30 resultados para Cultural dependence

em Helda - Digital Repository of University of Helsinki


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Kirjallisuuden- ja kulttuurintutkimus on viimeisten kolmen vuosikymmenen aikana tullut yhä enenevässä määrin tietoiseksi tieteen ja taiteen suhteen monimutkaisesta luonteesta. Nykyään näiden kahden kulttuurin tutkimus muodostaa oman kenttänsä, jolla niiden suhdetta tarkastellaan ennen kaikkea dynaamisena vuorovaikutuksena, joka heijastaa kulttuurimme kieltä, arvoja ja ideologisia sisältöjä. Toisin kuin aiemmat näkemykset, jotka pitävät tiedettä ja taidetta toisilleen enemmän tai vähemmän vastakkaisina pyrkimyksinä, nykytutkimus lähtee oletuksesta, jonka mukaan ne ovat kulttuurillisesti rakentuneita diskursseja, jotka kohtaavat usein samankaltaisia todellisuuden mallintamiseen liittyviä ongelmia, vaikka niiden käyttämät metodit eroavatkin toisistaan. Väitöskirjani keskittyy yllä mainitun suhteen osa-alueista popularisoidun tietokirjallisuuden (muun muassa Paul Davies, James Gleick ja Richard Dawkins) käyttämän kielen ja luonnontieteistä ideoita ammentavan kaunokirjallisuuden (muun muassa Jeanette Winterson, Tom Stoppard ja Richard Powers) hyödyntämien keinojen tarkasteluun nojautuen yli 30 teoksen kattavaa aineistoa koskevaan tyylin ja teemojen tekstianalyysiin. Populaarin tietokirjallisuuden osalta tarkoituksenani on osoittaa, että sen käyttämä kieli rakentuu huomattavassa määrin sellaisille rakenteille, jotka tarjoavat mahdollisuuden esittää todellisuutta koskevia argumentteja mahdollisimman vakuuttavalla tavalla. Tässä tehtävässä monilla klassisen retoriikan määrittelemillä kuvioilla on tärkeä rooli, koska ne auttavat liittämään sanotun sisällön ja muodon tiukasti toisiinsa: retoristen kuvioiden käyttö ei näin ollen edusta pelkkää tyylikeinoa, vaan se myös usein kiteyttää argumenttien taustalla olevat tieteenfilosofiset olettamukset ja auttaa vakiinnuttamaan argumentoinnin logiikan. Koska monet aikaisemmin ilmestyneistä tutkimuksista ovat keskittyneet pelkästään metaforan rooliin tieteellisissä argumenteissa, tämä väitöskirja pyrkii laajentamaan tutkimuskenttää analysoimalla myös toisenlaisten kuvioiden käyttöä. Osoitan myös, että retoristen kuvioiden käyttö muodostaa yhtymäkohdan tieteellisiä ideoita hyödyntävään kaunokirjallisuuteen. Siinä missä popularisoitu tiede käyttää retoriikkaa vahvistaakseen sekä argumentatiivisia että kaunokirjallisia ominaisuuksiaan, kuvaa tällainen sanataide tiedettä tavoilla, jotka usein heijastelevat tietokirjallisuuden kielellisiä rakenteita. Toisaalta on myös mahdollista nähdä, miten kaunokirjallisuuden keinot heijastuvat popularisoidun tieteen kerrontatapoihin ja kieleen todistaen kahden kulttuurin dynaamisesta vuorovaikutuksesta. Nykyaikaisen populaaritieteen retoristen elementtien ja kaunokirjallisuuden keinojen vertailu näyttää lisäksi, kuinka tiede ja taide osallistuvat keskusteluun kulttuurimme tiettyjen peruskäsitteiden kuten identiteetin, tiedon ja ajan merkityksestä. Tällä tavoin on mahdollista nähdä, että molemmat ovat perustavanlaatuisia osia merkityksenantoprosessissa, jonka kautta niin tieteelliset ideat kuin ihmiselämän suuret kysymyksetkin saavat kulttuurillisesti rakentuneen merkityksensä.

