Browsing by department "Department of Social Research"

This study looks at the ethnic categorization of darker skinned people and problems related to their participation in higher education through the theories of the French anthropologist Pierre Bourdieu. In the national censuses of Brazil the populace is categorized according to skin color. According to these publications, darker skin-colored Brazilians are underrepresented in higher education. Affirmative action politics has found it’s place within public discourse in Brazil beginning from the 1990’s, and as a consequence some institutes of higher eduction have adapted racial quotas for darker-skinned individuals. At the same time, affirmative action policies have been criticized on the basis that it suggests that inequality is by nature ethnic when such inequalities could just as well be socioeconomic. Historically Brazil has been considered a society free of racism, or in other words 'a racial democracy'. Ethnic categorization is analyzed using Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts habitus and symbolic power. The idea of habitus is used to refer to any attitudes and manners internalized by an individual, with which that individual evaluates, interprets and choses to act in the reality that they perceive. With symbolic power this work refers to to all the different forms of capital mentioned in Bourdieu’s work that relate to recognition and appreciation. Therefore, the aim of this work is to analyze the socially constructed, various colloquial and everyday phenomena related to classification by skin color. I look at how habitus and symbolic capital related differentiation happens and what significance it might have for the discourse between ethnic categorization and education. In order to answer the research question i collected material from fieldwork in North-Eastern Brazil for 2 months. In collecting the material I used ethnographic field work methodology, especially participant observation, semi-structured and unstructured interviews. Among the interviewed are a public school principal, a teacher, two dark-skinned university students and one private school university student. In addition, I utilized material on situations encountered by dark-skinned people in Brazil that have been published in previous studies. The interviewed had experienced situations in which symbolic evaluations related to their ethnic background and skin color can be considered significant. Additionally, many example of this arise from previous literature. In the situations that I observed social evaluations explained the habituslike actions of the people I observed. These examples can be assumed to have significance for construction of hierarchical society in Brazil in accordance with Bourdieaun theory.

This thesis discusses social remembering of difficult past in the context of Indian Residential Schools in Canada. Perceiving remembering as social practice of making the past meaningful for the present, the thesis focuses on the role of local memory practices in bringing a silenced history into focus of public attention and historical reconstruction. Residential schools were originally established by the Canadian government and churches for assimilating indigenous children into Euro-Canadian settler society through separation from their cultural background. Although operated for more than a hundred years between the late 19th and 20th centuries, the schools remained a silenced topic in the history of the country until the 1990s. Exploring local practices of commemoration and education around the old Shingwauk Residential School in Northern Ontario, the thesis discusses how negotiation over the meaning of a troubling past takes place in the intersections of public, political discussion and local level social interactions. Remembering as social and political practice is here understood not exclusively as a basis of shared identity grounded on common understanding of the past. Rather, the thesis focuses on challenging, negotiation and transformation as essential aspects of social memory. The thesis takes part in discussion on the relationship between past and present in debates over colonial history: whether residential schools are regarded as a single policy situated in the past, or whether they are recognized as part of the broader colonial history that still shapes the contemporary Canadian society. The analysis in this thesis is based on three-month field research conducted in the summer of 2016 Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, on the site of the late Shingwauk School that nowadays hosts Algoma University. The research focused on the following memory practices that have developed around the school since the 1970s: a history-documenting and archiving project, a former students’ association, and an archives centre, dedicated to preservation of and education about the history of the school. The research was based on qualitative methods of thematic interviews and participant as well as direct observation, and supported with archival sources. Local negotiations over the memory of residential schools are discussed in relation to three different elements of the research context. The first part of the analysis focuses on the mutual emergence of public discussion on the history of residential schools and the local memory practices. The thesis argues that those local practices have contributed to uncovering the silence around the schools in public discussion and historical documentation. The second part looks at the relationship between memory and place: how the site of the Shingwauk School is today integrated in negotiation over the historical significance of residential schools. The old school is perceived as a site of transmitting the memory of past injustice, inseparable of the contemporary debates over addressing the legacy of that past on local as well as national level. Finally, contemporary educational practices of the archives centre and the former Shingwauk students are discussed as social spaces of negotiating the place of residential schools as part of the broader history of colonization for the public memory of Canadians of different backgrounds. The thesis argues that local practices of commemoration and education work as a counterforce against silencing and forgetting by creating social space between public discussion on residential schools and everyday experiences of people who might otherwise find that history distant to themselves. Local actions for preserving the memory of the Shingwauk School are intertwined with broader concerns over awareness about and engagement with the history of residential schools especially among the non-indigenous public. The thesis maintains that local initiatives of remembrance that emphasize continuity between the past and the present can challenge the rhetoric that attempts to obscure the enduring legacy of colonialism in Canadian society by situating residential schools into a past that has already reached its closure.

