Eläinsuojelu elämänpolitiikkana : Tutkimus eläinasialiikkeestä ja Eläinsuojeluliitto Animalian jäsenistä

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan perinteiseen, maltilliseen eläinsuojelujärjestöön kuuluvien eläinsuojelijoiden elämänpolitiikkaa ja suomalaista eläinasialiikettä, joka aikaisemmin on hahmotettu lähinnä uuden, radikaalin eläinoikeusaktivismin kautta. Uskontososiologian ja -antropologian alaan sijoittuva tutkimus ottaa osaa sosiologi Anthony Giddensin elämänpolitiikan käsitteestä käytyyn keskusteluun empiirisestä näkökulmasta. Tutkimusongelma on kaksitasoinen.Yksilön tasolla tarkastelu kohdistuu Eläinsuojeluliitto Animaliassa aktiivisesti toimivien eläinsuojelijoiden elämäntapoihin, mielipiteisiin, arvoihin ja ihanteisiin. Liikkeen tasolla tarkastellaan eläinasialiikettä ja sen oletettua jakautumista eläinsuojelu- ja eläinoikeusliikkeisiin. Tutkimuksen taustateorioina ovat Giddensin teoria elämänpolitiikasta sekä filosofi Peter Singerin ja filosofi Tom Reganin teoriat eläinten hyvinvoinnista ja oikeuksista. Suomalaista näkökulmaa eläinasian teoriaan edustavat filosofi Leena Vilkan pohdinnat. Tutkimuksen primääriaineiston muodostavat 12 eläinsuojelijan yksilö- ja ryhmähaastatteluina toteutetut teemahaastattelut sekä 22 eläinsuojelijan lomakekyselynä kerätyt taustatiedot. Sekundääriaineisto koostuu eläinsuojelijoille tehdyistä taustatieto- ja sähköpostihaastatteluista, havainnointiin perustuvasta kenttäpäiväkirjasta, eläinasialiikkeen kirjallisesta materiaalista sekä tutkimusaiheeseen liittyvästä aikaisemmasta tutkimuksesta ja kirjallisuudesta. Tutkimuksen perusteella elämänpolitiikan teoria on käyttökelpoinen arvotutkimuksessa. Eläinsuojelijoiden elämänpolitiikkaa luonnehtivat reflektiivisyys; elämäntavan käyttäminen vaikutuskeinona puoluepolitiikan ohella; yhteiskuntatieteilijä Ronald Inglehartin määrittelyn mukaiset post-materialistiset arvot; tilanne- ja tuotekohtaisesti kontrolloitu tapa kuluttaa; argumentoiva ja vaativa suhtautuminen traditioihin; pyrkimys eroon hierarkioista; paikallisuus toiminnassa ja tavoitteissa; pyrkimys vaikuttaa ihmisten, eläinten ja ympäristön tulevaisuuteen ja kaksijakoinen suhtautuminen asiantuntijoihin. Tutkimuksessa asetetaan kyseenalaiseksi kahden erillisen, suomalaisen eläinasialiikkeen olemassaolo ja osoitetaan, että Suomessa voidaan puhua eläinasialiikkeestä, jossa eri aikakausina, yksilö- ja järjestökohtaisesti, painotetaan aiheittain joko maltillisia tai radikaaleja näkökulmia. Avainsanat: elämänpolitiikka, eläinsuojelu, eläinasialiike, elämäntapa, mielipiteet, arvot, ihanteet

Salaisen evankelistan salaliitto : Uusin keskustelu Klemens Aleksandrialaisen kirjeestä Theodorokselle

