Collective redundancies in the State of California of the United States and in the Republic of Finland. Procedures and Provisions

Video games industry has recently bonded California and Finland in a new way and where the employers are recruiting they also need to be aware of the provisions and procedures related to terminations. In general, collective dismissals are on a relatively high level both in Finland and in California. In California, collective redundancies are regulated under the WARN law. The WARN obligates employers with 75 or more employees to give a 60-day notice prior to a mass lay off and some other similar events. Employers with less than 75 employees are free to administer the terminations without the WARN notice period. Generally, the California at-will presumption allows employment relationship to be terminated any day with or without reason and without notice period if conditions of collective agreements or employment contract do not limit this right. Termination cannot anyhow be in violation of the anti-discrimination law. In Finland the termination related provisions are part of the Employment Contracts Act and the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings. Collective redundancies are allowed under financial and production related grounds. Small employers with less than 20 employees follow the termination provisions of the Employment Contracts Act and are obligated to inform the employee to be terminated on the details of the termination itself and also the services of the Employment and Economic Development Office. Employers with 20 or more employees are to initiate co-operation procedure under the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings when reducing personnel. The co- operation negotiations are to inform employees on the employer’s plans and financial situation as well as to involve them in the decision making regarding the terminations. The employer’s duty to inform the employees of the services of Employment and Economic Development Office needs to be fulfilled also in terminations under the co-operation procedure. Discrimination is prohibited in Finland in terminations of employment. As an alternative for terminations, employees can for example be transferred to another position or be temporarily laid off. Employer’s duties related to search of alternatives for layoff are broader in Finland than in California. The recent development of the labor laws in Finland and in California suggests that the labor law is not static in either one of these environments but changes can be expected as the needs of the business life so require.

The Finnish Paper Workers' Union at a crossroads: Labor union representativeness in a changing environment, 1980-2008

