Aktiiviseen kansalaisuuteen kasvattaminen yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa

Tutkielmassa tarkasteltiin aktiivista kansalaisuutta perusopetuksen yläkoulun (luokat 7–9) maantieteen opetuksessa. Tutkielman taustana olivat aktiiviseen kansalaisuuteen liittyvät viralliset ja epäviralliset diskurssit: opetussuunnitelman perusteiden aihekokonaisuudet, kouluun kohdistuvat kansalaiskasvatushankkeet sekä nuoriin, kansalaisuuteen ja kansalaisyhteiskuntaan liittyvät keskustelut. Maantieteen opetuksen osalta taustana olivat opetussuunnitelman velvoitteet huomioida aktiivinen kansalaisuus yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa sekä (pääasiassa brittiläinen) kirjallisuus, jossa maantieteen ja kansalaiskasvatuksen/aktiivisen kansalaisuuden välillä nähdään yhtäläisyyksiä. Tutkielmassa pyrittiin selvittämään, mitä aktiivinen kansalaisuus on yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa ja miten maantieteen opettajat suhtautuvat tehtäviinsä nuorten kansalaisten kasvattajina ja yhteiskunnallisina vaikuttajina. Tutkielmaa varten kerättiin teemahaastatteluaineisto kuudelta yläkoulun maantieteen opettajalta. Haastatteluihin pyrittiin löytämään mahdollisimman aktiivisia maantieteen opettajia. Haastatteluaineiston analyysissa käytettiin sisällönanalyysia, ja aineiston avulla pyrittiin kuvaamaan ilmiötä. Haastateltujen opettajien mukaan yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa luonnonmaantieteelliset sisällöt painottuvat enemmän kuin kulttuurimaantieteelliset. Aktiivisen kansalaisuuden kannalta keskeisiä sisältöjä, kuten vaikutusmahdollisuuksia oman ympäristön suunnitteluun ja kehittymiseen sekä kotikunnan ja lähiympäristön tutkimista käsitellään opetuksessa vain vähän, jos ollenkaan. Aktiivinen kansalaisuus on yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa eniten tiedon jakamista, ajattelun taitojen ja mielipiteen muodostamisen harjoittelua sekä ympäristövastuullisuuteen kansalaisuuteen kasvattamista. Opetuksessa käytetään myös aktiivisen kansalaisuuden kannalta keskeisiä työtapoja, mutta työtapojen käyttö vaihtelee. Haastatellut opettajat eivät koe opetussuunnitelman aihekokonaisuuksia juurikaan omakseen. Opettajat eivät myöskään määrittele kansalaisvaikuttamiseen kasvattamista koulun tärkeimpien tehtävien joukkoon. Osa opettajista kokee kuitenkin olevansa yhteiskunnallinen vaikuttaja opettajana. Opettajien puheessa koulun kansalaiskasvatuksen tavoite, kunnon kansalainen, ei määrity kovin aktiivisena tai poliittisena. Opettajien puhe sisältää kuitenkin monenlaisia näkemyksiä suhteessa nuoriin kansalaisina ja aktiivisuuteen: toisaalta nuoret eivät ole kiinnostuneita yhteiskunnallisista asioista eikä heiltä vaaditakaan sitä, toisaalta maaperä nuorten kasvattamiseen aktiivisiksi kansalaisiksi on hyvä ja aktiivisuus on pieniä asioita lähiympäristössä sekä yhdessä tekemiseen uskomista. Haastattelujen pohjalta todettiin, että lukuun ottamatta joidenkin opettajien ympäristökasvatuksellista otetta, aktiivinen kansalaisuus ei ole täysin tiedostettu tavoite yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa.

Asukkaan Helsinki? : Tapaustutkimus vuorovaikutteisuudesta kaupunkisuunnittelussa

This study examines the interaction between inhabitants and urban planning. In addition to traditional methods of participation there can be seen an increasing need to find new channels and means to influence on one´s environment. Hearing of inhabitants during planning is hoped to decrease the amount of claims and this way to speed up the planning process. Discussion that emphasizes competitiveness and innovativeness in planning has brought out the role of inhabitants as selective consumers and end users. This extension of civil perspective completes the thought of participation in city planning and adds the pressure on developing the interaction and user orientation. The aim of the study is to point out the present situation of inhabitant´s participation and influencing in Helsinki. Helsinki City Planning Department opened a new information and exhibiotion hall called Laituri in 2008. Laituri provides the latest information about planning projects in Helsinki and temporary exhibitions as well as it operates as communication channel and information point for the department. In this study Laituri is examined as a case study of interaction between citizen and planner. The study is divided into two principal themes. The aim is to research action and interactivity at Laituri from the inhabitants´and planners´point of view. The qualitative study has inquiries, interview surveys and observation as research methods. Empiricial data of the study consists of three parts which complement each other: Laituri operational reseach, inquiry directed to the members of Laituri team and interviews of three experts. The aim is to find answers to questions like, does Laituri reach the citizens and will the opportunities to participate improve along Laituri. The study examines also how the local knowledge of inhabitants will come across to planners and further to planning. The study combines discussions of inhabitants´ influencing in Finnish society and science community. Cornerstones of the study are inhabitant participation, interaction and local knowledge in urban planning. The theory behind the study is communicative planning theory. In addition the theory consists of key concepts. The study introduces a concept of Inhabitant´s Helsinki, which reflects the inhabitant as customer-citizen who is an active product developer in participative urban planning. According to the research results the experts of Laituri and majority of inhabitants in Helsinki experience that the inhabitant´s possibilities to participate will improve along Laituri. However half of the citizens in Helsinki believe that local knowledge and ideas will only have minor impact on the final plan. According to city dwellers the present practise used by Helsinki City Planning Department supports only partially adequate interaction. The experts of Laituri experience that the role of Laituri is first of all forum of communication and discussion channel instead of effective local data collector. Based on the results the study introduces a model of inhabitant´s participation field. According to the model Laituri can be seen as phenomenom in Helsinki urban planning which has the elements of network municipality. The planner is more like diplomatic trend-setter and visionary. The inhabitant of Helsinki is an expert in city living and participative producer of local knowledge. Participation methods are increasingly segmented and tailored in every plan and project. The study argues that Inhabitant´s Helsinki is a pluralistic milieu in constant pressure for change. Therefore reaching the everyday life experiencies of inhabintants should be at higher degree in Helsinki City Planning Department´s operations.