This thesis is an assessment of the hoax hypothesis, mainly propagated in Stephen C. Carlson's 2005 monograph "The Gospel Hoax: Morton Smith's Invention of Secret Mark", which suggests that professor Morton Smith (1915-1991) forged Clement of Alexandria's letter to Theodore. This letter Smith claimed to have discovered as an 18th century copy in the monastery of Mar Saba in 1958. The Introduction narrates the discovery story of Morton Smith and traces the manuscript's whereabouts up to its apparent disappearance in 1990 following with a brief history of scholarship of the MS and some methodological considerations. Chapters 2 and 3 deal with the arguments for the hoax (mainly by Stephen C. Carlson) and against it (mainly Scott G. Brown). Chapter 2 looks at the MS in its physical aspects, and chapter 3 assesses its subject matter. I conclude that some of the details fit reasonably well with the hoax hypothesis, but on the whole the arguments against it are more persuasive. Especially Carlson's use of QDE-analysis (Questioned Document Examination) has many problems. Comparing the handwriting of Clement's letter to Morton Smith's handwriting I conclude that there are some "repeated differences" between them suggesting that Smith is not the writer of the disputed letter. Clement's letter to Theodore derives most likely from antiquity though the exact details of its character are not discussed in length in this thesis. In Chapter 4 I take a special look at Stephen C. Carlson's arguments which propose that Morton Smith hid clues of his identity to the MS and the materials surrounding it. Comparing these alleged clues to known pseudoscientific works I conclude that Carlson utilizes here methods normally reserved for building a conspiracy theory; thus Carlson's hoax hypothesis has serious methodological flaws in respect to these hidden clues. I construct a model of these questionable methods titled "a boisterous pseudohistorical method" that contains three parts: 1) beginning with a question that from the beginning implicitly contains the answer, 2) considering everything will do as evidence for the conspiracy theory, and 3) abandoning probability and thinking literally that everything is connected. I propose that Stephen C. Carlson utilizes these pseudoscientific methods in his unearthing of Morton Smith's "clues". Chapter 5 looks briefly at the literary genre I title "textual puzzle -thriller". Because even biblical scholarship follows the signs of the times, I propose Carlson's hoax hypothesis has its literary equivalents in fiction in titles like Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" and in academic works in titles like John Dart's "Decoding Mark". All of these are interested in solving textual puzzles, even though the methodological choices are not acceptable for scholarship. Thus the hoax hypothesis as a whole is alternatively either unpersuasive or plain bad science.

Kummisetien katolinen kirkko : Kummisetä-trilogian ja Sopranos-televisiosarjan välittämä kuva roomalaiskatolisesta kirkosta

Tässä tutkielmassa tutkin millaisen kuvan Francis Ford Coppolan ohjaamat kolme Kummisetä-elokuvaa ja David Chasen luoman Sopranos-televisiosarjan kaksi ensimmäistä tuotantokautta antavat roomalaiskatolisesta kirkosta ja erityisesti Amerikassa toimivasta roomalaiskatolisesta kirkosta. Kummisetä-elokuvat valmistuivat vuosina 1972, 1974 ja 1990, Sopranos-sarjan kaksi ensimmäistä tuotantokautta taas esitettiin HBO-kanavalla ensimmäisen kerran vuosina 1999 ja 2000. Lähteet kattavat Amerikan katolisen kirkon historian 1900-luvun alusta aina 2000-luvun alkuun asti. Pyrin vastaamaan tutkielmassani siihen, millaisena lähteet kuvaavat katolisen ja onko kuvaukselle löydettävissä jotain syitä. Kummisetä-elokuvien kohdalla on paradoksaalista se, että ne kaikki kuvaavat menneisyyden eivätkä tekohetkensä tapahtumia, mikä mahdollisesti näkyy myös niiden tavassa kuvata katolista kirkkoa. Vaikuttaisi siltä, että varsinkin kahden ensimmäisen Kummisetä-elokuvan tapa kuvata Amerikan katolista kirkkoa pohjautuu pitkälti elokuvan tekohetken tunnelmiin. Elokuvien ohjaaja Francis Ford Coppola on myöntänyt käyttäneensä Kummisetä-elokuvien päähenkilöinä olevaa Corleone-perhettä Amerikan vertauskuvana. Elokuvien yksi kattava teema on eräänlainen maallistumiskehitys, jossa vanhan polven edustajan, don Vito Corleonen, arvot syrjäytyvät ja tilalle nousee uusi johtajapolvi Viton nuorimman pojan don Michael Corleonen hahmossa. Michael Corleone edustaa huomattavasti armottomampaa polvea kuin Vito eikä uskonto ja katolinen kirkko näy hänen elämässään juuri lainkaan. Michaelin kyyninen ja kylmäkin hahmo on mitä todennäköisemmin vertauskuva elokuvien tekohetken yleisistä tunnelmia, jolloin Watergate-skandaali kansallisella tasolla ja Vatikaanin II konsiili ja paavin kiertokirje Humanae Vitae muokkasivat rajusti perinteisen katolisuuden ja amerikkalaisuuden identiteettiä. Kolmas Kummisetä-elokuva käsittelee lähes kokonaan paavi Johannes Paavali I:n lyhyeksi jäänyttä paaviuskautta vuodelta 1978 osittain fiktioin keinoin. Elokuvan yhtäläisyydet rikoskirjailija David Yallopin menestyskirjaan In Gods Name. An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I, jossa kirjailija esittää paavin tulleen kuurian virkamiesten ja mafiosoiden murhaamaksi, ovat selkeät. Kirkosta luodaan kuva toisaalta armottomona valtakoneistona, mutta toisaalta myös hengellisenä yhteisönä, josta katuvan ihmisen on mahdollisuus löytää apua. Sopranos-televisiosarja jatkaa kahdella ensimmäisellä tuotantokaudellaan saman maallistumiskehityksen kulkua kuin kaksi ensimmäistä Kummisetä-elokuvaakin. Päähenkilö Tony Soprano perheineen on lähes täysin irrallaan katolisesta perinteestä eivätkä he enää tunne sen oppejakaan kunnolla. Silti he mieltävät itsensä katolilaisiksi. Tämä vastaa joiltain osin tutkimustuloksia todellisista amerikkalaisista katolilaisista. Kaiken kaikkiaan Kummisetä-elokuvatrilogia ja Sopranos-televisiosarja antavat katolisesta kirkosta hyvin monipuolisen ja joissain asioissa totuudenmukaisenkin kuvan, joskin tekijöiden oma henkilöhistoria ja ajan skandaalit ovat väistämättä värittäneet kirkkokuvausta. Siten ne muodostavat värikkään läpileikkauksen Amerikan katolisen kirkon kehityksestä amerikanitalialaisessa yhteisössä 1900-luvun alusta 2000-luvun alkuun.

