Kylmän sodan tarinat

English summary: Cold War stories

Becoming Locals in a Borderland of Exiles. Sense of Place in the Stories of Lithuania Minor Dwellers

This thesis deals with sense of place, the relation that we construct with our dwelling and the surrounding environment. The topic belongs to the field of human geography. Sense of place is deeply intertwined with the ideas of feeling at home and having a place where to return. I argue that narratives of life experience help us relate to the places we inhabit, go through, leave. My analysis concerns Lithuania Minor, the Lithuanian region lying by the border with Kaliningrad, and focuses in particular on Vilkyškiai, a village in the municipality of Pagėgiai. Most of the area’s original population disappeared in the war. After 1945, people from all over the country and the USSR settled here. This raised the prickly question of who belongs to the borderland. Refugees, migrants and settlers allow us to observe closely the development of sense of place and its main constituents. Through this analysis, I challenge the idea of people’s natural rights to places and shows how time, engagement in local-based cultural activities and recollection help foreigners become locals. To grasp the locals’ sense of place, I collected open, light-structured interviews and applied some elements of semantic analysis to interpret the materials. From my research, it emerges that the cultivation of the region’s cultural heritage and the practice of storytelling were crucial in making the respondents feel at home. Leaving aside all legalistic claims concerning the issue, I suggest that people belong to the land they dwell. I believe that their sense of place deserves consideration from the State and the other actors seeing them as migrants.

"Just stories"

Lectio praecursoria at the public examination of his doctoral thesis Fictions to live in: narration as an argument for fiction in Salman Rushdies's novels, Department of English, University of Tampere, on October the ninth, 1998

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

Reviews

"Typically German" - Cultural Expectations and Experiences

Tutkielman tavoite ja tutkimusmenetelmät Tutkielman päätavoitteena oli selvittää millaisia stereotyyppisiä odotuksia ihmisillä liike-elämässä on saksalaisista. Tutkimusmenetelmä oli laadullinen tutkimus ja aineistonkeruumenetelmänä käytettiin teemahaastatteluja. Haastatteluilla saatua materiaalia täydennettiin ja peilatiin managementkirjallisuudesta poimituilla kuvauksilla saksalaisista. Johtopäätökset Tutkielman empiriaosassa muodostettiin kolme erillistä stereotyyppiä saksalaisista. Suomalaisten kuva saksalaisista oli suhteellisen yhtenäinen, kun taas kansainvälisissä mielikuvissa oli enemmän hajontaa. Rehellisyys, järjestelmällisyys, muodollisuus ja laadun tuottaminen olivat yleisesti hyväksyttyjä "saksalaisia ominaisuuksia". Toisin kuin auto-stereotypiat yleensä, vaikutti saksalaisten kuva omasta kansallisuudestaan suhteellisen negatiiviselta.

Project controlling and risk management in German machine and plant engineering industry

Tutkielman tavoitteena on määritellä projektikontrolloinnin ja - riskijohtamisen roolit ja toiminnot saksalaisissa kone- ja tehdassuunnitteluteollisuusyrityksissä. Tämä on kvalitatiivinen tutkielma, jossa käytetään voimakkaasti kuvailevia metodeita. Materiaali tutkimuksen empiiriseen osaan kerättiin kyselykaavakkeen avulla. Kyselykaavakkeiden tulokset käsiteltiin Microsoft Office Access- ohjelmalla ja analysoitiin Microsoft Office Excel- ohjelmalla ja Pivot table- työkalun avulla. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että asianmukaisessa projektikontrollointi- ja riskijohtamismetodien käytössä ja käyttötiheydessä esiintyy puutteita saksalaisissa kone- ja tehdassuunnitteluteollisuusyrityksissä. Tehostamalla ja keskittymällä enemmän projektikontrollointi- ja riskijohtamismetodeihin ja prosesseihin sekä projektien että yritysten suorituskyky paranisi.

Australiassa muistitietotutkimus on "must" : Old Stories, New Ways

Ajankohtaista

”Kyllähän nyt pitäs olla jo semmonen aika, että pääsis niin kö keskustelemhan näistä asioista.” Tutkimus lappilaisten sotavankien, partisaanien uhrien ja huutolaisten elämänkulusta, voimavaroista, terveydestä ja sairauksista

Research into the course of life, mental stamina and health status of wartime prisoners, victims of Soviet partisan attacks, and paupers in Finnish Lapland The basis of this research comprised the issues raised during the interviews conducted in my work as a general practitioner in Lapland, regarding factors that have possibly affected the life stories and health conditions of Lappish people who had lived through the war as war prisoners, victims of partisan attacks, or paupers. The purpose of the study was to describe how the different life phases and experiences emerged from the interviewees’ stories and to identify their mental stamina. Another goal was to make observations on their health status, in which the main emphasis became to address mental symptoms. The cohort consisted of elderly Finns who lived in Lapland during the war and experienced war imprisonment, pauperism, or became victims of partisan attacks. All three groups consisted of 12 interviewees. The interview transcripts were read several times and then investigated using the content analysis methods applicable to the material. The research methodology was based on building awareness and understanding. Thematic tagging and data coding were used as structured analysis tools. In all three groups most of the interviewees clearly identified their mental stamina, the most fundamental of which were home, family and work. The war prisoners’ injuries and nervous sensibility symptoms had been shown in earlier studies on war prisoners, and on this basis they had been granted disability pensions. However, many of them had suppressed their traumatic experiences and mental difficulties, and they could not talk about these issues until at the time of these interviews held at old age. Four of them still suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder. The victims of Soviet partisans had had to carry their mental load alone for decades before the cruel ravages on civilians in remote areas of Lapland became publicly known. Most of them still had disturbing nervous sensibility symptoms. Four interviewees had a post-traumatic stress disorder, and in addition to these, the mental symptoms of one had developed into a post-traumatic stress disorder during old age. Many of the interviewees who had been left paupers remembered their childhood as filled with grief and feelings of inferiority, and had nightmares relating to their wartime experiences. Yet none of them suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. The results showed that the exceptional suffering caused by the war, the wartime imprisonment and the devastating attacks by Soviet partisans had led especially to mental difficulties. These were left almost completely unnoticed in the post-war conditions, and the war victims were unable to seek help on their own. Based on the results, our health care for the elderly should focus on familiarization with the individual experiences and life stories of each elderly person. This can facilitate geriatric diagnostics and individual therapy planning. Empathic familiarization with the life experiences of the elderly may strengthen their mental stamina and improve the quality of successful aging.

War Requiem op. 66

Digitoitu 5. 1. 2009