubble through 2015 to 2021. During the period in question, the world suffered the global pandemic, Covid-19, which influenced fluctuations in different markets such as labor, housing, and financial. Study of this thesis focuses on the house market of Finland as a whole, divided between old and new apartment types with data spreading quarterly from 2015 to 2021. Beginning with summarizing the various definitions of a bubble made in the literature and studies regarding housing bubbles, this thesis bases its study on the most commonly used definition of bubble presented as deviation from economic fundamentals. After the introduction and definition discussion, this thesis introduces the theoretical framework and analysis of the three conventional ratios of house price dynamics from the aforementioned literature. These ratios being the price-to-income ratio, price-to-rent ratio, and imputed-to-actual rent ratio. The imputed-to-actual rent ratio includes the user cost formula which is modified to fit the Finnish house market landscape. The results from the ratio analysis show only weak or non-existent proof of a bubble based on the severity when compared to results from the literature of other markets. Between apartment types, the price increase has been considerably higher for new type than for old implying overvaluation for new apartments, which can be seen throughout the ratio analysis as well. Final part includes the stationarity and the cointegration tests. The ADF test on stationarity is conducted on the first two ratios and results show that the price-to-income ratio is stationary for old type but non-stationary for new type. When the ADF test is conducted on first difference to validate the result, both types show stationarity, while for the price-to-rent ratio, both types show non-stationarity and on the first difference, old type stays non-stationary at 90% significance. Lastly, the cointegration model for testing if the house prices are deviating from the economic fundamentals is constructed. Results of cointegration test show that house prices cannot be explained by the set of economic fundamentals except household income since test statistic does not reject the null hypothesis of no cointegration. The conclusion outlines that although some of the results are showing towards a bubble, the evidence is too weak and insignificant to prove it.

Kaikissa kunnon juhlissa on kakku. Tämä pro gradu -työ on tutkielma kakusta symbolina ja osana erilaisia suomalaisia nykypäivän rituaaleja. Kakkuun ja sen merkityksiin tutustutaan antropologisen ruoka-, symboli- ja rituaalitutkimuksen näkökulmasta. Lisäksi sukulaisuudentutkimuksen kautta tutkielmassa perehdytään siihen, mitä merkityksiä eri toimijoiden rooleilla näissä rituaaleissa ja näiden rituaalien taustalla on. Tärkeänä osana tutkimusta perehdytään myös tapoihin puhua kakusta ja selvitetään, mitä kakun diskurssi kertoo kakulle asetetuista vaatimuksista ja odotuksista, sekä millaisia arvoja ja rakenteita kakku paljastaa yhteiskunnasta. Keskiössä ovat myös merkitykset, joita kakun itsensä rakenteelle, eli ulkonäölle ja sisällölle, annetaan. Tutkielmassa esitellään tapaus, jossa keväällä 2015 Vauva.fi-sivuston keskustelufoorumilla joukko anonyymejä kirjoittelijoita keskustelee erään äidin ruokablogissaan esittelemästä lastenjuhlien syntymäpäiväkakusta. Kakku oli valmistettu vesimelonista ja sai foorumilla ristiriitaisen vastaanoton. Tämän verkkokeskustelun kautta etsitään vastausta siihen, miksi kakku on niin tärkeä osa juhlia, ja miksi vesimeloni syntymäpäivä-kakussa herätti niin paljon emootioita keskustelufoorumilla. Lisäksi kakkua ja sen ympärille rakentuneita rituaaleja analysoidaan myös osallistuvan havainnoinnin avulla lasten syntymäpäivillä ja häissä. Kotimaiseen leivontakulttuuriin tutustutaan Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran keruuaineistojen kautta, ja löydöksiä peilataan siihen, miten kakku nykyään näyttäytyy sosiaalisen median kiillotetussa maailmassa. Tutkielmassa kakkua analysoidaan historiallisesti ja kulttuurisesti rakentuneena merkitysjärjestelmänä. Teoreettisena viitekehyksenä on käytetty muun muassa Mary Douglasin ja David Suttonin teorioita ruokasysteemeistä sekä Sherry Ortnerin symboliteoriaa. Kakun ympärille rakentunutta rituaalia sekä kakun fyysistä ja symbolista rakennetta puretaan Roy Rappaortin, Roy Wagnerin ja Gilbert Lewisin rituaali- ja traditiotutkimusten näkökulmasta. Anne Allisonin ideologisen vallankäytön teorian avulla analysoidaan kakkuun liittyviä ideologisia ja sosiaalisia rakenteita ja sääntöjä. Tämä tutkielma ei kerro vain kakusta, vaan ruoasta ylipäätään: tutkielmassa selviää, että ruokalajien ja ruokakulttuurin on tulkittava itseään uudelleen pysyäkseen elinvoimaisena, ja niin kakun kuin muunkin ruoan käyttöä, ohjaavat ruokakulttuurin rakenteet, jotka määräävät minkälaisia muutoksia yksilöt saavat ruokiin ja aterioihin tehdä. Kakun tapauksessa, kommunikoidakseen kakulle tärkeää symboliikkaa, on kakun kuitenkin pysyttävä sekä fyysisesti että symbolisesti tunnistettavana, tai muuten se epäonnistuu kakkuna olemisessa. Tutkimuksen johtopäätös on, että vesimeloni raaka-aineena rikkoi vielä toistaiseksi liian monia syntymäpäiväjuhliin ja syntymäpäiväkakkuun liittyviä konventioita, eikä enää onnistunut sisältämään syntymäpäiväkakulta vaadittua symboliikkaa, jolloin kakusta tuli monella tasolla epäpuhdas juhlan symboli.

In this thesis I examine the U.S. foreign policy discussion that followed the war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008. In the politically charged setting that preceded the presidential elections, the subject of the debate was not only Washingtons response to the crisis in the Caucasus but, more generally, the direction of U.S. foreign policy after the presidency of George W. Bush. As of November 2010, the reasons for and consequences of the Russia-Georgia war continue to be contested. My thesis demonstrates that there were already a number of different stories about the conflict immediately after the outbreak of hostilities. I want to argue that among these stories one can discern a 'neoconservative narrative' that described the war as a confrontation between the East and the West and considered it as a test for Washington’s global leadership. I draw on the theory of securitization, particularly on a framework introduced by Holger Stritzel. Accordingly, I consider statements about the conflict as 'threat texts' and analyze these based on the existing discursive context, the performative force of the threat texts and the positional power of the actors presenting them. My thesis suggests that a notion of narrativity can complement Stritzel’s securitization framework and take it further. Threat texts are established as narratives by attaching causal connections, meaning and actorship to the discourse. By focusing on this process I want to shed light on the relationship between the text and the context, capture the time dimension of a speech act articulation and help to explain how some interpretations of the conflict are privileged and others marginalized. I develop the theoretical discussion through an empirical analysis of the neoconservative narrative. Drawing on Stritzel’s framework, I argue that the internal logic of the narrative which was presented as self-evident can be analyzed in its historicity. Asking what was perceived to be at stake in the conflict, how the narrative was formed and what purposes it served also reveals the possibility for alternative explanations. My main source material consists of transcripts of think tank seminars organized in Washington, D.C. in August 2008. In addition, I resort to the foreign policy discussion in the mainstream media.

