Generic and professional caring in a Chinese setting: an ethnopraphic study

The objective of the present study is to describe the cultural care practices, meanings, values and beliefs which form the basis of caring in a Chinese context. The research has its starting point in a caring science perspective and a qualitative research approach with interpretative ethnography as methodological guideline. The theoretical perspective is formed by elements of the theory of caritative caring, developed by Eriksson, and the theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality, developed by Leininger. Previous research of suffering, culture and caring is described and also a presentation of actual transcultural nursing research as well as a presentation of the social structure dimensions of Chinese culture is included in the theoretical background. The empirical part includes patients and relatives, nurses and Hu Gongs as informants. The data collected are analysed based on Geertz’s idea of forming “thick descriptions” through examining the “what, how and why” of people’s actions. The findings show that the family has a prominent position in Chinese caring practices. The patient plays an unobtrusive role and a mutual dependence between the patient and the family members is evident. The professional nursing care is an extended act which includes the family in the caring relationship. The care practices of the Chinese nurse are characterized by great professional nursing skills. Suffering is described by the informants as being caused by disease, pain and social circumstances. “Social suffering” is described as worse than physical or mental suffering. Culturally competent and congruent care is a prerequisite for avoiding cultural pain, imposition and blindness when caring for the suffering human being. The findings of the present study necessitate a broadening in caring theory to include the family in the caring relationship. A further conclusion is that a broadening in our perception and understanding of culture would promote the delivery of culturally competent and congruent care. Suffering need to be seen as enclosed in cultural patterns of how it is expressed, interpreted, understood and relieved. Care and caring need to be seen as embedded in culture and the care practices values and beliefs have to be congruent with the cultural patterns where the care is provided.

Knowledge Sharing between Generations in an Organisation - Retention of the Old or Building the New?

The study explores knowledge transfer between retiring employees and their successors in expert work. My aim is to ascertain whether there is knowledge development or building new knowledge related to this organisational knowledge transfer between generations; in other words, is the transfer of knowledge from experienced, retiring employees to their successors merely retention of the existing organisational knowledge by distributing it from one individual to another or does this transfer lead to building new and meaningful organisational knowledge. I call knowledge transfer between generations and the possibly related knowledge building in this study knowledge sharing between generations. The study examines the organisation and knowledge management from a knowledge-based and constructionist view. From this standpoint, I see knowledge transfer as an interactive process, and the exploration is based on how the people involved in this process understand and experience the phenomenon studied. The research method is organisational ethnography. I conducted the analysis of data using thematic analysis and the articulation method, which has not been used before in organisational knowledge studies. The primary empirical data consists of theme interviews with twelve employees involved in knowledge transfer in the organisation being studied and five follow-up theme interviews. Six of the interviewees are expert duty employees due to retire shortly, and six are their successors. All those participating in the follow-up interviews are successors of those soon to retire from their expert responsibilities. The organisation in the study is a medium-sized Finnish firm, which designs and manufactures electrical equipment and systems for the global market. The results of the study show that expert work-related knowledge transfer between generations can mean knowledge building which produces new, meaningful knowledge for the organisation. This knowledge is distributed in the organisation to all those that find it useful in increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of the whole organisation. The transfer and building of knowledge together create an act of knowledge sharing between generations where the building of knowledge presupposes transfer. Knowledge sharing proceeds between the expert and the novice through eight phases. During the phases of knowledge transfer the expert guides the novice to absorb the knowledge to be transferred. With the expert’s help the novice gradually comes to understand the knowledge and in the end he or she is capable of using it in his or her work. During the phases of knowledge building the expert helps the novice to further develop the knowledge being transferred so that it becomes new, useful knowledge for the organisation. After that the novice takes the built knowledge to use in his or her work. Based on the results of the study, knowledge sharing between generations takes place in interaction and ends when knowledge is taken to use. The results I obtained in the interviews by the articulation method show that knowledge sharing between generations is shaped by the novices’ conceptions of their own work goals, knowledge needs and duties. These are not only based on the official definition of the work, but also how the novices find their work or how they prioritise the given objectives and responsibilities. The study shows that the novices see their work primarily as maintenance or development. Those primarily involved in maintenance duties do not necessarily need knowledge defined as transferred between generations. Therefore, they do not necessarily transfer knowledge with their assigned experts, even though this can happen in favourable circumstances. They do not build knowledge because their view of their work goals and duties does not require the building of new knowledge. Those primarily involved in development duties, however, do need knowledge available from their assigned experts. Therefore, regardless of circumstances they transfer knowledge with their assigned experts and also build knowledge because their work goals and duties create a basis for building new knowledge. The literature on knowledge transfer between generations has focused on describing either the knowledge being transferred or the means by which it is transferred. Based on the results of this study, however, knowledge sharing between generations, that is, transfer and building is determined by how the novice considers his or her own knowledge needs and work practices. This is why studies on knowledge sharing between generations and its implementation should be based not only on the knowledge content and how it is shared, but also on the context of the work in which the novice interprets and shares knowledge. The existing literature has not considered the possibility that knowledge transfer between generations may mean building knowledge. The results of this study, however, show that this is possible. In knowledge building, the expert’s existing organisational knowledge is combined with the new knowledge that the novice brings to the organisation. In their interaction this combination of the expert’s “old” and the novice’s “new” knowledge becomes new, meaningful organisational knowledge. Previous studies show that knowledge development between the members of an organisation is the prerequisite for organisational renewal which in turn is essential for improved competitiveness. Against this background, knowledge building enables organisational renewal and thus enhances competitiveness. Hence, when knowledge transfer between generations is followed by knowledge building, the organisation kills two birds with one stone. In knowledge transfer the organisation retains the existing knowledge and thus maintains its competitiveness. In knowledge building the organisation developsnew knowledge and thus improves its competitiveness.

