Juvenile and drugs : fascination of contesting identities

te article focuses on the self-conceptions of a juvenile who uses drugs. Different dimensions of categories and connotations are analyzed in an interview given by a young girl who has used hard drugs for several years. The analysis aims at making clear the spectrum of culturally given resources that are available for a young person with a drug history when she attempts to make her life understandable. By concentrating on one young person's story, the analysis illustrates that a variation of self-conceptions is not about differences between individuals, but is more about the general cultural alternatives of different categories. The variation of self-conceptions is abstracted into four alternative identity types that associate with very different attributes and activity types. The analysis demonstrates how a young person with a drug history both applies the attributes of generally known categories and takes distance from these depending on the identit! y type. Based on the analysis of these four identities, some conclusions are drawn about the possibilities of parents or other adults to support the identity constructions of a juvenile with a drug history

Sisäilma ja identiteetit: Identiteettityö työpaikan sisäilmaongelmien kontekstissa

Sisäilmaongelmien yhteys erilaisiin terveysongelmiin on edelleen osittain kiistanalainen. Tämä voi vaatia sisäilmasta oireilevilta tai sairastuneilta tavallista intensiivisempää identiteettityötä. Analysoimme tässä tutkimuksessa diskurssianalyyttisestä näkökulmasta, millaisia erilaisia identiteettejä vastaajat tuottivat, kun he kirjoittivat kokemuksistaan työpaikkansa sisäilmaongelmista. Esseeaineisto oli kerätty Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran kautta (N=20 vastaajaa). Tunnistimme kuusi erilaista identiteettiä, joissa kussakin kirjoittaja haki eri tavoin moraalista tunnustusta itselleen: normaali yksilö, hyvä ihminen, rationaalinen toimija, oikeutettu uhri, kärsimyksen viisastama ja yhteisten oikeuksien ajaja.  Identiteetit erottuivat toisistaan sen mukaan, kuinka eroa sairastuneen ja terveiden välille rakennettiin, korostiko kirjoittaja niissä yksilöllisiä ominaisuuksia vai ryhmäjäsenyyksiä, kuinka heikkoja tai vahvoja toimijuuksia identiteetit tarjosivat ja mitä erilaisia stigmoja niillä pyrittiin torjumaan. Sama vastaaja saattoi tuottaa useaa erilaista identiteettiä, ja identiteettityötä leimasi tasapainottelu niiden eri muotojen välillä. Sisäilmaongelmista kärsivien potilaiden kunnioittava kohtaaminen edellyttää terveydenhoitohenkilökunnalta ymmärrystä potilaiden haastavasta identiteettityöstä ja niistä stigmoista, joita identiteettityöllä pyritään torjumaan. &nbsp

Who is expected to make contact? Interpretative repertoires related to an intergroup encounter between Finnish majority mothers and immigrant mothers

Although the benefits of contact for positive intergroup relations are widely acknowledged, less is known about how group members construct the agency and responsibility of contact participants in intergroup encounters. Using critical discursive psychology, we analysed the interpretative repertoires that Finnish majority mothers (N = 13) and mothers with an immigrant background (N = 10) used when talking about a hypothetical intergroup encounter among Finnish and immigrant mothers in a ‘family café’ (a group for mothers and children). Our analysis identified five interpretative repertoires that differed in terms of the levels of categorization used (individual, group, motherhood) and how agency and responsibility for initiating contact were discursively attributed to the parties in the intergroup encounter. Overall, constructing someone as agentic did not automatically result in their being portrayed as more responsible for making contact. Respondents described contact to occur with only two repertoires, in which both agency and responsibility for initiating contact were discursively attributed to the same party. This highlights the need to consider both agency and sense of responsibility as possible factors preceding intergroup contact.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Encountering an Uneasy Child

Childrearing has been a topic of constant debate in Finland during the last few years. The basic contradiction in the debate has been between a child-centred and an adult-centred ideal. However, the discussion on the ideals seems to be on a general level without much interface to the nuances of everyday life. In our research project we seek to ascertain how adults and children create a common understanding. Our data consists of ethnographic case descriptions and tape recordings of everyday interaction at home and in a day-care centre. This chapter focuses on the interaction in a day-care centre. In Finland the day-care centre1 has become an important part of everyday life for families with small children since usually both parents work outside the home. Because children spend many hours a day in the centres, the workers often become very important and intimate adults for them

Investigation of the martensitic transformation in metastable beta brass

Thesis (M.S.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Metallurgy, 1954.Bibliography: leaves 48-50.by Eero Juhani Suoninen.Thesis (M.S.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Metallurgy, 1954