Consumption of Fashion Luxury Brands

The main objective of this study is to find out why people buy luxury brands and which factors influence their decisions. The elements of luxury brands as well as motivation, culture and self-concept is researched as being the main factors behind luxury consumption. It was important to conduct this study because the luxury market is growing with a fast pace and it has hardly been research before. This study was conducted as a qualitative research. Theoretical part is based on the literature and on researches conducted before about the matter. Purposeful sampling method was used in empirical part by interviewing designers Jukka Rintala and Hanna Sarén as well as consumers of luxury brands, who work in the fashion industry. Two different viewpoints were chosen in order to research if designers’ and consumers’ thoughts differed. This study shows that the elements of luxury brands are deemed pretty much the same all around the world and also between the designers and consumers interviewed. Exclusivity referring to unique design and “hard to get” as well as good quality meaning superior materials, were mentioned as the most important elements of luxury brands. According to this study motivation behind luxury consumption is to a great extent dependent on the culture where the luxuries are consumed. However, self-concept has the biggest effect on luxury consumption. This study shows that people in individualistic cultures buy luxuries because they want to. People tend to spoil themselves and show off, thus making them feel good when buying luxuries. However, uniqueness is appreciated. On contrast, in collectivistic cultures people buy luxuries because they have to. Social pressure is much greater in Eastern than in Western culture that being the reason wealth is expected show. This study shows that in some cases designers' and consumers' thoughts about luxury consumption differ. Especially, a big gap was found when talking about materialism behind luxury consumption. The designers did not believe it to be the reason behind luxury consumption where consumers strongly did.

Kasvatuskumppanuus somalinkielisten äitien kokemana : Moniku-hankkeen päiväkodeissa Helsingissä

Opinnäytetyömme liittyy MONIKU -Sosiaalinen vahvistaminen pääkaupunkiseudun monikulttuurisessa varhaiskasvatuksessa- hankkeeseen. Työmme käsittelee kasvatuskumppanuutta somalinkielisten äitien kokemana. Opinnäytetyö on kvalitatiivinen tutkimus. Keräsimme aineiston haastattelemalla kuutta somalinkielistä äitiä kolmesta Helsingin päiväkodista. Käytimme haastattelumenetelmänä yksilöhaastattelua. Kaikki haastattelut olivat puolistrukturoituja teemahaastatteluja, joiden teemat käsittelivät Davis Hiltonin kumppanuusmallia. Tuloksien mukaan somalinkieliset äidit olivat tyytyväisiä suomalaiseen päivähoitoon. Kumppanuusmal-liin liittyvät ominaisuudet, kuten avoin ja rehellinen vuorovaikutus sekä luottamus, olivat sujuvan yhteistyön perusedellytyksiä. Äidit pitivät tärkeänä, että heidän kulttuuria ja uskontoa kunnioitetaan ottamalla heidän toiveensa huomioon lapsen kasvatukseen liittyvissä asioissa. Monikulttuurisessa päivähoidossa kieliongelmat luovat haasteita kommunikaatiolle ja tätä kautta myös kumppanuussuh-teelle. Päiväkodin työntekijöiden ja äitien välinen kumppanuussuhde toteutui kuitenkin hyvin ottaen huomioon yhteisen kielen puuttumisen. Äidit kokivat tulkin käytön tärkeäksi varsinkin päivähoidon aloitus- ja kasvatuskeskusteluissa. Tulosten perusteella äidit toivoivatkin enemmän tulkin avulla käytäviä keskusteluita. Äitien mukaan hyvän yhteistyön perusedellytykset ovat yhteisymmärrys ja kunnioitus. Yhteistyön laatua voidaan parantaa muun muassa lisäämällä tulkin käyttöä, somalinkielisiä työntekijöitä ja koulutusta. Lähes jokaisen haastateltavan päiväkodissa on somalinkielinen työntekijä, joka lisää luottamusta ja tukee maahanmuuttajataustaisen lapsen omaa kulttuuri-identiteettiä ja äidinkieltä. Myös henkilökunnan monikulttuuriseen koulutukseen tulisi kiinnittää huomiota aikaisempaa enemmän.