This thesis consists of four articles and an introductory section. The main research questions in all the articles refer to the changes in the representativeness of the Finnish Paper Workers' Union. Representativeness stands for the entire entity of external, internal, legal and reputational factors that enable the labor union to represent its members and achieve its goals. This concept is based on an extensive reading of quantitative and qualitative industrial relations literature, which includes works based on Marxist labor-capital relations (such as Hyman's industrial relations studies), and more recent union density studies as well as gender- and ethnic diversity-based 'union revitalization' studies. Müller-Jentsch's German studies of industrial relations have been of particular importance as well as Streeck's industrial unionism and technology studies. The concept of representativeness is an attempt to combine the insights of these diverse strands of literature and bring the scientific discussion of labor unions back to the core of a union's function: representing its members. As such, it can be seen as a theoretical innovation. The concept helps to acknowledge both the heterogeneity of the membership and the totality of a labor union organization. The concept of representativeness aims to move beyond notions of 'power'. External representativeness can be expressed through the position of the labor union in the industrial relations system and the economy. Internal representativeness focuses on the aspects of labor unions that relate to the function of the union as an association with members, such as internal democracy. Legal representativeness lies in the formal legal position of the union – its rights and instruments. This includes collective bargaining legislation, co-decision rules and industrial conflict legislation. Reputational representativeness is related to how the union is seen by other actors and the general public, and can be approximated using data on strike activity. All these aspects of representativeness are path-dependent, and show the results of previous struggles over issues. The concept of representativeness goes beyond notions of labor union power and symbolizes an attempt to bring back the focus of industrial relations studies to the union's basic function of representing its members. The first article shows in detail the industrial conflict of the Finnish paper industry in 2005. The intended focus was the issue of gender in the negotiations over a new collective agreement, but the focal point of the industrial conflict was the issue of outsourcing and how this should be organized. Also, the issue of continuous shifts as an issue of working time was very important. The drawn-out conflict can be seen as a struggle over principles, and under pressure the labor union had to concede ground on the aforementioned issues. The article concludes that in this specific conflict, the union represented its' female members to a lesser extent, because the other issues took such priority. Furthermore, because of the substantive concessions. the union lost some of its internal representativeness, and the stubbornness of the union may have even harmed the reputation of the union. This article also includes an early version of the representativeness framework, through which this conflict is analyzed. The second article discusses wage developments, union density and collective bargaining within the context of representativeness. It is shown that the union has been able to secure substantial benefits for its members, regardless of declining employment. Collective agreements have often been based on centralized incomes policies, but the paper sector has not always joined these. Attention is furthermore paid to the changing competition of the General Assembly, with a surprisingly strong position of the Left Alliance still. In an attempt to replicate analysis of union density measures, an analysis of sectoral union density shows that similar factors as in aggregate data influence this measure, though – due to methodological issues – the results may not be robust. On this issue, it can be said that the method of analysis for aggregate union density is not suitable for sectoral union density analysis. The increasingly conflict-ridden industrial relations predicted have not actually materialized. The article concludes by asking whether the aim of ever-increasing wages is a sustainable one in the light of the pressures of globalization, though wage costs are a relatively small part of total costs. The third article discusses the history and use of outsourcing in the Finnish paper industry. It is shown using Hyman's framework of constituencies that over time, the perspective of the union changed from 'members of the Paper Workers' Union' to a more specific view of who is a core member of the union. Within the context of the industrial unionism that the union claims to practice, this is an important change. The article shows that the union more and more caters for a core group, while auxiliary personnel is less important to the union's identity and constituencies, which means that the union's internal representativeness has decreased. Maintenance workers are an exception; the union and employers have developed a rotating system that increases the efficient allocation of these employees. The core reason of the exceptional status of maintenance personnel is their high level of non-transferable skills. In the end it is debatable whether the compromise on outsourcing solves the challenges facing the industry. The fourth article shows diverging discourses within the union with regard to union-employer partnership for competitiveness improvements and instruments of local union representatives. In the collective agreement of 2008, the provision regulating wage effects of significant changes in the organization or content of work was thoroughly changed, though this mainly reflected decisions by the Labor Court on the pre-2008 version of the provision. This change laid bare the deep rift between the Social Democratic and Left Alliance (ex-Communist) factions of the union. The article argues that through the changed legal meaning of the provision, the union was able to transform concession bargaining into a basis for partnership. The internal discontent about this issue is nonetheless substantial and a threat to the unity of the union, both locally and at the union level. On the basis of the results of the articles, other factors influencing representativeness, such as technology and EU law and an overview of the main changes in the Finnish paper industry, it is concluded that, especially in recent years, the Finnish Paper Workers' Union has lost some of its representativeness. In particular, the loss of the efficiency of strikes is noted, the compromise on outsourcing which may have alienated a substantial part of the union's membership, and the change in the collective agreement of 2008 have caused this decline. In the latter case, the internal disunion on that issue shows the constraints of the union's internal democracy. Furthermore, the failure of the union to join the TEAM industrial union (by democratic means), the internal conflicts and a narrow focus on its own sector may also hurt the union in the future, as the paper industry in Finland is going through a structural change. None of these changes in representativeness would have been so drastic without the considerable pressure of globalization - in particular changing markets, changing technology and a loss of domestic investments to foreign investments, which in the end have benefited the corporations more than the Finnish employees of these corporations. Taken together, the union risks becoming socially irrelevant in time, though it will remain formally very strong on the basis of its institutional setting and financial situation.

