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Browsing by study line "Social Sciences Study Track"

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  • Joyee, Nabila Jahan (2021)
    This master’s thesis aims to provide a broader and deeper knowledge within the areas of migration and integration. The study tasks are how the diaspora community is involved in the overall migration and integration process in a host state and what role social networks play in different phases of migration. There are four essential conceptual features of the migration phenomenon are identified in the study: migration, integration, diaspora community, and social networks. These concepts are analysed focusing on the factors of migration, integration process, how diaspora community and social networks work. The analysis is done using a comprehensive case study on the Bangladeshi diaspora community in Finland. The study material is collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 Bangladeshi student migrants living in Finland. As a potential migrant group as well as an underexamined study group, student migrants are chosen the study participants. A thematic analysis of the data is carried out to unveil the underlying meanings of how student migrants narrate their experiences as an immigrant. The themes identified are used to critically reflect on and explore the aspects and dynamics of the nexus between diasporas and social networks in migration and integration. This study outcomes identify education as the major pull factor for the student migrants considering Finnish high quality of research facilities, education environment, and the fee-free study system. It also marks that both personal and social networks have a strong role in migrant’s decision of choosing Finland as their destination. The role of technology becomes prominent in the current age in terms of gathering information, admission procedure, and visa processing. This is even more realised due to the absence of the Embassy operation and other official communication channels. The study finds the diaspora community’s role is increasingly becoming significant in the present context, they provide migrants with access to information, job conditions as well as settling them with finding accommodation, education places, emotional support, and comfort of belonging in a host country. Within this journey of a migrant, social media platform has appeared as a crucial part of social networks and diasporas in terms of communication. Facebook groups have become a major communication channel. Additionally, the Corona situation has made online engagement among people more visible. Nonetheless, this diaspora-social network-migration-integration nexus can play both a supportive as well as a critical role for migrants as the experience varies.
  • Sigrist, Jonathan (2021)
    This thesis analyses the development of Danish foreign and security policy towards the Arctic ever since the end of the Second World War up until today. It draws primarily on Denmark’s relation to the United States, having been Denmark’s main ally for the last 75 years on all security related matters - but especially since the end of the Cold War. Both Denmark and the US are considered Arctic coastal states, with Denmark accessing the Arctic ocean through its sovereign claim over Greenland, and the US through the state of Alaska. The thesis supports other scholarly studies that argue that a ‘new Cold War’ has been taking place in the years following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in 2016 between the US, China and Russia, with potentially grave ramifications for Arctic regional security, given its growing importance as a region for resource extraction and commercial passage through the Northern Sea Route. For Denmark, this new Cold War threatens its sovereign claim over Greenland – a crucial geostrategic location for a potential Arctic militarization - being challenged as a small nation by the great power competitions accelerating in the Arctic. The thesis divides the last 75 years into three categorized eras: 1) The Cold War (1945-1991); 2) The post-Cold War era (1991-2017); 3) The ‘new Cold War’ as a developing era (2017 - ; denoted in the thesis), and analyses for each era the fundamentals of Denmark – US relations, first providing a more general overview of their political relations as security partners on non-Arctic related matters, in order to then draw parallels to the development of Denmark – US relations in the Arctic and their roles as state actors in shaping the geopolitical climate of the region. As I show, a lot can be learned from the Cold War to understand what is and may happen in the Arctic in the new Cold War. The thesis makes use of foreign policy analysis, as well as two variations of discourse analysis – poststructuralist discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis – as tools to engage with the empirical data available and answer the thesis’s main research questions: what is the perceived effect of the Trump administration's policy to the position of Denmark in the Arctic? The question is answered on the basis of two main theoretical frameworks: Securitization Theory and Region-Building Theory. These frameworks build the necessary foundation which along with the mentioned methodologies can provide a holistic overview and perspective on the matter with scientific validity. The thesis ends by discussing what can be expected in the near future, based on the knowledge acquired and the answers provided to the research question. A new administration led by president elect Joe Biden took over the White House on January 20st, and with it many new questions are yet to be answered, regarding the future of Denmark – US relations, the future of Arctic governance and the course of the new Cold War. I ponder on what options Denmark might have that could guarantee its security while also maintaining its sovereignty over Greenland – one option being a potential turn towards the EU as its new main security partner. Yet doing so would mean breaking a long-lasting relationship with the US while standing up to the world’s biggest economic and military superpower.