Kansatiede

Kansatieteen pääkokoelma sijaitsee kirjaston lainattavassa kokoelmassa Sturenkadulla. Lainattava kokoelma koostuu n. 2000 niteestä monografioita ja n. 50 kotimaisesta jatkuvasta julkaisusta (mm. yliopistojen kansatieteen sarjoja, kotiseutututkimusta yms.). Kokoelmassa on myös useita ulkomaisia sarjoja (joulukuu 2011). Pääkokoelman kirjoista 35% on suomenkielisiä. Merkittävä osuus pääkokoelmasta on venäjänkielistä, mm. Karjalaa ja suomalais-ugrilaisia kansoja koskevaa aineistoa (17 %). Saksankielistä pääosin vanhempaa yleisetnografista kirjallisuutta on 14 % ja ruotsinkielistä kirjallisuutta 13 %. Huomattava osa aineistosta on sijoitettu eri yksiköiden käsikirjastoihin. HELKA-tietokannasta näet onko teos kirjaston pääkokoelmassa vai jossakin Museoviraston käsikirjastoista ja onko se lainattavissa. Kulttuurien museon käsikirjaston erikoisalana on Euroopan ulkopuolisten alueiden ja suomalais-ugrilaisten kansojen aineellinen kulttuuri. Kokoelman suuruus on n. 8100 nidettä (joulukuu 2011) Kulttuurien museo sijaitsee Tennispalatsissa. Kansatieteen käsikirjastossa on n. 4000 niteen (joulukuu 2011) kokoelma kirjallisuutta kansatieteen eri osa-alueilta, pääpaino suomalaisessa ja skandinaavisessa esinehistoriassa, erikoisalana saamelaiskulttuuri. Kansatieteen käsikirjasto sijaitsee Suomen kansallismuseossa. Sturenkadun käsikirjastokokoelmassa painopiste on suomalais-ugrilainen ja yleisetnografinen kansatiede, aineistoa on myös kansatieteellisestä filmauksesta, valokuvien tekniikasta, arkistoinnista ja konservoinnista. Käsikirjaston aineisto on käytettävissä kirjaston lukupaikoilla.

Kohti kuuntelevaa johtajuuskulttuuria : johtajuustutkimuksen ja estetiikan yhtymäkohtia

Abstract: Towards auditive leadership culture: linking leadership research with aesthetics

Metropolista matriisiin. Elokuva modernin maisemana: peruskysymyksiä kuvalle ja muutoksia kuvassa 1900-luvulla

