Browsing by Title

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.

Commitments to curb climate change and to cut greenhouse gas emissions have been increasing globally over recent years. De-carbonization and electrification of energy systems is central to reaching these targets and the share of renewable electricity generation is expected to grow rapidly across markets. This growth requires significant new investment into renewable generation technologies. This thesis contributes to the literature on the valuation of renewable energy as investment. It evaluates the attractiveness of onshore wind energy as long-term investment target in the Finnish market. The net present values (NPVs) of two wind farm investment projects are calculated, comparing the sensitivity of the outcomes to alternative rates of weighted average cost of capital (WACC). The project scenarios are defined such that they represent typical project characteristics based on recent data on onshore wind farm projects in Finland. Uncertainty over the future electricity capture prices for onshore wind and the risk of price cannibalization is included in the analysis with a Monte Carlo simulation of the NPV. The probability distribution for uncertain future price outcomes is based on data from a source study that develops several possible paths for the evolution of the Finnish electricity market by means of systemic scenario modeling. The research question is topical, because the financing of renewable electricity investments has been moving from a subsidies-driven model to market-based financing in Finland. The results of the research suggest that the attractiveness of onshore wind investment in Finland is highly sensitive to the WACC rate as well as to the assumptions made about the risk of future capture price cannibalization. It is possible that further policy support will be needed in the future to ensure that growth targets in renewable energy generation capacity are reached.

Evictions have been on the rise in Europe and around the globe during recent years. This study aims at giving voice to the people who are experiencing housing insecurity in the Portuguese capital city, Lisbon. Housing has become a key issue in local politics and this study sheds light on the topic in the context of the Portuguese welfare state. The first research question is to find out how the people, who are being evicted, or threatened to be evicted, see and describe their situation and how the situation has affected their lives. The second research object is to find out from where they have looked for assistance with their housing situations and how they perceive the help they have received. The literature review and the theoretical framework deal with the special features and development trajectories of the Portuguese welfare state. Despite the later democratic development, the legacies of Salazar´s authoritarian regime and of the colonial past are still visible in the form of considerable inequality within the society. The focus, though, is on the lived experiences of the participants. The approach of the study is qualitative and experience-centered narrative research. The data are made up of nine semi-structured interviews. All participants have experienced housing insecurity. Insecure housing, together with limited financial means, lead to a situation where the tenants are trapped in a dwelling which is insecure in terms of both legal rights and physical living conditions. Additionally, many tenants suffer from different types of harassment and intimidation by the landlords. Housing insecurity impacts various areas of people’s lives and the study reveals the downward spiral that the lives of the participants in the most insecure situations had taken. The insecure housing and economic deprivation increased the dependency on welfare provision and led to deepening poverty, with several unwanted practical, emotional and social consequences. Managing day-to-day life became physically and emotionally consuming for the participants and their personal relationships suffered. Many participants reported feelings of nervousness and depression, increasing health issues and a sense of being lost. Local authorities are involved in most cases and several participants had been in contact with the social services. The findings of the study support the existing literature about the short-comings of social protection and social welfare in Portugal. The housing issue in Portugal seems to be a structural problem arising from the societal inequalities, the pursued housing policies and the traditionally large role of the family in welfare and housing provision. Different grass-root organizations, such as Habita, seem to play a crucial role in supporting the individual, in raising awareness through publicity and in uniting people in a collective struggle for structural changes in society.

This thesis interrogates the category of Afro-German, towards gaining a better understanding of how individuals interpret their position within and outside of this category. Their narratives can help us understand how they perceive of themselves and society at large- how they frame and interpret their relationship with their environment and what implications this might have for dominant, normative identity categories such as ‘German’, ‘African’, ‘Black’, ‘White, within/across which they mediate their lives. Eight qualitative interviews with individuals of both African and German parentage provide the empirical basis for this study. Themes were analysed after a process of both open coding and followed by thematic coding Participants’ experiences outside and inside of Germany highlight the complexities of dislocation, identity formation in liminal spaces, the ambiguity of analytical delineations between liminal and encircling spaces, assumptions of normal and different and dualisms such as Black/White, German/African or German/Black. In addition, it becomes clear, that interrogating the category of Afro-German reinvigorates the discussion on contemporary notions of German national identity today. German ethnic identity and historical amnesia (Müller, 2011; Tiβberger, 2005; Schneider, 2001), identity construction and negotiation (Goffman, 1959, 1963, 1967), narratives as frames for identity (May, 2002; Martin, 2010; Lyng and Franks, 2002), cultural/historical/social dislocation (Asante, 2009), Others-from-Within and Others-from-Without (Wright, 2003) and textured identities (Campt, 1993) are the central theoretical underpinnings facilitating the analysis and interpretation of interview data towards giving the reader an insight into the richness and complexity of how these eight individuals perceive identity, challenge dislocation, strategize between identities and change the meanings of categories in everyday interactions.

