Browsing by study line "Humanistinen opintosuunta"
Now showing items 21-30 of 30
-
(2024)This thesis is a discourse analysis of how religious freedom is constructed in official statements published by human rights organizations regarding Quebec’s Bill 21, the Act Respecting the Laicity of the State. The thesis focuses on Quebec’s secularism law, that bans people working in civil positions from wearing any religious symbols at work. The study analyzes the larger social phenomena that arise when human rights organizations discuss Quebec’s secularism law. In the discourse analysis, 9 relevant human rights organizations’ official statements are analyzed. The analysis shows that freedom of religion is constructed through seven different societal discursive themes: racism and discrimination, representation and belonging, citizen hierarchy, gender equality, Canadian democracy, Quebec’s national identity, and secularism and religion. Quebec’s secularism law, Bill 21, claims to protect the province’s secularity, but has been criticized for being discriminative. The results indicate that the discussion on religious freedom in Quebec is constructed through larger social phenomena, that need to be addressed separately. Secularism cannot be applied as a direct policy without considering the social aspects of it.
-
(2023)Abstract In this Master’s thesis, five women, born between 1920 and 1955, are narrating their lives in their native language, Swedish. The informants describe their lives from childhood, motherhood, family relationships, household, to elderly care, and finally, concluding with the Finland-Swedish context to wrap up the interview session. The women were interviewed in a semi-structured manner, either in their homes if living independently, or in their own rooms if living in an elderly home. Some of the informants are strongly in favour of an increased nativity, whereas there also is ambivalence, because of the current societal atmosphere. The major societal improvements have been related to material resources and technological advances. The general opinion is that contemporary social interactions are rather weak; several informants mentioned how familial bonds nowadays are weaker than when they were younger. Older women have an ambivalent opinion regarding the treatment of elderly today, for instance mixed treatment of healthcare phone calls, or the treatment depending on the older person’s general health condition. The women also provided insight into how society has changed; for instance that men are more willing in today’s society to take an active role in regards to household chores, such as vacuum cleaning and cooking. This is a phenomenon that is observed amongst the women who have sons. However, there is an agreement that the grandchild situation is vastly different in contrast to their own, as the informants themselves were growing up.
-
(2021)This thesis examines rhetoric and reality in the Citizenship Grant Program (CGP), a program which allocates funding to community-based organizations that assist immigrants in becoming US citizens. The CGP is an area of US immigration policy which has gained consistent bipartisan support since its inception in 2009, yet has been unexamined in critical policy research. Using the CGP’s main policy texts as data, I employ rhetorical analysis—unpacking the persuasive arguments of the program, how they are constructed, and how they construct citizens. Then, I examine what the rhetoric illustrates about US national identity and who is authorized to claim it. Throughout the research project, I am theoretically grounded in the concept of borderscaping, which emphasizes the performative aspect of constructing cultural borders. Over the course of the analysis, I observe that the CGP constructs arguments differently over time and space— depending on the political party of the governing presidential administration and its stance preference towards either the integration or the assimilation of immigrants. Yet, I also find that all iterations of the CGP construct certain immigrants as threats to social cohesion, seeking to weed out those who do not adhere the state’s demands for model citizenship. With my findings, I connect the dots between rhetoric and the practical realities of naturalizing immigrants. I not only expose the existing power relations at play in former and existing iterations of the CGP, but highlight everyday peoples' agency in borderscaping the future of the policy.
-
(2023)This thesis examines the stories of three Arab Queer individuals in Finland in relation to universal LGBT/Queer rights discourse. The main aim of this study is to explore more critically the implications of the so-called universal LGBT/Queer rights discourse on Arab queer individuals’ experiences and narratives in Finland through their own stories as a medium of sense making about the world. Secondly, and pertaining to the first objective, this research intends to inquire into the possible contributions of a methodology grounded in local concepts and categories of knowledge production in studying an under-researched topic as such. Inspired by conversational method in Indigenous research as discussed in literature by Kovach (2010), hakaya (stories) were used in this research as a means of gathering knowledge. Additionally, art-based methods were included as part of this research in order to engage the participants’ stories from the offset and to foster reflexivity from my end as a researcher throughout the research process. The research material was analysed in conversation with Edward Said’s (1978) work on Orientalism, as well as the contributions of several scholars on Decolonial Queering. Through a comprehensive analysis of data gathered via thematic analysis, artistic reflexivity, as well as follow-up conversations, three common themes were identified: a) pressure to assimilate; b) exclusion/exoticising inclusion; and c) feeling unsafe. The findings in this thesis demonstrate a clear link with previous literature discussed, indicating a perpetual issue when it comes to stories of Queer Arabs being mediated and filtered to feed dominant narratives informed by a Western lens which disregard the subjectivity and distinctive experiences of Arab queer individuals. This points to the necessity as well as the inherent challenge of bringing queerness into conversation with decolonisation to pave the way for the past, present, and future to be reimagined, as well as narrated differently. By utilising a combination of conversational and art-based research methods, this study also reveals that a methodology grounded in local methods of knowledge production—like hakaya or storytelling in the case of this specific thesis—in research on an under-researched topic as such can promote more equal participation and collaboration, yielding more nuanced findings as a result. Moreover, this paper concludes that utilising Art-Based methods can play a substantial role in the process of bringing forth the question of ‘what are the voices that have not been archived?’ and in fostering the visibility of historically marginalised and silenced voices. These findings will help to inform future research in the area and provide a better understanding of the complex dynamics at play when it comes to research on sexuality.