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Tutkielmassa selvitetään englanti lingua francana (ELF) -näkökulman ilmenemistä kulttuurin ja sen opettamisen periaatteissa. Tarkastelun kohteina ovat viimeaikaiset kielenopetuksen ohjenuoria käsittelevät ohjelmat Euroopassa ja Suomessa: Euroopan neuvoston julkaisema Eurooppalainen viitekehys ja Suomen perus- ja lukio-opetuksen uusimmat vieraiden kielten opetussuunnitelmat. Tutkielmassa sovelletaan kriittisen diskurssianalyysin kolmiportaista analyysikehystä, jonka kuvausosiossa Viitekehyksestä analysoidaan esiin kulttuurisia diskursseja, tulkintaosiossa aineistoa tarkastellaan Euroopan neuvoston kielipolitiikan osana, ja selitysosiossa sitä verrataan opetussuunnitelmista hahmotettuihin diskursseihin. Viitekehyksestä nousi esiin neljä keskeistä diskurssia: 1) kohdekulttuuri-, 2) kulttuurien monimuotoisuus-, 3) monikulttuurisuus- ja 4) oppilaskeskeisyysdiskurssit. Näistä kahdessa viimeisessä oli piirteitä, joiden voi katsoa tukevan ELF-näkökulmaa. Tällaisia olivat mm. usean kulttuurin välillä liikkuminen ja oppilaiden tarpeiden korostaminen. Sen sijaan opetussuunnitelmissa keskitytään ELF:n kannalta liian kapea-alaisesti vain äidinkielisten ja ei-äidinkielisten väliseen viestintään. ELF-lähestymistavan kannalta olisikin tärkeää ymmärtää, että kansainvälisessä viestinnässä englannin kieltä ei voi yhdistää tiettyyn kohdekulttuuriin ja että monikielitaitoisuuden ja lingua francan ei tarvitse olla ristiriidassa keskenään.

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Pro gradu –tutkielman aiheena on kulttuurin ominaispiirteiden kääntäminen. Teksteissä kulttuurin jälki voi näkyä monin eri tavoin. Tutkielman kohteena ovat erityisesti käännösstrategiat, joita kääntäjät käyttävät kohdatessaan kulttuurisidonnaisia viittauksia. Tutkielma nostaa esiin myös niitä tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat siihen, minkälaisia käännösstrategioita kääntäjät valitsevat. Näistä tekijöistä tutkielma keskittyy kääntämisen normeihin. Tutkielma pureutuu kulttuurisidonnaisten viitteiden kääntämiseen tarkastelemalla kahta suomalaista kaunokirjallista teosta ja niiden käännöksiä. Tutkielman aineistona ovat Matti Yrjänä Joensuun kaksi rikosromaania ja näiden käännökset. Teoksista toinen on vuonna 1983 suomeksi julkaistu Harjunpää ja poliisin poika, jonka englanninkielinen käännös Harjunpaa the stone murders julkaistiin vuonna 1986. Toinen teos on vuonna 2003 julkaistu Harjunpää ja pahan pappi ja sen käännös The Priest of Evil vuodelta 2006. Tutkielman tavoitteena on selvittää, minkälaisia kulttuurisidonnaisia viittauksia romaanit sisälsivät, minkälaisia käännösstrategioita kääntäjät käyttivät kääntäessään näitä viittauksia ja mikä voisi selittää heidän strategisia valintojaan. Tutkielma pyrkii vastaamaan kysymykseen siitä, voisiko jonkin kääntämistä koskevan normin olemassa olo selittää kääntäjien strategisia valintoja. Tutkielman tavoitteena on myös selvittää, suositaanko kääntämisessä englannin kieleen niin kutsuttuja kotouttavia käännösstrategioita ja ovatko käännösstrategiat ja kääntämistä koskevat normit muuttuneet kahdenkymmenen vuoden aikana. Näihin kysymyksiin vastaamiseksi suomenkielisistä teksteistä on etsitty kaikki kulttuurisidonnaisia viittauksia sisältävät tekstinkohdat. Näitä vastaavat kohdat on sitten etsitty käännöksistä ja suomen- ja englanninkielisiä kohtia on vertailtu keskenään. Molemmat suomenkieliset romaanit sisältävät runsaasti kulttuurisidonnaisia viittauksia. Suurimman kulttuurisidonnaisten viittausten ryhmän muodostivat molemissa romaaneissa henkilöiden nimet. Romaanin sisälsivät myös runsaasti viittauksia maantieteeseen, erityisesti kulttuurimaantieteeseen, ja yhteiskuntaan. Sitä vastoin viittaukset suomalaiseen kulttuuriin ja historiaan olivat vähäisempiä. Tutkielma osoittaa, että kääntäessään suomesta englannin kielelle suomalaisen rikoskirjallisuuden kääntäjät saattavat käyttää enemmän vieraannuttavia strategioita kuin kotouttavia strategioita ja että he suosivat vieraannuttavia strategioita kasvavassa määrin. Harjunpään ja pahan papin kääntäjä käytti enemmän vieraannuttavia strategioita kuin Harjunpään ja poliisin pojan kääntäjä kaksikymmentä vuotta aikaisemmin. Tutkielman tulokset eivät tue väitettä siitä, että käännettäessä englannin kielelle suosittaisiin kotouttavia strategioita. Näyttää siltä, että vieraannuttavia strategioita on käytetty enemmän ja käytetään yhä enenevässä määrin. Lisääntyvän vieraannuttamisen taustalla voi olla useita syitä, kuten suomalaisen kulttuurin lisääntynyt tunnettuus maailmalla, rikosromaanin genren vaatimukset tai muutokset kääntäjäyhteisön arvoissa. Tutkielman tulosten perusteella näyttää siltä, että ainakin muutoksia normeissa ja arvoissa on tapahtunut. Lisätutkimuksen avulla voitaisiin selvittää, pätevätkö tutkielman tulokset muihin romaaneihin ja niiden käännöksiin tai muihin genreihin käännettäessä suomesta englantiin. Lisätutkimus voisi nojautua laajempaan ja erilaisia tekstejä kattavaan aineistoon. Jatkotutkimus voisi myös sisältää kääntäjien haastatteluita tai kyselyitä kääntäjille. Näiden avulla voitaisiin saada lisäselvyyttä syistä heidän strategisille valinnoilleen. Asiasanat: Käännöskirjallisuus – kaunokirjallisuus Kääntäminen – suomen kieli – englannin kieli Kääntäminen – strategia Kääntäminen - normi

