Embracing the wickedness of health care : essays on reforms, wicked problems and public deliberation

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Taking Deliberation to the Streets : Reflections on Deliberative Walks

The focus of this article, a model that we call the Deliberative Walk, builds on the principles of Citizens’ Juries and Development Walks. Two case studies are used to explore the potential of uniting the two different participatory models, one that is based on discussion and the other that is more observation oriented. Both case studies were implemented in Finland during autumn 2014. Reviewing these case studies is important, because the issue of ‘taking deliberation to the streets’ has rarely been addressed in the academic literature on CJs and other deliberative mini-publics. Based on the case studies, our suggestion is that in place-specific deliberations, a Deliberative Walk is a suitable method when the issue that is being tackled has highly intertwined social and physical dimensions, while in more situation-specific deliberations, a Deliberative Walk adds value when the issue is such that it needs a more complete and direct learning experience.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Disability and Deliberative Democracy: Towards Involving the Whole Human Spectrum in Public Deliberation

There is a danger that the basic assumption in deliberative democracy rests still strongly on the idea of normality. There is an image of ordinary, normal and active citizens which is supposed to capture the whole human spectrum. However, people with disabilities are traditionally excluded from societal participation. If the same exclusion takes place in deliberative democracy, the implications for its legitimacy are significant. In this article, we will examine how deliberative democracy understands and acknowledges disability and analyse how citizens' jury is suited to involve people with disabilities in order to reach the whole human spectrum for public deliberation. A citizens' jury for people with disabilities, implemented in Finland during the summer of 2011, is used as an in-depth case study. Findings of this article suggest that such citizens' jury has potential in enhancing the inclusiveness of deliberative democracy. However, challenges that need to be focused on in future research remain. These include the costs and the influence of citizens' jury for people with disabilities. Also the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities remains a challenge.© 2013 Nordic Network on Disability Research. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Embracing dynamic tensions : Peacekeeping as a balancing act of complexity

The article examines how military leaders serving as peacekeepers navigate complexity and adapt to it. The theoretical underpinnings of the study are linked to adaptive peacebuilding and Complexity Leadership Theory, and specifically to how enabling leadership through adaptive space helps to work with the local conflict dynamics and change to sustain peace. The findings are based on 29 interviews with military leaders with command experience in peacekeeping operations. The findings introduce five dimensions that unpack complexity into structural, functional, security-related, professional, and steering-related complexity and provide empirical evidence on balancing actions relating to complexity in a peacekeeping context. The article develops an analytical framework for peacekeeping. It also contributes to Complexity Leadership Theory by unpacking the complexity into dimensions, unpacking the actors into groups and communities with commitments, and addressing power relations and the dark side of their emergence.© 2022 The Authors. Public Administration Review published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Public Administration. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium,provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Co-Creating Safety and Security? Analyzing the multifaceted field of co-creation in Finland

Complexity is said to be on the rise in the security environment and co-creation has been proposed as one of the ways to respond to this situation. Through co-creation, complexity is addressed by a plurality of actors and actions, instead of by any single authority or recipe. Such an approach is the main premise of the Finnish Concept for Comprehensive Security. This article seeks to answer the question of how co-creation occurs as part of societal safety and security functions in Finland and what kind of challenges and problems are involved therein. The focus of the article is on the regional and local levels of action and on the public-sector/civil-society interface. The data informing this study are 31 small-group discussions that took place in so-called security cafés. This article uses the modified ladder of safety and security co-creation derived from previous research to provide its analytical framework. The ladder of co-creation proved to be a useful analytical tool to address the phenomenon and to illustrate the multifaceted and context-dependent nature of safety and security co-creation. Results indicate that at present co-creation within the safety and security functions in Finland seems to focus more on action-oriented co-production. Citizens as volunteers participate in the functions of producing safety and security, but talk-centered, planning-oriented co-creation seems to be less common. The data also provide clear indications of the darker sides of co-creation. Co-creation may be symbolic and tokenistic in that it remains at a rhetorical level. The data also offer examples of co-contamination (the lowest level of the ladder of co-creation). These examples were related to the roles of spontaneous volunteers and emergent citizen groups.©2021 the Authors. Published in The International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters (IJMED) and published by the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on the Sociology of Disasters.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

