Browsing by Title
Now showing items 3405-3424 of 32623
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(2024)The global drive towards low-carbon construction has focused attention on the utilisation of wood in multi-storey construction (WMC). The enabling regulatory and legislative actions and the promotion of wood construction have not increased the share of wood in multi-storey construction as predicted, which indicates that there are underlying factors hindering the wider utilisation of wood materials in construction and the construction of wooden multi-storey buildings. This qualitative study examined the perceptions and attitudes of construction site personnel towards WMC. The aim of the study was to identify the perceptions and attitudes of an important target group in the construction sector, which had not been highlighted in existing literature, by utilising the theory of planned behaviour. The study aims to uncover the perceptions and attitudes of construction site personnel to fill the current knowledge gaps, provide information on where to focus actions that facilitate WMC, and initiate discussion on the factors influencing the attitudes. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted between February-April 2024 with individuals, who are actively involved in the operations of construction sites during the construction and renovation phases. These individuals are responsible for the operations, implementation, and other administrative activities on the construction sites. The results of the thematic analysis indicated that construction site personnel held varying, yet generally positive attitudes towards WMC. There was a notable variation in attitudes between the different construction personnel groups. The perceived benefits and strengths that contributed to more positive attitudes towards WMC were assessed through factors such as the environmental friendliness and low emissions of wood materials, ease of workability, aesthetic appeal, and the material's lightness and breathability. The attitudes towards WMC were hindered by the factors perceived as weaknesses and challenges of wood materials and WMC. These included the unestablished position of WMC, lack of knowledge and material information, moisture-related challenges, fire safety, and economic factors. Normative beliefs of the Finnish construction sector were perceived to affect the attitudes, as the perceived work communities’ attitudes either facilitated or hindered the individual’s attitude towards WMC. Previous experiences did not significantly influence attitudes towards WMC. Instead, knowledge and information had a greater impact on attitudes. Sharing knowledge and increasing the availability of information about WMC was identified as a key solution to improving attitudes towards WMC in Finland, given the slow pace of change in the Finnish construction sector and its tendency to rely on established standards and practices.
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(2013)The thesis examines how ethnic entrepreneurship is constructed and made sense of in the narrative accounts of nine adult children of small business owners. The issue is examined from four perspectives; first, through the research participants’ narrations of their parents’ routes to entrepreneurs and secondly, through the narratives of the personal experiences of growing up and taking part in the running of the family business. Thirdly, the interviewees’ constructions of their entrepreneurial work experiences are examined in a wider working life context. Fourth, the interviewees’ future visions in terms of work and possible entrepreneurial careers, are examined. The ethnic entrepreneur is examined as a social category and ethnic entrepreneurship as a symbolic space against which the research participants negotiate their own standing. Furthermore, an idea of the nonnormativity of children’s work and how it relates to a concept of a 'proper' childhood is applied. Furthermore, the concept of belonging is applied in examining the interviewees’ negotiations about their positions and their sense of belonging in relation to the ethnic entrepreneur position. The data consists of nine thematic interviews with adult children of immigrant entrepreneurs. In the analysis of the data, a loose narrative framework is applied. The results of the study show that in the past narratives, the ethnic entrepreneur appeared as occupying a vulnerable position and in the majority, the position was constructed as somewhat forced rather than freely chosen. The narratives of past participation in the family firm produced three themes, through which entrepreneurial work was made sense, namely learning skillfulness, helping the parent, and work as a marker of difference. The narratives about the entrepreneurial work in a wider working life context indicated that participation in the family firm was constructed as a temporary phase before heading into an individual educational and occupational career. The family firm and 'other jobs' were contrasted somewhat drastically. Lastly, the future narratives indicated that the interviewees either redefined their possible future entrepreneurial positions or strongly rejected and talked against an entrepreneurial future.
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(2014)Language is a medium of communication but it is also used to construe and negotiate meaning in our social environment. Language can signal group membership and construe identity as a member of a particular group. If people have more than one language in their repertoires, competence becomes a key factor in defining to what degree people choose to identify themselves as part of a specific community of language speakers. My research studies how identity and competence are construed by non-native English speakers. Most English speakers have learned the language in addition to their mother tongue(s), and use it to communicate with other non-native speakers of English. In these situations English is used as a lingua franca (ELF) a contact language between speakers who do not share a first language (L1). In these contexts it is typical that people have learned English as a foreign language (EFL) in school. Typically L2 speakers are taught to communicate with native speakers of the language, and thus foreign language teaching often defines competence in the L2 by comparing learners proficiency level to a native speaker model. This view perceives L2 speakers as learners of the language, and defines their competence in the L2 by the degree learners are able to acquire the target language norms. In lingua franca contexts competence is defined quite differently. Competence in ELF means the ability to use the language successfully with people from various cultural backgrounds, and the ability to negotiate norms to ensure mutual understanding, which, at times, might even mean deviating from the target language norms. The concept of identity is also defined differently in EFL and ELF contexts. In foreign language teaching, speakers are learners who constantly develop their skills with hopes to eventully achieve a native-like competence. In ELF contexts, on the other hand, speakers are seen as users of the language who do not necessarily benefit from a native-like competence level per se. Because ELF users should be able to communicate with people from various backgrounds, achieving a native-like competence might not be enough to ensure successful communication with other L2 English speakers. The purpose of this research was to study how L2 English speakers construe identity as learners and users of English and their competence in the language. The data was collected by interviewing Finnish university students majoring in English philology. The data consists of four interviews in which participants describe themselves as learners and users of English. I approached the data from a discourse analytical point of view, and analyzed the construed interpretative repertoires of identity and competence. My findings show that the construed learner and user identities are context-dependent. The identity that becomes salient in the interpretative repertoires in a given context depends on how the interviewees want to depict themselves in that given environment. The ideals of good language also guide the construction of the interpretative repertoires of identity. The repertoires that idealize native-like language use construe learner identity while the repertoires that emphasize communication skills construe the user identity. My research also indicates that the interpretative repertoires of competence are multifaceted. Competence is construed as intuitive, native-speaker-like knowledge about English language structures, as well as different cognitive and performative skills and abilities. These are, for example, the ability to think in English and to communicate successfully with people from various different backgrounds.
