Good Lives, Hidden Miseries : An Ethnography of Uncertainty in a Finnish Village

This is an ethnographic study, in the field of medical anthropology, of village life among farmers in southwest Finland. It is based on 12 months of field work conducted 2002-2003 in a coastal village. The study discusses how social and cultural change affects the life of farmers, how they experience it and how they act in order to deal with the it. Using social suffering as a methodological approach the study seeks to investigate how change is related to lived experiences, idioms of distress, and narratives. Its aim has been to draw a locally specific picture of what matters are at stake in the local moral world that these farmers inhabit, and how they emerge as creative actors within it. A central assumption made about change is that it is two-fold; both a constructive force which gives birth to something new, and also a process that brings about uncertainty regarding the future. Uncertainty is understood as an existential condition of human life that demands a response, both causing suffering and transforming it. The possibility for positive outcomes in the future enables one to understand this small suffering of everyday life both as a consequence of social change, which fragments and destroys, and as an answer to it - as something that is positively meaningful. Suffering is seen to engage individuals to ensure continuity, in spite of the odds, and to sustain hope regarding the future. When the fieldwork was initiated Finland had been a member of the European Union for seven years and farmers felt it had substantially impacted on their working conditions. They complained about the restrictions placed on their autonomy and that their knowledge was neither recognised, nor respected by the bureaucrats of the EU system. New regulations require them to work in a manner that is morally unacceptable to them and financial insecurity has become more prominent. All these changes indicate the potential loss of the home and of the ability to ensure continuity of the family farm. Although the study initially focused on getting a general picture of working conditions and the nature of farming life, during the course of the fieldwork there was repeated mention of a perceived high prevalence of cancer in the area. This cancer talk is replete with metaphors that reveal cultural meanings tied to the farming life and the core values of autonomy, endurance and permanence. It also forms the basis of a shared identity and a means of delivering a moral message about the fragmentation of the good life; the loss of control; and the invasion of the foreign. This thesis formed part of the research project Expressions of Suffering. Ethnographies of Illness Experiences in Contemporary Finnish Contexts funded by the Academy of Finland. It opens up a vital perspective on the multiplicity and variety of the experience of suffering and that it is particularly through the use of the ethnographic method that these experiences can be brought to light. Keywords: suffering, uncertainty, phenomenology, habitus, agency, cancer, farming

Lunch eating patterns during working hours and their social and work-related determinants : Study of Finnish employees

Work has a central role in the lives of big share of adult Finns and meals they eat during the workday comprise an important factor in their nutrition, health, and well-being. On workdays, lunch is mainly eaten at worksite canteens or, especially among women, as a packed meal in the workplace s break room. No national-level data is available on the nutritional quality of the meals served by canteens, although the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health laid out the first nutrition recommendations for worksite canteens in 1971. The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of various socio-demographic, socioeconomic, and work-related factors to the lunch eating patterns of Finnish employees during the working day and how lunch eating patterns influence dietary intake. Four different population-based cross-sectional datasets were used in this thesis. Three of the datasets were collected by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (Health Behaviour and Health among the Finnish Adult Population survey from 1979 to 2001, n=24746, and 2005 to 2007, n=5585, the National Findiet 2002 Study, n=261), and one of them by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (Work and Health in Finland survey from 1997, 2000, and 2003, n=6369). The Health Behaviour and Health among the Finnish Adult Population survey and the Work and Health in Finland survey are nationally representative studies that are conducted repeatedly. Survey information was collected by self-administered questionnaires, dietary recalls, and telephone interviews. The frequency of worksite canteen use has been quite stable for over two decades in Finland. A small decreasing trend can be seen in all socioeconomic groups. During the whole period studied, those with more years of education ate at worksite canteens more often than the others. The size of the workplace was the most important work-related determinant associated with the use of a worksite canteen. At small workplaces, other work-related determinants, like occupation, physical strain at work, and job control, were also associated with canteen use, whereas at bigger workplaces the associations were almost nonexistent. The major social determinants of worksite canteen availability were the education and occupational status of employees and the only work-related determinant was the size of the workplace. A worksite canteen was more commonly available to employees at larger workplaces and to those with the higher education and the higher occupational status. Even when the canteen was equally available to all employees, its use was nevertheless determined by occupational class and the place of residence, especially among female employees. Those with higher occupational status and those living in the Helsinki capital area ate in canteens more frequently than the others. Employees who ate at a worksite canteen consumed more vegetables and vegetable and fish dishes at lunch than did those who ate packed lunches. Also, the daily consumption of vegetables and the proportion of the daily users of vegetables were higher among those male employees who ate at a canteen. In conclusion, life possibilities, i.e. the availability of a canteen, education, occupational status, and work-related factors, played an important role in the choice of where to eat lunch among Finnish employees. The most basic prerequisite for eating in a canteen was availability, but there were also a number of underlying social determinants. Occupational status and the place of residence were the major structural factors behind individuals choices in their lunch eating patterns. To ensure the nutrition, health, and well-being of employees, employers should provide them with the option to have good quality meals during working hours. The availability of worksite canteens should be especially supported in lower socioeconomic groups. In addition, employees should be encouraged to have lunch at a worksite canteen when one is available by removing structural barriers to its use.

