61 resultados para traditions juridiques autochtones
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The Church in one s heart. The formation of religion and individuation in the lives of Ingrian Finns in the 20th century. Sinikka Haapaniemi University of Helsinki, Finland 302 pages The study falls within the sphere of religious views and the problematique of the life trajectory. The target group comprises those Finnish speakers (Ingrian Finns, Ingrians) living in what was historically Ingermanland and who in varying circumstances became scattered. These times were characterized by pressures for change due to societal reasons and reasons of war. In conditions of change external living conditions matters of religious conviction may assume new meaning and form. The examination focuses on sustaining personal faith in difficult life situations and on how crises affected religious views. Another level of scrutiny takes shape through the terminology of the analytic psychology of C.G. Jung. Individuation is deemed to occur as a cumulative process through the stages of life. The basic data for the study comprises interviews with twenty (20) natives of Ingria and their biographical narratives written in standard language. Many biographical accounts and memoirs serve as secondary data. The interviewees, who were largely selected at random, recounted their lives without questions formulated in advance. The study falls within the field of comparative religion and adheres to the principles of qualitative research practice and the case-study method. Effort was made to get to know each interviewee in the situation which his/her narrative presents. The aim is to pay attention to the interpretations given by the narrators of their various experiences and to understand their meanings on a personal level. The years during which the Ingrians were scattered, wandering and returning raise problems of survival. An individual s own initiative assumes individual forms and emphases. Religion was part of the narrators lives as one factor in the quality of life. Their religious thinking was influenced by both their home upbringing and the teaching of the Church. The interviewees took a serious attitude to the informative teaching of confirmation training. When there was no longer a church, it was claimed that the church travelled with them. Changed circumstances tested the validity of the teachings. The message of the Church institution persisted and helped them to preserve their traditions. A striving for unity and for the presence of a community emerged both in the form of ritual behaviour and in a predilection to sociability. Gradually, as they returned, the activity of the Church of Ingria began to revive. At the turn of the millennium the network of parishes was extensive and cultural activity flourished wherever the Ingrians settled in the postwar decades. Religion is part of the process of individuation. Examination of religion and individuation shows that religion remained an individual view, whose factual base was formed by Christianity and the tradition of the Church. Home upbringing served to orientate, but not to bind. With ageing the importance of independent thought is emphasized, for example in relation to confession, it did not pose a threat to individuality. Keywords: Life story, Religiosity, individuation, Ingrian, the Church of Ingria
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This study addresses the following question: How to think about ethics in a technological world? The question is treated first thematically by framing central issues in the relationship between ethics and technology. This relationship has three distinct facets: i) technological advance poses new challenges for ethics, ii) traditional ethics may become poorly applicable in a technologically transformed world, and iii) the progress in science and technology has altered the concept of rationality in ways that undermine ethical thinking itself. The thematic treatment is followed by the description and analysis of three approaches to the questions framed. First, Hans Jonas s thinking on the ontology of life and the imperative of responsibility is studied. In Jonas s analysis modern culture is found to be nihilistic because it is unable to understand organic life, to find meaning in reality, and to justify morals. At the root of nihilism Jonas finds dualism, the traditional Western way of seeing consciousness as radically separate from the material world. Jonas attempts to create a metaphysical grounding for an ethic that would take the technologically increased human powers into account and make the responsibility for future generations meaningful and justified. The second approach is Albert Borgmann s philosophy of technology that mainly assesses the ways in which technological development has affected everyday life. Borgmann admits that modern technology has liberated humans from toil, disease, danger, and sickness. Furthermore, liberal democracy, possibilities for self-realization, and many of the freedoms we now enjoy would not be possible on a large scale without technology. Borgmann, however, argues that modern technology in itself does not provide a whole and meaningful life. In fact, technological conditions are often detrimental to the good life. Integrity in life, according to him, is to be sought among things and practices that evade technoscientific objectification and commodification. Larry Hickman s Deweyan philosophy of technology is the third approach under scrutiny. Central in Hickman s thinking is a broad definition of technology that is nearly equal to Deweyan inquiry. Inquiry refers to the reflective and experiential way humans adapt to their environment by modifying their habits and beliefs. In Hickman s work, technology consists of all kinds of activities that through experimentation and/or reflection aim at improving human techniques and habits. Thus, in addition to research and development, many arts and political reforms are technological for Hickman. He argues for recasting such distinctions as fact/value, poiesis/praxis/theoria, and individual/society. Finally, Hickman does not admit a categorical difference between ethics and technology: moral values and norms need to be submitted to experiential inquiry as well as all the other notions. This study mainly argues for an interdisciplinary approach to the ethics of technology. This approach should make use of the potentialities of the research traditions in applied ethics, the philosophy of technology, and the social studies on science and technology and attempt to overcome their limitations. This study also advocates an endorsement of mid-level ethics that concentrate on the practices, institutions, and policies of temporal human life. Mid-level describes the realm between the instantaneous and individualistic micro-level and the universal and global macro level.