Tutkin työssäni elokuvaa modernin maisemana, millä viittaan lähtökohtaisesti kahteen aspektiin elävää kuvaa ja moderniteettia yhteen kietovassa ajattelussa. Yhtäältä elokuva on leimallisesti moderni keksintö, modernin mediakulttuurimme audiovisuaalinen perusmuoto ja modernin ajan ilmiökenttä, ja sellaisena juuri elokuva maisemallistaa eli koostaa kuvallisiksi tapahtumiksi luontevasti monia moderniteetin ulottuvuuksia. Toisaalta moderni kulttuuri itsessään on peruuttamattomasti elokuvallistunut, mikä ei tarkoita pelkästään mediakuvien määrällistä ja yhä monimuotoisempaa vyöryä vaan eritoten muutosta yksilön laadullisissa suhteissa kuvalliseen ympäristöönsä sekä aistimuksien ja ajattelun uudenlaisia liikahduksia ja siirtymiä suhteessa kuvaan 1900-luvun kuluessa. Maisema on valittu tutkielmani ydinkäsitteeksi, jotta tavoittaisin representaationa jäsennettyä elokuvaesitystä paremmin elokuvan kokemuksellisen luonteen audiovisuaalisena tapahtumana, jossa kuva ja subjekti kietoutuvat erottamattomasti yhteen – kuvaan upotaan tai pukeudutaan. Siinä missä representaatio viittaa määritelmällisesti jonkin poissaolevan uudelleen esittämiseen, maisemassa korostuu voimakas läsnäolon vaikutelma. Maisema on meissä ja me maisemassa. Maisemallinen kuvakäsitys kiinnittyy työssäni määrittelyyn moderniteetista hermostollisena ja aistimellisena murroksena, jota leimaa sensomotorisesti, emotionaalisesti ja kognitiivisesti yhä yltäkylläisempi ärsykeympäristö. Tähän esimerkiksi Georg Simmel viittasi kirjoituksissaan jo yli sata vuotta sitten. Saman määritelmän kautta tärkeäksi osoittautuu Gilles Deleuzen elokuva-ajattelusta peräisin oleva muotoilu modernista maailmasta metaelokuvana ja liikekuvien konemaisena koosteena, johon aistimuksen, havainnon ja ajattelun prosessit erottamattomasti niveltyvät. Elokuva modernin maisemana on tutkimuskysymys ja kehys, jonka puitteissa työstän tutkielmani analyysiosion käsitteelliset kehittelyt ja keskeiset väittämät. Ennen muuta tämä tarkoittaa kuvan peruskysymyksiä, jotka Deleuze johtaa Aloïs Rieglin kuvataiteen periodisointiin ja Serge Daneyn elokuvahistoriallisiin ja -esteettisiin huomioihin viitaten, sekä Deleuzen omia jäsennyksiä elokuvasta automaattisen liikkeen taiteena. Tässä kehyksessä esimerkkielokuvani – Fritz Langin Metropolis ja Wachowskin veljesten Matrix –osoittautuvat hyödylliseksi ja havainnolliseksi aineistoksi.

FENNIZMUSOK – Finn szólások és kifejezések tára magyarok számára

A FENNIZMUSOK - Finn szólások és kifejezések tára magyarok számára című kötet a világhálón a maga nemében úttörőnek számít. Vállalkozásunkkal a finnugrisztika, a finn és a magyar nyelv ismertté tételét, valamint a nyelvészeti kutatások forrásainak szabad hozzáférhetőségét tartottuk szem előtt. A gyűjteményben egyrészt a Suomen kielen perussanakirja (1990) kifejezéseit, másrészt a sajtó, a tv, a rádió nyelvéből, ill. a mindennapi beszédhelyzetekből gyűjtött legújabb kifejezéseket tartalmazza. A szorosabb értelemben vett kifejezések mellett felvettünk gyakori, vagy a magyarra nehezen fordítható szókapcsolatokat, köszönési formákat, stb. is. A Fennizmusok a Veikö kissa kielen? Finn-magyar frazeológiai szótár (Piliscsaba 2000) új, javított és bővített kiadása, amely sok száz új kifejezéssel bővült. A FENNIZMUSOK - Finn szólások és kifejezések tára magyarok számára című kötetet azzal a céllal bocsátjuk útjára világhálón, hogy minél több nyelvtanulónak legyen a segítségére. A kötet másik célja a kontrasztív frazeológiai kutatások előmozdítása.

The Innovation Process – Aiming towards Innovativeness in a Construction Company

The bachelor’s thesis concentrates on the innovativeness in the construction industry. The purpose of the thesis is to define the innovation as a concept reflected on a context of the construction industry. The second objective is to examine how the construction companies could foster and increase the innovativeness. The third objective was to find out tools, methods and phases of the front-end of the innovation process. The construction industry is often considered as a traditional and an old-fashioned manufacturing industry. The innovation or the innovativeness rarely linked to the construction industry. Productivity is a common problem in the construction industry. The construction industry needs to increase the productivity to compete in a globalized world. The productivity can be increased by the innovation. The thesis based on a literature review. The findings from the literature include a description of the innovation as a concept, the innovative culture and the innovation process as a context of the construction industry. The phases of the front-end of the innovation process were explained. Customers centered approach was taken into account in the innovation process. The required tools and methods for managing the front-end of the innovation process were illustrated. The thesis ensures the importance of the innovation facing challenges of the construction industry. Managing the front-end of the innovation is the most important aspect to stand out from the less innovative companies. To take a full advantage of the innovation companies cannot fear of changes. The innovation process requires a full support of the top management of the company. Taking into consideration a theoretical aspect of the thesis a further research is required to respond practical needs of the company. Tools and methods should be considered according the company’s needs and activities. Company’s existing state and culture should be examined before implementing the front-end of the innovation process to ensure the functionality.

