Volume 23, Issue 3, June 2024, Page 351-359.

Volume 16, Issue 1, March 2025, Page 178-181.

A recent proposal by Quill Kukla and Mark Lance holds that surface appearances notwithstanding, gender ascriptions are closer to normative performatives than descriptions. As speech acts, they share more in common with pronouncing a marriage than a neutral description of a person, albeit this is not commonly recognized. This paper argues that the proposal faces a consistency problem. In order to affect social reality qua their illocutionary force, gender ascriptions must on average succeed. However, according to the authors most actual (...) second- and third person gender ascriptions in fact violate the success conditions of the speech act type, which include respect for the individual’s first-person gender ascriptions. Their main claim thus becomes that gender roles can be instituted as a series of misfires, though it is left open how this is possible. (shrink)

1. 1826-1840 -- 2. 1840-1842 -- 3. 1842-1843 -- 4. 1844-1845 -- 5. 1845-1847 -- 6. 1847-1849 -- 7. 1850-1856 -- 8. 1857-1858 -- 9. 1859-1860.

Finland’s NATO accession presents not only a profound shift in the country’s foreign policy, but also the culmination of its long road from neutrality and military non-alignment to alliance membership. In the process, the Finland-U.S. relationship has been upgraded to a new level, especially in the security domain. Paradoxically, this has occurred at a time when U.S. commitment to Europe is increasingly uncertain, necessitating creative solutions from the Europeans.

In the editorial note, we shortly outline the reception of Kant’s philosophy in Finland and how Kant’s philosophy became an academic topic from the late 18th century onwards. We also provide some details about the translations of Kant’s works into Finnish. Finally, we introduce the contributions to the special section on Kantian studies in Finland.

The only monograph about Leibniz in Finland is Raili Kauppi, Über die Leibnische Logik. This doctoral thesis appeared in series Acta Philosophica Fennica XII in 1960. Kauppi’s thesis continues on the footsteps of Couturat’s and Russell’s, with some original insights. There have also been some influential articles.

Finland is internationally known as one of the leading centers of twentieth century analytic philosophy. This volume offers for the first time an overall survey of the Finnish analytic school. The rise of this trend is illustrated by original articles of Edward Westermarck, Eino Kaila, Georg Henrik von Wright, and Jaakko Hintikka. Contributions of Finnish philosophers are then systematically discussed in the fields of logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, history of philosophy, ethics and social philosophy. Metaphilosophical reflections on (...) the nature of philosophy are highlighted by the Finnish dialogue between analytic philosophy, phenomenology, pragmatism, and critical theory. (shrink)

Finland is internationally known as one of the leading centers of twentieth century analytic philosophy. This volume offers for the first time an overall survey of the Finnish analytic school. The rise of this trend is illustrated by original articles of Edward Westermarck, Eino Kaila, Georg Henrik von Wright, and Jaakko Hintikka. Contributions of Finnish philosophers are then systematically discussed in the fields of logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, history of philosophy, ethics and social philosophy. Metaphilosophical reflections on (...) the nature of philosophy are highlighted by the Finnish dialogue between analytic philosophy, phenomenology, pragmatism, and critical theory. (shrink)

Finland is internationally known as one of the leading centers of twentieth century analytic philosophy. This volume offers for the first time an overall survey of the Finnish analytic school. The rise of this trend is illustrated by original articles of Edward Westermarck, Eino Kaila, Georg Henrik von Wright, and Jaakko Hintikka. Contributions of Finnish philosophers are then systematically discussed in the fields of logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, history of philosophy, ethics and social philosophy. Metaphilosophical reflections on (...) the nature of philosophy are highlighted by the Finnish dialogue between analytic philosophy, phenomenology, pragmatism, and critical theory. (shrink)

Finland is a country in Northern Europe with a population of approximately 5.1 million people. It lies between Sweden and Russia and has a border with Norway too. It is part of the European Union and also belongs to the European Monetary Union. It is a welfare state in the sense that healthcare services, schools, universities, and social services are for the most part paid for by tax-based funding. In terms of basic healthcare, the state, through local municipalities, provides comprehensive (...) coverage to all residents, and this is utilized by both the wealthy and the poor. (shrink)