An Analysis of the Concept of Citizenship: Legal, Political and Social Dimensions

The thesis aims at analyzing concept of citizenship in political philosophy. The concept of citizenship is a complex one: it does not have a definitive explication, but it nevertheless is a very important category in contemporary world. Citizenship is a powerful ideal, and often the way a person is treated depends on whether he or she has the status of a citizen. Citizenship includes protection of a person’s rights both at home and abroad. It entails legal, political and social dimension: the legal status as a full member of society, the recognition of that status by fellow citizens and acting as a member of society. The thesis discusses these three dimensions. Its objective is to show how all of them, despite being insufficient in some aspects, reach something important about the concept. The main sources of the thesis are Civic Republicanism by Iseult Honohan (Routledge 2002), Republicanism by Philip Pettit (Clarendon Press 1997), and Taking Rights Seriously by Ronald Dworkin (1997). In addition, the historical part of the thesis relies mainly on the works of Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, Quentin Skinner, James Pocock and James Tully. The writings of Will Kymlicka, John Rawls, Chantal Mouffe, and Shane Phelan are referred to in the presentation and critique of the liberal tradition of thought. Hannah Arendt and Seyla Benhabib’s analysis of Arendt’s philosophy both address the problematic relations between human rights and nation-states as the main guarantors of rights. The chapter on group rights relies on Peter Jones’ account of corporate and collective rights, after which I continue to Seumas Miller’s essay on the (liberal) account of group rights and their relation to the concept of citizenship. Republicanism and Political Theory (2002) edited by Cécile Laborde and John Maynor is also references. David Miller and Maurizio Viroli represent the more “rooted” version of republicanism. The thesis argues that the full concept of citizenship should be seen as containing legal, political and social dimensions. The concept can be viewed from all of these three angles. The first means that citizenship is connected with certain rights, like the right to vote or stand for election, the right to property and so on. In most societies, the law guarantees these rights to every citizen. Then there is also the social dimension, which can be said to be as important as the legal one: the recognition of equality and identities of others. Finally, there is the political dimension, meaning the importance of citizens’ participation in the society, which is discussed in connection with the contemporary account of republicanism. All these issues are discussed from the point of view of groups demanding for group-specific rights and equal recognition. The challenge with these three aspects of citizenship is, however, that they are difficult to discuss under one heading. Different theories or discourses of citizenship each approach the subject from different starting points, which make reconciling them sometimes hard. The fundamental questions theories try to answer may differ radically depending on the theory. Nevertheless, in order to get the whole image of what the citizenship discourses are about all the aspects deserve to be taken into account.

Young Actors in Transnational Agoras : Multi-sited Ethnography of Cosmopolitan Micropolitical Orientations

This study examines young people s political participation in transnational meetings. Methodologically the study aims to shed light on multi-sited global ethnography. Young people are viewed here as a social age group sensitive to critical, alternative and even radical political participation. The diversity of the young actors and their actions is captured by using several different methods. What is more, the study spurs us coming from the Global North to develop social science research towards methodological cosmopolitanism and to consider our research practices from a moral cosmopolitan perspective. The research sites are the EU Presidency Youth Event (2006 Hyvinkää, Finland), the Global Young Greens Founding Conference (2007 Nairobi, Kenya), the European Social Forum (2008 Malmö, Sweden) and three World Social Forums (2006 Bamako, Mali; 2007 Nairobi Kenya and 2009 Belém, Brazil). The data consists of participant observation, documents and media articles of the meetings, interviews, photos, video, and internet data. This multidisciplinary study combines youth research, development studies, performative social science and political sociology. In this research the diverse field of youth political participation in transnational agoras is studied by using a cross-table of cosmopolitan resources (or the lack of them) and everydaymakers expert citizen dichotomy. First, the young participants of the EU Presidency youth event are studied as an example of expert citizens with cosmopolitan resources (these resources include, for example, language skills, higher education and international social network). Second, the study analyses those everyday-makers who use performative politics to demonstrate their political missions here and now. But in order to make the social movement global they need cosmopolitan resources to be able to use the social media tools and work globally. Third, the study reflects upon the difficulties of reaching those actors who lack cosmopolitan resources, either everyday-makers or expert citizens. The go-along method and the use of the interpreters are shown as ways to reach these young people s political missions. Fourth, the research underlines the importance of contact zones (i.e. spaces or situations where the aforementioned orientations and their differences temporarily disappear or weaken) for deeper democracy and for boosted dialogue between different kinds of participants. Keywords: political participation, young people, multi-sited ethnography, youth research, political sociology, development studies, performative social science