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Civil War Hero Burials the funerals of the fallen White in Finland in 1918 This study focuses on the burial with honours of fallen White combatants during the Finnish Civil War of 1918, as well as on the reasons underpinning the practice. The main sources of the study included the archives of the White army, the Civil Guard organisation and the Church, as well as the newspapers. The genetic method of history research was used. Both the existing tradition of military burials and the ecclesiastical burial culture influenced the burials of those who fell during the Civil War. The first war hero funerals took place as early as the beginning of February 1918, and the first larger-scale collective funerals were organised in Laihia and Vaasa in the Ostrobothnia province, with the latter attended by the supreme civil and military leaders of White Finland. From early on, these funerals assumed their characteristic features, such as the lion flag a design for the Finnish national flag proposed immediately upon the declaration of the country s independence military parades, lines of honour guards, eulogies, salutes and common war hero graves. As a result of the general offensive begun in mid-March 1918, the numbers of the fallen multiplied, so special organisations were established to handle the burials of the fallen. At the same time, the war hero funerals became more frequent and diffused, and the numbers of the buried grew throughout the country. In early March, the advocates of the republican system of government published their appeal in the newspapers, requesting that collective graves for those who fell in the war prepared in every locality. They motivated their request by stating that it was the funerals in particular that had inspired many men to join the ranks voluntarily in the first place, and that the large collective soldiers graves increased the numbers of those who answered the call and left for the front. The Civil Guard organisation arranged the burials of war heroes. The clergy contributed by officiating the religious service and by clearly aligning themselves with the Whites in their eulogies. The teachings of the Lutheran Church suggest that they found the Whites to be the temporal authority instituted by God, and therefore authorised raising the sword against the Reds. Speaking at the funerals with great pomp and sentimental power, the leaders of the Civil Guard and the exponents of the learned classes instigated their audiences against the Reds. The funeral speeches idealised the war hero s death by recalling military history since the times of ancient Greece. Being of the emblematic colour of the Whites, the white coffin assumed a particular importance connected to ideas of biblical purity and innocence. By the end of May 1918, almost 3,300 Whites were buried in the soldiers graves prepared by the burial organisation in some 400 localities. Only about 200 men remained missing in action or unidentified. The largest common graves accommodated over 60 fallen combatants. Thus, the traditions of the 1918 Civil War directly influenced war hero burial practices, which continued into the Finnish Winter War of 1939.
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Previous scholarship has often maintained that the Gospel of Philip is a collection of Valentinian teachings. In the present study, however, the text is read as a whole and placed into a broader context by searching for parallels from other early Christian texts. Although the Valentinian Christian identity of the Gospel of Philip is not questioned, it is read alongside those texts traditionally labelled as "mainstream Christian". It is obvious from the account of Irenaeus that the boundaries between the Valentinians and other Christians were not as clear or fixed as he probably would have hoped. This study analyzes the Valentinian Christian Gospel of Philip from two points of view: how the text constructs the Christian identity and what kind of Christianity it exemplifies. Firstly, it is observed how the author of the Gospel of Philip places himself and his Christian readers among the early Christianities of the period by emphasizing the common history and Christian features but building especially on particular texts and traditions. Secondly, it is noted how the Christian nature of an individual develops according to the Gospel of Philip. The identity of an individual is built and strengthened through rituals, experiences and teaching. Thirdly, the categorizations, attributes, beliefs and behaviour associated on the one hand with the "insiders", the true Christians, and, on the other, with outsiders in the Gospel of Philip, are analyzed using social identity theory the insiders and outsiders are described through stereotyping in the text. Overall, the study implies that the Gospel of Philip strongly emphasizes spiritual progress and transformation. Rather than depicting the Valentinians as the perfect Christians, it underlines their need for constant change and improvement. Although the author seeks to clearly distinguish the insiders from the outsiders, the boundaries of the categories are in fact fluid in the Gospel of Philip. Outsiders can become insiders and the insiders are also in danger of falling out again.