Lesbouusperheet - normaalin perheen muotissa

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Kävelen, siis olen ja tiedän

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Etnografian tutkimuskäytäntöjä

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Ystävyyksien voima

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Refleksiivinen modernisaatio

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Jeg strikker, derfor er jeg! : læring og identitet i uformelle læringsrum

The dissertation ´I knit, therefore I am!´ Learning and identity in informal space has two main purposes. The first purpose being an investigation of how new value attributions and thinking can generate novel and usable knowledge to the field of craftsmanship, and the second purpose being a display of a different and overlooked philosophical and cultural potential in a reflexive mode of expression, which is able to reflect the normative comprehension of craftsmanship. The dissertation focuses on learning and identity in informal spaces of learning and how it is possible to relate such a learning perspective to crafts training in educational establishments. The empirical foundation of this dissertation is ‘craftivism’. In the dissertation activists from the Nordic countries have been interviewed about what they do when they put up their textile graffiti on lamp posts and house walls. Three research problems are presented: 1) What stories do people who work as crafts activists, tell about ways of relating and methods of action when they make crafts? 2) What do these stories tell about learning and identity? 3) How may the research results influence training and education in craftsmanship? These questions are being asked in order to acquire new knowledge in two aspects; first aspect being knowledge about crafts in relation to techniques, tradition and the objects in crafts, and the second aspect being knowledge about learning and identity in informal spaces of learning. The dissertations theoretical foundation is post structural and sociocultural combined with hermeneutical-inspired qualitative interviews. The author’s position and pre-understanding is subject to discussion in relation to the informant; the performing activist, as the background for both of them is craftsmanship. Starting from cultural studies, it is possible to see the activist subject’s conditions of possibilities in the culture, as the activism of the sub-cultural phenomenon’s craft lights up through a performing approach to the individual’s actions. First the research material has been analysed for events of textile graffiti and possible themes in the events, after which the results have been summarised. Next the research material has been analysed for events about learning and identity due to the author’s wish of comprehending the background of and motivational force in activism. The analysis is divided in main perspectives with different dimensions. The results of the analysis show the activist subject’s construction of an individual who actively takes part in a community by e.g. creating joy, changing the world’s perception of sustainability or by feminizing the public space. By taking crafts over the borders (and away from the class room) crafts become contextualized in a novel fashion thus obtaining an independent status. In this fashion the dissertation writes itself into a new method of comprehending and performing traditional craftsmanship techniques.

