Browsing by Title

Pro graduni keskittyy selventämään saksalaisen protestanttisen teologin Wolfhart Pannenbergin totuuskäsitystä. Pääaineistona on Pannenbergin oma kirjallinen tuotanto, erityisesti hänen 3-osainen systematiikkansa. Tutkimusmetodina on systemaattinen analyysi. Pannenbergin lähtökohtana on totuuden ykseys. Puhuttiin totuudesta sitten tieteessä, filosofiassa tai teologiassa, kyseinen puhe viittaa aina samaan jakamattomaan todellisuuteen. Pannenbergin mukaan teologiset totuusväitteet eivät perustu auktoriteettiin, vaan ne tulee perustella kaikille avoimella tavalla. Esimerkiksi Raamatun historiallisten kertomusten todenperäisyys – erityisesti Jeesuksen ylösnousemus- tulee voida perustella historiallisen tutkimuksen keinoin. Samalla Pannenberg korostaa kaiken tutkimuksen sidonnaisuutta tiettyyn aikaan ja kontekstiin. Kaikki tieteen ja ajattelun tulokset ovat avoinna tulevaisuudelle, ne voivat saada lisätukea tai ne voidaan hylätä. Tämä lähtökohta asettaa Pannenbergin metodologian perinteisen foundationalismin ja nonfoundationalismin välimaastoon, jota kutsutaan tässä tutkimuksessa post-foundationalismiksi (PF). PF pyrkii välttämään sekä foudationalismin vaatimuksen varmoista perususkomuksista, että nonfoundationalismiin yleisesti liitetyn relativismin. Pannenbergin lähtökohtana on osoittaa puheen Jumalasta olevan merkityksellistä myös sekulaarissa maailmassa ilman uskonnollisia ennakko-oletuksia. Tutkimukseni mukaan Pannenbergin argumentoinnissa voidaan erottaa kaksi tasoa: Ensimmäinen taso on abstrakti. Tällä tasolla Pannenbergin tarkoituksena on luoda perusteltu käsitys rationaalisen jumalapuheen minimivaatimuksesta. Tätä minimivaatimusta hän rakentaa äärettömyyden (infinite) käsitteen avulla. Pannenberg vetoaa sekä filosofian historiaan, moderniin hermeneuttiseen filosofiaan että filosofiseen antropologiaan osoittaessaan, että inhimillisen ymmärryskyvyn lähtökohtana on kyky erottaa äärellinen äärettömyydestä. Implisiittinen äärettömyys toimii kaiken äärellisen (finite) havainnoinnin ennakko-olettamuksena. Ilman tätä ennakko-oletusta ei mikään inhimillinen ymmärtäminen olisi mahdollista. Täten äärettömyyden käsitteestä tulee rationaalisen jumalapuheen minimivaatimus. Äärettömyyden käsitteeseen sisältyvä ykseys sisältää voimakkaan monoteistisen korostuksen. Äärettömyyden ykseys toimii tällöin kriteerinä, jonka avulla Pannenberg kääntyy uskontojen maailmaan. Siirtyminen konkreettisten uskontojen maailmaan edustaa argumentoinnin toista tasoa. Siinä ensimmäisen tason kriteeriä sovelletaan uskontojen maailmaan, tässä tapauksessa kristinuskoon. Israelin uskonnossa Pannenberg näkee tämän kriteerin kanssa yhteensopivan ilmiön: Israelin siirtymisen henoteismista monoteismiin. Toinen tärkeä seikka on Israelin avoimuus tulevaisuudelle. Tässä Israelin uskonto erosi naapurikansojen uskonnoista, jotka olivat luonteeltaan myyttisiä. Myyttisyys merkitsee Pannenbergilla uskonnonharjoittajien toistuvan paluun myyttiseen alkuhetkeen, jossa maailman ja yhteiskunnan perusta luodaan aina kultin kautta uudelleen. Israelissa kansan huomio kääntyi yhä enemmän kohti tulevaisuutta. Apokalyptisessa teologiassa tämä tendenssi vietiin äärimmilleen: Apokalyptikot katsoivat jo historian päätepisteeseen. Toisen tason argumentointiin sisältyy voimakas historiallisuuden korostus. Jumala ilmoittaa itsensä epäsuorasti historiallisten tapahtumien kautta. Pannenberg kieltää perinteisen analogisen kielen oikeutuksen Jumalasta puhuttaessa. Inhimillinen kieli ei tavoita Jumalan luontoa. Analogian tilalle tulee Jumalan historiallinen ilmoitus Pannenberg korostaa Jumalan kaikkivaltaisuutta. Jumala on koko historian herra. Teologian tehtävä on selvittää, millä tavoin Jumala hallitsee historiaa. Tässä tehtävässä Pannenberg viittaa hermeneuttisen filosofian havaintoihin: Kaikki ymmärtäminen perustuu osien ja kokonaisuuden väliseen