Vapaaehtoiset vuodeosastolla : Etnografinen tutkimus vanhusten ja vapaaehtoisten kohtaamisesta

This ethnographic study investigates encounters between volunteers and older people at the Kerava Municipal Health Centre inpatient ward for chronic care. Volunteer activities have been under development, in cooperation with the Voluntary Work Center (Talkoorengas), since the start of the 1990s. When my research began in 2003, nine of the volunteers came to the ward on set days per week or visited the ward according to their own timetables. The volunteers ranged in age from 54 to 78 years. With one exception, all of them were on pension. Nearly all of them had been volunteers for more than ten years. My study is research on ageing, the focal point being older people, whether volunteers or those receiving assistance. The research questions are: How is volunteer work implemented in daily routines at the ward? How is interaction created in encounters between the older people and the volunteers? What meanings does volunteer work create for the older people and the volunteers? The core material of my research is observation material, which is supplemented by interviews, documentation and photographs. The materials have been analysed by using theme analysis and ethnomethodological discussion analysis. In the presentation of the research findings, I have structured the materials into three main chapters: space and time; hands and touch; and words and tones. The chapter on space and time examines time and space paths, privacy and publicness, and celebrations as part of daily life. The volunteers open and create social arenas for the older people through chatting and singing together, celebrations in the dayroom or poetry readings at the bedside. The supporting theme of the chapter on hands and touch is bodily closeness in care and the associated concrete physical presence. The chapter highlights the importance of everyday routines, such as meals and rituals, as elements that bring security. Stimuli in daily life, such as handicrafts in groups, pass time but also give older people the experience of meaningful activity and bring back positive memories of their own life. The chapter on words and tones focuses on the social interaction and identity. The volunteers’ identity is built up into the identity of a helper and caregiver. The older people’s identity is built up into a care recipient’s identity, which in different situations is shaped into, among others, the identity of one who listens, remembers, does not remember, defends, composes poetry or is dying. The cornerstones of voluntary social care are participation, activity, trust and presence. Successful volunteer work calls for mutual trust between the older people, volunteers and the health care personnel, and for clear agreements on questions of responsibility, the status of volunteers and their role alongside professional personnel. This study indicates that volunteer work is a meaningful resource in work with older people.

Kaupunkilaisen elinympäristöongelma : Käsitteellistämistavat ja puuttumisen mallit

The study analyses the reaction of urban residents to problems, i.e. disturbing factors, in their living environment, and also their ways of doing something about these problems. It is based on urban-sociological theory on everyday life in a modern metropolis. On this theoretical basis, problems in the urban living environment are analysed in terms of a policy of everyday interference: when urban citizens become aware of a problem in their environment, they face a pattern of behaviour where the norm is polite indifference and negative solidarity. They may feel they ought to do something about the problem, but at the same time, an implicit rule of urban life is not to interfere with other people s lives so they won t interfere with yours. For example, it is not that easy for someone disturbed by littering to complain directly to those who litter the streets. Or if you complain about tobacco smoke from the neighbour s balcony, your neighbours might get cross. Direct interference with a problem in the environment usually implies an encounter with a hitherto unknown counterpart and their possible counter-reaction. The risk is either to lose face or get into downright conflict. Therefore, an easier way may be to complain to the city authorities. The Helsinki City Environment Centre is currently working on solutions for all the various kinds of problems that occur in a dense urban structure. Various ways of conceptualising the problems in the living environment are analysed empirically using theme interviews made with citizens having contacted Helsinki City Environment Centre. A phenomenographic approach and a theory-based categorisation are applied on the analysis of the theme interviews. On the grounds of the analysis, the ways of conceptualising are determined by 1) the difficulty of interfering and convincing other people, which in practice means meddling in other people s business, 2) a territorial struggle for space and a place in a dense urban structure, 3) breaches of rules and norms for social routines in urban life, and 4) a crumbling of the urban identity and all that goes along with that. The analysis of the ways of conceptualisation is deepened using a cultural risk theory. The final outcome of the analysis is four types of behaviour among urban residents with regard to interference with everyday problems in the living environment. They have been called yard police , fence builder , park warden and environmental caretaker . The study combines an urban-sociological approach with the theoretical tradition of urban research and with research on municipal environmental policy.

