Browsing by study line "Social Sciences"
Now showing items 21-33 of 33
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(2022)Political landscapes or the political scene in the Nordic countries is often regarded of being very similar, whether it is the party system, voters’ behaviour, or political discourse. Since the formation of the political party system in Norden, three party types have been the ballast of the Nordic party landscape. These are in each country a social democratic party, a conservative party, and a centre-agrarian party. Those parties were identified by Jan Sundberg as the Nordic “pole parties”. In the last few years these parties’ support has been waning and these parties do not have as much combined electoral support as they once did. In this thesis three different variables will be analysed to determine if they have affected the support towards these pole parties. The variables in question are party identification, trust towards politicians, and voter turnout. National election studies and formal turnout figures will be used to determine whether these variables affect the support of towards Nordic pole parties. The methods used are quantitative binary logistic regression analysis and coefficient correlation analysis. The key findings in this thesis are that all three variables play a certain role in the waning support of pole parties in Norden, however, all in a different way.
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(2022)This thesis aims to examine the representation of the policy problem behind inclusion in education at the compulsory education level. The other purpose is to analyze how the inclusive education policies differ from the others at different levels: global, European, national, local and new philanthropy. The thesis examines policy papers by the actors at three highest-level actors: global-level the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), European-level the European Union (EU), and national-level Finland. The perspective is to respect children’s rights and interests. The thesis theorizes inclusion in education historically, conceptually, and linguistically in Europe and in Finland. The thesis argues that inclusion in education is a value-based ideology and can be defined as a continuous process. Policies of inclusion in education are part of the broader global ideological objective of inclusive societies, which are against social exclusion. Along with globalization and Europeanisation, education policy as well has been globalized. As a result, the education policy can be seen as multilevel network governance where all actors cooperate. However, the OECD is at the of the network as an umbrella in global education policy and monitors the education policy of all actors. The thesis applies the post-structural What’s the problem represented? (WPR) approach by Carol Bacchi (2009) in order to examine the problem representation and conceptual logics behind social exclusion. Additionally, the WPR approach provided to problematize differences between the policies of the actors. According to Foucauldian post-structuralism, governed changes towards more inclusive education systems are slow because of different languages, cultures and welfare states. Inclusion in education as a value-based ideology is based on economic integration in order to provide quality competence-based education and lifelong learning in order to maintain employability which is a primary factor to involve all citizens in fast-growing diverse societies. Regarding the findings, inclusive education policies by all actors are against social exclusion, but the principles of subsidiarity define the effectiveness of the policies. In conclusion, the conceptual logics of the prevention of social exclusion are an accumulation of risks such as unemployment, lower socio- economic status and immigration. The main objective of the policies is to maintain employability. The most fundamental difference between the actors is linguistic or terminological. In conclusion, problematisation questions why Finland uses the term “equality”, whereas the other actors admit the current use of the term “equitable”, which provides diverse comprehension of non-binary individuals instead logics of binary gender. This problematisation, as a significant finding, emphasizes that there is a demand for broader research in gender studies in education policy. The thesis argues that underachieved “boys” in Finland might be something other than binary-defined boys who are at risk of social exclusion in adulthood.
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(2023)This thesis examines how the concept of Nordic added value is defined and understood in Nordic social and health policy cooperation. Although the concept serves as an evaluation criterion for funding and a guiding principle in all official Nordic cooperation projects and activities, there is no single, widely accepted view of the meaning of the concept. The goal of the research is thus to investigate and understand the underlying principle of Nordic cooperation, through which the research also supports the practical work of Nordic actors and institutions operating in the social and health sector. In addition, the research supports the implementation of the Nordic Council of Ministers' Vision 2030 action plan, according to which the Nordic region will become the world's most sustainable and integrated region by 2030. The research is mainly inductive in nature, and its conceptual framework includes an examination of Nordic cooperation narratives, the Nordic epistemic community, and the added value of transnational cooperation. It is a case study that investigates and compares the understanding of the concept of persons working in or with Nordic social and health policy cooperation at two separate levels of formal Nordic cooperation. In addition to survey and interview materials, the research analyses official Nordic cooperation documents using qualitative content analysis. The survey and interview materials were gathered from both the official level, which includes Nordic Welfare Centre operating under the Nordic Council of Ministers, as well as the practical level, which consists of several networks that Nordic Welfare Centre coordinates. The results of this study show that there are no significant differences between the understandings of the two levels, but the concept appears to be relatively flexible and ambiguous and dependent on the individuals using it. However, the concept can be understood in both symbolic and practical terms, whereby the former is closely related to the common background and values associated with the Nordic welfare state models, and the latter to the exchange and sharing of knowledge and experiences. The research shows that the greatest added value in Nordic social and health policy cooperation arises from useful comparisons that lead to learning, inspiration, and ultimately development both in individual countries and in the entire Nordic region. Although the research results suggest that a lot of added value is produced in the Nordic welfare sector, the study also highlights that many factors, such as lack of resources and administrative and language challenges, limit the realisation of the full potential of Nordic added value.
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(2019)The unity of the Realm is the political construction comprising of Denmark, Faroe Islands and Greenland. In 2013 the Danish Parliament decided to establish an annual debate dedicated entirely to the discussion of matters concerning the Danish Realm – a unique opportunity for politicians to gather and discuss the Realm in its entirety, not just Greenlandic or Faroese matters respectively. The analysed material consists of five parliamentary debates, one from each year from 2014 to 2018 since the establishment of the annual debate. This study looks at what topics were discussed during these debates and how the Danish Realm was understood and contested in different ways. The first part of the study covers the debates and the most occurring topics that arose from the material. Using critical discourse analysis, the second part analyses how the main concepts and terminology was used, how the politicians used language in different ways and how different aspects of the Danish Realm were framed. The findings show that similar topics occurred throughout the debates, and that there was no significant difference in what the parties deemed as important topics. The Danish Realm was discussed and framed in very different ways and it was evident that the concept of the Realm means very different things to all of its three members. These varying ideas of what the Realm is, and should be, were contested in the discussions. The proportionately large focus on the independence question and the Arctic, as well as the findings from the discourse analysis demonstrate that Denmark wishes to maintain the Realm as it is to be able to continue its role as an arctic actor, to which especially Greenlandic independence could possibly be a hindrance. The Faroese and Greenlandic politicians displayed discontent with the way the Realm is constructed today and pointed out the need for structural changes.
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(2023)The European Commission and the Finnish government have released their respective roadmaps in sustainable forest policy. With the European Commission pushing for further cooperation and integration in a field with no dedicated framework, it becomes vital to have a consensus on the concept of “sustainable forestry” with Member States such as Finland. Finland, on the other hand, as the most forested Member State in terms of percentage of total land area, manifests opposite views regarding how the administration is supposed to effect policy. This thesis consists of an analysis of respective documents from the European Commission and the Finnish government: the New EU Forest Strategy for 2030 and the Government Report on Forest Policy 2050. Similar in scope and structure, they clearly reflect these different attitudes towards policymaking and the role of policymakers themselves in the coming decades. The focus of this analysis is, however, their respective use of metaphors. With the theoretical support of the Advocacy Coalition Framework of Hank Jenkins-Smith and Paul Sabatier and the Critical Metaphor Analysis of Jonathan Charteris-Black, these metaphor choices are then observed to explain which stakeholders—either forestry, administrative, or environmental—are favored in each document. In this thesis, metaphors are words whose basic meaning, which is usually the one easiest to imagine, is not the one used in their textual context. From associating that missing, metaphorical meaning to chosen key concepts, this analysis shows that the metaphors found are used in cohesion with each other. This reveals a re-conceptualization of those key terms according to the accompanying metaphors. For example, the European Commission presented forests in its Strategy as “towns”, while the Finnish government saw them as “(ore) mines”. The results of this thesis reveal the consistency of metaphor choices in discourse and their significance in depicting a potentially different set of narratives from those contained in conventional language, both overtly and covertly. With these results in mind, scholars can further pursue research in other fields thanks understanding of metaphor and its prevalence in communication, or even expand this line of research into the role of media, for example.