suhteeseen. Tässä totuuskäsityksessä historiallisen prosessin loppu määrittelee totuuden. Pannenberg pyrkii osoittamaan, kuinka Jeesuksen ylösnousemus voidaan ymmärtää historian lopuksi. Tässä hän viittaa toisen temppelin aikaiseen juutalaiseen apokalyptiseen teologiaan, jossa ylösnousemus merkitsi historian loppua ja Jumalan astumista maailmaan. Jeesuksen ylösnousemuksessa tämä loppu on ennakoivasti (proleptisesti) läsnä. Voimme puhua totuudesta vain ennakoivasti, mutta Jeesuksen ylösnousemuksessa historian loppu on kuitenkin todellisesti läsnä. Pannenberg pyrkii osoittamaan, kuinka kaikki inhimillinen ymmärtäminen perustuu tähän ilmiöön. Kaikki ymmärtäminen on ennakoivaa, sillä kaikessa ymmärtämisessä ihminen rakentaa ennakoivia käsityksiä historiallisen prosessin päätepisteestä. Totuus avautuu Pannenbergilla lopusta käsin.

This thesis examines one of the most visible demonstrations of social exclusion: homelessness. The aim is to critically investigate the role of newspapers in constructing the discourse of homelessness. The focus of the research is on the United Kingdom, particularly England, where 4 677 (2019) people are estimated to sleep rough. The number has increased significantly during the 2010s, and the situation is likely to get worse. This paradox of a society with the world’s fifth largest economy as well as thousands of people without access to housing is an intriguing starting point for a critical analysis. Therefore, this master’s thesis analyses the role of British newspaper media in creating power, inequality and division into ‘us and them’, associated with street homelessness. When addressing social issues, such as homelessness, it is necessary to examine the role of media as it is the most important source of information for most of the people, Furthermore, it plays a crucial role in framing social issues for the public and influencing their opinions. The data was collected from three newspapers, representing both tabloid and broadsheet newspapers. These newspapers are the Guardian, the Daily Mail and the Sun. Articles containing the search terms “homelessness-England” were searched from the newspapers’ online databases from 2017–2020. A total of fifteen articles were selected for further analysis. These were considered most relevant to the topic in question; that is, they discussed the way the public interacts with and how they portray the people sleeping rough in England. The methodology applied in this thesis was Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework for critical discourse analysis. These dimensions are discourse-as-text, discourse-as-discursive-practice, and discourse-as-social-practice. Four overlapping categories were identified based on how they portrayed homeless people. These categories are 1. homeless people as objects of charity; 2. homeless people as security threats; 3. homeless people as demonstrations of inequality and 4. homeless people as victims. The research shows that these discourses are promoted in the articles by certain choices of vocabulary and discursive practice. Furthermore, it is argued that these narratives promote the dichotomy between ‘us’ (the people with housing) and ‘them’ (the homeless people). Based on the results, spoken and emotional driven language was more evident in the articles by Daily Mail and the Sun. Emotional discourses was used to create both positive (sympathy) and negative (fear) emotions among the readers. Overall, the research shows that the discourse of homelessness, constructed by the British newspapers, promotes the stereotypical views of homeless people as passive objects. Indeed, the active element in the narratives was in most cases given to the other people, not the homeless person. In the news storied of people experiencing street homeless they were talked about or seen but were not given the active voice.