VERKOSTOILLA PAKOLAISLASTEN KOTOUTUMISEEN: Pakolaislasten kotoutumisesta suomalaiseen yhteiskuntaan verkostojen näkökulmasta esimerkkinä Vaasan kaupunki

Erilaiset verkostot ovat tulleet osaksi nyky-yhteiskuntaamme. Näitä verkostoja on monenlaisia ja usein ne ovat rakenteiltaan erittäin kompleksisia. Verkostoista on kuitenkin runsaasti hyötyä esimerkiksi työnteon kannalta ja tämän vuoksi niitä tulisikin tutkia ja kehittää entistä enemmän. Yksi esimerkki tällaisesta erittäin monimuotoisesta verkostosta on pakolaislasten kotoutumisesta vastaava verkosto. Kotoutumisen kannalta verkostot ovatkin erittäin tärkeitä voimavaroja, sillä kotoutumiseen liittyvän työn nähdään olevan luonteeltaan sellaista, että sitä olisi erittäin hankala yksin tehdä. Tässä tutkimuksessa tullaan tutkimaan tällaista pakolaislasten kotoutumisesta vastaavaa verkostoa Vaasan kaupungissa. Tutkimusongelmia on kolme. Ensinnäkin pyritään luomaan kuva verkoston rakenteesta. Toisekseen tavoitteena on verkoston sisäisten toimintaprosessien käsittely. Kolmantena tavoitteena on vielä verkoston mahdollisten ongelmakohtien kartoittaminen. Tutkimuksen teoriaosa laajenee kolmen käsitteen ympärille. Teorian teemat ovat tällöin pakolaiset, kotoutuminen sekä verkostot. Pakolaisella tässä tutkimuksessa tarkoitetaan pakolaisaseman saanutta henkilöä, kotoutumisella pakolaisen sopeutumista uuteen kulttuuriin ja verkostoilla eri toimijoiden välisiä suhdeverkostoja. Tutkimus on kvalitatiivisesti suuntautunut. Empiirinen aineisto kerättiin haastatteluiden avulla, joita tehtiin yhteensä 16 kappaletta. Haastateltaviksi pyrittiin saamaan kaikki verkoston kannalta keskeisimmässä asemassa olevat henkilöt. Aineisto analysoitiin käyttämällä hyväksi muun muassa kvalitatiivista verkostoanalyysiä. Vaasan pakolaislasten kotoutumisesta vastaava verkosto pitää sisällään lukuisia eri toimijoita. Erityisesti 15 toimijaa ovat selvästi nähtävissä verkoston toimijoina. Näistä keskeisimmiksi nähdään ulkomaalaistoimisto sekä varhaiskasvatus ja peruskoulu. Rakenteeltaan verkosto on enemmänkin epävirallinen kuin virallinen. Osaltaan verkoston virallisuus perustuu siihen yleiseen verkostoon joka koskee kaikkia vaasalaisia lapsia. Pakolaislapsille ei kuitenkaan ole olemassa mitään selvää juuri heitä varten rakennettua virallista verkostoa. Yhteydenpitokumppaneiden määrä verkoston toimijoiden keskuudessa vaihtelee suppeasta laajaan. Yhteydenpidon luonne on useimmiten yhteistyössä ja sitä tapahtuu erittäin vaihtelevin määrin. Julkisella sektorilla yhteydenpito on pääosin virallisluontoista ja kolmannella sektorilla puolestaan epävirallista. Verkoston ongelmakohdat jakautuivat tasaisesti toiminnallisiin ja rakenteellisiin ongelmiin. Lisäksi verkosto nähdään erittäin tarpeelliseksi ja sitä halutaan vähintäänkin ylläpitää. Yhtenä tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä tutkimuksen kohteena olevan verkoston todetaan olevan sijainniltaan lievästi keskittynyt, mutta kuitenkin toimija-asemiltaan tasa-arvoinen, organisaatioiden sisäisistä sekä välisistä verkostoista koostuva, pääosin epävirallinen mutta myös osittain virallinenkin, kooltaan ja sidosten määrältään iso, palveluiltaan kompleksinen sekä toimijoiltaan erikoistunut verkosto. Tällöin verkoston rakenne on lähinnä isoa erittäin kompleksista ja erikoistunutta verkostoa. Tutkimuksen kohteena olevan verkoston ongelmat poikkeavat pääosin yleisistä verkostojen ongelmista. Tässä tutkimuksessa verkoston ongelmiin esitetyt kehittämisehdotukset ovat luonteeltaan sellaisia, että ne olisi mahdollista toteuttaa todennäköisesti vähäisinkin resurssein.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Understanding the Emerging Fourth Sector and Its Governance Implications