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Road traffic accidents are a large problem everywhere in the world. However, regional differences in traffic safety between countries are considerable. For example, traffic safety records are much worse in Southern Europe and the Middle East than in Northern and Western Europe. Despite the large regional differences in traffic safety, factors contributing to different accident risk figures in different countries and regions have remained largely unstudied. The general aim of this study was to investigate regional differences in traffic safety between Southern European/Middle Eastern (i.e., Greece, Iran, Turkey) and Northern/Western European (i.e., Finland, Great Britain, The Netherlands) countries and to identify factors related to these differences. We conducted seven sub-studies in which I applied a traffic culture framework, including a multi-level approach, to traffic safety. We used aggregated level data (national statistics), surveys among drivers, and data on traffic accidents and fatalities in the analyses. In the first study, we investigated the influence of macro level factors (i.e., economic, societal, and cultural) on traffic safety across countries. The results showed that a high GNP per capita and conservatism correlated with a low number of traffic fatalities, whereas a high degree of uncertainty avoidance, neuroticism, and egalitarianism correlated with a high number of traffic fatalities. In the second, third, and fourth studies, we examined whether the conceptualisation of road user characteristics (i.e., driver behaviour and performance) varied across traffic cultures and how these factors determined overall safety, and the differences between countries in traffic safety. The results showed that the factorial agreement for driver behaviour (i.e., aggressive driving) and performance (i.e., safety skills) was unsatisfactory in Greece, Iran, and Turkey, where the lack of social tolerance and interpersonal aggressive violations seem to be important characteristics of driving. In addition, we found that driver behaviour (i.e., aggressive violations and errors) mediated the relationship between culture/country and accidents. Besides, drivers from "dangerous" Southern European countries and Iran scored higher on aggressive violations and errors than did drivers from "safe" Northern European countries. However, "speeding" appeared to be a "pan-cultural" problem in traffic. Similarly, aggressive driving seems largely depend on road users' interactions and drivers' interpretation (i.e., cognitive biases) of the behaviour of others in every country involved in the study. Moreover, in all countries, a risky general driving style was mostly related to being young and male. The results of the fifth and sixth studies showed that among young Turkish drivers, gender stereotypes (i.e., masculinity and femininity) greatly influence driver behaviour and performance. Feminine drivers were safety-oriented whereas masculine drivers were skill-oriented and risky drivers. Since everyday driving tasks involve not only erroneous (i.e., risky or dangerous driving) or correct performance (i.e., normal habitual driving), but also "positive" driver behaviours, we developed a reliable scale for measuring "positive" driver behaviours among Turkish drivers in the seventh study. Consequently, I revised Reason's model [Reason, J. T., 1990. Human error. Cambridge University Press: New York] of aberrant driver behaviour to represent a general driving style, including all possible intentional behaviours in traffic while evaluating the differences between countries in traffic safety. The results emphasise the importance of economic, societal and cultural factors, general driving style and skills, which are related to exposure, cognitive biases as well as age, sex, and gender, in differences between countries in traffic safety.

