Noah Benevolent Society records, undated, 1852-1979.

Collection consists of several versions of the constitution; minute books of the membership meetings (1852-1856, 1868-1907, 1914-1971; until 1907 in German, afterwards in English); minute books of meetings of the trustees (1852-1858, 1876-1974, until 1912 in German); an index to and summary of the trustees minutes (1927-1944); several anniversary journals starting with the 50th, which was also "the first extant history of the Noah Benevolent Society"; membership books (1861-1892, 1930-1965, until 1892 in German; the books after 1930 contain detailed information concerning each member's age, occupation, family, military service, etc.); financial records (1862-1870, 1964-1967, 1972); quarterly accountant's reports (bound with the membership minutes); monthly financial and statistical reports of the Mordechai Federal Credit Union (March 1959-June 1960) established by the Society; lists and addresses of members; newsletters (1927-1979) and other material and photographs reflecting the Society's activities.

Editorial of "International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies Volume 5, Number 1, 2012"

The first two articles of this edition of the journal testify to the lengthening reach of the discipline of Critical Indigenous Studies that is, remarkably, still in its nascence. Emiel Martens examines the development of Maori filmmaking since the 1980s and takes the opportunity to explore this Indigenous cinema in the context of developments in the New Zealand film industry generally. Shifting from cultural production to renewable energy, Steven M. Hoffman and Thibault Martin remind us that in the effort to satiate the demands for energy, it is often Indigenous peoples who bear adverse consequences. Using a social capital framework, the authors examine the impact of the development of hydroelectric power upon a displaced Aboriginal community and conclude that displacement has resulted in an erosion of cohesive social bonds that once ensured a sustainable way of life.

Papers relating to the Ladies Benevolent Society

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Memo of manuscripts and articles deposited in the cornerstone of 19th street synagogue of K. K. S. I.--Papers, Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Society

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Workers are doing it for themselves? Local labor solidarity in precarious times

Historically, organized labor has played a fundamental role in guaranteeing basic rights and privileges for screen media workers and defending union and guild members (however unevenly) from egregious abuses of power. Yet, despite the recent turn to labor in media and cultural studies, organized labor today has received only scant attention, even less so in locations outside Hollywood. This presentation thus intervenes in two significant ways: first, it acknowledges the ongoing global ‘undoing’ of organized labor as a consequence of footloose production and conglomeration within the screen industries, and second, it examines a case example of worker solidarity and political praxis taking shape outside formal labor institutions in response to those structural shifts. Accordingly, it links an empirical study of individual agency to broader debates associated with the spatial dynamics of screen media production, including local capacity, regional competition, and precariousness. Drawing from ethnographic interviews with local film and television workers in Glasgow, Scotland, I consider the political alliance among three nascent labor organizations in the city: one for below-the-line crew, one for facility operators, and (oddly enough) one for producers. Collectively, the groups share a desire to transform Glasgow into a global production hub, following the infrastructure developments in nearby cities like Belfast, Prague, and Budapest. They furthermore frame their objectives in political terms: establishing global scale is considered a necessary maneuver to improve local working conditions like workplace safety, income disparity, skills training, and job access. Ultimately, I argue these groups are a product of an inadequate union structure and outdated policy vision for the screen sector , once-supportive institutions currently out of sync with the global realities of media production. Furthermore, the groups’ advocacy efforts reveal the extent to which workers themselves (in additional to capital) can seek “spatial fixes” to suture their prospects to specific political and economic goals. Of course, such activities manifest under conditions outside of the workers’ control but nevertheless point to an important tension within capitalist social relations, namely that the agency to reshape the spatial relationships in their own lives recasts the geography of labor in terms that aren’t inherent or exclusive to the interests of global capital.