Women’s movements in Bolivia have long been divided into different feminist groups and organizations on the one hand, and indigenous women’s movements on the other. Indigenous women have generally considered feminism to be an urban, middle-class ideology that is not compatible with their conception of gender and does not represent them. They have preferred to be active within the indigenous movement, which stresses the idea of decolonization as key to achieving gender equality. Even with these differences, attempts have been made by different women’s movements to work together in order to have a stronger voice around gender-specific issues in the national debate. In this thesis, frame analysis is employed to examine such efforts of cooperation. The data is a report published in connection with a conference that brought together representatives from several different women’s organizations, with the goal of advancing dialogue between them. The frames that these activists use are examined in order to analyse how those frames address differences between women and what kind of frames are most successful in using differences as strength. The frames that emerge from the data are grouped into three broad categories. First, there are universalistic frames that see a common identity of women and a shared experience of oppression as a starting point for solidarity. Second, there are local frames that ground themselves in the specific struggles to find common ground between different women’s movements in the Bolivian context. These frames base the idea of solidarity on common goals and agendas. Third, there are frames that take a personal approach and present personal accounts of struggles and processes of change. These frames are able to incorporate multiple identities into a personal narrative and to treat solidarity and coming together as an ongoing and open-ended process. The frames in this data that are best able to celebrate differences as strength are certain local and personal frames that move away from broad, conceptual definitions of patriarchy and feminism and towards lived experiences and shared struggles. They focus on the process of coming together and building alliances, which opens them up to differences and to dialogue. However, a more profound analysis of power and privilege is still lacking in all these frames.

This pro gradu thesis discusses the information war during the Ukraine conflict in 2014. In particular, it examines the production of enemy images in the Finnish and Russian online media articles. The role and significance of communication in national defense has increased significantly in recent years. In many aspects, information warfare has in fact returned to the core of modern warfare. The importance of conquering territory has lost its significance to operating in cyberspace. The term information war as understood in this thesis is characterized by the battle over information and the minds of people. The winner is therefore the one who creates the best narrative to support themselves and justify their action. After the escalation of the events in The Maidan demonstration in the center of the Ukrainian capital Kiev in November 2013, it soon became evident how Russia and the Western media both covered the conflict from remarkably different perspectives, all building their own narrative behind the events. This thesis focuses on two particular epochs in year 2014: the annexation of Crimea in March and the Russian aid convoy crossing the Ukraine border in August. The data consist of 64 randomly selected editorial articles from four media: Finnish public broadcasting company Yleisradio, Finnish tabloid newspaper Ilta-Sanomat, the Russian news channel Russia Today and the Russian news agency Sputnik International. This research focuses especially on the hidden power of media discourse (Norman Fairclough) and the main objective is the de-neutralization of the discourses of “the other” used in these media texts to represent “the other”. The method used for this study is the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), concentrating on role of language as being shaped by the society and shaping the society. CDA aims particularly at revealing the power relations behind discursive conventions. The main discourses found in this study were the discourses of military threat (1), truth (2), externality (3) and megalomania (4). The discourse of hypocrisy (5) solely appeared in the Russian media, whereas the discourse of despotism (6) was only used by the Finnish media. The prevalence of the four main discourses in the four media analyzed was surprisingly equal. However, there was more difference on a national level, as Ilta-Sanomat and Russia Today represented ”the other” clearly more actively with the help of these discourses compared to Yle and Sputnik. All in all, the representations of “the Other” in all the four media analyzed can be described as extremely negative.