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The worldwide health burden caused by the tobacco epidemic highlights the importance of study-ing determinants of smoking behaviour and key factors sustaining nicotine dependence. Despite vast-ranging preventive efforts, smoking remains one of the most deleterious health behaviours, and its genetic and environmental factors warrant continuous investigation. The heritability of smoking behaviour and nicotine dependence has been suggested to be relatively high. Earlier smoking behaviour, nicotine dependence, socio-economic position and demographic factors have all been shown to be associated with smoking cessation. This thesis aimed to examine various aspects of smoking behaviour and nicotine dependence from an epidemiological and genetic per-spective. Data for Studies I and IV were obtained from the Older Finnish Twin Cohort, a postal health sur-vey conducted in 1975, 1981 and 1990 on same-sexed pairs and in 1996-1997 on male-female adult pairs. The number of ever-smoking participants was 8941 in Study I and 3069 in Study IV. Data for Studies II and III came from the Family Study of Cigarette Smoking - Vulnerability to Nicotine Addiction. This study is linked to the Older Finnish Twin Cohort with new data collec-tion during 2001-2006 that focused on smoking twin pairs and their family members. The meas-ures included intensive telephone interviews, blood samples and additional postal questionnaires. The numbers of ever-smoking participants was 1370 in Study II and 529 in Study III. Study I examined whether a genetic component underlies smoking behaviour among Finnish adults. Genetic factors were important in the amount smoked and smoking cessation, with about half of the phenotypic differences explained by genetic variance. A novel finding was that genetic influences on amount smoked and smoking cessation were largely independent of genetic influ-ences on age at initiation. This result has implications for defining phenotypes in the search for genes underlying smoking behaviour. Furthermore, even if smoking initiation is postponed to a later age, potential vulnerability to subsequent nicotine dependence cannot be completely inhib-ited. Study II investigated the effect of genetic and environmental factors on nicotine dependence, as measured by the novel multidimensional Nicotine Dependence Syndrome Scale (NDSS). This scale was validated in the Finnish data. The NDSS correlated highly with other established nico-tine dependence scales (FTND and DSM-IV), suggesting that this new scale would be a feasible and valid measure for identifying nicotine-dependent smokers among the ever-smoking popula-tion. About one-third of the phenotypic variation in nicotine dependence in this sample was ex-plained by genetic influences. Study III aimed at identifying chromosomal regions harbouring genes that influence smoking be-haviour and nicotine dependence. Linkage analysis of family data revealed that for smoker and nicotine dependence phenotypes as well as for co-morbidity between nicotine dependence and alcohol use signals on specific chromosome regions (chromosomes 2q33, 5q12, 5q34 7q21, 7q31, 10q25, 11p15, 20p13) exist. Results further support the hypothesis that smoking behaviour phe-notypes have a genetic background. Study IV examined associations of smoking behaviour, socio-economic position and transition of marital status with smoking cessation. Indicators of socio-economic position were important pre-dictors of smoking cessation even when adjusted for previous smoking behaviour. Getting married was associated with an increased probability of cessation in men, a finding confirmed among dis-cordant twin pairs. Thus, having a partner appears to have a positive impact on smoking cessation. In conclusion, nicotine dependence and smoking behaviour demonstrate significant genetic liabil-ity, but also substantial environmental influences among Finnish adults. Smoking initiation should be prevented or at least postponed to a later age. Although genetic factors are important in nicotine dependence and smoking behaviour, societal actions still have a primary role in tobacco control and smoking prevalence. Future studies should examine the complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors in nicotine dependence.