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(2012)The thesis construes the cultural field of transitology from the point of view of its historical development and characteristics. Transitology specifically and transition studies generally mushroomed in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union. Transitology is a specific term for a field of transition studies to which particular attributes are controversially connected. These attributes include nomotheticity, ahistoricity, positivism and determinism. Of interest is the fact, that transitology represents a field of academia concerned with guiding policy recommendations in a process that aimed to democratize and market liberalize post-socialist countries in Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union. This instigated a close connection between the social scientific debates and actual policy. The thesis advances in a twofold manner to investigate the effects of the connections and historical factors behind the nature and applicability of transitology. First, it constructs a historical narrative of the developments of social sciences, transition studies, socialist social sciences and post-socialist space. Through different conjunctures each of these levels brought about its own meaning to the manner in which transitology consolidated its existence. Secondly, the thesis observes the form and nature of the relation of transitological research to its own premises and to its subject matter. A historical and radical perspective of social scientific thought is applied to detect the form of the relations. These perspectives are mainly world-systems analysis and the political economy of Stephen Gill. The relations under observation are then set into a wider context of social sciences and cultural competition with the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological thought. Academic labour is perceived analogously to a Marxist perspective of labour as a social process. The thesis concludes transitology to have attained specific character for a variety of reasons. In general these reasons are seen to stem from an interaction of the state of social scientific thought in the late 80s and early 90 and the historical state of the post-socialist space. Observing the effects and developments occurring from this interplay, the thesis claims transitological thought to have consolidated itself as a constituting cleavage of the post-socialist cultural and political space rather than dissolved into a myriad of approaches. In such a situation, in which a dislodgment between the temporal and spatial dimensions of the cultural field of research and academia and the object if its study has occurred, it becomes vehemently important to focus on the relation and type of research conducted and its direct and indirect implications to its subject matter.
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(2023)Active and intelligent packaging technologies, are emerging as innovations in the food industry, aimed at enhancing food quality, safety, and sustainability. However, research indicates that, consumer awareness and acceptance, of these new technologies remains limited. This study review examined current evidence on consumer perceptions and attitudes regarding active and intelligent food packaging. Active packaging interacts directly with food products to extend shelf-life, while intelligent packaging monitors conditions and conveys information about food quality. Studies reveal that consumer awareness is moderate, with higher recognition of intelligent versus active packaging functions and technologies. Consumers generally understand potential benefits like improved food safety, quality, and freshness, but lack in-depth technical knowledge of the specific active and intelligent packaging technologies being used. Attitudes are mixed, with concerns about increased costs to consumers, uncertain environmental sustainability impacts, and potential unintended interactions between packaging ingredients and food contents. Consumers expect high standards of safety, quality, environmental sustainability, and affordability from these new technologies. However, willingness to pay a premium for active and intelligent packaging remains uncertain, highlighting the need for more consumer education and transparent communication. Further evidence-based research into the cost-effectiveness, sustainability, and safety of these technologies is critically needed to increase consumer acceptance and adoption. Additional studies should explore effective educational approaches and innovative packaging designs that address consumers' informational needs, ethical concerns, and expectations. With strategic development and commercialization, active and intelligent packaging presents a promising opportunity to enhance food systems sustainability while better serving consumer interests.
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(2017)This paper focuses on meat consumption patterns in Finland. Empirical analysis for this paper was based on the micro data of three Household Budget Surveys: 1998, 2006 and 2012. A censored linear approximation of the almost ideal demand system (LA-AIDS) model was employed in the study. The major outcomes of the study were the demand expenditure and price elasticities that were obtained from the parameter estimates of five different meat products. Since the data lacked price information, unit values were used as a price substitutes, which gave some insights into quality-quantity upgrading. According to the results, pork expenditure was elastic and thus was luxury good during the study period, whereas ruminant meat and poultry were luxuries only in 2000s. In addition, the price of a good, household size, and income had a large influence on meat consumption. Additionally, other factors (such as age) affected the portion of the budget that was allocated to meat products. In order to obtain more information relating to the food sector, further research concerning disaggregate demand would be needed.