The Media and the Academic Globalization Debate : Theoretical Analysis and Critique

This study offers a reconstruction and critical evaluation of globalization theory, a perspective that has been central for sociology and cultural studies in recent decades, from the viewpoint of media and communications. As the study shows, sociological and cultural globalization theorists rely heavily on arguments concerning media and communications, especially the so-called new information and communication technologies, in the construction of their frameworks. Together with deepening the understanding of globalization theory, the study gives new critical knowledge of the problematic consequences that follow from such strong investment in media and communications in contemporary theory. The book is divided into four parts. The first part presents the research problem, the approach and the theoretical contexts of the study. Followed by the introduction in Chapter 1, I identify the core elements of globalization theory in Chapter 2. At the heart of globalization theory is the claim that recent decades have witnessed massive changes in the spatio-temporal constitution of society, caused by new media and communications in particular, and that these changes necessitate the rethinking of the foundations of social theory as a whole. Chapter 3 introduces three paradigms of media research the political economy of media, cultural studies and medium theory the discussion of which will make it easier to understand the key issues and controversies that emerge in academic globalization theorists treatment of media and communications. The next two parts offer a close reading of four theorists whose works I use as entry points into academic debates on globalization. I argue that we can make sense of mainstream positions on globalization by dividing them into two paradigms: on the one hand, media-technological explanations of globalization and, on the other, cultural globalization theory. As examples of the former, I discuss the works of Manuel Castells (Chapter 4) and Scott Lash (Chapter 5). I maintain that their analyses of globalization processes are overtly media-centric and result in an unhistorical and uncritical understanding of social power in an era of capitalist globalization. A related evaluation of the second paradigm (cultural globalization theory), as exemplified by Arjun Appadurai and John Tomlinson, is presented in Chapter 6. I argue that due to their rejection of the importance of nation states and the notion of cultural imperialism for cultural analysis, and their replacement with a framework of media-generated deterritorializations and flows, these theorists underplay the importance of the neoliberalization of cultures throughout the world. The fourth part (Chapter 7) presents a central research finding of this study, namely that the media-centrism of globalization theory can be understood in the context of the emergence of neoliberalism. I find it problematic that at the same time when capitalist dynamics have been strengthened in social and cultural life, advocates of globalization theory have directed attention to media-technological changes and their sweeping socio-cultural consequences, instead of analyzing the powerful material forces that shape the society and the culture. I further argue that this shift serves not only analytical but also utopian functions, that is, the longing for a better world in times when such longing is otherwise considered impracticable.

ICT and the Shaping of Society: Exploring Human -ICT Relationships in Everyday Life (summary section only)

This thesis explores the relationship between humans and ICTs (information and communication technologies). As ICTs are increasingly penetrating all spheres of social life, their role as mediators – between people, between people and information, and even between people and the natural world – is expanding, and they are increasingly shaping social life. Yet, we still know little of how our life is affected by their growing role. Our understanding of the actors and forces driving the accelerating adoption of new ICTs in all areas of life is also fairly limited. This thesis addresses these problems by interpretively exploring the link between ICTs and the shaping of society at home, in the office, and in the community. The thesis builds on empirical material gathered in three research projects, presented in four separate essays. The first project explores computerized office work through a case study. The second is a regional development project aiming at increasing ICT knowledge and use in 50 small-town families. In the third, the second project is compared to three other longitudinal development projects funded by the European Union. Using theories that consider the human-ICT relationship as intertwined, the thesis provides a multifaceted description of life with ICTs in contemporary information society. By oscillating between empirical and theoretical investigations and balancing between determinist and constructivist conceptualisations of the human-ICT relationship, I construct a dialectical theoretical framework that can be used for studying socio-technical contexts in society. This framework helps us see how societal change stems from the complex social processes that surround routine everyday actions. For example, interacting with and through ICTs may change individuals’ perceptions of time and space, social roles, and the proper ways to communicate – changes which at some point in time result in societal change in terms of, for example, new ways of acting and knowing things.

