Social Living Labs for Digital Participation: Designing with Regional and Rural Communities [workshop proceedings]

“Fostering digital participation through Living Labs in regional and rural Australian communities,” is a three year research project funded by the Australian Research Council. The project aims to identify the specific digital needs and practices of regional and rural residents in the context of the implementation of high speed internet. It seeks to identify new ways for enabling residents to develop their digital confidence and skills both at home and in the community. This two-day symposium will bring together researchers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds to discuss design practices in social living labs that aim to foster digital inclusion and participation. Day one will consist of practitioner and research reports, while day two will provide an opportunity for participants to imagine and design future digital participation strategies. Academic participants will also have an opportunity to contribute to a refereed edited volume by Chandos Publishing (an imprint of Elsevier).

Diet and physical activity behaviour in nurses: A qualitative study

Issue addressed: Previous research has shown that approximately 60% of nurses in Australia are overweight or obese, insufficiently active and have an unhealthy diet. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of nurses’ determinants contributing to these behaviours. This will inform a needs assessment for a future workplace health promotion program (WHPP) in this group. Methods: Four focus group discussions (n = 17) were conducted with a convenience sample of nurses aged 25–59 years from three hospitals in the Brisbane metropolitan area. Questions addressed barriers and motivation towards diet and physical activity (PA), and suggestions for future WHPP. Data were analysed with Nvivo10 following a thematic analysis with a realistic approach using Self-determination theory as a framework. Results: Work environment was the main barrier for healthy diet behaviours. Long working hours and lack of breaks challenged nurses’ self-control and self-regulation when making dietary choices. Fatigue was the main barrier for PA. However, relaxation, feeling energised before work and better sleep after working night shifts motivated nurses to do PA. Social environment at work seemed to be an effective external motivation to encourage healthy diet and regular PA. Goal-setting, self-monitoring and social support at work were identified as potential WHHP strategies. Conclusion: The workplace and job demands negatively impacts nurses’ lifestyle behaviours. Future interventions should include social support from colleagues, which could motivate nurses to make healthier food choices at work and be more active outside work.

Hard Custom, Hard Dance : Social Organisation, (Un)Differentiation and Notions of Power in a Tabiteuean Community, Southern Kiribati

Hard Custom, Hard Dance: Social Organisation, (Un)Differentiation and Notions of Power in a Tabiteuean Community, Southern Kiribati is an ethnographic study of a village community. This work analyses social organisation on the island of Tabiteuea in the Micronesian state of Kiribati, examining the intertwining of hierarchical and egalitarian traits, meanwhile bringing a new perspective to scholarly discussions of social differentiation by introducing the concept of undifferentiation to describe non-hierarchical social forms and practices. Particular attention is paid to local ideas concerning symbolic power, abstractly understood as the potency for social reproduction, but also examined in one of its forms; authority understood as the right to speak. The workings of social differentiation and undifferentiation in the village are specifically studied in two contexts connected by local notions of power: the meetinghouse institution (te maneaba) and traditional dancing (te mwaie). This dissertation is based on 11 months of anthropological fieldwork in 1999‒2000 in Kiribati and Fiji, with an emphasis on participant observation and the collection of oral tradition (narratives and songs). The questions are approached through three distinct but interrelated topics: (i) A key narrative of the community ‒ the story of an ancestor without descendants ‒ is presented and discussed, along with other narratives. (ii) The Kiribati meetinghouse institution, te maneaba, is considered in terms of oral tradition as well as present-day practices and customs. (iii) Kiribati dancing (te mwaie) is examined through a discussion of competing dance groups, followed by an extended case study of four dance events. In the course of this work the community of close to four hundred inhabitants is depicted as constructed primarily of clans and households, but also of churches, work co-operatives and dance groups, but also as a significant and valued social unit in itself, and a part of the wider island district. In these partly cross-cutting and overlapping social matrices, people are alternatingly organised by the distinct values and logic of differentiation and undifferentiation. At different levels of social integration and in different modes of social and discursive practice, there are heightened moments of differentiation, followed by active undifferentiation. The central notions concerning power and authority to emerge are, firstly, that in order to be valued and utilised, power needs to be controlled. Secondly, power is not allowed to centralize in the hands of one person or group for any long period of time. Thirdly, out of the permanent reach of people, power/authority is always, on the one hand, left outside the factual community and, on the other, vested in community, the social whole. Several forms of differentiation and undifferentiation emerge, but these appear to be systematically related. Social differentiation building on typically Austronesian complementary differences (such as male:female, elder:younger, autochtonous:allotochtonous) is valued, even if eventually restricted, whereas differentiation based on non-complementary differences (such as monetary wealth or level of education) is generally resisted, and/or is subsumed by the complementary distinctions. The concomitant forms of undifferentiation are likewise hierarchically organised. On the level of the society as a whole, undifferentiation means circumscribing and ultimately withholding social hierarchy. Potential hierarchy is both based on a combination of valued complementary differences between social groups and individuals, but also limited by virtue of the undoing of these differences; for example, in the dissolution of seniority (elder-younger) and gender (male-female) into sameness. Like the suspension of hierarchy, undifferentiation as transformation requires the recognition of pre-existing difference and does not mean devaluing the difference. This form of undifferentiation is ultimately encompassed by the first one, as the processes of the differentiation, whether transformed or not, are always halted. Finally, undifferentiation can mean the prevention of non-complementary differences between social groups or individuals. This form of undifferentiation, like the differentiation it works on, takes place on a lower level of societal ideology, as both the differences and their prevention are always encompassed by the complementary differences and their undoing. It is concluded that Southern Kiribati society be seen as a combination of a severely limited and decentralised hierarchy (differentiation) and of a tightly conditional and contextual (intra-category) equality (undifferentiation), and that it is distinctly characterised by an enduring tension between these contradicting social forms and cultural notions. With reference to the local notion of hardness used to characterise custom on this particular island as well as dance in general, it is argued in this work that in this Tabiteuean community some forms of differentiation are valued though strictly delimited or even undone, whereas other forms of differentiation are a perceived as a threat to community, necessitating pre-emptive imposition of undifferentiation. Power, though sought after and displayed - particularly in dancing - must always remain controlled.