Muuttoliike ja vetovoimatekijät Helsingissä : - Kyselyaineiston analyysi

This thesis explores migration and the attractiveness of urban living in the Greater Helsinki region. The aim of the thesis is to explore the attractiveness of the city of Helsinki in terms of regional migration and to identify what characterizes migration to Helsinki. The study focuses in particular on housing, which is a key factor influencing migration decisions in the region. Other central themes in the study are housing policy and regional competition among municipalities. This study focuses solely on households moving within Finnish borders excluding international migration. Migration is examined by comparing in- and out-migration in Helsinki, as well as studying migration to the city s inner and outer areas. The primary research material in the study is a questionnaire data collected by the National Consumer Research Centre. In this thesis the data is used for studying migrants aged 25 45. The main research method is analyzing the data statistically using the SPSS software. Methods include frequency analysis, cross tabulation, factor analysis and descriptive analysis. Additionally, statistical data is used to complement the questionnaire data. The research results indicate that Helsinki s in- and out-migration differs both in terms of the type of households that migrate as well as in the reasons why they migrate. Furthermore, differences can also be detected between migration to the inner and outer parts of Helsinki. According to the research results, a household s current phase of life is crucial in determining where and why they move within the Greater Helsinki region. A household s set of values on the other hand, seems to have a lesser impact on migration within the region, even though households moving to Helsinki seem to value a somewhat more urban lifestyle than the ones moving out of the city. The research also shows a direct correlation between the values of migrants and their current phase of life. Decisions of migrating are heavily influenced by wider societal issues. In the Greater Helsinki region the labor and housing market appear to have a great influence on the direction of migration streams. According to the results, households move to and from Helsinki for different reasons. The primary reasons for moving to Helsinki are related to the city s diverse labor market and to the working careers of households. Issues related to urban living and an urban lifestyle seem to be relevant although not the main reason why people move to Helsinki. The research material indicates that Helsinki s urban environment is both a pull and a push factor affecting the decisions of migrants. The city attracts those seeking urban living, but on the contrary does not appeal to households seeking more space and wishing to live closer to nature. According to the research, Helsinki with its densely built urban environment mainly attracts singles and childless couples, whereas the city region s other municipalities are more attractive for families with children. Housing policy is one of the main reasons determining where people move within the Helsinki region. As for the city of Helsinki, improving the city s attractiveness seems to be closely linked to how well the city manages to execute its future housing policies and how well alternative living preferences can be taken into account in planning.

Tests of a Roman Pot Prototype for the TOTEM Experiment

The TOTEM collaboration has developed and tested the first prototype of its Roman Pots to be operated in the LHC. TOTEM Roman Pots contain stacks of 10 silicon detectors with strips oriented in two orthogonal directions. To measure proton scattering angles of a few microradians, the detectors will approach the beam centre to a distance of 10 sigma + 0.5 mm (= 1.3 mm). Dead space near the detector edge is minimised by using two novel "edgeless" detector technologies. The silicon detectors are used both for precise track reconstruction and for triggering. The first full-sized prototypes of both detector technologies as well as their read-out electronics have been developed, built and operated. The tests took place first in a fixed-target muon beam at CERN's SPS, and then in the proton beam-line of the SPS accelerator ring. We present the test beam results demonstrating the successful functionality of the system despite slight technical shortcomings to be improved in the near future.