“And now to the rest of the trash…” Representations of begging Roma and an ideal society in two Nordic newspapers

Since begging East European Roma became a common view in the streets of larger Nordic cities, vivid discussions about their presence and activities have been carried out in the mass media. This thesis examines the public debates in Finland and Norway through a discursive analysis and comparison of press content from the two countries. The aim of the study is firstly to identify the prominent discourses which construct certain images of the beggars, as well as the elements and internal logics that these discourses are constructed around. But in addition to scrutinizing representations of the Roma, also an opposite perspective is applied. In accordance with the theoretical concept of ‘othering’, debates about ‘them’ are assumed to simultaneously reveal something significant about ‘us’. The second research question is thus what kind of images of the ideal Finnish and Norwegian societies are reflected in the data, and which societal values are salient in these images. The analysis comprises 79 texts printed in the main Finnish and Norwegian quality newspapers; Helsingin Sanomat and Aftenposten. The data consists of news articles, editorials, columns and letters to the editor from a three-month period in the summer of 2010. The analysis was carried out within the theoretical and methodological framework of critical discourse analysis as outlined by Norman Fairclough. A customized nine-step coding scheme was developed in order to reach the most central dimensions of the texts. Seven main discourses were identified; the Deprivation-solidarity, Human rights, Order, Crime, Space and majority reactions, Authority control, and Authority critique discourse. These were grouped into two competing normative stances on what an ideal society looks like; the exclusionary and the inclusionary stance. While the exclusionary stance places the begging Roma within a frame of crime, illegitimate use of public space and threat to the social order, the other advocates an attitude of solidarity and humanitarian values. The analysis points to a dominance of the former, although it is challenged by the latter. The Roma are “individualized” by quoting and/or presenting them by name in a fair part of the Finnish news articles. In Norway, the opposite is true; there the beggars are dominantly presented as anonymous and passive. Overall, the begging Roma are subjected to a double bind as they are faced with simultaneous expectations of activity and passivity. Theories relating to moral panics and ‘the good enemy’ provide for a deepened understanding of the intensity of the debates. Keywords: East European Roma, begging, media, newspapers, Helsingin Sanomat, Aftenposten, critical discourse analysis, Norman Fairclough, othering, ideal society, moral panics, good enemy, double bind, Finland, Norway

Jouko Turkan Teatterikorkeakoulun kauden yhteiskunnallinen kontekstuaalisuus vuosina 1982 - 1985

The subject of my doctoral thesis is the social contextuality of Finnish theater director, Jouko Turkka's (b. 1942) educational tenure in the Theater Academy of Finland 1982 1985. Jouko Turkka announced in the opening speech of his rectorship in 1982 that Finnish society had undergone a social shift into a new cultural age, and that actors needed new facilities like capacity, flexibility, and ability for renewal in their work. My sociological research reveals that Turkka adapted cultural practices and norms of new capitalism and new liberalism, and built a performance environment for actors' educational work, a real life simulation of a new capitalist workplace. Actors educational praxis became a cultural performance, a media spectacle. Turkka's tenure became the most commented upon and discussed era in Finnish postwar theater history. The sociological method of my thesis is to compare information of sociological research literature about new capitalist work, and Turkka's educational theater work. In regard to the conceptions of legitimation, time, dynamics, knowledge, and social narrative consubstantial changes occurred simultaneously in both contexts of workplace. I adapt systems and chaos theory's concepts and modules when researching how a theatrical performance self-organizes in a complex social space and the space of Information. Ilya Prigogine's chaos theoretic concept, fluctuation, is the central social and aesthetic concept of my thesis. The chaos theoretic conception of the world was reflected in actors' pedagogy and organizational renewals: the state of far from equilibrium was the prerequisite of creativity and progress. I interpret the social and theater's aesthetical fluctuations as the cultural metaphor of new capitalism. I define the wide cultural feedback created by Turkka's tenure of educational praxis, and ideas adapted from the social context into theater education, as an autopoietic communicative process between theater education and society: as a black box, theater converted the virtual conception of the world into a concrete form of an actor's psychophysical praxis. Theater educational praxis performed socially contextual meanings referring to a subject's position in the social change of 1980s Finland. My other theoretic framework lies close to the American performance theory, with its close ties to the social sciences, and to the tradition of rhetoric and communication: theater's rhetorical utility materializes quotidian cultural practices in a theatrical performance, and helps the audience to research social situations and cultural praxis by mirroring them and creating an explanatory frame.