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(2018)Jewish immigration to Israel is a phenomenon that raises discussion and there are multiple ways of approaching the study on the subject. Yet, there are sides to the story that are often left unheard, one of them being that of the Jewish immigrants themselves. This Master's thesis examines the ways in which Jewish immigrants make sense of their immigration to Israel, by analysing stories of ten immigrants that have moved to Israel from different countries, during the recent decades. The study draws upon narrative research and social constructionism and is located to the field of social scientific qualitative research on immigration that uses storied data and gives value to the meaning-making and the subjective constructions in the context of immigration. The research attempts to reply to the main research question of ‘how the immigrants make sense of their immigration to Israel in their narratives' by focusing on the meanings constructed for the immigration in the stories and on the ways in which the immigrants structure their immigration experience. Close reading, including an actant analysis (Greimas 1980/1966), was conducted for each of the stories individually, followed up by the construction of meaning-categories based on the principal ways of making sense of the immigration in the stories. The principal ways of making sense of the immigration were constructing it as an enabler, as an ideological fulfilment, as homecoming or as an unfortunate turn of events. The immigrants drew upon various different narrative resources in constructing their stories, such Zionist narratives, family history or the Bible. Indeed, the stories were very different from one another and were given also individual titles to provide an additional dimension to the interpretation and manifest their uniqueness. For some Jewish immigrants, return migration seems like the appropriate lens through which to analyse their immigration, while for others the concept of return seem altogether unbefitting: their stories weren't stories of return, but of new beginnings in their new home country or even of a temporary stopover in their journey. Indeed, I would view other lenses, such as those of transnationalism and cosmopolitanism, more suitable for analysing some of the stories. References: Greimas, A. J. & Courtés, J. (1982). Semiotics and language: An analytical dictionary. (L. Christ, D. Patte, J. Lee, E. McMahon II, G. Philips, M. Rengstorf, Trans.) Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (Original work published 1979.)
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(2016)Professional football players cannot freely change employers, or, in other words, transfer to another club. Instead, clubs buy and sell players as if they were commodities. FIFA – the worldwide governing body for football – does not formally mandate the existence of such a system. However, players are almost always employed for a fixed term, and FIFA’s rules provide for very serious sanctions for unilateral termination of contract. Therefore, in-contract players can usually transfer only if the new club pays a transfer fee to the old club. In addition, young players cannot transfer freely even if their contract has expired. According to FIFA’s rules, the new club must still pay compensation for training costs to the old club. The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether FIFA's rules on contractual stability and training compensation are compatible with European Union free movement and competition law. To be more specific, the focus is on Articles 17 and 20 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, which apply only to international transfers. In addition, this thesis seeks to construe a convergent approach to sport under both free movement and competition law. The relevant provisions are Article 45 TFEU on the free movement of workers, Article 101 TFEU on anti-competitive agreements, and Article 102 TFEU on abuse of dominant position. The method of this thesis is doctrinal. Moreover, this thesis utilizes economic studies in order to determine what effects FIFA’s rules really have on football. This thesis is topical because, in September 2015, FIFPro – the worldwide representative organization for professional football players – lodged a complaint with the European Commission. FIFPro claims that FIFA’s transfer rules infringe competition law. This thesis concludes that the contested rules restrict free movement and competition within the meaning of Articles 45 and 101 TFEU. Article 102 TFEU might also be applicable, but more information is needed before making any definitive conclusions. In principle, the rules can be justified, for they encourage the recruitment and training of young players, promote financial solidarity between clubs, and ensure team stability. From the point of view of free movement law, the rules pursue public policy objectives, whereas, from the point of view of competition law, they improve the production of sport. The problem is that the rules are not proportionate due to various reasons. First of all, the same results could be achieved through less restrictive means. Transfer-related payments are not the only method of redistributing revenue between clubs. For example, FIFA could devise some sort of internal taxation scheme. Furthermore, Article 17 in particular is applied in a way that does not satisfy the requirements of the principle of legal certainty. On the other hand, the problem with Article 20 is that the training compensation scheme is so poorly enforced that it is not really capable of achieving its purported objectives.
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(2021)This thesis presents the results from seventeen collisionless merger simulations of massive early-type galaxies in an effort to understand the coalescence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the context of the Final Parsec Problem. A review of the properties of massive early-type galaxies and their SMBHs is presented alongside a discussion on SMBH binary coalescence to motivate the initial conditions used in the simulations. The effects of varying SMBH mass and stellar density profiles in the progenitor initial conditions on SMBH coalescence was investigated. Differing mass resolutions between the stellar particles and the SMBHs for each physical realisation were also tested. The simulations were performed on the supercomputers Puhti and Mahti at CSC, the Finnish IT Centre for Science. SMBH coalescence was found to only occur in mergers involving SMBH binaries of equal mass, with the most rapid coalescence observed in galaxies with a steep density profile. In particular, the eccentricity of the SMBH binary was observed to be crucial for coalescence: all simulations that coalesced displayed an orbital eccentricity in excess of e=0.7 for the majority of the time for which the binary was bound. Simulations of higher mass resolution were found to have an increased number of stellar particles able to positively interact with the SMBH binary to remove orbital energy and angular momentum, driving the binary to coalescence. The gravitational wave emission from an equal mass SMBH binary in the final stages before merging was calculated to be within the detection limits required for measurement by pulsar timing arrays. Mergers between galaxies of unequal mass SMBHs were unable to undergo coalescence irrespective of mass resolution or progenitor density profile, despite the binary in some of these simulations displaying a high orbital eccentricity. It was determined that the stellar particles interacting with the SMBH binary were unable to remove the required orbital energy and angular momentum to bring the SMBHs to within the separation required for efficient gravitational wave emission. A trend between increasing mass resolution and increasing number of stellar particles able to remove energy from the SMBH binary was observed across all the simulation suites. This observation is of paramount importance, as three-body interactions are essential in removing orbital energy and angular momentum from the SMBH binary, thus overcoming the Final Parsec Problem. As such, it is concluded that the Final Parsec Problem is a numerical artefact arising from insufficient mass resolution between the stellar particles and the SMBHs rather than a physical phenomenon.
