Asiakassuunnitelma asiakaslähtöistä auttamista tavoitteellistamassa : Kohteen rakentumisen moniääninen menetelmä

The research focuses on client plan in the field of health care and social work on families with children. The purpose of the plan is to create objectives for helping the client and to assist in coordinating the ever-increasing multi-professional work. In general, the plan is understood in terms of assignments and as a contract specifying what to do in client cases. Taking this into consideration, the plan is outsourced into a written document. Instead of understanding the plan as a tool that stabilizes the objectives of action, documents it and facilitates evaluation, the client plan is conceptualized in this study as a practice. This kind of practice mediates client work as being itself also a process of action that focuses on an object whose gradual emergence and definition is the central question in multi-professional collaboration with a client. The plan is examined empirically in a non-stabilized state which leads to the research methodology being based on the dynamics between stabilization and emerging, non-stabilized entities the co-creation and formulation of practice and context. The theoretical approach of the research is the micro analytic approach of activity theory (Engeström R. 1999b). Grounding on this, the research develops a method of qualitative analysis which follows an emerging object with multiple voices. The research data is composed of the videotaped sessions from client meetings with three families, the interviews with the client and the workers as well as client documents that are used to follow up on client processes for at least one year. The research questions are as follows: 1) How is the client plan constructed between the client and different professional agents? 2) How are meanings constructed in a client-centred plan? 3) What are the elements of client-employee relationships that support the co-configuration necessitated by the changes in the client s everyday life? The study shows that the setting of objectives were limited by the palette of institutional services, which caused that the clients interpretations and acts of giving meaning to the kinds of help that was required were left out of the plan. Conceptually, the distinctions between client-centred and client-specific ways of working as well as an action-based working method are addressed. Central to this action-based approach is construing the everyday life of the client, recognizing different meanings and analyzing them together with the client as well as focusing attention on developing the prerequisites for social agency of the clients. The research portrays the elements for creating an action-based client plan. Key words: client plan, user perspective, multi-voiced meaning, multi-professional social work with children and families, agency

Society by Numbers : Studies on Model-Based Explanations in the Social Sciences

The aim of this dissertation is to provide conceptual tools for the social scientist for clarifying, evaluating and comparing explanations of social phenomena based on formal mathematical models. The focus is on relatively simple theoretical models and simulations, not statistical models. These studies apply a theory of explanation according to which explanation is about tracing objective relations of dependence, knowledge of which enables answers to contrastive why and how-questions. This theory is developed further by delineating criteria for evaluating competing explanations and by applying the theory to social scientific modelling practices and to the key concepts of equilibrium and mechanism. The dissertation is comprised of an introductory essay and six published original research articles. The main theses about model-based explanations in the social sciences argued for in the articles are the following. 1) The concept of explanatory power, often used to argue for the superiority of one explanation over another, compasses five dimensions which are partially independent and involve some systematic trade-offs. 2) All equilibrium explanations do not causally explain the obtaining of the end equilibrium state with the multiple possible initial states. Instead, they often constitutively explain the macro property of the system with the micro properties of the parts (together with their organization). 3) There is an important ambivalence in the concept mechanism used in many model-based explanations and this difference corresponds to a difference between two alternative research heuristics. 4) Whether unrealistic assumptions in a model (such as a rational choice model) are detrimental to an explanation provided by the model depends on whether the representation of the explanatory dependency in the model is itself dependent on the particular unrealistic assumptions. Thus evaluating whether a literally false assumption in a model is problematic requires specifying exactly what is supposed to be explained and by what. 5) The question of whether an explanatory relationship depends on particular false assumptions can be explored with the process of derivational robustness analysis and the importance of robustness analysis accounts for some of the puzzling features of the tradition of model-building in economics. 6) The fact that economists have been relatively reluctant to use true agent-based simulations to formulate explanations can partially be explained by the specific ideal of scientific understanding implicit in the practise of orthodox economics.

