Abstracts 2011
Sosiologia vol. 48, 2011, 1
Bounded justifiability. Assurance and oppression
in securing life together with binding engagements
Laurent Thévenot, (Finnish translation by Veikko Eranti)
The article presents a model for resolving the tension between universal human rights and mores and customs of different cultures. The writer identifi es three grammars for building life together, which are based on different ways of achieving assurance necessary for operating in the world. In the fi rst one assurance is brought about by justifying using different orders of worth, in the second by means of individuals operating in the liberal public sphere, and in the third on grounds of the personal engagements and common affi nities. Each of these grammars has its own version of justifi ability. The article concludes by suggesting that the grammars, and the regimes of engagement behind them, increase our understanding of the processes of societal exclusion, power, and the misuse of power, and provide us with new tools for critical analysis of injustice. The article draws on several international comparative studies on justifi cation and culture.
Keywords: grammars of commonality, regimes of commitment, comparative research, France, the United States, Laurent Thévenot
Grammars of commonality in urban activism in Helsinki and St. Petersburg
Markku Lonkila, Doctor of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki
In the studies of Russian civil society and politics the emphasis tends to be on the lack or defi cit of something in comparison with Western countries. This article analyzes the differences between Russian and Finnish urban activism through the notions of grammars of commonality and regimes of engagement developed by Laurent Thévenot. It draws on the data collected about two movements organized by local dwellers against new building projects at Komendantskii prospekt 40 in the Primorskii district of St. Petersburg, and in the Kumpula district of Helsinki in 2009. Thévenot´s notions give new tools for examining the relationship between personal, intimate attachments and public action.
Keywords: Finland, Russia, social movements, comparative research, regimes of commitment, grammars of commonality, Laurent Thévenot
Public Justifications Analysis as a Sociological Research Method
Eeva Luhtakallio, Doctor of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, and Tuomas Ylä-Anttila, Doctor of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki
The article introduces Public Justifi cations Analysis, a new research method developed for studying public debates. The method is based on the analytical framework presented by Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot, consisting of seven "worlds of justifi cation" – the world of inspiration, the domestic world, the world of fame, the civic world, the market world, the industrial world and the world of ecology. The method looks at the moral justifi cations of claims presented in public debates, their combinations, and ways of denouncing the justifi cations by other parties. The method makes it possible to incorporate quantitative classifi cations into qualitative analysis, enabling the method to be used in the analysis of extensive research materials. The use of the method is illustrated through two empirical examples. The fi rst one deals with claims and justifi cations presented in the globalization debate in the daily Helsingin Sanomat in 1999–2005, particularly those presented by representatives of civil society and economical and political elites. This case demonstrates the usefulness of justifi cations analysis in exploring the moral dimensions of social confl icts. The second example focuses on local confl icts in Finland and France by looking at the justifi cations presented by citizens and representatives of the city in thelocal press. This example highlights the strengths of the method as a tool for comparative analysis.
Keywords: Luc Boltanski, Laurent Thévenot, theory of justifi cation, public justifications, comparative research
Dispute over climate. Justifi cations of the post-Kyoto climate agreement as presented in Helsingin Sanomat and in The Times of India during the years 2005-2008
Suvi Huikuri, Master of Political Science, University of Helsinki
The negotiations on the post-Kyoto climate agreement have run into diffi culties during the consensus building process. One central reason for this is the diffi culty to fi nd a just way to share the burden of emission reductions. The dispute of burden sharing is most evident between the industrialized North and the developing South. This article compares justifi cation arguments used in the public climate discussion in Finland (Helsingin Sanomat) and in India (The Times of India) during the years 2005-2008. The aim is to conceptualize the prerequisites for concluding the new climate agreement from the perspectives of both North and South. The research method, public justifi cation analysis, is based on Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot's theory of justifi cation (1991, 2006). The key conclusions of this article are as follows. Firstly, the most central prerequisites for a new climate agreement presented in Finland are the coverage and effi ciency of the agreement as well as the use of market control mechanisms, all of which are described through several worlds of justifi cation. In India on the other hand, the majority of justifi cations are based on the civic world emphasizing climate justice. Secondly, the public climate discussion in India is more voluminous and critical than in Finland. And lastly, even though both discussions utilize justifi cations basing on notions of a green world to a great extent, there are only few arguments in the materials highlighting the importance of environmental protection.