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(2019)Marine ecosystems and oceans have a vital role in sustaining life on Earth. Additionally, the oceans have an essential role in the world's economy as the main platform for global trade as well as a provider of many raw materials and resources. Due to the degradation of these marine ecosystems, the wellbeing of the seas and oceans has risen to the forefront of many global and regional political initiatives and agendas, and consequently, new concepts such as the blue economy have evolved. However, the sector lacks a clear consensus regarding its definition. In the absence of a unified definition, there is no general perception of what the blue economy sector means for the national economy of Finland. In order to efficiently and optimally regulate and manage the use of ocean resources and space, it is essential to understand the economic contribution and the role of industries linked to it. As a part of a more extensive research project called Blue Adapt, this thesis strives to identify the industries regarded as blue economy and measure their current economic contribution in Finland. In order to estimate the economic size of the blue economy sector, first the definition of the concept is clarified. The definition as well as the identification of economic activities regarded as part of it, is made based on a literature review. In the literature review, different studies are compared and analyzed and as a result, the most common activities are selected. The economic contribution of these sectors is measured by deriving data from the national accounts system and the standard structural business statistics (SBS). Further, four macro indicators are chosen to measure the economic weight of the blue economy sectors: turnover, employment, value added and exports. In addition, these macro indicators are analyzed and compared to national figures, such as the gross domestic product (GDP), gross value added (GVA), the national employment, and exports in order to gain an overview of the sector’s relative significance within the Finnish economy. This study shows that the six sectors of the blue economy generated in total a turnover between 14.6–20.2 billion euros, constituting roughly 3.5–4.9% of the national output, and created approximately 4–5.8 billion euros in value added, which covers over 2% from the national gross value added, and 1.8–2.6% from the gross domestic product. The sector employs somewhere between 53 000–71 000 people, which is 2–2.7% of the national employment of Finland. The share of exports from the national total is somewhere between 4–6.2%, and 3.5 to 5.4 billion euros. If compared to other industries in Finland, the blue economy sector is slightly larger than forestry measured by value added and possibly even larger than the forest industry, covering roughly 2.1–2.8% of the national GVA. In terms of employment, the proportion of the blue economy sector is slightly more than that of forestry and the forest industry combined, but less than that of agriculture. To conclude, as the forest industry and forestry are commonly seen as central generators of economic wellbeing in Finland, it is important to acknowledge the significance of the blue economy sector. Future policies regulating the maritime should bear in mind the economic importance and potential of the sector, as well as its role in climate change mitigation and other environmental policy goals.
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(2017)This thesis calls to question what impact the public nature of the Finnish breadline has on the levels of stigmatisation, in combination with the socio and spatial impacts. The effects are concerned predominately with those that use the breadline, but also the general public and those that provide the aid. Areas studied looked at how those using the food aid felt they were perceived by people around them and how it affected behaviour and emotions. Did it have any effect on the local social relations and class and how those with perceived higher status acted in return? Finally how did the queue directly impact the area? The breadline studied was in Kallio, Eastern Helsinki; a mixed area known for being a traditional working class area with a reputation for being slightly rough, but also a trend setting area with low level gentrification. This and other breadlines have been a focus of media interest, generally concerned with how so many people are being forced to turn to it for help in spite of the reputation of solid welfare state. The lines involve a long wait, and hence become very public affairs due to often being in busy, town areas. In comparison the British system of food charity is a more private affair. Provisions are made through the use of food banks with no large queues, which removes the element of public view; would those in need of food aid find this a more acceptable method for help? The main form of research was through the process of immersive observation and observations combined with the use of a small-scale questionnaire. A thematic analysis revealed several common themes and methods with which users of food aid were able to utilise in order to help deal with some of the stigmatisations and their created societal class. The results led to a conclusion that the use of public space is problematic in terms of welfare aid. Not only does it does it further increase stigmatisation of the people in the line and how they deal with it, but also it directly effects the area. There is further evidence to indicate there is a power struggle for 'ownership' of the area between the general public, those using the breadline but also those that provide it. The area of study has become a home for social friction. In conclusion there are good grounds and supportive evidence, both in practise and from breadline user preference, to favour a different practise of food aid.
