Rainbows and closets : A study on sexual minorities’ experiences in a changing Japanese society

Sexual minorities have been largely ignored in Japanese politics until very recently. The past couple of years have seen a change where LGBT issues have been brought to attention in both politics and in media. This thesis explored what impact these changes have on the lives of individuals, and the research was a qualitative study based on fieldwork in Japan and secondary sources. The study drew on Butler’s Performativity theory, Fraser’s theory of Recognition and Foucault’s theory of Power. The study found that the local changes in policies contributes to greater awareness, and encourages continued discussion. They do not, however, impact the social expectation and pressure that sexual minorities experience to any significant degree. The study also showed that media influence regarding stereotyping is strong, thus affecting sexual minorities negatively, although later years have seen a progress towards fairer representations with underlying educational and sympathy seeking intentions

Matter-Reality in Cinema: Realism, Counter-Realism and the Avant-Gardes

The present text investigates the dialectics of reality and materiality in cin­ema theory and practice. It attempts an epistemological and meta-semiotic approach. Based on Louis Hjelmslev's model of sign-function, it reformu­lates both the haunting of cinema by reality and the avant-gardes' focus on materiality as problematising the relation of cinematic semiosis to the exo-semiotic[1] realm. It starts by laying down the philosophical background of the issues investigated. It then explores the epistemological and ethico-political parameters of the debate over aesthetic realism. Finally, it discusses avant-garde cinema's techniques of drawing attention to the expression-plane, attempting their provisional systematisation. It suggests that avant-garde interest in materiality constitutes a stance against the ideology of re­alism, proposing an alternative relation to reality.[1] "Exo-semiotic" means "outside of the semiotic". For the exact use of the term "exo-semiotic", as well as for the full analysis of the semiotic model on which this text is based, see Wallden, "Reaching Toward the Outside: Saussure, Hjelmslev and Cinema Semiotics", in the present volume

Reaching Toward the Outside: Saussure, Hjelmslev and Cinema Semiosis

The present paper investigates the ways through which semiosis in general and cinematic semiosis in particular reach toward the "exo-semiotic" realm. It attempts a meta-semiotic and epistemological approach, based on Ferdi­nand de Saussure's tradition of semiotics, and particularly on Louis Hjelsmlev's model of the sign-function, as introduced in his 1954 essay "La strat­ification du langage". It investigates the sign-function's relations to its ref­erent and to its expressive materials, and then attempts to apply Hjelmslev's model to cinema. I hope to achieve the double aim of re-situating some lin­gering debates in cinema theory, while also exemplifying some questions regarding semiosis in general. The paper starts by summarizing the main axes of Saussure's definition of the sign and its formalisation by Hjelmslev. It then shows how the de-essentialisation of semiosis leads to significant re-arrangements of the tradi­tional premises with regards to the sign's relation to both the referent and the expressive medium. Finally, it surveys the central issues that formed the discipline of the semiotics of cinema, stressing the conventionality of the cinema sign-function and the heterogeneity of its expression-plane. The paper thus shows that Saussure's and Hjelmslev's insights with regard to general semiotics can assist in untangling theoretical misunderstandings with regard to how cinema functions, while understanding cinematic semiosis can contribute to deepening and enriching our understanding of the function of semiosis in general

"The trustworthy Friend" - A study of the relation between organisational communication and member identification at a Swedish media organisation

In order to increase trustworthiness and obtain societal legitimacy, media organisations want their members to become ambassadors. But becoming an ambassador requires identification. Often management tries to foster identification by implementing organisational values without including members in the process of constructing such values. In the present study we explore member identification in relation to organisational communication at a Swedish newspaper organisation. With the assessment that organisational communication activities should be anchored in internal co-creation in order to increase the likelihood of member identification, we propose an extended model of Corporate Branding theory. Analysing 12 conversational interviews at the newspaper as well as its recent marketing campaign by means of Critical Discourse Analysis, our study showed that members’ perception of a positive organisational image can overpower a lack of communion and, further, that journalistic values per se—or incorporated as a symbol within the organisation—can foster identification regardless of profession