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"Prayer, a heritage from generation to generation" The elderly and religion in Finland at the turn of the 21st century The strong demographic changes in Europe mean that research on the elderly is highly needed, and also from the viewpoint of their resources and opportunities. Further, it is important to determine, how the elderly could find a meaningful place as members of the chain of generations in our rapidly changing society. The aim of this study was to find out how the elderly build and perceive their place in the society through religious texts. The study was based on religious texts written by elderly people in the study groups of the Finnish pensioners organization Pension Union (Eläkeliitto). These 943 short prayers, poems, and aphorisms were collected during the Tree of Life (Elämänpuu) project in 1998-1999 and were then analysed applying qualitative content analysis and grounded theory methodology. The social construction of aging and the view of communication as a collective signifying process were used as the mainstays of the research perspective. The themes brought forward by the elderly writers were grouped around three key themes: the self, the world and religion. In this examination religion with its forms of expression appeared to be deeply rooted to each of these themes and thus seems a vital part of the elderly writers' culture. In connection with the theme of the self, the religious forms of expression provided a means of building a coherent and culturally accepted self-image which is further supported by positive views of personal history and current life situation. In relation to the world theme, the elderly writers stressed the importance of close social relationships and at the same time expressed anxiety with regard to the changing world. Concerning the theme of religion, the religious forms of expression were first and foremost used in building and creating a sense of personal safety and a belief in the future. The study suggests that skill in the use of religious language enable the elderly to cope with equivocal life events and cognitive dissonance. At the social level the religious forms of expression seemed to connect the writers to the Finnish linguistic culture and identity, as well as to the collective memory, where religion plays a central part. By using religious language the elderly both exploit and maintain these considerable social resources. The key result of the study is that the elderly were found to have a significant and separate role in the continuity and well-being of society. Bound to the religious tradition, the elderly seem to carry significant information as regards the identity of the Finnish people, information which is essentially passed on to future generations. By sustaining traditions and thus the collective identity, they perform a uniquely productive task and their life experience could be seen as a particular type of capital in the society. This result also raises a grave question: Will the elderly of the future be able to undertake this task that so profoundly requires religious literacy?
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The study Slogans of Change. Three Outlooks on Finnish Television Contents is concerned with alleged changes of television contents during the 1990s and 2000s, such as dumbing down, tabloidisation, entertainisation , and the like. Specifically, the focus is on the ways these changes might manifest in Finnish television. The aim of the study has been threefold: 1. To operationalise public and academic discussions about changes via specific slogans emerging from the debates; 2. Consequently, to study the slogans empirically and reflect on the findings with earlier research, including studies on institutional and audience-related aspects; 3. Finally, to suggest what the findings might mean regarding discussions about television s role, and what kinds of slogans or concepts might best serve future discussions and research. The empirical outlooks presented in this study offer analyses with three different sets of opposing slogans of change. The outlooks also follow three different traditions of the study of television. The first outlook focuses on quantity, as it gives a longitudinal (1993-2004), macro-level view on programme structures. The methodological approach is derived from media economic and policy studies. The claims that frame the analysis are convergence versus diversification of programme structures. The second outlook provides quantitative and qualitative views on the characteristics and quality the term signifying essence as well as worth of Finnish television journalism during sample weeks from the years 2002 and 2003. This outlook follows the traditions of quantitative content analysis found in journalism studies coupled with descriptive qualitative content analyses. The slogans reflected in this section are the lightening or widening of journalism. The third outlook narrows down the material and focuses at a micro-level on form; that is, communicative conventions in a small array of selected programmes in 1993, 2000 and during 2002-2004. The analyses have been inspired by the method of conversation analysis of verbal interaction, and coupled with qualitative close readings, with the focus of different communicative situations in the programmes. The catchphrases employed in this part are emotainment versus democratainment, coupled with more specific claims of discursive hybridisation and conversationalisation. The findings depict that, empirically, changes in Finnish television contents are not clear linear trends and cannot easily be moulded into neat slogans. The quantitative outlook on programme output during 1993-2004 depicts a tendency towards differentiation of channels, paving the way for the multi-channel digital system. The change in programme structures, however, is not dramatic on the level of total output. The second outlook suggests that the dualistic concepts, such as the pair information-entertainment, are not sufficient in understanding the array and changes of programmes that could be called journalism. The outlook on communicative conventions highlights hybridisation in the manner of television talk and its relation to broader debates on contents. Despite the three dissimilar empirical approaches, unifying aspects emerge. The outlooks suggest, albeit in different ways, tendencies toward distinction and polarisation. This study proposes that in order to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the changes in television contents, dualistic slogans should be replaced with a multi-dimensional understanding of the concept of diversity.
