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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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The subject of this master’s thesis is private collectors, their collections and the life of those collections, i.e. things. The main research question is why do we collect things? Through this question this study hopes to gain insight into our general relationship to things and the life of things, i.e., what is it to be human among things. The collectors in this study are ones who have established a private museum around their collections. Anthropological studies about collectors and private museums are relatively scarce, although the image of the collector and the question of the accumulation of possessions are both of great contemporary relevance. The museum as an institution fuses these two aspects into a formalized endeavor to collect, to save, to keep and accrue objects indefinitely and seemingly without limits. Museums are institutional collectors bound for limitless accumulation with taxonomy. All of this merits further anthropological scrutiny. The object of this study is to think with the collections, to learn from them, and attempt to discern from collectors and museum proprietors what purposes and needs things fulfill beyond their strictly utilitarian roles and the obvious meanings we give to them, and what sort of transformational potential is immanent in the museum, the collector and the collection, if any. The material for this study was collected in the form of semi-structured interviews and participant observation, where the “observing” and “participating” happened within and with the collections and museumscapes, often a very tactile dialectic through which the object and the subject are revealed as processes rather than strictly separate aspects, the lived world of things revealed as a state of becoming rather than being. These perspectives were opened up through a phenomenological approach to the study. The fieldwork was conducted during three months in the summer of 2019, as part of a larger project focused on so-called “micromuseums”. Sixty museums were visited around Finland from Lapland to the southern archipelago. Interviews were conducted with the proprietors of 37 museums. The locations and collections were also photographed extensively. The results of this study were that the reasons for collecting are an endeavor to grasp the past, to preserve things for others, to create a collection, an assemblage or coming-together of things that would outlast the collector. Collecting and the museum show themselves to be profoundly relational and collective. Being human among things is revealed as an ambivalent existence and our relationship to things challenging and contradictory.