Browsing by Author "Lyytinen, Minna"

In the field of communication research, the academic literature on adaptation has examined the individual activities and abilities, as well as the relationship between adaptation and interaction. In addition, there has been research on adaptation as a communicative phenomenon where other people also affect the adaptation process. The aim of this study was to investigate the discourses on adaptation of Finns who lived abroad and what kind of adaptation they reproduce in the interviews. The research question was "What kind of adaptation is produced in the speech by Finnish who have lived abroad?". In this way, the aim was to gain better understanding of the phenomenon of adaptation. The study was conducted with qualitative methods by doing focused interviews. There were eight interviewees and the interviews lasted for 7 hours and 55 minutes in total. Recorded material was transcribed and there was 130 pages of transcribed text. The data was analyzed by methods of analytical discourse analysis and the focus of the analysis was on identifying the discursive structure, variations in the talk and the positions of the interviewees. As a result there were three discourses: individual adaptation discourses included active individual discourse and passive individual discourse, and the collectivistic adaptation discourse included the active community discourse. The active individual discourse emphasized the meaning of individuals' active action for adaptation. The passive individual discourse highlighted the meaning of individual qualities and characteristics of the persona for adaptation. The active community discourse emphasized interaction with others as a prerequisite for adaptation. As a conclusion, the study suggests that the versatility of adaptation discourses should be recognized and taken into account both in the societal conversation and in the field of adaptation research.