Sensemaking in the Third Space - Essays on French-Finnish Bicultural Experiences in Organizations and Their Narratives (summary section only)

Research on cross-cultural and intercultural aspects in organizations has been traditionally conducted from an objectivist, functionalist perspective, with culture treated as an independent variable, and often the key explanatory factor. In order to do justice to the ontological relativity of the phenomena studied, more subjectivist research on intercultural interactions, and especially on their relationships with the dynamics of cultural identity construction, is needed. The present research seeks to address this gap by focusing on bicultural interactions in organizations, as they are experienced by the involved individuals. It is argued that such bicultural situations see the emergence of a space of hybridity, which is here called a ‘third space’, and which can be understood as providing ‘occasions for sensemaking’: it is this individual sensemaking that is of particular interest in the empirical narrative study. A first overall aim of the study is to reach an understanding of the dynamics of bicultural interactions in organizations; an understanding not only of the potential for learning and emancipatory sensemaking, but also of the possibility of conflict and alienatory ordering (this is mainly addressed in the theoretical essays 1 and 2). Further, a second overall aim of the study is to analyze the reflexive identity construction of four young French expatriates involved in such bicultural interactions in organizations in Finland, in order to examine the extent to which their expatriation experiences have allowed for an emancipatory opportunity in their cases (in essays 3 and 4). The primary theoretical contribution in this study lies in its new articulation of the dynamics of bicultural interactions in organizations. The ways in which the empirical material is analyzed bring about methodological contributions: since the expatriates’ accounts are bound to be some kind of construction, the analysis is made from angles that point to how the self-narratives construct reality. There are two such angles here: a ‘performative’ one and a ‘spatial’ one. The most important empirical contributions lie in the analysis of, on the one hand, the alternative uses that the young expatriates made of the notion of ‘national culture’ in their self-narratives, and, on the other hand, their ‘narrative practices of the third space’: their politics of escape or stabilization, their exploration of space or search for place, their emancipation from their origin or return to home as only horizon.

Gauge Field Theories, Quantum Space-Time and Some Applications

In this thesis, the possibility of extending the Quantization Condition of Dirac for Magnetic Monopoles to noncommutative space-time is investigated. The three publications that this thesis is based on are all in direct link to this investigation. Noncommutative solitons have been found within certain noncommutative field theories, but it is not known whether they possesses only topological charge or also magnetic charge. This is a consequence of that the noncommutative topological charge need not coincide with the noncommutative magnetic charge, although they are equivalent in the commutative context. The aim of this work is to begin to fill this gap of knowledge. The method of investigation is perturbative and leaves open the question of whether a nonperturbative source for the magnetic monopole can be constructed, although some aspects of such a generalization are indicated. The main result is that while the noncommutative Aharonov-Bohm effect can be formulated in a gauge invariant way, the quantization condition of Dirac is not satisfied in the case of a perturbative source for the point-like magnetic monopole.

Fast- and drift-ice communities in the Bothnian Bay and the impact of UVA radiation on the Baltic Sea ice ecology

The aim of this thesis was to study ecology of Baltic Sea ice from two perspectives. In the first two studies, sea-ice ecology from riverine-influenced fast ice to drift ice in the Bothnian Bay was investigated, whereas the last two studies focus on the sensitivity of sea-ice bacteria and algae to UVA examined in situ. The seasonal sea ice cover is one of the main characteristics of the Baltic Sea, and despite the brackish parental water, the ice structure is similar to polar ice with saline brine inclusions, the sea ice habitat. The decreasing seawater salinity from the northern Baltic Sea to the Bothnian Bay translates to decreasing brine volumes along the gradient, governing the size and community structure of the food webs in ice. However, the drift and fast ice in the Bothnian Bay may differ greatly in this sense, as drift ice may have been formed at more southern locations. Rafting and the formation of snow ice are common processes in the ice field of the Bothnian Bay. As evidenced in this thesis, rafting altered the vertical distribution of organisms and snow-ice formation provided habitable space in the better-illuminated, nitrogen-rich surface layer. The divergence between fast and drift ice became apparent at the more advanced stages, and chlorophyte biomass decreased from fast to drift ice, while the opposite held true for protozoan and metazoan biomass. The brine volumes affected the communities somewhat, and a higher percentage of flagellate species was generally linked to lower brine volumes, whereas chain-forming diatoms were mostly concentrated in layers with larger brine volumes. These results add to knowledge of the ecological significance of the ice cover lasting up to 7 months per year in this area. Sea-ice food webs are generally light-limited, but while increasing light irradiances typically enhance the primary production and further, the secondary production in sea ice, any increase in solar radiation also includes an increase in harmful UVA radiation. The Baltic Sea ice microbial communities were clearly sensitive to UVA and the responses were strongly linked to the earlier light history, as well as to the solar irradiances they were exposed to. The increased biomass of chlorophytes and pennate diatoms, when UVA was excluded, indicates that their normally minor contribution to the biomass in the upper layers of sea ice might be partly dictated by UVA. The effects of UVA on bacterial production in Baltic Sea ice mostly followed the responses in algal growth, but occasionally the exposure to UVA even enhanced the bacterial production. The dominant bacterial class, Flavobacteria, seemed to be UVA-tolerant, whereas all the Alpha-, Beta- and Gammaproteobacteria present in the surface layer showed UVA sensitivity. These results indicate that changes in the light field of ice may alter the community structure and affect the functioning of ice food webs, and are of importance when the effects of thinning of the ice cover are assessed.

