scholarly journals Conflicting discourses — Social constructions of corruption in Finland

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catharina Groop

The Nordic countries are generally regarded as beacons of anti-corruption. This perception also applies to Finland, where corruption is said to be conspicuous by its absence. The article at hand, however, conveys a more nuanced picture of corruption in Finland. It delves into opinions submitted during the formulation of the Finnish anti-corruption strategy, identifying two conflicting corruption-related discourses. The analysis shows that corruption is a contested concept and that views on corruption prevalence and the need for anti-corruption measures vary greatly within the national context. The article illustrates the struggle between national corruption discourses, arguing that such discourses and their overall context should be analysed thoroughly if corruption efforts are to be grounded in their setting and successful. This is the case regardless of context and thus applicable also to countries perceived as “clean and honest”.

2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (S2) ◽  
pp. S29
Author(s):  
P. Kulling ◽  
S. Ryborg ◽  
Söder MD ◽  
H. Briem ◽  
T. Roscher-Nielsen
Keyword(s):  

2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Savadori ◽  
Eraldo Nicotra ◽  
Rino Rumiati ◽  
Roberto Tamborini

The content and structure of mental representation of economic crises were studied and the flexibility of the structure in different social contexts was tested. Italian and Swiss samples (Total N = 98) were compared with respect to their judgments as to how a series of concrete examples of events representing abstract indicators were relevant symptoms of economic crisis. Mental representations were derived using a cluster procedure. Results showed that the relevance of the indicators varied as a function of national context. The growth of unemployment was judged to be by far the most important symptom of an economic crisis but the Swiss sample judged bankruptcies as more symptomatic than Italians who considered inflation, raw material prices and external accounts to be more relevant. A different clustering structure was found for the two samples: the locations of unemployment and gross domestic production indicators were the main differences in representations.


Author(s):  
Gabriela Soto Laveaga

In my brief response to Terence Keel’s essay “Race on Both Sides of the Razor,” I focus on something as pertinent as alleles and social construction: how we write history and how we memorialize the past. Current DNA analysis promises to remap our past and interrogate certainties that we have taken for granted. For the purposes of this commentary I call this displacing of known histories the epigenetics of memory. Just as environmental stimuli rouse epigenetic mechanisms to produce lasting change in behavior and neural function, the unearthing of forgotten bodies, forgotten lives, has a measurable effect on how we act and think and what we believe. The act of writing history, memorializing the lives of others, is a stimulus that reshapes who and what we are. We cannot disentangle the discussion about the social construction of race and biological determinism from the ways in which we have written—and must write going forward—about race. To the debate about social construction and biological variation we must add the heft of historical context, which allows us to place these two ideas in dialogue with each other. Consequently, before addressing the themes in Keel’s provocative opening essay and John Hartigan’s response, I speak about dead bodies—specifically, cemeteries for Black bodies. Three examples—one each from Atlanta, Georgia; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Mexico—illustrate how dead bodies must enter our current debates about race, science, and social constructions. 


Author(s):  
Mª Carmen López Sáenz

ResumenLa autora introduce al lector en la sociofenomenología de la vida cotidiana de A. Schütz desde una lectura hermenéutica de “El Quijote”. Se detiene en el análisis schütziano de las estructuras de relevancias presentes en el universo quijotesco, ilustrando con citas de la obra de Cervantes y comentarios de las mismas las diversas construcciones sociales de los mundos de la vida habitados por los diferentes personajes, principalmente por Don Quijote y Sancho. Las articulaciones de estas realidades múltiples van aclarando el sentido del subuniverso quijotesco y el lugar del mismo en el seno del mundo de la vida compartido. Esas articulaciones se traducen en diferentes relaciones intersubjetivas que van reconfigurando el mundo social de don Quijote. A modo de conclusión, la autora reinterpreta la “locura” quijotesca de acuerdo con la estructura de relevancias.Palabras clavesociofenomenología, Schütz, mundo de la vida, D. QuijoteAbstractAutor initiates reader into A. Schütz´s Sociophenomenology of the daily life by means of the phenomenological hermeneutics of “The Quixot”. She focusses on the schützian analysis of the structures of relevances in the quixotic universe. The different social constructions of the lifeworlds are illustrated through Cervantes book´s quotations and comments, mainly by the D. Quixot and Sancho inhabited worlds. The articulations of these multiple realities go clarifying the sense of the quixotic subuniverse and its place in the common lifeworld´s bossom. Such articulations are translated into different intersubjetive relationships which reshape the Quixot´s social world. As a conclusion, author reinterpretes the quixotic “madness” in line with the structure of the relevances.KeywordsSociophenomenology, Schütz, Lifeworld, D. Quixot


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Anatoly A. Lazarevich

The article considers the formation and development of philosophy in Belarus in the context of historical conditions and modern opportunities. Discussing the national context of the philosophical process, the author reveals the four aspects of the phenomenon of “national philosophy.” Firstly, there are national institutional and disciplinary structures, which are responsible for an organized scientific, methodological, research and educational activity, which at the level of the nation-state is formalized by certain institutions, system of professional education, norms of professional ethos, standards of behavior within the community and in the wider social environment. Secondly, in the light of philosophical culture, national philosophy is interpreted as a set of value and cognitive orientations passed down from generation to generation. Thirdly, national philosophy can be viewed in the aspect of the tradition of studying the philosophical thought of the nation in the context of its historical development. Fourthly, national philosophy appears in the aspect of the philosophical foundations of the national idea and national-cultural identity. The author examines the main stages of the development of the Belarusian philosophical culture, it is shown that the features of this culture were formed under the condition of a complex combination of the worldview and values of Latin civilization, Christianity, modern European science, rationalism of social projects of the Enlightenment, ideological and worldview attitudes of Western Russian culture, formalized Soviet philosophical disciplines. The article reviews the circle of theoretical, ideological, and practical problems that the modern philosophical process in Belarus faces, the author emphasizes the unfading value of philosophical knowledge as a source of heuristic means for finding effective local answers to global problems of cultural and civilizational development. The author argues that there are two conditions that make national philosophy possible: this is, first of all, a connection with the history of thought in the area of national genesis and also the expression of thought in a national language.


1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 94-99
Author(s):  
Anna Verschik

One can often hear the question: are there any Jews in Estonia at all? And if there are, is there any reason to speak about Estonian Jewry in the sense we speak about Polish, Lithuanian, Galatian Jewry? Indeed, Estonia has never been a “traditional” land of Jews: during the Russian rule it did not belong to the so-called pale of settlement. Estonia never met with the “Jewish question”, there was no ground either for everyday or for official antisemitism. The Department of Jewish studies in the University of Tartu was the first one of its kind in the Nordic countries. At that time it was not unusual that an Estonian understood some Yiddish, there are also examples of the students who studied seriously the language and the culture of Jews. Pent Nurmekund, a famous polyglot was one of them. Nurmekund had learned a number of Yiddish folksongs and later translated some of them into Estonian. The two songs we are going to speak about are “Toibn” and “Main fraint”. Nurmekund performed both a Yiddish and an Estonian version of the first song. Main fraint was recorded only in Yiddish, the Estonian translation was published in the literary periodical Looming.


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