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(2023)The Benelux Union is an international intergovernmental organization consisting out of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. It is not a very well-known institution, but it has been existing for many decades. As the three member states are also founding members of the European Union, these two institutions have an interesting dynamic. For as long as it has existed, the Benelux Union has been functioning as laboratory for European integration. The Benelux can thus be seen as frontrunners, and therefore as some sort of leaders. The research goal was to find out if the Benelux Union is used as a vehicle by the Benelux countries to increase their influence in the European Union. This thesis draws upon the concept of multi-speed integration, where countries who decide to integrate further than the current European integration pressure other states to follow. Thus by being frontrunners, countries could increase integration within the European Union. These frontrunners also have more to say about the way and degree in which integration takes place. It can therefore be beneficial for EU member states to act as frontrunners. In order to find the answers to the research and sub-questions, the choice was made to use qualitative methods. To be more precise, a combination between document analysis and elite interviews have been employed to provide the answers. Evaluations by the Dutch government on the Benelux Union or Benelux cooperation in the EU were the most important documents. These evaluations, together with some other documents, were supplemented by nine interviews conducted with one academic expert and officials from the three countries and the Benelux Union itself. There are three main findings. Firstly, the Benelux puts a huge emphasis on its role as laboratory because it sends out a signal to the other European countries. A signal that expresses the Benelux’ support for European integration, which increases trust towards them. From the Benelux Union itself, it sends the signal they are still a relevant institution, even though the EU has taken most policy fields in which the Benelux is active. Secondly, in some occasions, Benelux integration may serve as a catalyst for further European integration. If the Benelux countries launch successful projects, many other European states may decide to join this initiative. Whenever enough countries have joined, the project might be scaled up to the European level. The last and main finding gives an answer to the research question. The Benelux Union increases Benelux influence in the EU indirectly by supporting coalition building among the Benelux states. Moreover, it gives its member states a very positive image on the international stage. If this is not enough, the Benelux states might decide they want to implement a new project in the Benelux Union to use these results as an argument to implement this at the European level. It has to be noted that there are not a significant amount of examples of this direct form.
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(2023)As digitalization and globalization are global trends that transcend company and nation borders, the competition for the best talent has also become a national competition. Finland, among other Nordic nations has a thriving IT and technology literate society that is facing a negative demographic prognosis. There is a stark need for skilled labor migration. Past research sets Finland apart as the only Nordic nation to have a talent attraction and retention plan on the national level. Yet, the research also shows that Finland’s labor market is difficult to integrate to as a migrant. This thesis study explores what kind of changes the Covid-19 crisis brought to the talent attraction and retention practices in Finland. The research is conducted as a qualitative case study, and it focuses on the attraction and retention of the ICT & Tech talents from outside of the EU/ETA area between 2019 and 2022. The research is conducted through semi-structured interviews with International ICT talents and IT recruiters. In addition, previous literature on nation branding, talent attraction and retention and integration has been reviewed to set a framework and context for this study. The results of this research indicate that the Finnish national brand has a positive image but is not well known. It is associated with the other Nordic nations as one Nordic area or block. The decisive factors for international talents to relocate to Finland are based on soft values as work life balance, family friendly society, low hierarchy, and friendliness. However, the research suggests that the more important aspect of the equation is the retention work from the employer’s side and the public sector’s side. Furthermore, Covid-19 crisis accelerated the digitalization and created more demand for ICT specialists and opportunities for global hires. While simultaneously limiting the integration and network building opportunities through remote and hybrid work and restrictions. Finally, the results of this research indicate that for a sustainable future attraction and retention of international talent, the companies, and the city level, that have the greater burden of retaining the talent, need more support.