Keskusteluja vuokratyöstä. Vuokratyön diskursiivinen rakentuminen Suomessa

1990-luvun alussa lainsäädäntö ja työmarkkinajärjestöt määrittelivät Suomessa, että vuokratyötä tuli käyttää vain tilapäiseen työvoimatarpeeseen, esimerkiksi sijaisuuksiin ja ruuhkahuippuihin. Joillakin aloilla vuokratyö oli työnantajien ja työntekijöiden yhteissopimuksella kielletty. Vaikka vuokratyösuhteet saivat jo 1980-luvulla niin Suomessa kuin kansainvälisestikin maineen työsuhdekeinotteluna, alkoi vuokratyön määrä Suomessa kasvaa 1990-luvun puolivälissä ja erityisesti tultaessa 2000-luvulle. Suomalaiset akateemiset tutkijat eivät ole juuri vuokratyöstä kiinnostuneet. Aiemmat, harvalukuiset tutkimukset ovat keskittyneet lähinnä työyhteisöjen ja työntekijöiden kokemuksiin sekä vuokratyön työehtoihin. Vuokratyö ymmärretäänkin edelleen lähinnä työntekijän subjektiivisena kokemuksena. Vuokratyössä on kuitenkin kysymys paitsi kokemuksista, myös yhteiskunnallisesta valtakamppailusta, jossa diskursiivisin keinoin pyritään vaikuttamaan ilmiöön nimeltä vuokratyö, laajemmin ilmiöön nimeltä työmarkkinat, sekä toisaalta kansalaisten käsityksiin työelämän ”normaalista”. Käsillä oleva tutkimus laajentaa ymmärrystä vuokratyöstä tarkastelemalla ilmiötä lainsäädännön, uutisoinnin ja markkinoinnin rakentamien julkisten käsitysten ja merkityksenantojen kautta. Teoreettisena viitekehyksenä käytän hallinnan ja työprosessin säätelyn teoriaperinteitä. Se, miten työmarkkinoiden muutosta ja uusia työsuhdemuotoja politiikassa, mediassa, lainsäädännössä, tai työpaikan kahvipöytäkeskusteluissa perustellaan ja tehdään ymmärrettäväksi, on samalla työelämään kiinnitettävien arvojen, merkitysten ja toimijuuksien luomista, rajaamista ja kuvailua. Työelämäpuheessa ei siis ole kyse vain talouden lainalaisuuksista, kansantalouden toimivuudesta, tai yritysten kilpailukyvystä, vaan myös ja erityisesti niiden toimijoiden luomisesta, määrittelemisestä ja legitimoimisesta, jotka työelämän kentällä saavat toimia ja tulevat palkituiksi. Säätelyn ja hallinnan näkökulmasta on relevanttia tarkastella millaisilla käsitteillä ja merkityksillä vuokratyötä ilmiönä rakennetaan . Tutkimuskysymyksinä esitän: 1) Miten ja millä perusteilla vuokratyöstä rakennettiin Suomessa legitiimi tapa työllistää ja työllistyä? 2) Millaisia työntekijäideaaleja vuokratyöhön liittyvissä keskusteluissa rakennetaan? Tutkimusaineistona tarkastelen lainsäädäntöön liittyviä dokumentteja, Helsingin Sanomien uutisointia, vuokratyöyritysten markkinointimateriaaleja, sekä vuokratyöyritysten edustajien haastatteluita. Analyysimenetelmänä käytän kriittistä diskurssianalyysia. Tämä menetelmä mahdollistaa puheen ja dokumenttien tarkastelun sosiaalisena toimintana, jolla eri toimijat pyrkivät osallistumaan yhteiskunnassa hyväksyttyjen ja tunnustettujen käsitysten ja toimintavaihtoehtojen rakentamis-, tulkinta- ja määrittelyprosesseihin. Tutkimukseni päätuloksena esitän, että vuokratyöstä muodostui legitiimi tapa työllistää Suomessa 1990-luvulla, koska vuokratyö käsitteellistettiin sekä lainsäädännön että median diskursseissa ennen kaikkea ratkaisuksi työttömyyteen. Toisaalta vuokratyö käsitteellistettiin vain marginaalisten työntekijäryhmien (naiset ja opiskelijat) rooliksi, jolloin se ei liittynyt miesvaltaisten työpaikkojen arkeen. Ratkaisuna työttömyyteen vuokratyö myös samalla luonnollistettiin osaksi yleisempää työmarkkinakehitystä, jolle ”kukaan ei voi mitään”. 2000-luvulla vuokratyö jatkoi voittokulkuaan ja rakentui pysyväksi ilmiöksi, koska työlainsäädännön uudistus institutionalisoi vuokratyön työehtosopimusmenettelyyn, jolloin sen ”salonkikelpoisuus” ja normaalius vahvistettiin. Vaikka työehtosopimusasia oli ratkaisuna merkittävä, nousi vuokratyön osalta itse työehtosopimus tärkeämmäksi kuin sen sisältö. Työehtosopimuksilla ei kuitenkaan pystytty vaikuttamaan esimerkiksi vuokratyöntekijän olemattomaan työsuhdeturvaan. Lisäksi työnantajapuhe käsitteellistää vuokratyön 2000-luvulla ennen kaikkea työmarkkinavaihtoehdoksi, vapautta ja monipuolisia työkokemuksia tarjoavaksi työmarkkinoiden katalysaattoriksi. Vuokratyö on tässä merkitysavaruudessa työntekijöille ”vain” yksi tapa työllistyä ja löytää oma tiensä työmarkkinoille, ei suinkaan työnantajien sanelema pakko. Työntekijöihin kohdistuva hallintapuhe niin mediassa kuin työnantajien haastatteluissakin pyrkii puolestaan rakentamaan ideaalityöntekijäkuvaksi yrittäjämäisen oman elämänsä toimitusjohtajan. Työnantajien diskursseissa kaikuvatkin työntekijään kohdistuva vaatimus itse itsensä ohjaamisesta sekä työntekijäidentiteetin muotoilemisesta joustavuutta, sopeutuvuutta, vaihtelua ja jatkuvaa muutosta vähintäänkin sietäväksi, mutta mieluiten näitä ominaisuuksia jopa aktiivisesti hakevaksi ja arvostavaksi. Työmarkkinoiden toimijana on nimenomaisesti yksilö, jonka mahdollisuudet menestyä ovat vain ja ainoastaan hänen omissa käsissään. Työntekijän roolin korostaminen aktiivisena toimijana ja vuokratyöstä ”oikeita”, norminmukaisia sisältöjä löytävänä pärjääjänä on diskursiivisesti hallittua yritystä ohjata työntekijöitä näkemään sekä itsensä tietynlaisina toimijoina että työmarkkinat tietyllä tavalla toimivina. Vuokratyössä ei ole kyse vain työntekijöiden yksilöllisistä tai yksittäisistä kokemuksista. Vuokratyö on yhteiskunnallisen merkityskamppailun tulos, jossa käyttövoimana ovat toimineet hallinnalliset ja säätelyyn pyrkivät käsitteellistykset työllisyydestä, yksilön valinnasta ja koko yhteiskunnan edusta. Hallinnan ja säätelyn näkökulmasta katsottuna vuokratyö on myös merkinnyt säätelyn liukumista tasa-arvoa, yhdenmukaista kohtelua ja työntekijän suojelua korostavasta viranomaisten ja poliittisten toimijoiden suorittamasta työmarkkinoiden kollektiivisesta säätelystä työnantajien ylläpitämään työntekijän persoonan ja käyttäytymisen hegemoniseen, yksilölliseen säätelyyn.