The Direct Effect doctrine, originally established by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the case of C-26/62 Van Gend en Loos [1963], is of foundational importance to the Union law. The horizontal direct effect of the Union law i.e. a private individual’s right to rely on Union law directly in a national court against another private party is of growing importance due to the judicial activism of the ECJ. The Union’s constitutional development from a market based economic Union towards a citizenship based Union has brought the fundamental rights protection to the centrum of the Union law. The ECJ has through its judicial activism systemically interpreted Union law towards the direction that gives the best possible protection to the fundamental rights. The general principles of Union law are underlying and foundational principles of Union law on which the Charter of Fundamental Rights of European Union has been based on. The ECJ has recognized the horizontal direct effect of the general principle of non-discrimination on grounds of age in the case of C-144/04 Mangold [2005] ECR I-9981 which has faced criticism. For example, the fact that the transposition time of the Directive 2000/78/EC had not been expired at the time of the infringement, the legal certainty of the Union law, legitimate expectations of the parties, the prohibition of horizontal effect of the directives, the existence of an underlying general principle of non-discrimination on grounds of age and the scope of Union law in the light of the Article 51 (1) of the Charter have been questioned. However, the ECJ has reconfirmed its approach in the case of C-555/07 Kücükdeveci [2010] ECR I-365 and referred directly to the Article 21 (1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights laying down the principle of non-discrimination. This reflects the importance of the primary law status of the Charter achieved by the Treaty of Lisbon. It reflects the new possibility for individuals to invoke general principles of Union law in horizontal situations due to the fact that the Charter promotes the legitimacy of the fundamental rights. It is unclear whether this approach taken by the ECJ can be extended to other grounds of discrimination. This Master’s Thesis describes the case-law and researches these problematic questions arousing from the case-law regarding the horizontal direct effect of the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of age. Similarly, it analyses whether the Union has exceeded its competence in these cases and how the Article 51 (1) of the Charter should be interpreted in the light of the ECJ’s case-law.

In my thesis, I study how two women’s deteriorating mental health is portrayed through an unreliable narrator and how these women’s mental stability is reflected in the degree of unreliability in their narration. The aim of this thesis is to study if a homodiegetic narrator’s unreliability can reflect their underlying issues with mental health, which may not always be noticed without a detailed character analysis. To study this topic, I have chosen two stories with unreliable female narrators who have occasionally been labelled as mad women due to their unreliability but are actually suffering mentally. These two stories are Henry James’s novella The Turn of the Screw (1898) and Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House (1959). To study this topic, I use narrative theory to analyse the two unreliable narrators and to discover the reasons behind their unreliability. By using the narrative theory, I am able to define the type of unreliable narrators these two women are as well as to show how the unreliability of the narration is evident in the text. To support my argument that these women are unreliable, because of their mental instability, I will show that reasons why they have become mentally unstable can be found from the texts. The study was done by using the method of close reading. My study shows that the mental health of both women in these stories has started to deteriorate. The governess is stressed about her job as a governess, and because of her stress, she starts seeing ghosts who are after the children for whom she is responsible. Eleanor Vance, on the other hand, is mentally unstable because of her long-term trauma, which has affected her personality. My study shows how the narrators of The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House are unreliable because their mental health is affected by something that makes them imagine hauntings that may not actually be occurring.