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Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine co-twin dependence and its impact on twins' social contacts, leisure-time activities and psycho-emotional well-being. The role of co-twin dependence was also examined as a moderator of genetic and environmental influences on alcohol use in adolescence and in early adulthood. Methods: The present report is based on the Finnish Twin Cohort Study (FinnTwin16), a population-based study of five consecutive birth cohorts of Finnish twins born in the years 1975-1979. Baseline assessments were collected through mailed questionnaires, within two months of the twins' sixteenth birthday yielding replies from 5563 twin individuals. All respondent twins were sent follow-up questionnaires at ages of 17, 18½, and in early adulthood, when twins were 22-27 years old. Measures: The questionnaires included a survey of health habits and attitudes, a symptom checklist and questions about twins' relationships with parents, peers and co-twin. Measures used were twins' self-reports of their own dependence and their co-twin's dependence at age 16, reports of twins' leisure-time activities and social contacts, alcohol use, psychological distress and somatic symptoms both in adolescence and in early adulthood. Results: In the present study 25.6% of twins reported dependence on their co-twin. There were gender and zygosity differences in dependence, females and MZ twins were more likely to report dependence than males and DZ twins. Co-twin dependence can be viewed on one hand as an individual characteristic, but on the other hand as a pattern of dyadic interaction that is mutually regulated and reciprocal. Most of the twins (80.7%) were either concordantly co-twin dependent or concordantly co-twin independent. The associations of co-twin dependence with twins' social interactions and psycho-emotional characteristics were relatively consistent both in adolescence and in early adulthood. Dependence was related to higher contact frequency and a higher proportion of shared leisure-time activities between twin siblings at the baseline and the follow-up. Additionally co-twin dependence was associated with elevated levels of psycho-emotional distress and somatic complaints, especially in adolescence. In the framework of gene-environment interaction, these results suggest that the genetic contribution to individual differences in drinking patterns is dependent on the nature of the pair-wise relationship of twin siblings. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that co-twin dependence is a genuine feature of the co-twin relationship and shows the importance of studying the impact of various features of co-twin relationships on individual twins' social and psycho-emotional life and well-being. Our study also offers evidence that differences in inter-personal relationships contribute to the effects of genetic propensities.

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This thesis is a study of a rather new logic called dependence logic and its closure under classical negation, team logic. In this thesis, dependence logic is investigated from several aspects. Some rules are presented for quantifier swapping in dependence logic and team logic. Such rules are among the basic tools one must be familiar with in order to gain the required intuition for using the logic for practical purposes. The thesis compares Ehrenfeucht-Fraïssé (EF) games of first order logic and dependence logic and defines a third EF game that characterises a mixed case where first order formulas are measured in the formula rank of dependence logic. The thesis contains detailed proofs of several translations between dependence logic, team logic, second order logic and its existential fragment. Translations are useful for showing relationships between the expressive powers of logics. Also, by inspecting the form of the translated formulas, one can see how an aspect of one logic can be expressed in the other logic. The thesis makes preliminary investigations into proof theory of dependence logic. Attempts focus on finding a complete proof system for a modest yet nontrivial fragment of dependence logic. A key problem is identified and addressed in adapting a known proof system of classical propositional logic to become a proof system for the fragment, namely that the rule of contraction is needed but is unsound in its unrestricted form. A proof system is suggested for the fragment and its completeness conjectured. Finally, the thesis investigates the very foundation of dependence logic. An alternative semantics called 1-semantics is suggested for the syntax of dependence logic. There are several key differences between 1-semantics and other semantics of dependence logic. 1-semantics is derived from first order semantics by a natural type shift. Therefore 1-semantics reflects an established semantics in a coherent manner. Negation in 1-semantics is a semantic operation and satisfies the law of excluded middle. A translation is provided from unrestricted formulas of existential second order logic into 1-semantics. Also game theoretic semantics are considerd in the light of 1-semantics.