Les fleuves dans l'œuvre romanesque de Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio

Relying on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception and on Mircea Eliade's works on the Sacred and the Profane, this study explores the river as a perceptual space and as the sacred Center in a cosmic vision of the world in twelve of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio's fictional works, from The Interrogation (1963) to Revolutions (2003). In the first chapter, after introducing the field of study, I discuss the relation between the radical subjectivity and the evasiveness of perceiving subjects in Le Clézio's fiction. Next are some thoughts on the relation between Merleau-Ponty's and Le Clézio's ideas. The second chapter studies the river as an experience in the text, first as a topographical space, then as a sound world. The investigations move on to its water as a visual and a tactile phenomenon. Then follows the human use of the river, the (absence of) baths, and the river as a traveling space. The chapter closes with the study of the metaphorical use of the word, occurring mainly in urban space and for phenomena in the sky. The third chapter is organized around the river as the Center of the world in a religious cosmogony, where the river represents the origin of the world and of the human race. The core analysis shows how the middle of the river is a symbolic space of a new beginning. As a sacred space, the river abolishes time as the object of contemplation and as relative immobility from the point of view of a person drifting downstream. The functions of a new beginning and of abolition of time are combined in the symbolic immersions in the water. Finally, the dissertation explores other symbolical spaces, such as the unknown destination of the drift, and the river as the Center of a utopia. The chapter closes with the existential agony as a result of the elimination of the Center in the urban environment. In the final chapter, the river is compared to other watercourses : the creek, the brook and the rapids. The river is more of a spatial entity, whereas the actual water is more important in the smaller watercourses. The river is more common than the other watercourses as a topographical element in the landscape, whereas the minor watercourses invite the characters to a closer contact with their element, in immersions and in drinking their water. Finally, the work situates the rivers in a broader context of different fictional spaces in Le Clézio's text.

Playing Games on Sets and Models

The most prominent objective of the thesis is the development of the generalized descriptive set theory, as we call it. There, we study the space of all functions from a fixed uncountable cardinal to itself, or to a finite set of size two. These correspond to generalized notions of the universal Baire space (functions from natural numbers to themselves with the product topology) and the Cantor space (functions from natural numbers to the {0,1}-set) respectively. We generalize the notion of Borel sets in three different ways and study the corresponding Borel structures with the aims of generalizing classical theorems of descriptive set theory or providing counter examples. In particular we are interested in equivalence relations on these spaces and their Borel reducibility to each other. The last chapter shows, using game-theoretic techniques, that the order of Borel equivalence relations under Borel reduciblity has very high complexity. The techniques in the above described set theoretical side of the thesis include forcing, general topological notions such as meager sets and combinatorial games of infinite length. By coding uncountable models to functions, we are able to apply the understanding of the generalized descriptive set theory to the model theory of uncountable models. The links between the theorems of model theory (including Shelah's classification theory) and the theorems in pure set theory are provided using game theoretic techniques from Ehrenfeucht-Fraïssé games in model theory to cub-games in set theory. The bottom line of the research declairs that the descriptive (set theoretic) complexity of an isomorphism relation of a first-order definable model class goes in synch with the stability theoretical complexity of the corresponding first-order theory. The first chapter of the thesis has slightly different focus and is purely concerned with a certain modification of the well known Ehrenfeucht-Fraïssé games. There we (me and my supervisor Tapani Hyttinen) answer some natural questions about that game mainly concerning determinacy and its relation to the standard EF-game