The state of research and development in Australia: implications for future development

The scale of research and development (R&D), and other technological activities, and the way in which the available resources are managed and organized at the enterprise and national level contribute to the rate of technological change in a country. A well organized national innovation system can be a powerful engine of progress, whereas a lack of interaction between institutions results in the slowing down of technological change, thereby diminishing its contribution to economic growth and welfare. The research object of this thesis is Australia’s national innovation system and the state of R&D in Australia. In order to establish an overall picture of the situation and to be able to make recommendations for future development, the general level of R&D activity and the main performers and funders of R&D within the system are analyzed. The framework policies supporting R&D and prevalent dynamics between different actors and sectors are of specific interest of the research. The findings reveal that the Australian culture is not a culture of research and innovation and that the main challenge is building a coherent system with strong domestic and international linkages.

Suomen historia

Suomen historian kokoelma koostuu n. 3900 niteestä monografioita ja n. 70 jatkuvasta julkaisusta (tiedot joulukuulta 2011). Suomen historian kokoelmaa kartutetaan erityisesti Museoviraston toimintaa tukevilta aloilta. Painopistealueita ovat kulttuuri- ja sosiaalihistoria. Myös oppi- ja aatehistoriaa kartutetaan aktiivisesti ja poliittisen sekä hallintohistorian perusteokset kuuluvat kokoelmaan. Tämän lisäksi kokoelmassa on huomattava määrä yrityshistoriikkeja. Kokoelmaa on kartutettu pitkällä aikavälillä ja se on myös ajantasainen: viidesosa kokoelmasta on 2000-luvulla julkaistua tutkimusta. Julkaisut ovat pääasiassa kotimaisilla kielillä (n. 20 % ruotsinkielisiä). Sekä monografioita että jatkuvia julkaisuja saa kotilainaksi. Henkilö-, sota- ja paikallishistoria muodostavat omat erikseen kuvaillut kokoelmansa.

Ikääntyvät työelämässä. Päihittääkö nuoruus ja koulutus aikuisuuden ja kokemuksen?