Finland is internationally known as one of the leading centers of twentieth century analytic philosophy. This volume offers for the first time an overall survey of the Finnish analytic school. The rise of this trend is illustrated by original articles of Edward Westermarck, Eino Kaila, Georg Henrik von Wright, and Jaakko Hintikka. Contributions of Finnish philosophers are then systematically discussed in the fields of logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, history of philosophy, ethics and social philosophy. Metaphilosophical reflections on (...) the nature of philosophy are highlighted by the Finnish dialogue between analytic philosophy, phenomenology, pragmatism, and critical theory. (shrink)

The target article excludes ancestral neutrality as a cause for the inheritance of schizophrenia, with an argument relating to selection against a single allele in the Finnish population. However, drift would predominate over selection within subisolates of the Finnish population. Comparisons of subisolates with heterogeneous populations may provide clues to the endophenotypic structure of complex polygenetic heritable mental disorders. (Published Online November 9 2006).

Since the establishment of the first food bank in 1995, charitable food aid has become entrenched in Finland as a seemingly irreplaceable solution to food poverty. Further, it has recently been suggested that the focus of food aid activities is shifting from food poverty and temporary hunger alleviation towards environmental sustainability through addressing food waste via organized re-distribution of expiring food from retail to charitable organizations. This potentially creates a mechanism that solidifies food poverty and fortifies the paradoxical situation where (...) charitable organizations delivering food aid are dependent on food waste rather than trying to reduce it. To understand the process that has led to this shift, a longitudinal media data analysis on the evolution of the discussion and the interpretations on CFA is presented. By conducting an inductive frame analysis, the paper answers three key questions: How was CFA framed by and through the media in Finland between 1995 and 2016? Has any single frame dominated the discussion at any given point? Finally, what are the characteristics of the frame that focuses on food surplus redistribution? The results suggest that when the practices are framed as potential receivers and redistributors of surplus, perception of CFA is mainly favourable and the root causes for food insecurity are not addressed. Thus, by focusing on environmental sustainability, food aid practices—hitherto depoliticized as a poverty problem—have gained policy relevance in the discursive space of the circular economy; perhaps at the cost of poverty policy and with unintended consequences. (shrink)

Dramatic economic developments have served to highlight ethical questions and responses within business life in Finland, particularly regarding the crisis of the Finnish banking system. Other issues which have aroused public discussion are maintaining the natural biodiversity in the Northern hemisphere forests, and Finland's trade with Russia. The authors, listed alphabetically, are all research fellows at the School of Business Administration in the University of Tampere, PO Box 607, 33101 Tampere,Finland.

Today, monitoring of patient complaints in healthcare services is being used as a tool for quality assurance systems and in the future development of services. This nationwide register study describes the number of all complaints processed, number of complaints between different state provinces, healthcare services and healthcare professionals, and outcomes of complaints in Finland during the period 2000–2004. All complaints processed at the State Provincial Offices and the National Authority for Medicolegal Affairs were analysed by statistical methods. Complaints about mental (...) healthcare were explored in greater detail. The analysis showed that the number of patient complaints increased considerably during the study period. There were changes in the number of complaints between study years in different provinces. Out of different healthcare services, an especially marked increase was seen in private healthcare. Nearly all complaints were lodged against physicians, and over half of the complaints were made because of medical error. In mental health care, patients more often complained about unsatisfactory certificates and statements and the use of compulsory hospital care. An analysis of the outcomes revealed that in mental health care complaints more seldom led to consequences. The results need to be utilised when planning interventions for advanced supervision, prevention of adverse events and patient safety in healthcare, and especially in mental health care. From the patients’ perspective, it is important to create a culture where most problem situations are handled where the treatment was provided, thus avoiding a complex complaints process. (shrink)

Dramatic economic developments have served to highlight ethical questions and responses within business life in Finland, particularly regarding the crisis of the Finnish banking system. Other issues which have aroused public discussion are maintaining the natural biodiversity in the Northern hemisphere forests, and Finland's trade with Russia. The authors, listed alphabetically, are all research fellows at the School of Business Administration in the University of Tampere, PO Box 607, 33101 Tampere,Finland.

