Rauhan atomi, sodan koodi : Suomalaisen atomivoimaratkaisun teknopolitiikka 1955-1970

This dissertation investigates the atomic power solution in Finland between 1955 - 1970. During these years a national arrangement for atomic energy technology evolved. The foundations of the Finnish atomic energy policy; the creation of basic legislation and the first governmental bodies, were laid between 1955 - 1965. In the late 1960's, the necessary technological and political decisions were made in order to purchase the first commercial nuclear reactor. A historical narration of this process is seen in the international context of "atoms for peace" policies and Cold War history in general. The geopolitical position of Finland made it necessary to become involved in the balanced participation in international scientific-technical exchange and assistive nuclear programs. The Paris Peace Treaty of 1947 categorically denied Finland acquisition of nuclear weapons. Accordingly, from the "Geneva year" of 1955, the emphasis was placed on peaceful purposes for atomic energy as well as on the education of national professionals in Finland. An initiative for the governmental atomic energy commission came from academia but the ultimate motive behind it was an anticipated structural change in the supply of national energy. Economically exploitable hydro power resources were expected to be built within ten years and atomic power was seen as a promising and complementing new energy technology. While importing fuels like coal was out of the question, because of scarce foreign currency, domestic uranium mineral deposits were considered as a potential source of nuclear fuel. Nevertheless, even then nuclear energy was regarded as just one of the possible future energy options. In the mid-1960 s a bandwagon effect of light water reactor orders was witnessed in the United States and soon elsewhere in the world. In Finland, two separate invitations for bids for nuclear reactors were initiated. This study explores at length both their preceding grounds and later phases. An explanation is given that the parallel, independent and nearly identical tenders reflected a post-war ideological rivalry between the state-owned utility Imatran Voima and private energy utilities. A private sector nuclear power association Voimayhdistys Ydin represented energy intensive paper and pulp industries and wanted to have free choice instead of being associated themselves with "the state monopoly" in energy pricing. As a background to this, a decisive change had started to happen within Finnish energy policy: private and municipal big thermal power plants became incorporated into the national hydro power production system. A characteristic phenomenon in the later history is the Soviet Union s effort to bid for the tender of Imatran Voima. A nuclear superpower was willing to take part in competition but not on a turnkey basis as Imatran Voima had presumed. As a result of many political turns and four years of negotiations the first Finnish commercial light water reactor was ordered from the East. Soon after this the private nuclear power group ordered its reactors from Sweden. This work interprets this as a reasonable geopolitical balance in choosing politically sensitive technology. Conceptually, social and political dimensions of new technology are emphasised. Negotiations on the Finnish atomic energy program are viewed as a cooperation and a struggle, where state-oriented and private-oriented regimes pose their own macro level views and goals (technopolitical imaginaries) and defend and advance their plans and practical modes of action (schemata). Here, not only technologists but even political actors are seen to contribute to technopolitical realisations.

