Culture In Finland Research Articles

“A rapper is coming here—and he is black!” Authentication of rap music in the Finnish gospel music scene, 2005–2020

ABSTRACT In this article I analyse how gospel rap music is authenticated as a Christian practice in evangelical culture in Finland. The research data consist of interviews with nine self-identifying Christian rappers as well as media coverage of rap music in the evangelical press between the years 2005 and 2020. I first show how Finnish gospel rap music is embedded in the general late modern religious landscape, which is marked by therapeutic individualism, confessionalism, and striving for personal development. Secondly, I discuss how social diversity is performed in evangelical culture through rap music. Finally, I show how some rappers are engaged in grassroots anti-racist interventions in their musical activities, while the larger evangelical culture often remains reluctant to address the theme of structural racism in Christianity. In the conclusion, I argue that gospel rap music is a diverse and thriving refashioning of Protestant Christianity in an age when the appeal of Christianity in Finland is generally diminishing and Christianity is losing its former position as the dominant religious identity.

Criminal policy and sanctions in the 2020s and onwards: Determinants of penal culture in Finland during the last 150 years

This article provides a fragmentary overview of the developments of criminal law and criminal policy in Finland during the last 150 years. It reflects the author’s experiences as a criminal scientist and an expert in drafting criminal legislation over 50 years. This review uses the conclusions from Cesare Beccaria’s classic, centuries-old book as its starting point: a punishment may not be an act of violence, but should be public, immediate, necessary, as minimal as the case allows, proportional to the crime, and determined by law. The Finnish Penal Code of 1889 was originally thoroughly permeated by both the principles and the spirit of the classical school of penal law, wherein punishment was primarily regarded as retribution for an offence and the penal system was therefore tolerably harmonious with the demands of general deterrence. More weight was given to individual prevention when the Code was first drafted. Later on, the influence of the sociological school of penal law, which focused on the offender and individualized criminal sanctions, led to partial reforms of the penal system, such as the enactment of the Conditional Sentences Act of 1918, the Dangerous Recidivists Act of 1932, and the Young Offenders Act of 1940. The day fine system of 1921 and the fluctuations in the ideology regarding indeterminate penal sanctions are analyzed. The total reform of the Penal Code between 1972 and 2003 aimed to create a more rational penal system – one designed for efficient, just, and humane criminal justice. An ambitious attempt was made in as uniform and systematic a way as possible to assess the goals, interests, and values that the new Criminal Code should promote and protect. The existence of the criminal justice system was justified on utilitarian grounds. The structure and operation of a penal system, however, cannot be founded solely on the basis of utility; the criteria of justice and humaneness must also be applied. The penal system must be rational in regard to both its goals (utility) and its values (justice and humaneness). The developments since the 1990s have been characterized by the influence of human rights and basic rights on both criminal and procedural law, as well as by the effects of internationalizing and Europeanizing the criminal justice system. The latter tendencies have resulted in the diversification of criminal law.

Personal advertising and dating culture in World War II Finland

ABSTRACT I analyze how personal advertising affected marital and sexual culture in Finland during World War II. The practice of seeking intimate company through newspapers was nearly non-existent in Finland before the war, but in wartime grew into a nationwide mass phenomenon due to the gender imbalance caused by men’s departure for the front. Wartime personal advertising was different than that in peacetime. Unlike the typical situation, when advertisements are mostly used by the middle-aged, most of the advertisers during the war were young adults in the prime age of courtship. Their active advertising accounted for the high marriage rates during the war and had a liberating effect on Finnish sexual culture. The active posting of personal advertisements by women was also noteworthy. Traditionally, they were expected to passively await men’s initiatives in the marital market. However, during the war, women advertised in the same numbers as men, indicating that the freedom offered by advertisements was particularly important for them. Nevertheless, the transformation of sexual culture is not explicitly evident in the advertisements. The Finnish personal advertising culture was unique in that even adults undoubtedly seeking serious relationships only expressed wishes for correspondence in advertisements due to the conservative sexual culture of the country. The case illustrates challenges in using personal advertisements in the historical analysis of mate selection.

