Interdependence, knowledge and cooperation in cross-border cooperation in the North

This chapter focuses on two scholarly discussions defining the organizational theory of the scholarly community, which are the projectification of society and open innovation in publicly funded programmes (West et al., 2006; Perkmann & Walsh, 2007; Chesbrough, 2019; Mu & Wang, 2022). Discussion on the projectification of society emphasizes effects with positive implications for knowledge production and innovativeness. However, the ad-hoc character of project organizations is seen to limit the formation of connections in different fields (Henning & Wald, 2019).Projectification and open innovations are examined in this chapter from a regional development perspective, and projectification is the starting point for the formation of the organization and its functions. In a case presented in this chapter, the financial instruments of regional development determine the basis for the implementation of innovations, and projectification is a way to support regional development in society. In regional development, the aim is to support the positive development of a certain region with various measures, taking into account processes such as a process transaction and the appropriation of knowledge (Audrechts & Belitski, 2023).The funding authorities of regional development and the European Union's cross-border cooperation programme Interreg Nord are no exception, accepting project plans, supporting regional development, considering and weighing the mutual weight and importance of the applications, and finally choosing the projects they want to finance in their best opinion. The interest of public funding programmes is to examine the effectiveness of the projects, not so much the way in which the projects are organized. Funding programmes based on the European Union's soft methods do not lead to a certain way of organizationEuropean Union's Interreg programmes are tools for regional development. This chapter examines the cross-border cooperation programme Interreg Nord, related to projectification and open innovation from a regional development perspective in the northern regions of Finland, Sweden, and Norway. The chapter analyses how open innovation emerged in the programme during the period 2014–2020 and what regional development themes local actors preferred to build the development of the region on within the framework of the programme. The data consist of Interreg Nord unfunded project applications, and the abstracts of the applications form an entity of data, where the project planners determine what is central to regional development. The analysis indicates that rejected projects aimed to develop the region mostly through the organizational, but also the wider societal, dimension of projectification. The funding instrument limits applicants’ autonomous intervention in regional development, and on the other hand, improves open innovation in the application process

AI in the Lecture Room:Analysing Two Use Cases in the Context of Higher Education

There is artificial intelligence (AI) in the lecture room, and it cannot be ignored. With unprecedented speed, AI has made its way to the everyday practices of higher education. As such, automation and analytics are nothing new in the academic educational context. However, with more recent AI applications it has truly become impossible to ignore AI in everyday academia and to avoid rethinking pedagogical approaches and solutions. Moreover, following the COVID-19 pandemic, digital tools for higher education are now being systematically developed, with an emphasis on quality and wellbeing of students. At the same time, regulatory instruments for AI are being tailored on various levels. This chapter discusses AI in higher education from a legal perspective while addressing specific use cases. The chapter briefly touches upon the role of emotions and interaction in learning, linking this to the features of AI in education. Then, the selected use cases are analysed from a regulatory point of view. The focus of this chapter is on EU level legal instruments, alongside various ethical and self-regulatory guidelines that frame the use of AI in education. In particular, the AI Act is analysed in the context of higher education, including the relevant human rights dimensions.</p

Russian Imperialism and its "Mistique of Space":Book Review: Aldo Ferrari, Russia. History of an Eurasiatic Empire, Mondadori, Milano, 2024, pp. 372, € 23,00.

How space created Russia. Russian history is often understood through its ideologies and heads of state, but the real protagonist is the Eurasian space. In my review for Aldo Ferrari's monography "Russia. History of an Eurasian Empire", I explore: How geography and imperial (not 'imperialist') structure have shaped the Russian state in a unique way; How the "mystique of space" has been crucial in shaping its identity; Why this interpretation is crucial to understanding the current foreign policy of the Russian Federation.These concepts are fundamental for scholars of global history and geopolitics

The Benefits of the Cold and Domestication:A New Understanding of Human-Animal Partnerships for Thriving in Extreme Environments

This book explores cooperation between humans and animals in extreme environments and contends that understanding domestication is crucial to explaining how life is possible in such conditions. The chapters draw on work from anthropology, genetics, law, and geography, with a range of ethnographic case studies from cold environments. The contributors offer new evidence for rethinking the dichotomy of trust vs domination previously used to characterize human-animal relations. They show how humans and animals partner for survival, and how a cold environment does not merely threaten existence but rather creates opportunities. Domestication is presented as a continuous, mutually beneficial human-animal relationship of becoming familiar with each other and the surrounding environment, which can lead to a symbiotic partnership of multiple agents for adapting to changes including a warming climate. This volume will be relevant to scholars from anthropology, geography, and related disciplines interested in human-animal relations, ecology, and the environment, particularly in the North.</p

Outdoors goes online:tourist gaze in social media for visitor monitoring and management