Keywords: climate justice, climate negotiations, justifi cation theory, public justifi cation analysis, public discussion
Sosiologia vol. 48, 2011, 2
Television and cultural capital. Social differentiation of programme types and favourite programmes in contemporary Finland
Semi Purhonen
In studies on the social differentiation of cultural tastes and cultural consumption, less systematic attention has been paid to television than to more esteemed fi elds of culture. It has also been suggested that social class and cultural capital are not relevant categories in studying television in present-day Finland. This article explores the social differentiation of cultural taste in connection with TV in Finland from two perspectives: fi rstly, the article analyzes which programme types different social groups prefer most and least; and secondly, it analyzes the social profi le of preferences for individual programmes. The data derive from a recent nationally representative survey. The results indicate that cultural taste in the fi eld of television is socially structured in a crucial manner. It is organized along age, gender, and residential area, but also along the level of education, occupational class, and income. In addition, the traditional highbrow cultural orientation has a strong effect on TV tastes. This shows that tastes for TV programmes are not independent of other cultural fi elds and hierarchies. Moreover, highbrow orientation is a mediating factor, which partly accounts for the effect of education on TV tastes. Results suggest that in TV taste, negative distinctions are more clearly differentiated than positive identifi cations. Distaste for reality TV, above all, has become culturally legitimate. In light of the results, the article concludes with a discussion on the applicability of Pierre Bourdieu's concepts to research on TV viewing.
Keywords: cultural capital, cultural taste, Finland, social differentiation, television
Drug addiction treatment and the challenge posed by medicine. Therapeutic rationalization and government in psychosocial drug addiction treatment in Finland in 1965 through 2005
Jani Selin
This article deals with psychosocial drug addiction treatments in Finland in the years 1965 through 2005. Along with the introduction of medicine-based substitution therapy at the turn of the century, drug addiction treatment became more medically-orientated. In the article, this change is analyzed in the light of Michel Foucault's notion of government, with a focus on methods of drug abuse treatment on the one hand and knowledge on drug addiction on the other. The materials drawn on mainly consist of articles by experts of welfare for drug abusers published in the journal Tiimi. The writer suggests that what was at stake was not an abrupt discontinuity but shifts in the mode of therapeutic rationalization and the techniques of government.
Keywords: drug addiction, drug addiction treatment,
government, medicine, psychosocial
Sosiologia vol. 48, 2011, 3
Emotions and economical assistance in a transnational family
Anna Matyska
The article draws on the writer's ethnographic study of Polish migrants in Finland and their relationships with their kin in Poland throughout and after the Cold War. The article argues for the inseparability of economical assistance, emotions and emotion work in a transnational family life, and shows their importance for the emergence and reproduction of intimate transnationalism across Poland and Finland. The article stresses the negotiated character of transnational economic exchanges. In the writer's ethnographical study these were underpinned by the histories of given family relationships and changing political economy conditions. Relative harmony and disruption coexisted, making transnationalism an uneven and ambivalent process.
Keywords: transnational family, economical assistance, emotions, Poland, family relations
Social hierarchies and positive attitudes towards school with Finnish secondary school students
Mira Kalalahti, Sakari Karvonen & Ossi Rahkonen
Measurement of social status aims at grasping societal categories which are related to, explain, or predict differences in living conditions or welfare. Along with the re-emerging discussions on class society, such measurements have been extended to cover several dimensions and to emphasize the importance of individuals' own views and their subjective social status for the subsequent categories. Research on children and youth increasingly takes into account the very moment of the formation of social status - the separation and intertwining of one's subjective status and that of the family one is raised in. In the light of a questionnaire data (N=2369) gathered among Helsinki-based students on the ninth form of secondary school, the article looks into the interrelations between subjective and objective indicators of social status. The writers discuss the way a student's estimate of her family's social status, that of her own status in the hierarchy of the school community, and her objectively measured social status interrelate. In addition, they look at how these different approaches to measuring social status explain one of the attitudinal factors behind the results of schooling, namely positive attitudes toward school. The results of the study indicate that subjective indicators of social status can account for the signifi cance of social hierarchies among youth better than family's social status or objective indicators.