School and choice : Anethnography of a primary school with bilingual classes

Based on a one-year ethnographic study of a primary school in Finland with specialised classes in Finnish and English (referred to as bilingual classes by research participants), this research traces patterns of how nationed, raced, classed and gendered differences are produced and gain meaning in school. I examine several aspects of these differences: the ways the teachers and parents make sense of school and of school choice; the repertoires of self put forward by teachers, parents and pupils of the bilingual classes; and the insitutional and classroom practices in Sunny Lane School (pseudonym). My purpose is to examine how the construction of differentness is related to the policy of school choice. I approach this questions from a knowledge problematic, and explore connections and disjunctions between the interpretations of teachers and those of parents, as well as between what teachers and parents expressed or said and the practices they engaged in. My data consists of fieldnotes generated through a one-year period of ethnographic study in Sunny Lane School, and of ethnographic interviews with teachers and parents primarily of the bilingual classes. This data focuses on the initial stages of the bilingual classes, which included the application and testing processes for these classes, and on Grades 1─3. In my analysis, I pursue poststructural feminist theorisations on questions of knowledge, power and subjectivity, which foreground an understanding of the constitutive force of discourse and the performative, partial, and relational nature of knowledge. I begin by situating my ethnographic field in relation to wider developments, namely, the emergence of school choice and the rhetoric of curricular reform and language education in Finland. I move on from there to ask how teachers discuss the introduction of these specialised classes, then trace pupils paths to these classes, their parents goals related to school choice, teachers constructions of the pupils and parents of bilingual classes, and how these shape the ways in which school and classroom practices unfold. School choice, I argue, functioned as a spatial practice, defining who belongs in school and demarcating the position of teachers, parents and pupils in school. Notions of classed and ethnicised differences entered the ways teachers and parents made sense of school choice. Teachers idealised school in terms of social cohesiveness and constructed social cohesion as a task for school to perform. The hopes parents iterated were connected to ensuring their children s futurity, to their perceptions of the advantages of fluency in English, but also to the differences they believed to exist between the social milieus of different schools. Ideals such as openmindedness and cosmopolitanism were also articulated by parents, and these ideals assumed different content for ethnic majority and minority parents. Teachers discussed the introduction of bilingual classes as being a means to ensure the school s future, and emphasised bilingual classes as fitting into the rubric of Finnish comprehensive schooling which, they maintained, is committed to equality. Parents were expected to accommodate their views and adopt the position of the responsible, supportive parent that was suggested to them by teachers. Teachers assumed a posture teachers of appreciating different cultures, while maintaining Finnishness as common ground in school. Discussion on pupils knowledge and experience of other countries took place often in bilingual classes, and various cultural theme events were organized on occasion. In school, pupils are taught to identify themselves in terms of cultural belonging. The rhetoric promoted by teachers was one of inclusiveness, which was also applied to describe the task of qualifying pupils for bilingual classes, qualifying which pupils can belong. Bilingual classes were idealised as taking a neutral, impartial posture toward difference by ethnic majority teachers and parents, and the relationship of school choice to classed advantage, for example, was something teachers, as well as parents, preferred not to discuss. Pupils were addressed by teachers during lessons in ways that assumed self responsibility and diligence, and they assumed the discursive category of being good, competent pupils made available to them. While this allowed them to position themselves favourably in school, their participation in a bilingual class was marked by the pressure to succeed well in school.

Management of multi-scale forest resource data over time

During the last decades there has been a global shift in forest management from a focus solely on timber management to ecosystem management that endorses all aspects of forest functions: ecological, economic and social. This has resulted in a shift in paradigm from sustained yield to sustained diversity of values, goods and benefits obtained at the same time, introducing new temporal and spatial scales into forest resource management. The purpose of the present dissertation was to develop methods that would enable spatial and temporal scales to be introduced into the storage, processing, access and utilization of forest resource data. The methods developed are based on a conceptual view of a forest as a hierarchically nested collection of objects that can have a dynamically changing set of attributes. The temporal aspect of the methods consists of lifetime management for the objects and their attributes and of a temporal succession linking the objects together. Development of the forest resource data processing method concentrated on the extensibility and configurability of the data content and model calculations, allowing for a diverse set of processing operations to be executed using the same framework. The contribution of this dissertation to the utilisation of multi-scale forest resource data lies in the development of a reference data generation method to support forest inventory methods in approaching single-tree resolution.

EU Multi-level Governance in the Making - The Community Initiative LEADER+ in Finland and Germany

In order to fully understand the process of European integration it is of paramount importance to consider developments at the sub-national and local level. EU integration scholars shifted their attention to the local level only at the beginning of the 1990s with the concept of multi-level governance (MLG). While MLG is the first concept to scrutinise the position of local levels of public administration and other actors within the EU polity, I perceive it as too optimistic in the degree of influence it ascribes to local levels. Thus, learning from and combining MLG with other concepts, such as structural constructivism, helps to reveal some of the hidden aspects of EU integration and paint a more realistic picture of multi-level interaction. This thesis also answers the call for more case studies in order to conceptualise MLG further. After a critical study of theories and concepts of European integration, above all, MLG, I will analyse sub-national and local government in Finland and Germany. I show how the sub-national level and local governments are embedded in the EU s multi-level structure of governance and how, through EU integration, those levels have been empowered but also how their scope of action has partially decreased. After theoretical and institutional contextualisation, I present the results of my empirical study of the EU s Community Initiative LEADER+. LEADER stands for Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Économie Rurale , and aims at improving the economic conditions in Europe s rural areas. I was interested in how different actors construct and shape EU financed rural development, especially in how local actors organised in so-called local action groups (LAGs) cooperate with other administrative units within the LEADER+ administrative chain. I also examined intra-institutional relations within those groups, in order to find out who are the most influential and powerful actors within them. Empirical data on the Finnish and German LAGs was first gathered through a survey, which was then supplemented and completed by interviewing LAG members, LAG-managers, several civil servants from Finnish and German decision-making and managing authorities and a civil servant from the EU Commission. My main argument is that in both Germany and Finland, the Community Initiative LEADER+ offered a space for multi-level interaction and local-level involvement, a space that on the one hand consists of highly motivated people actively contributing to the improvement of the quality of life and economy in Europe s countryside but which is dependent and also restricted by national administrative practices, implementation approaches and cultures on the other. In Finland, the principle of tri-partition (kolmikantaperiaatte) in organising the executive committees of LAGs is very noticeable. In comparison to Germany, for instance, the representation of public administration in those committees is much more limited due to this principle. Furthermore, the mobilisation of local residents and the bringing together of actors from the local area with different social and institutional backgrounds to become an active part of LEADER+ was more successful in Finland than in Germany. Tri-partition as applied in Finland should serve as a model for similar policies in other EU member states. EU integration changed the formal and informal inter-institutional relations linking the different levels of government. The third sector including non-governmental institutions and interest groups gained access to policy-making processes and increasingly interact with government institutions at all levels of public administration. These developments do not necessarily result in the empowering of the local level.

Dental Service Utilization, Dental Health Production and Equity in Dental Care: the Finnish Experience