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This study examines gendered housework in India, particularly in Bihar. The perspective adopted in the study was in part derived from the data but also from sociological literature published both in Western countries and in India. The primary attention is therefore paid to modern and traditional aspects in housework. The aim is not to compare Indian practices to those of Western societies, but rather to use Western studies as a fruitful reference point. In that light, Indian housework practices appear to be traditional. Consequently, traditions are given a more significant role than is usually the case in studies on gendered housework, particularly in Western countries. The study approaches the topic mainly from the socio-cultural perspective; this provides the best means to understand the persistence of traditional habits in India. To get a wide enough picture of the division of labour, three methods were applied in the study: detailed time-use data, questionnaire and theme interviews. The data were collected in 1988 in two districts of Bihar, one rural and the other urban. The different data complement each other well but also bring to light contradictory findings: on a general level Biharian people express surprisingly modern views on gender equality but when talking in more detail (theme interviews) the interviewees told about how traditional housework practices still were in 1988. In the analysis of the data set four principal themes are discussed. Responsibility is the concept by which the study aims at understanding the logic of the argumentation on which the persistence of traditional housework practices is grounded. Contrary to the Western style, Biharian respondents appealed not to the principle of choice but to their responsibility to do what has to be done. The power of tradition, the early socialization of children to the traditional division of labour and the elusive nature of modernity are all discussed separately. In addition to the principle of responsibility, housework was also seen as an expression of affection. This was connected to housework in general but also to traditional practices. The purity principle was the third element that made Biharian interviewees favour housework in general, but as in the case of affection it too was interwoven with traditional practices. It seems to be so that if housework is in general preferred, this leads to preferring the traditional division of labour, too. The same came out when examining economic imperatives. However, the arguments concerning them proved to be rational. In analysing them it became clear that the significance of traditions is also much dependent on the economics: as far as the average income in India is very low, the prevalence of traditional practices in housework will continue. However, to make this work, cultural arguments are required: their role is to mediate more smoothly the iron rules of the economy. Key words: family, gendered housework, division of labour, responsibility, family togetherness, emotion, economy of housework, modernity, traditionality
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This study investigates primary and secondary school teachers’ social representations and ways to conceptualise new technologies. The focus is both on teachers’ descriptions, interpretations and conceptions of technology and on the adoption and formation of these conceptions. In addition, the purpose of this study is to analyse how the national objectives of the information society and the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) in schools reflect teachers’ thinking and everyday practices. The starting point for the study is the idea of a dynamic and mutual relationship between teachers and technology so that technology does not affect one-sidedly teachers’ thinking. This relationship is described in this study as the teachers’ technology relationship. This concept emphasises that technology cannot be separated from society, social relations and the context where it is used but it is intertwined with societal practices and is therefore formed in interaction with the material and social factors. The theoretical part of this study encompasses three different research traditions: 1) the social shaping of technology, 2) research on how schools and teachers use technology and 3) social representations theory. The study was part of the Helmi Project (Holistic development of e-Learning and business models) in 2001–2005 at the Helsinki University of Technology, SimLab research unit. The Helmi Project focused on different aspects of the utilisation of ICT in teaching. The research data consisted of interviews of teachers and principals. Altogether 37 interviews were conducted in 2003 and 2004 in six different primary and secondary schools in Espoo, Finland. The data was analysed applying grounded theory. The results showed that the teachers’ technology relationship was diverse and context specific. Technology was interpreted differently depending on the context: the teachers’ technology related descriptions and metaphors illustrated on one hand the benefits and the possibilities and on the other hand the problems and threats of different technologies. The dualist nature of technology was also expressed in the teachers’ thinking about technology as a deterministic and irrevocable force and as a controllable and functional tool at the same time. Teachers did not consider technology as having a stable character but they interpreted technology in relation to the variable context of use. This way they positioned or anchored technology into their everyday practices. The study also analysed the formation of the teachers’ technology relationship and the ways teachers familiarise themselves with new technologies. Comparison of different technologies as well as technology related metaphors turned out to be significant in forming the technology relationship. Also the ways teachers described the familiarisation process and the interpretations of their own technical skills affected the formation of technology relationship. In addition, teachers defined technology together with other teachers, and the discussions reflected teachers’ interpretations and descriptions.