This thesis aims to examine the communication of charity work on social media. The thesis takes on the fundraising efforts of Finnish charity organization New Children’s Hospital 2017 (Uusi Lastensairaala 2017) and its Facebook Page posts over the course of twelve months. The research problem is to look at what kinds of charity work ULS 2017 Facebook Page promotes and what discourses of responsibility and solidarity can be seen as inscribed into these forms of charity work. The subject matter is a timely example of new forms of public fundraising and charity as well as the responsibilization of the public sector. The study provides insight especially into discourses employed by charities and fundraising organizations in the domain of health care and otherwise health-related causes. The primary research data consists of posts from the New Children’s Hospital 2017 Facebook Page from October 2013 to September 2014. First, a method of content analysis has been used to examine, what kind of forms of charity work are presented on the Facebook Page posts and by whom they have been initiated (private individuals or groups, companies, actors in the third sector or the public sector). Building on these findings, prevalent types of charity work are further examined by applying a method of critical discourse analysis. The analysis indicates the prevalence of charity through consumption, sports and health-themed events, and projects and charity spectacle in the ULS 2017 campaign communications. A majority of these charity actions were organized by private businesses or private individuals or groups. In terms of ways of participation, so called social media campaigns per se where people are encouraged to share stories or create content are not prevalent in the data, yet the use of technology in donating techniques (SMS, digital donation boxes and social applications) is well presented. Concepts of self-fulfillment and personal pleasure, responsible consumption and healthy lifestyle surface in the discourses of sports and health related events and projects while entertainment and experience are mostly presented in different social events. What is found is that personal interest and self-improvement is presented side by side with discourses of social responsibility, communal work and of a collective towards a national project. It is argued further, that ideals of healthy lifestyle, entrepreneurship, consumption and collective work is perceived in many cases of charity work and its communication, and that many of these ideals can be seen as coalescing with neoliberal ideals of self-regulation, self-reliance, entrepreneurship and active citizenship.

Digitalisation, automation, and globalisation have caused significant changes in the nature of work during recent decades. During volatile times, the importance of motivated employees and the ability to produce new innovations is highlighted. The aim of this master’s thesis is to study the connection between quality of work motivation and innovative work behaviour, which consists of idea generation, promotion, and realisation. Self-determination theory’s (Deci & Ryan, 2000; 1985) conceptualisation on autonomous (intrinsic and identified) and controlled (introjected and external) motivational types and the three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) are used as the key theoretical standpoint. This quantitative research studies whether satisfaction of the three basic needs is positively connected to autonomous forms of motivation, whether autonomous forms of motivation are positively connected to innovative work behaviour, and whether the three basic needs are positively connected to innovative work behaviour. Furthermore, the mediating influence of autonomous motivation types in the relationships between the three basic needs and innovative work behaviour is also studied. A cross-sectional survey study was conducted to test the hypotheses. The data consist of responses of 92 knowledge workers (response rate 25.6%) from headquarters of a large Finnish organisation. The sample group is characterised by high educational level (81.6% of participants had lower- or higher-degree tertiary education from university or university of applied sciences) and quite even gender distribution (58.7% females and 40.2% males). In addition to background information, respondents answered to questions related to need satisfaction, motivational types, and innovative work behaviour. All the scales used in this research are developed specifically for work context and they have been validated in previous studies. The main statistical methods included linear regression analysis, Spearman correlation analysis, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance, and the factorial structures of scales were assessed with exploratory factor analysis. The mediation model was tested using the causal steps by Baron and Kenny (1986). The results show partial support for hypotheses. Autonomy and competence are positively connected to autonomous types of motivation, and all three basic needs are negatively connected to amotivation, i.e. lack of motivation. Only intrinsic motivation of the four motivational types explains positively and statistically significantly innovative work behaviour, and the coefficient of determination is notable (R2 adj. = .21) considering all the possible antecedents influencing innovativeness. Innovative work behaviour correlates positively with competence and autonomy, but only competence explains innovative work behaviour positively and statistically significantly in regression analysis. Intrinsic motivation mediates fully the connection between competence and innovative work behaviour, also when the effects of autonomy and relatedness are controlled. The influence of relatedness on autonomous types of motivation and innovative work motivation remains unclear. The results of this research indicate that innovative work behaviour might be endorsed among knowledge workers by supporting employees’ intrinsic motivation, which can be done by supporting their satisfaction of needs for autonomy and competence. According to previous research, autonomy can be supported by allowing influence on how, when, and what tasks are done, as well as including employees in goal setting and decision making, whereas competence can be supported by reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, allocating tasks so that they match employees’ skills, and providing training for employees.

Human values are studied across scientific disciplines. Our values underline what is important to us, and our values are reflected in our behaviour and the social structures that surround us. The cultural environment may contribute to value change. The values of individuals are mainly formed in younger years and remain relatively stable after a person has reached adulthood. The aim of this thesis was first to analyze the correlation between Schwartz’s (2012) universalism value structure and Inglehart’s (2014) self-expression values. Second, it was investigated whether this relationship is stronger in so-called WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) countries. The compared value structures put emphasis on factors that are often mentioned in conversations around sustainable development: environmental concern, care for other people, and social justice. In order to examine the relationship between universalism and self-expression values, a correlation analysis was performed with data from 52 countries across the world. The findings indicate a positive and statistically significant relationship (p < 0.01) between the value structures in seven of the eight WEIRD countries that were identified. In other parts of the world, the correlation was weaker and more dubious. On the one hand, the results suggest that high levels of universalism values can be combined with strong prevalence of self-expression values. Western individualism may coexist with altruism and environmental concern, in line with previous research. However, the positive correlations were rather small (0.10 < r < 0.30), signalling that the value structures universalism and self-expression represent different types of values with unique content. On the other hand, in a couple of nations bordering to WEIRD, the positive relationship between the value structures was due to relatively low levels of both universalism and self-expression values. Moreover, most non-WEIRD countries did not record a significant correlation between universalism and self-expression. From a cross-cultural perspective, this might be explained by the fact that the Schwartz and Inglehart frameworks have been designed and developed in the West. Under such circumstances, human values are approached from a Western point of view, meaning that the tools of measurement possibly work best in a WEIRD context. Theories, methods, and interpretations with a Western bias are not necessarily transferable to other countries and cultures without modifications.