Studies have shown that the platform companies Google and Facebook have a disruptive nature in how media companies organise their work, and some researchers claim they are a duopoly in digital advertising. However, Google says it supports media by “helping” media industries through funding and training. This study argues that by examining what media projects Google supports, we get a good overview of what challenges journalism is currently facing and the solutions for tackling these problems, and ultimately, how this connects to Google as a platform company and to its narrative. This study aims to investigate which media industry challenges Google tries to address by financial support and to examine the solutions to these challenges proposed in accepted Digital News Innovation Fund (DNI) projects. Thus, this research asks: What are the challenges for media and journalists that Google Digital News Initiative is addressing? What specific challenges get the largest support? What are the main solutions proposed in projects supported by Google DNI? Based on the review of the literature about the relationships between platform companies and media and responses to challenging conditions in the ecosystem of platforms, qualitative content analysis was used to examine the last round of the DNI Fund’s 102 projects. The analysis demonstrated that Google supports projects that classify in three directions: Business Model Innovations, Product Development in Editorial Processes and Ecosystem Development Approaches. One of the most interesting findings shows that Google favours supporting projects that concern solutions for the increase in audience subscriptions rather than addressing what publishers have concerns about the most – Google’s domination over the digital advertisement. The results open the discussion about the possible signs of Google’s support in media industries being a “self-help” for their mission of organising the world’s information. Further research is needed to identify what is the content of the other projects Google presents as “help” to media industries.

One of the most debated areas of metaethics is whether moral beliefs should be understood as descriptive beliefs or as non-cognitive states of mind. If the former is true, then moral beliefs are truth-apt and should be understood to describe facts of the world. Expressivists think that moral beliefs are expressions of non-cognitive states of mind similar to desires and that moral beliefs do not get their meaning from any descriptive facts. Instead, the function of a moral judgement is to avow attitudes, express preferences, or the like. This thesis explores two problems, which arise from the expressivists understanding of moral beliefs. More specifically, the problems investigated are about how uncertainty and certainty in our moral beliefs should be understood by those endorsing expressivism. Expressivism neatly explains why moral beliefs have a motivational force, but faces problems in explaining why our everyday normative talk seems to behave as if moral beliefs are similar to all the descriptive beliefs we have. Quasi-realism is a project aimed to explain and justify everyday moral talk from the expressivist viewpoint. Moral error is one of the concepts our everyday moralizing uses, which quasi-realism aims to justify. Being wrong in moral matters should be possible, as should uncertainty on whether your own moral beliefs are erroneous. If moral beliefs are expressions of desire-like non-cognitive states of mind, it is not obvious how we can be uncertain of them. After all, desires are traditionally thought to be unquestionable. An explanation of moral uncertainty is, in this case, a crucial goal for quasi-realism. Andy Egan claims that quasi-realists cannot provide a good enough explanation of moral uncertainty. In particular, he argues that there are fundamental moral beliefs which quasi-realists are forced to judge as a priori true, while everyone else’s fundamental moral beliefs can be doubted. If so, this asymmetry means that quasi-realists are unpardonably smug and so fail to vindicate our everyday understanding of morality. Michael Smith provides another problem for quasi-realists and expressivists. He claims that moral beliefs have three features, and expressivists can only provide an explanation of two of them. These three features are the importance of a belief versus other beliefs, its stability when new facts and opinions are uncovered, and the certitude that the belief holder has regarding the truthfulness of the belief. From these three features, it is certitude that is widely regarded as the one which expressivists cannot explain, making quasi-realists’ goals once again unattainable. This thesis explores the different ways quasi-realists and expressivists have tried to answer these arguments and failed. I will argue that the two problems presented here are linked, and the solution to Egan’s argument can only be gained if Smith’s argument is also solved. Smith’s understanding of certitude is argued to be erroneous, and that his problem of explaining certitude poses no further problems for expressivists, which everyone else would not face as well. In addition, this thesis will have suggestions of how certitude should be understood regardless of metaethical views. As for Egan’s challenge, I will argue that his definition of fundamental moral beliefs is incomplete. I propose that fundamental moral belief should be understood as completely certain beliefs and that expressions of knowledge accompany those, and that no-one can doubt fundamental beliefs. We are all smug when it comes to our most fundamental moral beliefs.