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Background: Opiod dependence is a chronic severe brain disorder associated with enormous health and social problems. The relapse back to opioid abuse is very high especially in early abstinence, but neuropsychological and neurophysiological deficits during opioid abuse or soon after cessation of opioids are scarcely investigated. Also the structural brain changes and their correlations with the length of opioid abuse or abuse onset age are not known. In this study the cognitive functions, neural basis of cognitive dysfunction, and brain structural changes was studied in opioid-dependent patients and in age and sex matched healthy controls. Materials and methods: All subjects participating in the study, 23 opioid dependents of whom, 15 were also benzodiazepine and five cannabis co-dependent and 18 healthy age and sex matched controls went through Structured Clinical Interviews (SCID) to obtain DSM-IV axis I and II diagnosis and to exclude psychiatric illness not related to opioid dependence or personality disorders. Simultaneous magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) measurements were done on 21 opioid-dependent individuals on the day of hospitalization for withdrawal therapy. The neural basis of auditory processing was studied and pre-attentive attention and sensory memory were investigated. During the withdrawal 15 opioid-dependent patients participated in neuropsychological tests, measuring fluid intelligence, attention and working memory, verbal and visual memory, and executive functions. Fifteen healthy subjects served as controls for the MEG-EEG measurements and neuropsychological assessment. The brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was obtained from 17 patients after approximately two weeks abstinence, and from 17 controls. The areas of different brain structures and the absolute and relative volumes of cerebrum, cerebral white and gray matter, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) spaces were measured and the Sylvian fissure ratio (SFR) and bifrontal ratio were calculated. Also correlation between the cerebral measures and neuropsychological performance was done. Results: MEG-EEG measurements showed that compared to controls the opioid-dependent patients had delayed mismatch negativity (MMN) response to novel sounds in the EEG and P3am on the contralateral hemisphere to the stimulated ear in MEG. The equivalent current dipole (ECD) of N1m response was stronger in patients with benzodiazepine co-dependence than those without benzodiazepine co-dependence or controls. In early abstinence the opioid dependents performed poorer than the controls in tests measuring attention and working memory, executive function and fluid intelligence. Test results of the Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT), testing fluid intelligence, and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), measuring attention and working memory correlated positively with the days of abstinence. MRI measurements showed that the relative volume of CSF was significantly larger in opioid dependents, which could also be seen in visual analysis. Also Sylvian fissures, expressed by SFR were wider in patients, which correlated negatively with the age of opioid abuse onset. In controls the relative gray matter volume had a positive correlation with composite cognitive performance, but this correlation was not found in opioid dependents in early abstinence. Conclusions: Opioid dependents had wide Sylvian fissures and CSF spaces indicating frontotemporal atrophy. Dilatation of Sylvian fissures correlated with the abuse onset age. During early withdrawal cognitive performance of opioid dependents was impaired. While intoxicated the pre-attentive attention to novel stimulus was delayed and benzodiazepine co-dependence impaired sound detection. All these changes point to disturbances on frontotemporal areas.

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The objective of this qualitative study is to reveal the discursive reality of Finnish women, who have chosen to follow their husbands to expatriate assignments. The research material includes interviews of seventeen (17) Finnish housewives who lived in Singapore in 1999. The primary theoretical framework of the study is a social-constructive view, in which the reality is seen to have been constructed through meanings that create and maintain cultural practices, social roles and institutions. Gender is interpreted as produced socially, politically and in language. Human beings in the study exist as cultural and social beings with sex. An underlying assumption of the analysis is that the women in the study do not recognize their experience from their position that has been located to the prompt box in a play of expatriate assignment a role that is offered to them by the business sciences. Referring to Somers (1994) these women suffer of narrative silence as they lack public narratives that correspond to their circumstances. According to Williams (1983), an experience is an evidence of conditions. Therefore, the experiences of the women, who have followed their husbands to expatriate assignments, include information of their conditions. The analysis of the interview material has been performed in two phases: First, the women's experiences are identified from the research material. Thereafter, by means of discourse analysis the experiences are revealed analytically. This revealing process can also be regarded as an articulation of a counter-narrative. The research results can be found from three such discursive interpretations that are offered to the women and from eight such discursive interpretations that can be drawn from the women's own experiences. One of the discursive interpretations, which came out from the women's own experiences, is named as cultural dysphasia. In the study, cultural dysphasia is defined as a condition, in which the women have a difficulty in making their lived reality understood by others outside the sphere of their situation. Finnish women do not only lack public narrative, but the absence of a housewife-culture in Finland prevents them from any public narrative that would have a positive tone. To avoid dependence on the housewife concept, a woman's decision to follow her husband to an expatriate assignment is interpreted as a demonstration of solidarity to the relationship. In this connection, these Finnish women are re-named as 'siirtonainen' (Finnish, literally 'transfer woman'). This is the first scientific study to make visible the lived reality of Finnish women who have followed their husbands to expatriate assignments. The study will help the women in similar circumstances to find their marks among the current narratives. By reducing dichotomy between housewives and career women, which is damaging to women, and by creating the concept of 'siirtonainen' it will be possible to expand the cultural space of Finnish women. Finally, the study argues that a Finnish career woman, grown together with the imperative of self-support, has been lifted up as one symbol of modern Finland. Key words: expatriate research, experience, public narrative, narrative silence, cultural dysphasia, siirtonainen - transfer woman

