Part of
Encounters in the field
Applied conversation analysis in professional contexts
Societal impact is an integral part of academic research today and researchers are expected to share their findings with research participants. Efforts to develop scientific research and science communication from one-way communication towards different forms of co-creation where the researcher and research participants produce knowledge and negotiate about its meaning and applicability through joint actions are in great demand. For the researcher, such developments have brought a new kind of access into the world of research participants and also novel reflections on one’s professional knowledge and identity and their boundaries. This book focuses on the human and social sciences and draws particular attention to the diverse encounters that occur between researchers and research participants at all stages of the research process when studying human subjects and activities.
The book presents case studies of applied conversation analysis in a variety of professional contexts. The aim of the book is to shed light on the practices, possibilities, and challenges of applied research within the conversation analytic framework where the research participants’ authentic social situations become the target of the researcher’s detailed analysis. The articles of the book investigate social interaction in occupational health care, mental health rehabilitation, elderly care, welfare education, theatre rehearsals, social circus, military organization, software development, and workplace community break taking. These articles represent applied conversation analysis in different ways. The results of the research have been used in some of the articles, for example, in developing the professional practices of the workplace community whereas in some other articles the whole study has been undertaken collaboratively between researchers and professionals. Each article is divided into two parts: a conventional research report that analyses the patterns of social interaction in a particular professional setting is followed by a story where the authors reflect on how their study originated, how it progressed, and what kinds of encounters and choices it involved. The stories highlighting reciprocal interactions of the researcher and the research participants across the research process bring forth various voices and perspectives that conventionally are not considered as part of the research report. The book brings important information not only on the interactional phenomena examined in the articles but also on the diverse issues of conducting and applying research in professional contexts. It also discusses the practices and definitions of applied conversation analysis within the broader framework of applied research, universities’ third mission, and forms of knowledge and expertise in contemporary society.
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What is a state? This volume approaches the question from an anthropological perspective, which means that the starting point of the analysis is not the concept of the state, but instead, what kinds of structures the state consists of, what kinds of effects these structures have, and how states are experienced by the people who inhabit, make, enact, and resist them.
The volume introduces a contemporary anthropological approach to the study of the state for a Finnish-speaking audience. This new approach examines the state as a diverse, socially and culturally constructed phenomenon that varies in time and place. Additional aims of the volume are to introduce and translate concepts from political anthropology to the Finnish language, and to make anthropological analyses of the state known to other disciplines that study the state and to the general Finnish-speaking public.
Covering a wide variety of ethnographic contexts examining both the effects of the state and the state-like effects of other institutions, the volume contains case studies from Brazil, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, Finland, Bolivia, Cuba, Egypt, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Ghana. A theoretical introduction presents the development of anthropological thinking with regard to the state and state-like institutions. An afterword reflects on the contribution of the volume in light of the ethnographic context of Indonesia.
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Aberrations of Reason. Capitalist Rationality and its Critique in Juha Seppälä’s Novels Yhtiökumppanit (The Partners, 2002), Paholaisen haarukka (Devil’s Fork, 2008) and Mr. Smith (2012).
Juha Seppälä’s early literary works, published in the 1980s and in the early 1990s, usually described spiritually lonely men who suffered from an existential loss of meaning and serious alienation problems in the modern world. After this, Seppälä turned to deal with the transformation of the Finnish way of life and its cultural base, until after the turn of the new millennium he began to critically judge society’s ongoing marketization process. This study analyses his capitalism-critical works, particularly his novels Yhtiökumppanit (The Partners, 2002), Paholaisen haarukka (Devil’s Fork, 2008) and Mr. Smith (2012). These works do not, primarily, consider contemporary market capitalism from a class perspective, although this sort of perspective is also included in them. They are, above all, critical of market capitalist rationality. According to Seppälä, the basic problem of modern economic profit-seeking lies in the fact that in its unchecked form it is largely indifferent with respect to existential, moral, social and ecological values and principles. Free market economy or market capitalism has, therefore, a destructive influence on individuals, communities and ecological systems. The novels at issue emphasize that due to this it is also, in a deeper sense, incapable of producing existentially meaningful ways of life.