The 2010s have witnessed increasing political and public concern over child and family-related issues in Russia, with child welfare and family policy being elevated to the top of the state’s political agenda. The Russian conservative government has prioritised the protection of traditional family values and family as the mainstay of Russian society and thereupon introduced major policy and welfare reform programmes, one of which works towards deinstitutionalising the country’s entire child welfare system. Building upon the idea of every child’s right to a family, this child welfare reform aims at dismantling the existing system of institutional care for children, replacing placements in institutions with community and home-based, family-like forms of alternative care, including foster care. Service provider responsibilities are hence, being transferred from the state to private and third sector stakeholders operating in the field of child and family welfare. Among these agents providing alternative care are the so-called Children’s Villages. These Villages, as the name suggests, are largely NGO-run communities of foster families, caring for children left without parental care in a non-institutional setting. This thesis takes a range of Russian Children’s Villages as its case study in an attempt to investigate foster parents’ perceptions of parenting and thus shed light on the present-day development of the alternative care system in Russia. The aim is to bridge together bottom-up narratives and top-down political ideology via qualitative analysis of micro-level constructions of parenthood and government-promoted ideas on family. The ongoing process of deinstitutionalisation of child welfare in Russia provides the larger political context for our inquiry that fosters a social constructionist approach and, through thematic content analysis, seeks to answer the following research questions: How do foster parents perceive parenthood/parenting in the context of Russian Children’s Villages? How do their perceptions intersect with government-promoted ideas on family? The primary data consist of focus group and expert interviews with foster parents and child welfare professionals conducted on site in six Children’s Villages in Russia in 2017. The altogether nine interviews, with a total of 58 respondents have been conducted by two other researchers in the ‘A Child’s Right to a Family: Deinstitutionalisation of Child Welfare in Putin’s Russia’ research project that our thesis is also part of. Our findings suggest that parenting takes multiple, concurrent and reciprocal forms, whereby it is largely a cyclical process and a jointly constructed and negotiated experience in the social context of the Children’s Villages. The Villages and the individuals therein are not merely care deliverers assuming service provision responsibilities from the public sector, but they carry considerable innovate potential and valuable ideas on family and parenting vis-à-vis the desired development of systems of alternative care in today’s Russia. Yet, the political arena in Russia remains ambivalent, enabling and coercive at the same time, introducing policies that are often either contradictory or incompatible. Alongside ambitious liberal tendencies and reformist programmes we may observe illiberal and restrictive political and legislative processes that undermine the sustainable fruition of the more progressive reforms amid structures that hold onto authoritarian traditions. While the traditional value base of the conservative government fails to fully embrace the plurality of family systems in modern Russia, the family structures in the Children’s Villages demonstrate that family diversity is very much a contemporary reality in Russian society – and foster families one of its emerging forms.