Individuals' Responsibility in Corporations

I discuss role responsibly, individual responsibility and collective responsibility in corporate multinational setting. My case study is about minerals used in electronics that come from the Democratic Republic of Congo. What I try to show throughout the thesis is how many things need to be taken into consideration when we discuss the responsibility of individuals in corporations. No easy and simple answers are available. Instead, we must keep in mind the complexity of the situation at all times, judging cases on individual basis, emphasizing the importance of individual judgement and virtue, as well as the responsibility we all share as members of groups and the wider society. I begin by discussing the demands that are placed on us as employees. There is always a potential for a conflict between our different roles and also the wider demands placed on us. Role demands are usually much more specific than the wider question of how we should act as human beings. The terminology of roles can also be misleading as it can create illusions about our work selves being somehow radically separated from our everyday, true selves. The nature of collective decision-making and its implications for responsibility is important too. When discussing the moral responsibility of an employee in a corporate setting, one must take into account arguments from individual and collective responsibility, as well as role ethics. Individual responsibility is not a separate or competing notion from that of collective responsibility. Rather, the two are interlinked. Individuals' responsibilities in collective settings combine both individual responsibility and collective responsibility (which is different from aggregate individual responsibility). In the majority of cases, both will apply in various degrees. Some members might have individual responsibility in addition to the collective responsibility, while others just the collective responsibility. There are also times when no-one bears individual moral responsibility but the members are still responsible for the collective part. My intuition is that collective moral responsibility is strongly linked to the way the collective setting affects individual judgements and moulds the decisions, and how the individuals use the collective setting to further their own ends. Individuals remain the moral agents but responsibility is collective if the actions in question are collective in character. I also explore the impacts of bureaucratic ethic and its influence on the individual. Bureaucracies can compartmentalize work to such a degree that individual human action is reduced to mere behaviour. Responsibility is diffused and the people working in the bureaucracy can come to view their actions to be outside the normal human realm where they would be responsible for what they do. Language games and rules, anonymity, internal power struggles, and the fragmentation of information are just some of the reasons responsibility and morality can get blurry in big institutional settings. Throughout the thesis I defend the following theses: ● People act differently depending on their roles. This is necessary for our society to function, but the more specific role demands should always be kept in check by the wider requirements of being a good human being. ● Acts in corporations (and other large collectives) are not reducible to individual actions, and cannot be explained fully by the behaviour of individual employees. ● Individuals are responsible for the actions that they undertake in the collective as role occupiers and are very rarely off the hook. Hiding behind role demands is usually only an excuse and shows a lack of virtue. ● Individuals in roles can be responsible even when the collective is not. This depends on if the act they performed was corporate in nature or not. ● Bureaucratic structure affects individual thinking and is not always a healthy environment to work in. ● Individual members can share responsibility with the collective and our share of the collective responsibility is strongly linked to our relations. ● Corporations and other collectives can be responsible for harm even when no individual is at fault. The structure and the policies of the collective are crucial. ● Socialization plays an important role in our morality at both work and outside it. We are all responsible for the kind of moral context we create. ● When accepting a role or a position in a collective, we are attaching ourselves with the values of that collective. ● Ethical theories should put more emphasis on good judgement and decision-making instead of vague generalisations. My conclusion is that the individual person is always in the centre when it comes to responsibility, and not so easily off the hook as we sometimes think. What we do, and especially who we choose to associate ourselves with, does matter and we should be more careful when we choose who we work for. Individuals within corporations are responsible for choosing that the corporation they associate with is one that they can ascribe to morally, if not fully, then at least for the most part. Individuals are also inclusively responsible to a varying degree for the collective activities they contribute to, even in overdetermined contexts. We all are responsible for the kind of corporations we choose to support through our actions as consumers, investors and citizens.

Constructing and negotiating entrepreneurial agency : A social psychological approach to entrepreneurship discourse in the farm context

Entrepreneurship, understood as the autonomous, effective pursuit of opportunities regardless of resources, is currently subject to a multitude of interests, expectations, and facilitation efforts. On the one hand, such entrepreneurial agency has broad appeal to individuals in Western market democracies and resonates with their longing for an autonomous, personally tailored, meaningful, and materially rewarding way of life. On the other hand, entrepreneurship represents a tempting and increasingly popular means of governance and policy making, and thus a model for the re-organization of a variety of societal sectors. This study focuses on the diffusion and reception of entrepreneurship discourse in the context of farming and agriculture, where pressures to adopt entrepreneurial orientations have been increasingly pronounced while, on the other hand, the context of farming has historically enjoyed state protection and adhered to principles that seem at odds with aspects of individualistic entrepreneurship discourse . The study presents an interpretation of the psychologically and politically appealing uses of the notion of entrepreneurial agency , reviews the historical and political background of the current situation of farming and agriculture with regard to entrepreneurship, and examines their relationships in four empirical studies. The study follows and develops a social psychological, situated relational approach that guides the qualitative analyses and interpretations of the empirical studies. Interviews with agents from the farm sector aim to stimulate evaluative responses and comments on the idea of entrepreneurship on farms. Analysis of the interview talk, in turn, detects the variety of evaluative responses and argumentative contexts with which the interviewees relate themselves to the entrepreneurship discourse and adopt, use, resist, or reject it. The study shows that despite the pressures towards entrepreneurialism, the diffusion of entrepreneurship discourse and the construction of entrepreneurial agency in farm context encounter many obstacles. These obstacles can be variably related to aspects dealing with the individual agent, the action situation, the characteristics of the action itself, or to the broader social, institutional and cultural context. Many aspects of entrepreneurial agency, such as autonomy, personal initiative and achievement orientation, are nevertheless familiar to farmers and are eagerly related to one s own farming activities. The idea of entrepreneurship is thus rarely rejected outright. The findings highlight the relational and situational preconditions for the construction of entrepreneurial agency in the farm context: When agents demonstrate entrepreneurial agency, they do so by drawing on available and accessed relational resources characteristic of their action context. Likewise, when agents fail or are reluctant to demonstrate entrepreneurial agency, they nevertheless actively account for their situation and demonstrate personal agency by drawing on the relational resources available to them.