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(2021)Childhood health is strongly connected with the health later in life. Healthy children are likely to grow up as healthy adults and health in general relates to many positive dimensions of life. However, a shock such as civil war encountered in childhood can have long lasting consequences for later health. The aim of the thesis was to examine how the civil war of 1918 in Finland impacted in the children’s health from four different schools in Helsinki. In addition, the thesis examined were the children’s living environment and previous disease history significant for the health and did there occur differences between the health of girls and boys. The data of the thesis consists of 1 781 elementary school children’s school health records from Kallio, Vallila, Töölö and Tehtaankatu schools in Helsinki, Finland. The data of the thesis is a subsample of historical data which consists of approximately 18 000 Helsinki elementary school student’s health records from the period of 1910-1932. The thesis describes the children’s disease history before the school age and the diseases that occurred during the school years. Height and weight growth curves were formed from the data to visualize the growth patterns of the children over time. In addition, height and weight curves were formed for three different birth cohorts that had gone to school before, during and after the civil war of 1918 to examine the possible differences in growth between the cohorts. Lastly, linear regression analysis was used to analyse were the age, the place of birth, the year of inspection, previous disease history and the school connected with the height and weight growth of the children. The height and weight growth curves showed that the children’s weight and height growth declined in the years 1918-1919. When comparing three birth cohorts, the children who went to school during the civil war of 1918 were shorter than those who went to school before and after the conflict. The most typical diseases that occurred among the children before the school age were measles and whooping cough. Based on the results of the regression analyses the girl’s height growth declined in the year 1919 with 0.82 cm which can indicate that the shock of 1918 became evident in the girl’s height growth in 1919. Having had measles before the school age reduced the height and weight of the boys with 0.86 cm and 0.77 kg. When height’s and weight’s standard deviation scores were regressed with the interaction of boy and measles variables, the connection of the interaction was negative and statistically significant indicating differences between boys and girls: measles was in connected with the boy’s height and weight but not girl’s. Boys who went Töölö and Tehtaankatu schools were taller and heavier than those who went to Kallio and Vallila schools and the results were statistically significant. Among girls, there were no statistically significant differences between students from different schools. The height and weight curves evidently showed that the civil war of 1918 had a negative affect for the children’s growth and therefore also for their health. Results of the regression analyses indicate, that for girl’s height the meaning of the civil war of 1918 was more significant than for boys. For boys, on the other hand, the meaning of having had measles before the school was significant as it reduced their height and weight growth. However, the mechanism behind the measles and reduced growth is ambiguous and there can be various explanations for it. For boys there were also statistically significant differences between students from different schools which reinforces the previous findings from the early 20th century studies concerning the health of the elementary school children. It is not however clear why the differences were only seen among boys and not girls and it is possible that a bigger sample size would have given different results.
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(2023)Finland has the highest per capita coffee consumption in the world. As one of the national drinks, drinking coffee is considered an essential cultural habit in Finland. Among them, coffee breaks at workspaces are a well-established and important cultural practice. This thesis tries to reveal what is represented to be Finnish about coffee breaks in Finnish working life. First, it analyses the background of the spread of coffee culture among Finnish people. Secondly, it assesses their experiences and opinions of the coffee break in recent years by using Oldenburg’s idea of “the third place” and previous studies about the coffee break. The survey was conducted on 18 Finnish people in the spring of 2021 and autumn of 2022. Moreover, it asked about changes and experiences caused by the corona pandemic. The Finnish coffee break substantially affects health maintenance, work efficiency, and social relationship/community formation. Remarkably, the role of social relationship/community formation is significant because the coffee break has provided cosy spaces for participants and opportunities to socialise since coffee was introduced to Finland. Recently, working life has become more individualised in Finland, as working hours and locations have become more flexible, and remote working has become more common after the corona pandemic. However, the coffee break has overcome such social changes and plays a role like a bond to keep people well connected, and many of them demand such opportunities.
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(2017)The aim of this paper is to show how the Finnish stock market performed during the Second World War. The focus of this study is to show what kind of returns the stock market delivered to investors during 1937–1947 and how the Helsinki stock exchange functioned during the war. The papers ask, did the Finnish stock market react to the heightened risk of world war or, sequentially, to changes in fortunes of war. This paper also puts the Finnish stock market in comparison with the other war time stock markets in Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, U.K. and U.S.A. This paper should be viewed as part of a growing family of studies using financial data as a main source. There are no retrospective distortions in financial data, in this case equity bid prices, giving this approach advantage compared to more traditional sources such as diaries or oral sources based on memories. The financial data determines the critical turning points as contemporaries saw them, instead that a historian determines them afterwards. The main method of this paper could be described as financial archaeology: the available financial data, namely stock bid prices in the Helsinki stock exchange is used to see how the stock market and different industries performed during the war. Investors are generally well informed citizens and radical changes in bid prices indicate changing evaluation of the war situation, thus telling how contemporaries viewed the situation form their view point. The author has also collected earnings data for companies listed in the Helsinki Stock Exchange. With this data, the price to earnings ratio has been constructed for the Finnish stock market to study the price level of the market. This study also uses dividend yields, price to nominal book values and market cap to GDP as indicators of investors perception. The efficiency of the war time stock exchange is also under critical evaluation: with no efficient market, the use of financial data is not reliable. It is concluded that based on the volume of trading and anecdotal evidence, the Finnish stock market was efficient enough to draw conclusions from the stock market data. The study concludes that the Finnish stock market reacted evidently to the heightened risk of war. The stock market reached its top in 1937 and experiences a major slump after the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact in August 1939. The stock market was closed during the Winter war, but rose afterwards till 1942 as investors looked for a safe haven against the rising inflation. The government forced heavier regulation on the stock market in 1942 and diminishing chances for the Axis to win the war became evident. Previous anecdotal evidence from the stock market bubble of 1945 is confirmed with earnings data as the stock market rose way above its fundamentally accepted value after the war. The rampaging inflation, especially after the war, effectively wiped out the Finnish stock market as the 1937–1947 total return was -60% for the whole stock market and -90% for the bank stocks. When compared to the other stock markets mentioned above, the Finnish stock market shares some similarities with the French stock market: heavy debt monetization leading to higher inflation and the escape to real values propelled a stock market boom during the war, followed by a severe market collapse and evaporation of the real values of stocks.