Avuksi pyynnöstä ja pyytämättä : Tampereen Kaupunkilähetyksen kristillissosiaalinen työ ja sen toimintakentät muutoksissa vuosina 1939–1961

Tämän tutkimuksen päätarkoitus on hahmottaa Tampereen Kaupunkilähetyksen kristillissosiaalista työtä ja sen toimintakenttiä niitä kohdanneissa muutoksissa toisesta maailmansodasta 1960-luvun alkuun. Tutkimuksen päämetodi on geneettinen metodi, ja päälähteinä on käytetty tämän yhdistyksen ja sen yhteistyökumppanien arkistoja ja julkaisuja. Tutkimuksen erityisenä tukena ovat olleet tekijän aiemmat tutkimukset tästä tutkimuskohteesta. Tutkimuksessa on selvitetty myös toiminnan sukupuolittumista ja ammatillistumista, sekä toiminnan vaihtelevaa suhdetta Tampereen kaupunkiin ja muihin yhteistyötahoihin. Tampereen Kaupunkilähetys on pitänyt toimintaperiaatteena perinteistä sisälähetystä, johon on kuulunut karitatiivinen ja missionaarinen puoli. Toimintaan on kuulunut niin laitosdiakoniaa kuin avohuollollista työtä. Diakonian ja uuskansankirkollisuuden läpimurto muuttivat työtapoja yhdessä sodan luomien poikkeuksellisten yhteiskunnallisten olojen kanssa. Inflaatio, vuokra- ja hintasäännöstely aiheuttivat raskaita menetyksiä Kaupunkilähetyksen toiminnalle. Samaan aikaan yhteiskunnan sosiaalityö alkoi kehityksen kohti hyvinvointiyhteiskuntaa, mikä ammatillisti ja kohotti sosiaalityön tasoa. Nämä kaikki yhdessä loivat muutospaineita Kaupunkilähetykselle, joka ryhtyi tuottamaan uusia työmuotoja kristillisessä hengessä toteutettuina, kuten avioliittoneuvonnan, jota voi luonnehtia sosiaaliseksi innovaatioksi, sekä hengellistä teollisuustyötä, erilaisia lastensuojelullisia laitoksia, pullakirkon ja kehitysvammaisten teollista työtoimintaa. Samalla Kaupunkilähetyksenkin työ ammatillistui. Tampereen kaupungin kunnallispolitiikkaa hallinnut sosialidemokraattien ja kokoomuslaisten aseveliakseli tuki Tampereen Kaupunkilähetyksen työtä. Tampereen kaupungin sosiaaliviranomaiset, kuten Alpo Lumme, ehdottivat usein uusia työmuotoja Kaupunkilähetykselle. Näiden ehdotuksien mukana tuli lupaukset antaa tarvittava taloudellinen tuki. Kaupungista tuli Kaupunkilähetyksen merkittävin tukija ja yhteistyökumppani. Molemmat hyötyivät yhteistyöstä. Kaupunkilähetys pyrki vastaamaan näkemiinsä sosiaalisiin haasteisiin pikaisesti. Tämä oli myös menestyksen ydin, sillä suhteellisen nopea päätöksenteko uuden toiminnan kokeilusta oli Kaupunkilähetykselle helpompaa kuin kaupungille tai seurakunnille. Yhdistyksen uusille työmuodoille oli luonteenomaista, että joku asiaan perehtynyt henkilö ryhtyi niitä ajamaan voimakkaasti ja taitavasti kohti toteutusta. Toimintamuotojen jouduttua rahoitusvaikeuksiin tai kasvaessa selvästi julkishallinnon tehtäviksi, Kaupunkilähetys luopui tarvittaessa osuudestaan melko kivuttomasti aloittamalla usein jälleen uuden työmuodon. Tampereen Kaupunkilähetys voidaan sijoittaa sosiaalityön toimintakenttään kristillissosiaalista työtä tekevänä kolmannen sektorin toimijana. Yhdistyksen työssä ja hallinnossa oli havaittavissa sellaista sukupuolittumista, että varsinaista työtä tekivät pääosin naiset naisten johdolla. Mies-, poika- ja evankelioimistyötä tekivät puolestaan pääosin miehet. Myös johtokunnissa naisilla oli merkittävä asema, kuten jäsenistössäkin. Johtokuntatoiminta etääntyi seurakunnasta, sillä puheenjohtajaksi vaihtui maallikko jo 1940-luvulla, ja johtokunnassa oli vain vähän pappeja muutenkin. Toiminnan taloudellisena tukena olivat Tampereen kaupunki suurimpana rahoittajana, Tampereen Kaupunkilähetyksen osittain omistama hotelli Emmaus Oy, valtio, Tampereen seurakunnat, yksityiset lahjoittajat ja jäsenistö. Yhdistyksen omat kiinteistöt tuottivat välillä tappiota ja välillä voittoa, mutta niiden tärkein merkitys oli olla toimitiloina.

