The Great Irish Famine in history-writing and prose fiction : "the mutual interplay of two narrative genres"

Denna tvärvetenskapliga studie kontextualiserar den skönlitterära framställningen av hungersnöden i Irland i mitten av 1800-talet i förhållande till tre olika faser av irländsk historieskrivning ‒ den nationalistiska, den revisionistiska, och den postrevisionistiska ‒ med syfte att granska i vilken mån prosafiktionen antingen återspeglar eller motsäger historikernas tolkningar. År 1845 drabbades landet av en dittills okänd potatispest som förstörde skörden helt eller delvis under de följande fem åren. Missväxten ledde till utbredd svält och epidemiska sjukdomar som dödade åtminstone en miljon människor, medan ytterligare en och en halv miljon flydde, huvudsakligen till Förenta Staterna, England, och Kanada. I sina försök att hitta en rationell förklaring till hur potatispesten kunde utvecklas till den värsta svältkatastrofen i Europa under modern tid, har historiker påvisat ett antal bidragande faktorer, till exempel överbefolkning, de fattigaste jordlösa småbrukarnas och lantarbetarnas beroende av potatisen som sitt baslivsmedel, underutveckling inom jordbruket, det rådande jordegendomssystemet, och den dåvarande brittiska regeringens misslyckande att tillhandahålla effektiv och tillräcklig nödhjälp. Historiska förklaringar är naturligtvis nödvändiga för att vi skall kunna bilda oss en uppfattning om hungersnödens orsaker och konsekvenser, men svårigheten med att skildra offrens situation i en historiografisk analys baserad på fakta är uppenbar då deras egna vittnesmål till största delen saknas i källmaterialet. Följaktligen finns det en risk att historieskrivningen förmörkar det som onekligen var centrala realiteter för de värst drabbade, nämligen svält, vräkning, sjukdom och död. Här kan skönlitteraturen bidra till att komplettera historien. Genom att fokusera på ett specifikt (fiktivt) samhälle och dess (fiktiva) individer, kan skönlitterära verk ge en inblick i hur hungersnöden inverkade på olika samhällsskikt, vad människorna gjorde för att överleva, hur nöden och fasorna påverkade deras psyke, och vad eller vem de höll ansvariga för katastrofen. Å andra sidan kan denna fokusering innebära att författaren misslyckas med att ge en helhetsbild av hungersnödens enorma omfattning och att redogöra för alla faktorer som orsakade och förlängde den. Paul Ricoeurs teori om samspelet mellan historia och fiktion (the interweaving of history and fiction) är därför ett nyckelbegrepp för att bättre förstå denna traumatiska period i Irlands historia. Avhandlingen omfattar en textanalytisk, komparativ kritik av ett antal historiska och skönlitterära verk. Genom närläsning av dessa texter granskar jag vilka aspekter av hungersnöden (politiska, ekonomiska, sociala) de olika författarna valt att behandla, och på vilket sätt, samt hur deras synvinklar har format tolkningarna i sin helhet. I detta sammanhang tar jag också upp skillnaderna mella fakta och fiktion, och speciellt de etiska problem som är förknippade med skildringen av traumatiska händelser och mänskligt lidande. Samtidigt undersöker jag, med hänvisning till Roger D. Sells kommunikationsteori, huruvida vissa författare anslår en påstridig ton i sina verk och hur detta påverkar dialogen mellan författare och läsare. Med utgångspunkt i Ricoeurs teori argumenterar jag för att historia och fiktion inte bör ses som ömsesidigt antitetiska diskurser i skildringen och tolkningen av det förflutna, och att skönlitteraturen genom fokuseringen på offren, som ofta tenderar att reduceras till statistik i historieskrivningen, kan förmedla en bättre förståelse och en djupare känsla för den mänskliga dimensionen av den tragedi som utspelades under hungeråren.

Oral history and life stories as a research area in Estonian history, folkloristics and ethnology

Reviews

Abraham Bar Hiyya on time, history, exile and redemption : an analysis of Megillat ha-Megalleh