This thesis is about nationalism and national identification in a multicultural setting. The study examines the young Singaporeans sense of national belonging and how the Singaporean nation-state is imagined to exist. Singapore is a post- colonial multiethnic nation-state where the government has been determined to unite the heterogeneous population under one nation. The study analyses how the different strategies and discourses developed to unite the people affect the younger generation of Singaporeans sense of the nation, and what kind of discourses of Singaporeanness exist. The aim is to show how a nation can be conceptualized both in the level of a state and its people and how national ideology, often promoted by the state, is reproduced in the experiences and practices of the daily life. The study is based on a three month ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Singapore from October to December in 2014. The study combines various qualitative research methods: go-along ethnography, participant observation, informal discussions, questionnaire, observation in events and in academic seminars and media follow-up. There were 13 informants (6 males and 7 females) between 21 and 31 years old involved in the study. The study follows grounded theory approach. The data is thus analyzed in reference to anthropological theories of nations and nationalism and by looking at everyday nationalism. The Singaporeanness is analyzed from three perspectives: - The shared experience of growing up and living in Singapore’s specific socio-political reality. - The imagination of the nation as culturally coherent but at the same time essentially diverse. - The global Singaporeanness as also a localized identity. The dominant discourses suggest that Singaporeans should work hard for the national unity since it is imagined to be always under threat. This creates a constant feeling of not being a plausible nation, and subsequently the inability to have a national identity. Discourses are also used to legitimate the authoritarian rule, which creates shared nationalized life experiences. Also, due to the discourse of vulnerability, the society is driven by pragmatic values and economic motives. This is reflected in people’s 'Singaporean behavior', which is recognized as part of common Singaporean culture. At the same time the managing of diversity and ideal national identity get different meanings in the everyday level of life. These mediated meanings eventually form the foundation of global but local Singaporeanness. The thesis comes to the conclusion that the Singaporeanness the informants of the study express and experience differs from the ideal national identity and belonging that the government wants to promote. Young people have their own personal way to be Singaporean, which makes their sense of national belonging significant for them. However, the understandings of Singaporeanness are created and produced in the dialogue between the government’s nation-building project and popular, collective understandings of Singaporeanness. Theoretically the study shows how intimate and daily life is connected to understanding of nation and national belonging. The thesis indicates that nationalism is not only a state-driven force that aims to homogenize people in the local level, but it also creates differentiated identities that get their meaning in global level and become part of people’s personal daily life.

Identity is a much-studied topic within social psychology, and it has historically been linked with rapid societal change, such as a shift to modernity or postmodernity. Nepal is one of the fastest developing and urbanizing countries in South Asia, which opens up for identity negotiation as societal structures and discourses shift. Previous anthropological research on young women in Nepal and Kathmandu has highlighted the tension present in constructing identities as modern and Nepali, both because of conflicting discourses available for women as well as hegemonic constructs of Nepali womanhood within development discourse. This thesis investigates how young women working in development NGOs in Kathmandu construct Nepali womanhood and position themselves in relation to these constructions. Building on previous anthropological and sociological research on women in Nepal, a Critical Discursive Psychological approach is introduced for inquiry on the topic. Identity is approached through the concept of subject positions and the critical discursive psychological theoretical tools of ideological dilemmas and interpretative repertoires are used to answer the research questions. The data was collected by semi-structured thematic interviews that included one-on-one, dyad and small group interviews. The data included for final analyses was collected through interviews with 11 participants selected through purposive sampling. The research process was marked by reflexivity and the analyses reshaped the research questions to a focus on the constructions of Nepali womanhood and the subject positions available, in relation to the dilemma of being a modern Nepali woman. The themes brought up by the participants were centred around gender inequality and marriage, both of which were also at the root of the dilemma. From the data three main interpretative repertoires were proposed, namely cultural, neoliberal and development repertoire. The main construction of Nepali womanhood was that of woman as mother, as ideal Nepali, as individual with agency, and as woman in need of development. In solving the dilemma and renegotiating the constructs of Nepali womanhood the participants positioned as atypical either by othering, accepting, resisting or altering. The main result is that the women interviewed actively renegotiate the meaning of both Nepaliness and what it means to be modern when negotiating their identities and thus construct alternative positions. Finally, methodological and theoretical concerns are raised and ideas for further research, such as including men working in the same field in Kathmandu, are proposed.