Conditions for EFL learning and professional development : Finland-Swedish learner and teacher perspectives

Engelskans dominerande roll som internationellt språk och andra globaliseringstrender påverkar också Svenskfinland. Dessa trender påverkar i sin tur förutsättningarna för lärande och undervisning i engelska som främmande språk, det vill säga undervisningsmålen, de förväntade elev- och lärarroller, materialens ändamålsenlighet, lärares och elevers initiala erfarenheter av engelska och engelskspråkiga länder. Denna studie undersöker förutsättningarna för lärande och professionell utveckling i det svenskspråkiga nybörjarklassrummet i engelska som främmande språk. Utgångsläget för 351 nybörjare i engelska som främmande språk och 19 av deras lärare beskrivs och analyseras. Resultaten tyder på att engelska håller på att bli ett andraspråk snarare än ett traditionellt främmande språk för många unga elever. Dessa elever har också goda förutsättningar att lära sig engelska utanför skolan. Sådan var dock inte situationen för alla elever, vilket tyder på att det finns en anmärkningsvärd heterogenitet och även regional variation i det finlandssvenska klassrummet i engelska som främmande språk. Lärarresultaten tyder på att vissa lärare har klarat av att på ett konstruktivt sätt att tackla de förutsättningar de möter. Andra lärare uttrycker frustration över sin arbetssituation, läroplanen, undervisningsmaterialen och andra aktörer som kommer är av betydelse för skolmiljön. Studien påvisar att förutsättningarna för lärande och undervisning i engelska som främmande språk varierar i Svenskfinland. För att stöda elevers och lärares utveckling föreslås att dialogen mellan aktörer på olika nivå i samhället bör förbättras och systematiseras.

The politics of multicultural encounters : feminist postcolonial perspectives

Det mångkulturella diskuteras livligt i den offentliga debatten idag. För att utveckla diskussionen är det viktigt att ta reda på vad som stöder bra mångkulturalism och vilka förutsättningar som finns för det mångkulturella i dagens Finland. Dessa frågor analyseras i Salla Tuoris doktorsavhandling "The politics of multicultural encounters. Feminist postcolonial perspectives." Avhandlingen behandlar hur det mångkulturella skapas i det så kallade "projektsamhället", det vill säga ett samhälle där en stor del av arbete organiseras i projekt. Studien baserar sig på fältarbete inom ett EU-finansierat sysselsättningsprojekt för invandrade kvinnor som pågick under 2002-2006 (och en bredare kontext av mångkulturellt arbete). Boken för en dialogen mellan feministiska postkoloniala analyser och vardagslivspolitiken. Studien belyser rasismens förekomst i Finland. Rasismen beskrivs ofta som baksidan av det mångkulturella, och den förknippas intimt med den invandring som skett sedan 1990-talet. Men rasism borde förstås som ett bredare fenomen, menar Tuori, det är mera än en medveten ideologi eller ett avsiktligt motiv. Arbetslivets diskriminerande strukturer samt sådan praxis i skolor, på arbetsplatser eller i grannskapet som leder till ojämställdhet, är också rasism. Det är viktigt att granska också hur expertis skapas inom det mångkulturella. Ett av studiens centrala bidrag är att lyssna på invandrares kunskap. I den etnografiska analysen framkommer att de invandrades kunskap inte alltid hörs, eller så uppfattas det inte som allmängiltig kunskap, utan som enskilda erfarenheter. Att inte lyssna kan leda till ojämställda praxis, utan att det nödvändigtvis innehåller en avsiktlig tanke att diskriminera. Studiet behandlar också möjligheter och betydelser av "empowerment" (bemäktigande, deltagande) i ett sysselsättningsprojekt. "Empowerment" förstås oftast som förstärkning av individers, ibland också gruppers, egen handlingsförmåga vilket leder till ökat handlingsutrymme. Begreppet används också inom socialpolitik och pedagogik. Som bäst fungerar "empowerment" som en kombination av förändrade yttre maktförhållanden och ökad personlig förmåga och då kan det vara ett verktyg för att stärka det mångkulturella samhället. Avhandlingen bidrar dessutom med ny kunskap om "projektsamhället" ur det enskilda projektets perspektiv. Det mångkulturella arbetet i Finland organiseras framförallt som projekt, vilket skapar strama tyglar för arbetet. Projekten ska svara mot det som finansiären anser vara viktiga tyngdpunkter och bearbeta sitt eget arbete därefter. Projektarbete innebär också ständiga rapporter, utvärderingar och "mainstreaming", vilket innebär att det administrativa får en förhållandevis stor roll i projekten. I det mångkulturella arbetet innebär detta att sysselsättningseffekten av själva projekten riktas framförallt till dem som arbetar med förvaltningen och inte de som arbetar med projektens huvudmål eller i själva projekten - och som oftast är finländare av finsk bakgrund.

