Fuzzy Privatization and Decline of Democracy at the University of Helsinki

Privatization is often used as a self-evident concept, overlapping with corporatization, marketization, commodification and neoliberalization. Our analysis, focusing on changes in the legal status and decisionmaking procedures at the University of Helsinki, explores the fuzzy nature of privatization. One of our claims is that the fuzziness helped prevent efficient resistance and therefore also enabled less democratic forms of governance. We will explore the ambiguous nature of the privatization process. We will analyze argumentative strategies about the reforms, focusing on explicit and implicit references to the processes of privatization and corporatization. The role of fuzziness became less important once privatization had taken crucial steps. At that moment, the argument that in some important sense the university had become part of the sphere of private economy became a justification for transforming the decision-making system of the university. References to the university being increasingly private, financially autonomous, and economically responsible become justificatory tools for dismantling democratic elements of the university’s decision-making system. We will also analyPeer reviewe

Enter Economy, Exit Politics : Transnational Politics of Economism and Limits to Democracy in Peru

Only abstract. Paper copies of master’s theses are listed in the Helka database (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Electronic copies of master’s theses are either available as open access or only on thesis terminals in the Helsinki University Library.Vain tiivistelmä. Sidottujen gradujen saatavuuden voit tarkistaa Helka-tietokannasta (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Digitaaliset gradut voivat olla luettavissa avoimesti verkossa tai rajoitetusti kirjaston opinnäytekioskeilla.Endast sammandrag. Inbundna avhandlingar kan sökas i Helka-databasen (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Elektroniska kopior av avhandlingar finns antingen öppet på nätet eller endast tillgängliga i bibliotekets avhandlingsterminaler.The thesis combines insights from political-economy approaches such as transnational historical materialism and world-systems analysis with tools of critical and democratic theories. The focus is on normative claims that are related to the social construction of the "economic sphere". The specific approach of the thesis to studying democratization and limits to democracy is called transnational politics of economism. The thesis analyzes how the "economic sphere" has taken over some issues that were previously considered to be political. To the extent that democracy is assumed to be a valid norm only in political issues, democratic possibilities diminish when the "economic" expands. The thesis connects the changes in the political/economic boundary with an analysis of the boundary between things considered internal to a national community and external to it. The analysis starts from more abstract principles related to politics of economism and continues with a historical overview of economism in Latin America. The tools and explanatory contexts developed in the earlier chapters are then made use of in the analysis of the concrete historical processes in Peru that are under closer study. The processes take place in Peru during the government of Alan García (1985-1990) and Alberto Fujimori (1990-). Empirical sources consist of published and unpublished records, interviews, newspapers and periodicals, constitutions and other codified norms, as well as data bank material

Girls by the Church : Construction of a Pussy Riot Event in Finland as a Threat to Russian Gender Roles and Sexual Norms

In August 2012, pro-Kremlin media in Russia reported widely about an alleged attempt to replay the Pussy Riot stunt at an Orthodox cathedral in Finland. According to the reports, also reproduced by the Russian Foreign Ministry, a Finnish professor was facing several years’ prison sentence in Finnish courts for having attacked the cathedral, carried urine containers, spread homosexual propaganda and committed various acts of blasphemy. Even if the Finnish media, eyewitnesses and state authorities repeatedly denied the claims, the story became a useful way for pro-Kremlin forces to normalise the Pussy Riot trial in Russia. The episode was an example of the recent politicisation of religion, gender and sexuality in the Russian public sphere.Peer reviewe

Eurocentrism, state-centrism and sexual self-determination in the construction of a global democratic organization

Based on conversations with and publications of Samir Amin, the article explores connections between his ideas on global political strategy and sexual self-determination. One of the questions is about struggles related to homosexuality in Africa. To what extent did he believe that some of the demands for sexual self-determination, including certain forms of feminism and LGBT rights, were so overly embedded in Eurocentrism that they were not fully suitable for popular struggles in many parts of the Global South? The question is framed in the context of state-centric conceptions of the political. Even if some of the analysis includes a critical tone toward his strategical options, it also highlights the continuing importance of Samir Amin as a point of reference for future struggles to create transnational and global instruments for democratic transformations.Peer reviewe

Pelastaako tekoäly suomen kielen

Onko suomi syrjäytymässä tutkimuksen kielenä, kun paineet englanniksi julkaisemiseen kasvavat? Teknologian harppaukset ovat usein vaikuttaneet historian kulkuun, ja ehkä niin käy tässäkin asiassa. Käännösalgoritmit avaavat uusia mahdollisuuksia sille, että voimme tulevaisuudessa julkaista nykyistä mielekkäämmin omalla kielellämme. Siksi yliopistoissakin on syytä kyseenalaistaa viime aikoina voimistunut ajatus, että englanti jyrää tulevaisuudessa yhä vääjäämättömämmin. Vertauskohtia tulevaisuuden käännöskoneiden merkitykseen voi etsiä esimerkiksi siitä, miten Mikael Agricolan reformoitu käsitys Jumalasta mahdollisti kielellistä tasa-arvoa

Steps to a Theory of Non-State Representation

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After Tunis : What is the Future of the World Social Forum

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COVID-19 Governance : State Expansion, Capitalist Resilience and Democracy

COVID-19 governance is a new field of power that articulates attempts by states and other institutions to control the pandemic crisis. Within the European Union, it includes a bigger role for central banks and suppression of democratic rights and freedoms in various forms, including tightening external and internal border controls. Finland, where we are based, has had one of the most leftist governments in the European Union and imposed some of the strictest border controls of all the member states during the first months of COVID-19 governance. What does the sudden expansion in state-led governance mean for democratic visions and practices? Our main interest is on horizons that could radicalize democracy, the possibility for the people to take equal part in decisions that concern the basic conditions of their lives. On the one hand, radicalized democracy refers to attempts to bring economic institutions such as capitalist corporations and central banks under greater democratic control. These attempts typically rely on an understanding of democracy that regards parliaments and other democratically elected authorities–and sometimes also popular initiatives or referenda–as the most legitimate source of accountability. At least initially, the effects of the COVID-19 on democracy (in the conventional parliamentary sense) might not be very significant (Rapeli and Saikkonen, 2020).Non peer reviewe

Multiple Meanings of Property as Territory : Forests, Patents and Bodies

The term territory has multiple meanings. In this article, we use three different contexts of social and ecological contestation as examples and apply the prism of territory and territoriality to open novel ways to explore property rights. First, we use the conceptualization of territory that is the most conventional for many theoretical and practical purposes: a two-dimensional piece of the earth’s surface. More specifically, we focus on the ownership of forests. Second, we explore another kind of property, self-ownership, through an analysis of feminist and other struggles that define body as territory. Third, we use the concept of territory in analyzing intellectual property rights, especially patents. We argue that territory and territoriality can have an analytically and politically meaningful use that, while connecting the concept of property rights in these different contexts, helps to uncover some of the ways through which mechanisms of capitalist rule are established. In particular, considering self-control of the body as a territorial claim can help understand how the drive toward privatization of territories in the form of land or knowledge is at least partially based on misleading arguments.Non peer reviewe