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(2023)This thesis explores the possibility of analysing political speeches through a structuralist literary theoretical approach. The analysis focuses on Eurosceptic rhetoric in the United Kingdom (UK) and whether this rhetoric shares codified similarities with the way monsters are constructed in cultural narratives. This hypothesis is based on the us versus them cleavage and the process of Othering present in both Eurosceptic rhetoric and monster narratives. The reluctant role of the UK in the history of European integration has developed into an us versus them cleavage, with UK politicians repeatedly applying the process of Othering to the European Union (EU). In monster narratives, the monster represents the ultimate Other, embodying the fear of difference. The purpose of this analysis is to show that the potency of populist rhetoric goes deep into the level of fundamental human anxieties that manifest through narrative monsters. The thesis aims to identify the mechanics of monster-making in Eurosceptic political speeches by analysing three speeches from conservative British prime ministers through the structuralist literary theoretical approach: Margaret Thatcher’s Bruges Speech, David Cameron’s Bloomberg Speech, and a speech by Boris Johnson. The structuralist approach takes an underlying universal narrative structure as a frame of reference, codifies it, and then identifies occurrences of these codes in a text. The underlying universal narrative selected for this analysis is Jeffrey Cohen’s monster theory that he presents in seven theses, which represent the building blocks of narrative monsters observed in monster stories throughout human history. Four theses were selected for codification suitable for analysing political speeches, and the resulting codes are: Liminality, Otherness, Warning and Perception. The occurrences of these four codes in the three speeches is termed as the mechanics of monster-making. The results of the analysis show a clear presence of the mechanics of monster-making in the three selected speeches, proving that Eurosceptic rhetoric does share similarities with monster narratives. All three speeches contain occurrences of all four codes, and while the number of occurrences varies, the overall number of occurrences increases notably over time. This not only shows that the conservative politicians paint a picture of the EU as an escalating threat that is becoming more and more separate from the UK, but it also shows that in Thatcher’s time this monstrous threat is indicated to be in the future, whereas in Cameron and Johnson’s times the threat is conveyed as imminent. The results support the idea that applying an approach from cultural theory can contribute to the research of political narratives. Since humans are cultural beings and political speeches do not exist in a political vacuum, applying codes from an underlying universal narrative to political speeches can reveal depths of interpretation the more common discourse analytical approaches cannot reach.
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(2023)In my thesis, I study the evolving role of the European Union in facilitating the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue. Since 2011, the EU has acted as a facilitator in the dialogue that aims to normalize the relations between Kosovo and Serbia. I focus especially on the development of the EU’s negotiating approach in the dialogue. In my thesis, I present three research questions: 1) What kind of a negotiating approach does the EU adopt in mediating the dialogue? 2) How does the EU incentivize Kosovo’s and Serbia’s participation in the dialogue? 3) How actively does the EU engage in the facilitation of dialogue? The theoretical framework of my thesis is twofold. Regarding the EU’s negotiating approach and engagement in the dialogue, I follow the categorization presented in Zartman and Touval’s (1985) mediation theory, where mediators working in conflict resolution are divided into communicators, formulators, and manipulators. Concerning the incentives offered by the EU, I rely on Schimmelfennig ja Sedelmeier’s (2004) classification within Europeanization theory, where Europeanization is presented as following from external incentives or social learning. As my research data, I use the European Commission’s yearly reports on Kosovo and Serbia, as well as the EU’s General Affairs Council conclusions on the Enlargement and Stabilisation and Association Process, which describe the dialogue’s progression and the EU’s positions on the dialogue. I analyze the data through the use of Qualitative Content Analysis by assigning coding categories to the documents, which enable me to examine the EU’s mood in various phases of the dialogue, the development of the input the EU exerts on the dialogue, and the use of incentives the EU offers Kosovo and Serbia. As the result of my thesis, I show that the dialogue can be divided into a progress phase (2011-2016) and a stagnation phase (2017-2022). I find that in the progress phase, the EU acts as a neutral arbiter, but as the dialogue progresses into the stagnation phase, the EU attempts to create progress by increasing its engagement in the dialogue and by strengthening the incentives it uses, introducing sticks in addition to carrots. This transforms the EU’s mediator role in the dialogue from an arbiter to a mediation participant protecting its own interests.
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(2022)The goal of this thesis is to better understand the role and the impact of the DiscoverEU initiative. It allows 18 year-old EU citizens to travel and explore Europe for up to a month by giving them a free Interrail pass. The Interrail programme however, was not created by the EU but is being used as a tool by the latter to promote European solidarity, their vision of a European identity and to further a sense of belonging. To conduct this study, I used Instagram to gather the participants’ posts and captions. All the data I gathered was public and the participants remained anonymous throughout my thesis. I proceeded with qualitative content analysis to analyse my data in order to observe what kind of narrative was being created online by the participants. European identity, the significance of travel and the decision to target the younger generations were topics of particular interest throughout this thesis. DiscoverEU aims at providing a shared experience these young people can relate to and bond over so that the EU becomes something concrete in their mind, something they can identify with and support later on in their life as well. This thesis finds that the EU is using DiscoverEU as a tool to promote European identity in numerous ways. The participants are sharing mostly positive experiences but only a few European statements about European identity. However, criticism towards the better off was also raised.
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(2023)This master's thesis compares two quite different areas of Nordic cooperation, the passport union and defence cooperation. The research question seeks to find answers to whether the failures of the passport union have been connected to the advantages in defence policy and if they have not, which factor have promoted the shift of attention form passport union to defence cooperation. I seek to demonstrate how the atmosphere in cooperation has changes and the time of growing cooperation and supranationalism is turning to a traditional realist, intergovernmental cooperation. The first form of cooperation, the passport union, at the time of its founding in the 1950s was distinctively deep form of cooperation, especially considering being a traditionally sensitive political area.. The importance of defence cooperation, on the other hand, has increased especially in the 2010s and thereafter due to the changes in the European security environment. The most important events are the Russian conquest of the Crimean peninsula and later the war in Ukraine, as well as Finland's and Sweden's NATO application in 2022. Both areas, defence, and the passport union, include a lot of other international cooperation, the most important of which is the Schengen area in connection to the passport union and NATO in defence cooperation. By comparing these two areas, we see the many forms of Nordic cooperation and changes in the most important themes over the decades. With the definition of the borders, the quality of the passport union becomes evident. Borders are diverse, can create inequality and equality, unite and separate people, and act as the physical borders of the state, representing states’ power and rights. With the diversity of borders, their opening has been a significant step in Nordic cooperation. Even though the passport union has faced challenges, it is still in operation and plays a significant role as a builder and facilitator of Nordic cooperation. Defence cooperation, on the other hand, has largely developed under international organizations. The most important of these is NATO, whose founding members Denmark, Norway and Iceland were, and to which Finland and Sweden submitted their application to join in 2022. Cooperation under the European Union as well as commitment to UN and NATO exercises and peacekeeping have also developed Nordic cooperation in defence forces. NORDEFCO, founded in 2009, is important achievement as a facilitator of Nordic cooperation outside other institutions. By using the reports and texts of the Foreign Policy Institute and its Nordic counterparts, we get a picture of the effects of crises to these chosen policy areas. These crises are most prominently the 2015 refugee crisis, the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's attack on Ukraine. The historical analysis is based on academic literature as well as political statements, opinion polls and news articles. When comparing these two areas of cooperation, it is clear that global events have affected the level of cooperation, and cooperation often sparks as a reaction to external events. Because of this, defence cooperation has been more significant and received more attention in the recent years. The passport union is still a significant part of cooperation, but it seems that its peak has already passed, and other things are attracting more attention. At the same time, international cooperation around the world is experiencing similar changes. The conclusion is that whereas it is true that the passport union has struggled while the defence has bloomed, the changing focus has been due to global events. However, while the hypothesis was that similar events were failures for one and successes for the other, the most important events shaping cooperation have been different.