The fourth sector has traditionally been described as encompassing families, households, neighbours, and friends, however, competing definitions have recently begun to emerge. Three different strands can be observed in the fourth-sector literature. The first strand centres on the notion of one-to-one aid. The second strand centres on self-organizing civic activism. The third strand focuses on hybrid organizations. In this paper we will analyse the main commonalities and differences in the understanding of the fourth sector. Our conclusion is that despite differences, there is enough ‘family resemblance’ between the three different streams of fourth-sector discussion to warrant a synthetic reflection of the governance issues related to this novel phenomenon. As a result of that analysis, we distinguish five specific governance issues that are related to 1) the ability of the public sector to work upon shared values, 2) the empowering nature of self-organizing, 3) the need for new operational rules under the ‘sharing economy’, 4) the transitory but structuration-oriented nature of fourth-sector processes and 5) the notion that fourth-sector involvement does not necessarily improve the quality of participation.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

#StrongTogether? Qualitative Sentiment Analysis of Social Media Reactions to Disaster Volunteering during a Forest Fire in Finland

The transformation of disaster volunteering has been highlighted in academic literature. This study examined that transformation via a big data approach. The context for the study was provided by a forest fire in Finland, which sparked a debate on volunteering. The data (806 social media messages) were analyzed using qualitative sentiment analysis to (1) identify the sentiments relating to a variety of volunteers and (2) understand the context of and tensions behind those sentiments. The data suggested that the prevailing view of disaster volunteering is a rather traditional one, while the observations on the transformation remain largely latent. The positive sentiments reflected a view of the co-production of extinguishing forest fires as an activity of formal governmental and nonprofit emergency management organizations and volunteers from expanding and extending organizations. Unaffiliated volunteers were seen as extra pairs of hands that could be invited to help in an organized way and with limited tasks, only if required. Sentiments with a more negative tone raised concerns about having sufficient numbers of affiliated volunteers in the future and the rhetorical level of appreciation of them. The data revealed a dichotomous relationship between “professionals” and “amateurs” and the politicization of the debate between different actor groups.© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

The security environment has always been complex! : the views of Finnish military officers on complexity

The theoretical framework of complexity is beginning to attract wider attention in research on the armed forces, and consequently the views of those who face complexity on the ground should be explored in more detail. Failure to do so risks complexity remaining only a top-level theory lacking adequate connection to practice. This article seeks to address this issue through analyzing the views of Finnish military officers. Data for the research were gathered using a deliberation and data collection method called a security café. A total of 74 people, most of them holding the rank of captain in the army or air force or lieutenant senior grade in the navy, attended the security café. The data used in this research were elicited from 47 idea rating sheets, evaluated during the security café, and include both quantitative and qualitative data. The article analyzes those data to address the following questions in relation to the theoretical framework of the article: What kind of perceptions of the complexity of the security environment do officers hold? What kind of practices do officers consider fit the presumed complexity of the security environment?© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed