Esikristillisestä villistä miehestä kristityksi pyhimykseksi

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Christlich-religiöse Textwelt als translatorisch-hermeneutischer Gegenstand Gegenstandsbeschreibung und Herangehensweisen

Tämä teorialähtöinen, hermeneuttinen tutkimus sijoittuu käännöstieteen sekä uskonnon- ja kielifilosofian rajapintaan. Tutkimuksessa kuvataan kristinuskon tekstimaailmaa relevantin tulkintakehyksen kautta sekä esitetään tekstimaailman tulkintaan soveltuva lähestymistapa ammattikääntäjän eli välittävän vastaanottajan näkökulmasta. Tutkimus pureutuu käännösprosessin hermeneutiikkaan eli lähdetekstin ja sen maailman tulkintaan, ymmärtämiseen ja selittämiseen liittyviin aspekteihin. Tutkimuksessa ei esitetä käännösratkaisuja. Tutkimus nostaa esiin filosofisen ja teologisen hermeneutiikan peruskysymyksiä. Niitä ovat Raamatun tekstien vaikutushistoria, erilaiset todellisuus- ja kielikäsitykset, kirkon oppi, teologian pääsuuntaukset, uskonnolliset yhteisöt ja niiden perinteet, inhimillinen kulttuuri ja aika. Ne ovat ulottuvuuksia, jotka vaikuttavat kääntäjän tekstin- ja maailmantulkintaan ja vaativat laajojen kontekstien huomioonottamista sekä lähestymistä monista eri näkökulmista. Ludwig Wittgensteinin myöhäisfilosofiaan liittyvän kielipelin idea tarjoaa ajatusmallin, jonka avulla uskonnon käsite-, merkki- ja tekstimaailmalle voidaan luoda moninäkökulmainen tulkintakehys. Kielipelin käsitettä käytetään tässä tutkimuksessa tekstien samankaltaisuutta ja erilaisuutta kokoavana järjestelmänä, joka toimii intratekstuaalisesti eli sillä on omat pelisääntönsä, tulkinnan lähteensä sekä tunnistettava identiteetti. Järjestelmän keskiössä ovat uskonnon konstituioivat käsitteet ja kertomukset, jotka ovat muiden tulkintojen eli metatekstien lähde. Kääntäjän varsinaisina tulkintakohteina ovat metatekstit, eivät raamatunkääntämiseen liittyvät kysymykset suoranaisesti. Tutkimuksessa luodaan kuitenkin tulkintamalli, jonka mukaan metatekstejä ja raamatun tekstejä luetaan rinnakkain. Ymmärtäminen ja ongelmanratkaisu rakentuvat tekstuaalisen kommunikaation pohjalta. Tekstejä luetaan sekä sääntöteorian että narratiivisen teorian valossa. Kertomus puhuttelee vastaanottajaa eri tavalla kuin sääntö. Tulkintamallissa yhdistyvät sekä analyyttinen että luovan mielikuvituksen sallima lukutapa. Molemmat toimivat yhdessä kääntäjän tekstin- merkin- ja maailmantulkinnan apuna. Tutkimuksessa pohditaan myös tekstiteorettisia kysymyksiä, tekstin ja merkin käsitteitä sekä niiden toimintadynamiikkaa. Tulkinnan mekanismi esitetään semioosin käsitteen avulla. Teksti määritellään heuristiseksi ja eksemplaariseksi kuvaukseksi maailmasta, ja se edustaa vain osaa tulkintakokonaisuudesta. Kääntäjän hermeneuttinen kenttä ulotetaan tekstinulkoiseen maailmaan, käytäntöön ja elämänmuotoon.

Urvilja : när livet är människans hem

This caring science study explores ‘Will’ as an ontological concept. The aim is to deepen the understanding of the essence of Will, and to highlight the manifestations of Will and how Will becomes evident in clinical caring. Will is ontological and universal. Will is connected with the essence of the human being, and manifests in the human being as will. The approach is inspired by Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. The study’s horizon of understanding consists of Eriksson’s caritative theory and the caring science-tradition. The study’s research questions are as follows: What is the essence of Will? What are its manifestations? How does Will become evident in clinical caring? The hermeneutic interpretative movement is initiated by the material, which consists of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s texts, letters from experts and dictionaries. Meaning-bearing substance fragments in the material are intertwined with the original horizon of understanding through hermeneutical reading, hermeneutical interpretation and concept analysis in an oscillating interpretive movement. An abstraction occurs when the new substance is illuminated by the caring science ontology. The oscillating interpretive movement results in a reinterpreted horizon of understanding, which in turn provides the findings of the study. The reinterpreted horizon of understanding is presented in the form of a theoretical model and abductive theses. The essence of Will is represented in the theoretical model as the lifeaffirming and the loving force. Life and love are Will’s origin and destination. Will’s manifestations (its diversity) hold conditions and chance occurrences that obstruct Will. Hence the will of the human being does not necessarily appear in a way that is in tune with ontological Will. Will represents the lifeblood of ethos, and in this lifeblood love flows. Will acts by virtue of itself, and gives ethos its force. Will manifests in a way that ethos can affirm. When Will is affected by caring its force is active in the service of life and love. Being a caregiver entails acting as a world-eye, which means recognizing Will in diversity. For caregivers, being a world-eye means observing fragments of Will as it manifests in its original form in the real reality, and acting as the mirror of life. The human being who is able to perceive the fundamental values of life and to live according to these has understood the laws of life and entered upon the human calling. The human being then lives according to the fundamental order and has found a home in life.