The Ageing in Working Life. Do Adolescence and Schooling Beat Adulthood and Experience? This study examines the changes in the work and the work organisations of employees in the fields of health care and retail trade who have turned 45 and their experience of change. In addition, the question of how ageing employees experience their status in post-modern working life is explored. Attention is also focused on the choices and decisions connected with staying at work and retiring. These views are examined in relation to professions and professional cultures. Thematic interviews (N=98) were used to gather the material. The effects of the market liberalistic turn in welfare policy are clearly seen in the everyday work of the health care professions. These changes were examined from the point of view of managing by outcomes and quality assurance, multi-professional cooperation, flexibility in the division of labour, and the spread of market-like procedures. The discourse of those in involved retail trade was dominated by extremely tight global market competition and control of outcomes, and by the structural changes taking place in the retail trade sector. This change discourse was to a large extent a reaction to those changes in the functional environment which were experienced as negative and to the conflict between their own professional identity and professional ethics on the one hand, and their functional environment on the other. There were also obstacles connected with professional culture: defending one's own station and power, guarding the 'frontier', showed up in attitudes towards new management and organisation models or towards structural and functional reforms. The deep structures of professional culture and the mindset of the actors change much more slowly than the functional practices of organisations. For those in a supervisory position, the loss of power due to becoming part of a chain or because of the introduction of a team organisation model was not an easy thing to accept. The nurses and others in related fields felt that they were forced to do work that was below their level of training and professional skill. For sales personnel and those who did assisting work in health care, power and the possibility of having an influence were not so important, as long as they were able to do their work in their own way and were trusted. This view is often completely forgotten, for example, in various organisation models in which power and the possibility of having an influence entwined with power are taken for granted as being clearly positive and desired aspects of job satisfaction. Up to date professional skills were experienced as being important from the point of view of professional identity and self-worth. Thus, training can be understood as a moral obligation, which in turn is intertwined with professional ideology. In the rhetoric of adult education, an adult is expected to be an active player who will seek training again and again if working life so requires. The dark side of this ideology, which leads to feelings of guilt, was apparent in the thoughts of the respondents. Am I never good enough at my job; why must I continually strive for better, additional qualifications? The majority of the respondents evaluated their expertise as being at quite a high level. This self-confidence did not extend to applying for a job. Job recruitment was seen as a situation in which age discrimination reached its peak. The interviewees were unanimous about the idea that society favours the young. Especially among those in the retail trade sector, there was a feeling that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a new job of the same level or a permanent post if they were made redundant. Age discrimination was also apparent in the retail trade field in the form of older employees being retired against their will or transferred to other tasks. It was felt that ruthless forced retirement of older workers was part of the personnel policy of some organisations. The importance of one's outward appearance was connected with the theme of discrimination. This phenomenon is described using the concept of the double standard of ageing in feminist research. An ageing woman is relegated to an inferior position due to both her age and her sex. A culture that would both make possible and allow various types of choices regardless of age, which is described as being characteristic of the post-modern era, does not seem to be very topical in the practice of working life. It is important for employees that the management and the personnel policy that is being implemented makes them feel like both their contribution and they as individuals are appreciated, that their opinions are listened to and that they are noticed as persons. The interviewees hoped for gratitude and a concern for the well-being of employees that shows in everyday life. They valued training and activities aimed at maintaining their work ability, but thought that better coping at work and a pleasant working environment cannot be achieved through such measures as along as the foundation is 'in a mess'. Development of the quality of working life is the only thing that can improve job satisfaction and get people to remain in the work force longer than at present. There should be a sufficient number of properly trained employees at the work place. It was important to the respondents that they be able to stay on their job to the end with honour, since compromising with their own quality standards or acting contrary to their ideal self-image in terms of professional ethics would strike a blow to their professional self-esteem. They called for the development of various types of workplace flexibility, and felt that they have the right to a lightened workload and to early retirement. Early retirement was even seen as an altruistic deed: it would free up a place for younger workers. Thoughts of retirements were explained by familiar factors such as health and finances, life situation, the enticement of free-time, as well as by various factors related to work. It is very important to ageing employees that their work has meaningful content. The values related to self-fulfilment are felt to be of great importance, and if they cannot be realised at work, the respondents wanted more free time, either through retirement or in the form of flexibility in working life.

Conversioni al cattolicesimo a Roma tra Sei e Settecento. La presenza degli scandinavi nell’Ospizio dei Convertendi.