  • Heino, Waltteri (2020)
    This thesis analyzes the digitalization policy of the Finnish government. The main attempt is to, firstly, identify the central ideas and ideologies behind the approach of the Finnish government toward societal digitalization. Secondly, the attempt is to analyze them from the perspective of the traditional ideas and ideologies of the Nordic welfare state. The underlining research question is, whether the possible approach of the Finnish government toward digitalization is compatible with the traditional ideas and ideologies of the Nordic welfare state. The method in this thesis is a combination of qualitative content analysis and historical research methods. Qualitative content analysis with a focus on an analysis of ideologies is used for analyzing primary sources. A historical perspective is used in an attempt to locate contemporary societal digitalization on a trajectory of societal transformations in post-industrial capitalist states, as well as when presenting the Nordic welfare state model. Overall, the approach of the Finnish government appears largely in line with traditional Nordic welfare state values, such as equality and inclusion. However, one of the main findings of this thesis is that the approach of the Finnish government toward digitalization is a largely apolitical and instrumentalized one. Although possible political, economic and social implications of digitalization are identified, the government appears more concerned with providing all citizens equal access to digitalization than facilitating a public discussion on the nature, form or scope of the phenomenon. While such a consensual approach may be analyzed from the perspective of the Nordic culture of conformity, one of the main arguments of this thesis is that a politicized approach to digitalization could allow for a fruitful discussion on its eventual effects on society.
  • Hynynen, Lassi (2020)
    Following research attempts to find out, first, what has been the effect of European political and economic integration, in terms of the emergence and expansion of EU, to the Finnish energy industry’s public affairs management and, second, what are the explaining political, economic and other factors behind the change. The focus of research is placed upon four different aspects of change: (1) changes in the importance and magnitude of lobbying, (2) change in the functioning of policy networks, (3) change in the role of NGOs and public discussion, and (4) changes in the special characteristics of energy sector from the point of view of lobbying. In terms of the time period, the focus of research is 2010-2020 because the findings then adequately build upon the previous literature on the subject. Twelve qualitative interviews with Finnish energy elite constituted the new empirical material of the research. The interview conversations were analysed by contrasting them to the analytical framework consisting of theoretical and empirical parts. The research is going to argue that the importance and magnitude of lobbying has grown in energy sector. Finnish energy industry’s PA-management has also become more EU-oriented, systematic and proactive. Although the trade associations form the backbone for Finnish energy lobbying, there is a trend of increasing importance of individual direct lobbying and lobbying via issue-based business coalitions. The policy networks are increasingly competitive, international and flexible. Communication agencies have become important supporting actors in Finnish energy industry’s PA-operations. Environmental NGOs have gained increasingly strong foothold in the EU policy process and wide public discussion regarding sustainable development complicates energy lobbying. Overall, the policy networks of Finnish energy industry reflect signs of increasing pluralism and openness. Whereas policy networks in Finland reflect corporatist tendencies, the EU interest representation system is more pluralist, although also elitist in its nature. Each system has their advantages and disadvantages regarding access to policy process and democratic legitimacy of lobbying.