‘It’s a generational thing, really’. Understandings of sexual rights in a digital age

Deriving from a large-scale research project on intimacy in data-driven culture in Finland, I build on a sub-study examining Finland’s presumed sexual digital divide between generations. I analysed in-depth, semi-structured research discussions with six social media users who actively participated in the online discussion following the posting of a video on TikTok by the National Board of Investigation on the potential risks and dangers of sending nude images online. I wanted to know why this particular ‘awareness-raising video’ gained so much negative feedback from its young audiences on TikTok and other social media platforms. By using the idea of ‘generational sexualities’, I focus on the shared social imaginary the research participants seem to have on the sexual and digital divide between generations. As a result of my analysis, I propose that the idea of a generational gap regarding the digital modes of sexual engagement is a culturally and socially shared narrative contributing to a disconnective effect between the generations in sexual matters. Furthermore, the analysis of my research materials reveals that young people’s ‘full sexual rights’ operate as a specific generational narrative that organises and structures my research participants’ perspectives of what is inclusive and socially just sexual education. The educational efforts must go beyond risk and harm as ‘no-sexting’ educational materials may contribute to sexual discrimination and marginalisation, increase social inequality and negatively impact young people’s sexual wellbeing.

Cottage Culture in Finland: Development and Perspectives

This entry provides an understanding of the past, present, and future of the Finnish cottage culture to create an overall picture of its development trajectory and its terminology, e.g., villa, in this context denoting a second home. Convenient, ready-made solutions, easy maintenance, a high level of equipment, year-round use, location, and modern and simple architectural styles are important selection criteria for (summer) cottages that belonged only to the wealthy bourgeois class in the 19th century and have taken their present form with a major transformation in Finland since then. Additionally, municipal regulations and increased attention to ecological concerns are other important issues regarding the cottage today. Cottage inheritance has changed over the generations, and the tightening of building regulations and increased environmental awareness are key drivers of the future transformation of cottage culture. Moreover, the increasing demand for single-family and outdoor spaces created by social changes such as remote working, which has become widespread with the COVID-19 pandemic, will make the summer cottage lifestyle even more popular in Finland. It is thought that this entry will contribute to the continuance of the Finnish cottage culture, which is essential for the vitality of countryside municipalities, local development, national culture, and the well-being of Finnish people.

Lisa-Marlene EDELSWARD, Sauna as Symbol: Society and Culture in Finland, New York: Peter Lang, 1991, 267 pages, US $41.95 (hardcover)

Lisa-Marlene EDELSWARD, Sauna as Symbol: Society and Culture in Finland, New York: Peter Lang, 1991, 267 pages, US $41.95 (hardcover). An article from journal Culture (Volume 13, Number 2, 1993, pp. 5-128), on Érudit.

No Coming Back to Sick Society: The Emergence of New Drug User Segment in the Järvenpää Social Hospital in Finland, 1965-1975.

This article explores the emergence of “new” drug users by taking a closer look at the medical records of individuals who received inpatient treatment in the Järvenpää Social Hospital in Finland due to their drug consumption during the years 1965–1975. The hospital focused on social and psychiatric care. The Social Hospital patients differentiated themselves between “classical narcomaniacs” and new users, which indicates that a new user segment had emerged. The hospital staff described the new patients’ personalities as shortsighted and dependent on others but avoided making homogenic or dogmatic psychiatric interpretations. Both the patients and the staff referred to “drug philosophy” or “drug ideology,” which positioned drug consumption in a certain work-avoiding societal context. The main argument is that the Social Hospital archive provides an invaluable source by offering a combination of medical and societal analysis together with patients’ perspectives. Drug use was seen as a social problem that was never simplified into any one cause. Instead, the files offer a nuanced view to drug use and youth culture in Finland.

PUBLISHING HOUSE, “EXCELLENTLY PUBLISHING WORTHY BOOKS...”

The paper explores the actual features of the historical and literary context of book culture in Finland in Russian. On the example of the publishing house "Biblion" (1919-1921) the information is provided that contributes to the study of the publishing activities of foreign organizations, subjects of Sweden and Finland, contributing to the appearance of books of fiction by many Russian authors, the most famous of which during this period were Leonid Andreev and Alexander Kuprin. For a more complete presentation of the issue of the development of Russian book publishing between 1919 and 1921, it is necessary to know not only about trends on a national scale, to see the features of the development of book publishing in the regions, but also to take into account the specifics of the work of publishing houses and publishing activities of Russian abroad. The relevance of the issue is confirmed by the lack of domestic studies on the topic of publishing Russian literature abroad. The results of the work can be used in teaching courses on literature and culture of the Russian abroad countries, the history of Russian literature of the 1/3 of the XX century, studies of regional literature, with the refinement and addition of biobibliographies, bibliographies, catalogs, encyclopedias, other publications of Russian literature abroad.