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(2021)Since 1991, Finland has subsidized homeownership with first-time homebuyer’s stamp duty and transfer tax exemptions. Under certain conditions, buyers with ownership shares of at least 0.5 are exempted from paying a tax of 2% on the free-of-debt price for housing company dwellings and 4% on the free-of-debt price for directly owned houses. The previous empirical literature suggests that transfer taxes may lead to large reductions in housing transactions, household mobility, and housing prices. This thesis studies whether there is evidence of similar effects among first-time homebuyers by focusing on the first-time homebuyer’s transfer tax exemption. The analysis is based on microdata provided by Statistics Finland and Tax Administration on all permanent residents in Finland and housing company shareholdings. Therefore, this study is limited to housing company dwelling transactions, and it does not cover the effects on directly-owned house transactions. The effect on the first-time home purchase decision is studied using a regression discontinuity design among a subgroup that has not lived in owner-occupied dwellings in adulthood except potentially in the household of their parents. The effect on housing prices is studied using a fixed-effects regression model. The findings show that first-time home purchases drop by roughly 30% at the age threshold of 40 years, where buyers become ineligible for the tax exemption. Similarly, covariate-adjusted estimates show that tax-exempted purchases are on average roughly 1% more expensive than purchases without the tax exemption. If the underlying identification assumptions hold, these estimates can be interpreted as the causal effects of the tax exemption. However, there are potential threats to internal validity. The credibility of the assumptions is studied by conducting graphical and formal tests that typically accompany regression discontinuity designs. There is some evidence consistent with the possibility that the assumptions do not hold, but the evidence is also consistent with alternative explanations related to data limitations. Neither possibility can be ruled out definitively.
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(2014)This thesis studies the ongoing climate change mitigation effort in Finland by using the country’s past transition towards an information economy as a benchmark. This paper regards the rapid development of the Finnish information and communications technology (ICT) industry in the late 1990s as exceptional, and largely attributable to a few key characteristics of the Finnish society at the time. More precisely, this paper identifies five influential Finnish attributes, and argues that together these features constitute an interpretation of a Finnish societal model that explains the previous economic changes. This paper goes on to investigate the influence of these characteristics in Finland’s current effort to abate its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and develop a competitive clean technologies (cleantech) industry in the process. This thesis finds that the attributes that explain Finland’s rapid success in the area of ICT have the potential to significantly benefit Finland in its ambitions at present. Nevertheless, the paper shows that there are limits associated with Finland’s capability to deal with the issues at hand. This paper addresses these challenges, and recommends improvements in a few key areas.
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(2012)Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma käsittelee kanadalais–amerikkalaisen tieteissarjan Stargate SG-1 (tunnettu Suomessa myös nimellä Tähtiportti) neologismien eli uudissanojen tekstitystä englannista suomeksi. Uudissana on sana, joka ei ole virallisissa sanakirjoissa tai jolla on sanakirjoissa eri merkitys kuin sen uudessa käyttömuodossa. Tutkimusta varten on kerätty kaikki uudissanat Stargate SG-1 -sarjan seitsemännen tuotantokauden DVD-julkaisulta ja analysoitu, millaisia käännöstekniikoita sarjan kaksi tekstittäjää ovat käyttäneet kääntäessään sanat. Tutkielman teoriaosuudessa käsitellään science fiction -genren määritelmää sekä pohditaan uudissanan käsitettä ja erilaisia käännöstekniikoita, joilla uudissanoja voi kääntää. Käännöstekniikoita pohdittaessa on huomioitu erityisesti Lucía Molinan ja Amparo Hurtado Albirin (2002) tutkimus erilaisista käännöstekniikoista. Teoriaosuudessa esitellään myös Gideon Touryn (1995) lisääntyvän standardisaation laki (the law of growing standardization), jonka mukaan lähdetekstin erikoisuuksia usein tasoitetaan käännettäessä, jolloin käännösteksti ei ole yhtä omaleimainen kuin alkukielinen teksti. Tämän tutkielman lähtöhypoteesi on kuitenkin ollut, että koska uudissanasto on science fiction -genren olennainen piirre, se pyrittäisiin käännöksessäkin säilyttämään mahdollisimman hyvin alkuperäisen kaltaisena. Lopuksi teoriaosuudessa pohditaan genren vaikutusta kääntäjän käännösvalintoihin ja toisaalta kääntäjän käännösvalintojen vaikutusta genreen. Varsinaisen teoriaosuuden jälkeen pohditaan Stargate SG-1 -sarjaa ja sen erityispiirteitä, jotka tekstittäjän on otettava huomioon käännöstyötä tehdessään. Analyysiosiossa esitellään kerätty uudissanasto ja sen tekstittämisessä käytetyt käännöstekniikat, jotka on perusteltu Molinan ja Hurtado Albirin tutkimuksen pohjalta. Lisäksi tarkastellaan Touryn lisääntyvän standardisaation lakia Stargate SG-1 -sarjan uudissanaston kääntämisen kontekstissa. Tutkimuksen tuloksista selviää, että standardisoituminen ei ole ulottunut sarjan uudissanastoon siinä määrin kuin Touryn teorian pohjalta olisi voinut olettaa. Neologismit on käännetty suurelta osin sellaisilla käännöstekniikoilla, jotka ovat muuttaneet alkuperäisen sanan tai ilmauksen merkitystä hyvin vähän, jos lainkaan. Lisäksi vain ani harva uudissana on jätetty kokonaan kääntämättä. Toki jonkin verran standardisoitumista on tapahtunut, ja tätä ilmiötä pohditaankin analyysiosiossa. Tutkimustulos näyttäisi osoittavan, että sarjan tekstittäjät ovat kokeneet uudissanaston tieteissarjalle tärkeäksi piirteeksi ja pyrkineet sen omaperäisyyden säilyttämiseen. Audiovisuaalisen kääntämisen erityispiirteistä johtuen (mm. tila- ja aikarajoitukset, katsojien lukemisnopeuden huomioon ottaminen) lähdetekstiä ei useimmissa tapauksissa ole mitenkään mahdollista kääntää kohdekielelle sataprosenttisesti, mutta tästä huolimatta Stargate SG-1 -sarjan tekstittäjät ovat säilyttäneet uudissanaston tekstityksissä lähes kokonaisuudessaan, mikä kielii kyseisen sanaston merkityksellisyydestä.