  • Stuklis, Elizabeth (2021)
    Historically, Latvia has held a marginal position within the political geography of Europe. Yet, with the restoration of the state and in moving away from the Soviet Union, Latvia reorientated its national identity towards Europe and the West. In doing so, the European Union (EU) was one of the main foreign policy objectives. In the accession process to the EU, Latvia underwent a process of Europeanization, with changes at the domestic level and was placed in an inferior position to the EU. Since 2004, Latvia has further integrated into the EU, yet different geopolitical events have also created tensions between Latvia and the EU. Considering these developments, this thesis explores how Latvia has discursively constructed its national identity in relation to the EU over the last ten years. The theoretical framework of poststructuralism assumes that national identity is discursively and relationally constructed in a complex relationship to the Other. Adding to this, the concept of liminality which refers to the in-between space between the Self/Other is utilised. Through poststructuralism, foreign policy draws on national identity constructions and national identity is constructed through foreign policy. Therefore, in order to analyse Latvia’s national identity in relation to the EU, the thesis will examine the discussions on EU related topics within the annual foreign policy debate held in the Latvian parliament of the Saeima from 2011 to 2021. In examining the empirical material, the thesis utilizes Lene Hansen’s methodology of poststructuralist discourse analysis and approach of deconstructing articulations of differentiation within relational identity. In conducting the poststructuralist discourse analysis, three main findings of Latvia’s national identity construction in relation to the EU are identified. Firstly, Latvia’s national identity is on an equal level with the EU, but as shaped through its national context. Secondly, the Latvian Self is placed in an inferior position to the EU, as Latvia remains within the liminal space and becoming fully European is unreachable. Thirdly, the Latvian Self is superior to the EU, as Latvia goes beyond and against the positionings of the EU. These results indicate the historical continuity of Latvia’s liminality and how marginal actors contribute to their own ambiguous position. Latvia’s contemporary national identity is articulated as being ‘Europe but not quite Europe’, as the Self is constructed to the Other through shades of differentiation. Latvia reinforces its own liminal identity as the EU continues to define what it means to be ‘European’.
  • Puhakka, Laura (2020)
    Throughout history, conflict situations have affected people differently depending on the gender. The United Nations Security Council acknowledged the problem by adopting Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security to be implemented by all member states. The aim of this thesis is to examine the country image that Finland has created of its peace mediation policy from a gender perspective during 2015-2018. This research is a qualitative content analysis. As the Finnish model of peace consists of cooperation between the government and non-governmental actors, the research material was divided into two perspectives. The first primary source was Finland’s National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security published by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs during the years of 2012-2018. The second primary source was the Finnish member profiles of the Nordic Women Mediators Network. The research followed a thematic structure of the themes Nordicness, gender mainstreaming and sustainable peace. The study shows that Finland’s country image on gender-equal peace mediation emphasises the role of women in particular. One central finding from the thematic perspective is that the Action Plans have given more importance to sustainable peace after the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was launched by the United Nations. The profiles of the Nordic Women Mediators Network emphasise versatile cooperation between peace actors and through multidisciplinary backgrounds. In addition, the Nordic Women Mediators Network bring added value to the Nordic presence of the Action Plans. All in all, the Finnish Women, Peace and Security agenda has diversified in its themes the more Action Plans have been launched. The findings of this study reflect that creating a country image is a significant part of nation-branding. The visibility of values in different contexts also reflect how the country identifies itself. Cooperating with independent actors by sharing skills not only strengthens the foreign policy but the overall image of the Finnish way in peace-making.
  • Eestilä, Sari Tuuli Kristiina (2021)
    In recent years, loneliness has been talked about in the media relatively often. There are multiple studies about harmfulness of loneliness for one's health and safety both nationally and internationally. The aim of this master's thesis is to find out how the loneliness discourse has changed in the Finnish parliamentary discussions and why. The main research questions are: How often has loneliness been brought up between the years 1980 and 2019 in the Finnish governmental documents and which actor groups and themes can be identified in the discussion. In addition, the thesis will look at by whom have the actor groups and themes been brought up. The data of this thesis are governmental documents: governmental proposals, expert opinions and debate initiatives. The used methods are both quantitative and qualitative. In the first part, the data is analyzed using quantitative content analysis, more specifically categorization. By processing the data this way, one gets an answer to the first two research questions: how often has loneliness been brought up and which actor groups and themes can be identified in the discussion. In the second part of the thesis, the findings are analyzed using narrative analysis as a qualitative method. This reveals what kind of narratives are linked to findings and in which context and by whom they have been brought up. In the third part of the thesis, there is a brief review on the wider Finnish (socio)political environment and how it might have affected the results. The most important findings in this thesis are that the loneliness discussion has increased and peaked only in the 2010s. The most often mentioned group is child loneliness. Loneliness as a subjective feeling is relatively new topic in the parliamentary discussions. It started to emerge only in the 2000s and peaked after 2015. In the 2000s, organizations used the prevention of loneliness as an argument to get funding or to justify the importance of their work. This proves that in the 2000s loneliness had become something that is considered harmful. Security is a new viewpoint in the loneliness discussion: in 2010s it has started to emerge in the media as a security problem, partly because of school shootings and radical lone operators. In the 2020, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) mentions that lone operators are among the biggest security threats in Finland. While the demands towards the state has increased, loneliness in the Parliament has always been talked about through something else, or as a "side effect" of another problem.