Visual representations of destinations have always inspired travellers. Commissioned paintings were employed to promote the allure of untouched nature, challenging earlier perceptions of perilous wilderness. Staged photographs, postcards, and popular media served similar promotional purposes. However, the advent of social media has brought about a significant shift. It’s no longer just about sharing holiday snapshots with friends back home. Through global social media platforms, visitors inspire others about where to visit and what to see. This shift from traditional media to user-generated content means that social media users now have an impact on the tourist gaze outside government policies, environmental planning, or visitor management control. At the same time, managers of protected recreational areas have faced the challenge of meeting the needs of increased outdoor recreation and visitations to protected areas while safeguarding their ecological integrity. The increasing influence of social media as travel inspiration highlights the need for a better understanding of how social media impacts visitors and its potential contributions to visitor management. In this study, I explored how social media impacts visitors gaze in protected nature recreational areas, using the example of Kilpisjärvi and the Käsivarsi Wilderness Area in northwestern Finnish Lapland. The research question is divided into three sub-questions: 1) What is posted on social media about visits to Kilpisjärvi and the Käsivarsi Wilderness Area? 2) How does this content reinforce or challenge existing perceptions of nature? 3) What insights do social media and Big Data informationgathering methods offer for visitor monitoring? I situated these research questions within the theoretical framework of the cultural construct of nature. To provide a longitudinal perspective on how our perception of nature is shaped by cultural and social influences, I explored the role of visual arts in wilderness discourses from the Romantic era to the present social media age. Next, I studied social media as a platform reflecting the tourist gaze: it is where the visitors share visual narratives, shaping the interpretation of landscapes and co-creating destination imagery. This characteristic of social media has allowed for several quantitative and qualitative visitor monitoring studies in the last years. The social media data, which was collected in 2019, consists of images that underwent analysis using both a computer vision programme for image analysis and manual categorisation techniques. Textual data was manually classified. I reflect on the consequent quantitative data with netnographic observations and ultimately use spatial analysis to overlay the social media data onto the geological, political, and environmental context of Kilpisjärvi. This study reveals that visitors’ social media posts from Kilpisjärvi often perpetuate colonialist and romanticised imagery of wilderness landscapes. Large open landscapes dominate the selected content, while images depicting individual elements of ecological nature or local everyday life and cultures are relatively few. Social media demonstrates a strong feeling of community, which strengthens, at unprecedented speed, the power of its impact on the tourist gaze, framing nature into sharable images. These results suggest that social media guides visitors to nature destinations primarily to admire landscapes, often overlooking ecological aspects. This tendency may foster a superficial relationship with nature. Furthermore, social media propagates a colonial discourse by marginalizing local and indigenous cultures, rendering them invisible within the landscapes depicted. This study contributes to the evolving research field by providing further evidence of the usability and limitations of social media data for visitor monitoring. Additionally, it advances qualitative interpretations of spatial and quantitative social media data through novel use of viewshed analysis to study visitor preferences. Finally, I have addressed the challenge for visitor management to balance the social media’s benefits in promoting destinations with its potential to shape the tourist gaze and limited representations of nature through shareable images.Visual representations of destinations have always inspired travellers. Commissioned paintings were employed to promote the allure of untouched nature, challenging earlier perceptions of perilous wilderness. Staged photographs, postcards, and popular media served similar promotional purposes. However, the advent of social media has brought about a significant shift. It’s no longer just about sharing holiday snapshots with friends back home. Through global social media platforms, visitors inspire others about where to visit and what to see. This shift from traditional media to user-generated content means that social media users now have an impact on the tourist gaze outside government policies, environmental planning, or visitor management control.At the same time, managers of protected recreational areas have faced the challenge of meeting the needs of increased outdoor recreation and visitations to protected areas while safeguarding their ecological integrity. The increasing influence of social media as travel inspiration highlights the need for a better understanding of how social media impacts visitors and its potential contributions to visitor management.In this study, I explored how social media impacts visitors gaze in protected nature recreational areas, using the example of Kilpisjärvi and the Käsivarsi Wilderness Area in northwestern Finnish Lapland. The research question is divided into three sub-questions: 1) What is posted on social media about visits to Kilpisjärvi and the Käsivarsi Wilderness Area? 2) How does this content reinforce or challenge existing perceptions of nature? 3) What insights do social media and Big Data informationgathering methods offer for visitor monitoring?I situated these research questions within the theoretical framework of the cultural construct of nature. To provide a longitudinal perspective on how our perception of nature is shaped by cultural and social influences, I explored the role of visual arts in wilderness discourses from the Romantic era to the present social media age. Next, I studied social media as a platform reflecting the tourist gaze: it is where the visitors share visual narratives, shaping the interpretation of landscapes and co-creating destination imagery. This characteristic of social media has allowed for several quantitative and qualitative visitor monitoring studies in the last years.The social media data, which was collected in 2019, consists of images that underwent analysis using both a computer vision programme for image analysis and manual categorisation techniques. Textual data was manually classified. I reflect on the consequent quantitative data with netnographic observations and ultimately use spatial analysis to overlay the social media data onto the geological, political, and environmental context of Kilpisjärvi.This study reveals that visitors’ social media posts from Kilpisjärvi often perpetuate colonialist and romanticised imagery of wilderness landscapes. Large open landscapes dominate the selected content, while images depicting individual elements of ecological nature or local everyday life and cultures are relatively few. Social media demonstrates a strong feeling of community, which strengthens, at unprecedented speed, the power of its impact on the tourist gaze, framing nature into sharable images. These results suggest that social media guides visitors to nature destinations primarily to admire landscapes, often overlooking ecological aspects. This tendency may foster a superficial relationship with nature. Furthermore, social media propagates a colonial discourse by marginalizing local and indigenous cultures, rendering them invisible within the landscapes depicted.This study contributes to the evolving research field by providing further evidence of the usability and limitations of social media data for visitor monitoring. Additionally, it advances qualitative interpretations of spatial and quantitative social media data through novel use of viewshed analysis to study visitor preferences. Finally, I have addressed the challenge for visitor management to balance the social media’s benefits in promoting destinations with its potential to shape the tourist gaze and limited representations of nature through shareable images