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Evaluation of entrepreneurship in the speech of academic students and newly qualified young academics a summary of a qualitative attitude study. In Finland very few university students plan to become entrepreneurs. The aim of this research was to examine entrepreneurial attitudes expressed in speech. The material was gathered from interviews with university students and newly qualified young academic adults. The interviewees commented on twelve different sentences with claims formulated using research literature and views that have appeared in public discussions. The interviewees were divided into three different groups based on their self-expressed entrepreneurial intentions. The method of qualitative attitude research (Vesala & Rantanen 1999, 2007) was used in the interviews. The research material was studied using two interpretative theories: (1) The planned behaviour theory (Ajzen 1985, 1991a, b), which makes it possible to focus on the separate elements (attitude towards an act, subjective norms and perceived feasibility) necessary for intentions to develop; and (2) The theory of the two images of entrepreneurship (Vesala 1996), where individualism and relationism can be seen as resources for evaluating entrepreneurship. The subject of the research was how university students and newly qualified young adults viewed entrepreneurship as a general phenomen and in relation to the academic world. A second focus was on the attitudes expressed toward entrepreneurial university education and the possibility of combining entrepreneurship and academic knowledge. Of interest were also questions such as whether academic studies, knowledge and the university itself are resources or barriers to entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurship whether university students received any support for their entrepreneurial ambitions from the university and their fellow academic students. The problems tackled by this research were thus the following: How was entrepreneurship seen, both as a general phenomen and in an academic context, when it was evaluated positively, negatively or neutrally by the interviewees? In what way was entrepreneurship constructed in the interviewees attitudes? How were entrepreneurship and the academic world related in the interviewees attitudes? What kind of role did the university as an academic context play in the interviewees attitudes for example were university education and academic knowledge seen as resources or barriers to their entrepreneurial intentions. Traditional attitude studies claim that attitudes are a stable property of an individual. In contrast, rhetorical social psychological and qualitative attitude studies emphasize the contextual and linguistic aspects of attitude, and they offered an alternative viewpoint for this research. The study was based on two general assumptions: attitudes have objects and are evaluative. Here attitude was defined as an evaluative interpresentation made towards an object; adopting an attitude is a contextual process in the sense that attitudes are always concerned with the action context of the persons presenting them. Entrepreneurship, both as a general phenomen and in an academic context, was specified as the object to which an attitude was taken. From a theoretical point of view, qualitative methods suited the general structure of this research well. In a particular, qualitative approach which emphasized contextual elements proved to be both empirically valid and useful for avoiding the problematic assumptions associated with traditional attitude study. The subject of the analysis was the argumentative speech produced by the interviewees. The results of the study show the subjects responses to three main ways of viewing entrepreneurships. The first was an individualistic, ideal image of entrepreneurship. This was mostly evaluated positively and gained wide approval especially among interviewees who included entrepreneurship among their employment choices. Entrepreneurship was seen as the decision to earn one s living independently. In this individualistic image of entrepreneurship, the social context was hardly ever mentioned. Elements which were seen to threaten this ideal image were evaluated negatively. When entrepreneurship was evaluated negatively using the individualistic image of entrepreneurship, it was mentioned that it forced one into a never ending cycle of work and uninterested duties. The relationistic image of entrepreneurship was used as a speech resource when the social context was constructed as an economic resource or a threat to the ideal image of entrepreneurship. In the second view, entrepreneurship was characteristically seen as being based on economics, which was seen as a threat to the ideal individualistic image of entrepreneurship. The risk of economic failure was seen as a limiting factor to entrepreneurial ambitions as it forced entrepreneurs to work around the clock. The third view concerned the relationship between entrepreneurship and the academic world. Entrepreneurship as an employment choice for university educated persons was evaluated as relevant, and thus positively, when university education was constructed as a resource for entrepreneurship - and irrelevant and thus negatively when it was construed as an obstacle, too wide, or when successful entrepreneurship was seen as being mostly based on an individual s personal characteristics. The interviewees with no entrepreneurial intentions expressed the view that academic education didn t provide the proper skills and knowledge for entrepreneurship. The interviewees also expressed interest in university entrepreneurship education, although none had experience on this. The interviewees emphasized the fact that the University didn t encourage them to consider entrepreneurship as a relevant employment choice. The assumption made by this study was that becoming an entrepreneur is a conscious decision, the environment may influence an individual s decisions on how to make a living as it tends to socialise people to act in accordance with cultural traditions. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Attitudes towards entrepreneurship, Intentional behaviour, Entrepreneurial intention, University entrepreneurship education, Qualitative attitude research (Vesala & Rantanen 1999, 2007), Rhetorical social psychology (Billig 1986), The theory of entrepreneuship s two images: individualism and relationism (Vesala 1996 ), The planned behaviour theory (Ajzen 1985, 1991a, b)
