Grammar and disciplinary culture : a corpus-based study

The present study provides a usage-based account of how three grammatical structures, declarative content clauses, interrogative content clause and as-predicative constructions, are used in academic research articles. These structures may be used in both knowledge claims and citations, and they often express evaluative meanings. Using the methodology of quantitative corpus linguistics, I investigate how the culture of the academic discipline influences the way in which these constructions are used in research articles. The study compares the rates of occurrence of these grammatical structures and investigates their co-occurrence patterns in articles representing four different disciplines (medicine, physics, law, and literary criticism). The analysis is based on a purpose-built 2-million-word corpus, which has been part-of-speech tagged. The analysis demonstrates that the use of these grammatical structures varies between disciplines, and further shows that the differences observed in the corpus data are linked with differences in the nature of knowledge and the patterns of enquiry. The constructions in focus tend to be more frequently used in the soft disciplines, law and literary criticism, where their co-occurrence patterns are also more varied. This reflects both the greater variety of topics discussed in these disciplines, and the higher frequency of references to statements made by other researchers. Knowledge-building in the soft fields normally requires a careful contextualisation of the arguments, giving rise to statements reporting earlier research employing the constructions in focus. In contrast, knowledgebuilding in the hard fields is typically a cumulative process, based on agreed-upon methods of analysis. This characteristic is reflected in the structure and contents of research reports, which offer fewer opportunities for using these constructions.

Rikollisia sattumalta? : Naisten keskinäistä haureutta koskevat oikeudenkäynnit 1950-luvun Itä-Suomessa

The main focus of the research is on the genealogy of women's same-sex fornication in Finnish criminal law from 1889/1894 to 1971. Why were women included in the concept of same-sex fornication in Finland and why, where, and when was the law put into effect? Which women were tried, how did the trial proceedings evolve, and what kind of effects did the trials have afterwards? Which concepts were used? These questions have been approached through the analysis of the Finnish Penal Code, the criminal law science and four trial proceedings in Eastern Finland during the 1950s. The research draws on the epistemology of the closet and the concept of heteronormativity adapted from queer theories. It is method critical in utilising ethnography, micro history and feminist ethical self-reflection. The research consists of six scientific refereed articles (see appendix) and of a theoretical introduction. The main results of the research are: 1) The genealogy of Finnish decency [Sittlichkeit] can not be researched without oral histories, due to the late modernisation of Finnish society and the legal system, which does not follow the pattern of English, French and German societies. 2) The inclusion of women's same-sex fornication in the Finnish Penal Code is not incomprehensible when compared to the early modern European legislations and court practices. Women have been punished for the sins of Sodom, though not directly under the 1734 Swedish law. 3) Fornication and decency were ambivalent concepts in the 1889/1894 law, and juridical authorities offered controversial interpretations of them during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 4) A peak in women's convictions occurred in the 1950s, and most of the trial proceedings took place in rural Eastern Finland. Neither the state nor the police were active in prosecuting; instead, the trial proceedings began "by accident". 5) From 1940 to 1960 police training lacked instructions concerning the interrogation of women suspected of same-sex fornication. 6) The figure of the penitent woman was produced in the chiasmic encounter of confession and police interrogation which moulded and was moulded by the epistemological matrix of shame, honour, and decency. Women's speech acts were judicialised as confessions which enabled the disciplinary tampering with the women's bodies. 7) Gender and personality, more than sexuality, or "criminality" defined the status of the convicted women in their village communities after the trials. 8) Relations between police training, sexuality, and decency have not been well researched in Finland. 9) Decriminalisation in 1971 did not mark the end of homophobic legal discourse, even though the 1999 reform of sexual crimes took the form of gender neutral conceptualisation