Laadulliset tutkimusmenetelmät teollisessa markkinoinnissa

Tämä kandidaatintyö käsittelee laadullisten tutkimusmenetelmien käyttöön teollisessa markkinoinnissa. Työssä tutkitaan laadullisten tutkimusmenetelmien käyttöä vuosien 2010-2013 aikana Industrial Marketing Management –lehdessä. Työssä käsitellään käytetyimpien menetelmien piirteitä, käyttöä ja soveltuvuutta teollisen markkinoinnin tutkimuksessa sekä vertaillaan menetelmiä keskenään. Työn lopussa pohditaan myös laadullisten tutkimusmenetelmien käyttöä tulevaisuudessa. Tutkimuksen pohjalta laadullisten tutkimusmenetelmien huomataan olevan kasvussa, kun taas kvantitatiivisten menetelmien käyttö on vähenemässä. Käytetyimmiksi tunnistetut menetelmät ovat case-menetelmä, joka on tutkimuksen perusteella tällä hetkellä suosituin menetelmä, grounded theory, etnografia ja narratiivinen tutkimus.

En vårdvetenskaplig teori om interkulturellt vårdande : att föda barn i en annan kultur

The aim of this dissertation is to develop a theory on intercultural caring to deepen the understanding of caring between nurses and patients who have different cultural backgrounds. The research questions are: 1) What is intercultural caring? 2) How is intercultural caring described and understood? 3) How is intercultural caring described and understood in a maternity care context from the patients’ perspective? 4) What is the substance in a theory on intercultural caring? 5) What is the substance in a theory on intercultural caring in maternity care from the patients’ perspective? The theoretical perspective is based on caritative theory and the caring science-tradition (Eriksson, 2001, 2002) and has a hermeneutic approach. In the first study, 19 texts of Campinha-Bacote, Kim-Godwin, Leininger and Ray are analysed through content analysis. A model for intercultural caring is then created abductively. The second study is a metasynthesis of 40 studies on intercultural caring in maternity care research. The third study is a focused ethnography, in which 17 immigrant mothers are interviewed and observed. The theory on intercultural caring is created through a hermeneutic synthesis of the three studies. A synthesis of the studies with a maternity context results in five patterns of interpretation: the experience of caring is related to power; the family is always present; childbearing and change of culture can give women multiple vulnerabilities; both the mother and the nurse change when they meet; conflicts can cause change. The theory and patterns of interpretation consolidate into a contextual theory on intercultural caring for clinical maternity praxis. In this theory, caring consists of four dimensions: universal, cultural, contextual, and unique caring, which permeate each other. Universal caring is nondependent of time and space. Cultural caring considers the cultural background, the acculturation and the equality of each mother. In the maternity care culture, cultural competence, cultural safety, and acculturation of the nurse are emphasised. Contextual caring considers the specific cultural features of the childbearing mother. In this respect, the nurse is expected to be an expert and to clarify cultural assumptions in maternity care. In unique caring, the mother expects good communication, respect for the family, goodwill and somebody who cares for her and meets her needs, in order for trust to be built. In this respect, the nurse listens to the woman’s narrative, is flexible, open, courageous, and non-judgemental. The nurse shows an understanding for the life situation of the woman, and strives for continuity to preserve the care relationship. It was found that external circumstances affect intercultural caring. Moreover, intercultural caring is expected to decrease misunderstandings and conflicts, alleviate suffering and promote health and life. The theory adds knowledge to the phenomenon of intercultural caring for the nursing and caring sciences, and for the nursing care of patients with other cultural backgrounds than the nurses. The theory can be used in nursing, education, research and administration.