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(2015)During the 21st century, there has been a rise of right wing populist parties throughout Europe. The Finns party in Finland has grown in popularity and become a governing party. There have been many extensive studies on why this rise has happened and how mainstream parties have contributed to it. This thesis looks at the subject from another angle. It studies if the change in the party arena, in this case the rise of the Finns party, has influenced the mainstream parties. The study tries to answer whether the mainstream parties have changed their stances in election programs and if these changes follow the stances of the Finns party. A special focus is put on stances about immigration. The theoretical framework is drawn from ideas of party alignment, party competition and how mainstream parties react to parties within the New Radical Right. Also, the thesis will look at theories about issue competition and especially issues raised by niche parties. The mainstream parties studied are the Social democratic party of Finland, the National Coalition party of Finland and the Centre party of Finland. The elections programs are from the European parliament elections in 2009 and 2014 and the national elections in 2011 and 2015. The method used is a mixed method, utilizing both a quantitative and a qualitative content analysis. The quantitative analysis focuses on five thematic fields: values, the EU, foreign policy, security and immigration. The qualitative analysis only focuses on the stances about immigration. The stances are compared between years and parties. The stances of the Finns party stand as a reference point and a special focus is put on whether there has been a change since the Finns party grew in popularity. The results of the quantitative analysis show the trends that happened between elections. This form of analysis does not show if or how stances changed, but rather whether or not the Finns party succeeded in raising questions that were important to them. The analysis shows that the Finns party failed to make the mainstream parties discuss such issues. It also shows that the Finns party themselves focused less on the themes in question. The qualitative analysis focused on immigration. The results indicate that there has been a change, especially in the election programs of the Social democratic party. Instead of following the stances of the Finns party, the Social democratic party has taken a stance against the Finns party and taken a more clear liberal stance on immigration. The changes in the National Coalition party and the Centre party are less visible.
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(2019)This research explores manifestations and negotiations of Otherness in the life stories of six adults who moved to Finland from Latin American countries as children. Throughout oral history, the purpose is to highlight the individuality of the migration process, emphasising the importance of looking at personal experiences and narratives. Otherness is understood in the research as a key factor in the migration process, by which the individual feels displaced and ‘otherised’ in the new environment due to a complex combination of circumstances. The research questions explore how materialisations of Otherness affected greatly the identity construction of the narrators. Otherness is thus approached through a timeline perspective; the narratives are examined with special attention to accounts of Otherness as children, and accounts of Otherness that manifest currently as adults. The research also explores why, when looking at migration processes, an intersectional approach is welcomed and relevant, since the category “immigrant” can neither be understood as homogeneous, nor isolated from other identities in life. The narrators moved to Finland between 1989 and 1999, in a decade that was crucial for Finland regarding immigration arrival numbers and policies. The thesis is informed by this: the fact that Finland witnessed increased immigrant arrivals and asylum seeking petitions during the 1990s, did not translate in abundant arrivals from Latin America, as it was the case with countries from other regions. Therefore, the narrators did not have ample representation or a proper diaspora community to ease their identity construction process and their migration journey in general. This is why research on Latin Americans in Finland is not only important but also necessary and interesting: they can be considered “a minority within a minority”, relatively invisible and scarcely researched. An oral history perspective when approaching Otherness is also justified and pertinent. With the use of narrative analysis, the interviews reveal in detail how Otherness does not disappear with the passage of time, but instead transforms in its materialisations and overall nature. Simultaneously, narrators also develop different negotiation mechanisms, and even incorporate Otherness to their own identity. Finally, the thesis links how these first-person narratives examined can inform future policy making: the thesis proposes that looking in detail at individual stories can contribute to the development of integration practices that would be more attuned to both migration processes and to the need of involving the native population in the two-way integration endeavour.