Elämän ja entisyyden maisemat : Kolgujev nenetsien arjessa, muistelussa ja kerronnassa

The dissertation discusses the conceptions of place and landscape amongst Nenets living on the island of Kolguyev or being of Kolguyev descent. The conceptions are examined through the everyday life of the community, oral recollections and narration that unfold meanings related to the island. The research material has been collected in ethnographic fieldwork in 2000 2005. The duration of individual fieldworks varies from two weeks to three months and their total duration is nearly six months. The fieldwork has been conducted both on the island and in the city of Nar yan-Mar. The main methods have been participant observation and recorded and unrecorded informal interviews. In addition to the field work data, archive materials, travel accounts, and other historical texts by outsiders about Kolguyev or the Nenets living in the European side of Russia have been used as a research material. The analysis is based on the idea of the place as a meeting point of the physical features, experiences in them and collective narration about them. The concept sense of place is used to describe the interaction of these three. Lived space manifests individual s or collective sense of place. The places form different kinds of networks of meanings which are called landscapes. Hot spots are places where different meanings accumulate. Furthermore, the material is analysed using the concepts of Tale World and Story Realm by Katherine Young. The Tale World is a realm created during the Story Realm, i.e. the event of narrations. The Tale Worlds are true as such but become evaluated in the Story Realm. The Tale Worlds are seen to arise both from the physical features of a place and from oral tradition, but at the same time these worlds give meanings to the place. The Tale Worlds are one of the central ingredients for the sense of place. One of the most central hot spots in Kolguyev is the arok harbour, where most of the themes of the pre-Soviet Tale Worlds are placed: trade and interaction with the Russians, rituals of the popular religion and arrival of the first Nenets to the island. arok is also part of the landscape of the coast where the meetings of Nenets and the other(s) are generally connected. Furthermore, arok is connected to the network of amans graves but also more generally to the landscape of collective sacred and sacrificial places. Another hot spot is the population centre of Bugrino which unfolds through the evaluations of the Tale Worlds. It also is the centre of the everyday life of the community studied. The Tale Worlds of the radiant past fastens on the population centre which is described through the negative models within the genre of litany. Sacred places, that represent the possibility to meet the Otherworld or mark places were encounters with the Otherworld have taken place, generate many kinds of landscapes in the island. They fasten on the graves of the amans, sirtya tradition, and to collective sacred places with their associations. The networks are not closed systems but are given meanings and new associations continuously in narration and recollection. They form multi-level and significant landscapes which reflect the fastening of the Kolguyev Nenets in the tundra of the island. In the research material the holy places and the popular religiousness are emphasised which is one of the most significant research results. It can be seen to reflect collective resistance and the questioning of the atheistic propaganda of the Soviet years. The narration and the recollection often refer also to the discourse of the anti-religious propaganda or use its strategies. The centrality of the holy places is also based on the tenacity of the religious Tale Worlds and sense of place and to the collective significance of the religion in general.

Imagining Some Space

Some texts and a performance story. All motivated by the author’s interest in space, in this that surrounds, and that interest, in turn, originating from the author’s earlier studies in cultural anthropology, in observing and experiencing the surrounding animate and inanimate world. The texts in this thesis are alternating between academic and creative writing. They are texts written on a specific site on Suomenlinna island in Helsinki, Finland, as part of the performance ”Beyond the Wind in Front of Me / A Space Ship Journey” story or prologues to that, and the more academic ones supporting them or growing out of them, being accompanied also by the thoughts and practices of others. The main research questions and themes being How to perceive this that surrounds me? What is space, what does it consist of? Is it something that simply surrounds me? Am I a part of it or is it a part of me? How can a space be researched? How to activate a space? What kind of mental images do spaces/places create/uncover/open up in us? How to animate/make alive those images? Body giving meaning to space via actions created by the body. Physical environment contra emotional, imaginary, visionary one. Presence in a space/place. Physical and mental presence. Presence in memories.