Kättelyn merkitykset suomalaisessa tapakulttuurissa 1800-luvulta 2000-luvulle

Tutkimuksen aiheena on kättely suomalaisessa tapakulttuurissa 1800-luvulta 2000-luvulle. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on ollut selvittää, mitä kättely on suomalaisille tutkimusajankohtana merkinnyt. Kättelyä suomalaisessa tapakulttuurissa on tarkasteltu muistitietoaineiston avulla.Ensisijainen aineisto sisältää kättelyyn liittyviä ajatuksia ja kokemuksia yli tuhannelta suomalaiselta. Aineiston käsittely ei kuitenkaan perustu niiden määrälliseen tutkimiseen, vaan tutkimusmenetelmänä on käytetty laadullista tutkimusotetta, jonka ytimessä on merkitysten tulkinta. Väitöskirjassa kättelyä lähestytään kulttuurihistoriallisena, monitasoisena ilmiönä, josta on erotettavissa kestoltaan eripituisia historiallisuuden tasoja. Myös väitöskirjan rakenne seuraa tätä historiallisen monikerroksellisuuden ajatusta. Ensiksi kättelystä on erotettavissa biologiaan perustuva niin kutsuttu syvän historian taso, joka tekee kättelystä merkityksellisen luottamuksellisten suhteiden ja yhteistoiminnan alueella. Toiseksi kättelystä voidaan erottaa rakenteiden tasolla ilmenevä ja hitaasti muuttuva tapakulttuurin taso. Mutta vaikka tapakulttuurin säännöt osaltaan vaikuttavat siihen, miten henkilö tietyssä tilanteessa käyttäytyy, on toimija kättelytilanteessa kuitenkin valintoja tekevä yksilö. Kolmas tutkimuksessa erotettu taso onkin tapahtumahetken taso, jolla historiallinen toimija suorittaa valintojaan oman henkilöhistoriansa ja elämänkokemuksensa avulla. Historialliseen monikerroksellisuuteen liittyvän ajattelun kautta tutkimus osoittaa kättelyn monisyiseksi ilmiöksi, joka vaikuttaa inhimilliseen vuorovaikutukseen olennaisella tavalla. Tutkimusote myös nivoo ihmisen kehityshistorian opittuun tapakulttuuriin sekä tapahtumahetken aktiiviseen kättelytoimijuuteen. Tuloksista voidaan päätellä, ettei kättely ole suomalaisille merkityksetön toiminto, vaan tärkeä sosiaalinen väline, jonka syvempi ymmärtäminen vaatii kaikkien historiallisten tasojen tarkastelua. Eri historian kerrokset voivat olla yksittäisessä kättelytapahtumassa kaikki läsnä. Julkisessa keskustelussa kättely on ollut esillä epähygieenisyytensä vuoksi. Väitöskirjatutkimuksessa pohditaan myös kättelyn suhdetta mikrobien leviämiseen. Tutkimus osoittaa, että kättelyllä on kahtalaisia turvallisuuteen liittyviä merkityksiä: toisaalta se on lääketieteellinen riski, mutta toisaalta se saa sellaisia tapoihin ja hyvinvointiin liittyviä merkityksiä kuten yhteisöllisyys ja luottamus. Pohdittaessa kättelyn ja käsihygienian suhdetta tulevaisuudessa nämä seikat tulisi tiedostaa ja tuoda selkeästi esiin.

Forming i barnehagen i lys av Reggio Emilias atelierkultur

Forming (Arts and crafts) and children’s creative action with materials and tools are less in use in the kindergarten than before. Political focus on children’s early learning has led to shifts in kindergartens toward other specific disciplines, and requirements for individual testing also of the smallest children’s competencies within these. Kindergarten teachers, educators, researchers and participants in social debate have pointed out that there are epistemological contradictions in descriptions of kindergarten quality as well as between current kindergarten policy documents and requirements for the kindergartens’ staff. Meanwhile, the content and methods in many kindergartens are inspired by practice and philosophy in the municipal kindergartens in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Correlation between kindergartens’ formingprojects and experiences from Reggio Emilia is actualized in particular through the workshop and the studio’s role in children’s learning processes. One starting point for the thesis’ problem area is a documented need for more knowledge about kindergarten’s educational content. The overarching goal of the thesis is to develop new knowledge about how learning takes place in kindergarten through examining the field of forming in kindergartens inspired by Reggio Emilia’s atelier culture. The thesis is theoretically anchored within pragmatism, and ties kindergarten’s aesthetic operations with materials and tools to socio-cultural perspective, social constructivism and post humanistic theory. The empirical material is obtained through a qualitative study with ethnography as methodological approach. The fieldwork is conducted in kindergarten, with two leading research questions: 1) How is atelierism perceived and unfolded in Norwegian Reggio Emilia-inspired kindergartens, and 2) how is forming perceived and unfolded in Norwegian Reggio Emilia-inspired kindergartens. A comprehensive and multifaceted material is analyzed, and the results are presented in the form of three themes: The physical environment, Relations and actions in interplay, and Expression forms and forms of expression. Each of these topics are supported by examples from kindergartens’ adult voices and the constructed empirical material. Insights into how learning takes place in the kindergarten subject of forming with inspiration from the Reggio Emilia atelier culture is discussed in the tension between educational philosophy, Nordic kindergarten tradition and neoliberal trends that kindergarten teachers must adhere to. Learning potentials in children’s opportunities for action in forming in light of the atelier appears in the results of the empirical study. The educational context described is characterized by experimental and playful actions where children’s sensations, curiosity and resistance are interacting with the identity of materials and tools. The results imply aesthetic, ethical, democratic and ecological reflections, which are also valid on a practical action level. The thesis contributes to description and understanding of kindergarten’ content and young children’s learning, the importance of atelier culture as inspiration for the kindergarten, and the further development of methodology and documentation of knowledge expressions.