Ethics of Justification : A Defence of Contractualism

In What We Owe to Each Other, T.M. Scanlon formulated a new version of the ethical theory called contractualism. This theory took reasons considerations that count in favour of judgment-sensitive attitudes to be the fundamental normative notion. It then used normative reasons to first account for evaluative properties. For an object to be valuable, on this view, is for it to have properties that provide reasons to have favourable attitudes towards the bearer of value. Scanlon also used reasons to account for moral wrongness. His contractualism claims that an act is morally wrong if it is forbidden by any set of moral principles that no one could reasonably reject. My thesis consists of five previously published articles which attempt to clarify Scanlon s theory and to defend it against its critics. The first article defends the idea that normative reason-relations are fundamental against Joshua Gert. Gert argues that rationality is a more basic notion than reasons and that reasons can be analysed in terms of their rationally requiring and justifying dimensions. The second article explores the relationship between value and reasons. It defends Scanlon s view according to which reasons are the more basic than value against those who think that reasons are based on the evaluative realm. The last three articles defend Scanlon s views about moral wrongness. The first one of them discusses a classic objection to contractualist theories. This objection is that principles which no one could reasonably reject are redundant in accounting for wrongness. This is because we need a prior notion of wrongness to select those principles and because such principles are not required to make actions wrong or to provide reasons against wrong actions. The fourth article explores the distinctive reasons which contractualists claim there are for avoiding the wrong actions. The last article argues against the critics of contractualism who claim that contractualism has implausible normative consequences for situations related to the treatment of different-sized groups of people.

Imagination and diversity in the philosophy of Hobbes

This dissertation is a study of some aspects of theoretical philosophy of the early modern thinker Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). The focal point of the work is Hobbes s conception of imagination, which is discussed from both a systematic and a historical point of view, as well as in the light of contemporary scholarship. I argue that though there are significant similarities between the view of Hobbes and that of his predecessors, he gives a novel theory of imagination, which clarifies not only early modern discussions on human nature, knowledge, science, and literary criticism, but above all his own versatile philosophy. The prologue of the dissertation introduces methodological principles and gives critical remarks on the standard view of Hobbes. In Chapter II, I discuss the prominent theories of imagination before Hobbes and link them to his account. I argue that though Hobbes adopted the Aristotelian framework, his view is not reduced to it, as he borrows from various sources, for instance, from the Stoics and from Renaissance thought. Chapters III and IV form the psychological part of the work. In the Chapter III I argue that imagination, not sense, is central in the basic cognitive operations of the mind and that imagination has a decisive role in Hobbes s theory of motivation. The Chapter IV concentrates on various questions of Hobbes s philosophy of language. The chapter ends with a defence of a less naturalistic reading of Hobbes s theory of human nature. Chapters V and VI form the epistemological part of the work. I suggest, contrary to what has been recently claimed, that though Hobbes s ideas of good literary style do have a point of contact with his philosophy (e.g. the psychology of creative process), his ideas in the field are independent of his project of demonstrative political science. Instead I argue that the novelty of his major political work, Leviathan (1651), is based on a new theory of knowledge which he continued to develop in the post-Leviathan works. Chapter VII seeks to connect the more theoretical conclusions of Chapters V and VI to Hobbes's idea(l) of science as well as to his philosophical practice. On the basis of Hobbes s own writings as well as some historical examinations, I argue that method is not an apt way to conceptualise Hobbes s philosophical practice. Contemporary readings of Hobbes s theory of science are critically discussed and the chapter ends with an analysis of Hobbes s actual argumentation. In addition to the concluding remarks, the epilogue suggest three things: first, imagination is central when trying to understand Hobbes s versatile philosophy; second, that it is misleading to depict Hobbes as a simple materialist, mechanist, and empiricist; and, third, that in terms of imagination his influence on early modern thought has not been fully appreciated.