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(2020)Käsittelen tutkielmassani Edith Whartonin teosta The Custom of the Country vuodelta 1913. Wayne C. Boothin (1961) teoriaa mukaillen pohdin oletetun kirjailijan eli ’implied authorin’ henkilöllisyyttä ja mahdollisen omaelämänkerrallisuuden vaikutusta tekstin tulkintaan. Lähden näkemyksestä, että oletettu kirjailija on Wharton, ja arvioin tätä näkökulmaa analyysin eri vaiheissa. Varsinainen tutkimuskysymykseni koskee sitä, millainen viesti teoksesta välittyy 1900-luvun alun muuttuvasta maailmasta. Esitän Whartonin käyttäneen retorisia keinoja ja erilaisia kerronnan muotoja tuodakseen teoksessaan esiin kiihtyvän kulutusmyönteisyyden, jopa ahneuden, kasvun. Tutkin sitä, miten kasvavan keskiluokan uusrikkaat ja heidän kantamansa arvot kirjan mukaan horjuttavat sekä newyorkilaisen että ranskalaisen yläluokan asemaa länsimaisessa yhteiskunnassa. Henkilöhahmot tarjoavat karikatyyrimäisiä esimerkkejä jokaisesta mainitusta ryhmästä. Kulutusmyönteisyys, joka hallitsee päähenkilö Undine Spraggin elämää, toimii tutkielman pääasiallisena temaattisena aspektina. Keskeisiksi käsitteiksi nousevat imitaatio ja yksityisyys. Lähestyn aihepiiriä erityisesti Jean Baudrillardin (1998) teorioiden kautta. Analyysissäni käsittelen romaanissa esiintyviä rakennuksia ja asuinpaikkoja. Ryhmiä, joihin kuuluvat newyorkilainen yläluokka, ranskalainen aristokraattisuku ja amerikkalaiset uusrikkaat, lähestyn tarkastelemalla heitä yhdistäviä ja erottavia kulttuurisia tekijöitä sekä taustatarinoita. Teoksessa kuvaillut hotellit ja asuintalot kertovat muutoksista yhteiskunnassa, ihmisten mieltymyksissä ja kulutuskäyttäytymisessä. Käsittelen kerronnan fokalisaatiota, eli tutkin, mistä eri perspektiiveistä katsellen tarinaa kerrotaan. Lähteinäni käytän Gérard Genetten (1980) sekä Mieke Balin (2009) teorioita. Toinen kirjallisuusteoriaan viittaava näkemykseni liittyy teoksen satiirillisuuteen. Lähestymistapa tarjoaa mahdollisuuden tutkia, kohdistaako Wharton satiiriaan erityisesti uusrikkaiden ryhmään. Tähän soveltuu Dustin H. Griffinin (1994) erittely satiirin erilaisista kohteista ja käyttötarkoituksista. Näyttää siltä, että Wharton ei kohdista satiiriaan niinkään yhtä ryhmää kohden, vaan kaikki kolme yhteiskunnallista ryhmää ovat kriittisen kommentoinnin kohteena. Kuvauksellinen ja retorinen kieli, jota hotellien ja asuinpaikkojen kuvauksissa käytetään, paljastaa ryhmien välisiä näkemyseroja. Tekstianalyysi osoittaa, miten Wharton käsittelee kulutusmyönteisyyttä ja liiallisen kulutuksen aiheuttamaa ahneutta. Tekstistä käy ilmi, kuinka jatkuva muiden omistamien asioiden ihannointi ja kyltymätön uutuuksien hankinta saa ihmisen kadottamaan kykynsä arvostaa laatua. Tällainen toiminta johtaa turhaan kuluttamiseen ja arvojen rapautumiseen. Modernisaation tuoma muutos, eli elämän kaupungistuminen, liittyy keskeisesti henkilökohtaisen tilan mallien muuttumiseen. Ihmisiä asuu tiheästi kaupunkialueella, mikä vaikuttaa tilakäsitykseen. Whartonin teksti heijastelee ristiriitaisia tunteet muuttuvaa aikaa kohtaan. Näin ollen teos on tulkittavissa myös eräänlaiseksi Whartonin itsetutkiskeluksi. Vaikka kirjan satiiri kohdistuu yksittäisiin henkilöihin, välittyy viesti, että kyseessä on laajempi ilmiö, johon yksittäiset ihmiset eivät enää voi vaikuttaa. Tämä tuo kerrontaan myös surumielisen aspektin sen näennäisen humoristisuuden ja esteettisyyttä korostavien seikkojen lisäksi.