Dramatic economic developments have served to highlight ethical questions and responses within business life in Finland, particularly regarding the crisis of the Finnish banking system. Other issues which have aroused public discussion are maintaining the natural biodiversity in the Northern hemisphere forests, and Finland's trade with Russia. The authors, listed alphabetically, are all research fellows at the School of Business Administration in the University of Tampere, PO Box 607, 33101 Tampere,Finland.

Prior to the Second World War, Peirce was virtually unknown in Finnish philosophical discussions. This was not the case of pragmatism altogether. For example, James’s ideas were well received and discussed in Finland at some length around the time of his death in 1910, including the translation of several of James’s books and writings into Finnish. A central figure in this discussion was the most prominent Finnish philosopher at that time, Eino Kaila, who also founded the psychological labora...

The paper explores the interrelations between ethical organisational culture and organisational innovativeness in two different socio-cultural contexts, Finland and Lithuania. According to the Global Innovation Index 2013, Finland ranked 6th and Lithuania 40th in terms of the national capacity to produce innovations. Prior research by Riivari and Lämsä and Riivari et al. argues the importance of the ethical dimension of organisational culture in fostering the organisational capacity to innovate. In this paper, a different context is taken to test hypothesised differences (...) between the two multidimensional phenomena. The paper discusses the findings of 2 surveys in Finnish and Lithuanian public organisations. Data analysis shows that ethical organisational culture affects organisational innovativeness, in particular process and behaviour innovativeness in both organisations. The findings suggest that some ethical virtues such as congruency of management, discussability and clarity can be explained by an institutional rather than socio-cultural context. However, the effect of transparency and sanctionability in the Finnish organisation and congruency of supervisors, supportability and feasibility in the Lithuanian organisation rests on peculiarities of a socio-cultural context. (shrink)

Nationalistic interpretations of history were prevalent in Finland until the Second World War. A unifying past for Finns was sought in antiquity, often influenced by interpretations of the Kalevala, regarded as the Finnish national epic. The Kalevala also inspired writers in the Theosophical Society, who promoted various alternative views of humanity’s past. In this article, I analyse the late 1930s writings of Wilho “Willie” Angervo (1875–1938), a medical colonel and author who had a central role in the Finnish Order of (...) the Star in the East and the Theosophical Society in his time. Inspired by the Kalevala, Angervo traced the origins of the Finns to the lost continent of Atlantis and aimed to revitalize the pre-Christian “faith of the forefathers”. Dialogical narrative analysis is employed to explore how Angervo portrayed the Finns’ past, combining Theosophical and nationalistic ideas to construct an ideal Finnishness. I argue that Angervo utilized the Theosophical timeline and concepts to construct a spiritually oriented national narrative for the Finns that would surpass any polit-ical quarrels and challenge both the Church and more military-oriented nationalism. (shrink)

In this article, early 20th-century debates on Bergsonism in Finland are considered with particular attention to the selective forms of appropriation that accompany ideational transfers across geographical and linguistic frontiers. Both scholarly and social appropriations are discussed with a view to exploring what the encounter between Bergson and Finnish cultural life can tell us about the international circulation of ideas. The case study draws attention to centre-periphery dynamics in European intellectual life and to philosophical transfers involving several parties. In Finland, (...) Bergson was filtered through the prism of a traditionally German-oriented academic culture and partly mediated by regional celebrities and milieus such as the city of Copenhagen, an important relay point in the traffic of ideas to and from Scandinavia. (shrink)

This paper reviews the research done in Finland on medical ethics in the last three years and published in four leading journals. The general characteristics of this area are discussed and some comments on its most conspicuous representatives are offered. The conclusion reached is that medical ethics in Finland is still in a rather embryonic stage of development, and that more systematic and theoretically sophisticated approaches are required. However, since many physicians have become interested in ethical questions, it can be (...) reasonably assumed that a more lively and theoretically grounded discussion will ensue in the near future. (shrink)