Inclusion or Exclusion? Trade union strategies and Labor migration

Inclusion or Exclusion? Trade Union Strategies and Labor Migration This research identified and analyzed immigration-related strategies of the Finnish Construction Trade Union (FCTU) and the Service Union United (SUU); e.g. how the unions react to labor immigration, whether unions seek to include migrants in the unions, and what is migrants’ position in the unions. The two unions were chosen as the focus of the research because the workforce in the sectors they represent is migrant-dense. The study also analyzed the experiences that migrants who work in these sectors have with trade unions. The Estonian labor market situation –including the role of Estonian trade unions– was also examined as it has a considerable impact on the operating environment of the FCTU. The results of the study indicate that immigration is a contradictory issue for both unions. On the one hand, they strive to include migrants as trade union members and to defend migrants’ labor rights. On the other hand, they, together with their umbrella organization the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), seek to prevent labor immigration from outside the EU and EEA countries. They actively defend current labor immigration restrictions by drawing atten- tion to high unemployment figures and to the breaches of working conditions migrants encounter. In contrast, the employer organizations promote a more liberal state policy on labor immigration because they see it as a boost for business. Both the unions and the employer organizations ground their arguments on national interest. However, the position of the trade union movement is not uniform: unions belonging to the Confederation of Unions for Professionals and Managerial Staff in Finland (Akava) embrace more liberal labor immigration stances than the SAK. A key trade union strategy is to try to guarantee that migrants’ working condi- tions do not differ from those of the natives. The FCTU and the SUU inform migrants about Finnish collective agreements and trade union membership in the most common migrant languages. This is important for the unions because it is not in their interest that migrants’ working conditions are undercut. The interviewed migrants said that natives had more negotiating power with employers, which is often negatively portrayed in migrants’ working conditions. Migrants perceive that trade unions have an important role in protecting their working conditions. However, they stressed that migrants’ knowledge of unions is often very limited. The number of migrants in both two unions studied here is increasing. Espe- cially in the SUU, a considerable proportion of the new members are migrants. The FCTU is in a more challenging situation than the SUU because migrant construc- tion workers often work only for short periods in Finland and are consequently not interested in becoming union members. The unions’ strategies partly differ: the FCTU was the first Finnish trade union to establish a trade union branch/lo- cal for migrant members. The goal is to facilitate migrants’ inclusion in the union and to highlight the specific problems they face. The SUU, for its part, insists that such a special strategy would exclude migrants within the union organization. Despite the unions’ strategies, migrants are still underrepresented as union members and officials, which some of the interviewed migrants saw as a problem. Immigrants’ perception of trade unions was pragmatic: they had joined unions when membership yielded concrete benefits. In spite of the unions’ strategies, migrants –and temporary migrants– encoun- ter specific problems in terms of working conditions. Both unions demand more state intervention to protect migrants’ labor rights because overseeing working conditions consumes union resources. However, without the unions’ intervention, these problems would be more common than is currently the case. For instance, some of the interviewed migrants had received trade union assistance in claim- ing unpaid wages. The study demonstrated with the help of building on Walter Korpi’s power resources theory, that immigration is a power resource issue for the unions: suc- cessful immigration-related strategies strengthen unions –and vice versa. The research also showed how the unions’ operating environments constrain and enable their immigration-related strategies. This study has illuminated a previously ignored dimension: the immigrant- inclusive strategies of the Finnish trade unions. The research material consists of 78 qualitative interviews, observation in trade union events, and trade unions’ and employer organizations’ public state- ments.