The Rocky Road of Social Sustainability : The Impact of Integrated Biodiversity Conservation and Development on the Local Realities in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar

The objective of this study is to examine the social impacts of the integrated conservation and development project (ICDP) aimed at biodiversity conservation and local socio-economic development in the Ranomafana National Park (RNP), Madagascar. Furthermore, the study explores social sustainability and justice of the ICDP in Ranomafana. This ethnographically informed impact study uses of various field methods. The research material used consists of observation, interviews (key-person and focus group), school children's writings, official statistics and project documents. Fieldwork was conducted in three phases in 2001, 2002 and 2004 in twelve villages around the park, as well as in neighbouring areas of Ranomafana. However, four of those twelve villages were chosen for closer study. This study consists of five independent articles and a concluding chapter. Social impacts were studied through reproductive health indicators as well as a life security approach. Equity and distribution of benefits and drawbacks of ICDP were analysed and the actors related to the conservation in Ranomafana were identified. The children and adolescents' environmental views were also examined. The reproductive health indicators studied showed a poor state of reproductive health in the park area. Moreover, the existing social capital in the villages seemed to be fragmented due to economic difficulties that were partly caused by the conservation regulations. The ICDP in Ranomafana did not pay attention to the heterogeneity of the affected communities even though the local beneficiaries of the ICDP varied according to their ethnicity, living place, wealth, social position and gender. In addition, various conservation actors (local people in various groups, local authorities, tourist business owners, conservation NGOs and scientists) contest their interests over the forest, conservation and its related activities. This study corroborates the same type of evidence and conclusions discussed in other similar cases elsewhere: so called social conservation programmes still cannot meet the needs of the people living near the protected areas; on the contrary, they even have a reverse impact on the people's lives. A fundamental misunderstood assumption in the conservation process in Ranomafana was to consider the local people as a problem for biodiversity conservation. Major reasons for the failure of the ICDP in Ranomafana include a lack of local institutions that would have been able to communicate as equals with the conservation NGOs as well as to transfer the tradition of the authoritarian governance in conservation management together with the over-appreciation of scientific biodiversity, and lack of will to understand the local people's rights to use the forest for their livelihoods.