Religion in the lives of American adolescents

The purpose of the project is to research the shape and influence of religion and spirituality in the lives of U.S. adolescents; to identify effective practices in the religious, moral, and social formation of the lives of youth; to describe the extent to which youth participate in and benefit from the programs and opportunities that religious communities are offering to their youth; and to foster an informed national discussion about the influence of religion in youth's lives, in order to encourage sustained reflection about and rethinking of our cultural and institutional practices with regard to youth and religion.

When Working Memory and Attention Compete: Characterizing the Dynamic Interdependence between our Mental Workspace and External Environment

All of us are taxed with juggling our inner mental lives with immediate external task demands. For many years, the temporary maintenance of internal information was considered to be handled by a dedicated working memory (WM) system. It has recently become increasingly clear, however, that such short-term internal activation interacts with attention focused on external stimuli. It is unclear, however, exactly why these two interact, at what level of processing, and to what degree. Because our internal maintenance and external attention processes co-occur with one another, the manner of their interaction has vast implications for functioning in daily life. The work described here has employed original experimental paradigms combining WM and attention task elements, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to illuminate the associated neural processes, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to clarify the causal substrates of attentional brain function. These studies have examined a mechanism that might explain why (and when) the content of WM can involuntarily capture visual attention. They have, furthermore, tested whether fundamental attentional selection processes operate within WM, and whether they are reciprocal with attention. Finally, they have illuminated the neural consequences of competing attentional demands. The findings indicate that WM shares representations, operating principles, and cognitive resources with externally-oriented attention.

Understanding the 'production' of the schooling identities of young working class boys: time to move beyond the sociological/psychological divide?

In recent times the sociology of childhood has played an important role in challenging the dominance of Piagetian models of child development in shaping the way we think about children and childhood. What such work has successfully achieved is to increase our understanding of the socially constructed nature of childhood; the social competence and agency of children; and the diverse nature of children’s lives, reflecting the very different social contexts within which they are located. One of the problems that has tended to be associated with this work, however, is that in its critique of developmentalism it has tended simply to replace one orthodoxy (psychology) with another (sociology) rather than providing the opportunity to transcend this divide. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate some of the potential ways in which the sociological/psychological divide might be transcended and the benefits of this for understanding, more fully, the ‘production’ of children’s schooling identities. In particular it shows how some of the key sociological insights to be found in the work of Bourdieu may be usefully extended by the work inspired by the developmental psychologist, Vygotsky. The key arguments are illustrated by reference to ethnographic data relating to the schooling experiences and identities of a group of 5-6 year old working class boys.