This thesis seeks to undertake a critical analysis of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s philosophical anthropology as found within his Discourse on Inequality, and his subsequent prescriptive theories within both The Social Contract and other works. The particular focus of the thesis is the manner in which subjectivity alters over time, especially in relation to the development and role of complex forms of conceptuality, its structural and psychological components, and the catalysts provoking such change. Relying upon a set of methodological categories and placing specific demands of philosophical rigour on Rousseau’s thought we seek to assess Rousseau’s narrative in order to discover how successfully explained the alterations that individuals undergo within it are. To accomplish this we apply a working definition requiring the ‘explanation’ of social and psychological changes in contrast to the less philosophically successful ‘description’ of such events, enabling us to discover those moments in Rousseau’s account which betray what we term ‘explanatory gaps’. What is discovered is that crucial moments within Rousseau’s narrative reveal a lack of explanatory rigour in relation to the complex alterations of subjectivity outlined in his works, most especially in relation to free will, the ground of amour propre, and the transformation of the latter into Rousseau’s moi commun.

The long-lasting and persistent issues of high unemployment levels and increases in long-term unemployment have presented a difficult challenge to welfare states. The political focus in addressing unemployment has slowly shifted from large supply-side solutions towards activation, which aims to guide the unemployed into employment as swiftly as possible by increasing the responsibilities of welfare recipients and reforming the terms of social aid and the service system in order to promote a more active and self-reliant approach among citizens. This paper aims to add to the understanding of activation policies by studying views that the long-term unemployed hold on the concept of activation and their participation in activation measures. The research question is 1) How do respondents view activation and particularly work-based activation measures, with a strong focus on examining whether they consider activation meaningful or beneficial in their situation and 2) How do the unemployed view the legitimacy and justification of activation policies? The perspective of the unemployed in this study is provided through eleven in-depth research interviews conducted with long-term unemployed participants from the city of Rauma, the forerunner of current Finnish activation policies. The 18 190 word final transcription of the interviews is analysed through qualitative content analysis, which is used to produce a condensed description of the researched phenomenon. The inductive approach of the study manifests as a reliance on the experiences of the interview subjects in creating an understanding on activation, rather than approaching their reality through a predetermined theory or presupposed notions. The respondents consider their participation in activation to serve one of the following purposes: 1) inclusion in society or 2) a bureaucratical means of categorizing and controlling them during their unemployment. As lack of employment and the associated inactivity are difficult issues for the respondents, their mostly positive reaction to work-based activation measures is natural. Respondents appreciate the activities provided to them and give intrinsic value to the provision of these activities, somewhat regardless of their actual contents. As the respondents generally have very low hopes of finding work, participation in activation measures satisfies many needs which are typically fulfilled through work, including those related to status, recognition, social interaction and meaningful activities. Reactions towards compulsory participation in activation measures can be categorized as either positive, negative or conflicted. As can be expected, these views reflect broader social discourses on unemployment and activation. The most alarming finding of this study is that while many participants are satisfied with taking part in activation measures, this activation does not help them towards their objective of finding employment. The respondents share a desire to find paid work but don't see how participating in active labour market policies will benefit them in this field. While the respondents identify many important aspects of life where they directly benefit from participation in activation measures, it is problematic that a large part of participants have almost completely given up on their goal of finding work.

Background: Lack of physical activity brings about numerous unfavourable long term health outcomes and is therefore a major public health concern. There is consistent evidence that physical activity is predicted better with autonomous than controlled forms of motivation. Meta-analyses have also shown that self-regulatory techniques, such as planning or self-monitoring, are related to increased behavioural execution. Objectives: A model integrating Self-Determination Theory and Control Theory was tested to examine the influence of autonomous motivation and self-regulatory techniques, including their interactions, on adolescents’ physical activity. The relationship between the autonomy of motivation and action planning, coping planning and self-monitoring was compared to the leisure time physical activity. Methods: Finnish adolescents (N =411, mean age 17.8 years) from ten upper secondary schools responded to an electronic survey during school hours. A follow-up measurement was conducted 3-5 weeks later. Motivation and planning were examined at the baseline. Self-monitoring and physical activity were measured in both baseline and follow up. Results: Autonomous motivation is more strongly associated to physical activity than controlled motivation. From the specific forms of motivation, external regulation did not have a relationship with neither physical activity nor self-regulation techniques. High self-regulation technique use has a stronger positive correlation to physical activity than low use. Action planning, coping planning and self-monitoring were found to partially mediate the relationship of autonomous motivation and physical activity. Conclusions: Research on the determinants of adolescents’ physical activity increases understanding on this topic that has not been sufficiently studied and guides the way to effective intervention planning. Self-determination theory and control theory function as complementary frameworks. The support of both autonomous motivation and the use of self-regulation techniques can be recommended while targeting adolescent’s physical activity.

Tässä pro gradu -tutkielmassa tarkastellaan työntekijöiden hyödyntämistä työnantajabrändin rakentamisessa. Aihetta lähestytään affektiivisuuden näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään, millaista affektiivista työtä työntekijät tekevät organisaation työnantajabrändin rakentamisessa. Organisaatiot panostavat aiempaa enemmän houkuttelevan työnantajamielikuvan rakentamiseen työnantajabrändäämisen keinoin. Houkutellakseen työntekijöitä organisaatiot viestivät siitä, mitä ne tarjoavat työntekijöille ja hyödyntävät työntekijöitään rekrytointiviestinnässä organisaation kasvoina. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu kolmen esimerkkiorganisaation 14:sta uratarinavideosta eli rekrytointiviestintävideoista, joissa organisaatioiden työntekijät kertovat kokemuksistaan työsuhteesta organisaatiossa. Tutkimus on kvalitatiivinen ja aineistoa on analysoitu teemoittelun sekä diskurssianalyysin avulla, affektiivis-diskursiivisella menetelmällä. Analyysin ensimmäisessä vaiheessa tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin, mistä työntekijät uratarinavideoilla puhuvat. Toisessa vaiheessa tarkasteltiin, millaista affektiivista työtä työntekijät tekevät työnantajabrändin rakentamisessa. Affektiivisesti latautuneita kohtia peilattiin työnantajabränditeoriassa esitettyihin työnantajabrändin persoonallisuuden piirteitä kuvaaviin symbolisiin ominaisuuksiin. Tämän perusteella muodostettiin uratarinavideoilla työntekijöiden esimerkillistämät symboliset ominaisuudet. Tutkimustulosten perusteella uratarinavideoilla työntekijät tuovat puheessaan esille työsuhteeseen liittyviä ominaisuuksia. Tutkimuksessa ilmeni neljä erilaista toistuvaa teemaa, jotka ovat työn mielekkyys, kehittäminen ja kehittyminen, yhteisöllisyys sekä muutos. Työntekijöiden kautta ilmenneitä symbolisia ominaisuuksia ovat vilpittömyys, innostuneisuus, iloisuus, pätevyys ja vaativuus. Symbolisten ominaisuuksien vaikuttavuutta työntekijät vahvistavat affektiivisella työllä. Uratarinavideoilla työntekijät luovat affekteja, jotka potentiaalisesti herättävät affektiivisia reaktioita uratarinavideoita katsovissa potentiaalisissa työntekijöissä. Affektiivinen työ ilmeni työntekijöiden puheessa, ilmeissä, tunnereaktioissa, eleissä ja puheäänessä. Puheessa työntekijät tuottivat affektiivisuutta affektipitoisilla sanoilla sekä puhumalla affektiivisia reaktioita herättävistä aiheista. Työntekijät tekevät affektiivista työtä avaamalla henkilökohtaisia ajatuksiaan, kokemuksiaan ja tunteitaan. Työntekijöiden affektiivinen työ organisaatioiden työnantajabrändin rakentamisessa heijastaa laajempaa ilmiötä, jossa tavalliset ihmiset ovat astuneet julkisuuden areenoille esimerkiksi todellisuustelevision ja sosiaalisen median kautta. Myös tunteiden esille tuonti on lisääntynyt. Affektiiviseen työhön suhtaudutaan kriittisesti, mutta sillä on nähty olevan positiivisia seurauksia sen rakentaessa kollektiivista subjektiivisuutta ja sosiaalisuutta. Uratarinavideoilla työntekijöiden tekemää affektiivista työtä voidaan pitää monitulkintaisena.

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar has already generated extensive media attention prior to the event. Migrant workers at construction sites connected to the staging of the football championship are at the center of this attention: various actors criticize the working conditions of migrant workers and call for more rights for labor migrants. This discourse represents a global problem, depicting the vulnerable situations for many migrants in the country of destination. The host countries often neglect rights of migrant workers, while the country of origin has only limited power to protect their workers abroad. But how and by whom, then, are migrant workers protected if neither by the residing country nor by the country of origin? Based on the discourse about the rights of migrant workers in Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup, this study analyzes how different actors negotiate the rights of migrant workers in times where there are yet no clearly institutionalized frameworks that adequately protect migrants. In order to reveal the discourse participants and subsequent analyze their claims, this research applies a unique combination of media analysis and document analysis. Through the theoretical framework of Sassen’s concept of studying globalization (2003) and Fraser’s theory of abnormal justice disputes (2008), the research analyzes ten reports of various state and non-state, national and international actors that engage in the discourse about rights of migrant workers. As the results show, the discourse participants identify Qatar’s legislations as the most powerful framework to protect migrant workers. While too weak to actually enforce rights, the international human and labor rights system nevertheless acts as a guideline for national legislations. Moreover, beyond the national governance (in form of a government) and the international governance (in form international organizations and NGOs), the discourse as such provides an abstract form of governance. Aside from these results, the study furthermore contributes to the methodological discussion about how to frame and scrutinize a discourse about a complex and divers topics, such as rights of migrant workers, and further develops the theoretical debate about justice claims in a globalized world.

Children have participated in wars throughout history. Even today there are hundreds of thousands of child soldiers around the world despite international prohibitions. Whereas research of former child soldiers in their home countries indicates that participating in war negatively affects their social, emotional, psychological, and physical well-being, little is known about the challenges they face when forcibly migrating to the West. This vulnerable group has not only experienced the major transition from a military to a civilian environment but also that of entering a new culture. Due to the dearth of research on their lives in a new culture, it is necessary to learn more about this particular group in order to provide assistance which coincides better with their specific needs. The aim of this social psychological study was to learn how five former child soldiers from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Somalia, and El Salvador, respectively, described their experiences of having been child soldiers and having lived in Finland or Sweden. Open ended interviews were conducted to gather these descriptions. Both their subjective and shared experiences were examined using Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological method, which emphasizes the significance of human experiences and allows the researcher to remain open to the participants’ descriptions without imposing formal theories on them. The findings of this study suggest a temporal and thematic structure of the phenomenon of child soldiery, which includes their experiences of refuge in Finland/Sweden. The results also support previous research of former child soldiers and cross-cultural psychological research of refugees and immigrants in acculturation. Overall, the experience of child soldiery meant forced or voluntary separation from family, multiple losses, lack of control and other hardships. It also had a strong emotional aspect, both negative and positive. While all faced various struggles in the aftermath of war, some continued to behave according to the practices they had learned in the armed group while others behaved pro-socially, both when reintegrating to civil society and adapting to a new culture. For most participants the encounter with a new culture largely amplified the traumas they had experienced as child soldiers.

Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan äitien päihdetaustan yhteyttä koettuun sosiaaliseen tukeen sekä äidin ja vauvan välisen vuorovaikutuksen laatuun ja laadun muutokseen. Lisäksi kartoitetaan sosiaalisen tuen lähteiden ja määrän eroavuuksia äitien välillä. Tutkimusaihe on ajankohtainen ja tärkeä muun muassa siksi, että yhteiskunnan taloudellisen taantuman myötä sosiaaliset ongelmat ja köyhyys koettelevat yhä useampia lapsiperheitä myös Suomessa. On kriittisen tärkeää saada ajantasaista tutkimustietoa sosiaalisen tuen puutteen ja päihteidenkäytön vaikutuksista lapsen varhaisvaiheeseen, jotta tukirakenteita ja ennaltaehkäisevää työtä voidaan kehittää vaikeimmissa oloissa elävien pikkulasten ja heidän vanhempiensa auttamiseksi. Valtion budjetissa tulisi myös taata raskaana olevien päihdeäitien palvelut syntyvien lasten terveysriskien minimoimiseksi. Tutkimuksen aineisto perustuu Beltin ja työtovereiden (Belt ym., 2009; 2012) interventiotutkimukseen. Siinä päihdetaustaisille äideille tarjottiin mahdollisuus osallistua ryhmämuotoiseen psykoterapiaan (n = 26) tai saada yksilöllisesti suunnattua psykososiaalista tukea (n = 25). Kontrolliryhmä (n = 50) muodostettiin ei-päihdetaustaisista äideistä. Interventiotutkimuksessa sosiaalista tukea (Harter, 1985; Parkes, 1986) tarkasteltiin äitien odotusaikana toteutetulla lomaketutkimuksella, yksilön raportoiman koetun tuen kannalta. Vuorovaikutusta äidin ja lapsen välillä mitattiin Biringenin (2000; 2014) emotionaalisen saatavillaolon menetelmällä (Emotional Availability Scales, EAS) kahtena ajankohtana, vauvan ikävaiheissa 4 kk ja 12 kk. Päihteidenkäytön osalta tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin sekä huumeiden että alkoholin käyttöä. Tutkimukseen osallistuneet äidit (n = 101) raportoivat laittomien huumeiden käyttöään kahdeksasta eri huumeesta. Alkoholinkäytöstään äidit vastasivat seitsemään osioon standardoidusta AUDIT–kyselystä (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, Saunders ym., 1993). Tässä tutkimuksessa keskitytään selvittämään äitien päihteidenkäyttötaustan yhteyttä koettuun sosiaaliseen tukeen sekä äidin ja vauvan välisen vuorovaikutuksen laatuun. Lisäksi tarkastellaan sosiaalisen tuen määrää ja laatua eri osallistujaryhmien keskuudessa sekä vuorovaikutuksen laadun muutosta kahden mittauskerran välillä. Tulosten perusteella äitien päihdetaustalla on yhteys sosiaaliseen tukeen. Päihdetaustaiset äidit raportoivat kontrolliryhmää vähemmän sosiaalista tukea kunkin tuen lähteen (perhe, ystävät, tärkeät ihmiset) osalta erikseen sekä kokonaisuutena. Äidin päihdetausta ennustaa vähäisempää raskausaikaista sosiaalista tukea. Tulosten perusteella äitien päihdetausta vaikuttaa myös vuorovaikutuksen laatuun vauvan kanssa. Tämä näkyy äidin alempina vuorovaikutuspistemäärinä emotionaalisen saatavillaolon skaaloilla (EAS). Muutos päihdetaustaisten äitien osalta kahden mittauksen välillä oli kuitenkin positiivinen ja lapsen kannalta suotuisa: äitien vuorovaikutuksen EAS-kokonaispisteet olivat korkeammat jälkimmäisellä mittauskerralla. Myönteinen muutos voi liittyä intervention vaikutukseen. Saadut tulokset tukevat aikaisemmassa tutkimuskirjallisuudessa esitettyä johtopäätöstä siitä, että riskitekijät kuormittavat varhaista vuorovaikutusta ja sosiaalisia suhteita. Tulokset viittaavat myös siihen, että interventioilla voi olla myönteinen vaikutus lapsen ja äidin vuorovaikutussuhteeseen.