Social networks and use of social supports of minority elders in East Harlem

Considerable empirical research substantiates the importance of social networks on health and well-being in later life. A study of ethnic minority elders living in two low income public housing buildings in East Harlem was undertaken to gain an understanding of the relationship between their health status and social networks. Findings demonstrate that elders with supportive housing had better psychological outcomes and used significantly more informal supports when in need. However, elders with serious health problems had poorer outcomes regardless of their level of social support. This study highlights the potential of supportive living environments to foster social integration and to optimise formal and informal networks.

Not in all Walks of Life? : Social Differences in Suicide Mortality

In Finland, the suicide mortality trend has been decreasing during the last decade and a half, yet suicide was the fourth most common cause of death among both Finnish men and women aged 15 64 years in 2006. However, suicide does not occur equally among population sub-groups. Two notable social factors that position people at different risk of suicide are socioeconomic and employment status: those with low education, employed in manual occupations, having low income and those who are unemployed have been found to have an elevated suicide risk. The purpose of this study was to provide a systematic analysis of these social differences in suicide mortality in Finland. Besides studying socioeconomic trends and differences in suicide according to age and sex, different indicators for socioeconomic status were used simultaneously, taking account of their pathways and mutual associations while also paying attention to confounding and mediatory effects of living arrangements and employment status. Register data obtained from Statistics Finland were used in this study. In some analyses suicides were divided into two groups according to contributory causes of death: the first group consisted of suicide deaths that had alcohol intoxication as one of the contributory causes, and the other group is comprised of all other suicide deaths. Methods included Poisson and Cox regression models. Despite the decrease in suicide mortality trend, social differences still exist. Low occupation-based social class proved to be an important determinant of suicide risk among both men and women, but the strong independent effect of education on alcohol-associated suicide indicates that the roots of these differences are probably established in early adulthood when educational qualifications are obtained and health-behavioural patterns set. High relative suicide mortality among the unemployed during times of economic boom suggests that selective processes may be responsible for some of the employment status differences in suicide. However, long-term unemployment seems to have causal effects on suicide, which, especially among men, partly stem from low income. In conclusion, the results in this study suggest that education, occupation-based social class and employment status have causal effects on suicide risk, but to some extent selection into low education and unemployment are also involved in the explanations for excess suicide mortality among the socially deprived. It is also conceivable that alcohol use is to some extent behind social differences in suicide. In addition to those with low education, manual workers and the unemployed, young people, whose health-related behaviour is still to be adopted, would most probably benefit from suicide prevention programmes.

Social Networks and Everyday Practices in Russia

My doctoral dissertation in sociology and Russian studies, Social Networks and Everyday Practices in Russia, employs a "micro" or "grassroots" perspective on the transition. The study is a collection of articles detailing social networks in five different contexts. The first article examines Russian birthdays from a network perspective. The second takes a look at health care to see whether networks have become obsolete in a sector that is still overwhelmingly public, but increasingly being monetarised. The third article investigates neighbourhood relations. The fourth details relationships at work, particularly from the vantage point of internal migration. The fifth explores housing and the role of networks and money both in the Soviet and post-Soviet era. The study is based on qualitative social network and interview data gathered among three groups, teachers, doctors and factory workers, in St. Petersburg during 1993-2000. Methodologically it builds on a qualitative social network approach. The study adds a critical element to the discussion on networks in post-socialism. A considerable consensus exists that social networks were vital in state socialist societies and were used to bypass various difficulties caused by endemic shortages and bureaucratic rigidities, but a more debated issue has been their role in post-socialism. Some scholars have argued that the importance of networks has been dramatically reduced in the new market economy, whereas others have stressed their continuing importance. If a common denominator in both has been a focus on networks in relation to the past, a more overlooked aspect has been the question of inequality. To what extent is access to networks unequally distributed? What are the limits and consequences of networks, for those who have access, those outside networks or society at large? My study provides some evidence about inequalities. It shows that some groups are privileged over others, for instance, middle-class people in informal access to health care. Moreover, analysing the formation of networks sheds additional light on inequalities, as it highlights the importance of migration as a mechanism of inequality, for example. The five articles focus on how networks are actually used in everyday life. The article on health care, for instance, shows that personal connections are still important and popular in post-Soviet Russia, despite the growing importance of money and the emergence of "fee for service" medicine. Fifteen of twenty teachers were involved in informal medical exchange during a two-week study period, so that they used their networks to bypass the formal market mechanisms or official procedures. Medicines were obtained through personal connections because some were unavailable at local pharmacies or because these connections could provide medicines for a cheaper price or even for free. The article on neighbours shows that "mutual help" was the central feature of neighbouring, so that the exchange of goods, services and information covered almost half the contacts with neighbours reported. Neighbours did not provide merely small-scale help but were often exchange partners because they possessed important professional qualities, had access to workplace resources, or knew somebody useful. The article on the Russian work collective details workplace-related relationships in a tractor factory and shows that interaction with and assistance from one's co-workers remains important. The most interesting finding was that co-workers were even more important to those who had migrated to the city than to those who were born there, which is explained by the specifics of Soviet migration. As a result, the workplace heavily influenced or absorbed contexts for the worker migrants to establish relationships whereas many meeting-places commonly available in Western countries were largely absent or at least did not function as trusted public meeting places to initiate relationships. More results are to be found from my dissertation: Anna-Maria Salmi: Social Networks and Everyday Practices in Russia, Kikimora Publications, 2006, see www.kikimora-publications.com.