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For the first time worldwide, this collection brings together analyses of the last two centuries of historical change around the shores and drainage basin of Lake Ladoga, Europe’s largest lake. The main focus of the narrative is the Northern Ladoga region, which was a Finnish administrative area between 1812 and 1944. After the Second World War, the entire shoreline of Lake Ladoga was incorporated into the northeast part of Russia’s border region, the Autonomous Republic of Karelia and the Leningrad Province.
The main theme uniting this collection is how the relationship between humans and nature is shaped by industrialization and modernization in society. Other key issues include protecting nature and perspectives on particular places and times, which are reflected in the methodological and thematic choices made in this volume.
The research framework set by the editor, Professor Maria Lähteenmäki, is the new lakefront history (Finn. uusi rantahistoria), focusing on approaches to environmental, economic and sensory history of lakes. To draw broad conclusions, on the one hand, the multilevel changes on the lakefront cannot be understood without knowledge of the history of the wider drainage basin, and awareness of the geopolitics of the region and the climate changes. On the other hand, the human relationship to natural waters has changed significantly in 200 years. Thinking in terms of economic benefit has gradually given way to principles of sustainable development. Lake Ladoga is also being redefined from a spatial perspective, as nationalist ownership of the region is coupled with global concern about the state of Europe’s largest lake.
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Methods in Linguistics is a collection of articles presenting a broad variety of methods and approaches in the field of linguistics. It offers structure to the spectrum of methodological possibilities and helps the reader to identify the field of application as well as the strengths and weaknesses of different methods. The book consists of an extensive introductory part and a variety of articles, each written by experts of the method in question. It discusses questions related to different kinds of data and data collection, as well as methods used for analysing data. Since the methods used in linguistics are often related to a specific linguistic current, the book offers examples from a wide range of linguistic approaches.
The book is addressed to students, researchers and other readers interested in the methods used in linguistics. The general methodological and metatheoretical knowledge offered in the introduction guides the reader through the different methodological choices presented and helps the reader to select the best method to meet her needs. First, the research process is explained step-by-step from the selection of topic and data to questions related to research design, analysis and the reporting of the results. The second part of the introduction focuses on fundamental theoretical and methodological questions, such as the criteria for knowledge, the nature of scientific knowledge and the scientific method. The third part addresses more specifically the methodology of linguistics, discussing the multifaceted nature of natural language and linguistics as a discipline. The introduction also covers many current topics in science, such as research ethics, data protection and open science principles.
The book can be used as self-study material by students and researchers alike, or as course material in higher education. Learning is supported by the careful definition of terms, extensive indexes and additional readings suggested for each topic.
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Gendered and sexualized abuse and other forms of violence are visibly present in the culture of the third millennium. Especially bodies that are gendered as female are – both dead and alive – objects of multiple forms of abuse and violence in the texts and imageries of contemporary culture. Men, on the other hand, are often represented as abusive towards women and as the violent gender or, as targets of other men’s violence. Structural violence has also an impact on many areas of everyday life, and it is materialized in, for example discrimination and inequality.
Gender and Violence: The Ethics and Politics of Reading scrutinizes gendered violence as a complex phenomenon of contemporary culture. The authors study the ways in which ways representations of violence can be read, viewed and received. They also discuss what kind of politics the violent representations implement and actualize, and how they affect their audience.
Gender and Violence takes a critical stance on the intersections of gender, power, and violence in literature, film, television and the internet. The analysis focuses on, for example, sci-fi, Nordic Noir and North American comedy series, poems, young adult literature (YA) and nationalist blog texts. The book presents both Finnish and international academic discussions, in which researchers in the fields of gender studies, arts and literature, and cultural studies challenge contemporary English abstract 279 understanding of gender, sexuality, power, and violence. Moreover, Gender and Violence provides tools for critical discussions on violence and in-depth scrutiny about its cost on all of us.
Gender and Violence is an anthology of academic research articles. It works well as an academic textbook, but it also provides timely and new knowledge for everyone interested in questions of gender and violence – phenomena that touch upon all of us.