The present study examines Finnish media portrayals of homegrown terrorism’s causal dynamics between 2005 and 2011. Taken into focus are the attacks in London (2005), Stockholm (2010) and Norway (2011). The study investigates the journalistic treatment of elements seen as key to homegrown terrorism’s functioning and elucidates on the influences that have conditioned the media’s take on the phenomenon. Constructing a comprehensive image of the explanatory narratives employed necessitates that causality be examined from all angles, however, and the work therefore also includes descriptions of the factors construed as bearing an inverse relationship with homegrown terrorism – the elements portrayed as non-related or a hindrance to political violence. The study’s methodological approach is historical-qualitative. The initial phase of analysis examines the narratives fielded to explain homegrown terrorism while the latter concentrates upon factors that have conditioned such portrayals. The first tier of investigation sees each incident assessed as a separate chapter while the second part contextualizes every causal narrative as an independent segment. The study’s empirical core encompasses a total of 294 items from the publications Helsingin Sanomat, Iltalehti and Suomen Kuvalehti. Included are news articles, editorials, columns and commentaries. The process of contextualization meanwhile utilizes research literature on socio-historical and journalistic phenomena pertaining to 21st century Finland in particular. Certain causal narratives emerge as significant to individual incidents. The psychopathological underpinnings of homegrown terrorism, as an example, form a key facet of coverage on the Norway attacks. Corresponding speculation is meanwhile less central to reporting on Salafi-jihadist violence. Other factors such as ideological motivations conversely figure as crucial to the portrayal of all three incidents. Case-specific variation can nonetheless be discerned in the way that such shared elements are handled. While ideological motivations form a recurring element of coverage on the London, Stockholm and Norway attacks, the actual content of ideology is subjected to extensive scrutiny only in 2011. Although the London and Stockholm bombers are, more precisely, frequently characterized as representing an ideological inclination such as Islamic extremism, discussion on the very substance of Islamic extremism remains thin. The emphases and particularities of various narratives have been conditioned by a combination of case-specific, socio-historical and journalistic influences. The scant attention accorded to Salafi-jihadism’s religious rationale is indicative of the secularized media’s inability to fully appreciate religion’s function as an element of terrorism’s dynamics, while the strong emphasis on the Iraq war’s radicalizing potential in 2005 is meanwhile tied to the conflict’s negative image in Finland. Speculation on psychopathological factors in 2011 meanwhile signifies a tendency of interpreting the Norwegian assailant as partially akin to the perpetrators of domestic school shooting incidents in Jokela (2007) and Kauhajoki (2008). Coverage of mental health issues emerged as significant to the Finnish events as well. Discussion on firearms legislation, also an element of coverage in 2011, might furthermore be considered as a continuation of domestic debate that commenced after the school shooting incidents. Finnish media narratives on homegrown terrorism’s causal dynamics are varied and bear the influence of myriad factors ranging from wider socio-historical matters to journalistic conventions. Given that full certainty on terrorism’s causes is difficult to establish especially in the aftermath of any particular incident, such factors are of key significance to determining the causal dynamics that journalists and news outlets decide to focus on. Domestic matters in particular influence the emphases of coverage in a marked fashion. Historical precedents such as earlier school shooting incidents have, indeed, left their imprint on the narratives discussed. Factors construed as relevant to terrorism incidents abroad have during 2005–2011 also grown more topical to Finnish domestic affairs. Socio-historical matters alone, however, fail to explain everything. The overall stance that different publications maintain on social matters and the role that their journalists perform in determining the content of reporting are an additional influence on the news coverage of homegrown terrorism.

Introduction: Mobile devices provide medical students with easy access to medical information and educational resources. Since 2013, we’ve followed the study use of iPads among the medical students. In 2016, we observed a notable drop in the overall mobile device usage in the first cohort of medical students entering their clinical studies. Aim of the study: In this study, we sought to identify the hurdles for adopting mobile devices among three consecutive cohorts of medical students at the beginning of their clinical studies. We sought to answer the following questions: (1) How did the students assess their own and their clinical teachers’ ability to use iPads in learning and teaching? (2) How did the clinical before-class and in-class assignments support the students’ use of the new technology? (3) How did students use the mobile device with patients? Material and methods: The data were collected with online surveys among the first three cohorts of medical students who had studied with iPads and started their clinical studies in the spring of 2016, the autumn of 2016 and the autumn 2017. In this study we focused on the closed-ended multiple choice and 5-point Likert scale questions which we analysed by the distribution frequencies in the three cohorts. Results: The response rates ranged from 67.5% (3rd cohort) to 90.8% (1st cohort). Students rated their own ability of using the iPad in studies as good or excellent whereas their teachers’ ability to use these devices relatively low. The students wished for more pre-assignments (tests and videos) and in-class assignments (voting, tests and tasks) to stimulate their learning. Furthermore, they reported that clinical teachers seldom told them about applications related to their clinical field. The students primary use of mobile devices was for seeking information online. Students were hesitant in using the device in direct patient contact. Discussion: Our findings were consistent with previous research in observing a notable hesitance in using the mobile device with patients. These concerns were raised both among students and teachers. Furthermore, the teachers seldom communicated about suitable and quality medical applications. The clinical teachers require support and training in adopting mobile device compatible pre-class and in-class assignments in their instruction.