Applying collective intelligence to idea evaluation at the front end of innovation

The study focuses on the front end of innovation process. Due to changes in innovation policies and paradigms customers, users and shopfloor employees are becoming increasingly important sources of knowledge. New methods are needed for processing information and ideas coming from multiple sources more effectively. The aim of this study is to develop an idea evaluation tool suitable for the front end of innovation process and capable of utilizing collective intelligence. The study is carried out as a case study research using constructive research approach. The chosen approach suits well for the purposes of the study. The constructive approach focuses on designing new constructs and testing them in real life applications. In this study a tool for evaluating ideas emerging from the course of everyday work is developed and tested in a case organization. Development of the tool is based on current scientific literature on knowledge creation, innovation management and collective intelligence and it is tested in LUT Lahti School of Innovation. Results are encouraging. The idea evaluation tool manages to improve performance at the front end of innovation process and it is accepted in use in the case organization. This study provides insights on what kind of a tool is required for facilitating collective intelligence at the front end of innovation process.

Creating possibilities for collective creativity : Brokerage Functions in Practice-Based Innovation

In the network era, creative achievements like innovations are more and more often created in interaction among different actors. The complexity of today‘s problems transcends the individual human mind, requiring not only individual but also collective creativity. In collective creativity, it is impossible to trace the source of new ideas to an individual. Instead, creative activity emerges from the collaboration and contribution of many individuals, thereby blurring the contribution of specific individuals in creating ideas. Collective creativity is often associated with diversity of knowledge, skills, experiences and perspectives. Collaboration between diverse actors thus triggers creativity and gives possibilities for collective creativity. This dissertation investigates collective creativity in the context of practice-based innovation. Practice-based innovation processes are triggered by problem setting in a practical context and conducted in non-linear processes utilising scientific and practical knowledge production and creation in cross-disciplinary innovation networks. In these networks diversity or distances between innovation actors are essential. Innovation potential may be found in exploiting different kinds of distances. This dissertation presents different kinds of distances, such as cognitive, functional and organisational which could be considered as sources of creativity and thus innovation. However, formation and functioning of these kinds of innovation networks can be problematic. Distances between innovating actors may be so great that a special interpretation function is needed – that is, brokerage. This dissertation defines factors that enhance collective creativity in practice-based innovation and especially in the fuzzy front end phase of innovation processes. The first objective of this dissertation is to study individual and collective creativity at the employee level and identify those factors that support individual and collective creativity in the organisation. The second objective is to study how organisations use external knowledge to support collective creativity in their innovation processes in open multi-actor innovation. The third objective is to define how brokerage functions create possibilities for collective creativity especially in the context of practice-based innovation. The research objectives have been studied through five substudies using a case-study strategy. Each substudy highlights various aspects of creativity and collective creativity. The empirical data consist of materials from innovation projects arranged in the Lahti region, Finland, or materials from the development of innovation methods in the Lahti region. The Lahti region has been chosen as the research context because the innovation policy of the region emphasises especially the promotion of practice-based innovations. The results of this dissertation indicate that all possibilities of collective creativity are not utilised in internal operations of organisations. The dissertation introduces several factors that could support collective creativity in organisations. However, creativity as a social construct is understood and experienced differently in different organisations, and these differences should be taken into account when supporting creativity in organisations. The increasing complexity of most potential innovations requires collaborative creative efforts that often exceed the boundaries of the organisation and call for the involvement of external expertise. In practice-based innovation different distances are considered as sources of creativity. This dissertation gives practical implications on how it is possible to exploit different kinds of distances knowingly. It underlines especially the importance of brokerage functions in open, practice-based innovation in order to create possibilities for collective creativity. As a contribution of this dissertation, a model of brokerage functions in practice-based innovation is formulated. According to the model, the results and success of brokerage functions are based on the context of brokerage as well as the roles, tasks, skills and capabilities of brokers. The brokerage functions in practice-based innovation are also possible to divide into social and cognitive brokerage.