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The goal of this study was to examine the role of organizational causal attribution in understanding the relation of work stressors (work-role overload, excessive role responsibility, and unpleasant physical environment) and personal resources (social support and cognitive coping) to such organizational-attitudinal outcomes as work engagement, turnover intention, and organizational identification. In some analyses, cognitive coping was also treated as an organizational outcome. Causal attribution was conceptualized in terms of four dimensions: internality-externality, attributing the cause of one’s successes and failures to oneself, as opposed to external factors, stability (thinking that the cause of one’s successes and failures is stable over time), globality (perceiving the cause to be operative on many areas of one’s life), and controllability (believing that one can control the causes of one’s successes and failures). Several hypotheses were derived from Karasek’s (1989) Job Demands–Control (JD-C) model and from the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner & Schaufeli, 2001). Based on the JD-C model, a number of moderation effects were predicted, stating that the strength of the association of work stressors with the outcome variables (e.g. turnover intentions) varies as a function of the causal attribution; for example, unpleasant work environment is more strongly associated with turnover intention among those with an external locus of causality than among those with an internal locuse of causality. From the JD-R model, a number of hypotheses on the mediation model were derived. They were based on two processes posited by the model: an energy-draining process in which work stressors along with a mediating effect of causal attribution for failures deplete the nurses’ energy, leading to turnover intention, and a motivational process in which personal resources along with a mediating effect of causal attribution for successes foster the nurses’ engagement in their work, leading to higher organizational identification and to decreased intention to leave the nursing job. For instance, it was expected that the relationship between work stressors and turnover intention could be explained (mediated) by a tendency to attribute one’s work failures to stable causes. The data were collected from among Finnish hospital nurses using e-questionnaires. Overall 934 nurses responded the questionnaires. Work stressors and personal resources were measured by five scales derived from the Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised (Osipow, 1998). Causal attribution was measured using the Occupational Attributional Style Questionnaire (Furnham, 2004). Work engagement was assessed through the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (Schaufeli & al., 2002), turnover intention by the Van Veldhoven & Meijman (1994) scale, and organizational identification by the Mael & Ashforth (1992) measure. The results provided support for the function of causal attribution in the overall work stress process. Findings related to the moderation model can be divided into three main findings. First, external locus of causality along with job level moderated the relationship between work overload and cognitive coping. Hence, this interaction was evidenced only among nurses in non-supervisory positions. Second, external locus of causality and job level together moderated the relationship between physical environment and turnover intention. An opposite pattern of interaction was found for this interaction: among nurses, externality exacerbated the effect of perceived unpleasantness of the physical environment on turnover intention, whereas among supervisors internality produced the same effect. Third, job level also disclosed a moderation effect for controllability attribution over the relationship between physical environment and cognitive coping. Findings related to the mediation model for the energetic process indicated that the partial model in which work stressors have also a direct effect on turnover intention fitted the data better. In the mediation model for the motivational process, an intermediate mediation effect in which the effects of personal resources on turnover intention went through two mediators (e.g., causal dimensions and organizational identification) fitted the data better. All dimensions of causal attribution appeared to follow a somewhat unique pattern of mediation effect not only for energetic but also for motivational processes. Overall findings on mediation models partly supported the two simultaneous underlying processes proposed by the JD-R model. While in the energetic process the dimension of externality mediated the relationship between stressors and turnover partially, all the dimensions of causal attribution appeared to entail significant mediator effects in the motivational process. The general findings supported the moderation effect and the mediation effect of causal attribution in the work stress process. The study contributes to several research traditions, including the interaction approach, the JD-C, and the JD-R models. However, many potential functions of organizational causal attribution are yet to be evaluated by relevant academic and organizational research. Keywords: organizational causal attribution, optimistic / pessimistic attributional style, work stressors, organisational stress process, stressors in nursing profession, hospital nursing, JD-R model, personal resources, turnover intention, work engagement, organizational identification.
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The purpose of this work is to use the concepts of human time and cultural trauma in a biographical study of the turning points in the recent history of Estonia. This research is primarily based on 148 in-depth biographical interviews conducted in Estonia and Sweden in 1995-2005, supplemented by excerpts from 5 collections and 10 individually published autobiographies. The main body of the thesis consists of six published and of two forthcoming separate refereed articles, summarised in the theoretical introduction, and Appendix of the full texts of three particular life stories. The topic of the first article is the generational composition and the collective action frames of anti-Soviet social mobilisation in Estonia in 1940-1990. The second article details the differentiation of the rites of passage and the calendar traditions as a strategy to adapt to the rapidly changed political realities, comparatively in Soviet Estonia and among the boat-refugees in Sweden. The third article investigates the life stories of the double-minded strategic generation of the Estonian-inclined Communists, who attempted to work within the Soviet system while professing to uphold the ideals of pre-war Estonia. The fourth article is concentrated on the problems of double mental standards as a coping strategy in a contradictory social reality. The fifth article implements the theory of cultural trauma for the social practice of singing nationalism in Estonia. The sixth article bridges the ideas of Russian theoreticians concerning cultural dialogue and the Western paradigm of cultural trauma, with examples from Estonian Russian life stories. The seventh article takes a biographical look at the logic of the unraveling of cultural trauma through four Soviet decades. The eighth article explores the re-shaping of citizen activities as a strategy of coping with the loss of the independent nation state, comparatively in Soviet Estonia and among Swedish Estonians. Cultural trauma is interpreted as the re-ordering of the society s value-normative constellation due