This thesis is grounded on four articles. Article I generally examines the factors affecting dental service utilization. Article II studies the factors associated with sector-specific utilization among young adults entitled to age-based subsidized dental care. Article III explores the determinants of dental ill-health as measured by the occurrence of caries and the relationship between dental ill-health and dental care use. Article IV measures and explains income-related inequality in utilization. Data employed were from the 1996 Finnish Health Care Survey (I, II, IV) and the 1997 follow-up study included in the longitudinal study of the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort (III). Utilization is considered as a multi-stage decision-making process and measured as the number of visits to the dentist. Modified count data models and concentration and horizontal equity indices were applied. Dentist s recall appeared very efficient at stimulating individuals to seek care. Dental pain, recall, and the low number of missing teeth positively affected utilization. Public subvention for dental care did not seem to statistically increase utilization. Among young adults, a perception of insufficient public service availability and recall were positively associated with the choice of a private dentist, whereas income and dentist density were positively associated with the number of visits to private dentists. Among cohort females, factors increasing caries were body mass index and intake of alcohol, sugar, and soft drinks and those reducing caries were birth weight and adolescent school achievement. Among cohort males, caries was positively related to the metropolitan residence and negatively related to healthy diet and education. Smoking increased caries, whereas regular teeth brushing, regular dental attendance and dental care use decreased caries. We found equity in young adults utilization but pro-rich inequity in the total number of visits to all dentists and in the probability of visiting a dentist for the whole sample. We observed inequity in the total number of visits to the dentist and in the probability of visiting a dentist, being pro-poor for public care but pro-rich for private care. The findings suggest that to enhance equal access to and use of dental care across population and income groups, attention should focus on supply factors and incentives to encourage people to contact dentists more often. Lowering co-payments and service fees and improving public availability would likely increase service use in both sectors. To attain favorable oral health, appropriate policies aimed at improving dental health education and reducing the detrimental effects of common risk factors on dental health should be strengthened. Providing equal access with respect to need for all people ought to take account of the segmentation of the service system, with its two parallel delivery systems and different supplier incentives to patients and dentists.

Context-dependent mate choice in the sand goby, Pomatoschistus minutus

The results presented in this thesis show that all females of a given population do not necessarily choose similar mating partners. Specifically, partner preferences of a fish, the sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus), varied among individual females and depended on the social context at the time of choice. I also show that females assess multiple mate choice cues simultaneously; partner preferences were based more strongly on an interaction effect between different choice cues than on any individual cue. Furthermore, I found that preferred matings involved fitness benefits in the form of increased offspring success, but these benefits were not significantly affected by mate compatibility. Hence, mate choice for partner compatibility does not appear to be an important determinant of the observed variation in female mate preferences in this species. The context-dependency of female mating preferences revealed is relevant to how genetic variation in sexually selected traits might be maintained: as the mating success of a certain male type varies according to the choice context, directional sexual selection on male traits is shown to be less intense than generally thought making for a slower loss of genetic variation in these traits. Mating preferences of sand gobies were assessed by giving females a binary choice between males that differed in body size and/or other focus traits. These association preferences were found to be sexually motivated, repeatable and to correspond to actual mating decisions.

Phylogenetics of Myrmica ants and their social parasites

Understanding the overwhelming diversity of life calls for complex organisational schemes. The field of systematics may thus be seen as the cornerstone of evolutionary biology. In the last few decades, systematics has been rejuvenated through the introduction of molecular methods such as DNA barcoding and multi-gene phylogenetic approaches. These methods may shed new light on established taxonomic ideas and problems. For example, the classification of ants has aroused much debate due to reinterpretation of morphological characters or contradictions between molecular data and morphology. Only in the last few years a consensus was reached regarding the phylogeny of ant subfamilies. However, the situation remains deplorable for lower taxonomic ranks such as subfamilies, tribes and genera. This thesis describes the systematics and evolution of the Holarctic ant genus Myrmica and the tribe to which it belongs, Myrmicini. Using barcoding, molecular-phylogenetic data and divergence time estimations, it addresses questions regarding the taxonomy, morphology and biogeography of this group. Furthermore, the interrelationships between socially parasitic Myrmica species and their hosts (other species in the genus) were inferred. The phylogeny suggests that social parasitism evolved several times in Myrmica. Finally, this thesis investigated whether coevolution shaped the phylogeny of socially parasitic Maculinea butterflies that live inside Myrmica colonies. No evidence was found for coevolution.