The Politics of Pulp Investment and the Brazilian Landless Movement (MST)

The Politics of Pulp Investment and the Brazilian Landless Movement (MST) The paper industry has been moving more heavily to the global South at the beginning of the 21st century. In a number of cases the rural populations of the global South have engaged in increasingly important resistance in their scuffle with the large-scale tree plantation-relying pulp investment model. The resistance had generally not yet managed to slow down Southern industrial tree plantation expansion until 2004. After all, even the MST, perhaps the strongest of the Southern movements, has limited power in comparison to the corporations pushing for plantation expansion. This thesis shows how, even against these odds, depending on the mechanisms of contention and case-specific conflict dynamics, in some cases the movements have managed to slow and even reverse plantation expansion. The thesis is based on extensive field research in the Brazilian countryside. It outlines a new theory of contentious agency promotion, emphasizing its importance in the shaping of corporate resource exploitation. The thesis includes a Qualitative Comparative Analysis of resistance influence on the economic outcomes of all (14) Brazilian large-scale pulp projects between 2004-2008. The central hypothesis of the thesis is that corporate resource exploitation can be slowed down more effectively and likely when the resistance is based on contentious agency. Contentious agency is created by the concatenation of five mutually supporting mechanisms of contention: organizing and politicizing a social movement; heterodox framing of pulp projects; protesting; networking; and embedding whilst maintaining autonomy. The findings suggest that contentious agency can slow or even reverse the expansion of industrial plantations, whereas when contentious agency promotion was inactive, fast or even unchecked plantation expansion was always the outcome. The rule applied to all the assessed 14 pulp conflict cases. The hypothesis gained strong support even in situations where corporate agency promotion was simultaneously active. In previous studies on social movements, there has been a lack of contributions that help us understand the causal mechanisms of contention influencing economic outcomes. The thesis answers to the call by merging a Polanyian analysis of the political economy with the Dynamics of Contention research program and making a case for the impact of contentious agency on capital accumulation. The research concludes that an efficient social movement can utilize mechanisms of contention to promote the potential of activism among its members and influence investment outcomes. Protesting, for example via pioneering land occupations, seemed to be particularly important. Until now, there has been no comprehensive theory on when and how contentious agency can slow down or reverse the expansion of corporate resource exploitation. The original contribution of this research is to provide such a theory, and utilize it to offer an extensive explanation on the conflicts over pulp investment in Brazil, the globalization of the paper industry, and slowing of industrial plantation expansion in the global South.

Elements of Volatility at High Frequency

Volatility is central in options pricing and risk management. It reflects the uncertainty of investors and the inherent instability of the economy. Time series methods are among the most widely applied scientific methods to analyze and predict volatility. Very frequently sampled data contain much valuable information about the different elements of volatility and may ultimately reveal the reasons for time varying volatility. The use of such ultra-high-frequency data is common to all three essays of the dissertation. The dissertation belongs to the field of financial econometrics. The first essay uses wavelet methods to study the time-varying behavior of scaling laws and long-memory in the five-minute volatility series of Nokia on the Helsinki Stock Exchange around the burst of the IT-bubble. The essay is motivated by earlier findings which suggest that different scaling laws may apply to intraday time-scales and to larger time-scales, implying that the so-called annualized volatility depends on the data sampling frequency. The empirical results confirm the appearance of time varying long-memory and different scaling laws that, for a significant part, can be attributed to investor irrationality and to an intraday volatility periodicity called the New York effect. The findings have potentially important consequences for options pricing and risk management that commonly assume constant memory and scaling. The second essay investigates modelling the duration between trades in stock markets. Durations convoy information about investor intentions and provide an alternative view at volatility. Generalizations of standard autoregressive conditional duration (ACD) models are developed to meet needs observed in previous applications of the standard models. According to the empirical results based on data of actively traded stocks on the New York Stock Exchange and the Helsinki Stock Exchange the proposed generalization clearly outperforms the standard models and also performs well in comparison to another recently proposed alternative to the standard models. The distribution used to derive the generalization may also prove valuable in other areas of risk management. The third essay studies empirically the effect of decimalization on volatility and market microstructure noise. Decimalization refers to the change from fractional pricing to decimal pricing and it was carried out on the New York Stock Exchange in January, 2001. The methods used here are more accurate than in the earlier studies and put more weight on market microstructure. The main result is that decimalization decreased observed volatility by reducing noise variance especially for the highly active stocks. The results help risk management and market mechanism designing.

Political transition and structural politicisation : The long shadow of Taiwan's one-party legacy

Väitöskirjatutkimuksessa tarkastellaan Taiwanin politiikkaa ensimmäisen vaalien kautta tapahtuneen vallanvaihdon jälkeen (2000) yhteiskunnan rakenteellisen politisoitumisen näkökulmasta. Koska Taiwanilla siirryttiin verettömästi autoritaarisesta yksipuoluejärjestelmästä monipuoluejärjestelmään sitä on pidetty poliittisen muodonmuutoksen mallioppilaana. Aiempi optimismi Taiwanin demokratisoitumisen suhteen on sittemmin vaihtunut pessimismiin, pitkälti yhteiskunnan voimakkaasta politisoitumisesta johtuen. Tutkimuksessa haetaan selitystä tälle politisoitumiselle. Yhteiskunnan rakenteellisella politisoitumisella tarkoitetaan tilannetta, jossa ”poliittisen” alue kasvaa varsinaisia poliittisia instituutioita laajemmaksi. Rakenteellinen politisoituminen muuttuu helposti yhteiskunnalliseksi ongelmaksi, koska siitä usein seuraa normaalin poliittisen toiminnan (esim. lainsäädännän) jähmettyminen, yhteiskunnan jyrkkä jakautuminen, alhainen kynnys poliittisille konflikteille ja yleisen yhteiskunnallisen luottamuksen alentuminen. Toisin kuin esimerkiksi Itä-Euroopassa, Taiwanissa entinen valtapuolue ei romahtanut poliittisen avautumisen myötä vaan säilytti vahvan rakenteellisen asemansa. Kun valta vaihtui ensimmäisen kerran vaalien kautta, vanha valtapuolue ei ollut valmis luovuttamaan poliittisen järjestelmän ohjaksia käsistään. Alkoi vuosia kestänyt taistelu järjestelmän hallinnasta vanhan ja uuden valtapuolueen välillä, jossa yhteiskunta politisoitui voimakkaasti. Tutkimuksessa Taiwanin yhteiskunnan politisoituminen selitetään useiden rakenteellisten piirteiden yhteisvaikutuksen tuloksena. Tällaisia politisoitumista edistäviä rakentellisia piirteitä ovat hidas poliittinen muutos, joka säilytti vanhat poliittiset jakolinjat ja niihin liittyvät vahvat edut ja intressit; sopimaton perustuslaki; Taiwanin epäselvä kansainvälinen asema ja jakautunut identiteetti; sekä sosiaalinen rakenne, joka helpottaa ihmisten nopeaa mobilisointia poliittiisiin mielenilmauksiin. Tutkimuksessa kiinnitetään huomiota toistaiseksi vähän tutkittuun poliittiseen ilmiöön, joidenkin demokratisoituvien yhteiskuntien voimakkaaseen rakenteelliseen politisoitumiseen. Tutkimuksen pääasiallinen havainto on, että yksipuoluejärjestelmän demokratisoituminen kantaa sisällään rakenteellisen politisoitumisen siemenen, jos entinen valtapuolue ei romahda demokratisoitumisen myötä.

Normalization and Charter 77 : Violence, Commitment and Resistance in Czechoslovakia

In Czechoslovakia, the occupation of 1968 denoted the beginning of normalization , a political and societal stagnation that lasted two decades. Dissident initiative Charter 77 emerged in 1977, demanding that the leaders of the country respect human rights. The Helsinki process provided a macro-level framework that influenced opposition and dissident activities throughout Eastern Europe. The study contributes a focused empirical analysis of the period of normalization and the dissident movement Charter 77. Dissent in general is seen as an existential attitude; it can be encapsulated as a morally rationalized critical stance as derived from shared experience or interpretation of injustice, which serves as a basis for a shared collective identity comprising oppositional consciousness as one unifying factor. The study suggests that normalization can be understood as a fundamentally violent process and discusses the structural and cultural manifestations of violence with relation to Charter 77. In general, the aim of the system was to passivize the society to such an extent that it would not constitute a potential threat to the hegemonic rule of the regime. Normalization caused societal stagnation and apoliticization, but it also benefited those who accepted the new political reality. The study, however, questions the image of Czechoslovakia s allegedly highly repressive rule by showing that there was also quite considerable tolerance of Charter 77 and consideration before severe repression was brought to bear against dissidents. Furthermore, the study provides understanding of the motives and impetuses behind dissent, the strategic shifts in Charter 77 activities, and the changes in the regime s policies toward Charter 77. The study also adds new perspective on the common image of Charter 77 as a non political initiative and suggests that Charter 77 was, in fact, a political entity, an actively political one in the latter half of the 1980s. Charter 77 was a de facto hybrid of a traditional dissident initiative and an oppositional actor. Charter 77 adopted a two-dimension approach: firstly, it still emphasized its role as a citizens initiative supporting human rights, but, secondly, at the same time, it was a directly political actor supporting and furthering the development of political opposition against the ruling power.

Do Measurement Errors in GDP Announcements Cause Output Fluctuations?

This thesis studies empirically whether measurement errors in aggregate production statistics affect sentiment and future output. Initial announcements of aggregate production are subject to measurement error, because many of the data required to compile the statistics are produced with a lag. This measurement error can be gauged as the difference between the latest revised statistic and its initial announcement. Assuming aggregate production statistics help forecast future aggregate production, these measurement errors are expected to affect macroeconomic forecasts. Assuming agents’ macroeconomic forecasts affect their production choices, these measurement errors should affect future output through sentiment. This thesis is primarily empirical, so the theoretical basis, strategic complementarity, is discussed quite briefly. However, it is a model in which higher aggregate production increases each agent’s incentive to produce. In this circumstance a statistical announcement which suggests aggregate production is high would increase each agent’s incentive to produce, thus resulting in higher aggregate production. In this way the existence of strategic complementarity provides the theoretical basis for output fluctuations caused by measurement mistakes in aggregate production statistics. Previous empirical studies suggest that measurement errors in gross national product affect future aggregate production in the United States. Additionally it has been demonstrated that measurement errors in the Index of Leading Indicators affect forecasts by professional economists as well as future industrial production in the United States. This thesis aims to verify the applicability of these findings to other countries, as well as study the link between measurement errors in gross domestic product and sentiment. This thesis explores the relationship between measurement errors in gross domestic production and sentiment and future output. Professional forecasts and consumer sentiment in the United States and Finland, as well as producer sentiment in Finland, are used as the measures of sentiment. Using statistical techniques it is found that measurement errors in gross domestic product affect forecasts and producer sentiment. The effect on consumer sentiment is ambiguous. The relationship between measurement errors and future output is explored using data from Finland, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Sweden. It is found that measurement errors have affected aggregate production or investment in Finland, United States, United Kingdom and Sweden. Specifically, it was found that overly optimistic statistics announcements are associated with higher output and vice versa.

Empirical Analysis of Competition in Procurement Auctions

A vast amount of public services and goods are contracted through procurement auctions. Therefore it is very important to design these auctions in an optimal way. Typically, we are interested in two different objectives. The first objective is efficiency. Efficiency means that the contract is awarded to the bidder that values it the most, which in the procurement setting means the bidder that has the lowest cost of providing a service with a given quality. The second objective is to maximize public revenue. Maximizing public revenue means minimizing the costs of procurement. Both of these goals are important from the welfare point of view. In this thesis, I analyze field data from procurement auctions and show how empirical analysis can be used to help design the auctions to maximize public revenue. In particular, I concentrate on how competition, which means the number of bidders, should be taken into account in the design of auctions. In the first chapter, the main policy question is whether the auctioneer should spend resources to induce more competition. The information paradigm is essential in analyzing the effects of competition. We talk of a private values information paradigm when the bidders know their valuations exactly. In a common value information paradigm, the information about the value of the object is dispersed among the bidders. With private values more competition always increases the public revenue but with common values the effect of competition is uncertain. I study the effects of competition in the City of Helsinki bus transit market by conducting tests for common values. I also extend an existing test by allowing bidder asymmetry. The information paradigm seems to be that of common values. The bus companies that have garages close to the contracted routes are influenced more by the common value elements than those whose garages are further away. Therefore, attracting more bidders does not necessarily lower procurement costs, and thus the City should not implement costly policies to induce more competition. In the second chapter, I ask how the auctioneer can increase its revenue by changing contract characteristics like contract sizes and durations. I find that the City of Helsinki should shorten the contract duration in the bus transit auctions because that would decrease the importance of common value components and cheaply increase entry which now would have a more beneficial impact on the public revenue. Typically, cartels decrease the public revenue in a significant way. In the third chapter, I propose a new statistical method for detecting collusion and compare it with an existing test. I argue that my test is robust to unobserved heterogeneity unlike the existing test. I apply both methods to procurement auctions that contract snow removal in schools of Helsinki. According to these tests, the bidding behavior of two of the bidders seems consistent with a contract allocation scheme.

Temporality of the Face-to-Face in Levinas' Ethics

This thesis focuses on a connection between temporality and ethics in the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. I argue that Levinas understanding of temporality is rooted in the function of pra-impression which in its turn does not belong to the intentional consciousness but reveals a subject as being open to the Other. In the face-to-face situation with the Other the pra-impression is an essential and constitutive force: it fractures the moment of the present, questions subjectivity and generates a new meaning of temporality. As a result a responsible subject is revealed; responsibility for the Other marks a latent birth of the subject which is prior to any origin of subjectivity, it discloses a meaning of time that does not belong to the subject but is found in the Other. In this study I suggest that pra-impression finds its productive force in language, the function of the feminine, and what Levinas calls the other in the same .