A tour through Sweden, Swedish-Lapland, Finland and Denmark. In a series of letters, illustrated with engravings : by Matthew Consett, esq.

P. 143-158 are misnumbered 142-157.

Reagan's mythical America : towards a narrative theory of prophetic politics

Lectio praecursoria Tampereen yliopistossa 17.8.2010.

A contact-linguistic view on Finland-Swedish quotatives vara ’be’ and att ’that’

Artikel i konferensrapport.

Exiles and Constituents: Baltic Refugees and American Cold War Politics, 1948- 1960

This dissertation explores the complicated relations between Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian postwar refugees and American foreign policymakers between 1948 and 1960. There were seemingly shared interests between the parties during the first decade of the Cold War. Generally, Eastern European refugees refused to recognize Soviet hegemony in their homelands, and American policy towards the Soviet bloc during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations sought to undermine the Kremlin’s standing in the region. More specifically, Baltic refugees and State Department officials sought to preserve the 1940 non-recognition policy towards the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States. I propose that despite the seemingly natural convergence of interests, the American experiment of constructing a State-Private network revolving around fostering relations with exile groups was fraught with difficulties. These difficulties ultimately undermined any ability that the United States might have had to liberate the Baltic States from the Soviet Union. As this dissertation demonstrates, Baltic exiles were primarily concerned with preserving a high level of political continuity to the interwar republics under the assumption that they would be able to regain their positions in liberated, democratic societies. American policymakers, however, were primarily concerned with maintaining the non-recognition policy, the framework in which all policy considerations were analyzed. I argue that these two motivating factors created unnecessary tensions in American policy towards the Baltic republics in the spheres of psychological warfare as well as exile unity in the United States and Europe. Despite these shortcomings, I argue that out of the exiles’ failings was born a generation of Baltic constituents that blurred the political legitimacy line between exiles who sought to return home and ethnic Americans who were loyal to the United States. These Baltic constituents played an important role in garnering the support of the United States Congress, starting in the 1950s, but became increasingly influential after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, despite the seemingly less important role Eastern Europe played in the Cold War. The actions of the Baltic constituents not only prevented the Baltic question from being forever lost in the memory hole of history, but actually created enough political pressure on the State Department that it was impossible to alter the long-standing policy of not recognizing the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States.

Private Home Care in Municipal Service Systems – A Case Study among Finnish and Swedish Municipalities

The aim of this study is to assess the current and future preconditions for conducting private business in municipal service systems for home care in Lahti and Hyvinkää in Finland, and in Uppsala and Huddinge in Sweden. This study also aims to assess the implications of quality related issues on the preconditions for conducting private business in the service systems in question. The theories and the research methodologies of the study are based on the Business Model Generation and the Business Model Canvas -concepts. Also a couple of frameworks on implications of quality are applied and integrated into the study. The study is completed as a case study – with structured and identical approaches for all four municipalities. The analyses and assessments of the study are primarily qualitative, but supported by simple quantitative methodologies. The data of the study consists primarily of publicly available information, and secondarily of answers provided by the case-municipalities to multiple choice questions. The results of the study show that the service systems for home care among the case-municipalities are, from perspective of private companies, diverse with local characteristics. Both the premises for conducting private business and the quality-issues are in many respects different in the Finnish and the Swedish case-municipalities. This is partly due to differences in the national service systems; the service voucher system versus the system of choice. Still, it appears that the current preconditions for conducting private business in the service systems for home care, including the implications of quality, would be more favorable in Uppsala and Huddinge than in Lahti and Hyvinkää. On the other hand, the service systems are subject to changes, and the most positive and significant development is here forecasted for a Finnish case-municipality (Lahti). Communication of quality is clearly more advanced in the Swedish case-municipalities. The results of this study can be utilized in several ways, for instance by private companies interested in entering into service systems for home care, either in some of the case-municipalities, or in some other Finnish or Swedish municipalities. Also municipalities can apply the analyses of the study when designing, developing or evaluating their own service systems for home care.