-
(2024)Gangs have posed an issue throughout time in every society that exists. They merely change shape and conduct themselves differently. In Finland there has been an emergence of a new style of street gangs which has in turn created criminality related to street gangs. As time goes by without adequate interventions these street gangs are able to build stronger foundations and take it so far that there is no turning back. Therefore, it is crucial to find what are the most appropriate gang policies to address this issue. This research systematically analyses gang policies found in Sweden and the United Kingdom to examine and determine what gang policies are most successful. Moreover, it concentrates on Sweden and the UK, as the street gangs that have emerged in Finland share similar traits and have clearly been influenced by the style and approaches of the street gangs that have already existed in these countries. Thus, a hypothesis regarding the influx of roadman culture from the UK and its correlation with gang activities in Finland emerges, highlighting the need for nuanced interventions. By examining and comparing gang policies in these countries we can determine which approaches could be applicable in Finland, too. This research was done by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR) where the chosen five researches per country were analyzed in terms of their reach and their outcomes. Furthermore, to determine the best approaches these researches were further compared and analyzed through the lens of cultural criminology. This is an important point of view as it aids in pinpointing the reasons why these street gangs conduct themselves as they do. As it is crucial to be able to understand this issue in order to eradicate it. Thus, it is vital to use the research and data available of societies that have a similar issue that is comparable to the situation in Finland. As history has shown us, only by societies learning from each other and working together can we overcome such obstacles. By bridging the gap between research insights and policy formulation, this study aims to cultivate evidence-based approaches to address the complex issue of street gangs in Finland.
-
(2023)Wealthy people of the world also referred to as “the 1%” have a growing influence on society and the economy. The wealthy can be divided into three major categories, the rich, the super-rich and the ultra-rich, which gives a basis to examine the influence of the wealthy. The aim of this study is to understand wealthy individuals and their investing behaviour on a general level and to examine Germany and Monaco on a deeper level. Wealthy individuals in Germany and Monaco include Christoph Gröner, Dieter Schwarz, Dirk Rossmann, Michael Otto, Monika Bacardi, Tatiana Casiraghi, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and Stefano Pessina. The 1% equals 45 million adults globally whereas the 0,1% of the people equals to 4.5 million adults globally. The main investment categories of the wealthy include passion investments, real estate investments and mobility investments. Cultural capital theory and its three forms, embodied, objectified, and institutionalized states, are used to study and analyse the behaviour of the differences between the wealthy in Germany and Monaco. The data collection of this literature review consists of academic literature and articles on luxury, geographies of the super-rich, elite mobilities, wealth, and the super-rich, as well as, documentaries on the lifestyle of the wealthy in Germany and Monaco. The findings of this study suggest how the main categories of the wealthy have diverse investing and lifestyle behaviour. Strategies to increase or maintain an individual’s wealth includes tax havens, offshores, charitable organisations and investments. Bourdieu’s theory on cultural capital indicates how an individual’s background influences a person’s future but does not prevent people from lower-class backgrounds to achieve the same things as the people from upper classes.
-
(2023)In recent decades, the visibility of Finland has been increasing in Japan. It might even be almost impossible not to notice “Finland” in everyday life. -Products with Moomin characters, trendy Finnish style saunas, Finnish words used in brand or product names and Finnish themed facilities. But what kind of themes spring to mind when Finland is mentioned? What images are attached to Finland, or how is Finland talked about in everyday life? This study investigates what Japanese people post about Finland and what kind of representations of Finland appear on Japanese Twitter, as well as how the Japanese society is represented through these discussions. For the data collection, the search word and command “フィンランド min_faves: 1000” was used, in order to find tweets that included the Japanese word for Finland, フィンランド, and which had accumulated more than 1000 likes. The final data amounted to 364 tweets posted on Twitter between September 16th 2020 and November 7th 2022. The analysis was conducted in two separate phases; in the first phase, themes of the tweets which appeared in the data were identified by using qualitative content analysis (QCA), and in the second phase, representation analysis was conducted together with QCA in order to find out how Finland is represented on Japanese Twitter, and what kind of meanings are attached to Finland. The analysis identified the following themes that often appear in the tweets about Finland: Nature, travel destination, history, national defence, brands, art, language, customs, education as social welfare, school, work-life balance, gender equality, and mindset. The representations of Finland found in the data were: The ideal model for Japan (a model for a fair society/ a model for a happier life), magical and consumable Finland, a small but brave and a strong country, and questioning “the dream country Finland”. The analysis also found that the images of Finland are constructed to fit the narratives of Japanese people. “The dream country Finland” was created by Japanese people’s fantasies and ideals and it was used to criticize some aspects of the Japanese society: the Japanese government, politics, social welfare, working style, national defence, among others.