  • Tuulensuu, Tiina (2021)
    This thesis examines the Europeanisation of public spheres. According to the deliberative democratic theory, political decisions need to be based on public consideration. Similarly to the decision-making processes in the nation states, in order for democracy to function also in the European Union, there is a need for a joint European public sphere where the peoples of Europe can discuss common issues of relevance and thereby contribute to the EU decision-making. Research conducted on the gradual Europeanisation of public spheres examines how politicisation of EU issues on the national levels contributes to cross-border communication, creation of joint communities of communication and a strengthening of collective European identity. Drawing on previous research in this field, this study highlights communication flows and discursive frames in the selected national media outlets and examines to what extent these discussions point to the emergence of a collective European identity strong enough to sustain mutualisation of debt and fiscal transfers, justifying ”solidarity among strangers” within the community. Through analysis of media coverage on the EU Recovery Fund – the political and politicised face of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic response on the EU level – this thesis examines to what extent the public spheres in Germany, France and Finland are Europeanised in these debates and whether it is possible to identify a joint community of communication pointing to a collective European identity. The theoretical framework of this study draws largely on Jürgen Habermas’s public sphere theory and its later developments (and criticisms) as well as on the growing body of literature on the gradual Europeanisation of national public spheres in the EU Member States. Contrary to the early studies on the European public sphere, later research points towards increasing politicisation of EU affairs in the national public spheres and the related strengthening of Europeanisation. No consensus, however, exists yet among researchers on whether these developments will lead to enhanced European identity and further integration or renationalisation and further rise of Euroscepticism. This thesis contributes to that discussion through a case study on the Europeanisation of national public spheres in relation to the discussion on the EU Recovery Fund in 2020.
  • Lee, Arim (2020)
    In 2017, the trend of declining birth rates arose as a problem in Finland in comparison to the 1868 Great Famine, as the recent number of live births was decreasing closer to that of the Famine. To correspond to that, family policy was paid attention to as a solution in the Finnish Parliament. The term, child-friendliness, was prevalently used to describe the goal of the family policy reform, which implies that the focus of justification for family policy would move from women-friendliness. It was an intriguing phenomenon to observe given the historical reputation of the Finnish family policy as a women-friendly policy. Motivated by the social phenomenon and following discussions on it, the thesis aims to study different discourses on birth rate and family policy in the Finnish Parliament in 2017 and 2018. The second objective of the thesis is to interpret explicit or implicit gendered implication of the discourses used to problematize birth rates and politicize family policy. To build a contextual foundation, the thesis explores the history of development of the Finnish family policy since the 1970s with reference to the concept of defamilization and refamilization. Also, it elaborates theories and concepts regarding family and family policy and familism in relation to gender. This thesis utilizes feminist critical discourse analysis with the three-dimensional framework of Norman Fairclough on data collected from the database of the Parliament. The data set includes 20 columns from 19 parliamentary minutes recorded in a form of text. The three-dimensional framework enables to examine discourses as text, discursive practice and social practice. The feminist critical discourse analysis helps to discover how gender relations are (re)produced, resisted and transformed in discourses from an overtly gender-sensitive perspective. Based on findings of the thesis, it appears that the justification of gender equality has not been replaced yet by the frame of child-friendliness. Nonetheless, the frame entails normative power to blind the women’s issues related to family policy. With the development of gender sensitivity, the gender issue has become more inclusive, but it is still limited to the hegemonic norms of heterosexuality. Also, the political goal of gender-equal parenthood confronts a threat of backlash that maintains the traditional gender norms in caring and resists gendering the issue of family policy.
