Conceptions and tendencies of age discrimination and attitudes towards older people in selected regions in Finland and Sweden

Peer reviewe

Disability and citizenship. Politicians' views on disabled persons' citizenship in Finland

Active citizen participation has today become increasingly highlighted in political debates worldwide. The aim of this article is to analyse the impact of so-called active citizenship ideas on disability policies in Finland by scrutinising how people with disabilities, disability policies and disability policy actors were constructed by MPs in relation to the parliamentary debate about the Government Report on Disability Policy in 2006. The results show that people with disabilities were seen as a group with equal rights to societal participation. Furthermore, the role of municipalities was viewed as crucial for realising this goal through its provision of support and service. However, there were also signs of a shift towards active citizenship insofar that measures for facilitating employment among disabled persons were emphasised while some claims requested disability benefits to be made more reciprocal

An opportunity for rural areas or a threat to local hunters? : Finnish hunters' attitudes towards hunting tourism

Due to a strong population influx to urban areas, Finnish hunting territories and the geographical residence of hunters are today becoming increasingly detached from each other. This has created a demand for hunting tourism services, which in turn necessitates new forms of wildlife management on the local level. However, the introduction of hunting tourism is far from uncontroversial as it is likely to cause conflict between stakeholders. In this paper we analyse Finnish hunters’ attitudes towards hunting tourism from a sociological point of view. The aim is two-fold; first, we map hunters’ positions on hunting tourism as a tool for revitalising the countryside and as a commercial use of wildlife; second, we analyse the determinants of these attitudes by using multivariate statistical techniques. Empirically, the analysis uses unique national survey data on Finnish hunters and their attitudes to different aspects of hunting (N=1193). The results show that Finnish hunters are ambivalent as to the virtues of hunting tourism. On the one hand it is conceived of as a potential economic remedy for peripheral areas, but on the other hand it challenges stakeholder interests as well as traditional conceptions of hunting and wildlife management. Hence hunting tourism is seen both as an opportunity and a threat to hunters. Whereas the attitudes to hunting tourism as a tool for rural development can be primarily explained by socioeconomic factors, such as age and education, the attitudes to its more specific manifestations are mainly explained by geographical residence and value orientation of hunters

Lapsiperheiden kotitalouden strategiat taloudellisen epävarmuuden ja perhepoliittisten muutosten kentällä

  Vuosien 2007–2008 talouskriisin jälkeinen hidas talouskasvu, epävarmat työmarkkinat ja säästö-toimenpiteet, kuten lapsilisien leikkaus, ovat heikentäneet perheiden taloudellista turvaa ja ajaneet lapsiperheitä köyhyyden, terveyserojen ja erilaisen pahoinvoinnin riskialueille. Artikkelissa analy-soimme lapsiperheiden arjessaan kehittämiä selviytymistapoja kotitalouden strategioiden (household strategies) sekä Bourdieun pääoman käsitteiden avulla. Artikkelin aineisto koostuu pohjanmaalaisten suomen- ja ruotsinkielisten lapsiperheiden haastatteluista. Tulosten perusteella julkisille palveluille ja tuille vaihtoehtoisten kotitalouden strategioiden merkitys on ilmeinen perheiden arjessa selviämisen kannalta. Strategiat voidaan jakaa Bourdieun erottelemien pääomien mukaisesti sosiaaliseen verkos-toon, taistelutahtona ilmenevään kulttuuriseen pääomaan sekä taloudellisiin järjestelyihin

The financial crisis and recent family policy reforms in Finland, Germany and the United Kingdom

The turmoil created by the financial crisis and economic recession in Europe has served as an impetus for austerity measures in many countries. In this article, we ask whether these crises have also triggered reforms in family policy, and we focus on three European welfare states – Finland, Germany and the United Kingdom – countries that are often considered members of different family policy regimes. The article addresses two main research questions. The first one relates to the number, direction and magnitude of family policy reforms in these three countries since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008/2009, while in the second we discuss whether the reforms observed during this period can be seen as being related to the financial crisis and its later repercussions on the Euro-zone area, or if there are other explanations