Ministers as strategic political leaders? : Strategic political steering after NPM reforms in Finland

This study explores strategic political steering after the New Public Management (NPM) reforms, with emphasis on the new role assigned to Government ministers in Finland. In the NPM model, politicians concentrate on broad, principal issues, while agencies have discretion within the limits set by politicians. In Finland, strategic steering was introduced with Management by Results (MBR), but the actual tools for strategic political steering have been the Government Programme, the Government Strategy Portfolio (GSP) and Frame Budgeting. This study addresses these tools as means of strategic steering conducted by the Cabinet and individual ministers within their respective ministries. The time frame of the study includes the two Lipponen Cabinets between 1995 and 2003. Interviews with fourteen ministers as well as with fourteen top officials were conducted. In addition, administrative reform documents and documents related to strategic steering tools were analysed. The empirical conclusions of the study can be summarised as follows: There were few signs of strategic political steering in the Lipponen Cabinets. Although the Government Programmes of both Cabinets introduced strategic thinking, the strategic guidelines set forth at the beginning of the Programme were not linked to the GSP or to Frame Budgeting. The GSP could be characterised as the collected strategic agendas of each ministry, while there was neither the will nor the courage among Cabinet members to prioritise the projects and to make selections. The Cabinet used Frame Budgeting mainly in the sense of spending limits, not in making strategic allocation decisions. As for the GSP at the departmental level, projects were suggested by top officials, and ministers only approved the suggested list. Frame Budgeting at the departmental level proved to be the most interesting strategic steering tool from ministers viewpoint: they actively participated in defining which issues would need extra financing. Because the chances for extra financing were minimal, ministers had an effect only on a marginal share of the budget. At the departmental level, the study shows that strategic plans were considered the domain of officials. As for strategies concerning specific substances, there was variation in the interest shown by the ministers. A few ministers emphasised the importance of strategic work and led strategy processes. In most cases, however, officials led the process while ministers offered comments on the drafts of strategy documents. The results of this study together with experiences reported in other countries and local politics show that political decision-makers have difficulty operating at the strategic level. The conclusion is that politicians do not have sufficient incentive to perform the strategic role implied by the NPM type of reforms. Overall, the empirical results of the study indicate the power of politics over management reforms.

The Restless Love of Thinking : The Concept Liebe in Hegel's Philosophy

The German philosopher G.W.F.Hegel (1770–1831) is best known for his idealistic system philosophy, his concept of spirit [Geist] and for his dictum that the existing and the rational overlap. This thesis offers a new perspective: it examines the working of the concept ‘love’ in Hegel’s philosophy by looking at the contexts and function he puts it to, from his earliest writings to the very last lectures he gave. The starting point of the inquiry is that he applied the concept Liebe to different contexts for different purposes, but each time to provide an answer to a specific philosophical problem. His formulation, reformulation and use of ‘love’ give possible solutions to problems the solving of which was crucial to the development of his thought as a whole. The study is divided into three parts, each analysing the different problems and solutions to which Hegel applied the concept of love. The first part, "Love, morality and ethical life", examines these interconnected themes in Hegel’s early work. The main questions he addressed during this period concerned how to unite Kant’s philosophy and the Greek ideal of the good life. In this context, the concept ‘love’ did three things. First, it served to formulate his grounding idea of the relation between unity and difference, or the manifold. Secondly, it was the key to his attempt to base an ideal folk religion on Christianity interpreted as a religion of love. Finally, it provided the means to criticise Kant’s moral philosophy. The question of the moral value of love helped Hegel to break away from Kant’s thought and develop his own theory about love and ethical life. The second part of the study, "Love and the political realm", considers the way 'Liebe' functions in connection with questions concerning the community and political life in Hegel’s work. In addition to questioning the universal applicability of the concept of recognition as a key to his theory of social relations, the chapters focus on gender politics and the way he conceptualised the gender category ‘woman’ through the concept ‘love’. Another line of inquiry is the way the figure of Antigone was used to conceptualise the differentiated spheres of action for men and women, and the part ‘love’ played in Hegel’s description of Antigone’s motives. Thirdly, Hegel’s analogy of the family and the state and the way ‘love’ functions in an attempt to promote understanding of the relation between citizens and the state are examined. The third and final part of the study, "Love as absolute spirit", focuses on ‘love’ within Hegel’s systemic thought and the way he continued to characterise Geist through the language of Liebe up until and including his very last works. It is shown how Liebe functions in his hierarchical organisation of the domains of art, religion and philosophy, and how both art and religion end up in similar structural positions with regard to philosophy. One recurrent theme in the third part is Hegel’s complex relation to Romantic thought. Another line of investigation is how he reconstructed Christianity as a religion of love in his mature work. In striking contrast to his early thought, in his last works Hegel introduced a new concept of love that incorporated negativity, and that could also function as the root of political action.