Pennförare i periferin : österbottniska sockenskrivare 1721-1868

Modern research on literacy, the scriptualization of the administration and the interaction between the governing and the governed as part of the political culture, has brought to the fore the issue of different scripts and their terms. The present dissertation focuses on the parish scribes in the county of Ostrobothnia during the period 1721–1868. The peasantry had been given the right to pay parish scribes in 1624. The parish scribes who were to assist the peasants in connection with the collection of taxes simultaneously supervised the bailiffs who collected the taxes. Their writing skills made the scribes indispensable also in many other contexts. In Ostrobothnia, the peasantry had use for parish scribes, who worked as mediators between Swedish and Finnish, between the oral and the written and vice versa. The aim of this dissertation is on the one hand to explore the recruitment of parish scribes, and on the other to examine the parish scribes as a professional and social group. The parish scribes’ significance for the peasantry in everyday life, local decision-making and in connection with political processes will be analyzed by examining their work and professional activities. The recruitment of parish scribes and has been analyzed as a decision process where different actors were able to influence the election. The parish scribes’ competence requirements and terms of employment have been analyzed. The parish scribes as a professional body or a social group has not previously been explored. The examination of the 154 parish scribes as a professional and social group has been carried out in the form of a collective biography. Parish scribes’ tasks originally consisted of the collection of taxes, but the duties within the parish administration increased in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The private writing assignments consisted of many different documents: bills of sale, probate inventories and estate distributions, wills, land tenancy agreements, life annuity and crofter agreements, promissory notes, auction records and different survey documents. The interaction with state power has been analyzed by examining five political decision-making processes that the peasants actively participated in.

Collective Action in Commons: Its Diverse Ends and Consequences

Collective Action in Commons: Its Diverse Ends and Consequences explores new ways in which collective action theories can contribute to our understanding of natural resource management, especially the management of common-pools. Combining classical collective action theories and lessons from earlier empirical works, the study shows that cooperation among resource users is not only a possible solution to “the tragedy of the commons”, but it can be a part of the problem as well. That is, successful cooperation may increase the likelihood of resource depletion, for example, through more effective resource utilization or collusion against sanctioning and monitoring systems. The study also explores how analytic narratives can be used to tell the story behind problems of resource use and their solutions, including the diverse roles of cooperation.

Medborgare, brukare av välfärd eller klient? : en jämförande studie om brukarens inflytande mellan en kommun, ett assistansbolag och ett brukarkooperativ som utför personlig assistans

The focus of this licentiate dissertation is to produce a better understanding of how we may give citi-zen as users a stronger influence over their welfare services and in the long run help to democratize the welfare state. The aim of this project is to analyze what kind of influence a user with a functional dis-order may have in different organizational contexts over his or her personal assistance. This study focuses on the influence a user may have over his or her welfare service, personal assis-tance. A municipality, an assistance firm and a user cooperative are compared with the thesis that the organization that surrounds the users shapes the possibilities the user have to influence his or her per-sonal assistance. The major thesis is thus: Participatory democracy as a model or approach may function differently when the services are delivered in a different way by different organizations – varying organizational forms. There are questions that try to answer if there are outspoken social goals within each organization. Questions regarding influence of the user when she or he is choosing the assistance provider and the users possibility to influence and his or her power to decide who and when anyone works as an assis-tant are asked. The results indicate that there are different sets of internal logic within the organizations that affect their goals and level of user influence. Within the user cooperative the user is considered a citizen and as a user expected to handle the role as work leader for his or her personal assistants. However the user is also a citizen and is expected within the usercooperative to act as a member and citizen to have po-litical influence. The usercooperative aims at influencing the political policy process regarding ques-tions concerning the rights of persons with disabilities. This gives the user a part in collective action as a member of the usercooperative. The other producers of personal assistance, the municipality and the assistance firm gives in this study a similar result as they give the user of personal assistance quite similar models for user influence within the respective organization. Within these organizations the user have chosen to let the organiza-tions handle the role of work leader in the written agreements with the producer and thereby the influ-ence they may have in practice is not so much a case of self-determination as a case of co-influence. The user can be seen as a user within a municipality, a client or consumer within the assistance firm and a citizen within the usercooperative. The results indicate the need for future research where co-production, institutional logic and development of democratic theory through democratic innovations are central aspects of future research.