Sikiöaikana päihteille altistuneiden lasten kasvuympäristö ja kehitys

Life of children exposed to alcohol or drugs in utero This study focused on the growth environment, physical development and socio-emotional development of children, aged 16 and under, who had been exposed to alcohol (n=78) or drugs (n=15) in utero. The aim of the study was to obtain a comprehensive picture of the living conditions of these children and to examine the role of the growth environment in their development. The study was carried out using questionnaires, written life stories and interviews. Attachment theory was used as a background theory in the study. Over half of the children exposed to alcohol were diagnosed with foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), one quarter was diagnosed with foetal alcohol effects (FAE), and one fifth had no diagnosis. Most of the children exposed to drugs had been exposed to either amphetamines or cannabis, and a smaller number to heroin. Some of the children exposed to alcohol were mentally handicapped or intellectually impaired. The children exposed to drugs did not exhibit any serious learning difficulties but a considerable number of them had socio-emotional development problems. Language and speech problems and attention, concentration and social interaction problems were typical among both the children exposed to alcohol and those exposed to drugs. Only one child had been placed into long-term foster care in a family immediately after leaving the maternity hospital. In biological families there had been neglect, violence, mental health problems, crime and unemployment, and many parents were already dead. Two of the children had been sexually abused and four were suspected of having been abused. From the point of view of the children's development, the three most critical issues were 1) the range of illnesses and handicaps that had impaired their functional capacity as a result of their prenatal exposure to alcohol, 2) child's age at the time of placement on a long-term basis, and 3) the number of their traumatic experiences. The relationship with their biological parents after placement also played a role. Children with symptoms were found in all diagnosis categories and types of exposure. Children with the smallest number of symptoms were found among those who had never lived with their biological parents. Almost all children were exhibiting strong symptoms at the time of placement in foster care. In most cases, they were behaving in a disorderly manner towards others, but some children were withdrawn. The most conspicuous feature among those with the most severe symptoms was their disorganized behaviour. Placement in a foster family enhanced the children's development, but did not solve the problems. The foster parents who brought these children up did not receive as much therapy for the children and support for the upbringing as they appear to have needed. In Finland, transfer to long-term custody is based on strict criteria. The rights of children prescribed in the child protection law are not fulfilled in practice. Key words: FASD, FAS, FAE, alcohol exposure, drugs exposure, illegal drugs, early interaction, child development, attachment

European Union and the developing nations' external debt : EU-15's debt policy, 1960–2008