  • Mantell, Gabrielle (2020)
    Social media was initially viewed as a democratising force that allowed anyone to participate in political discourse, however in recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of state-sponsored cyber troops using these technologies to spread disinformation and computational propaganda with the intent to influence the behaviour and opinions of individuals, sow chaos and confusion and undermine social cohesion. In recent years, Russia has emerged as the global leader in developing and deploying these tactics against foreign nations, conducting operations on an industrial scale through what are colloquially termed ‘troll factories,’ the most famous of which is the Internet Research Agency (IRA). This study examines images produced by Twitter accounts attributed to the IRA and the corresponding account-level metadata, in order to understand how cyber troops are using Twitter to propagate memetic content and in what ways tactics differ based upon Russian strategic culture. This study also looks at how a nation’s perceived geopolitical position can be interpreted through analysing the output of state-sponsored digital actors. Key to the success of these tactics is the dissemination of weaponised information that spreads ‘virally’ from person to person. For this reason, memetics is employed as a theoretical framework. Strategic culture is also used as an analytical tool to interpret the objectives behind Russian cyber troop activity. The research design of this study comprises three phases. First, images that occur in the dataset 5 or more times are computationally clustered, producing 1,346 clusters of visually similar images, representing 11,742 images in total. Qualitative Content Analysis is then used to create a coding framework which categorises the content of each cluster, capturing three primary dimensions: mode of delivery, type of message and country of focus. Finally, account-level metadata is analysed to determine key account characteristics, providing insight into five factors: location, account lifespan (age), language, activity and originality. Each of these factors is then cross tabulated with five regions: Russia, Post-Soviet, Europe, USA and Rest of World. The findings of this study indicate that IRA actors have pursued a multidirectional strategy based upon Russian strategic culture, in which highly political information is distributed to target audiences primarily in Russia, USA, Europe and Ukraine. The type of information spread is predominantly photographic in nature. Images of public figures and other types of political imagery frequently occur in the dataset, as do images that reinforce an insider/outsider dichotomy. Neutral images are also strategically utilised to construct Twitter accounts that appear authentic, thereby maximising the propagation rate of targeted information. When looking at references made to countries, Russia and the USA emerge as the primary centres of focus. However, when geo-visually plotted on a map, the data indicates that, as the space between these two powers, the European region is commensurate in strategic significance. Ukraine is also prioritised as a fulcrum between the Russian and Western spheres of influence, highlighting divergence in interpretations of how to define Europe and its boundaries. These findings suggest that as Russia vies for digital sociopolitical influence in the West, Europe emerges as a key strategic space between the evolving perception of ‘us’ and ‘them’.
  • Welker, Bianca (2021)
    Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, alternative online news media were predominately thought to spread false information on the coronavirus and heavily engage in conspiracy theories. The populist and far-right news outlets especially were said to strategically exploit people’s fears to further their own hate campaigns against migrants, political elites and the established media. This research aims to give a more detailed account of how five German populist far-right digital news outlets framed the ongoing crisis from January to May 2020 and managed to integrate the topic into their established narratives. For this qualitative content analysis, articles from the digital news sites of Compact, Junge Freiheit, Eigentümlich Frei, Deutsche Stimme and Zuerst were analysed regarding the topics, claims, actors and rhetoric devices that they used. The result of the study was that, rather than being swayed by strategic whims to exploit the crisis at all costs, the outlets relied on their established framing habits and were able to incorporate the crisis into all of their usual reporting. They were able to integrate the topic into overarching narratives, which not only confirmed worldviews held by their established reader base, but may also hold significant sway over new readers seeking reassurance in uncertain times. Finally, the thesis directed attention to the importance that language and presentation played in accomplishing this balancing act, establishing the need for further research on the language of the populist far right online.
