Open Environmental Information Upon Disclosure Request in China: The Paradox of Legal Mobilization

Taking a realist view that law is one form of politics, this dissertation studies the roles of citizens and organizations in mobilizing the law to request government agencies to disclose environmental information in China, and during this process, how the socio-legal field interacts with the political-legal sphere, and what changes have been brought about during their interactions. This work takes a socio-legal approach and applies methodologies of social science and legal analysis. It aims to understand the paradox of why and how citizens and entities have been invoking the law to access environmental information despite the fact that various obstacles exist and the effectiveness of the new mechanism of environmental information disclosure still remains low. The study is largely based on the 28 cases and eight surveys of environmental information disclosure requests collected by the author. The cases and surveys analysed in this dissertation all occurred between May 2008, when the OGI Regulations and the OEI Measures came into effect, and August 2012 when the case collection was completed. The findings of this study have shown that by invoking the rules of law made by the authorities to demand government agencies disclosing environmental information, the public, including citizens, organizations, law firms, and the media, have strategically created a repercussive pressure upon the authorities to act according to the law. While it is a top-down process that has established the mechanism of open government information in China, it is indeed the bottom-up activism of the public that makes it work. Citizens and organizations’ use of legal tactics to push government agencies to disclose environmental information have formed not only an end of accessing the information but more a means of making government agencies accountable to their legal obligations. Law has thus played a pivotal role in enabling citizen participation in the political process. Against the current situation in China that political campaigns, or politicization, from general election to collective actions, especially contentious actions, are still restrained or even repressed by the government, legal mobilization, or judicialization, that citizens and organizations use legal tactics to demand their rights and push government agencies to enforce the law, become de facto an alternative of political participation. During this process, legal actions have helped to strengthen the civil society, make government agencies act according to law, push back the political boundaries, and induce changes in the relationship between the state and the public. In the field of environmental information disclosure, citizens and organizations have formed a bottom-up social activism, though limited in scope, using the language of law, creating progressive social, legal and political changes. This study emphasizes that it is partial and incomplete to understand China’s transition only from the top-down policy-making and government administration; it is also important to observe it from the bottom-up perspective that in a realistic view law can be part of politics and legal mobilization, even when utterly apolitical, can help to achieve political aims as well. This study of legal mobilization in the field of environmental information disclosure also helps us to better understand the function of law: law is not only a tool for the authorities to regulate and control, but inevitably also a weapon for the public to demand government agencies to work towards their obligations stipulated by the laws issued by themselves.

Making the impact on research and society : a case study: crowdsourcing solutions developed for the linguistic research and citizen science

Can crowdsourcing solutions serve many masters? Can they be beneficial for both, for the layman or native speakers of minority languages on the one hand and serious linguistic research on the other? How did an infrastructure that was designed to support linguistics turn out to be a solution for raising awareness of native languages? Since 2012 the National Library of Finland has been developing the Digitisation Project for Kindred Languages, in which the key objective is to support a culture of openness and interaction in linguistic research, but also to promote crowdsourcing as a tool for participation of the language community in research. In the course of the project, over 1,200 monographs and nearly 111,000 pages of newspapers in Finno-Ugric languages will be digitised and made available in the Fenno-Ugrica digital collection. This material was published in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, and users have had only sporadic access to the material. The publication of open-access and searchable materials from this period is a goldmine for researchers. Historians, social scientists and laymen with an interest in specific local publications can now find text materials pertinent to their studies. The linguistically-oriented population can also find writings to delight them: (1) lexical items specific to a given publication, and (2) orthographically-documented specifics of phonetics. In addition to the open access collection, we developed an open source code OCR editor that enables the editing of machine-encoded text for the benefit of linguistic research. This tool was necessary since these rare and peripheral prints often include already archaic characters, which are neglected by modern OCR software developers but belong to the historical context of kindred languages, and are thus an essential part of the linguistic heritage. When modelling the OCR editor, it was essential to consider both the needs of researchers and the capabilities of lay citizens, and to have them participate in the planning and execution of the project from the very beginning. By implementing the feedback iteratively from both groups, it was possible to transform the requested changes as tools for research that not only supported the work of linguistics but also encouraged the citizen scientists to face the challenge and work with the crowdsourcing tools for the benefit of research. This presentation will not only deal with the technical aspects, developments and achievements of the infrastructure but will highlight the way in which user groups, researchers and lay citizens were engaged in a process as an active and communicative group of users and how their contributions were made to mutual benefit.