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(2021)This thesis highlights consumer perceptions of brewer’s spent grain (BSG) in food products. BSG is a by-product of beer production that has good potential to be used in food products because of its high nutritional value. It is a readily available and sustainable ingredient, but it is underexploited in food production due to some challenges it faces, including poor technological quality, logistics and easy spoilage. The subject of this thesis aligns with the scope of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: one of the targets is to halve food waste by 2030 and reduce food losses in production. Presently, 13.8% of food is lost in the production and supply chain, and therefore, some companies have started employing circular economy practices using the outputs of food production as inputs for new innovative products. These foods are often termed upcycled foods. This research is about new food product development using BSG as an ingredient and this study tests consumer acceptance of BSG fortified granolas. A multi-method survey was deployed, containing both quantitative and qualitative questions to obtain a comprehensive picture of how consumers perceive the use of BSG in food products. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, the research was conducted in an uncontrolled environment at participants’ homes, using elements of both sensory tests and product concept tests. Participants (N=45) evaluated three BSG fortified granolas and one commercial granola used as a control product. All participants expressed interest in consuming BSG enriched food products. All four granola samples were rated on taste, sweetness, smell, structure, appearance and overall pleasantness. According to this study, the participants accepted this type of upcycled food and would be interested to purchase BSG fortified products. No statistically significant differences were observed between consumer groups when comparing genders, age groups, diet groups, beer enthusiasts and environmentally conscious consumers. For further research about consumer perceptions towards BSG, a larger sample size is recommended as well as conducting the research as a traditional sensory test in a controlled laboratory setting. Also, further product concept tests or these types of hybrid tests combining elements from both sensory and product concept tests can provide added value for new product development purposes. This master’s thesis is part of the Funbrew transnational project (Biotransformation of brewer’s spent grain: increased functionality for novel food applications) part of the ERA-Net SUSFOOD2 with funding provided by national sources (FORMAS, Sweden; MMM, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland; MIUR, Ministero Italiano dell’Università e della Ricerca) and co-funding by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.
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(2013)China’s high-speed economic growth has accelerated consumers’ disposable income evidently. With the improvement of living standards, people have increasingly been concerned about their life quality, especially when buying consumables like food, toys and clothing as well as durable commodities like furniture for their children. In the past ten years, the Chinese children's furniture market has developed rapidly, making up 9% of total furniture market. However, no studies concerning the analysis of consumer behavior in this market segment exist so far. The objective of this study is to fill this gap by examining Chinese consumers’ perceptions of children’s furniture based on their socio-demographics, their attitudes towards product, supplier and environmental attributes. The empirical part of the study focused on analyzing quantitative data, which were collected by using a structured questionnaire in Shanghai and Shenzhen of China.The data were analyzed by a wide array of statistical analysis methods using SPSS software package. The final sample size was made up of 299 respondents. The data reveal that females accounted for 67% of the total respondents, with 63% of all respondents being in the range of 31-40 years old and 23% in the range of 20-30 years old. The results indicate that safety and environmental friendliness were the primary consideration for parents to purchase children’s furniture. And supplier quality was detected as the central dimension when respondents perceived different attributes of children’s furniture. In addition, 83% of the respondents chose solid wood as the primary raw material for children’s furniture, and 35% of them stated that they were willing to pay 6-10% more for environmentally friendly children's furniture. The choice of environmentally friendly products was closely connected with consumers’ lifestyle and majority of respondents expressed positive attitudes towards healthy and sustainable lifestyle. However, Chinese consumers showed low brand awareness in the children’s furniture market and their price expectations on solid wood furniture were below current market levels. Nevertheless, the Chinese children’s furniture presents a tremendous market potential not only for wooden furniture producers but also for both domestic and international wood raw material suppliers.
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(2020)Food consumption is changing, and consumers show increasing interest for how food is being produced and processed. Insights into consumer wants and needs has therefore never been more important for a food company developing a new product. The goal of this thesis is twofold. First, to investigate sensory characteristics in liquid meat stocks and second, to study Finnish consumers’ attitudes towards such stock products. This was achieved by performing a sensory study on three newly developed meat stocks, using a generic descriptive analysis method. A consumer survey was conducted investigating 551 Finnish consumers’ usage frequency and factors influencing purchase intentions of stock products. In SPSS, ANOVA tests were used to identify significant mouthfeel, appearance and flavour differences between five meat stock samples. Socio-demographic differences in user frequency of stock products and other factors influencing purchase intentions were determined using an ordered logit model, in STATA. The results from the sensory study suggest that roasting of meat, bones and vegetables before cooking leads to darker colour and stronger flavours but is not perceived to consistently improve overall pleasantness. Results from the consumer study suggest that stock cubes are the most popular type of stock product purchased. Furthermore, the most important factors when purchasing stock products are flavour, previous experience with the product and convenience. Interest in origin of raw materials, environmental-friendliness and animal welfare was shown to be affected by consumers’ age and area of living (urban/rural). Similarly, differences in gender, age and area of living affect user frequency. To conclude, these results suggest that both extrinsic and intrinsic meat stock attributes are relevant to differentiate liquid stocks from other stock products and provide novel input into future marketing strategies.