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(2016)A myriad of different volatile organic compounds is emitted to the atmosphere through biogenic and anthropogenic pathways. In the atmosphere, they get oxidised forming products of lower volatility, which may then condense and contribute to the formation and growth of aerosol particles. Extremely low-volatility organic compounds (ELVOC) is a group of highly oxidised molecules that were recently observed in oxidation of biogenically emitted molecules, monoterpenes. It has been shown that ELVOCs from monoterpene oxidation in the atmosphere explain most of the aerosol growth rates in the boreal forest. In this work, I investigate the ELVOC formation from aromatic compounds, which are primarily emitted from anthropogenic sources. This thesis focuses on oxidation of benzene, a simplest aromatic molecule, although ELVOCs forming from toluene, naphthalene and phenol are also presented. The experimental work with all compounds, except phenol, was conducted in a flow tube at the Universtity of Helsinki, Finland, while in-depth study of benzene was performed in the chamber at Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany. The oxidation products were detected using nitrate-based scheme chemical ionisation atmospheric pressure interface time-of-flight mass spectrometer (CI-APi-TOF). It was found that all four molecules in the reaction with a hydroxyl radical produced ELVOC. In case of benzene, the detected ELVOC monomers had maximum of 11 oxygen atoms, while dimers had up to 18. Toluene and naphthalene oxidation gained ELVOC monomers with maximum 10 oxygen atoms. The possibility of multiple reactions with the hydroxyl radical, however, could not be eliminated as the products of aromatic oxidation usually have higher reaction rate coefficients than their parent molecule. The average ELVOC molar yield in benzene oxidation was 3.7%, while in phenol case it was 1.5%, which suggested that primary OH attack and further autoxidation is an important pathway for ELVOC formation in oxidation of benzene. The study of the ELVOC – aerosol particle interactions in the chamber revealed that ELVOCs from aromatic precursors behave similarly to the ELVOCs formed from monoterpenes, rapidly condensing on the introduced aerosol particles. The organic fraction of the aerosols had similar O:C ratio to the total gas-phase ELVOC, indicating that ELVOCs were primary condensing species. The decreasing O:C ratio of aerosol phase with higher aerosol loading confirmed that ELVOCs are dominating aerosol growth at low aerosol loading. In this thesis, also a review of known chemical pathways of benzene oxidation is presented and some further steps towards ELVOC formation are suggested. Benzene oxidation pathways may serve as a model for studying the oxidation of other aromatic molecules. Substituted aromatic molecules are more reactive with the hydroxyl radical and are likely to yield more ELVOCs, which may be dominant factor in the aerosol growth in urban and industrialised areas.
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(2021)Finland is currently considered having one of the lowest total birth rates in the world. Even though declining fertility rates is a common phenomenon in most European countries, the ideal family size of European women has not followed the same trend. Recent research indicates, however, that fertility ideals might be declining as well. Given that fertility ideals are among the key factors driving fertility behavior, it is important to explore which factors are involved in their formation. The cognitive-social model of fertility intentions posits that our social context shapes our mental representations of the world and our role in it – our schemas. It is likely that religion influences even non-religious people’s schema formation through cultural components such as values, including those regarding family. To further understand how fertility ideals are formed in relation to religion and family values, I examined the personal ideal number of children reported by Finnish men and women of fertile age in cross-sectional 2008 and 2015 survey data. Based on the cognitive-social model of fertility intentions, I posed the hypotheses that the perceived importance of religion in one’s life is related to the personal ideal number of children, and that this association is, at least in part, explained by the perceived importance of family values. A simple mediation analysis conducted separately for both the 2008 and 2015 data supported both hypotheses, but the mediation role of family values was marginal. Both the importance of religion and family values were associated with a higher ideal number of children. Most of the influence of the importance of religion on the ideal number of children was independent of family values.
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(2019)A former warehouse and shelter for the homeless was occupied in Helsinki in 1979. The place became known as Lepakkoluola (‘Batcave’) and served as a central space for the Helsinki music, art and other youth culture scenes. For the following two decades, the space hosted a variety of culture. Some of the participants of the space’s early years grew with the space and developed lives and careers in the production of youth and other culture. Their life courses were constructed via their own agency without the help of particular training or other societal institutions. This thesis asks how participation in youth cultural practices has formed into a life-long career in culture. The so-called concept of DIY (‘do-it-yourself’) career is a recent opening in the research of youth culture and subcultures. Through this concept, the thesis reflects a growing academic interest in how youth culture participation relates to ageing. The central method of the study is life course analysis and its five principles: agency, accumulation, timing, linked lives and the historical time and place. The work treats the data produced by interviews as oral history, which emphasises the interviewees own experience of the events they relate. The data has been deconstructed and reconstructed with the help of grounded theory’s tools for coding, categorisation and explication. The primary data for this study is seven interviews by five interviewees. The secondary data is provided by two books books in which the voices of participants in Lepakkoluola and Radio City are heard. The study reveals that a DIY career is made up of four consequential life-course stages. The first stage, or ‘first contact’, happens during childhood and adolescence when the person becomes acquainted with youth culture and possibly with youth cultural practices. The second, or ‘immersion’, happens in emerging adulthood as the person begins to increasingly participate in youth culture while at the same time looking for their place in society. The third stage, or ‘realisation’ happens when the person gets a – more or less – fully-fledged and stable form of employment in the production of youth culture. In the fourth stage, ‘maintenance’, the person continues and maintains their life course based on the earlier stages.
