Suchergebnisse

For several decades, feminism has evolved as a part of changing societies. Correspondingly, changes in feminism have been reflected on societal systems. According to several scholars and commentators, the neoliberal shifts of the past fifty years have co-opted the mainstream feminism and resulted in what they call neoliberal feminism. In consequence, the new rationale demands individuals to alter themselves to suit market principles, overshadowing societal issues of equality. This study investigates such developments of feminism. It analyzes the self-reliant political agency of self-identified feminists operating in the Finnish context, focusing on the apparently neoliberalistic practice of self leadership. The research is conducted with the help of Grounded Theory method which underscores the collaboration of empirical data, rigorous coding, and theorization. As a methodology, the GT method was used as a frame within which data was coded and analyzed. As the empirical data, this study analyzes seven semi-structured in-depth interviews which amounted to approximately 330 minutes in total. The questionnaire consisted of questions on feminism, self leadership, and the overall experiences and understandings which may or may not resonate with neoliberal views. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the Atlas.ti coding software. In addition, literature reviews on development of feminisms and self leadership were conducted to add rigor to the theorization. The findings of this research revealed four core categories that emerged from the narratives of the feminists. The categories were "self-observation", "internal boundaries", "success and leadership", and "emerging soft values". Upon the analysis, these categories disclosed the participants' approaches to the values and practices that critics have identified as neoliberal. As a result, the study suggests that feminism in the Finnish context has attained neoliberal elements. The participants were highly self-conscious and used self leadership strategies to battle various biases. Encouragement of others and of self were regarded a useful tool in increasing balance and equality. Yet to argue that feminism has become neoliberalized is unjustified. Despite their internal efforts, the participants did not demonstrate disregard of structural issues. On the contrary, they demanded equal opportunities intersectionally and found participation to capitalism an insufficient measure of equality. The results of this study describe the development of feminisms and contests the notion that individualistic elements have neoliberalized feminism. In future research, larger samples can enrich the outcomes and result in more generalizable knowledge.

Monitoring and evaluation are crucial components of informed decision making, but there is still a general lack of evaluation of the effectiveness of different conservation policies and practices. Also, many existing monitoring schemes can be inefficient use of resources. We have studied the effects and side-effects of legal protection of the Siberian flying squirrel Pteromys volans in Finland, and re-evaluated the methods and results of the monitoring scheme for the species. This presentation combines the results of four different studies. Protection of the so called 'breeding sites or resting places' for the species has faced resistance. We explored reasons for negative attitudes by comparing the responses of persons with and without direct experience on protection. Forest owners have been mostly satisfied with the logging restrictions, but about half of the area occupied by the species in Finland could be owned by persons who would prefer not to have it on their lands. The issue is politicized: the species has become an example of top-down protection, resisted by forest owners out of principle. We estimated the proportion of 'breeding sites or resting places' that have been considered in forest management and found that only 3% of all the potential sites that would have been located on logging areas could have been recognized (1). This, and negative attitudes toward the species, indicate severe problems with compliance of legislation. We also studied 100 sites delimited by environmental authority. Our results show that the narrow definition of the prohibition to 'deteriorate or destruct' the sites does not safeguard the ecological functionality of them (1). The national monitoring scheme reported 22.7% decline of occupancy during 2006-2015. If the proportional change in occupancy would correspond 1:1 with the proportional change in population size, the decline in population size would have been <30%. Based on this assumption the status of the species was down-listed from 'Vulnerable' to 'Near Threatened'. We estimated a) the relationship between observed decline in occupancy and the true changes in the population size, and b) the possible causes of the change by: i) evaluating the sampling method, building both ii) a survival/colonization model with relevant habitat data, and iii) an individual-based simulator to test the relation between observed occupancy and actual number of individuals. Our simulation shows that population can decline faster than occupancy. We should rethink the way the species is protected and how its status is evaluated. Protection of only known nest sites will not be effective in Finland. The raw occupancy data should be interpreted according to more realistic occupancy-abundance relationship. 1. Jokinen, M., Mäkeläinen, S. & Ovaskainen, O., 2015. 'Strict' yet ineffective: legal protection of breeding sites and resting places fails with the Siberian flying squirrel. Anim Cons 18: 167-175. ; peerReviewed

This MSc thesis contributes with new information on how vulnerability to tropical cyclone (TC) induced flooding has evolved at two coastal lowland study sites in the town of Corinto in Nicaragua over a period of 50 years. The research was done through rain station data analyses, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions. Analyses of changing poverty, human mobility, housing conditions, and occurrence of flood-related diseases were used as additional indicators supporting the overall vulnerability assessment. The recent increase in the North Atlantic TC activity can not be seen in the data from Corinto. The both studied neighborhoods built on dump-sites and mangrove marsh have clearly become less exposed, less sensitive, and more resilient to external stress brought by TCs. These two sites have been developing into different directions since one has reached a more prosper status whereas the other is still rather marginal. The former has been supported by the local government while the latter has been growing in a less regulated way. This thesis suggests that there are coastal communities in developing countries, which are able to cope with and adapt to extreme climate events even though this kind of vulnerability has been predicted to increase due to global warming.