On the health and wellbeing of single working women without children : an analysis of scientific and lay discourse

Cette thèse examine la façon dont on interprète la santé et le bien-être des travailleuses célibataires et sans enfant au sein de deux types de récits : ceux provenant d’études publiées dans des périodiques (récits scientifiques) et ceux provenant d’entrevues qualitatives avec des membres de ce groupe (récits profanes). Sur le plan démographique, leur nombre est significatif; elles représentent 28% des employées canadiennes. Par contre, leur santé/bien-être est peu visible dans les écrits de recherche. Dans les sciences sociales, plusieurs études portent sur l’expérience parfois éprouvante d’être un adulte célibataire vivant dans une culture orientée sur le couple et la famille. Elles mettent l’accent sur le stigma associé à ce statut. Certains suggèrent même que les pratiques de recherche peuvent contribuer à la perpétuation de représentations négatives à l’égard des célibataires. En ayant un profil qui pourrait être symbolique d’une déviation vis-à-vis des attentes normatives entourant la vie de couple ou de famille, les travailleuses célibataires et sans enfant semblent un point de repère utile pour évaluer cette dernière possibilité. S’attarder autant aux récits scientifiques que profanes permettrait d’explorer les tensions et convergences entre eux. Suivant cet objectif, un échantillon de 32 articles scientifiques et de 22 retranscriptions d’entrevues ont été analysés selon une approche d’analyse de discours guidée par les concepts de répertoire interprétatif (une façon cohérente d’aborder un sujet donné) et de position du sujet (une identité mise en évidence par une façon de parler ou d’écrire). Trois articles ont émergé de cette recherche. Suite à une analyse des thèmes communs utilisés dans l’interprétation de la santé/du bien-être du groupe en question, un répertoire interprétatif surnommé la famille comme référence a été identifié. Ce répertoire expliquerait notamment la tendance observée d’expliquer leur santé/bien-être en référant aux états et aux charactéristiques d’être parent ou partenaire. Cette pratique peut avoir l’effet de voiler leur vie privée ou de la construire comme étant relativement appauvrie. L’article 2 examine comment les membres de ce groupe construisent leur propre bien-être. Il identifie la notion d’équilibre entre plusieurs sphères de vie et une identité de femme dynamique comme éléments centraux aux récits sur leur bien-être. Ces derniers vont à l’encontre de la perception des célibataires ou des personnes sans enfant comme ayant des vies moins épanouies ou enrichies et qui ne sont pas touchées par des questions de conciliation travail-vie personnelle. Le troisième article rassemble les deux types de récits autour des sujets de l’emploi et du statut de célibataire en lien avec le bien-être. Il met en évidence de nombreuses similarités et divergences, et théorise la fonction de ces diverses constructions. En conclusion, j’avance qu’une perspective plus critique face au statut de couple ou familial et de ses aspects normatifs pourrait offrir à la recherche en santé publique un point de réflexivité à développer davantage.

The value of work in younger and older adults' lives: an Australian perspective

In the present study we examined the perceived role of work in the lives of younger and older adults in three different occupations: teaching, nursing, and small business. On the basis of lifespan developmental theory of changes in work-related values across the lifespan we expected that (1) older adults would rate their job satisfaction and organisational commitment more highly than younger adults, and (2) younger adults would rate the importance of work more highly than older workers. Based on utility theory we expected that nurses and teachers would view early retirement more positively than small business employees because of early retirement incentives in these two careers. One-hundred-sixty-two participants completed a 118-item survey. Overall few age differences were found between older and younger workers. On average, all participants rated work as moderately important and their job satisfaction as moderately high. Nonetheless, older participants rated their job satisfaction higher than younger participants. On average, all groups believed they would retire before 65 years of age. The latter finding is important for workability theory and raises issues about how to change attitudes, perceptions and values about working past traditional retirement ages.