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This dissertation concerns the Punan Vuhang, former hunter-gatherers who are now part-time farmers living in an area of remote rainforest in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. It covers two themes: first, examining their methods of securing a livelihood in the rainforest, and second looking at their adaptation to a settled life and agriculture, and their response to rapid and large-scale commercial logging. This study engages the long-running debates among anthropologists and ecologists on whether recent hunting-gathering societies were able to survive in the tropical rainforest without dependence on farming societies for food resources. In the search for evidence, the study poses three questions: What food resources were available to rainforest hunter-gatherers? How did they hunt and gather these foods? How did they cope with periodic food shortages? In fashioning a life in the rainforest, the Punan Vuhang survived resource scarcity by developing adaptive strategies through intensive use of their knowledge of the forest and its resources. They also adopted social practices such as sharing and reciprocity, and resource tenure to sustain themselves without recourse to external sources of food. In the 1960s, the Punan Vuhang settled down in response to external influences arising in part from the Indonesian-Malaysian Confrontation. This, in turn, initiated a series of processes with political, economic and religious implications. However, elements of the traditional economy have remained resilient as the people continue to hunt, fish and gather, and are able to farm on an individual basis, unlike neighboring shifting cultivators who need to cooperate with each other. At the beginning of the 21st century, the Punan Vuhang face a new challenge arising from the issue of rights in the context of the state and national law and large-scale commercial logging in their forest habitat. The future seems bleak as they face the social problems of alcoholism, declining leadership, and dependence on cash income and commodities from the market.

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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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This study takes as its premise the prominent social and cultural role that the couple relationship has acquired in modern society. Marriage as a social institution and romantic love as a cultural script have not lost their significance but during the last few decades the concept of relationship has taken prominence in our understanding of the love relationship. This change has taken place in a society governed by the therapeutic ethos. This study uses material ranging from in-depth interviews to various mass media texts to investigate the therapeutic logic that determines our understanding of the couple relationship. The central concept in this study is therapeutic relationship which does not refer to any particular type of relationship. In contemporary usage the relationship is, by definition, therapeutic. The therapeutic relationship is seen as an endless source of conflict and a highly complex dynamic unit in constant need of attention and treatment. Notwithstanding this emphasis on therapy and relationship work the therapeutic relationship lacks any morally or socially defined direction. Here lies the cultural power and according to critics the dubious aspect of the therapeutic ethos. For the therapeutic logic any reason for divorce is possible and plausible. Prosaically speaking the question is not whether to divorce or not, but when to divorce. In the end divorce only attests to the complexity of the relationship. The therapeutic understanding of the relationship gives the illusion that relationships with their tensions and conflicting emotions can be fully transferred to the sphere of transparency and therapeutic processing. This illusion created by relationship talk that emphasizes individual control is called omnipotence of the individual. However, the study shows that the individual omnipotence is inevitably limited and hence cracks appear in it. The cracks in the omnipotence show that while the therapeutic relationship based on the ideal of communication gives an individual a mode of speaking that stresses autonomy, equality and emotional gratification, it offers little help in expressing our fundamental dependence on other people. The study shows how strong an attraction the therapeutic ethos has with its grasp on the complexities of the relationship in a society where divorce is so common and the risk of divorce is collectively experienced.

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We study effective models of chiral fields and Polyakov loop expected to describe the dynamics responsible for the phase structure of two-flavor QCD at finite temperature and density. We consider chiral sector described either using linear sigma model or Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and study the phase diagram and determine the location of the critical point as a function of the explicit chiral symmetry breaking (i.e. the bare quark mass $m_q$). We also discuss the possible emergence of the quarkyonic phase in this model.