Studies of solar and stellar flares using multi-instrument data

Solar flares were first observed by plain eye in white light by William Carrington in England in 1859. Since then these eruptions in the solar corona have intrigued scientists. It is known that flares influence the space weather experienced by the planets in a multitude of ways, for example by causing aurora borealis. Understanding flares is at the epicentre of human survival in space, as astronauts cannot survive the highly energetic particles associated with large flares in high doses without contracting serious radiation disease symptoms, unless they shield themselves effectively during space missions. Flares may be at the epicentre of man s survival in the past as well: it has been suggested that giant flares might have played a role in exterminating many of the large species on Earth, including dinosaurs. Having said that prebiotic synthesis studies have shown lightning to be a decisive requirement for amino acid synthesis on the primordial Earth. Increased lightning activity could be attributed to space weather, and flares. This thesis studies flares in two ways: in the spectral and the spatial domain. We have extracted solar spectra using three different instruments, namely GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite), RHESSI (Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) and XSM (X-ray Solar Monitor) for the same flares. The GOES spectra are low resolution obtained with a gas proportional counter, the RHESSI spectra are higher resolution obtained with Germanium detectors and the XSM spectra are very high resolution observed with a silicon detector. It turns out that the detector technology and response influence the spectra we see substantially, and are important to understanding what conclusions to draw from the data. With imaging data, there was not such a luxury of choice available. We used RHESSI imaging data to observe the spatial size of solar flares. In the present work the focus was primarily on current solar flares. However, we did make use of our improved understanding of solar flares to observe young suns in NGC 2547. The same techniques used with solar monitors were applied with XMM-Newton, a stellar X-ray monitor, and coupled with ground based Halpha observations these techniques yielded estimates for flare parameters in young suns. The material in this thesis is therefore structured from technology to application, covering the full processing path from raw data and detector responses to concrete physical parameter results, such as the first measurement of the length of plasma flare loops in young suns.

Knowledge Transfer within Western Multinationals' Subsidiary Units in China and Finland - The Impact of Headquarter Control Mechanisms, Subsidiary Location and Social Capital (summary section only)

It is suggested that the ability and practices of how the multinational corporation (MNC) manages knowledge transfer among its geographically dispersed subsidiary units are crucial for the building and development of firm competitive advantage. However, cross-border transfer of valuable organizational knowledge is likely to be problematic and laborious, especially within diversified and differentiated MNCs. Using data collected from 164 western multinational companies’ subsidiary units located in China and Finland, this study aims to investigate cross-border knowledge transfer within the MNC. It explores a number of factors that influence the transfer of knowledge among units in the differentiated MNC. The study consists of five individual papers. Paper 1 investigates a range of organizational mechanisms that may positively influence a subsidiary’s propensity to undertake knowledge transfers to other parts of the corporation. Paper 2 explores the impact of subsidiary location on the motivational dispositions of knowledge receiving units to value and accept knowledge from subsidiaries located in economically less advanced countries. Paper 3 examines the influence of social capital variables on knowledge transfer in dyadic relationships between foreign-owned subsidiaries and their sister and patent units. Paper 4 provides some initial insights into potentially different effects of trust and shared vision in intra-organizational vs. inter-organizational relationships. Using a case study setting, Paper 5 explores means and mechanisms used in transferring human resource management practices to Western MNCs’ business units in China from a cultural perspective. The results of the study show that MNC management through choices regarding organizational controls can encourage and enhance corporate-internal knowledge transfer. It also finds evidence that more knowledge is transferred from subsidiaries located in an industrialized country (e.g., Finland) than subsidiaries located in a developing country (e.g., China). While the study has highlighted the importance of social capital in promoting knowledge transfer, it has also uncovered some new findings that the effect of trust and shared vision may be contingent upon different contexts. Finally, in Paper 5, a number of mechanisms used in transferring selected HRM practices and competences to the Chinese business units have been identified. The findings suggest that cultural differences should be taken into consideration in the choice and use of different transfer mechanisms.

A participatory approach to tactical forest planning.

The paper examines the needs, premises and criteria for effective public participation in tactical forest planning. A method for participatory forest planning utilizing the techniques of preference analysis, professional expertise and heuristic optimization is introduced. The techniques do not cover the whole process of participatory planning, but are applied as a tool constituting the numerical core for decision support. The complexity of multi-resource management is addressed by hierarchical decision analysis which assesses the public values, preferences and decision criteria toward the planning situation. An optimal management plan is sought using heuristic optimization. The plan can further be improved through mutual negotiations, if necessary. The use of the approach is demonstrated with an illustrative example, it's merits and challenges for participatory forest planning and decision making are discussed and a model for applying it in general forest planning context is depicted. By using the approach, valuable information can be obtained about public preferences and the effects of taking them into consideration on the choice of the combination of standwise treatment proposals for a forest area. Participatory forest planning calculations, carried out by the approach presented in the paper, can be utilized in conflict management and in developing compromises between competing interests.