Monoamines in the pedal plexus of the land snail Megalobulimus oblongus (Gastropoda, Pulmonata)

In molluscs, the number of peripheral neurons far exceeds those found in the central nervous system. Although previous studies on the morphology of the peripheral nervous system exist, details of its organization remain unknown. Moreover, the foot of the terrestrial species has been studied less than that of the aquatic species. As this knowledge is essential for our experimental model, the pulmonate gastropod Megalobulimus oblongus, the aim of the present study was to investigate monoamines in the pedal plexus of this snail using two procedures: glyoxylic acid histofluorescence to identify monoaminergic structures, and the unlabeled antibody peroxidase anti-peroxidase method using antiserum to detect the serotonergic component of the plexus. Adult land snails weighing 48-80 g, obtained from the counties of Barra do Ribeiro and Charqueadas (RS, Brazil), were utilized. Monoaminergic fibers were detected throughout the pedal musculature. Blue fluorescence (catecholamines, probably dopamine) was observed in nerve branches, pedal and subepithelial plexuses, and in the pedal muscle cells. Yellow fluorescence (serotonin) was only observed in thick nerves and in muscle cells. However, when immunohistochemical methods were used, serotonergic fibers were detected in the pedal nerve branches, the pedal and subepithelial plexuses, the basal and lateral zones of the ventral integument epithelial cells, in the pedal ganglion neurons and beneath the ventral epithelium. These findings suggest catecholaminergic and serotonergic involvement in locomotion and modulation of both the pedal ganglion interneurons and sensory information. Knowledge of monoaminergic distribution in this snail´s foot is important for understanding the pharmacological control of reflexive responses and locomotive behavior.

Metarefleksiiviset toimijat kaivavat maata modernin alta

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Show me your brain! Stories of interdisciplinary knowledge creation in practice. Experiences and observations from Aalto Design Factory, Finland.

This dissertation centres on the themes of knowledge creation, interdisciplinarity and knowledge work. My research approaches interdisciplinary knowledge creation (IKC) as practical situated activity. I argue that by approaching IKC from the practice-based perspective makes it possible to “deconstruct” how knowledge creation actually happens, and demystify its strong intellectual, mentalistic and expertise-based connotations. I have rendered the work of the observed knowledge workers into something ordinary, accessible and routinized. Consequently this has made it possible to grasp the pragmatic challenges as well the concrete drivers of such activity. Thus the effective way of organizing such activities becomes a question of organizing and leading effective everyday practices. To achieve that end, I have conducted ethnographic research of one explicitly interdisciplinary space within higher education, Aalto Design Factory in Helsinki, Finland, where I observed how students from different disciplines collaborated in new product development projects. I argue that IKC is a multi-dimensional construct that intertwines a particular way of doing; a way of experiencing; a way of embodied being; and a way of reflecting on the very doing itself. This places emphasis not only the practices themselves, but also on the way the individual experiences the practices, as this directly affects how the individual practices. My findings suggest that in order to effectively organize and execute knowledge creation activities organizations need to better accept and manage the emergent diversity and complexity inherent in such activities. In order to accomplish this, I highlight the importance of understanding and using a variety of (material) objects, the centrality of mundane everyday practices, the acceptance of contradictions and negotiations well as the role of management that is involved and engaged. To succeed in interdisciplinary knowledge creation is to lead not only by example, but also by being very much present in the very everyday practices that make it happen.