In search of good relationships to music : understanding aspiration and challenge in developing music school teacher practices

This study focuses on teacher practices in publicly funded music schools in Finland. As views on the aims of music education change and broaden, music schools across Europe share the challenge of developing their activities in response. In public and scholarly debate, there have been calls for increased diversity of contents and concepts of teaching. In Finland, the official national curriculum for state-funded music schools builds on the ideal that teaching and learning should create conditions which promote ‘a good relationship to music’. The meaning of this concept has been deliberately left open in order to leave room for dialogue, flexibility, and teacher autonomy. Since what is meant by ‘good’ is not defined in advance, the notion of ‘improving’ practices is also open to discussion. The purpose of the study is to examine these issues from teachers’ point of view by asking what music school teachers aim to accomplish as they develop their practices. Methodologically, the study introduces a suggestion for building empirical research on Alperson’s ‘robust’ praxial approach to music education, a philosophical theory which is strongly committed to practitioner perspectives and musical diversity. A systematic method for analysing music education practices, interpretive practice analysis, is elaborated with support from interpretive research methods originally used in policy analysis. In addition, the research design shows how reflecting conversations (a collaborative approach well-known in Nordic social work) can be fruitfully applied in interpretive research and combined with teacher inquiry. Data have been generated in a collaborative project involving five experienced music school teachers and the researcher. The empirical material includes transcripts from group conversations, data from teacher inquiry conducted within the project, and transcripts from follow-up interviews. The teachers’ aspirations can be understood as strivings to reinforce the connection between musical practices and various forms of human flourishing such that music and flourishing can sustain each other. Examples from their practices show how the word ‘good’ receives its meaning in context. Central among the teachers’ concerns is their hope that students develop a free and sustainable interest in music, often described as inspiration. I propose that ‘good relationships to music’ and ‘inspiration’ can be understood as philosophical mediators which support the transition from an indeterminate ‘interest in music’ towards specific ways in which music can become a (co-)constitutive part of living well in each person’s particular circumstances. Different musical practices emphasise different aspects of what is considered important in music and in human life. Music school teachers consciously balance between a variety of such values. They also make efforts to resist pressure which might threaten the goods they think are most important. Such goods include joy, participation, perseverance, solid musical skills related to specific practices, and a strong sense of vitality. The insights from this study suggest that when teachers are able to create inspiration, they seem to do so by performing complex work which combines musical and educational aims and makes general positive contributions to their students’ lives. Ensuring that teaching and learning in music schools remain as constructive and meaningful as possible for both students and teachers is a demanding task. The study indicates that collaborative, reflective and interdisciplinary work may be helpful as support for development processes on both individual and collective levels of music school teacher practices.

Deviations of Governance In IT Multi-Sourcing: A Case Study

IT outsourcing (ITO) refers to the shift of IT/IS activities from internal to external of an organization. In prior research, the governance of ITO is recognized with persistent strategic importance for practice, because it is tightly related to ITO success. Under the rapid transformation of global market, the evolving practice of ITO requires updated knowledge on effective governance. However, research on ITO governance is still under developed due to the lack of integrated theoretical frameworks and the variety of empirical settings besides dyadic client-vendor relationships. Especially, as multi-sourcing has become an increasingly common practice in ITO, its new governance challenges must be attended by both ITO researchers and practitioners. To address this research gap, this study aims to understand multi-sourcing governance with an integrated theoretical framework incorporating both governance structure and governance mechanisms. The focus is on the emerging deviations among formal, perceived and practiced governance. With an interpretive perspective, a single case study is conducted with mixed methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and qualitative inquiries. The empirical setting embraces one client firm and its two IT suppliers for IT infrastructure services. The empirical material is analyzed at three levels: within one supplier firm, between the client and one supplier, and among all three firms. Empirical evidences, at all levels, illustrate various deviations in governance mechanisms, with which emerging governance structures are shaped. This dissertation contributes to the understanding of ITO governance in three domains: the governance of ITO in general, the governance of multi-sourcing in particular, and research methodology. For ITO governance in general, this study has identified two research strands of governance structure and governance mechanisms, and integrated both concepts under a unified framework. The composition of four research papers contributes to multi-sourcing research by illustrating the benefits of zooming in and out across the multilateral relationships with different aspects and scopes. Methodologically, the viability and benefit of mixed-method is illustrated and confirmed for both researchers and practitioners.