to sharp, violent, usually political events. The first one under consideration was caused by the occupations of the Republic of Estonia by the Soviet army in 1940-45. After half a century of suppression the memories of these events resurfaced as different stories describing the long-term, often inter-generational strategies of coping with the value collapse. The second cultural trauma is revealed together with the collapse of the Soviet power and ideology in Estonia in 1991. According to empirical data, the following three trauma discourses have been reconstructed: - the forced adaptation to Soviet order of the homeland Estonians; - the difficulty of preserving Estonian identity in exile (Sweden); - the identity crisis of the Russian population of Estonia. Comparative analyses of these discourses have shown that opposing experiences and worldviews cause conflicting interpretations of the past. Different social and ethnic groups consider coping with cultural trauma as a matter of self-defence and create appropriate usable pasts to identify with. Keywords: human time, cultural trauma, frame analysis, discourse, life stories
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The dissertation analyzes Finnish consensual culture in public discussion and journalism in Helsingin Sanomat (HS). The consensual Finnish political culture has evolved and persisted over a long period of time and it has been affected by historical circumstances as well as the dynamics of political and journalistic structures and actors. A historical chronology is drawn in the study regarding the nature and development of consensus culture in 20th century Finland. This political culture is traced by looking at public discussion on globalization at the turn of the millennium. Globalization as a concept has been contested and various societal actors have given different meanings to it. This research looks at how the globalization discussion in HS during the years 1992-2004 constructs consensus. Helsingin Sanomat (and its predecessor Päivälehti) has been an important actor in Finnish journalism and the public sphere almost since its founding 120 years ago. The history of the paper is tightly connected to Finland s general political history and history of the public sphere. Moreover, the paper s connections to the societal elite have always been close. The central question in this research was to see how the globalization discussion in HS evolved in relation to consensus as well as legitimate controversies. As a result it is stated that the globalization question has clearly divided the Finnish societal actors. The most powerful societal elites (government, most civil servants, corporate sector) had a profile of being pro globalization. They communicated their globalization strategy as a national, unified way of thinking. Other elites which have been losing their influence (the president, labor union, part of members of parliament), as well as civil society actors tried to bring forward conflicting views in relation to globalization. The paper did give some room to these elements, but on the other hand it also tried to keep up the consensual discussion culture especially in the editorial section. In line with its traditions Helsingin Sanomat strived to create national unity. At the same time it did not give adequate attention to the changes brought about by globalization to the positions and roles of various elites and civil society actors. In this discussion HS seemed more like a medium of the state than as a critical and independent actor. Journalism has an important role in upholding and also reviving the Finnish political culture and public discussion. From this point of view it is problematic if the area of so called legitimate controversy in broad societal questions like globalization becomes very limited. As the Finnish elites are small and there is no considerable competition between them, journalism should actively bring up controversial issues. This task becomes complicated, however, if the elite circles are closed up and no initiatives come from their ranks. Political decision making as well as democracy can suffer, if issues are not brought to the public agenda.
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The smoke and fumes of the city: Air protection in Helsinki from 1945 to 1982 This dissertation examines air pollution and air protection in post-war Helsinki. The period studied ends in 1982 when the Air Protection Act entered into force, thus institutionalising air protection in Finland as a socially governed environmental matter. The dissertation is based on the research traditions of environmental politics and urban environmental history. The development of air protection is approached from the perspectives of politicisation and institutionalisation. The dissertation also investigates how air pollution grew into a social issue and presents various discursive ways of analysing air pollution and protection. The primary research material consists of municipal documents and newspapers, while supplementary material includes journal articles and interviews. The event history of air protection is described through an analysis of the material, including source criticism. The social ways of dealing with air pollution and the emergence of air protection are analysed in the light of case-specific air quality disputes from both factual and discursive perspectives. This approach enables the contextualisation of the development of air protection as part of the local history of post-war Helsinki. The dissertation presents the major sources of air pollution in Helsinki and describes the deterioration of air quality in a society which emphasised the primacy of economic prosperity. The air issue emerged during the 1950s in neighbourhood disputes and was exacerbated into a larger problem in the late 1960s. Concurrent to the formation of the field of environmental protection in Finland, an air protection organisation was established in the 1970s in Helsinki. As a result, air protection became a regular part of municipal government. Air protection in Helsinki developed from small-scale policies focused on individual cases into a large, institutionalised air protection system managed by experts. The dissertation research material gave rise to the following major research themes: the economic dimension of the air issue, the role of science in the formation of the environmental problem, and the establishment of norms for acceptable air quality and reasonable limits to air pollution in the urban environment. The paper also discusses the inequitable distribution of the negative effects of air pollution between the residents of different districts. The dissertation concludes that air protection in Helsinki became a local success story although it was long marred by inefficiency and partial failure.