Last year we reported that there are no professorships in medical ethics in Finland. This year we are happy to report that a chair in medical ethics has now been advertised at the University of Turku. We also gave details about the attempts to come up with a law on assisted reproduction. As predicted, there were problems, and eventually the proposal was withdrawn, leaving Finland still without a law on assisted reproduction. The talk on large-scale genetic databases has been surprisingly (...) quiet, and even the report published by the Parliament's working group on this matter, implying that a population database should be created, went virtually unnoticed. In this year's contribution, we address the issues of male circumcision, stem cell research, and, within the field of research ethics, the problem of defining medical research. (shrink)

The Sámi have long desired a public process to examine and expose the Nordic states’ colonial, assimilationist practices and policies, past and present, toward the Sámi people. This article considers the truth and reconciliation process in Finland, assessing it in light of recent legislative and other measures. Employing settler colonial theory, it argues that reconciliation, although seemingly progressive, signifies a continuation of colonialism unless the state terminates its current approach of overlooking Sámi rights. The article concludes with a discussion of (...) structural reconciliation and justice and considers some concrete measures for structural change in order for the reconciliation process to be valid and successful in Finland. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Universities worldwide are beginning to counter the prevailing neo-liberal ideology by paying renewed attention to the moral development of students and fostering their life purposes. This mixed methods study investigates the life purposes of higher education students in four institutions in the Netherlands (nDutch = 663) and Finland (nFinnish = 846). Based on quantitative data, we identified four purpose profiles: purposeful, self-oriented, dreamer, and disengaged. Qualitative data showed that students’ willingness to contribute to a better world was not particularly (...) prominent. An exception was found in the data of a Dutch research university working with a specific worldview and value base and emphasizing moral education. We conclude that universities need to put more effort into educating young professionals whose life purpose goes beyond their self-interest and who are willing and able to address pressing societal and global problems. This particularly includes professionals in the domains of technology and economy. (shrink)

Mindfulness has gained increasing popularity across Western societies over the past couple of decades, although mainly in forms that have been stripped of all religious content. During this period, the practice has also attracted the interest of mainstream Christian churches, which has precipitated the development of distinctively ‘Christian’ forms of mindfulness. Based on a critical discussion of the concept of appropriation in the sphere of religion, this article explores the particular logic whereby mindfulness has been appropriated within the particular ecclesiastical (...) context of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF) in light of debates in church-connected media and the content of two Finnish BA theses on pastoral care that argue for the adoption of the practice. In light of this data, the article illustrates how ELCF discourse on mindfulness has been marked by four closely interlinked requirements for the appropriation of the practice: 1. that the practice has already been thoroughly stripped of any overt religious content; 2. that it has become sufficiently scientifically validated; 3. that there is wider social and cultural interest in the practice; 4. and that the practice does not stand in opposition to the teachings of the church. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In our book Teachers’ Professional Ethics: Theoretical Frameworks and Empirical Research from Finland, we present the national ethical code for Finnish teachers and the values that guide their work in Finland. Finnish teachers are ethical professionals who have more freedom in their work than many of their international peers. The respected status of Finnish teachers has made Finland an exemplar country in teacher education that many countries want to learn more from. Finnish teacher education is research-based and in this (...) book we have gathered empirical research on teachers’ ethics performed in Tirri’s research group during the last 30 years. (shrink)

Review of Mercédesz Czimbalmos's Intermarriage, Conversion and Jewish Identity in Contemporary Finland. A Study of Vernacular Religion in the Finnish Jewish Communities.

Thomas Jonter and Emma Rosengren’s welcome article addresses the potential pathways for Finland and Sweden to continue advocating for nuclear disarmament once they become NATO members in view of their historical legacies of neutrality. It provides rich detail and analysis of the past stances and policy advocacies of these nations to identify three potential levels of ambition in their integration into NATO. Low ambition is primarily defensive of national territory. Medium ambition signifies a contribution to the defense of Baltic allies (...) and includes the two nations joining NATO nuclear consultancies, crucially those involving conventional and nuclear planning and related military exercises. High ambition requires commitment to all facets of NATO integration, which itself entails nuclear sharing and planning. Throughout the essay an overriding theme is Finland’s and Sweden’s historical commitment to nuclear disarmament, which is illustrated by numerous examples. In presenting the histories of Finland and Sweden on nuclear disarmament, “Advocating Disarmament as NATO Members” is an important contribution to this literature. (shrink)

