Browsing by Author "Mynttinen, Laura"

In general, the EU-financed empowerment programmes are still an area with relatively little academic research. The aim of these programmes is to combat the exclusion of the participants by transforming a state of powerlessness into active citizenship. They aim to empower the disempowered, such as long-term unemployed or disabled persons. In this Master’s Thesis, it is argued that while the aim to empower these individuals represents a good intention as such, the programmes seek, at the same time, to constitute and regulate the political subjectivities -conscience, identity, self-knowledge - of their objects. This research studies the different techniques of power by asking, how, in the Finnish EU funded social programmes, powerlessness and exclusion are to be transformed into active citizenship and self-sufficiency through the application of empowerment strategies, seen as technologies of citizenship. The research falls in the field of governmentality studies, which rely on the Foucauldian idea of power relations as ubiquitous and productive. It is argued that while the subjects define themselves as citizens having rights and liberties, they also become the objects of the subtle modes of governance and self-governance. Programmes of empowerment are seen as examples of the contemporary liberal rationalities of government that seek to operationalise the self-governing capacities of the governed in the pursuit of governmental objectives. As data, three different Finnish EU-funded projects are analysed. First of them is directed at uneducated young people, second one to isolated immigrant mothers, and third one to unemployed single parents. Barbara Cruikshank’s concept of the technologies of citizenship, as well as Mitchell Dean’s three dimensions of government are employed in the analysis part of the Thesis. Dean draws a distinction between the techne, episteme and ethos of government, which correspond to power, truth and identity. The textual material produced by the projects forms the data to be analysed, covering documents such as mid-term evaluations, as well as final reports and other official publications. Considering methods, the research employs discourse analysis and content analysis based on the tripartite model of Dean. The projects studied aim to maximise and mobilise the subjectivities of participants, seen as passive, sometimes irresponsible and always people with multiple problems. The ideal end result of empowerment, in the project philosophies, is an active, happy, responsible and participatory citizen. Drawing from the Foucauldian idea of biopower, the projects attempt to organise, control, govern and protect the objects of empowerment. Since the participants are financially dependent on different social benefits, it is argued that they need to be empowered in order to be at use both to themselves, as well as to the larger society. Even though the usual performance indicators in the EU-funded projects relate to the number of people finding employment, the character of inclusion that is to be advanced in the projects is a significantly more profound and all-encompassing one, including both economic, political, cultural and educational aspects. The projects studied employ several different technologies of empowerment, seeking to produce docile, healthy and self-governing subjects. The aspect of expert power empowering is present in the linearly appearing empowerment path of the participants, who are constantly guided, consulted, activated and regulated by the experts. Knowledge of the objects of empowerment is routinely collected and documented. Reflecting the Foucauldian idea of pastoral power and biopower, the projects regularly consult several experts of health, seeking to empower the participants to take care of their body and well-being, as well as manage their everyday lives. The projects attempt to gain the trust of the participants and actively engage them in their personal growth and continuous self-evaluation, one which is hoped to last even though the project itself has ended. Those who fail to engage themselves with the project of self-improvement, those who drop out from the course are constructed, in the data, as persons threatening the group of individuals willing to experience a transformation towards better self.