Ortodoksisten talousteorioiden mukaan kaupankäynti on luonnollinen prosessi, joka ikään kuin tapahtuu itsestään. Naiset ja heidän kokemuksensa sivutetaan usein tämän talousnäkemyksen seurauksena. Maailman Kauppajärjestöä (WTO) on esimerkiksi kritisoitu sen heikoista, sukupuolten tasa-arvoa edistävistä toimista. Yksi WTO:n sukupuolten tasa-arvoa edistävä toimi on ”Buenos Airesin julistus”, jonka tavoite on edistää naisten osallistumista maailmankauppaan. Vuonna 2017 yli sata WTO:n jäsenmaata allekirjoitti kyseisen julistuksen. Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastellaan tätä WTO:n ensimmäistä mittavaa pyrkimystä edistää naisten taloudellisia oikeuksia. Tutkielmassa vastataan tarkemmin siihen, miten Buenos Airesin julistukseen päädyttiin. Tutkielmassa tutkitaan myös, kuinka sukupuolikysymykset ja naisten oikeudet ovat muuttuneet ja muovautuneet globaalissa hallinnassa ja perehdytään erityisesti toista maailman sotaa edeltäviin vuosikymmeniin. Kun tarkastellaan sukupuolen ja vapaakaupan suhdetta, voidaan paremmin ymmärtää, miten ajan saatossa tapahtuneet muutokset ovat vaikuttaneet Buenos Airesin julistuksen syntyyn. Lisäksi tutkielmassa tarkastellaan WTO:n roolia sukupuolten tasa-arvon edistäjänä. Feminististä poliittista taloutta sekä postkolonialistisia talousaatteita hyödynnetään tutkielman teoreettisena viitekehyksenä. Vapaata kauppaa analysoidaan reformistisesta näkökulmasta. Feministisessä talousteoriassa painotetaan usein, että kauppa ei ole ainoastaan luonnollinen prosessi. Kauppa määritetään sosiaalisena konstruktiona, johon lukuisat tekijät vaikuttavat. Tutkielman analyysin perustana toimii Peggy Antrobusin teoria sukupuolten ulottuvuuksista globaalissa hallinnassa. Ajatus sukupuolten epätasa-arvosta on muuttunut, mikä käy ilmi tutkielman analyysistä. Sen lisäksi analyysissa osoitetaan, että sukupuolten tasa-arvoa koskevat kysymykset ovat lisääntyneet kansainvälisesti. Buenos Airesin julistuksen taustalla on monia vaiheita, joita globaalin hallinnan erilaiset trendit myös vahvistavat. Nykyisen hegemonian mukaan vapaakauppa hyödyttää kaikkia ihmisiä tasapuolisesti. Kriittinen tutkimus on kuitenkin osoittanut tarpeen edistää sukupuolten välistä tasa-arvoa. Näin ollen tutkielman analyysissa tarkastellaan myös WTO:n roolia sukupuolten tasa-arvon edistämisessä. Sen sijaan että WTO yrittäisi löytää ja purkaa sukupuolten epätasa-arvoon vaikuttavia juurisyitä, analyysissä selviää, että WTO pyrkii ensisijaisesti tukemaan naisten taloudellista voimaantumista ja yrittäjyyttä. Tutkielman johtopäätöksenä voidaan todeta, että globaalissa hallinnassa tapahtuvilla muutoksilla ja kansainvälisillä organisaatioilla on merkittävä vaikutus sukupuolten tasa-arvoon. Tutkielman johtopäätöksissä pohditaan myös sitä, miten sukupuolikysymykset on otettu huomioon historian saatossa. Johtopäätöksissä korostetaan lopulta luotettavan datan, valvonnan ja evaluoinnin keskeistä merkitystä vapaan kaupan sukupuolittuneiden vaikutusten tutkimuksessa.