This Master's Thesis defines the debt policy of the current European Union Member States towards the developing nations. Since no official policy for debt exists in the EU, it is defined to include debt practices (loans and debt relief in development cooperation) and debt within the EU development policy framework. This study (1) describes how the issue of external debt appears in the development policy framework, (2) compares EU Member States' given loans and debt relief to grants for the developing nations (1960s to the 2000s), and (3) measures the current orientation in ODA of each EU Member State between grant aid and loan aid using the Grant-Loan Index (GLI). Theoretical aspects include reasons for selecting between loans (Bouchet 1987) and grants (Odedokun 2004, O'Brien and Williams 2007), policy context of the EU (Van Reisen 2007) and the meaning of external debt in the set-up between the North and the South. In terms of history, the events and impact of the colonial period (where loans have originated) are overviewed and compared in light of today's policies. Development assistance statistics are derived from the OECD DAC statistics portal and EU development policy framework documents from the EU portal. Methodologically, the structure of this study is from policy analysis (Barrien 1999, Hill 2008, Berndtson 2008), but it has been modified to fit the needs of studying a non-official policy. EU Member States are divided into three groups by Carbone (2007a), the Big-3, Northern and Southern donors, based on common development assistance characteristics. The Grant-Loan Index is used to compare Carbone's model, which measures quality of aid, to the GLI measuring the structure of aid. Results indicate that EU- 15 countries (active in debt practices) differ in terms of timing, stability and equality of debt practices in the long-term (1960s to the 2000s). In terms of current practices, (2000-2008), it is noted that there lies a disparity between the actual practices and the way in which external debt is represented in the development policy framework, although debt practices form a relevant portion of total ODA practices for many EU-15 Member States, the issue itself plays a minor role in development policy documents. Carbone’s group division applies well to the Grant – Loan Index’s results, indicating that countries with similar development policy behaviour have similarities in debt policy behaviour, with one exception: Greece. On the basis of this study, it is concluded that EU development policy framework content in terms of external debt and debt practices are not congruent. The understanding of this disparity between the policy outline and differences in long-term practices is relevant in both, reaching the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, and in the actual process of developing development aid.

Arrested Drunk Drivers : Trends, social background, recidivism and mortality

The aim of this study was to examine the trends, incidence and recidivism of drunken driving during a 20-year period (1988 - 2007) using the data on all suspected drunken driving in this period. Furthermore, the association between social background and drunken driving, and the mortality of drunk drivers were studied by using administrative register data provided by Statistics Finland. The study was completely register-based. In 1989 - 1991, every year 30,000 drivers were suspected of drunken driving, but the number fell to less than 20,000 by 1994, during the economic recession. The changes in the arrest incidence of the youngest age groups were especially pronounced, most of all in the age group of 18 - 19-year olds. Even though the incidence among youth decreased dramatically, their incidence rate was still twice that of the general population aged 15 - 84 years. Drunken driving was associated with a poor social background among youth and working-aged men and women. For example, a low level of education, unemployment, divorce, and parental factors in youth were associated with a higher risk of being arrested for drunken driving. While a low income was related to more drunken driving among working-aged people, the effect among young persons was the opposite. Every third drunk driver got rearrested during a 15-year period, whereas the estimated rearrest rate was 44%. Findings of drugs only or in combination with alcohol increased the risk of rearrest. The highest rearrest rates were seen among drivers who were under the influence of amphetamines or cannabis. Also male gender, young age, high blood alcohol concentration, and arrest during weekdays and in the daytime predicted rearrest. When compared to the general population, arrested drunk drivers had significant excess mortality. The greatest relative differences were seen in alcohol-related causes of death (including alcohol diseases and alcohol poisoning), accidents, suicides and violence. Also mortality due to other than alcohol-related diseases was elevated among drunk drivers. Drunken driving was associated with multiple factors linked to traffic safety, health and social problems. Social marginalization may expose a person to harmful use of alcohol and drunken driving, and the associations are seen already among the youth. Recidivism is common among drunk drivers, and driving under the influence of illicit and/or medicinal drugs is likely to indicate worse substance abuse problems, judging from the high rearrest rates. High alcohol-related mortality in this population shows that drunken driving is clearly an indicator of alcohol abuse. More effective measures of preventing alcohol-related harms are needed, than merely preventing convicted drunk drivers from driving again.

Geriatrisen lääkehoidon koulutustarpeet perusterveydenhuollossa - Moniammatillisen täydennyskoulutuksen suunnittelu LOST-alueen kotihoidon henkilöstölle