Omistajuus asiakasomisteisissa osuuskunnissa

Asiakasomisteiset osuuskunnat ovat menestyneet Suomessa erittäin hyvin. Niiden ymmärtäminen yritysmuotona on kuitenkin toistaiseksi perustunut lähinnä muilla kuin liiketaloustieteen oppialoilla tehdyille tutkimuksille. Johtaminen ja organisaatiot -oppialalla asiakasomisteista osuustoimintaa on tutkittu erittäin vähän. Tämä väitöskirja pyrkii vastaamaan osuustoiminnan liiketaloustieteellisen tutkimuksen kehittämisen haasteeseen keskittymällä omistajuuteen, yritystoiminnan erityispiirteiden ytimeen. Tutkimus osallistuu osuustoiminnallisesta omistajuudesta Suomessa käytävään akateemiseen keskusteluun esittelemällä viitekehyksen asiakasomisteisen osuuskunnan omistajuuden tulkitsemiseen. Tutkimuksessa pyritään ymmärtämään asiakasomistajuuden ulottuvuuksia, kuten ne rakentuvat osuustoiminnan asiantuntijoiden puheenvuoroissa. Asiakasomistajuutta ei siis analysoida "rivijäsenten" näkökulmasta, vaan tulkinta rajoittuu OP-ryhmän osuuspankkien ja S-ryhmän osuuskauppojen johtajien ja hallintohenkilöiden sekä tutkijoidentutkimusaineistossa esittämiin selontekoihin. Aineisto koostuu kaikkiaan kolmestakymmenestäviidestä haastattelusta sekä dokumenttiaineistosta. Tulkittavia tekstejä lähestytään siten, että niiden ajatellaan ylläpitävän ja aktiivisesti rakentavan asiakasomisteisten osuuskuntien omistajuutta. Väitöskirjassa rakentuva asiakasomistajuuden malli pitää sisällään sekä taloudellisrationaalisen että psykologisen omistajuuden niin yksittäisen asiakasomistajan kuin jäsenyhteisön näkökulmasta. Työn teoreettisena kontribuutiona on erityisesti asiakasomisteisen osuuskunnan omistajuuden psykologisen ulottuvuuden määrittely sekä sen liittäminen yhteisötasolla paikallisuuteen ja alueellisuuteen. Edellä mainittujen omistajuuden ulottuvuuksien ollessa kiinteästi sidoksissa asiakasomisteisten osuuskuntien rakenteeseen ja toimintatapaan, ne tarjoavat kehityspohjan kyseisten yritysten johtamista ja omistajaohjausta käsitteleville teorioille.

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.

Political participation beyond the vote : how the institutional context shapes patterns of political participation in 18 Western European democracies

Politiskt deltagande är en definierande del av varje demokratiskt politiskt system, även mellan valen. Men det har skett en betydande utveckling i vilka aktiviteter som uppfattas som politiskt deltagande. Det är inte enbart aktiviteter i politiska partier som är i fokus, men också olika protestaktiviteter, delaktighet i nya sociala rörelser och livsstilspolitik i form av politisk konsumtion. Politiskt deltagande mellan valen kan leda till en potentiell legitimitetskonflikt. Den potentiella konflikten mellan ansvarsutkrävande och medborgarnas aktiva medverkan har varit känd sedan länge. Representativa demokratier har genom olika institutionella mekanismer försökt konstruera ett fungerande politiskt system som förenar möjligheten för politiskt deltagande med en tydlig ansvarsstruktur. I detta sammanhang har den institutionella öppenheten haft en central position eftersom denna antas påverka hur lätt det är för medborgarna att påverka de formella beslutfattarna. Avhandlingen undersöker därmed konsekvenserna av institutionell öppenhet för olika former av politiskt deltagande. Resultaten tyder på att demokratiska staters institutionella uppbyggnad har väsentliga konsekvenser för det politiska deltagandet. Men samspelet mellan systemet och deltagandet verkar vara mera invecklat än de dominerande teorierna om politiska institutioner och deltagande ger vid handen. Institutionell öppenhet har inte den förväntade effekt beroende på om den politiska handlingen sker inom eller utanför det formella systemet, och den institutionella effekten är mera uttalad för föreningsaktivism och politisk konsumtion, vilket är de aktiviteter som ligger längst bort från det formella politiska systemet. Resultaten utmanar därmed centrala teoretiska antaganden inom forskningen om politiskt deltagande. I ljuset av de resultat som presenteras i avhandlingen framstår det som särskilt angeläget att omvärdera effekten av institutionell öppenhet.

Animal Lovers, Bridge-Builders, and Supervising Watchdogs: Framing and Civil Society Construction by Japanese Pro-Animal Organizations in the Kansai and Tokyo Areas

Unlike their counterparts in Europe and America, the citizen organizations acting for the well-being of animals in Japan have not received scholarly attention. In this research, I explore the activities of twelve Japanese pro-animal organizations in Tokyo and Kansai area from the perspective of social movement and civil society studies. The concept of a ‘pro-animal organization’ is used to refer generally to the collectives promoting animal well-being. By using the collective action frame analysis and the three core framing tasks – diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational – as the primarily analytical tools, I explore the grievances, tactics, motivational means, constructions of agency and identity as well as framing of civil society articulated in the newsletters and the interviews of the twelve organizations I interviewed in Japan in 2010. As the frame construction is always done in relation to the social and political context, I study how the organizations construct their roles as civil society actors in relation to other actors, such as the state, and the idea of citizen activism. The deficiencies in the animal welfare law and lack of knowledge among the public are identified as the main grievances. The primary tactic to overcome these problems was to educate and inform the citizens and authorities, because most organizations lack the channels to influence politically. The audiences were mostly portrayed as either ignorant bystanders or potential adherents. In order to motivate people to join their cause and to enforce the motivation within the organization, the organizations emphasized their uniqueness, proved their efficiency, claimed credit and celebrated even small improvements. The organizations tended to create three different roles for citizen pro-organizations in civil society: reactive, apolitical and emphatic animal lovers concentrating on saving individual animals, proactive, educative bridge-builders seeking to establish equal collaborative relations with authorities, and corrective, supervising watchdogs demanding change in delinquencies offending animal rights. Based on the results of this research, I suggest that by studying how and why the different relations between civil society and the governing actors of the state are constructed, a more versatile approach to citizens’ activism in its context can be achieved.

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.