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(2016)Female genital cutting (FGC) has become a current issue in Northern Europe through the increase of migration. Female genital cutting is the practice, in which parts or all of the female genitals are pricked, cut and/ or removed. Sweden reacted to female genital cutting considerably earlier than Finland. This can be explained by the later onset of immigration to Finland. Sweden passed a FGC specific legislation prohibiting the practice in 1982. Sweden has only one National Action Plan as of 2016, which was released in 2003. Finland does not have a separate FGC law but FGC is prohibited through the Criminal Penal Code. Finland’s National Action Plan is for the time period between 2012–2016. The Purpose of the thesis is to discuss and analyze the different ways Finland and Sweden have framed female genital cutting. This will be done by analyzing the National Action Plans of the two countries as well as other essential policies or legislations. The method used in this thesis is Critical Frame Analysis. The most fitting questions in regards to the data were chosen from the Critical Frame Analysis Methodology. The idea is to analyze the different ways both countries have framed FGC in order to gain a deeper understanding of how the issue is dealt with in Finland and Sweden. The Finnish and Swedish National Action Plans differ greatly from each other in both the structure but also in the content. In Finland, FGC has been dealt with more cautiously by framing female genital cutting in terms of sexual- and reproductive rights. The Swedish Action Plan is rather neutral but by analyzing the situation in Sweden as a whole, it becomes apparent that female genital cutting has been mainly framed as an issue concerning gender equality and honor violence. Sweden uses the term female genital mutilation. This study is its first in the Finnish context, where the Finnish Action Plan is used as the data. Furthermore, there has not been any research on FGC in Finland with Sweden, which has a comparative approach. In comparison to Finland, Sweden has been more active in research of female genital cutting. This thesis topic has become a current issue through the radical influx of asylum-seekers to Europe during 2015. Many of the asylum-seekers have ties to countries, where female genital cutting remains the norm. That will inevitably force officials in both countries to react to female genital cutting.
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(2023)The research questions of this paper are focused around how the discourse present within the discourse and policy regarding algorithmic governance in Finland is framed within a proposed bill regarding the topic. The questions concern what aspects of the subject matter are potentially being neglected or insufficiently examined in order to fulfill standards created by financialized logics of operation present within governance and promoted by algorithmic systems largely derived from the private sector. Also, to what extent is there a concern regarding issues such as transparency and accountability, and how is the adoption of algorithmic decision-making affecting how such principles are being framed? This paper offers a case study, utilizing a Finnish proposed bill regarding the wider adoption and application of algorithmic governance into the public sector. Algorithmic governance entails all forms of digitized data processing intended for the purposes of making decisions in an automated manner utilizing algorithmic technologies. The case study is examined by first establishing a sufficient context of the subject matter, detailing what exactly algorithms are, how the designing and operation of such systems is relevant and important to governance, after which a summarization of key sections the proposed Finnish bill will be presented, followed by an analysis of how many of the concerns and issues outlined in the paper are framed within the text. The framing is analyzed by examining how logics of financialization are present in the text, and using a framework of abstraction traps that provide structure for gauging how people tend to frame matters related to algorithmic governance. This examination will showcase how certain aspects and dimensions related to the framing of policy concerning algorithmic governance can be dominated by certain interests and logics, while neglecting other impactful and meaningful aspects as a result. The results of the research are that the framing operationalizes and prioritizes specific modes or logics of governance while neglecting others as a result of fixating only on certain aspects. Financialization and New Public Management reform influences are present throughout the text, leading to an overly reductive and limited framing of the issues regarding the use of, regulation and legislation of algorithmic governance and its increasing use in the public sphere. This kind of framing of the issues in policy and discourse concerning it will be unlikely to provide comprehensive and effective policy, as they will be inadequate to fully account for many of the other aspects and concerns about the subject matter highlighted within this paper.
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(2018)The freedom of expression is essential for a democratic society and it is protected in several human rights conventions and in the Constitution of Finland. The freedom extends to work places and employees have a right to the freedom of expression. Furthermore, whistleblowing is strongly connected to the freedom of expression of employees. It is considered as whistleblowing when a person is reporting a misconduct, wrongdoing or illegal activity with a public interest that takes place in the activity of an employer. Whistleblowing contributes to transparency and a fair and effective market and has therefore a public interest. Researches have shown that whistleblowing is the most efficient tool in fighting corruption and other wrongdoings. Yet whistle blowing protection is weak in general in Europe. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse whistleblowing in the private sector in Finland. The freedom of expression of employees can be restricted by the duty of loyalty in the relationship of the employee and the employer. There is a conflict of interest in these situations. On one hand, the employee has a duty to stay loyal to the employer. On the other hand, the employee has a freedom of expression. There is also a public interest in reporting wrongdoings. The scope of this thesis is to analyse the legal situation regarding whistleblowing. Case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Union and Finnish courts and the balancing of these interests will be analysed. Moreover, protection of trade secrets is a part of the duty of loyalty as there is a prohibition for employees to reveal trade secrets. Trade secrets are valuable assets for companies and the new Trade Secret Directive and the Finnish Trade Secrets Act bring better protection to this kind of information. However, whistleblowing with a public interest is an exception to the protection of trade secrets. There is a risk of disclosing trade secrets when reporting a wrongdoing. In addition, there is a conflict between keeping a trade secret undisclosed and the public interest in getting information about wrongdoing, misconduct and illegal activity. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the scope of the whistleblowing exception in the Trade Secrets Directive and the Finnish Trade Secrets Act. The main method used in this thesis is the doctrinal method. Because whistleblowing is a relatively new phenomenon in Finland, a comparative method is used to compare whistleblowing protection in Europe to Finland. Especially the whistleblowing legislation and case law in Sweden and the United Kingdom are used to bring a new point of view and a broader context. This thesis is divided into three main areas in order to answer the research questions. Firstly, the purpose of this thesis is to analyse the freedom of expression of employees when they are reporting wrongdoings, misconduct and illegal activity. The use of the word whistleblowing is not established in Finland, which makes it necessary to analyse whistleblowing in general and analyse what legislation there is regarding whistleblowing. The legislation regarding whistleblowing is fragmented and therefore it is hard to get a grip of the phenomenon. The first research question concerns whether there is a need for a general and non-sector specific whistle blower protection legislation in Finland? Secondly, the purpose of this thesis is to analyse the protection of trade secrets as a part of the duty of loyalty and as a restriction to the freedom of expression of employees. The legal situation when it comes to balancing of the freedom of expression and the loyalty will be analysed. Lastly, the legal situation regarding whistleblowing and its connection to the Trade Secrets Directive and the Finnish Trade Secrets Act will be analysed. The definition of trade secret is wide and includes a wide range of information as a trade secret. The second research question is what the scope of the whistleblowing exception in the protection of trade secrets is? The scope is unclear when it comes to what is considered as general public interest and how the burden of proof will be solved in a concrete case. This thesis concludes by analysing the problems arising from the unclear scope of the whistleblowing exception and by presenting a possible solution to enact a general and non-sector specific whistle blower protection legislation in Finland.