One of the most prolific and effective weapons employed by the Kremlin today is its powerful and far-reaching propaganda machine. It is well known that the propaganda continuing to emanate from Moscow has been remarkably successful at keeping support high for a war effort that continues to come at a tremendous cost. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the ideological foundations that lie at the heart of this propagandist narrative, and to explore their origins. I argue that this modern propaganda actually has its roots in Slavophile and Eurasianist writings from the 19th-20th Century, and most significantly from two writers, Ivan Ilyin and Lev Gumilev. The theories of these two prominent Russian thinkers largely serve as the ideological backing Russia requires to legitimize its invasion of Ukraine within its own borders. This thesis will employ discourse analysis, analyzing everything from speeches to Russian National Security Strategies, and going as far back as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprecedented 2007 speech before the Munich Security Conference. My aim is to demonstrate how the Kremlin’s propaganda machine selectively employs and weaponizes this antiquated rhetoric to justify Russian strategic aggression. The hope is that this thesis provides a better understanding of the propaganda that Russians are subjected to on a daily basis. A more thorough understanding of others can be obtained through a better understanding of the current cultural and political environment that people find themselves immersed in. Hopefully, this knowledge will one day improve people’s tolerance and assist in the process of finding diplomatic solutions and other viable alternatives to war.

One of the main contestations during the South China Sea dispute was the legal status and possible implications of the ‘historic rights’, which were upheld by the Chinese government and since the 1990s discussed massively by Chinese scholars during the intensification of the disputes in the South China Sea. Nevertheless, there is criticism against this argument, the most popular of which is, that the historic rights discourse differs from, and is incompatible with the rules stipulated in the UNCLOS, of which China is a party. However, my argument is, that a treaty-based analysis is incomplete and somewhat misplaced if we are to comprehensively understand the argument of ‘historic rights’ proposed by China. ‘Historic rights’ discourse, from a Chinese perspective, is based on completely different traditions and understandings of the maritime order. This thesis reveals that China has its unique perception of maritime sovereignty and maritime rights. More importantly, this perception is still present in China’s imagination of the world order. This perception, even sometimes undefined and ambiguous, however makes the ‘historic rights’ arguments possible and understandable, at least in the eyes of the Chinese government and the majority of Chinese scholars. This thesis revisits the proposals and legitimacy proposed by the Chinese government and scholars in terms of the evolution of their expression and argumentative structures concerning Chinese ‘historic rights’ in the South China Sea. From the Chinese perspective, ‘historic rights’ offers another possible way of argumentations and legal surface, that weakens the cognition of the existing status quo in the South China Sea, while at the same time providing a peaceful way of challenging the unequal order and recovering China’s historical interests that had been taken advantage of when China was too weak to assert its legitimate rights in the past. On this premise, overly depending on judiciary resolution like the arbitration process and the legal rules in the UNCLOS will lead to a neglect of this peculiar Chinese perception and its possible political implications.