Keywords: subjective socio-economic status, school attitude, adolescents
Edward Westermarck's sociology of morality
Otto Pipatti
The article discusses the foundations of Edward Westermarck's moral theory. Westermarck's views on the origin and nature of morality are founded on a combination of the Scottish Enlightenment's moral philosophy and Darwinism. Due to the revival of the evolutionary approaches, Westermarck has again aroused interest also in sociology. The article demonstrates that the reappraisal of Westermarck's thought would be particularly beneficial for the discussions on the sociology of emotions. The writer concentrates on the question in what sense Westermarck considered morality, action and sociality to have an emotional basis. He examines the specific qualities Westermarck associates with moral emotions as well as his explanations for people's need to feel these kinds of approving and disapproving emotions with a character of disinterestedness, impartiality and generality. It is crucial to understand that Westermarck considered the psychological basis of morality to be in constant interaction with social dimensions. This is manifested, for example, in the central role he gives to sympathy and customs. Likewise, Westermarck emphasized how social institutions develop, are maintained and change in relation to moral emotions.
Keywords: Edward Westermarck, morality, emotions; moral sociology
Sosiologia vol. 48, 2011, 4
Social action and the musical aspects of speech: Towards a sociology of prosody
Melisa Stevanovic & Mikko Kahri
The One of the elementary structures of interaction involves the idea of a speaker setting the frame for the second speaker to produce her turn. Still, according to authors of this article, responsive turns can be different regarding the speaker's agency: (1) in "with-actions" the actor stays focused on her partner, while (2) in "counter- actions" the actor foregrounds her own agency. In this article, the authors consider sequences from mother- baby interaction and everyday interaction among adults, with the aim of mapping out prosodic features for "with-actions" and "counter-actions". Thereafter, by studying sequences from interaction in psychotherapy and church workplace meetings, the authors demonstrate how participants, through subtle regulation of the prosodic features of their responsive turns, may construct and maintain institutional roles and broader frames of action, or challenge and manipulate them according to their strategic goals. Sociological research on prosody appears as a new fruitful domain of research, which enables us to grasp previously overlooked social phenomena.
Keywords: conversation analysis, interaction, prosody, agency
Stagnated middle class? Registerbased analysis of social mobility in Finland in 1985 – 2005.
Outi Sirniö, Pekka Martikainen & Pasi Moisio
In the 1990s, as the process of urbanisation and 'white-collarisation' was at its peak in Finland, it was commonly predicted that the growth of the middle class would decline and the middle class would stagnate.The access to middle-class status would thus increasingly come to entail a middleclass childhood home. This study asks whether such a closing upactually took place during the period 1985 through 2005. The data used is a representative 11 per cent sample of Finland's population and consists of longitudinal information gathered by Statistics Finland. Middle-class status here covers persons classifi ed as upper and lower white-collar workers. The results indicate that although the quantitative growth of the middle class came to a halt during the period, the middle class can still take in people with other backgrounds as well. The level of social mobility in Finland seems to remain high. While the association between an individual's personal and parental social class weakened, the gender differences in social mobility remain clear. On the other hand, it is also more likely to gain the status of lower white-collar workers than that of upper white-collar ones.
Keywords: Social mobility, middle class, social class, white-collar workers
Gender equality planning as a technique of managerialistic governance
Elina Ikävalko & Kristiina Brunila
The authors of this article look at the gender equality planning required by the present Finnish Act on Equality between Women and Men as an instance of techniques intertwined with the technology of managerialistic governmentality. Although gender equality planning appears as a solution to problems of gender equality, it also contributes to producing them. The analysis focuses on the subject needed by gender equality planning, the function of which subject in gender equality planning is to "rightly" govern gender equality. The materials drawn on consist of documents, directives, minutes, and interview data produced in gender equality planning projects and project-like procedures. The authors point out that gender equality planning has given rise to an entire profession with gender equality competence as well as to a related market for projects and training. These are supported by the productization of the tools and models of gender equality planning and the "research data" on the functionality and effects of those models. Productized gender equality planning turns equality into a quantifi ed, statistically controllable, and instumentalized commodity. The subject of gender equality planning is expected to remain positive and have faith in good-spirited co-operation, but accept on the other hand the fact that she must not demand too many reformations too fast. The authors suggest that the "right" performance required by gender equality planning actually involves commitment to a bipolar gender system and to serving the interests of economy and working life. .
Keywords: gender equality planning, gender equality, subjectifi cation, managerialism, governmentality, discursive reading