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(2015)Kehittynyt teknologia mahdollistaa kuluttajien osallistumisen hyödykkeiden suunnitteluun ja valmistamiseen aikaisempaa enemmän. Kuluttajan rooli tuotteiden ja palveluiden arvoketjussa on nähty viime vuosikymmeninä merkittävänä kuluttaja- ja markkinointitieteissä. Keskusteluissa on tuotu esiin, että kuluttajien osallistuminen yhdessä yrityksen kanssa tuotteiden suunnitteluun, valmistamiseen sekä kokemiseen loisi arvoa kuluttajille. Tutkielma tarkastelee kuluttajien kokemuksia osallistumisesta tuotteiden ja brändien kehitykseen joukkoistamistyökalun avulla. Yritykset voivat joukkoistamisen avulla ulkoistaa suunnitteluprosessin isommalle joukolle toimijoita kuin perinteisesti on tehty ja samalla osallistaa kuluttajia tuotteiden ja brändien kehitykseen. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tarkastella sitä, osallistuvatko kuluttajat joukkoistamismenetelmällä tehtyyn kampanjaan ja miten he kokevat kampanjan ja siihen osallistumisen. Tutkimusta varten tehtiin ensin pilotointi, jossa hyödynnettin joukkoistamista. 17 000 kuluttajaa osallistui kampanjaan. Kampanjaan osallistuneiden joukosta valittiin 11 kuluttajaa puolistrukturoituun haastatteluun. Heiltä kysyttiin kokemuksia osallistumisesta. Kuluttajien kokemuksia analysointiin teoria-ohjaavan analyysin avulla, jossa aineistoa käsiteltiin kuluttajan arvonluomista koskevan kirjallisuuden avulla sekä aikaisemman joukkoistamista käsittelevän tutkimuksen avulla. Kuluttajat kokevat osallistumisen pääosin ajan vietteeksi. Samalla he kuitenkin osoittivat kiinnostusta osallistua laajemminkin hyödykkeiden kehittämiseen yhdessä yrityksen kanssa. Kuluttajien osallistuminen kampanjaan riippui tilannetekijöistä ja osallistuminen loi sekä hedonistisia että utilitaristisia arvon kokemuksia kuluttajalle samaan tapaan kuin kuluttaja kokee saavansa arvoa muissakin kulutustapahtumissa. Hedonistiset kokemukset ilmenivät kampanjaan osallistumisen toimimisena ajanvietteenä ja miellyttävänä kokemuksena osallistumisesta kampanjaan kuluttajalle. Utilitariset arvot ilmenivät arvostuksena tiedosta uusista tuotteista, palkinnon saamisen arvostamisen ja ennen kaikkea vaikuttamisesta yrityksen tuotteisiin. Tulokset osoittavat teorian oletusten mukaisesti kuluttaja on aktiivinen ja halukas olemaan kanssa käymisissä yrityksen kanssa muun muassa uuden teknologian avulla kuten myös perinteisimmillä keinoilla.
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(2023)This thesis focuses on online pharmacies and the consumers who order oral nutritional supplements through these purchase channels. This thesis aims to investigate the factors that influence consumers' choices to buy oral nutritional supplements from online pharmacies and what motivates them to do so. The consumers using oral nutritional supplements can be generalized as a segment of elderly consumers. The thesis has a relevant topic, since already almost one third of Finland’s population is over 65-year-olds and the number of elderly consumers will increase in the future. As the population gets older demand for products and services that improve health, mobility, and overall quality of life increase. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in the demand for purchasing pharmacy products online, not only in Finland but also globally. Although online pharmacy services are relatively new, especially many elderly consumers have turned towards them as a result of the pandemic. General lack of trust in e-commerce and poor electronic service skills are barriers for senior consumers to adapt the use of online pharmacies. The thesis was done in co-operation with a Finnish online pharmacy and company x. The research was carried out as a quantitative study using a questionnaire with 83 consumers who had used an online pharmacy at least once to purchase oral nutritional supplements. The data was analyzed using statistical programs (Microsoft Excel 2203 and IBM SPSS Statistics 28). An online pharmacy was seen as a good purchase channel to buy oral nutritional supplements. Those who ordered oral nutritional supplements online used the online pharmacy as a purchase channel only for these products. Based on these research results the elderly find buying oral nutritional supplements from online pharmacies important because of their heavy weight, but they still prefer buying other pharmacy products from brick-and-mortar stores.
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(2024)The current clothing industry has a major impact on the environment and there is an urgent need to change the current production habits to be more sustainable. One solution is to introduce circular fashion products that are more durable, more easily repairable and recyclable. The current linear production model, resulting in clothing either being incinerated or sent to landfills, could be substituted with a more cyclical approach to material usage. The recent literature findings on barriers to engaging in the circular economy suggest that consumers have a significant role in changing the current production systems. By exploring consumer willingness to pay for hypothetical products that incorporate sustainable attributes, the current culture of resistance to incorporating innovative materials and designs may become more favourable if demand for circular products is closely examined. This study uses the contingent valuation method and consumer theory to quantify the price premiums for three hypothetical clothing products (T- shirt, trousers, and winter jacket) with third-party verified claims for environmentally friendly production (environmental impact is minimised) and circular design (longer lifetime and recyclability of materials). The latent factor design and statistical analysis techniques such as exploratory factor analysis and principal component method (PCA) are used to develop theoretical indexes to capture consumer attitudes. These indexes, along with background questions, are treated as independent variables in the willingness to pay modelling using regression analysis. The objective is to comprehend the behavioural factors that increase the price premium for pro-circular and pro-environmental attributes in clothing. The study collected data through an online survey involving 700 participants from universities in Finland. The population comprises young customers, specifically from the Z generation. The majority of participants were women (79%) and based in the Helsinki-Uusimaa region (47%). The findings indicate that consumer group that actively seeks out and compares clothing durability is willing to pay higher prices for long-lasting circular fashion items. Furthermore, consumers who prioritize environmentally friendly clothing exhibit a preference for durability in the case of inexpensive items such as T-shirts and trousers, while expecting environmentally friendly materials and ethical production practices in expensive items such as winter jackets. This research provides valuable insights into consumer behaviour and preferences, which can inform the development of sustainability plans within the clothing industry. By understanding the behavioral factors that drive consumer demand for circular and environmentally friendly products, companies can adopt more conscious production and design processes.