Theoretical issues and political dilemmas in working with men

The aim of this chapter is to highlight some of the theoretical issues and political dilemmas involved in working with men in the human services. To develop a framework for practice with men, we have to adequately conceptualise the issues £1cing men. These are confusing and unsettling times for many men. To make sense of this confusion it is important to understand men's experiences within the context of the patriarchal structures in society and their relationship to class, race and gender regimes. Men and women who work with men in the human services should have an analysis of the social construction of masculinities and they need to understand how the forces that construct dominant masculinities embed men and women in relations of dominance and subordination that limit the potential for them to be in partnership with each other. To the extent that we ignore the social construction of masculinity,
it blocks insight into the real trouble in men's lives. Furthermore, if men do not grasp the basic notion of gender as a social construction, then feminist critiques of patriarchy, dominant masculinity and abusive male behaviours are going to be felt by men at a deeply personal level (Schwalbe 1996, pp. 187, 231).

Towards ending the silence: working women caring for children with chronic illness

This paper presents stories from women who work and care for a child with a significant chronic illness or disability. The purpose of this paper is to move towards ending the silence on their lives. A three-phase emergent research design responds to the question: What is life like for a full-time worker who is concurrently the primary carer of a chronically ill child? This paper considers the theory of Silencing the Self (Jack, 1991) in relation to the emergent themes of “Otherness” and “Doing it All.” As in Jack’s study, these women also engaged in silencing of the self. However, unlike the respondents in Jack’s study, these women did not demonstrate feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness for the future, nor were they alone in contributing to their silence. Indeed, many experienced silencing behaviors from others around them, and many rallied against the silence, not accepting that their burden should continue. Consideration of Jack’s theory is made to point out the distinctions between the women in this study and Jack’s study, and analytical commentary is provided to demonstrate the relevance of this analysis in light of the current debates surrounding the Work–Home Conflict and the rising levels of informal care provided by women in our communities.

Defining moments in men's lives : a study of personal narratives

This study explores the defining moments in six men’s lives. The empirical dimension of the research is built around the personal narratives these men tell of their lives across a series of four interviews. The central research theme is the notion of the defining moment as a key element in the processes of establishing how men understand and interpret the events and incidents that have shaped their lives. In the context of this study, the defining moment is seen as the moment or period in time when an individual gives definition to a specific event or experience, as a transition point with (potentially) life-altering consequences. Some of the thematic structures presented include relationships with significant adults (parents, teachers), masculinity, self-harm, schooling, mental illness, isolation, loneliness, stress and relationships with peers. In my pursuit of a methodology that could accommodate the aims of this study, I explored the process of meaning through the qualitative paradigm. Drawing on the principles of qualitative research, as applied through narrative inquiry, I deployed a semi-structured interview format to collect the lived experiences of participants. By privileging the stories that individuals tell of their experiences, the narrative method recognises that data are inexorably located in the contextual and contingent. The experiences and narratives that are presented in this thesis are built around the authentic voices of participants. The study presents a warrant for working with men’s defining moments to disrupt, alter and redefine their attitudes and behaviours in order to improve their lives. Based on the insights gleaned through this study, I argue that there are defining times/points in people’s lives where their experiences can be life altering. When these experiences involve uncertainty, anxiety, stress and other pernicious effects, their longer-term consequences can be devastating. The study confirms existing research, that men are reluctant to seek help or reveal their insecurities during such times, therefore making them particularly vulnerable to defining moments. The conclusion of this thesis establishes some broad recommendations pertaining to working effectively with men and their defining moments. I focus particular attention on the place of schooling and education in helping individuals recognise and respond to the early symptoms of what is potentially a life-altering experience. Schools and, by association, teachers need to be actively and strategically involved in this process. To this end, I argue the need for targeted interventions that are both sensitive and timely. In their engagements with young males, parents, teachers, coaches and mentors need to be particularly attuned to their silent screams for help.