Imagining a New Society: Public Painting as Politics in Postwar Finland

The thesis is the first comprehensive study on Finnish public painting, public artworks generally referred to as murals or monumental paintings. It focuses on the processes of production of public paintings during the post-WWII decades in Finland and the complex relationships between the political sphere and the production of art. The research studies the networks of agents involved in the production of public paintings. Besides the human agents—artists, assistants, commissioners and viewers—also public paintings were and are agents in the processes of production and in their environments. The research questions can be grouped into three overlapping series of questions: First, the research investigates the production public paintings: What kinds of public paintings were realised in postwar Finland—how, where, by whom and for what purposes? Second, it discusses the publicness of these paintings: How were public paintings defined, and what aspects characterised them as “public”? What was their relation to public space, public authorities, and audience? And third, it explores the politics of public paintings: the relationship between Finnish public painting, nationalism, and the memory of war. To answer these questions, extensive archival work has been performed, and over 200 public paintings have been documented around Finland. The research material has been studied in a sociological framework and in the context of the political and economic history of Finland, employing critical theories on public space and public art as well as theories on the building of nationalism, commemoration, memory, and forgetting. An important aim of this research was to open up a new field of study and position public painting within Finnish art history, from which it has been conspicuous by its absence. The research indicates that public painting was a significant genre of art in postwar Finland. The process of creating a national genre of public painting participated in the defining of municipal and state art politics in the country, and paintings functioned as vehicles of carrying out the agenda of the commissioning bodies. In the formation of municipal art policies in Finland in the 1950s, public painting connected to the same tendency of democratising art as the founding of public art museums. Public painting commissions also functioned as an arena of competition and a means of support for the artists. Public paintings were judged and commissioned within the realm of political decision-making, and they suggested the values of the decision-making groups, generally conveyed as the values of the society. The participation of official agents in the production allocated a position of official art to the genre. Through the material of this research, postwar public painting is seen as an agent in a society searching for a new identity. The postwar public painting production participated in the creation of the Finnish welfare society as indications of a humane society. It continued a tradition of public art production that had been built on nationalist and art educational ideologies in the late 19th and early 20th century. Postwar public paintings promoted the new national narrative of unification by creating an image of a homogeneous society with a harmonious communal life. The paintings laid out an image of Finnishness that was modern but rooted in the agrarian past, of a society that was based on hard work and provided for its members a good life. Postwar public painting was art with a mission, and it created an image of a society with a mission.

Deregulation’s Impact on the Railway Freight Transport Sector’s Future in the Baltic Sea Region

The European transport market has confronted several changes during the last decade. Due to European Union legislative mandates, the railway freight market was deregulated in 2007. The market followed the trend started by other transport modes as well as other previously regulated industries such as banking, telecommunications and energy. Globally, the first country to deregulate the railway freight market was the United States, with the introduction of the Staggers Rail Act in 1980. Some European countries decided to follow suit already before regulation was mandated; among the forerunners were the United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany. The previous research has concentrated only on these countries, which has provided an interesting research gap for this thesis. The Baltic Sea Region consists of countries with different kinds of liberalization paths, including Sweden and Germany, which have been on the frontline, whereas Lithuania and Finland have only one active railway undertaking, the incumbent. The transport market of the European Union is facing further challenges in the near future, due to the Sulphur Directive, oil dependency and the changing structure of European rail networks. In order to improve the accessibility of this peripheral area, further action is required. This research focuses on topics such as the progression of deregulation, barriers to entry, country-specific features, cooperation and internationalization. Based on the research results, it can be stated that the Baltic Sea Region’s railway freight market is expected to change in the future. Further private railway undertakings are anticipated, and these would change the market structure. The realization of European Union’s plans to increase the improved rail network to cover the Baltic States is strongly hoped for, and railway freight market counterparts inside and among countries are starting to enhance their level of cooperation. The Baltic Sea Region countries have several special national characteristics which influence the market and should be taken into account when companies evaluate possible market entry actions. According to thesis interviews, the Swedish market has a strong level of cooperation in the form of an old-boy network, and is supported by a positive attitude of the incumbent towards the private railway undertakings. This has facilitated the entry process of newcomers, and currently the market has numerous operating railway undertakings. A contrary example was found from Poland, where the incumbent sent old rolling stock to the scrap yard rather than sell it to private railway undertakings. The importance of personal relations is highlighted in Russia, followed by the railway market’s strong political bond with politics. Nonetheless, some barriers to entry are shared by the Baltic Sea Region, the main ones being acquisition of rolling stock, bureaucracy and needed investments. The railway freight market is internationalizing, which is perceived via several alliances as well as the increased number of mergers and acquisitions. After deregulation, markets seem to increase the number of railway undertakings at a rather fast pace, but with the passage of time, the larger operators tend to acquire smaller ones. Therefore, it is expected that in a decade’s time, the number of railway undertakings will start to decrease in the deregulation pioneer countries, while the ones coming from behind might still experience an increase. The Russian market is expected to be totally liberalized, and further alliances between the Russian Railways and European railway undertakings are expected to occur. The Baltic Sea Region’s railway freight market is anticipated to improve, and, based on the interviewees’ comments, attract more cargoes from road to rail.