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(2014)This study offers three theoretical perspectives on meaning construction in adbusting, a form culture jamming meant to interfere in processes of advertising that uphold the dominant ideology of consumerism. The study proposes a new holistic frame of interpretation for understanding the construction of meaning with and within adbusting. The practice is seen as a form of ideology critique that can and should be studied from three points of view: as semiotic warfare, material intervention, and social activity. First, as semiotic warfare, adbusting aims at subverting meanings by the use of ridicule and distancing, as well as by disarming stereotypes. The study also proposes that spoof ads could be analysed as types of deconstructions, that is, as activities of exposing how meanings are generated and upheld by the usually implicit use of binary oppositions of which the other end is situated hierarchically superior to the other. In addition, the semiotic warfare in which adbusting takes part materialises in acts of hijacking platforms used by advertisers. Second, adbusting is seen as a material practice. The study suggests that images constructed in adbusting should be understood as material things that can retain some type of agency and possibly be or become performative. The study also shows how the choice of both the material form and platform of adbusting can have effects on the meanings constructed of the practice and its imagery. Third, the construction of meaning of and in adbusting is studied from a social perspective. It is concluded that both personal and collective identities as well as emotions have an effect on what meanings are constructed of and in the practice and how. The role of images in upholding collectives and constructing communities of resistance is also determined to be significant in the case of adbusting. Finally, an analysis of the presented holistic frame of interpretation links the construction of meaning with questions over the use of public space, with different conceptions of 'an active public', and with ideas of emancipation. The study goes on to propose that the deconstruction and reconstruction of meaning in adbusting should be understood as a much broader phenomenon than presented in previous research.
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(2017)Kawah Ijen is the picturesque crater of the Ijen volcano located in Eastern Java, Indonesia. However, it is not just any volcano crater, as it happens to be the locus of labour-intensive sulphur mining operation. Each day up to 15 tons of sulphur is extracted from the Ijen crater by the 350 men working as manual miners. These men carry even 100 kilogram loads of sulphur out from the crater with bare brawn and the work is with no doubt burdensome. Kawah Ijen's natural beauty has also caught the interest of tourists', and the crater has become commodified as a tourism destination, visited by hundreds of international tourists each day. Thus the storyline of this master's thesis is two-fold. The first research objective scrutinizes the Kawah Ijen sulphur mine from a commodity chain perspective, emphasizing the tough work the sulphur miners have to bear in order to satisfy the needs of the consumers at the end of the chain. The second, and the essential objective of this research in turn interrogates how the presence of the sulphur miners has become also an inevitable part of the Kawah Ijen tourism experience. In this the aspiration is to elucidate how the sulphur miners have become aestheticized as a Global South tourism attraction. In other words, this research aims to interrogate the peculiarity of this reality, by exploring how both trade and culture, and human and commodity mobilities are entangled and enshrouded within the crater of the Ijen volcano. In human geography, a research framework of 'Follow the thing' has been adopted by scholars in order to study the geographically far-flung production chains of consumer goods. As a framework it aims to make critical political-economic connections between the consumers and distant, and often also underprivileged, producers. In this Marxist-influenced undertaking emphasis is placed particularly on commodity fetishism. This notion has been mobilized to illuminate how consumers have become alienated from the means of production, in their symbolically-laden everyday consumption. As sulphur is a raw material needed in the production processes of many goods such as white sugar, fertilizers, medicines, and rubber, this research shows how these commodities were 'followed' into their origins to this particular sulphur mine. During a period of field work, a method of participant observation was utilized to get contextual understanding of this production site. The initial research objective is therefore to make connections and create awareness of the inequalities within commodity production networks. In the final research objective of this master's thesis, a postcolonial approach is mobilized to critically interrogate this initial setting, in which the miners are seen as poor and stagnant producers. Thus the Kawah Ijen tourists are taken under lens in order to gain understanding of this touristic encounter nuanced with cross-cultural and socio-economic differences between the tourists and the miners. Therefore the setting of Kawah Ijen will not only be observed as a place of production, but also as a site - and object - of consumption. By analysing blogged travel stories written by the tourists themselves, this research aims to illuminate what the tourism experience of the Kawah Ijen is about in the realm of consumption. Special attention is given to how the encounter with sulphur miners has become a constitutive part of the adventurous and authentic tourism experience of Kawah Ijen. The blog post analysis on the Kawah Ijen tourism narrative shows how the imaginaries of the sulphur miner as the 'Other' are adhered to, as the tourists construct their travel identities, make meaning of their experiences and finally represent their experience to the outside world. Finally this research aims to make ruptures to Global South fetishism by elucidating how the Kawah Ijen sulphur mine has become both commoditized and fetishized in its own right. In this fetishzation process the sulphur miners are depicted as poor and primitive, which as categories act as symbols for authentic tourism consumption in the social frameworks of the tourists. However, the aim is not to demonize the tourists, but to give recognition to the nuanced personal and social realities they are embedded in their consumption. Hence, the tourism experience of Kawah Ijen is constructed through a point of view more sensitive to the subjective negotiation of authenticity. It is argued that the Kawah Ijen tourism experience is a process in which the meaning of the experience is negotiated in a wider framework, which is vicariously embedded in postcolonial discourse. Finally, it is concluded that although there is some unequal power relations at presence in the tourism consumption of Kawah Ijen, the tourism can be the means to make more sustainable living for the miners. The leapfrog from the mining to tourism has to be only carried out in a deliberate way with respect to all of the stakeholders.