Megillat ha-Megalleh av Abraham bar Hijja (Spanien, 12. årh.) är bäst känd som en samling av messianska beräkningar. Men boken som helhet innehåller, vid sidan om beräkningarna, varierande innehåll såsom filosofi, bibeltolkning och astrologi. Bar Hijja framför en argumentering, inför det växande inflytandet på judarna från de kristna, för att den judiska religionen, och särskilt judarnas väntan på den messianska tiden, fortfarande är giltiga. Bar Hijja utvecklar, med hjälp av den judiska traditionen, arabiska vetenskapliga och andra källor samt omdefinierade kristna ideér, en syn på historien som en determinisk händelselopp som består av goda och dåliga tider men eventuellt skall kulminera i en messiansk tid för judarna. Boken innehåller även en omfattande astrologisk kommentar på historien, som bland annat beskriver uppkomsten och historien av de kristna och muslimska världsmakterna, samt deras förhållanden med judar. Boken är tydligt avsett att övertyga judarna att förbli judar, genom att argumentera med hjälp av både judiskt och ickejudiskt material, att oavsett läget i exil har de den framtid som de väntat för. I det medeltida sammanhanget syns detta inte enbart som en religiös fråga utan också som en politisk strävan till att säkerställa det judiska samfundets framtid.

Unca Don and Unca Scrooge’s Guide to History. Representations of the Past in the Disney Comics of Don Rosa

This thesis studies the various forms and layers of representations of the past that can be found in the Disney comics of Don Rosa. To stay true to the legacy of renowned comic book artist Carl Barks, Rosa has stopped time in the duck universe to the 1950’s: the decade when Barks created his most noted stories. There is a special feel of historicalness in Rosa’s duck stories, as his characters recall events that occurred in both Rosa’s own stories as well as Barks’. Rosa has shed new light to the past of the characters by writing and illustrating the history of Scrooge McDuck, one of the most beloved Disney characters. Rosa is also adamant that the historical facts used in his stories are always correct and based on thorough research. The methodological tools used in the analysis of the comics come from the fields of comic book studies, film theory, and history culture. Film and comics are recognized by many scholars as very similar media, which share elements that make them comparable in many ways. This thesis utilizes studies on historical film, narrative and genre, which provide valuable insight and comparisons for analysis. The thesis consists of three main chapters, the first of which deconstructs the duck universe in the stories in order to understand how the historicalness in them is created,and which outside elements might affect them, including the genre of Disney comics, publishers, and the legacy of Barks. The next chapter focuses on The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck series, i.e. the stories which are located in the past. Such stories feature similar representations of history as for example Westerns. They also compress and alter history to meet the restrictions of the medium of comics. The last part focuses on the adventure stories which draw inspiration from for example mythology, and take the characters to strange and mystical, but yet historical worlds. Such treasure-hunting stories show similarity to the action-adventure genre in film and for example their stereotypical representations of foreign cultures. Finally, the chapter addresses the problematic of historical fiction and its capability to write history.

University jubilees : a new research area in the history of universities

Teema: Yliopistohistoria.

More than Words? An Analysis on the Language and Structure of General Election Manifestos of the British Labour Party 1983-2005

The topic of this study is the language of the educational policies of the British Labour party in the General Election manifestos between the years 1983-2005. The twenty-year period studied has been a period of significant changes in world politics, and in British politics, especially for the Labour party. The emergence educational policy as a vote-winner of the manifestos of the nineties has been noteworthy. The aim of the thesis is two-fold: to look at the structure of the political manifesto as an example of genre writing and to analyze the content utilizing the approach of critical discourse analysis. Furthermore, the aim of this study is not to pinpoint policy positions but to look at what is the image that the Labour Party creates of itself through these manifestos. The analysis of the content is done by a method of close-reading. Based on the findings, the methodology for the analysis of the content was created. This study utilized methodological triangulation which means that the material is analyzed from several methodological aspects. The aspects used in this study are ones of lexical features (collocation, coordination, euphemisms, metaphors and naming), grammatical features (thematic roles, tense, aspect, voice and modal auxiliaries) and rhetoric (Burke, Toulmin and Perelman). From the analysis of the content a generic description is built. By looking at the lexical, grammatical and rhetorical features a clear change in language of the Labour Party can be detected. This change is foreshadowed already in the 1992 manifesto but culminates in the 1997 manifesto which would lead Labour to a landslide victory in the General Election. During this twenty-year period Labour has moved away from the old commitments and into the new sphere of “something for everybody”. The pervasiveness of promotional language and market inspired vocabulary into the sphere of manifesto writing is clear. The use of the metaphors seemed to be the tool for the creation of the image of the party represented through the manifestos. A limited generic description can be constructed from the findings based on the content and structure of the manifestos: especially more generic findings such as the use of the exclusive we, the lack of certain anatomical parts of argument structure, the use of the future tense and the present progressive aspect can shed light to the description of the genre of manifesto writing. While this study is only the beginning, it proves that the combination of looking at the lexical, grammatical and rhetorical features in the study of manifestos is a promising one.

Profiles of Second Language Learners in Bilingual Education: A Comparative Study of the Characteristics of Finnish and American Students

The purpose of this comparative study is to profile second language learners by exploring the factors which have an impact on their learning. The subjects come from two different countries: one group comes from Milwaukee, US, and the other from Turku, Finland. The subjects have attended bilingual classes from elementary school to senior high school in their respective countries. In the United States, the subjects (N = 57) started in one elementary school from where they moved on to two high schools in the district. The Finnish subjects (N = 39) attended the same school from elementary to high school. The longitudinal study was conducted during 1994-2004 and combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods. A Pilot Study carried out in 1990-1991 preceded the two subsequent studies that form the core material of this research. The theoretical part of the study focuses first on language policies in the United States and Finland: special emphasis is given to the history, development and current state of bilingual education, and the factors that have affected policy-making in the provision of language instruction. Current language learning theories and models form the theoretical foundation of the research, and underpin the empirical studies. Cognitively-labeled theories are at the forefront, but sociocultural theory and the ecological approach are also accounted for. The research methods consist of questionnaires, compositions and interviews. A combination of statistical methods as well as content analysis were used in the analysis. The attitude of the bilingual learners toward L1 and L2 was generally positive: the subjects enjoyed learning through two languages and were motivated to learn both. The knowledge of L1 and parental support, along with early literacy in L1, facilitated the learning of L2. This was particularly evident in the American subject group. The American subjects’ L2 learning was affected by the attitudes of the learners to the L1 culture and its speakers. Furthermore, the negative attitudes taken by L1 speakers toward L2 speakers and the lack of opportunities to engage in activities in the L1 culture affected the American subjects’ learning of L2, English. The research showed that many American L2 learners were isolated from the L1 culture and were even afraid to use English in everyday communication situations. In light of the research results, a politically neutral linguistic environment, which the Finnish subjects inhabited, was seen to be more favorable for learning. The Finnish subjects were learning L2, English, in a neutral zone where their own attitudes and motivation dictated their learning. The role of L2 as a means of international communication in Finland, as opposed to a means of exercising linguistic power, provided a neutral atmosphere for learning English. In both the American and Finnish groups, the learning of other languages was facilitated when the learner had a good foundation in their L1, and the learning of L1 and L2 were in balance. Learning was also fostered when the learners drew positive experiences from their surroundings and were provided with opportunities to engage in activities where L2 was used.

Groupware and Workflow Tools - A Case study of SAP Business Workflow Supporting System Integration in a Global Telecommunication Company

Workflow management systems aim at the controlled execution of complex application processes in distributed and heterogeneous environments. These systems will shape the structure of information systems in business and non-business environments. E business and system integration is a fertile soil for WF and groupware tools. This thesis aims to study WF and groupware tools in order to gather in house knowledge of WF to better utilize WF solutions in future, and to focus on SAP Business Workflow in order to find a global solution for Application Link Enabling support for system integration. Piloting this solution in Nokia collects the experience of SAP R/3 WF tool for other development projects in future. The literary part of this study will guide to the world of business process automation providing a general description of the history, use and potentials of WF & groupware software. The empirical part of this study begins with the background of the case study describing the IT environment initiating the case by introducing SAP R/3 in Nokia, the communication technique in use and WF tool. Case study is focused in one solution with SAP Business Workflow. This study provides a concept to monitor communication between ERP systems and to increase the quality of system integration. Case study describes a way create support model for ALE/EDI interfaces. Support model includes monitoring organization and the workflow processes to solve the most common IDoc related errors.

A Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of a Prefabricated Appliance and a Stabilization Appliance in the Treatment of Myofascial pain and Headache

The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the short- and long-term effectiveness of a prefabricated occlusal appliance (R) on patients with myofascial pain and headache by comparing it with the treatment of the stabilization appliance (S). Another aim was to evaluate the effect of appliance treatment on stress-related salivary parameters like cortisol and IgA, as well as on flow rate values in these patients. Sixty-five patients diagnosed with myofascial temporomandibular disorder (TMD) pain, of whom 94% suffered concomitantly from headache, at two centres for Stomatognathic Physiology, one in Sweden and one in Finland, were included in this randomized controlled trial using Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD), with history questionnaires and clinical examinations performed at baseline and at 6- and 10-weeks, and 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Patients were randomly assigned either to the R or the S group. Treatment outcome was measured according to IMMPACT (Initiative on Methods, Measurements, and Pain Assessment in Clinical Trials), i.e. four chronic pain outcome domains: pain intensity, overall improvement, physical and emotional functioning. Changes in frequency and intensity of headache were recorded. Thirty-nine patients participated in the saliva study. Salivary analyses were performed at 6 and 10 weeks. The results revealed no differences between groups at baseline. At all follow-ups, all four outcome measures, as well as frequency and intensity of headache, showed statistically significant within-group improvement compared to baseline, without significant differences between groups. No treatment-induced changes in saliva parameters could be registered. In conclusion, the effectiveness of the prefabricated appliance seemed to be similar to that of the stabilization appliance in alleviating myofascial pain, and frequency and intensity of headache, in the short as well as the long term. However, no changes in salivary parameters were observed during treatment.

Efficient installed base information management and utilization in global after sales service business

This Master´s thesis explores how the a global industrial corporation’s after sales service department should arrange its installed base management practices in order to maintain and utilize the installed base information effectively. Case company has product-related records, such as product’s lifecycle information, service history information and information about product’s performance. Information is collected and organized often case by case, therefore the systematic and effective use of installed base information is difficult also the overview of installed base is missing. The goal of the thesis study was to find out how the case company can improve the installed base maintenance and management practices and improve the installed base information availability and reliability. Installed base information management practices were first examined through the literature. The empirical research was conducted by the interviews and questionnaire survey, targeted to the case company’s service department. The research purpose was to find out the challenges related to case company´s service department’s information management practices. The study also identified the installed base information needs and improvement potential in the availability of information. Based on the empirical research findings, recommendations for improve installed base management practices and information availability were created. Grounding of the recommendations, the case company is suggested the following proposals for action: Service report development, improving the change management process, ensuring the quality of the product documentation in early stages of product life cycle and decision to improve installed base management practices.

I volontari italiani nelle Waffen-SS. Il pensiero politico, la formazione culturale e le motivazioni al volontariato. Una storia orale

My doctoral dissertation examines the experiences of the Italian volunteers in the Waffen-SS troops using in-depth interviews with former volunteers as the main primary source. This phenomenon, even if significant in size (depending on the source, some 15 000-20 000 Italian men volunteered in the Waffen-SS), has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The available literature on the Italian volunteers, mainly written by military history enthusiast journalists and methodologically weak, concentrates mainly on the combat operations and military organization, and offers a rather stereotypical profile of the volunteers. My dissertation does not aim to reconstruct the military history of the different divisions of the Waffen-SS in which Italian volunteers operated but instead to examine the subjective, private and intimate experience of the volunteers in order to understand the motivations, attitudes, beliefs and cultural and family background, as well as their political ideas. The main objective of my doctoral dissertation is to discover the ideological precepts of the volunteers’ political credo. As the last phase of fascism and its ideology, often defined as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascism, is still the object of wide academic debate, a better understanding of the volunteers’ ideology also contributes to deepening overall knowledge of the nature of this last phase. The theoretical frame of my dissertation lies in oral history, in particular in the postmodernist approach to oral history, through which I reconstruct the volunteers’ ideology. In-depth interviews with former volunteers are the main primary source, but multiple data collection methods have been adopted. Phone interviews and correspondence with the volunteers have also been considered as primary sources. In addition to interviews and correspondence, family archives consisting of diaries, correspondence with the volunteers’ relatives and photographic material have also been collected and examined. An ethnographic observation of the volunteers’ domestic spaces has been conducted during the in-depth interviews, and photo self-elicitation techniques have been used in cases where the volunteers were willing to share their photographs. An exhaustive portrait of the ideological structure of the volunteers has been obtained, as well as of the cultural and social origins of the values that contributed to the rise and adoption of this ideology. Further, the volunteers’ motivations to enlist have been clearly reconstructed, together with their cultural, political, social and military backgrounds. The results of the research are particularly relevant both for comprehension of the Italian phenomenon of volunteering in the Waffen-SS and for the reconstruction of the ideological dynamics of the last phase of fascism. The volunteers’ political and ideological system, which can be defined as the Italian SS-fascist ideology, disagrees strongly with the vaguely described ideological profile offered by previous studies that describe volunteers as generically “super-fascist”. The research also offers the opportunity for a deeper understanding of the final fascist ideological trajectory, currently defined, not without a certain level of approximation, as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascist ideology.

The genetics of behaviour and other adaptive traits in nine-spined sticklebacks (Pungitius pungitius)

One of the main goals in current evolutionary biology research is to identify genes behind adaptive phenotypic variations. The advances in genomic technologies have made it possible to identify genetic loci behind these variations, also concerning non-model species. This thesis investigates the genetics of the behaviour and other adaptive traits of the nine-spined stickleback (Pungitius pungitius) through the application of different genetic approaches. Fennoscandian nine-spined stickleback populations express large phenotypical differences especially in behaviour, life –history traits and morphology. However the underlying genetic bases for these phenotypical differences have not been studied in detail. The results of the project will lay the foundation for further genetics studies and provide valuable information for our understanding of the genetics of the adaptive divergence of the nine-spined stickleback. A candidate gene approach was used to develop microsatellite markers situating close to candidate genes for behaviour in the nine-spined stickleback. Altogether 13 markers were developed and these markers were used in the subsequent studies with the anonymous random markers and physiologically important gene markers which are already currently available for nine-spined sticklebacks. It was shown that heterozygosity correlated with behaviour in one of the marine nine-spined stickleback populations but with contrasting effects: correlations with behaviour were negative when using physiological gene markers and positive with random markers. No correlation was found between behavioural markers and behaviour. From the physiological gene markers, a strong correlation was found between osmoregulation-related gene markers and behaviour. These results indicate that both local (physiological) and general (random) effects are important in the shaping of behaviour and that heterozygosity– behaviour correlations are population dependent. In this thesis a second linkage map for nine-spined sticklebacks was constructed. Compared to the earlier nine-spined stickleback linkage map, genomic rearrangements were observed between autosomal (LG7) and sex-determing (LG12) linkage groups. This newly constructed map was used in QTL mapping studies in order to locate genomic regions associated with pelvic structures, behaviour and body size/growth. One major QTL was found for pelvic structures and Pitx1 gene was related to these traits as was predicted from three-spined stickleback studies, but this was in contrast to earlier nine-spined stickleback study. The QTL studies also revealed that behaviour and body size/growth were genetically more complex by having more QTL than pelvic traits. However, in many cases, pelvic structure, body size/growth and behaviour were linked to similar map locations indicating possible pleiotropic effects of genes locating in these QTL regions. Many of the gene related markers resided in the QTL area. In the future, studying these possible candidate genes in depth might reveal the underlying mechanism behind the measured traits.

Statistical analysis of survey-based event history data with application to modeling of unemployment duration

Longitudinal surveys are increasingly used to collect event history data on person-specific processes such as transitions between labour market states. Surveybased event history data pose a number of challenges for statistical analysis. These challenges include survey errors due to sampling, non-response, attrition and measurement. This study deals with non-response, attrition and measurement errors in event history data and the bias caused by them in event history analysis. The study also discusses some choices faced by a researcher using longitudinal survey data for event history analysis and demonstrates their effects. These choices include, whether a design-based or a model-based approach is taken, which subset of data to use and, if a design-based approach is taken, which weights to use. The study takes advantage of the possibility to use combined longitudinal survey register data. The Finnish subset of European Community Household Panel (FI ECHP) survey for waves 1–5 were linked at person-level with longitudinal register data. Unemployment spells were used as study variables of interest. Lastly, a simulation study was conducted in order to assess the statistical properties of the Inverse Probability of Censoring Weighting (IPCW) method in a survey data context. The study shows how combined longitudinal survey register data can be used to analyse and compare the non-response and attrition processes, test the missingness mechanism type and estimate the size of bias due to non-response and attrition. In our empirical analysis, initial non-response turned out to be a more important source of bias than attrition. Reported unemployment spells were subject to seam effects, omissions, and, to a lesser extent, overreporting. The use of proxy interviews tended to cause spell omissions. An often-ignored phenomenon classification error in reported spell outcomes, was also found in the data. Neither the Missing At Random (MAR) assumption about non-response and attrition mechanisms, nor the classical assumptions about measurement errors, turned out to be valid. Both measurement errors in spell durations and spell outcomes were found to cause bias in estimates from event history models. Low measurement accuracy affected the estimates of baseline hazard most. The design-based estimates based on data from respondents to all waves of interest and weighted by the last wave weights displayed the largest bias. Using all the available data, including the spells by attriters until the time of attrition, helped to reduce attrition bias. Lastly, the simulation study showed that the IPCW correction to design weights reduces bias due to dependent censoring in design-based Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard model estimators. The study discusses implications of the results for survey organisations collecting event history data, researchers using surveys for event history analysis, and researchers who develop methods to correct for non-sampling biases in event history data.