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(2023)Developed economies face increasing pressures of to produce innovations that improve their competitiveness and resilience in a globalized economy. The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development of the European Commission as funding instruments for innovation have therefore gained significance in the increasing of its geopolitical power through competitiveness and resilience. While the Framework Programmes as a policy have been researched widely, the roles of its funded projects, that is consortia, as actors within the larger political context of research and development have been researched little. This research aims to contribute to the understanding on the ways in which researchers, commercial entities and third sector actors as part of research consortia influence the development of Framework Programmes from the bottom-up perspective. Through a political sociology approach, the role of consortia formation, social networks and role characteristics within consortia are used as concepts to their extent of explaining the ways in which non-state actors use Europeanization processes such as Framework Programmes to advance their interests and visions. The data was collected through in-depth semistructured interviews of ten Horizon 2020 consortium participants and two R&D experts and a reflexive thematic analysis method was applied. Consortium initiators were found to have a high relevance in their ability to interpret the call for proposal and thus determine the outputs that contribute to the overall impact of the Framework Programme, presenting a circularity in the Europeanization of R&D. By choosing to exercise their gate-keeping or agenda-setting power, the consortium core participants steer their interpretation of the call for proposal towards their desired direction. The social networks were mainly found to function as pools of contacts and as insurance against the uncertainties that come with the acting in an international setting but could also provide insider knowledge that advanced their social position and competencies of the consortium core, strengthening the ability to influence the Europeanization from bottom-up. The results indicate that the consortium formation, social networks and role characteristics can explain some of the impact that actors exert on the ouput of the Framework Programmes from the bottom-up, but more research needs to be done to measure their impact
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(2021)Nordic welfare states are globally admired success stories with the happiest people, high level of education, and equal redistribution of resources. Change in the welfare state’s ethos since 1980s and the recent crises in the contemporary world have left their imprints to these northern countries and the strong welfare states have been claimed to be in decline. This thesis is analysing if the welfare state and its ethos have started to fade away or are they still resilient and stabilising actors in the society. The aim of this study is to evaluate the Nordic welfare state from the perspective of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, Kela, and evaluate the argument of the declining welfare state by the people, who are working in one of the most visible welfare producing institutions in Finland. The Nordic welfare model is compared with other European welfare regimes, based on Gøsta Esping-Andersen’s classic “Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism”. As any of these models are impeccable, the critique of the Nordic model is also presented in this research. Another main theory used in this research is liquid modernity by Zygmunt Bauman, which argues that modernity today is liquid by its nature and a system that is forgetting issues, such as community and trust towards each other in the society. Replacing security and feelings of commonness with neoliberal and market-oriented welfare policies is causing the declination of the welfare state and alienation of people from each other. These neoliberal ideas have also their effects on Kela. In addition, Kela’s role in the Finnish welfare state will be analysed in this research. Eight qualitative interviews are constituting the empirical data for this research. Theory-guided content analysis is being used to analyse the interviews, which were conducted in spring 2021. Interviews done with Kela’s customer service specialists are being contrasted with the theoretical framework. This research argues that the declination of the welfare state is caused by the fluidity of modern society which is causing unpredictability and insecurity to people’s lives even in the safe havens of the Norden. The results show that the concerns of the contemporary welfare state are real, and according to the professionals interviewed worry for the future. Polarisation, fragmented employment relationships, and social exclusion were seen as threats to the welfare state. On contrary, acting as a nanny-state and saving people with money, and increasing benefits’ levels were not seen as solutions to the eternal problem of the Nordic welfare state. What is a sufficient level of activation on behalf of the society and what is the role and responsibility of an individual? All in all, the Nordic welfare state is seen as an institution, which guarantees security to its residents and acts as a safety net, if needed. Welfare-producing institutions, such as Kela, are a part of this safety net, and replacing them does not seem likely in the future. Instead, combining the unpredictable future and the competitiveness society with the welfare state is seen as a problem, to which the welfare state needs to find answers in the future.
Now showing items 21-33 of 33