This paper provides an overview of the development and the sociopolitical background of legislation pertaining to abortion in Finland from the nineteenth century to the current day. The first Abortion Act came to force in 1950. Before that, abortions were handled under criminal law. The 1950 law was restrictive and allowed abortions in very limited circumstances only. Its main aim was to reduce the number of abortions and especially illegal abortions. It was not very successful in reaching these goals, but, (...) significantly, it moved abortions from the realm of the criminal law to the hands of medical professionals. The birth of the welfare state and the prenatal attitudes of 1930s and 1940s Europe played their part in shaping the law. By late 1960s, with the rise of the women’s rights movement and other changes in society, there was pressure to change the outdated law. The new 1970 Abortion Act was broader and allowed abortions for limited social reasons too but left very limited, if any, room for a woman’s right to choose. After a citizen’s initiative in 2020, the year 2023 will see a significant amendment to the 1970 law; during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, an abortion can be performed on the woman’s request alone. However, there is still a long way to go in terms of women’s rights and abortion laws in Finland. (shrink)

In Finland, teachers have historically held a high degree of trust and respect, where they have been thought of not only as teachers but educators in a broader sense. This is reflected by the national curriculum dictating that teachers should not only teach, but see to their students’ social development. Interested in how this second task relates to ethics education, this study interviewed teachers in Finland how they reasoned about this second role, how it related to morality, and what supports (...) and deters it. The teachers saw this role as central and deeply moral, where relationships, empathy and scaffolding the student in self-reflection were of great importance. Sound cooperation between home and school, school and municipality, and between school staff were seen as clear supporting factors — whereas the inverse of these were seen as clear detriments. As a whole, the study acts as an entryway for deeper investigation of ethics education in Finland. (shrink)

This article revisits the left-wing response to sociobiology in the 1970s and 1980s by examining the sociobiology debate in Finland in a larger European context. It argues that the Finnish academic left’s response to sociobiology represents a “third way” alongside the purely negative, often Marxist denial of biology’s relevance, which characterized the left’s response to sociobiology in many European countries such as Hungary and Sweden, and alongside the disregard that sociobiology confronted in most parts of Eastern Europe, as well as (...) in Germany. In the context of the last great political conflict of the Cold War in Europe, the controversy over the American “Euromissiles” in 1979–1983, the Finnish academic left challenged the allegedly fatalistic sociobiological aggression and war theories with an alternative biological language, turning the increasing enthusiasm over evolutionary ideas into a pacifist cause. Using leftist and pacifist forums to inform citizens and politicians of such biologically evolved human characteristics as mutual care and sociability, the Finnish critics of sociobiology wished to boost the public spirit, and to rationalize the pacifist ideal of the European-wide popular movement against nuclear weapons and militarism. As a result, the academic leftists in Finland revived the early twentieth-century tradition of “peace biology.” A proper understanding of this development calls for an analysis that acknowledges Finland’s special geopolitical and cultural position in the Cold War world between East and West. (shrink)

Teachers' Professional Ethics: Theoretical Frameworks and Empirical Research from Finland is intended for international readers in education who want to learn the theoretical frameworks that guide teachers' ethics and that help them address concrete challenges in their everyday work. Scholars and teachers from different countries can use this book to widen their understanding of the Finnish educational system and teacher ethics. The authors provide examples of concrete moral dilemmas in teaching that can be more effectively navigated with the rational principles (...) and guidelines that philosophies of different ethical frameworks can provide. They argue that teachers require ethical skills, especially ethical sensitivity, in order to select the most beneficial course of action concerning diverse students in inclusive education. They should be purposeful in their profession to develop the motivation and resilience to continue their demanding but fulfilling work with long-term goals. Moreover, they should acknowledge their implicit beliefs and possible stereotypes to be able to provide equal learning opportunities to their students and to build democratic moral communities in their schools. In this book, ethical sensitivity, purposeful teaching, and incremental beliefs concerning learning are seen as important prerequisites for teachers' professional ethics. We discuss these aspects with examples from our empirical studies in Finnish schools. (shrink)