In my PhD dissertation, I have examined a group of people of Scandinavian origin received by Ospizio dei Convertendi. This group has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The Ospizio was an institute founded by the Oratorian Congregation in Rome in 1673 to provide religious instruction and material aid to both recent and aspirant converts to Roman Catholicism. My research traces the profile of converts and a typology of motives, examining different factors which influenced the conversion process. I show that the key factors were often of a social rather than a religious nature. Moreover, I have analyzed the hospice in the context of Counter-Reformation charity as well. In terms of numbers, the Scandinavians formed a somewhat marginal yet not insignificant group within the Roman hospice. Out of a total of 2203 guests received between 1673 and 1706, 4.6 % were Scandinavians: 74 Swedes (including Finland and Livonia) and 27 Danes (including Norway). They came from a rigorously Protestant region which reacted to Catholicism with severe legislative measures. Converts to Catholicism risked confiscation of their goods, expulsion or even capital punishment. Since both Sweden and Denmark were practically impenetrable to Catholicism at the time and clandestine missionary attempts often failed before they had even properly started, the Roman Catholic Church shifted its interest towards Northerners arriving in Rome, a preferred destination for young noblemen, artists and migrant craftsmen. The material related to Ospizio dei Convertendi, conserved in the Vatican archives, is a scarcely known yet unusually rich source, not only for the religious history of our continent, but also for social history and the study of migration in early modern Europe. It contains a wealth of information about members of the subordinate classes, of their travels and lives in Europe. The profile delineated in these documents is of individuals who had a wide range of different professions and different aspirations. These documents encompass a vast social spectrum that was highly mobile on a continent which by that time had become pluriconfessional. Therefore, these migrants faced the complex religious reality in their everyday life. The principal corpus of my research consists of two types of manuscript sources created for administrative and in a way also for apologetic purposes of the Roman Catholic Church. My starting point is the Primo registro generale of Ospizio dei Convertendi. This is a volume in which the following information about each guest was registered: name, nationality, city of origin, age, sex, profession, confession professed before converting, date of arrival, departure, abjuration and baptism. Typically, the convert was male, originating from Stockholm or Copenhagen, from 21 to 30 years of age. The biggest occupational groups in descending order were soldiers, noblemen, craftsmen and sailors. Thus the data reflects a multiform reality of interurban and long distance migration, ideals regarding the education of young noblemen and gentry as well as the need of European armies to hire foreign mercenaries in their various campaigns. Against this background the almost total absence of women is hardly surprising: there is only one woman in the material I have studied. The second main source, Nota degl’ospiti ricevuti e spese fatte per essi, sheds more light on the choices of the converts, their motivations and their lives outside Scandinavia before reaching Rome. This narrative material permits an analysis which completes but also goes far beyond the columns of the Institute’s general register. This material consists of reports written by Catholic priests based on an interview conducted upon each guest’s arrival. The material frequently includes information on what the converts would do following their departure from the Institute as well. These sources have a specific narrative form and contain short biographies, list reasons for converting and information about the journey from the North to the Mediterranean - a journey which in many cases took several years. Moreover, they show that certain unorthodox practices such as calling on the saints and pleading for help from them were not uncommon in the Protestant popular religion. The recording of information on conversions from Protestantism to Catholicism reflects both religious and social interest on the part of the receiving institute. The information obtained was used for the purposes of religious teaching, for finding adequate ways of inserting the convert into Italian society so that he could earn a living, and to find effective methods to convert others with a similar cultural and geographical background. The stories recorded were based on interviews with the newly-arrived, information obtained from a travel companion or fellow countrymen, or from written documents the aspirant converts carried with them. These sources illustrate, although sometimes in rather simplified ways, the circumstances and motivations which were relevant to the choice of changing one’s confession. In addition, I have examined petitions addressed to the hospice and other Roman authorities in order to get financial aid. These petitions were written by Italian scrittori, and they contain certain conventions and topoi of presenting the conversion with the purpose of improving the chances of obtaining financial aid. It is through these filters, which may seem initially almost invisible, that the remote voice of the converts reaches us. The results of the analysis are particularly interesting because they disagree with some of the principal conclusions of previous work on the subject. First, earlier research has focused almost exclusively on the conversions of noblemen, and has argued, second, that the Queen Christina of Sweden was the driving force behind their change of confession. The sources examined for this dissertation present a profile of long-distance migrants, many of them members of the subordinate classes, who were looking for ways to make their living in Europe. These people had in many cases left their country of origin several years earlier and not for religious reasons, so, crucially, we are not dealing with confessional migration in these cases. Rather, conversion was a complex process, intricately tied up with strategies of survival, integration and upward social mobility. At the same time, while these components are significant on their own right, they do not necessarily point to the absence of motivations of a more clearly religious nature.