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(2012)The master’s thesis examines the impact of the petroleum industry in the Niger Delta. The theoretical premise is that corporations have decisively established structural power over the nationstate system, using developmentalism as a blueprint. As a result, power is becoming less accountable to egalitarian or even representative political institutions, and increasingly reacts only to stimuli that threaten revenues. It is UI the corporate nature to place profits before people unless the former are threatened. What means are available to the people of the Niger Delta to do so? How can the industry’s reaction be interpreted? The thesis presents ethnographically derived theoretical views of the state and corporate capitalism, to provide a basis for analyzing the emerging corporate social responsibility discourse. The study addresses the question, is corporate social responsibility a contradiction in terms? The thesis is primarily based on interviews conducted in the Niger Delta over three months during 2008, and references a range of relevant publications. The research presented is an acknowledgement of the contributions of anticolonialist struggles towards anthropological knowledge, and considers their contemporary relevance. The methods and theoretical focus correspond to a recent branch of anthropology known as ‘liberation ecology’. However, the text challenges the paradox of plenty narrative common to research about the Niger Delta, by acknowledging that historically, the parallel processes of elite enrichment and mass impoverishment are the standard operating procedure for the corporate institution; not an aberration. The social role of oil has allowed corporations to concentrate unprecedented wealth in very few hands, while causing unprecedented damage to the ecosystems that sustain all life. In Nigeria’s oil producing Niger River Delta, this disparity has provoked a regional uprising against the state-oil company alliance that demonstrates an escalating trend of direct action. The Nigerian federal government’s dependence on oil revenue is articulated by exploring the nature of its relationship to the Niger Delta region. The term ‘shell state’ is introduced to define states whose governance structures remain intact yet ineffective, and serve the individuals occupying government posts rather than the citizens of the state. It is argued that externally, shell states resemble the Weberian state model, but like shell companies, their primary function is to obscure the actual exercise of power and distribution of resources. Nigeria, as a shell state under a comparatively direct form of corporate rule, provides a model for a mo realistic understanding of how global corporations govern in practice. Analysis of the Nigerian shell state’s record leads to insights regarding how the domestic elite has been co-opted into the corporatocracy value system, the ethnicized structure of this arrangement, and the implications for the people suffering its consequences in the Niger Delta, especially regarding structural power and resource control.
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(2011)Genetic engineering is a new technological field, incurring new risks. This work examines the regulation of this process and its products, genetically modified organisms (GMO). The mode of analysis is a comparison of the American and European regulatory approaches concerning this field. The concept of risk plays an important role in determining the way the new technology is perceived 1 and subsequently regulated. Scientific testing, in particular Risk Assessment techniques, has come to be the primary form of legitimating the use of GMOs. This work will explore the current GMO policy 1 regulations and the way that scientific knowledge has influenced policy making. The central aim of the work is to determine whether these methods are able to ensure the protection of human, animal, and environmental health. The application of the Precautionary Principle will be suggested as an alternative to the current regulatory approach.