  • Rantala, Juho (2021)
    The goal of this research is to gain better understanding of the EU legislative system through a case study of the trilogues of the Erasmus+ 2021-2027 programme. Trilogues are a series of informal negotiations between the EU legislative bodies and are a central part of the modern EU legislative process. A rich field of research exists on the topic, focusing especially on the roles of the legislative institutions and the transparency of the informal practice. The data used for the research is gathered from interviews and legislative files. A series of expert interviews were conducted with people who participated in the negotiations, representing both EU colegislators, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. The legislative files were gathered from publicly available sources and include most importantly the Commission legislative proposal, the Parliament first reading position, the Council first reading position and a four column document from late 2020. Three interesting topics that caused intense intra- and inter-institutional negotiations are identified: the DiscoverEU initiative, inclusion and governance. These provided three different methods of finding compromise. Firstly, it is shown how the Council position can shift to correspond to the Parliament position. Secondly, it is shown how it can still be difficult to agree on the exact words of the legislation even when the goal is a shared one. Thirdly, it is shown how the Parliaments demands can turn into a compromise that is significantly closer to the Council position. A brief summary of transparency over the Erasmus trilogues is given. The main findings of the study are the methods in which the EU legislators are willing to seek compromise: in the case of Erasmus trilogues, they negotiators were more consensus seeking than adversarial.
  • Gilray, Claire (2021)
    As an early adopter and promoter of the EU’s human rights policies, the UK can be regarded as a relative bastion of LGBTQIA+ rights. Its further progression to legislate in favour of same-sex marriage confirmed that. But the exit of the UK from the EU has caused a shift in tensions and revealed potential risks for the rights and safety of the UK’s LGBTQIA+ community. Therefore, this thesis investigates in what ways Brexit has impacted the UK’s LGBTQIA+ community. It identifies those impacts by engaging with LGBTQIA+ - focused points of articulation both surrounding the referendum and subsequently, identified via fractures in not only LGBTQIA+ rights but also lived experiences. With a particular focus on the exclusion of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights from Brexit discussions, it then uncovers a lack of media discourse on the potential effects of Brexit on the LGBTQIA+ community, before identifying possible causes for the increase in LGBTQIA+ - related reported hate crimes in the aftermath of the EU referendum. This study progresses those three topics—the Charter, media discourse, and an increase in reported hate crimes—by employing a triangulate approach to both its data and its theory. This thesis combines qualitative and quantitative research, the latter via a constructed dataset of UK media articles to highlight the lack of focus on LGBTQIA+ rights during the EU referendum campaign. It develops a poststructuralist queer discursive perspective to theorise the linkage between the three impacts. It discerns that LGBTQIA+ rights—and, consequently, human rights—in the UK remain vulnerable and at the behest of political motivations. The implications of Brexit for the LGBTQIA+ community already exist, and pose negative outcomes if they are further realised. Any argument that they are not likely to be realised is not enough of a protection for a minority group. This leads to the LGBTQIA+ community being in an abyss regarding any certainty as to the freestanding right to non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and gender identity.
  • Peltonen, Aada (2021)
    In my thesis, I examine Aristotle’s theory of stasis and Hannah Arendt’s notion of revolutions. I argue that while Arendt distinguishes her theory from stasis, it is inherently interconnected to it in five ways. First, both philosophers see the unequal distribution of power as foremost reason for civil strife. Second, I argue that they held that the distribution of wealth, while a problematic, should be dealt with within the society pre-politically, otherwise it becomes an issue of politics. Third, a certain feeling of unity through political friendship and homonoia is eminent for the society to stay stable. Fourth, the pivotality of laws safeguards the regime from tyrannical democracy driven through demagoguery. Last, my overarching argument in the thesis is that Aristotle and Arendt solve the issue of revolutions through a mixed regime, following the classical republican tradition. The interconnectedness of the two theories reveals not only the connection of political disorder and constitutional change, but also the importance of correct constitution to counter factionalism and demagoguery. The concluding remarks made in my thesis advance the discussion on the profound question of contemporary societies’ factionalism and populism. While often viewed problematic, the discussion provided by the theoretical framework of Aristotle and Hannah Arendt comes to show that the mixed governmental system of contemporary democracy, is built to counter specifically questions regarding factionalism, demagoguery, and the discontent towards distribution of justice.