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(2016)Harold Pinterin varhaistuotantokauden näytelmiä on perinteisesti kuvailtu englanninkielisellä adjektiivilla pinteresque (pintermäinen), jolla tarkoitetaan hänen näytelmilleen tyypillistä uhkaavaa ilmapiiriä sekä kielellisiä tehokeinoja, kuten runsasta taukojen käyttöä. Näytelmät myös usein luokiteltiin osaksi 1950-luvun absurdin teatterin tyylisuuntaa. Pinterin myöhäistuotantokauden näytelmät puolestaan on typistetyn muotonsa vuoksi tulkittu suoranaisen poliittisiksi. Niiden valossa on myös tarkasteltu uudestaan Pinterin aiempien teoksien poliittisuutta. Pintermäisyyttä ei kuitenkaan ole syytä rajata vain kirjailijan varhaistuotantokauden teoksiin, vaan se on ominaispiirre, joka kantaa läpi kirjailijan koko tuotannon. Tämän Pro Gradu -tutkielman tavoitteena on osoittaa, että tarkasteltaessa Pinterin teoksia mahdollisten maailmojen teoreettisen viitekehyksen kautta, huomataan, että Pinter on käyttänyt samankaltaisia tehokeinoja ja käsitellyt samoja teemoja läpi koko uransa. Pinter haluaa kerta toisensa jälkeen osoittaa, kuinka tuntematon, ulkopuolinen valta pakottaa ihmiset aiheuttamaan väkivaltaa toisille ihmisille ilman selkeää, tunnistettavaa syytä. Tuo ulkopuolinen valta on niin voimakas, että se pystyy jopa taivuttamaan logiikan sääntöjä oman tahtonsa mukaisiksi. Tutkielmassa analysoidaan kolmea Harold Pinterin teosta mahdollisten maailmojen teorian tarjoamien metodien avulla. Tutkimuksen aineistona ovat seuraavat näytelmät: Mykkä tarjoilija (1957), Syntymäpäiväjuhlat (1957) ja Kerta kiellon päälle (1984). Kaksi ensimmäistä näytelmää edustavat Pinterin varhaistuotantokauden arvostetuimpia teoksia, kun taas Kerta kiellon kuuluu Pinterin myöhäistuotantokauden tutkituimpiin teoksiin. Mahdollisten maailmojen teoria perustuu löyhästi filosofi Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnizin ajatteluun. Kirjallisuustieteessä teoriaa on kehittänyt erityisesti Marie-Laure Ryan, jonka keskeisin näkemys on, että kirjallinen teksti on oman todellisuutensa luova järjestelmä. Fiktiivisen teoksen todellisuusjärjestelmä yleensä poikkeaa omasta maailmastamme, mutta teoksen maailma on sen hahmoille yhtä aito kuin oma maailmamme meille on. Teoksen hahmoilla on myös omat vaihtoehtoiset osamaailmansa, kuten tiedon maailma, toiveiden maailma ja pakon maailma. Tarinan juonen nähdään kulkevan eteenpäin, kun hahmot reagoivat osamaailmoissaan ilmeneviin puutteisiin tai ristiriitoihin. Pinterin hahmojen osamaailmoissa on runsaasti puutteita ja ristiriitoja, jotka aiheuttavat lukijassa hämmennystä. Toisin kuin yleisö odottaisi, teoksien hahmot, kuten Mykän tarjoilijan Ben ja Gus tai Syntymäpäiväjuhlien Stanley eivät kuitenkaan täydennä puutteita tai poista ristiriitoja. He tyytyvät olemaan ulkoisten voimien ohjailtavina, jolloin juonta kuljettavat eteenpäin pääsääntöisesti vain satunnaiset tapahtumat. Ainoat aktiiviset osallistujat ovat kiduttajia, jotka pakon maailmansa ohjaamana käyttävät väkivaltaa murtaakseen uhrien tahdon. Uhrien syyllisyyttä tai viattomuutta emme pysty arvioimaan, vaan heidän tarinansa ovat yleismaailmallisen avoimia. Kiduttajien pakon maailmaa ohjaavat tunnistamattomat ulkoiset valtarakenteet, jotka muovaavat omat, julmat logiikan sääntönsä. Tarinat ovat juoneltaan ja rakenteiltaan niin samanlaisia, että Kerta kiellon päälle voidaan lukea transponointina Syntymäpäiväjuhlista. Vaikka absurdin teatterin tehokeinot on jätetty pois, Kerta kiellon päälle kertoo saman tarinan ja viestii samaa teemaa yleismaailmallisemmassa ympäristössä.
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