Tietämisen politiikka : Kokemuksellinen tieto kunnan hallinnassa

The present study examines citizen participation in local government and municipal democracy. Previous research has shown that the prerequisite for active citizenship lies in the opportunities available for local residents to determine which perspectives and planning needs are relevant. This research looks at whether the conception of knowledge employed in municipal planning allows for this kind of active role for local citizens. Methodologically the study employs an hermeneutic approach. The aim has been to identify various approaches steering the practice of municipal democracy. The theory behind the study comes from the assumption of the intersubjectivity of reality. Construing the rationality of one s own behaviour is seen as a prerequisite for meaningful action. In this context, criteria for the functionality of municipal democracy and the purpose of strengthening citizen participation are defined. The study is divided into two parts. Firstly, the purpose of participation and the opportunities for local residents to contribute is examined theoretically with reference to previous studies. The intention is to provide an overview of the Finnish cross-disciplinary debate on resident participation. This debate is reflected onto the prevailing views on changes in the municipal operating environment and modes of operation. In conclusion, a theoretical model is constructed to explain how the various modes of operation in regional municipalities affect the purpose of resident participation and the utilisation of information received through this participation. The second part of the study discusses the utilisation of this information and knowledge acquired through the participation of local residents and all those involved in political and administrative processes in municipalities. These first-hand reports are analysed using the model constructed earlier in the study. The goal is to understand how political and administrative practice affects opportunities for local residents to participate and contribute. The core of this analysis is based on the pragmatic conception of knowledge employed in municipal administration. The study argues that the normal practice of municipal administration does not support the systematic utilisation of local residents experience. This is caused by two interlinked factors: firstly, knowledge constructed through these practices requires that the knowledge is apolitical; secondly, arising from this there is confusion with regard to when during a planning process does information obtained from the public become relevant; in other words, what are the politics of knowledge? The study suggests that the solution is in the complementary concept of knowledge, which implicitly acknowledges the politics of knowledge. The complementary concept of knowledge would serve the politicisation of issues on the level of interpretations linked with social reality, an indispensable requirement for functional democracy. Keywords: participation, municipal democracy, knowledge base for planning, experiential knowledge

Publishing in the Networked World: Transforming the Nature of Communication, 14th International Conference on Electronic Publishing 16-18 June 2010, Helsinki, Finland

The title of the 14th International Conference on Electronic Publishing (ELPUB), “Publishing in the networked world: Transforming the nature of communication”, is a timely one. Scholarly communication and scientific publishing has recently been undergoing subtle changes. Published papers are no longer fixed physical objects, as they once were. The “convergence” of information, communication, publishing and web technologies along with the emergence of Web 2.0 and social networks has completely transformed scholarly communication and scientific papers turned to living and changing entities in the online world. The themes (electronic publishing and social networks; scholarly publishing models; and technological convergence) selected for the conference are meant to address the issues involved in this transformation process. We are pleased to present the proceedings book with more than 30 papers and short communications addressing these issues. What you hold in your hands is a by-product and the culmination of almost a Year long work of many people including conference organizers, authors, reviewers, editors and print and online publishers. The ELPUB 2010 conference was organized and hosted by the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. Professors Turid Hedlund of Hanken School of Economics and Yaşar Tonta of Hacettepe University Department of Information Management (Ankara, Turkey) served as General Chair and Program Chair, respectively. We received more than 50 submissions from several countries. All submissions were peer-reviewed by members of an international Program Committee whose contributions proved most valuable and appreciated. The 14th ELPUB conference carries on the tradition of previous conferences held in the United Kingdom (1997 and 2001), Hungary (1998), Sweden (1999), Russia (2000), the Czech Republic (2002), Portugal (2003), Brazil (2004), Belgium (2005), Bulgaria (2006), Austria (2007), Canada (2008) and Italy (2009). The ELPUB Digital Library, http://elpub.scix.net serves as archive for the papers presented at the ELPUB conferences through the years. The 15th ELPUB conference will be organized by the Department of Information Management of Hacettepe University and will take place in Ankara, Turkey, from 14-16 June 2011. (Details can be found at the ELPUB web site as the conference date nears by.) We thank Marcus Sandberg and Hannu Sääskilahti for copyediting, Library Director Tua Hindersson – Söderholm for accepting to publish the online as well as the print version of the proceedings. Thanks also to Patrik Welling for maintaining the conference web site and Tanja Dahlgren for administrative support. We warmly acknowledge the support in organizing the conference to colleagues at Hanken School of Economics and our sponsors.