Koulutusprofiilikorttien luominen palvelumuotoilun keinoin

Opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena on luoda koulutusprofiilikortit toimeksiantajan oman henkilökunnan kouluttamista varten. Oman henkilökunnan kouluttaminen on tärkeää, koska yksi ravitsemusalan kilpailueduista on henkilöstön osaaminen. Henkilöstön koulutusta voidaan suorittaa monin eri ta-voin, mutta varmistuminen koulutuksen laadusta ja onnistumisesta on otettava huomioon. Toimek-siantaja tässä opinnäytetyössä on Viptenders Oy. Viptenders Oy tunnetaan paremmin ”VIP Barten-ders” nimellä. Toimeksiantajan ydinliiketoiminta koostuu baarimestari- ja ohjelmapalveluista ra-vintoloille ja tapahtumille. Opinnäytetyön tavoitteena on luoda koulutusprofiilikortit, henkilöstön osaamisen kasvattamiseksi. Tämä lisää yrityksen kiinnostavuutta, koska yritys pystyy tarjoamaan useammalle asiakkaalle laadukkaita työntekijöitä. Lisäksi yritys pystyy tarjoamaan koulutusta yri-tyksen asiakkaille esim. ravitsemusliikkeille. Opinnäytetyön teoreettinen viitekehys koostuu kouluttamisesta, osaamisesta ja ammattitaidosta. Kouluttamista käsitellään kouluttajan roolin, koulutuksen toteuttamisen ja koulutuksen sisällön näkökulmista. Osaamista tarkasteltiin osaamisen kehittämisen, oppimistyylien ja oppimisen haas-teiden näkökulmasta. Ammattitaitoa käsiteltiin johtajan näkökulmasta ja nykyisten ravintola-alan tutkintojen pohjalta. Koulutusprofiilikorttien luominen suoritettiin palvelumuotoilumenetelmien mukaisesti. Palvelumuo-toiluprosessi suoritettiin kolmivaiheisena. Prosessin vaiheet olivat ymmärrä, kehitä ja selitä. Ym-märrä-vaihe koostui tietoperusta rakentamisesta. Tietoperustan luomisessa käytettiin teemahaas-tattelu- sekä kysely-menetelmiä. Kehitä-vaiheessa pidettiin työpaja, jonka avulla kehitettiin koulu-tusprofiilikorttien sisältöä. Työpajassa käytettiin tuumatalkoot- ja ideakävely-menetelmien yhdis-telmää. Nämä menetelmät ovat sovelluksia brainstorming-menetelmästä. Selitä-vaiheessa edellis-ten vaiheiden tuottama materiaali koottiin yhteen ja tuotoksien käyttökelpoisuutta arvioitiin. Arvi-oinnissa käytettiin apuna SWOT-analyysiä. Opinnäytetyön tuottamat koulutusprofiili kortit antavat pohjan toimeksiantajalle, koulutuksien suunnitteluun. Keskeistä on koulutusprofiilikorttien muokattavuus. Koulutuksen laadusta riippuen koulutusprofiilikortteja tulee soveltaa käyttötarkoituksen mukaan. Tietoperustaan kerätty materi-aali antaa mahdollisuuden ymmärtää koulutusprofiilikorttien taustalla vaikuttavia asioita.The purpose of this thesis is to create training profile cards for the commissioner, for training their own staff members. Training and educating the company’s staff is crucial. The staff’s know-how is one of the competitive advantages in the hospitality field. A company can train its own staff by using different training programs and education systems. It is important to consider that the train-ing is successful and it is of good quality. The commissioner of this thesis is Viptenders Oy. Vip-tenders Oy is better known with their brand name ”VIP bartenders”. The core business of this or-ganization is bartending and show services. This organization provides their services for restaurants and events. The objective of this thesis is to create training profile cards to generate a higher level of know-how amongst the staff members. This will make this organization more interesting in the field of staffing, because the organization will be able to provide better-trained professionals for a bigger number of customers. In addition, the commissioner has a chance to offer trainings for oth-er companies, in this field, as well. The theoretical framework of this thesis consists of the concepts of training, expertise and know-how. The training section covers research about the trainer’s role, executing trainings and contents of trainings. The expertise section was built on leaders’ point of view, including recent degree and diploma definitions. The know-how section is deepened on by focusing on different learning styles, difficulties in learning and developing one’s knowledge in a work environment. Training profile cards were created by using service design methods. In this thesis the service de-sign process is based on Moritz’ model. Three of Moritz’ phases were applied and they were “un-derstanding”, “generating” and “explaining”. The first “understanding” phase started with build-ing up knowledge about the themes of the thesis. In this phase, the used methods were interviews and surveys. In the “generating” phase, a workshop was organized. In this workshop, new ideas were born for the training profile card contents. In the workshop, brainstorming methods were followed. The “explaining” phase gathers all the results together and its serviceability was as-sessed. A SWOT-analysis was used in assessing. In this thesis, training profile cards were drawn up. These cards provide the information that the commissioner needs when planning successful trainings. These training profile cards are easily adaptable. Depending on the training, training profile cards need to be applied by considering the need of the training. In order to understand how these training profile cards work, the theoretical sections of the thesis should be studied, too

Underlåtenhet att avslöja våldtäkt - En åskådares skyldighet att agera eller en möjlighet att undkomma ansvar?