Sosiaali- ja terveysministeriön 2006 julkaiseman vanhustyön ja geriatrisen lääkehoidon kehittämistä koskevan selvityksen yhtenä tärkeänä huolenaiheena oli iäkkäiden lääkehoidon useat epäkohdat, kuten iäkkäitä hoitavien hoitajien lääkeosaamiseen liittyvät puutteet ja ongelmat. Yksi keino parantaa iäkkäitä hoitavien eri tahojen lääkehoito-osaamista on täydennyskoulutus, johon kaikilla sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon ammattiryhmillä on oikeus ja velvollisuus. Täydennyskoulutuksella pystytään myös kehittämään organisaatioiden toimintaa ja tuottamaan uusia, parempia palveluita. Tutkimuksessa selvitettiin Lohjan, Siuntion, Inkoon ja Karjalohjan muodostaman sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon yhteistoiminta-alueen LOSTin kotihoidon yksiköiden iäkkäiden lääkehoitoihin liittyviä koulutustarpeita. Tämän tutkimuksen avulla syvennettiin samalle tutkimusryhmälle tehdyn kyselytutkimuksen tuloksia. Tutkimusaineistona käytettiin LOST-alueen kotihoidon yksiköiden hoitajille (n=150) farmaseutin lopputyönä tehtyä kyselyaineistoa sekä työntekijöille (n=6) ja esimiehille (n=6) tehtyjä erillisiä ryhmäkeskusteluja. Lisäksi näkökulman laajentamiseksi ja moniammatillisuuden korostamiseksi aineistona käytettiin kotihoidon asiakkaita hoitavien lääkärien (n=4) teemahaastatteluja. Kyselyaineistosta analysoitiin erikseen sairaanhoitajien, lähihoitajien ja kodinhoitajien koulutustarpeet. Samat asiat nousivat esille kunkin ammattiryhmän tuloksissa. Tärkeimpinä lääkehoito-osaamiseen liittyvinä teoreettisina koulutettavina asioina kyselystä nousivat esille iäkkäiden farmakokinetiikka ja lääkkeiden käyttöön liittyvät erityispiirteet, lääkkeiden vaikutukset, lääkkeiden haittavaikutukset sekä lääkkeiden yhteisvaikutukset ja yhteensopivuus. Lisäksi teoreettisista taidoista nousi hoitotyön etiikkaan liittyvät tarkkuus ja huolellisuus työssä. Käytännön taidoista tärkeimpinä koulutettavina aiheina kyselystä nousivat asiakkaiden lääkehoidon ja voinnin seuranta, lääkkeiden jakaminen sekä lääkkeiden annosteluun liittyen se, että annostellaan oikeaa lääkettä ja vahvuutta, oikea annos ja oikeaan aikaan sekä oikeat antotavat. Ryhmäkeskusteluista ja lääkärien teemahaastatteluista haettiin syvempää ymmärrystä kyselyn tuloksiin. Yksi tärkeimmistä tämän laadullisen tutkimuksen löydöksistä oli kotihoidon yhteistyöhön liittyvät epäkohdat. Lääkehoitojen toteuttamista ja seurantaa voitaisiin tulosten perusteella parantaa lääkärien ja kotihoidon hoitajien yhteisellä koulutuksella. Tärkeimpiä sairauksia tai oireita, joihin hoitajat toivoisivat yhteisiä toimintakäytäntöjä, ovat diabetes, sydän- ja verisuonisairaudet, kipu, muistisairaudet sekä psyykensairaudet. Lisäksi koulutusaiheiksi tutkimuksesta nousivat iäkkäiden lääkehoidon erityispiirteet, lääkkeiden antoreitit ja lääkemuodot. Kyselyn sekä ryhmäkeskustelujen ja lääkärien teemahaastattelujen tuloksista tehtiin lopuksi synteesi, jonka lopputuloksena LOST-alueen kotihoidon hoitohenkilöstölle sekä kotihoidon lääkäreille koottiin yhteinen tarvelähtöinen täydennyskoulutussuunnitelma. Suunnitelma tehtiin aineistosta nousseiden koulutusaiheiden pohjalta, eikä siihen lisätty aiheita tutkimuksen ulkopuolelta.

Vain hätapua? : Taloudellinen avustaminen diakoniatyön professionaalisen itseymmärryksen ilmentäjänä