  • Sarmela, Saana (2021)
    The purpose of this thesis is to study discourses in sexuality education in Polish schools 2009-2016. Polish sexuality education is an abstinence-based education influenced by Poland's Catholic Church and its moral views as it is holding an influential position due to constitutional alliance with the state of Poland. In 2012 the Catholic Church launched the so-called “anti-gender” campaign in which gender was considered a threat to traditional family values and a source of perversion. Conservatives frequently propagated the dangers of gender towards children to parents as presented as a threat to the Polish nation. This study examines why gender stereotypes, homophobia, and disinformation are promoted, and secondly, how the anti-gender campaign has impacted Polish sexuality education. The theoretical framework consists of central conceptions and Foucault's theory on biopower, according to which sexuality can be regulated and used as power strategies. This study is a qualitative study, as the research material consists of texts, documents, and media articles. The methodology for this study consists of content analysis, specifically data-driven content analysis, and critical discourse analysis, to evaluate observations from the data. The power strategies of biopower strongly supported my analysis and created a theoretical entity. Critical discourse analysis has been used as a background method to reveal power asymmetries from the research data. The results of this study were on a practical level that the sexuality education classes were poorly organized as it is treated as a secondary subject. Many of the teachers were incompetent to teach sexuality education who intentionally or unintentionally shared their personal views with the students. Some teachers were priests whose worldview was religious, promoting Catholic views in the classes. On a societal level, sexuality education was impacted by the Catholic Church, whose influence on educational policy was significant with the purpose of maintaining traditional social order and gender roles. Nonetheless, gender inequalities and negative attitudes towards sexual minorities exist in many Polish society domains, affecting the moral atmosphere and the teaching of sexuality education within the lack of will of conducting a proper curriculum. The anti-gender campaign affected sexuality education by making the concept of teaching gender in schools challenging or even impossible. Negative attitudes towards sexuality education increased in fear of gender making Polish children sexual and therefore endangering Polish future and values. The weaknesses of democracy and women's and LGBTQ+ movements, the Church's exceptional influence on society, and the strength of nationalist movements were all enablers of the anti-gender campaign.
  • Valento, Miia (2012)
    Testataan töiden tallentumista Heldaan
  • Akintug, Hasan (2017)
    This thesis aims to provide an analysis of the decision of the Parliament of Åland to join the European Union in 1994. The chosen time frame is the period between the Korfu Summit on 24 June 1994 and the decision of the Parliament to join on 2 December 1994. While the EU process has its roots at the end of the Cold War and Finland’s membership to the Council of Europe in 1989, this timeline is chosen to emphasize the deliberative process in which Åland decided to join the European Union. The theoretical approach is discourse analysis as foreign policy analysis by Ole Waever. This rests on the post structuralist understandings of language which due to its constitutive power can be used to explain the foreign policy choices which lie upon historical and identarian legacies. This is done by analysing the relationship between the “core concepts” such as “state” and “nation” with “Europe” in which the national identity is constructed upon. This thesis aims to analyse the Ålandic decision to join the EU by using 7 parliamentary debates as primary data alongside newspaper articles to construct a chronology of the referendum process while at the same time adjusting Waever’s framework to suit the regional context of Åland. This study shows that the Ålandic EU debate took place in a context in which the Regional Parliament had to consider the choices of its immediate environment and the lack of enthusiasm of the Ålandic voter. On the pro EU camp, the prospect of EU membership was understood as new field for Åland’s external relations, an economic opportunity and further recognition of Åland’s status according to international law. The anti-EU camp drew arguments from a fear of centralisation, transferring legislative authority and concern regarding the competences of the EU in agriculture and fisheries. This study also shows that the choice of certain arguments was structured by the regional parties’ conceptualisation of Europe and the relationship between that and their conceptualisation of “autonomy” and the “people” which are in turn constructed by the two main cleavages on Åland: the autonomy policy cleavage and the urban-rural cleavage.