Music video and gendered pleasures in the lives of young women and men

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the cultural and social significance of music video in the lives of a group of young women and men. In so doing the thesis pays particular attention to issues of gender and pleasure. This research examines the interaction of a group of young people with music video in relation to four areas of research. Firstly, the importance of music video in terms of social interaction and the pleasure this entails is explored. Secondly the thesis looks at the ways in which gender is seen by the young people in this study to be established by music video performers. Thirdly, how gender becomes inscribed on the body is explored, and fourthly I examine the process of sexualization of the body. Theoretically this thesis draws upon feminist theory, poststructuralist theory, music video scholarship and educational theories. This eclectic approach has been necessary as this research speaks simultaneously to several distinct areas of scholarship: education, cultural studies and feminism. My research with a young audience of music video took place within a secondary school. Over two semesters I conducted research with two separate classes of Media Studies students who were aged fifteen and sixteen. A total of 49 students were interviewed, however I chose mainly to work with a small group of eleven students - five girls and six boys. The school where I conducted this research is located in a working class suburb of a provincial and industrial Australian city . The young people's social positioning in terms of class and ethnicity has been considered in some depth in relation to the construction of the gendered subject. Methodologically the thesis is skewed towards the audience, and also towards dealing with what is normally unspoken in the research process. For example, much academic research does not include the author of the research as an integral part of that research. In this thesis I include myself in a number of ways: historically, personally and as a feminist. This thesis places a high priority on ethics and the effects of research on those who participate in the research process. The thesis uses a number of research methods: structured interviews, informal conversations, memory-work and written responses to music videos. Generally the research methods used in this thesis have been developed reflexively; that is, they have developed directly in relation to the participants’ reactions, responses, suggestions, interests and comments. The research seeks to demonstrate the place of music video in the lives of the young people who participated in the study. I look at how the young people in this study connect music video to other cultural forms and social interactions. In this way the intertextuality of music video is demonstrated. The research looks at how young viewers 'read' the gender of music video performers, and how this affects their own gendering. The social and cultural meanings which are attached to certain parts of the body are also examined. Theorizing the body in terms of its social meanings is a significant part of this thesis. The research argues that young people often experience music video as pleasurable, and that music video can provide young people with access to powerful speaking positions. This is demonstrated through transcripts of our conversations and interviews, and also through the young people's written comments. However, these powerful speaking positions invariably invoke dominant discourses (homophobia and racism, for example). Thus the disruptive potential of music video is called into question. These dominant discourses are gendered in nature. Pleasure in the text (music video) and cultural inscriptions of gender on the body then, are realized differently for the girls and for the boys in this study. My research into music video, gender and young people has implications for research methodology generally, and for music video scholarship specifically. Music video scholarship to date has rarely focussed upon the audience of this cultural form. My research has certain implications for the ways in which research is currently conducted with young people in relation to popular culture generally, and music video specifically, and gendered subjectivity.

Working positively with sexual offenders : maximizing the effectiveness of treatment

In this article, the authors draw on literatures outside sexual offending and make suggestions for working more positively and constructively with these offenders. Although the management of risk is a necessary feature of treatment, it needs to occur in conjunction with a strength-based approach. An exclusive focus on risk can lead to overly confrontational therapeutic encounters, a lack of rapport between offenders and clinicians, and fragmented and mechanistic treatment delivery. The authors suggest that the goals of sexual offender treatment should be the attainment of good lives, which is achieved by enhancing hope, increasing self-esteem, developing approach goals, and working collaboratively with the offenders. Examples are provided of how these targets may be met. When this is done within a therapeutic context where the treatment providers display empathy and warmth and are rewarding and directive, the authors suggest that treatment effects will be maximized.

O gênero conto em Lives of Girls and Women: o labirinto de vozes em Heirs of the Living Body

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Voz narrativa e memória: a busca de identidade pelas protagonistas de Felicidade clandestina, de Clarice Lispector e de Lives of girls and women, de Alice Munro. -

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)