Financial Help Alone? Financial help as an exponent of professional diaconal work One essential form of helping people in the Evangelical Lutheran Church s diaconal work is providing economic aid. It can be seen as work which is in accordance with the spirit of the Church Order (4:3). One of the tasks of diaconal work, determined by the Church Order, is to help those whose distress is the greatest and who have no other source of help. This financial support has become a permanent and essential working method, which has also created tension of various kinds. Financial support has been criticized, especially when the support has been used to fill a gap in the social services provided by the government. It has been argued that diaconal work has been forced to take on responsibility for tasks that belong to the welfare state. The tensions involved in the financial support of diaconal work do not only concern the patching up and supplementing of the deficiencies in the welfare state s services but also the question of diaconal workers self-understanding of financial support and how it relates to their professionalism. In this thesis, I examine the experiences and visions diaconal workers have concerning financial support in their work with clients. The viewpoint of my work is the diaconal workers own experiences and interpretations of the meaning of financial support in customer service. In the articles of my thesis, I examined the meanings that diaconal workers gave to financial support in the aspects of work motivation, empowerment, expertise and tensions. The research material of my articles consists of three different data, which are theme interviews from diaconal workers, a survey from diaconal workers of Espoo and a diaconal barometer of 2009. I have analysed the theme interviews and the survey using qualitative content analysis. The results of my articles showed that diaconal workers motivation in tasks concerning economic aid was sustained by the nature and spiritual aspects of support activities. Work that supported empowerment through financial assistance meant influencing the client s personal life, community and local ties and structural circumstances of the surrounding society. Diaconal workers expertise in financial support work can be characterised as horizontal, which means that the expertise was built on acknowledging the client s dignity, the uniqueness of the client s life situation and listening to the client s own voice. Diaconal workers were also experts in community and area-based work. The tensions in financial support work are linked to its unofficial and undefined role in the field of social welfare and the inability of other aiding parties to respond to their duties. The results of my thesis on the experiences and visions of financial support reveal that it is multilateral and multidimensional. Diaconal workers used financial support to help the clients, taking into account their individual, communal, social and spiritual context. The professionalism of this financial support is reflectively related to the client s need of help and the spontaneity and unexpectedness of the situation. Support work was deeply bound to diaconal workers experiences of spirituality as the basic value in their work, the foundation of their idea of humanity and their method of helping others. In different tasks of financial support diaconal workers balanced between traditional, individual client work based on caritas and working methods which are based on supporting the individual s empowerment and active citizenship, as in postmodern social work. Diaconal workers experiences of financial support illustrated the transition or turning point in the professionalism of diaconal work, which involves finding one s own, stronger and clearer professional identity than earlier with respect to other helpers in society. Creating a unique identity is part of the empowerment process of diaconal work, in which it must define its professional role by itself. In postmodern pluralism and the fragmented context of diaconal activities, the question arose as to whether the spiritual traditions and traditional values of diaconal work support the modifications and adaptations needed in new, unpredictable situations. Diaconal work is said to be fast to react, able to predict changes and adapt to those changes. To preserve its sensitive reactive ability, also in the complex postmodern world, it must retain its own views and orientations. Otherwise, the distinctive values and traditions of diaconal work might sustain static diaconal work, employee-centeredness and a smug attitude when defining beneficiaries and needs, which highlights the paternalism of diaconal work. Such paternalism may complicate the progress of working methods which are based on empowerment and citizenship.

Social and material deprivation among youth in Finland : causes, consequences, and coping.