  • Källberg, Åsa (2021)
    Migration to Finland has increased considerably in the last decade. As Finnish society becomes increasingly multicultural and multilingual, new measures and services are needed to promote integration. For integration to be successful, it needs ongoing processes and interaction that require both immigrants themselves and the host society to be active, and to provide the tools that are needed for integration. This master’s thesis investigates the Swedish-language integration path in the capital region of Finland. As Finland’s bilingualism enables integration to happen in both the Finnish and Swedish languages, the purpose of this thesis is to enable immigrants who have chosen to integrate with the Swedish language the chance to be heard and to listen to their personal integration experiences. As the research focuses on immigrants learning Swedish, five interviews with Swedish-speaking immigrants have been conducted as part of this thesis. The qualitative method used in this research has the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of what is considered to be successful integration by the immigrants themselves. The reference framework for this thesis is based on Friedrich Heckmann’s definition of social integration, alongside the Finnish Act on the Promotion of Integration (1386/2010) and the Language Act (423/2003). In addition, a range of previous research is used in order to compare the results that were found in this study. The results demonstrate that although Finnish legislation does make it possible to choose between the Finnish and Swedish languages when intergrating, it is hard to execute this duality in practice. From authorities’ reluctance to it being difficult to find Swedish-speaking connections outside the classroom, the results show that it is difficult for immigrants to practice Swedish in everyday life and they suffer from a lack of interaction with Finnish society. Integration processes are challenging for these immigrants for various reasons, which also illustrates how different the stories and experiences of immigrants are.
  • Lambin, Viktor (2019)
    The contemporary crisis between Russia and the EU, reflects, among other things, in the identity construction in both European and Russian domestic discourses. In view of the current conflict between Russia and Europe, it is crucial to comprehend how both actors perceive each other and the reality(ies) of the current status of their bilateral relations. According to the post-structuralists, foreign policies are dependent on the representations of “us” and “them”, articulated in national discourses. Such constructs are often represented through mass media, and given the growing adaptation of IT technologies, social media specifically become a suitable platform for the distribution of the images of “us” and “them” for both domestic and foreign audiences. The study seeks to identify which images of the EU are framed by Russian officials in social media and whether such frames correlate with some aspects of Russian domestic and foreign agendas. The thesis focuses on the images of the EU framed by Russian officials in the period between March 2019 and December 2019, a drastic period of EU-Russia relations, triggered by the Ukrainian crisis. Social media posts of 10 Russian officials on matters related to the EU are examined with post-structuralist discourse approach. The adopted methodology allows to explore, identify and explain images of the EU framed by Russian officials in online dimension. In addition, the method sheds light not only on the way Russian officials perceive the EU but also on the way they construct Russia itself, as a political, social and values antithesis of Europe, through the framing of the EU. The identified images, framed by Russian officials, constitute mainly negative framing of the EU, albeit seldom neutral and positive framings appear as well. The analysis determines the central aspects of the EU’s domestic and foreign policies, reflected by the officials. Besides, the results of the study demonstrate how Russian officials implicitly perceive the political and social situation in Russia as well as Russia’s foreign policy status, by comparing these aspects with Europe. The framing, which Russian officials discursively construct in social media, exhibits a comprehensive political and normative split between Russia and the EU. This process had been gradually evolving until 2014, and then sharply accelerated. At this point, the current situation appears to be the lowest point for bilateral relations between Moscow and Brussels. Even though Russian officials regularly appeal to Moscow’s determination to cooperate with the EU and the West in general, such a peacekeeping message had no considerable effect on EU-Russia relations.
  • Bartos, Sandrine Charlotte (2021)
    Data privacy came to the forefront of public consciousness in March 2018, with the revelation that the data of upwards of 87 million accounts was misused due to a lack of privacy protections. Furthermore, the release of confidential court documents detailing years of anticompetitive conduct by Facebook, largely helped by the amount of data it has access to, through ways that many are beginning to characterise as immoral. The intersection of data privacy and competition law is a relatively new issue, but one that will have a significant impact in the coming years. Investigations into Facebook’s conduct by the United States and the European Union will determine if the social media giant, and by extension, any other companies that collect large amounts of data, will adjust or maintain its data-gathering practices.