Kaavaton : Puuttuva palanen, 2014

Kaavaton-näyttely haastaa pohtimaan, missä kulkee tekstiilitaiteen raja. Onko olennaisempaa materiaali vai tekniikka? Näyttelyn nimi viittaa tekstiilien kanssa työskennellessä käytettyihin kaavoihin. Kaavattomuus kuitenkin antaa vapauden luovuuteen ja tekniikoiden yhdistelemiseen. Tekstiilitaiteilijat yhdistelevät teoksiinsa usein myös muita elementtejä, kuten metallia, lasia ja paperia, jolloin tekstiilitaiteen määrittely hämärtyy. Tekstiilitaide liikkuu taiteen, käsityön ja materiaalin estetiikan rajamaila – se on yhtä aikaa perinteistä käsityötaitoa ja taiteellista ilmaisua. Esimerkiksi painokankaissa kuviot voivat olla itsenäisiä taideteoksia tai ne voivat käsitellä pop-taiteelle ominaista kysymystä toistosta ja ainutlaatuisuuden katoamisesta.Museo järjesti vuoden 2024 lopussa avoimen teoshaun näyttelyä varten, johon osallistui kaikkiaan 116 taiteilijaa yhteensä 361 teosehdotuksella. Museonjohtaja Heli Isolehdon kuratoimaan näyttelyyn valikoitui mukaan lopulta 29 teosta 24:ltä taiteilijalta ympäri Suomen. Näyttelyn taiteilijat ovat: Noora El Harouny, Marjo Haapasalo, Lana Haga, Kaarina Haka, Lulu Halme, Niina Hiltunen, Leena Illukka, Raija Jokinen, Ritva Jääskeläinen, Helena Kaikkonen, Aino Kajaniemi, Auri Lukkarinen, Iris Kareoja, Maijariitta Karhulahti, Cia Karlsson, Sari Kemppinen, Ulla Lapiolahti, Heidi Linsén, Moosa Myllykangas, Hele Okkonen, Emmi Pakkanen, Melissa Sammalvaara, Kristiina Turtonen ja Leena Vainio. (https://raisio.fi/fi/uutiset/raision-museo-harkossa-avautuva-kaavaton-nayttely-esittelee-kotimaista.Näyttelyssä on esillä Ritva Jääskeläisen "Puuttuva palanen" -tekstiiliteos (2014).<br/

Land, nature and culture in Finnish Lapland

The late French sociologist Bruno Latour criticised contemporary global environmental discourses and geopolitical practices for being disconnected from the land, the basis of life, and suggested landing on the earth as a way to reconnect with the land and the politics concerned with it. He proposed taking a closer look at the multiple relationships which people have with land beyond current techno-rational governance practices. The cases from Finnish Lapland exemplify the diversity of land relationships as different practice-based land cultures, in order to problematise the binary distinctions between natural and cultural in rural and urban landscapes, and to show the central role governance plays at different levels in establishing and maintaining this separation through binary thinking in Finnish land cultures

Blending boundaries:A thorough exploration of systems-oriented design and service design integration

This chapter investigates the relationship between service and systems-oriented design through a mingled scoping and systematic literature review (SSLR). Both have much in common, and lately service design has adopted systems perspectives to tackle larger societal challenges that emerge in services. We employed thematic analysis to identify co-occurring consistent themes. The aim was to explore overlapping areas between service and systems-oriented design. The SSLR results were also exposed and discussed in two focus groups with experts in the field. Results show that both have much in common but also areas that are different. This chapter also discusses future research areas and suggests systems-oriented service design as a perspective to tackle complexities and wicked problems in services both in the public and private sector

Higher education students’ evolving perceptions of ChatGPT: Global survey data from the academic year 2024–2025

Dataset collected between October 2024 and February 2025 from 22,963 students from 120 different countries and territories