The collective dimension of freedom of religion or belief in international law : the application of findings to the case of Turkey

Pertinent domestic and international developments involving issues related to tensions affecting religious or belief communities have been increasingly occupying the international law agenda. Those who generate and, thus, shape international law jurisprudence are in the process of seeking some of the answers to these questions. Thus the need for reconceptualization of the right to freedom of religion or belief continues as demands to the right to freedom of religion or belief challenge the boundaries of religious freedom in national and international law. This thesis aims to contribute to the process of “re-conceptualization” by exploring the notion of the collective dimension of freedom of religion or belief with a view to advance the protection of the right to freedom of religion or belief. The case of Turkey provides a useful test case where both the domestic legislation can be assessed against international standards, while at the same time lessons can be drawn for the improvement of the standard of international review of the protection of the collective dimension of freedom of religion or belief. The right to freedom of religion or belief, as enshrined in international human rights documents, is unique in its formulation in that it provides protection for the enjoyment of the rights “in community with others”.1 It cannot be realized in isolation; it crosses categories of human rights with aspects that are individual, aspects that can be effectively realized only in an organized community of individuals and aspects that belong to the field of economic, social and cultural rights such as those related to religious or moral education. This study centers on two primary questions; first, what is the scope and nature of protection afforded to the collective dimension of freedom of religion or belief in international law, and, secondly, how does the protection of the collective dimension of freedom of religion or belief in Turkey compare and contrast to international standards? Section I explores and examines the notion of the collective dimension of freedom of religion or belief, and the scope of its protection in international law with particular reference to the right to acquire legal personality and autonomy religious/belief communities. In Section II, the case study on Turkey constitutes the applied part of the thesis; here, the protection of the collective dimension is assessed with a view to evaluate the compliance of Turkish legislation and practice with international norms as well as seeking to identify how the standard of international review of the collective dimension of freedom of religion or belief can be improved.

Collective Memory Embodied in Poetry as Poison. The Mnemonic Role of Romantic Poets Discussed on the Basis of Adam Mickiewicz’ Konrad Wallenrod and Forefathers (Part III)

This thesis constitutes an interdisciplinary approach to the Polish Romanticism combining literature studies with memory studies, nationalism research and psychoanalysis. This phenomenon-based study attempts to answer the question, how the Polish national poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855) – or more exactly the implied authors in his works – perceived the role of poetry in mnemonic terms and how it changes in course of time. Consequently, ‘memory in literature’ (Astrin Erll and Ansger Nünning) is discussed here. Two pieces of writing by Mickiewicz – Konrad Wallenrod [1828] and the third part of Forefathers [1832], where a bard respectively a poetic genius appears – are seen as meta-texts defining goals of poets in time of the political non-existence of a state. Poetry is supposed to keep memory of the glorious past alive, kindle the love for the motherland, support the collective identity of a group and initiate a liberation movement. Poets function as memory guards, leaders of the nation and prophets. Thus, literature is a medium of collective memory – it stores crucial contents, transmits them and acts as a cue. Nevertheless, shifting the focus from the community towards well-being of individuals, which is consistent with the postmodern thinking, the impact that poetry has on members of a given memory culture (Jan Assmann) can be described in ‘vampiric’ terms (Maria Janion). Poetry embodying collective memory may be compared to ‘poison’, ‘infecting’ people with a nationalistic way of thinking to their disadvantage as far as their personal lives are concerned.