Ultimate Strength of R.C. Wall Panels in Two-Way In-Plane Action

Test results of 24 reinforced concrete wall panels in two-way action (i.e., supported on all the four sides) and subjected to in-plane vertical load are presented. The load is applied at an eccentricity to represent possible accidental eccentricity that occurs in practice due to constructional imperfections. Influences of aspect ratio, thinness ratio, slendemess ratio, vertical steel, and horizontal steel on the ultimate load are studied. Two equations are proposed to predict the ultimate load carried by the panels. The first equation is empirical and is arrived at from trial and error fitting with test data. The second equation is semi-empirical and is developed from a modification of the buckling strength of thin rectangular plates. Both the equations are formulated so as to give a safe prediction of a large portion of ultimate strength test results. Also, ultimate load cracking load and lateral deflections of identical panels in two-way action (all four sides supported) and oneway action (top and bottom sides only supported) are compared.

Aktiiviseen kansalaisuuteen kasvattaminen yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa

Tutkielmassa tarkasteltiin aktiivista kansalaisuutta perusopetuksen yläkoulun (luokat 7–9) maantieteen opetuksessa. Tutkielman taustana olivat aktiiviseen kansalaisuuteen liittyvät viralliset ja epäviralliset diskurssit: opetussuunnitelman perusteiden aihekokonaisuudet, kouluun kohdistuvat kansalaiskasvatushankkeet sekä nuoriin, kansalaisuuteen ja kansalaisyhteiskuntaan liittyvät keskustelut. Maantieteen opetuksen osalta taustana olivat opetussuunnitelman velvoitteet huomioida aktiivinen kansalaisuus yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa sekä (pääasiassa brittiläinen) kirjallisuus, jossa maantieteen ja kansalaiskasvatuksen/aktiivisen kansalaisuuden välillä nähdään yhtäläisyyksiä. Tutkielmassa pyrittiin selvittämään, mitä aktiivinen kansalaisuus on yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa ja miten maantieteen opettajat suhtautuvat tehtäviinsä nuorten kansalaisten kasvattajina ja yhteiskunnallisina vaikuttajina. Tutkielmaa varten kerättiin teemahaastatteluaineisto kuudelta yläkoulun maantieteen opettajalta. Haastatteluihin pyrittiin löytämään mahdollisimman aktiivisia maantieteen opettajia. Haastatteluaineiston analyysissa käytettiin sisällönanalyysia, ja aineiston avulla pyrittiin kuvaamaan ilmiötä. Haastateltujen opettajien mukaan yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa luonnonmaantieteelliset sisällöt painottuvat enemmän kuin kulttuurimaantieteelliset. Aktiivisen kansalaisuuden kannalta keskeisiä sisältöjä, kuten vaikutusmahdollisuuksia oman ympäristön suunnitteluun ja kehittymiseen sekä kotikunnan ja lähiympäristön tutkimista käsitellään opetuksessa vain vähän, jos ollenkaan. Aktiivinen kansalaisuus on yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa eniten tiedon jakamista, ajattelun taitojen ja mielipiteen muodostamisen harjoittelua sekä ympäristövastuullisuuteen kansalaisuuteen kasvattamista. Opetuksessa käytetään myös aktiivisen kansalaisuuden kannalta keskeisiä työtapoja, mutta työtapojen käyttö vaihtelee. Haastatellut opettajat eivät koe opetussuunnitelman aihekokonaisuuksia juurikaan omakseen. Opettajat eivät myöskään määrittele kansalaisvaikuttamiseen kasvattamista koulun tärkeimpien tehtävien joukkoon. Osa opettajista kokee kuitenkin olevansa yhteiskunnallinen vaikuttaja opettajana. Opettajien puheessa koulun kansalaiskasvatuksen tavoite, kunnon kansalainen, ei määrity kovin aktiivisena tai poliittisena. Opettajien puhe sisältää kuitenkin monenlaisia näkemyksiä suhteessa nuoriin kansalaisina ja aktiivisuuteen: toisaalta nuoret eivät ole kiinnostuneita yhteiskunnallisista asioista eikä heiltä vaaditakaan sitä, toisaalta maaperä nuorten kasvattamiseen aktiivisiksi kansalaisiksi on hyvä ja aktiivisuus on pieniä asioita lähiympäristössä sekä yhdessä tekemiseen uskomista. Haastattelujen pohjalta todettiin, että lukuun ottamatta joidenkin opettajien ympäristökasvatuksellista otetta, aktiivinen kansalaisuus ei ole täysin tiedostettu tavoite yläkoulun maantieteen opetuksessa.