Factors affecting perceptions of corporate social responsibility implementation: an emphasis on values

This dissertation is a broad study of factors affecting perceptions of CSR issues in multiple stakeholder realms, the main purpose being to determine the effects of the values of individuals on their perceptions regarding CSR. It examines perceptions of CSR both at the emic (observing individuals and stakeholders) and etic levels (conducting cross-cultural comparison) through a descriptive-empirical research strategy. The dissertation is based on quantitative interview data among Chinese, Finnish and US stakeholder groups of industry companies (with an emphasis on the forest industries) and consists of four published articles and two submitted manuscripts. Theoretically, this dissertation provides a valuable and unique philosophical and intellectual perspective on the contemporary study of CSR `The Harmony Approach to CSR'. Empirically, this dissertation does values assessment and CSR evaluation of a wide variety of business activities covering CSR reporting, business ethics, and three dimensions of CSR performance. From the multi-stakeholder perspective, this dissertation use survey methods to examine the perceptions and stakeholder salience in the context of CSR by describing, comparing the differences between demographic factors as well as hypothetical drivers behind perceptions. The results of study suggest that the CSR objective of a corporation's top management should be to manage the divergent and conflicting interests of multiple stakeholders, taking others than key stakeholders into account as well. The importance of values as a driver of ethical behaviour and decision-making has been generally recognized. This dissertation provides more empirical proof of this theory by highlighting the effects of values on CSR perceptions. It suggests that since the way to encourage responsible behaviour and develop CSR is to develop individual values and cultivate their virtues, it is time to invoke the critical role of moral (ethics) education. The specific studies of China and comparison between Finland and the US contribute to a common understanding of the emerging CSR issues, problems and opportunities for the future of sustainability. The similarities among these countries can enhance international cooperation, while the differences will open up opportunities and diversified solutions for CSR in local conditions.

Social networks for volunteered geographic information - A case study of OpenStreetMap

The world of mapping has changed. Earlier, only professional experts were responsible for map production, but today ordinary people without any training or experience can become map-makers. The number of online mapping sites, and the number of volunteer mappers has increased significantly. The development of the technology, such as satellite navigation systems, Web 2.0, broadband Internet connections, and smartphones, have had one of the key roles in enabling the rise of volunteered geographic information (VGI). As opening governmental data to public is a current topic in many countries, the opening of high quality geographical data has a central role in this study. The aim of this study is to investigate how is the quality of spatial data produced by volunteers by comparing it with the map data produced by public authorities, to follow what occurs when spatial data are opened for users, and to get acquainted with the user profile of these volunteer mappers. A central part of this study is OpenStreetMap project (OSM), which aim is to create a map of the entire world by volunteers. Anyone can become an OpenStreetMap contributor, and the data created by the volunteers are free to use for anyone without restricting copyrights or license charges. In this study OpenStreetMap is investigated from two viewpoints. In the first part of the study, the aim was to investigate the quality of volunteered geographic information. A pilot project was implemented by following what occurs when a high-resolution aerial imagery is released freely to the OpenStreetMap contributors. The quality of VGI was investigated by comparing the OSM datasets with the map data of The National Land Survey of Finland (NLS). The quality of OpenStreetMap data was investigated by inspecting the positional accuracy and the completeness of the road datasets, as well as the differences in the attribute datasets between the studied datasets. Also the OSM community was under analysis and the development of the map data of OpenStreetMap was investigated by visual analysis. The aim of the second part of the study was to analyse the user profile of OpenStreetMap contributors, and to investigate how the contributors act when collecting data and editing OpenStreetMap. The aim was also to investigate what motivates users to map and how is the quality of volunteered geographic information envisaged. The second part of the study was implemented by conducting a web inquiry to the OpenStreetMap contributors. The results of the study show that the quality of OpenStreetMap data compared with the data of National Land Survey of Finland can be defined as good. OpenStreetMap differs from the map of National Land Survey especially because of the amount of uncertainty, for example because of the completeness and uniformity of the map are not known. The results of the study reveal that opening spatial data increased notably the amount of the data in the study area, and both the positional accuracy and completeness improved significantly. The study confirms the earlier arguments that only few contributors have created the majority of the data in OpenStreetMap. The inquiry made for the OpenStreetMap users revealed that the data are most often collected by foot or by bicycle using GPS device, or by editing the map with the help of aerial imageries. According to the responses, the users take part to the OpenStreetMap project because they want to make maps better, and want to produce maps, which have information that is up-to-date and cannot be found from any other maps. Almost all of the users exploit the maps by themselves, most popular methods being downloading the map into a navigator or into a mobile device. The users regard the quality of OpenStreetMap as good, especially because of the up-to-dateness and the accuracy of the map.