The Emergence of a Nationalistic Vernacular: The Ideal Peasant Man and the Roma People as His Antagonists

Abstract This article discusses ethnic folklore as mirroring the ideals of peasant culture in Finland until the first half of the twentieth century. Using folk narratives about the Finnish Roma and proverbs as told by Finnish rural peasants, I investigate how such elements of everyday communication laid bare notions of social hierarchies. Historically, the sense of belonging to a nation has often been “invented” by the majority or by the people in power. Because the collecting of Finnish folklore was conducted primarily with an idealized notion of the peasant majority in mind, minority folklore or urban elements of life appeared inauthentic and thus not worthy of collection. Unlike the sedentary population, the Finnish Roma were itinerant, and they specifically became an object of ethnic folklore. The aim here is to understand the role of narrative culture in creating and maintaining institutionalized social differences.

Adult learners’ career paths – from IT profession to education within two-year study programme in Finnish university context

ABSTRACT Higher education and lifelong learning projects aimed at adults have become more widespread and have sparked a debate on how to restructure higher education policies and support lifelong learning. In Finland, a recent initiative in higher education policy is based on the theme of continuous learning. Different supporting structures and practices at the governmental level are being sought. During the academic year 2017–2018, the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland funded a project that provided pedagogical studies in teaching for 16 IT professionals. The aim was to enable the participants to focus on the educational field and find new options for their careers. We utilised a narrative research approach to explore the types of adult learners’ storylines and positions that were constructed during these studies, of which we identified three: the storyline of different alternatives, in which participants positioned themselves as a career path builders, the storyline of becoming a teacher, in which participants positioned themselves as a teacherhood reflectors and becoming a teacher was an enriching alternative, and the storyline of looking forward, in which participants positioned themselves as a developers and mainly saw their studies as expanding their ongoing career opportunities.

"MAY THE SHAME BE WITH YOU. ALWAYS." MITIGATING YOUNG PEOPLE'S INTIMATE EXCHANGES ONLINE

Cultural anxiety about the impact of young people's intimate exchanges online has increased over the past 15 years. Sexual media and 'digital intimacies' are routinely understood to be a source of harm and adverse outcomes. This paper engages with Finland's National Bureau of Investigation's $2 video campaign, the Police of Finland's public announcements on 'teen sexting' between 2017–2019 and young Finns responses to such educational efforts by using data from $2 study that is a part of a more significant research project on intimacy in data-driven culture in Finland. My research interest lies with some of the disconnections between current educational and policy discourses addressing young people's participation in digital cultures, and the lived experiences of young Finns. By asking from a focus-group of young Finns aged 15–19-years-old how they and their peers experience digital intimacy and their perceptions of the benefits, possible risks and harms, mitigations and solutions, I can draw a more ethical yet a complex picture of young people's engagement with digital intimacies. I call for a focus on the political, ethical and material implications of such educational efforts and policy responses that premises on digital abstinence to critically reflect on the question of young people's (sexual) rights in digital environments. The University of Turku ethics board has approved the research design and the uses of all the research datasets.

Domesticating startup culture in Finland

ABSTRACT In recent years, startup entrepreneurship–understood not only in economic but also in cultural terms–has become increasingly important for nations’ economic growth. This article examines startup culture as a global form and its domestication in local contexts. I analyse how startup entrepreneurship is made sense of in Finnish society, utilising Finnish startup guidebooks and non-fiction literature as research material. As a theoretical framework, I draw on the literatures of domestication of global trends and neoliberal, entrepreneurial subjectivity. The analysis reveals that the domestication of startup culture is founded on the juxtaposition of startup entrepreneurship and Finnish culture, constructing certain elements of Finnish culture as obstructive to and incompatible with startup entrepreneurship. Simultaneously, the books negotiate startup entrepreneurship in relation to Finnish historical meaning systems. The texts invite the Finnish audience to rework their national identity, which in part functions as the domestication of neoliberal, entrepreneurial subjectivity.