Co-­infection, a state in which the host is infected with more than one micro-­ or macroparasite at a time, is the norm in the wild because of a wide range of interacting organisms and parasites. Bank vole is a reservoir host of Puumala hantavirus (PUUV), a pathogen causing Nephropathia Endemica, an endemic disease in Finland. The helper T cell (Th)1/Th2 polarization theory, which is established in the laboratory, but less-­studied in the wild, suggests that there is a trade-­off between Th1 response against microparasites and Th2 response against macroparasites. I studied whether helminth or hantavirus infection, individually and synergistically, have effect on the immune responses of wild bank voles and whether there is a trade-­off between Th1 and Th2 responses. My hypothesis was that helminth infection would reduce the bank voles’ ability to mount an effective immune response against viral infections and make them more susceptible to chronic Puumala virus infection. I measured mRNA levels of transcription factors Tbet (Th1 response) and Gata3 (Th2 response) in the splenocytes of wild-­caught bank voles after stimulating the cells with different immune stimulants. I also measured the constitutive levels of Tbet and Gata3 in bank voles’ spleens. The splenocytes of PUUV-­infected bank voles were less responsive to stimulations than those of PUUV-­negative ones. The reduced ability of splenocytes from PUUV-­infected voles to respond to stimulation can be because of the virus itself affecting the T cell function or alternatively due to an inherent defect in immune cells making them more susceptible to PUUV infection. The constitutive expression of Gata3 in spleen correlated positively with gastrointestinal nematode load in PUUV-­infected voles but not in PUUV-­negative voles. This can be because of mounting an immune response against helminths reduces the bank voles’ ability to resist the viral infection in accordance with the trade-­off between Th1 and Th2 responses or as previous studies have shown, Gata3 can act as a marker of infection tolerance in bank voles. Because of a small sample size and a heterologous group of studied bank voles, more research is needed on co-­infection immunology in bank voles and other wild animals.

In recent decades, rapid urbanization together with industrialization has led to an increase in anthropogenic emissions, resulting in high air pollution concentrations and poor air quality particularly in developing countries, such as in China. Due to both the enhanced environmental and severe public health risks poor air quality is causing and the climate impacts of aerosols, it is of great interest to study and understand aerosol particles and their impact on our surroundings. Aerosols affect the radiative properties of the atmosphere and the surface energy balance. The impact of aerosols on the surface radiative fluxes of the urban surface energy balance is widely known, but the impact on the turbulent energy fluxes, which are important components in the energy balance, has until now remained unclear. To extend the knowledge of aerosol impacts on all the energy balance components, a simple urban land surface model (SUEWS) during the period of 2006-2009 is used, together with aerosol data, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), received from an AERONET station located in Beijing. With the use of commonly measured meteorological variables together with parameters defined for the study area of 1 km radius around a meteorological tower, the components of the urban surface energy balance are simulated by the model. For further data analysis, the data are divided into thermal seasons and pollutant categories according to the available AOD-data. Extreme polluted conditions are achieved during 24 % for the time of available AOD-data, additionally showing relatively less situations with poor air quality (8 %) in winter compared to 27 % observed in summer. The aim of this study is to analyse how much aerosol particles can modify the different surface energy balance components, particularly focusing on the turbulent fluxes. The model is evaluated against observed turbulent fluxes in the same tower, showing an overestimation of the sensible heat flux and an underestimation and a better model performance of the latent heat flux. Still, the diurnal behaviour of the fluxes is shown to be well reproduced by the model. The behaviour of the modelled components is further investigated, showing a clear monthly variation for almost all the fluxes contributing to the surface energy balance. The behaviour of the total energy balance is in general controlled by the wet (occurring from May to October) and dry periods, distinguishing the climate in Beijing. The sensible heat flux is the dominant flux in March, accounting for 59 % of the available energy, whereas during the wet periods, higher portion of the available energy is consumed by the turbulent latent heat flux (61 % in August). Adding the effect of aerosols, the results clearly show how the net radiative flux is decreased in poor air quality conditions, giving differences of 138 W/m2 in the median flux due to aerosol loading in the atmosphere. The main finding of this study is that aerosols also influence the turbulent fluxes, with largest aerosol impact on the sensible heat flux occurring during thermal spring (66 W/m2 difference between clean and polluted air conditions). Likewise, in summer, when the latent heat flux is the largest contributor for consuming the available energy, the influence of aerosols is most visible (25 W/m2 difference). This study highlights the importance of maintaining measurements of aerosol concentrations and characteristics of the pollutants over urban areas due to their influence not only on the radiative fluxes, but all the components of the surface energy balance, which can further alter the water circulation and give rise to other environmental risks. These findings can therefore be used in urban planning and issues related to water management and air pollution regulations.