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When Aleksis Kivi’s (1834–1872) Finnish tragedy Karkurit (‘The Escapees’) was originally published in 1867 it was considered better than his two former plays, the Kalevalaic tragedy Kullervo (1864) and the comedy Nummisuutarit (‘Heath Cobblers’, 1864). Soon these encouraging views, however, turned completely opposite. Dismissing attitudes towards Kivi’s play were dominant until the 1960s when new theatre productions made its artistic merits worthy of consideration again. The critical edition of Karkurit gives a new and more versatile image of Aleksis Kivi as a playwright and helps to understand his tragedy in the light of the changing artistic ideals of different periods and generations.
The edition contains a scholarly edited and richly annotated text of the tragedy’s first edition. Expert introductions by leading authorities illuminate the multidimensional dramaturgy of the play and reflect its relation to the European drama traditions and the socio-historical context of 19th-century Finland. In addition, the introductory articles analyse Kivi’s pioneering blank verse dialogues and discuss how Karkurit was published and performed from the 19th century up to the present day.
The appendices include, among others, versatile text-critical apparatuses, an overview of the first Swedish dramatization of the tragedy (1872) and an earlier version of the play, an excerpt that was originally published in a magazine one year prior to the first edition of the drama.
Edith – Critical Editions of Finnish Literature
Edith editions are based on scholarly analysis of manuscripts, first editions and other historical sources. They reflect and clarify Finnish literary culture for scholars, teachers and other readers interested in literature.
Songs and writings: oral and literary cultures in early-modern Finland renews the understanding of exchange between the learned culture of clergymen and the culture of commoners, or “folk”. What happened when the Reformation changed the position of the oral vernacular language to literary and ecclesiastical, and when folk beliefs seem to have become an object for more intensive surveillance and correction? How did clergymen understand and use the versatile labels of popular belief, paganism, superstition and Catholic fermentation?
Why did they choose particular song languages, poetic modes and melodies for their Lutheran hymns and literary poems, and why did they avoid oral poetics in certain contexts while accentuating it in others? How were the hagiographical traditions representing the international medieval literary or “great” tradition adapted to “small” folk traditions, and how did they persist and change after the Reformation? What happened to the cult of the Virgin Mary in local oral traditions?
The first Finnish 16th-century reformers admired the new Germanic models of Lutheran congregational hymns and avoided the Finnic vernacular Kalevala-metre idiom, while their successors picked up many vernacular traits, most notably alliteration, in their ecclesiastical poetry and hymns. Over the following centuries, the new features introduced via new Lutheran hymns such as accentual metres, end-rhymes and strophic structures were infusing into oral folk poetry, although this took place also via secular oral and literary routes. On the other hand, seventeenth-century scholars cultivated a new academic interest in what they understood as “ancient Finnish poetry”.
The book has an extensive English Summary for the international readership.
Book DetailsCity as a Stage explores the diverse ways in which modern cities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries presented and projected themselves, especially by staging major urban events, which have often been interpreted as major local and national turning points. In particular, the book discusses how cities were imagined through the prism provided by other cities, major events, as well as alternative pasts and futures. How –with admiration, indifference or contestation– did various urban actors engage with the city as a stage? The book paints a multifaceted picture of the history of urban events and town twinning, while at the same illustrating how students and travellers experienced cities such as Berlin, Rome, Helsinki, and Tampere. As for individual urban events, Stockholm’s General Art and Industrial Exposition of 1897, Helsinki’s 400th anniversary of 1950, and the Moscow Youth Festival of 1957 are all given their own chapter.
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This collection of essays looks at the issue of human well-being from the point of view of environmental aesthetics. Questions addressed include: What role do aesthetic values have in advancing well-being? Are there environments that are particularly supportive of well-being? What is the place of aesthetic factors in environmental and city planning? The authors of the first part of the book illuminate the relationship between aesthetics and well-being by discussing such notions and ideas as aesthetic well-being, interactive environmental planning, aesthetic quality in urban planning, aesthetic footprint, and ecological aesthetics. The authors of this part also engage with many topical questions in environmental and everyday aesthetics. For example, Yuriko Saito’s idea of green aesthetics as well as Allen Carlson’s science-based model of the aesthetic appreciation of nature are critically examined.
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