An Analysis of the Concept of Citizenship: Legal, Political and Social Dimensions

The thesis aims at analyzing concept of citizenship in political philosophy. The concept of citizenship is a complex one: it does not have a definitive explication, but it nevertheless is a very important category in contemporary world. Citizenship is a powerful ideal, and often the way a person is treated depends on whether he or she has the status of a citizen. Citizenship includes protection of a person’s rights both at home and abroad. It entails legal, political and social dimension: the legal status as a full member of society, the recognition of that status by fellow citizens and acting as a member of society. The thesis discusses these three dimensions. Its objective is to show how all of them, despite being insufficient in some aspects, reach something important about the concept. The main sources of the thesis are Civic Republicanism by Iseult Honohan (Routledge 2002), Republicanism by Philip Pettit (Clarendon Press 1997), and Taking Rights Seriously by Ronald Dworkin (1997). In addition, the historical part of the thesis relies mainly on the works of Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, Quentin Skinner, James Pocock and James Tully. The writings of Will Kymlicka, John Rawls, Chantal Mouffe, and Shane Phelan are referred to in the presentation and critique of the liberal tradition of thought. Hannah Arendt and Seyla Benhabib’s analysis of Arendt’s philosophy both address the problematic relations between human rights and nation-states as the main guarantors of rights. The chapter on group rights relies on Peter Jones’ account of corporate and collective rights, after which I continue to Seumas Miller’s essay on the (liberal) account of group rights and their relation to the concept of citizenship. Republicanism and Political Theory (2002) edited by Cécile Laborde and John Maynor is also references. David Miller and Maurizio Viroli represent the more “rooted” version of republicanism. The thesis argues that the full concept of citizenship should be seen as containing legal, political and social dimensions. The concept can be viewed from all of these three angles. The first means that citizenship is connected with certain rights, like the right to vote or stand for election, the right to property and so on. In most societies, the law guarantees these rights to every citizen. Then there is also the social dimension, which can be said to be as important as the legal one: the recognition of equality and identities of others. Finally, there is the political dimension, meaning the importance of citizens’ participation in the society, which is discussed in connection with the contemporary account of republicanism. All these issues are discussed from the point of view of groups demanding for group-specific rights and equal recognition. The challenge with these three aspects of citizenship is, however, that they are difficult to discuss under one heading. Different theories or discourses of citizenship each approach the subject from different starting points, which make reconciling them sometimes hard. The fundamental questions theories try to answer may differ radically depending on the theory. Nevertheless, in order to get the whole image of what the citizenship discourses are about all the aspects deserve to be taken into account.

Extended gravitational action and novel consequences

It is found that the inclusion of higher derivative terms in the gravitational action along with concepts of phase transition and spontaneous symmetry breaking leads to some novel consequence. The Ricci scalar plays the dual role, like a physical field as well as a geometrical field. One gets Klein-Gordon equation for the emerging field and the corresponding quanta of geometry are called Riccions. For the early universe the model removes singularity along with inflation. In higher dimensional gravity the Riccions can break into spin half particle and antiparticle along with breaking of left-right symmetry. Most tantalizing consequences is the emergence of the physical universe from the geometry in the extreme past. Riccions can Bose condense and may account for the dark matter.