Background: Social and material deprivation is associated with poor health, decreased subjective well-being, and limited opportunities for personal development. To date, little is known about the lived experiences of Finnish low-income youths and the general purpose of this study is to fill this gap. Despite the extensive research on socioeconomic income disparities, only a few scholars have addressed the question of how low socioeconomic position is experienced by disadvantaged people themselves. Little is known about the everyday social processes that lead to decreased well-being of economically and socially disadvantaged citizens. Data: The study is based on the data of 65 autobiographical essays written by Finnish low-income youths aged 14-29 (M=23.51, SD=3.95). The research data were originally collected in a Finnish nationwide writing contest “Arkipäivän kokemuksia köyhyydestä” [Everyday Experiences of Poverty] between June and September of 2006. The contest was partaken by 850 Finnish writers. Methods and key concepts: Autobiographical narratives (N=65) of low-income youths were analyzed based on grounded theory methodology (GTM). The analysis was not built on specific pre-conceived categorizations; it was guided by the paradigm model and so-called “sensitizing concepts”. The concepts this study utilized were based on the research literature on socioeconomic inequalities, resilience, and coping. Socioeconomic inequalities refer to unequal distribution of resources, such as income, social status, and health, between social groups. The concept of resilience refers to an individual’s capacity to cope despite existing risk factors and conditions that are harmful to health and well-being. Coping strategies can be understood as ways by which a person tries to cope with psychological stress in a situation where internal or externals demands exceed one’s resources. The ways to cope are cognitive or behavioral efforts by which individual tries to relieve the stress and gain new resources. Lack of material and social resources is associated with increased exposure to health-related stressors during the life-course. Aims: The first aim of this study is to illustrate how youths with low socioeconomic status perceive the causes and consequences of their social and material deprivation. The second aim is to describe what kind of coping strategies youths employ to cope in their everyday life. The third aim is to build an integrative conceptual framework based on the relationships between causes, consequences, and individual coping strategies associated with deprivation. The analysis was carried out through systematic coding and orderly treatment of the data based on the grounded theory methodology. Results: Finnish low-income youths attributed the primary causes of deprivation to their family background, current socioeconomic status, sudden life changes, and contextual factors. Material and social deprivation was associated with various kinds of negative psychological, social, and material consequences. Youths used a variety of coping strategies that were identified as psychological, social, material, and functional-behavioral. Finally, a conceptual framework was formulated to link the findings together. In the discussion, the results were compared and contrasted to the existing research literature. The main references of the study were: Coping: Aldwin (2007); Lazarus & Folkman (1984); Hobfoll (1989, 2001, 2002). Deprivation: Larivaara, Isola, & Mikkonen (2007); Lister (2004); Townsend (1987); Raphael (2007). Health inequalities: Dahlgren & Whitehead (2007); Lynch. et al. (2000); Marmot & Wilkinson (2006); WHO (2008). Methods: Charmaz (2006); Flick (2009); Strauss & Corbin (1990). Resilience: Cutuli & Masten (2009); Luthar (2006).

Corporate social responsibilities of Indian public sector enterprises-a case study of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL)

The high level of public accountability attached to Public Sector Enterprises as a result of public ownership makes them socially responsible. The Committee of Public Undertakings in 1992 examined the issue relating to social obligations of Central Public Sector Enterprises and observed that ``being part of the `State', every Public Sector enterprise has a moral responsibility to play an active role in discharging the social obligations endowed on a welfare state, subject to the financial health of the enterprise''. It issued the Corporate Social Responsibility Guidelines in 2010 where all Central Public Enterprises, through a Board Resolution, are mandated to create a CSR budget as a specified percentage of net profit of the previous year. This paper examines the CSR activities of the biggest engineering public sector organization in India, Bharath Heavy Electricals Limited. The objectives are twofold, one, to develop a case study of the organization about the funds allocated and utilized for various CSR activities, and two, to examine its status with regard to other organizations, the 2010 guidelines, and the local socio-economic development. Secondary data analysis results show three interesting trends. One, it reveals increasing organizational social orientation with the formal guidelines in place. Two, Firms can no longer continue to exploit environmental resources and escape from their responsibilities by acting separate entities regardless of the interest of the society and Three the thrust of CSR in public sector is on inclusive growth, sustainable development and capacity building with due attention to the socio-economic needs of the neglected and marginalized sections of the society.

Social insect colony as a biological regulatory system: modelling information flow in dominance networks

Social insects provide an excellent platform to investigate flow of information in regulatory systems since their successful social organization is essentially achieved by effective information transfer through complex connectivity patterns among the colony members. Network representation of such behavioural interactions offers a powerful tool for structural as well as dynamical analysis of the underlying regulatory systems. In this paper, we focus on the dominance interaction networks in the tropical social wasp Ropalidia marginata-a species where behavioural observations indicate that such interactions are principally responsible for the transfer of information between individuals about their colony needs, resulting in a regulation of their own activities. Our research reveals that the dominance networks of R. marginata are structurally similar to a class of naturally evolved information processing networks, a fact confirmed also by the predominance of a specific substructure-the `feed-forward loop'-a key functional component in many other information transfer networks. The dynamical analysis through Boolean modelling confirms that the networks are sufficiently stable under small fluctuations and yet capable of more efficient information transfer compared to their randomized counterparts. Our results suggest the involvement of a common structural design principle in different biological regulatory systems and a possible similarity with respect to the effect of selection on the organization levels of such systems. The findings are also consistent with the hypothesis that dominance behaviour has been shaped by natural selection to co-opt the information transfer process in such social insect species, in addition to its primal function of mediation of reproductive competition in the colony.