The provision regarding failure to reveal an ongoing rape has seldom been invoked in court. However, the crime was tried by the Swedish Supreme Court in 2017 and the judgment has been interpreted in another case of rape. The main purpose of the essay is to analyze the objective prerequisites for criminal responsibility regarding spectators in the event of failure to reveal an ongoing rape. This entails the demarcation against criminal responsibility for complicity as well as the exemption of the provision. Additionally, the essay analyzes the area of application of the provision. It is uncertain what kind of behavior that constitutes complicity to rape versus failure to reveal rape. A spectator seems to be responsible for complicity if the person acts in a way which reinforces the perpetrator in his intent. In other words, the spectator must convey a message, through a combination of physical activity and statements, which the perpetrator notices. According to court practice, such behavior which only lasts for a shorter period of time and is causing the rape to be counteracted, is instead to be recognized as failure to reveal rape. A precondition is however that the exemption from the provision is not applicable. The exemption is related to the protection of self-incrimination pursuant to article 6 ECHR. Discharge appears to exist if the spectator is accused of participating in the same offense to which the failure relates. The legal analysis of the essay shows that the limits for criminal responsibility is uncertain and that national court practice is inconsistent. Based on the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, I believe that it is important to weigh the interests of the spectator against the interests of the victim. Otherwise, the only situation which it appears to be certain that criminal responsibility does exist for failure to reveal rape is when there is strong evidence that support the fact that the spectator only witnessed the rape in passivity and silence.Bestämmelsen om underlåtenhet att avslöja våldtäkt har sällan åberopats i praktiken. Under 2017 prövades brottet av Högsta domstolen vars dom har tolkats i ett annat våldtäktsmål. Uppsatsens huvudsakliga syfte är att analysera de objektiva förutsättningarna för straffbarhet för åskådare vid underlåtenhet att avslöja våldtäkt samt analysera hur bestämmelsen tillämpas i praktiken. Med det avses såväl gränsdragningen mot medverkansansvaret som det undantag som aktualiseras då ett avslöjande riskerar att leda till fara för anmälaren. Gränsdragningen för vad som utgör medverkan eller underlåtenhet är beroende av huruvida åskådaren kan anses ha psykiskt främjat våldtäkten genom att styrka gärningspersonen i dennes uppsåt. Bedömningen har visat sig vara komplicerad. Det torde för psykiskt främjande krävas att åskådaren, genom en kombination av viss aktivitet och uttalanden, förmedlar ett budskap som gärningspersonen observerar. Enligt praxis tycks en sådan situation inte föreligga om agerandet endast pågått under en kortare tid samt fått effekten att våldtäkten motverkats. I en sådan situation skulle straffbarhet i stället föreligga för underlåtenhet, under förutsättning att bestämmelsens undantag inte är tillämpligt. Undantaget har samband med skyddet mot självinkriminering enligt artikel 6 EKMR. Stöd ges för att ansvarsfrihetsregeln omfattar åskådare som inte i ett tidigt skede avfärdats som misstänkta för delaktighet i det brott som avslöjandet avser. Av uppsatsens rättsliga analys kan det konstateras att underlåtenhetsbrottets gränser är otydliga samt att rättstillämpningen är inkonsekvent. Med stöd av praxis från Europadomstolen är min uppfattning att det bör göras en avvägning mellan åskådarens och brottsoffrets intressen. Den enda situation som det annars tycks vara ostridigt att ansvar kan utdömas för åskådare är då det finns stark bevisning som stödjer att åskådaren endast känt till, alternativt bevittnat, gärningen i passivitet och tystnad

Comparison of milk production and fertility of dairy cows in conventional and ecological farms