Lunch eating patterns during working hours and their social and work-related determinants : Study of Finnish employees

Work has a central role in the lives of big share of adult Finns and meals they eat during the workday comprise an important factor in their nutrition, health, and well-being. On workdays, lunch is mainly eaten at worksite canteens or, especially among women, as a packed meal in the workplace s break room. No national-level data is available on the nutritional quality of the meals served by canteens, although the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health laid out the first nutrition recommendations for worksite canteens in 1971. The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of various socio-demographic, socioeconomic, and work-related factors to the lunch eating patterns of Finnish employees during the working day and how lunch eating patterns influence dietary intake. Four different population-based cross-sectional datasets were used in this thesis. Three of the datasets were collected by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (Health Behaviour and Health among the Finnish Adult Population survey from 1979 to 2001, n=24746, and 2005 to 2007, n=5585, the National Findiet 2002 Study, n=261), and one of them by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (Work and Health in Finland survey from 1997, 2000, and 2003, n=6369). The Health Behaviour and Health among the Finnish Adult Population survey and the Work and Health in Finland survey are nationally representative studies that are conducted repeatedly. Survey information was collected by self-administered questionnaires, dietary recalls, and telephone interviews. The frequency of worksite canteen use has been quite stable for over two decades in Finland. A small decreasing trend can be seen in all socioeconomic groups. During the whole period studied, those with more years of education ate at worksite canteens more often than the others. The size of the workplace was the most important work-related determinant associated with the use of a worksite canteen. At small workplaces, other work-related determinants, like occupation, physical strain at work, and job control, were also associated with canteen use, whereas at bigger workplaces the associations were almost nonexistent. The major social determinants of worksite canteen availability were the education and occupational status of employees and the only work-related determinant was the size of the workplace. A worksite canteen was more commonly available to employees at larger workplaces and to those with the higher education and the higher occupational status. Even when the canteen was equally available to all employees, its use was nevertheless determined by occupational class and the place of residence, especially among female employees. Those with higher occupational status and those living in the Helsinki capital area ate in canteens more frequently than the others. Employees who ate at a worksite canteen consumed more vegetables and vegetable and fish dishes at lunch than did those who ate packed lunches. Also, the daily consumption of vegetables and the proportion of the daily users of vegetables were higher among those male employees who ate at a canteen. In conclusion, life possibilities, i.e. the availability of a canteen, education, occupational status, and work-related factors, played an important role in the choice of where to eat lunch among Finnish employees. The most basic prerequisite for eating in a canteen was availability, but there were also a number of underlying social determinants. Occupational status and the place of residence were the major structural factors behind individuals choices in their lunch eating patterns. To ensure the nutrition, health, and well-being of employees, employers should provide them with the option to have good quality meals during working hours. The availability of worksite canteens should be especially supported in lower socioeconomic groups. In addition, employees should be encouraged to have lunch at a worksite canteen when one is available by removing structural barriers to its use.