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(2024)This thesis analyses the construction of reproductive, sexual, and parental rights in selected birth control fatwas, issued by the Egyptian Dar al-Iftaʾ, the institution responsible for issuing official fatwas in Egypt. I conduct a textual analysis of the fatwa discourse by examining how the religious arguments are constructed and what modes of reasoning are employed and towards what aims. Birth control is chosen as the focus of this thesis due to its importance in modern Egypt as the country struggles with the problem of overpopulation as well as the significance of this issue for gender rights within marriage. Birth control accordingly is both a private and public matter. The nine fatwas were collected from the website of Dar al-Iftaʾ in April 2021. I used the search words birth control (manaʿ al-ḥaml) and family planning (tanẓīm al-nasl). The fatwas were issued between the years 2005 and 2016. I analysed the data from a critical feminist perspective. This feminist textual approach was informed by the scholarship on gender and Islamic law, and specifically by the works of Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Kecia Ali, Judith Tucker, and Lena Larsen. I examined these fatwas in relation to the interpretive approaches and discourse of traditional jurists from the past as well as their discursive functions within the context of contemporary Egypt and its statist discourse on birth control and governance. The study shows first that the researched fatwa discourse constructs reproductive, sexual, and parental rights within the framework of the classical fiqh models of marriage, i.e., a hierarchical relationship between man and woman, even if the permission of women for the use of birth control is emphasised. The male authority is most evident in cases of disagreement about the use of birth control. Second, the researched fatwas are also shaped by and reflect the Egyptian government discourse of creating a modern nation whose building blocks are small nuclear families with educated and prosperous children. The findings affirm the multiple functions of fatwas. They are on the one hand an integral part of Islamic textual tradition and thus reproduce their principles and methodologies. Yet they are also a discourse that is very much located in the contexts in which the fatwas are reproduced, reflecting the needs and concerns of the communities and times of those contexts.
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(2013)Advanced low-cost wireless technologies have enabled a huge variety of real life applications in the past years. Wireless sensor technologies have emerged in almost every application field imaginable. Smartphones equipped with Internet connectivity and home electronics with networking capability have made their way to everyday life. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a novel paradigm that has risen to frame the idea of a large scale sensing ecosystem, in which all possible devices could contribute. The definition of a thing in this context is very vague. It can be anything from passive RFID tags on retail packaging to intelligent transducers observing the surrounding world. The amount of connected devices in such a worldwide sensing network would be enormous. This is ultimately challenging for the current Internet architecture which is several decades old and is based on host-to-host connectivity. The current Internet addresses content by location. It is based on point-to-point connections, which eventually means that every connected device has to be uniquely addressable through a hostname or an IP address. This paradigm was originally designed for sharing resources rather than data. Today the majority of Internet usage consists of sharing data, which is not what it was originally designed for. Various patchy improvements have come and gone, but a thorough architectural redesign is required sooner or later. Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is a new networking paradigm that addresses content by name instead of location. Its goal is to replace the current where with what, since the location of most content on the Internet is irrelevant to the end user. Several ICN architecture proposals have emerged from the research community, out of which Content-Centric Networking (CCN) is the most significant one in the context of this thesis. We have come up with the idea of combining CCN with the concept of IoT. In this thesis we look at different ways on how to make use of the hierarchical CCN content naming, in-network caching and other information-centric networking characteristics in a sensor environment. As a proof of concept we implemented a presentation bridge for a home automation system that provides services to the network through CCN.
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(2022)This thesis examines the notion of representational content in philosopher Frances Egan’s deflationary account of mental representation (DAMR) for cognitive neuroscience. In particular, this thesis explores to what extent DAMR’s pragmatic account of representational content answers to the content determinacy constraint. The content determinacy constraint is a constraint on an account of mental representation which holds that an account must provide the basis for attributing determinate content to the posited computational states. For example, the constraint requires that an account must specify the conditions under which a given representational content — such a fly — is attributed to a given representational vehicle — such as some particular structures in a frog’s brain. A variety of naturalistic “tracking theories” — broadly, theories which attempt to answer to such a constraint in terms of a privileged naturalistic relation holding between some object and the inner mental state in question — are often held to have thus far failed to satisfactorily meet this constraint. Egan’s deflationary account promises to address this constraint in a way which departs from naturalistic tracking theories (and from several other theories as well). It promises to do this by proffering a notion of representational content which says that such content is fundamentally pragmatic, and that this ultimately allows the account to avoid the problems typically associated with tracking theories. I will examine how DAMR purports to meet the content determinacy constraint via its pragmatic account of content. To this end, I will raise a content indeterminacy concern for one of the pragmatic functions of content DAMR maintains. I will examine several potential lines of response to this indeterminacy concern, some of which I will evaluate as more or less successful. The first chapter introduces the central research aims, methods, and an ethical research statement. The second chapter consists in the theoretical backdrop against which DAMR is situated, in particular, with regard to how the notions of “representation” and “computation” have been employed in cognitive science historically. The third chapter consists in a detailed explication of the components of DAMR, including a careful differentiation between its realist and computational elements and its pragmatic elements. This is followed by an explication of how DAMR purports to meet the content determinacy constraint. The fourth chapter consists in a theoretical concern which suggests some pragmatic elements of DAMR might be vulnerable to a content indeterminacy concern; and, a variety of potential responses to the indeterminacy concern raised. The fifth chapter consists in setting out the central conclusion of the thesis and suggesting four potential areas for future investigation. The central conclusion of this thesis is that DAMR faces a “limited” content indeterminacy concern for at least one of its pragmatic elements. However, I highlight that there are several ambiguities which require resolution prior to consideration if the concern raised extends to other elements of the account. I propose that the results of this thesis demonstrate the need for further clarification with regard to the way in which DAMR is committed to the content determinacy constraint. Ultimately, the concerns raised along with the ambiguities noted should serve to facilitate further philosophical evaluation of DAMR.
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