In search of information systems value : a case study of the EHR benefits realisation efforts of three Swedish hospitals.

The Swedish public health care organisation could very well be undergoing its most significant change since its specialisation during the late 19th and early 20th century. At the heart of this change is a move from using manual patient journals to electronic health records (EHR). EHR are complex integrated organisational wide information systems (IS) that promise great benefits and value as well as presenting great challenges to the organisation. The Swedish public health care is not the first organisation to implement integrated IS, and by no means alone in their quest for realising the potential benefits and value that it has to offer. As organisations invest in IS they embark on a journey of value-creation and capture. A journey where a costbased approach towards their IS-investments is replaced with a value-centric focus, and where the main challenges lie in the practical day-to-day task of finding ways to intertwine technology, people and business processes. This has however proven to be a problematic task. The problematic situation arises from a shift of perspective regarding how to manage IS in order to gain value. This is a shift from technology delivery to benefits delivery; from an ISimplementation plan to a change management plan. The shift gives rise to challenges related to the inability of IS and the elusiveness of value. As a response to these challenges the field of IS-benefits management has emerged offering a framework and a process in order to better understand and formalise benefits realisation activities. In this thesis the benefits realisation efforts of three Swedish hospitals within the same county council are studied. The thesis focuses on the participants of benefits analysis projects; their perceptions, judgments, negotiations and descriptions of potential benefits. The purpose is to address the process where organisations seek to identify which potential IS-benefits to pursue and realise, this in order to better understand what affects the process, so that realisation actions of potential IS-benefits could be supported. A qualitative case study research design is adopted and provides a framework for sample selection, data collection, and data analysis. It also provides a framework for discussions of validity, reliability and generalizability. Findings displayed a benefits fluctuation, which showed that participants’ perception of what constituted potential benefits and value changed throughout the formal benefits management process. Issues like structure, knowledge, expectation and experience affected perception differently, and this in the end changed the amount and composition of potential benefits and value. Five dimensions of benefits judgment were identified and used by participants when finding accommodations of potential benefits and value to pursue. Identified dimensions affected participants’ perceptions, which in turn affected the amount and composition of potential benefits. During the formal benefits management process participants shifted between judgment dimensions. These movements emerged through debates and interactions between participants. Judgments based on what was perceived as expected due to one’s role and perceived best for the organisation as a whole were the two dominant benefits judgment dimensions. A benefits negotiation was identified. Negotiations were divided into two main categories, rational and irrational, depending on participants’ drive when initiating and participating in negotiations. In each category three different types of negotiations were identified having different characteristics and generating different outcomes. There was also a benefits negotiation process identified that displayed management challenges corresponding to its five phases. A discrepancy was also found between how IS-benefits are spoken of and how actions of IS benefits realisation are understood. This was a discrepancy between an evaluation and a realisation focus towards IS value creation. An evaluation focus described IS-benefits as well-defined and measurable effects and a realisation focus spoke of establishing and managing an on-going place of value creation. The notion of valuescape was introduced in order to describe and support the understanding of IS value creation. Valuescape corresponded to a realisation focus and outlined a value configuration consisting of activities, logic, structure, drivers and role of IS.