Fertility and production traits of SRB and SLB cows in Swedish organic and conventional dairy production were compared in this study. Data were collected from the Swedish milk-recording system and the Swedish certification organization for organic production (KRAV). In the study 794 092 cow lactation records between year 1997 and 2002 were used. Four fertility measures were defined: number of days between calving and last insemination (cli), number of days between calving and first insemination (cfi), number of days between first and last insemination (fli) and number of inseminations per service period (nins). Three production measures were defined: 305-days milk yield (milk), fat yield (fat) and protein yield (prot). Only records from the first lactation were used. The most complete model included the effects of production system, year of lactation, herd-year size, season and milk yield as well as the two-way interactions between system and all main effects. In addition to that also the two-way interaction between year of lactation and herd-year size was analyzed. Without adjustment for milk yield in the model, both breeds had better fertility in organic production. However, when milk yield was included, only SLB had better fertility in organic production while SRB had better fertility in conventional production. The general trend over time showed that SLB has a deteriorating fertility and that fertility for both breeds was better in larger herds. The fertility deteriorates as the milk yield increases, this was a general trend except for the first milk class which deviated from the rest of the classes. There was no interaction between the effect of season and system on fertility. Cows calving in July-August were found to have best fertility, measured as calving to last insemination

Ajokorttien voimassaoloaikojen muutokset : Ajokorttidirektiivin seurauksena

19. tammikuuta 2013 astui voimaan uusi ajokorttilaki, jonka myötä Suomessa otettiin käyttöön voimassaoloajaltaan määräaikaiset ajokortit. Ajokorttilain uudistus sai alkunsa Euroopan parlamentin ja neuvoston antamasta ajokorttidirektiivistä 2006/126/EY. Tämän opinnäytetyön tutkimusongelmana on selvittää, minkälaisia muutoksia ajokorttien voimassaoloaikoihin tuli ajokorttidirektiivin seurauksena. Tutkimusongelmaan vastaamisen lisäksi läheisemmän tarkastelun kohteeksi otetaan uusin ajokorttidirektiivi, joka suurilta osin sellaisenaan tuli sovellettavaksi Suomessa uuden ajokorttilain muodossa. Tutkimusaineistona on käytetty ensi sijassa Euroopan unionista lähtöisin olevia direktiivejä, kansallista ajokorttilainsäädäntöä, oikeuskirjallisuutta ja ajokortteja hallinnoivien viranomaisten ohjeita. Lisäksi tutkimuksen osana on toteutettu teemahaastattelu ja laadullinen sähköinen kysely. Tutkimuksesta selvisi, että määräajasta johtuen ajokortit myönnetään jatkossa voimassa oleviksi kahdesta viiteentoista vuoteen kerrallaan riippuen ajokorttiluokasta ja kuljettajan iästä. Ajokorttidirektiivin vaikutukset ulottuvat myös ennen 19.1.2013 ajokorttinsa suorittaneisiin kuljettajiin, muuttaen vanhojenkin ajokorttien voimassaoloaikaa siten, että viimeistään 18.1.2033 vanhatkin ajokortit on vaihdettava määräaikaisiin ajokortteihin, vaikka ajokortteihin olisi merkitty myöhäisempi voimassaoloaika.On January 19, 2013 a new driving licence law became valid in Finland. Among the new law a period of administrative validity for new driving licences was taken into use. Reforms of the driving licence law originate in directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. The main research problem for this thesis was to examine the changes into the period of validity of driving licences as a result of the driving licence directive. The aim of this study, in addition to answering the research problem, was to investigate the newest directive on driving licences which largely became a part of the new Finnish driving licence law. Research data was collected mostly from the directives of the European Union, national legislation, legal literature and instructions by the authorities who administer driving licences. A theme interview and a qualitative electronic survey were carried out also as part of the thesis. This thesis revealed that because of the new period of validity, future driving licences will be granted for two to fifteen years at a time depending on the vehicle category and the driver’s age. The directive has also an impact onto those drivers who were granted their driving licences before 19 January 2013 as a result of changing the period of validity of the earlier issued driving licences as well. Driving licences issued before 19 January 2013 have to be changed into driving licences with a new period of administrative validity not later than 18 January 2033 even if the licence had a later period of validity marked on it.

"We're not the same, but that's not important": en diskursanalys av låten Same Love och att tala för andra

In this essay I analyse the hip-hop song Same Love along with its music video and the cover art for the single. The purpose of the essay is to discuss how Macklemore, the heterosexual artist who has written and performs the song, talks about homosexuality and homosexual identity. I use a discourse analysis inspired by Laclau & Mouffe along with theories about identity politics and speaking for others. My analysis shows that Macklemore uses a rhetoric based on sameness to legitimate his claims, but also incorporates some form of dialogue between himself and the homosexual identities he talks about