Tensions in the Sustainability of Higher Education—The Case of Finnish Universities

Universities are increasingly engaged in marketization and are also expected to transform into more sustainable institutions and be change-agents pushing forward the movement of sustainable development. This article introduces an analytical framework originated by Hahn et al. (2015) for understanding tensions concerning corporate sustainability to the context of the Finnish university system in order to answer the following questions: What are the tensions relating to Finnish universities’ social and economic sustainability, and what strategies might universities use to cope with these tensions? Through analyzing interviews with university managers and officials from the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland, we find that Hahn et al.’s framework is generally applicable in analyzing tensions of sustainability in universities, and we identify six tensions relating to the sustainability of Finnish universities. The tensions are related to (1) academic leadership and management legitimacy, (2) regional political tensions and university profiling, (3) political power over the university system, (4) changing academic work and profession, (5) academic autonomy and the role of the state, and (6) the future role of the university institution. Moreover, the article discusses issues regarding how to adapt the framework of corporate sustainability to the context of higher education.

TUL - satavuotias, joka karkasi ikkunasta mutta ei kadonnut

[The article is based on the book by the author, TUL liikuttaa, kasvattaa, vaikuttaa. Suomen Työväen Urheiluliitto 1919–2019. Suomen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Helsinki 2019.]
 
 The Finnish sports movement was divided in two as a consequence of the Civil War in 1918. Worker athletes who had fought on the Red side were expelled from The Finnish Gymnastic and Sport Federation (SVUL) after the war. Hence, in January 26, 1919, The Finnish Workers Sport Federation (TUL) was founded by 56 workers’ sports clubs. What is the reason for the TUL, as one of the few traditional people’s movements in Finland, reaching the age of 100 years? Most importantly, the sense of belonging to a community was traditionally considered important among workers. As long as there was a vivid working-class culture in Finland, sports were an essential part of life in the workers’ communities. Workers’ sports clubs formed a versatile school of life in which young people learned much more than only sports and gymnastics. The club activities were based on the rules of organised democracy, and they helped young people to understand the value of cooperation, respect for others and participation in society. The TUL’s role has been manifold; it has got people moving, brought people up, and influenced the sports politics. Many of the original political, educational and social values of the TUL are still actual today. The most important is the promotion of equality between different population groups through sports.

Applications of, and Experiences with, the Norwegian Model in Finland

Abstract The purpose of this article is to describe the development, components and properties of a publication indicator that the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland uses for allocating direct core funding annually to universities. Since 2013, 13% of the core funding has been allocated on basis of publication indicator that, like the Norwegian model, is based on comprehensive national level publication data that is currently provided by the VIRTA publication information service. In 2015, the publication indicator was complemented with other components of the Norwegian model, namely, quality-weighted publication counts based on national Publication Forum authority list of the publication channels with ratings established by experts in the field. The funding model allocates around 1.6 billion euros annually to universities with the publication indicator annually distributing over 200 million euros. Besides the funding model, the indicator provides comparable data for monitoring the research performance of Finnish universities, fields and subunits. The indicator may also be used in the universities’ local funding models and research management systems, sometimes even at individual level evaluation. Positive and negative effects of the indicator have been extensively discussed and speculated. Since 2011, the Finnish universities’ productivity appears to have increased in terms of both quantity and quality of publications.

The disappearance of the sacred Swedish Sámi drum and the protection of Sámi cultural heritage

AbstractOne of the last frontiers of the pre-Christian Sámi religion and cosmology from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries can be found recorded as embedded systems of knowledge on a range of noaidi-shaman drums kept in museums across Europe. Missionaries and clergymen as well as explorers who sought interest in the magical powers of the Sámi noaidi collected these artefacts during witchcraft trials and persecutions throughout Sápmi, the Sámi homeland areas. Insomuch as the drums being taken away from their owners and shipped from their homelands to other countries, their safeguarding, security and preservation as ancient sources of knowledge in museums is seldom discussed. As a consequence, the investigation presented here is a case study concerning the disappearance of a Sámi noaidi drum sent to a museum in France that has its origins in Swedish Sápmi, which I was informed about in 2017 prior to a visit to Paris for a seminar concerning the Sámi and their culture in Finland. The loss of the drum has only recently become known, and raises a series of important questions concerning responsibilities museums have with regard to the protection of property belonging to the Sámi as well as the repatriation and return of cultural heritage with regard to historical artefacts.

Face-to-face Contacts, Facebook Connections and Academic Support: Adolescents’ Networks between and across Gender and Culture in Finland

The purpose of the present study is to investigate gender and cultural background similarities among adolescents’ patterns of networking within a multicultural Finnish school. The participants consisted of 109 seventh to ninth graders who represented three cultural groups: major-culture ( n = 50; 46%), bi-culture ( n = 26; 24%) and minor-culture ( n = 33; 30%). A social networking questionnaire was administered to trace face-to-face, Facebook and academic support networks within each classroom. Results of social network analysis revealed that bi-culture students were culturally the most open to network with their classmates in face-to-face contacts, Facebook connections and peer academic support. Female students were more inclined to use Facebook to connect with other female classmates, whereas males were equally likely to connect with either gender via Facebook. No gender similarities were found in academic support network although female students were more apt to engage in academic support than their male counterparts.

Exploring learning culture in Finnish and South Korean classrooms

ABSTRACTThe authors aimed to investigate learning culture in classrooms at schools to understand education in Finland and South Korea. For this, Finnish and South Korean university students made observations on classrooms in partner countries and reflected on both education systems based on their own previous experiences (2011–2014). Afterwards, researchers from both countries categorized and thematized the experiences of the participants, and interpreted the main themes to figure out the learning culture in Finland and South Korea. As a result, the learning culture in both countries were characterized into six themes: teacher's autonomy in teaching, authenticity in learning, relationships between teachers and students, learning assessment, student engagement, and student well-being. Noteworthy features of high-performing education were recognized through the observation on the learning culture in both countries.

Review: Listening to War: Sound, Music, Trauma, and Survival in Wartime Iraq, by J. Martin Daughtry

Book Review| April 01 2017 Review: Listening to War: Sound, Music, Trauma, and Survival in Wartime Iraq, by J. Martin Daughtry Listening to War: Sound, Music, Trauma, and Survival in Wartime Iraq, by J. Martin Daughtry. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. xi, 344 pp. Bruce Johnson Bruce Johnson BRUCE JOHNSON holds honorary professorships in music, cultural history, communications, and media at the universities of Glasgow and Turku (Finland) and at Australian universities including University of Technology Sydney. As government advisor on music policy he produced the legislation-changing report Vanishing Acts. He cofounded the International Institute for Popular Culture in Finland. Academic books include collections on jazz and totalitarianism, and on sound, memory, and space. In 2017 he holds a visiting chair in cultural sciences at the University of Gothenberg. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the American Musicological Society (2017) 70 (1): 271–275. https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2017.70.1.271 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Bruce Johnson; Review: Listening to War: Sound, Music, Trauma, and Survival in Wartime Iraq, by J. Martin Daughtry. Journal of the American Musicological Society 1 April 2017; 70 (1): 271–275. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2017.70.1.271 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the American Musicological Society Search One distinctive feature of modernity is the proliferation of constructed sound, to the point where noise pollution is regarded as one of the greatest threats to human well-being. An ecology of violence invests the modern soundscape, encompassing the noise of industry, transport, and recreation. It is not simply organic damage but, insofar as the distinction remains viable, psychic damage. While this is especially true in situations of armed conflict, the threat is not confined to an abnormal “elsewhere.” The distinctiveness of the damage caused specifically by sound in armed conflict is one of degree and frequency, as documented in studies of the effects of both high volume and Low Frequency Noise (LFN).1 There is, as Daughtry says, a “kernel of potential violence that exists within all sounds” (p. 165). As in the general soundscape, so too in its bellicose sites, modernity has brought a new level of trauma, especially... You do not currently have access to this content.

Turning Right/Turning Left? A Neoclassical Socioeconomic Query of the Arts Signaled by Museum and Branding in Finland

ABSTRACTThe Guggenheim Helsinki Plan indicated a wishful turn of the arts and culture in Finland from the socio-democratic tradition of a welfare society towards a further neoliberalism. Following the Finnish historical timeline and from a museological viewpoint, this article reviews how national identity was built through the arts, which later integrated into formal and informal education to enhance human capital. This instrumental view now promotes the idea of useful art to fuel an innovation economy of advanced technology. Considering embarking on the intricate platform of arts, economics, and finance through Guggenheim, rethinking the contemporary art market mechanism may prove to be beneficial.