The role of bioethicists amidst crises like the COVID-19 pandemic is not well defined. As professionals in the field, they should respond, but how? The observation of the early days of pandemic confinement in Finland showed that moral philosophers with limited experience in bioethics tended to apply their favorite theories to public decisions, with varying results. Medical ethicists were more likely to lend support to the public authorities by soothing or descriptive accounts of the solutions assumed. These are approaches that (...) Tuija Takala has called the firefighting and window dressing models of bioethics. Human rights lawyers drew attention to the flaws of the government’s regulative thinking. Critical bioethicists offered analyses of the arguments presented and the moral and political theories that could be used as the basis of good and acceptable decisions. (shrink)

The aim of this study was to explore ethically problematic situations in the long-term nursing care of elderly people. It was assumed that greater awareness of ethical problems in caring for elderly people helps to ensure ethically high standards of nursing care. To obtain a broad perspective on the current situation, the data for this study were collected among elderly patients, their relatives and nurses in one long-term care institution in Finland. The patients (n=10) were interviewed, while the relatives (n=17) (...) and nurses (n=9) wrote an essay. Interpretation of the data was based on qualitative content analysis. Problematic experiences were divided into three categories concerning patients’ psychological, physical and social integrity. In the case of psychological integrity, the problems were seen as being related to treatment, self-determination and obtaining information; for physical integrity, they were related to physical abuse and lack of individualized care; and for social integrity, to loneliness and social isolation. This study provided no information on the prevalence of ethical problems. However, it is clear from the results that patient integrity warrants more attention in the nursing care of elderly patients. (shrink)

Background Dignity is a central human value supported by nurses’ professional ethics. In previous studies, nurses in clinical practice have experienced that dignity increased their work well-being and pride of work. Dignity is also strictly interweaved to professional identity in the different nursing’ roles, but little is known about dignity among public health nurses and primary care settings. Purpose This study aimed to describe the perceptions of nursing's professional dignity of public health nurses in primary care in Finland. Research design (...) An inductive qualitative descriptive approach with semi-structured focus group interviews was utilised. Participants and research context Twenty-seven Finnish public health nurses were interviewed via eight semi-structured focus group interviews in primary health care settings. Ethical considerations Before data collection, research permissions were obtained from participating health care centres. This type of research in Finland, with competent adult participants, does not require ethical pre-assessment but written and oral informed consent obtained before the interviews. Findings Based on our findings, public health nurses perceived that professional dignity was (1) part of their self-respect, an observed daily value based on their acknowledged competence. Besides, they perceived that (2) service users’ trust in public health nurses was a strong expression of professional dignity, and it could be uncovered when recipients of care utilised their services. In addition, public health nurses experienced that (3) professional dignity was an expression of different intertwined interprofessional and social factors. Discussion and conclusion Professional dignity is simultaneously an essential prerequisite and an outcome of public health nurses’ work. In future, more information would be needed to implement strategies in primary health care to foster nurses’ professional dignity also in international public health arenas. (shrink)

Finland is internationally known as one of the leading centers of twentieth century analytic philosophy. This volume offers for the first time an overall survey of the Finnish analytic school. The rise of this trend is illustrated by original articles of Edward Westermarck, Eino Kaila, Georg Henrik von Wright, and Jaakko Hintikka. Contributions of Finnish philosophers are then systematically discussed in the fields of logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, history of philosophy, ethics and social philosophy. Metaphilosophical reflections on (...) the nature of philosophy are highlighted by the Finnish dialogue between analytic philosophy, phenomenology, pragmatism, and critical theory. (shrink)

Abstract:This paper explores how Finnish research ethics deals with matters of justice on the levels of practical regulation, political morality, and theoretical studies. The bioethical sets of principles introduced by Tom Beauchamp and James Childress in the United States and Jacob Dahl Rendtorff and Peter Kemp in Europe provide the conceptual background, together with a recently introduced conceptual map of theories of justice and their dimensions. The most striking finding is that the internationally recognized requirement of informed consent for research (...) on humans can be ideologically tricky in a Scandinavian welfare state setting. (shrink)