-
(2021)This thesis investigates the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism advertising. The analysis is focused on case-studying Iceland due to the importance of tourism for the country’s economy and due to its successful tourism marketing campaigns. The thesis aims at analyzing the appeals and visual rhetoric techniques utilized by Iceland during the COVID-19 pandemic and further comparing them the ones from 2019. The comparison to pre-COVID-19 advertising, demonstrates what is the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on Iceland’s tourism advertising. What is more the study examines whether the pandemic shapes new values and desired tourism behavior and thus fills a research gap defined by Zenker and Kock (2020). The data consists of 7 official tourism advertisements of Iceland from 2019, 2020, 2021, published on their official YouTube channel, and the website: The joyscroll. The data is presented in the form of screenshots in the appendixes of this thesis. The data is analyzed via mixed methods, incorporating qualitative content analysis (QCA) of the appeals in combination with critical visual analysis (CVA). The CVA is further focused on the three dimensions of landscape, people, and heritage. The analysis shows that there is an evident change in both the preferred advertising appeals and in the visual rhetoric techniques utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic. What is more the analysis highlights the importance of emotional appeals and humor and the formation of a new value to Icelandic tourism – mental health.
-
(2023)This thesis looks to find what types of narrative themes emerged during the 2010s from articles published in The Finnish American Reporter related to the topics of preservation and celebration in the Finnish North American context. Additionally, this thesis examines what types of activities were featured as acts of preservation and celebration of Finnish culture and which of these acts were seen as success stories or failures. To get acquainted with the topic, this thesis introduces academic research related to the concepts of identity, ethnicity, heritage, preservation of heritage, celebration of heritage, immigration, and Americanization. These topics are further complemented by looking into what types of research has been conducted on Finns in North America prior to this thesis, and by telling the history of the Finnish community in North America. The main dataset for this thesis consists of 370 feature articles published in The Finnish American Reporter between January 2010 and December 2019. This study takes a qualitative approach and qualitative content analysis was used during the data collection process to identify relevant articles. These articles were then analyzed with narrative analysis tools in order to find themes that developed across the articles. This study finds that teamwork and collaboration was an essential theme across all the articles, which made the preservation and celebration of Finnishness possible. The variety of Finnish communities, experiences and activities were also carrying themes throughout all the articles. Several different Finnish cultural activities examined here were featured as success stories, but failures were also present in the articles. Many of the articles demonstrated Finnish communities and organizations fighting hard against the decline of Finnishness in North America.
-
(2022)If culture fossilizes in language, what does language say about us? Typology of Hate: Hegemonic Sign Systems in Hate Speech examines how culturally semiotic signs build the themes of gendered hate speech in the contemporary hybrid media environment. More than ever, the role taken in discourse previously governed by “intellectuals” is shifting, and ideas of significance are circulated, debated and constructed online. Hate speech occupying space in mainstream culture is seen as a risk that modern technology enables in a completely new way. Online hate speech forms a complicated network of multimodal interactions, which makes defining it – and consequently, managing it – more challenging. Definitions of hate speech cannot focus on individual utterances or speech acts alone but must be looked against a wider socio-cultural impact by studying the meanings of signs and significations constructed in language against their cultural backdrop. This Master’s Thesis attempts to define hate speech by recognizing some of the thematic tropes repeated in its different variations, particularly its gendered form, which are semiotized online. Through an observation in digital ethnography and methods of discourse analysis, the qualitative data of the research was collected from r/TheRedPill on Reddit in March 2022. Data shows that the case study’s discourse is largely built on three thematic tropes defining gendered hate speech. Heteropatriarchal constructions of gender, systemic devaluation and regulation of femininity, and pseudoscientific beliefs are at the core of the group’s hateful discourse. This thesis has recognized dominant patterns through examples of gendered hate speech in radicalized language in the case study of the Red Pill community, and further paves way towards a practical index manual on hate speech reporting and recognition.
Now showing items 21-30 of 30