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The thesis The portrait interview as a newspaper genre. A qualitative close reading focussing on topical motifs, conventions of narration, and gender defines the portrait interview as a newspaper genre and analyses how the personalities in the portraits are constructed textually. The main body of material consists of 107 portrait interviews in two morning newspapers, Dagens Nyheter (published in Stockholm, Sweden) and Hufvudstadsbladet (published in Swedish in Helsinki, Finland), during two one-week periods (week 46/1999 and week 38/2002). There is also complementary material of 59 portraits from four magazines. The study is carried out within the research traditions of journalistic genre studies, gender and journalism, and critical text analysis. It is comprised of a qualitative close reading focussing on content (topical motifs or themes), conventions of narration, and gender. The methods used to carry out the study are qualitative close reading and quantitative content analysis. The analysis identifies the stylistic elements that differentiate the portrait genre from other journalistic genres, as well as from the autobiographical genre, and explores what opportunities and limitations these elements present for the inclusion of even more women protagonists in the portrait genre. The portrait interview is an exception from the critical mission of journalism in general, with its position as a genre of politeness. Since a typical characteristic of the portrait interview genre is that it pays tribute to the protagonist, the genre reveals the kind of personalities and lives that are seen as admirable in society. Four levels of portrait interview are defined: the prototype portrait, the pure portrait, the hybrid portrait and the marginal portrait. The prototype is a raw version of a portrait that fulfils the criteria but may be lacking in content and stylistics. The pure portrait does not lack these qualities and resembles an ideal portrait. The hybrid is a borderline case which relates to another genre or is a mixture between the portrait and some other genre, most commonly the news genre. The marginal portrait does not fulfil the criteria, and can therefore be seen as an inadequate portrait. For example, obituaries and caricatures are excluded if the protagonist s voice is never quoted. The analysis resulted in three factors that in part help to explain why the portrait interview genre has somewhat more female protagonists than journalistic news texts do in general. The four main reasons why women are presented somewhat more in the portrait genre than in other journalistic genres are: (i) women are shown as exceptions to the female norm when, for example, taking a typical male job or managing in positions where there are few women; (ii) women are shown as representing female themes ; (iii) use of the double bind as a story-generating factor; and (iv) the intimisation of journalism. The double bind usually builds up the narration on female ambiguity in the contradiction between private and public life, for example family and career, personal desire and work. The intimisation of journalism and the double bind give women protagonists somewhat more publicity also because of the tendency of portrait interviews to create conflicts within the protagonist, as an exception to journalism in general where conflicts are created or seen as existing between, for example, persons, groupings or parties. Women protagonists and their lives create an optimal narration of inner conflicts originating in the double bind as men are usually not seen as suffering from these conflicts. The analysis also resulted in gendered portrait norms: The feminine portrait norm and the masculine portrait norm or more concretely, professional life and family life as expectation and exception. Women are expected to be responsible parents and mediocre professionals, while men are expected to be professionals and in their free time engaging fathers. Key words: journalism, genre, portrait interview, gender, interview, newspaper, women s magazine.
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This study analyses Augustine s concept of concupiscentia, or evil desire (together with two cognate terms, libido and cupiditas) in the context of his entire oeuvre. By the aid of systematic analysis, the concept and its development is explored in four distinct ways. It is claimed that Augustine used the concept of concupiscentia for several theological purposes, and the task of the study is to represent these distinct functions, and their connections to Augustine s general theological and philosophical convictions. The study opens with a survey on terminology. A general overview of the occurrences of the negatively connoted words for desire in Latin literature precedes a corresponding examination of Augustine s own works. In this introductory chapter it is shown that, despite certain preferences in the uses of the words, a sufficient degree of synonymy reigns so as to allow an analysis of the concept without tightly discriminating between the terms. The theological functions of concupiscentia with its distinct contexts are analysed in separate chapters. The function of concupiscentia as a divine punishment is explored first (Ch 3). It is seen how Augustine links together concupiscentia and ideas about divine justice, and finally suggests that in the inordinate, psychologically experienced sexual desire, the original theological disobedience of Adam and Eve can be perceived. Augustine was criticized for this solution already in his own times, and the analysis of the function of concupiscentia as a divine punishment ends in a discussion on the critical response of punitive concupiscentia by Julian of Aeclanum. Augustine also attached to concupiscentia another central theological function by viewing evil desire as an inward originating cause for all external evil actions. In the study, this function is analysed by surveying two formally distinct images of evil desire, i.e. as the root (radix) of all evil, and as a threefold (triplex) matrix of evil actions (Ch 4). Both of these images were based on a single verse of the Bible (1 Jn 2, 16 and 1 Tim 6, 10). This function of concupiscentia was formed both parallel to, and in answer to, Manichaean insights into concupiscentia. Being familiar with the traditional philosophical discussions on the nature and therapy of emotions, Augustine situated concupiscentia also into this context. It is acknowledged that these philosophical traditions had an obvious impact into his way of explaining psychological processes in connection with concupiscentia. Not only did Augustine implicitly receive and exploit these traditions, but he also explicitly moulded and criticized them in connection with concupiscentia. Eventually, Augustine conceives the philosophical traditions of emotions as partly useful but also partly inadequate to deal with concupiscentia (Ch 5). The role of concupiscentia in connection to divine grace and Christian renewal is analysed in the final chapter of the study. Augustine s gradual development in internalizing the effects of concupiscentia also into the life of a baptized Christian are elucidated, as are the strong limitations and mitigations Augustine makes to the concept when attaching it into the life under grace (sub gratia). A crucial part in the development of this function is played by Augustine s changing interpretation of Rom 7, and the way concupiscentia appears in Augustine s readings of this text is therefore also analysed. As a result of the analysis of these four distinct functions and contexts of concupiscentia, it is concluded that Augustine s concept of concupiscentia is fairly tightly and coherently connected to his views of central theological importance. Especially the functions of concupiscentia as a punishment and the function of concupiscentia in Christian renewal were both tightly interwoven into Augustine s view of God s being and God s grace. The study shows the importance of reading Augustine s discussions on evil desire with a constant awareness of their role in their larger context, that is, of their function in each situation. The study warns against too simplistic and unifying readings of Augustine s concupiscentia, emphasizing the need to acknowledge both the necessitating, sinful aspects of concupiscentia, and the domesticated features of concupiscentia during Christian renewal.