The Finnish experiment of 2017–18 is a crucial test case. It provides one of the most robust experimental tests of a universal basic income (UBI) in the context of an advanced industrialised society. And it is a real milestone, since it represents a nonutopian approach to UBI that can be palatable to middle class voters. But its partial success is also a partial failure. Although it is too early to render judgement, the Finnish case shows that there are many obstacles (...) for the successful implementation of theoretical models. Experiments often fall short of the ideal experimental conditions. This speaks against taking too optimistic a view on the next steps. (shrink)

Caring for older persons is both rewarding and consuming. Work with older people in Finland has been shown to be more burdensome than in the other Nordic countries. The aim of this study was to try out a Finnish version of the Stress of Conscience Questionnaire (SCQ) and explore stress of conscience in staff caring for older persons in Finland. The data were collected from the nursing staff (n = 350) working with older people in health centre wards, municipal and (...) private nursing homes, and municipal and private dementia care units in Finland. It emerged clearly from the results that Finnish nursing staff mostly felt that they did not have enough time to provide good care to patients, and this gave them a troubled conscience. They also felt that the demanding work taxed their energy, a consequence being that they could not give their own families and loved ones the attention they would have liked. (shrink)

Editorial for issue 30 of Nordisk judaistik – Scandinavian Jewish Studies, 'Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland'.

This multi-centre research investigates the effects of dance movement therapy (DMT) on participants diagnosed with depression. In total, 109 persons participated in the study in various locations in Finland. The participants were 39 years old, on average (range = 18–64 years), and most were female (96%). All participants received treatment as usual (TAU). They were randomised into DMT+TAU (n = 52) or TAU-only (n = 57). The participants in the DMT + TAU group were offered 20 DMT sessions twice a (...) week for 10 weeks in addition to standard care. The measurement points included pre-treatment measurement at the baseline, post-treatment measurement at the end of the intervention, and a follow-up measurement 3 months afterward. The observed effects of the intervention among participants in the DMT+TAU group were a greater reduction in depression (BDI-I) and in indicators of physical and psychological distress (CORE-OM and SCL-90) in comparison to the participants who received TAU-only. At the 3-month follow-up, the corrected between-group effect sizes (ES) were medium and in favour of the DMT+TAU group (d = 0.60–0.72). These results are in line with the increasing number of research studies showing the benefits of DMT intervention among participants with depression, and these results indicate that DMT may improve the effectiveness of standard care. (shrink)

Based on interviews with climate-change activists and NGO workers in Finland and Malawi, this article reconsiders the ways in which the coordination of identity projects and action is approached in social movement scholarship. Rather than beginning with personal and collective identities, we take our cue from recent work by Laurent Thévenot and trace actors’ forms of engagement—the various ways actors produce commonality. As we show, doing so in vastly different social contexts allows us to see permutations in such forms afforded (...) by participation in a transnational social movement and to identify patterns of collective action that we would otherwise be apt to miss. Finnish activists narrated their activities by way of engaging in the forms of the common good driving the climate movement, but coordinated various situations also through engagement in familiarity, comfort, and ease. Malawian activists and NGO employees also spoke of the common good the movements worked to achieve, but principally created common ground by engaging in shared individual choices and projects, which were jointly consecrated by fellow NGO participants. Ultimately, we argue that tracing forms of engagement enables more in-depth understanding of what is at stake when people act together in social movement organizations: moving away from collective and personal identity to patterns of engagement allows a vantage point into the processes through which commonality is created and generates new hypotheses regarding the coordination of action in social movement organizations. (shrink)

Women often embody the central values and practices of their religious tradition. When they leave their community, women find a part of the “religious tapestry” remaining with them long after their disengagement. In this article, we draw from research in the UK and Finland to explore women’s efforts to unlearn parts of their former religious belonging. We draw on in total thirty-five interviews with women who disengaged from the Mormon Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Conservative Laestadianism. We conceptualize un/learning as a (...) multi-layered process consisting of both un-learning and re-learning. We explore women’s narratives about negotiating bodily limits, conduct and belonging, and understand these as suggesting experiences of a threefold un/learning: gendered, spatial-social and epistemic. We argue that examining gendered and embodied un/learning helps to understand women’s disengagement processes from minority Christian traditions in Western and Northern European secularized contexts such as the UK and Finland. (shrink)