When Finland gained its independence from Russia in 1917, the country had not had a military for almost two decades. The ensuing creation of a new national conscript army aroused intense but ...conflicting emotions among the Finns. This book examines how a modern conscript army, born out of a civil war, had to struggle through social, cultural and political minefields to find popular acceptance. Exploring the ways that images of manhood were used in the controversies, it reveals the conflicts surrounding compulsory military service in a democratic society and the compromises made as the new nation had to develop the will and skill to defend itself.
Through the lens of masculinity, another picture of conscription emerges, offering new understandings of why military service was resisted and supported, dreaded and celebrated in Finnish society. Intertwined with the story of the making of the military runs the story of how manhood was made and remade through the idealized images and real-life experiences of conscripted soldiers.
Placing interwar Finland within a broad European context, the book traces the origins of competing military traditions and ideological visions of modern male citizenship back to their continental origins. It contributes to the need for studies on the impact of the Great War on masculinities and constructions of gender among military cultures in the peacetime period between the two world wars.
Constructed wetlands and ponds (CWs) are installed to trap suspended material and particulate phosphorus (P) in agricultural runoff. This study investigated whether the P speciation and P sorption ...capacity of source soils differ from those of CW sediments and whether drying of dredged sediment changes its characteristics. Samples collected from five agricultural CW sites in south-west Finland, two with chemical-aided (aluminium chloride and ferric sulphate) P precipitation and all representing fine-textured mineral soils, were analysed for various P plant availability indices. Clay contents of the CW sediments were much higher than in catchment soils, likely because of selective erosion. All CW sediments were characterised by similar total P content but clearly higher content of anion exchange resin-extractable P in fresh sediments than the source soils. In general, sediment content of NH4F-extractable (aluminium (Al)-associated) P was significantly lower and NaOH-extractable (iron (Fe)-associated) significantly higher than in source soils. Reduced conditions, conducive to mobilisation of Fe-associated P, were observed in all CWs. Accumulation of sulphur (S) in sediments and a pH decline of up to two units upon drying suggested presence of Fe sulphides. Drying also increased oxalate-extractable Al and Fe (hydr)oxide content by 9–47%, resulting in lower degree of P saturation. These results indicate that dredged CW sediments differ greatly in their P retention characteristics from their parent soils. Returning CW sediments to fields is likely to decrease the amount of readily available P for crop uptake.
•We characterised parent soils and agricultural constructed wetland sediments.•Runoff process altered phosphorus speciation of eroded soil material.•Drying of dredged sediment increases phosphorus adsorption capacity.•High sulphur accumulation into the constructed wetland sediments was observed.
This book presents a comprehensive overview of Finnish electoral democracy, expertly detailing both its typical representation of a stable European party democracy and its particularities such as a ...personalized electoral system, a fragmented party system with tradition of grand government coalitions and its sensitive geopolitical location.
Using the Finnish National Election Study as a basis, it analyses how voters act and react in an electoral democracy characterized by a high degree of competition between and within parties, yet a democracy in which the possibility for voters to hold governments accountable for their actions is weak, leading to interesting tensions within the system and influences on how voters relate to and engage in politics. This book not only describes these patterns but also provides the reader with thorough explanations and interpretations from a team of expert contributors.
This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Finnish politics, Nordic/Scandinavian politics and studies, political behaviour, electoral studies, public opinion and more broadly to comparative politics and democracy.
This book looks at disability as an evolving social phenomenon. Disability is created through the interaction between persons with impairments and their environment.
Exploring these experiences of ...persons with disabilities and discussing universality and particularity in our understanding of assumed development and normalcy, it takes Finland, which has been chosen repeatedly as the happiest country in the world as its case- study. Using disability as a critical lens helps to demystify Finland that has the positive reputation of a Welfare State. By identifying different kinds of discrimination against persons with disabilities as well as successful examples of disability inclusion, it shows that when looking Finland from the perspective of persons with disabilities, inequality and poverty have been collective experiences of too many of them.
It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, sociology, social policy, social work, political science, health and well-being studies and Nordic studies more broadly.
At the close of the twentieth century, Denmark, Finland, and Ireland emerged as unlikely centers for high-tech competition. InWhen Small States Make Big Leaps, Darius Ornston reveals how these ...historically low-tech countries managed to assume leading positions in new industries such as biotechnology, software, and telecommunications equipment. In each case, countries used institutions that are commonly perceived to delay restructuring to accelerate the redistribution of resources to emerging enterprises and industries.
Ornston draws on interviews with hundreds of politicians, policymakers, and industry representatives to identify two different patterns of institutional innovation and economic restructuring. Irish policymakers worked with industry and labor representatives to contain costs and expand market competition. Denmark and Finland adopted a different strategy, converting an established tradition of private-public and industry-labor cooperation to invest in high-quality inputs such as human capital and research. Both strategies facilitated movement into new high-tech industries but with distinctive political and economic consequences. In explaining how previously slow-moving states entered dynamic new industries, Ornston identifies a broader range of strategies by which countries can respond to disruptive challenges such as economic internationalization, rapid technological innovation, and the shift to services.
In 100 years as a nation-state, Finland has become the world's benchmark for quality in school education. Despite the fact that Finland is consistently top ranked by international performance ...measures, the country continues to rapidly change their curriculum and educational policies. This book documents these main curricula changes, telling the story of the future of school education in Finland as it begins to develop in 2016, 2017, and 2018 onwards. Drawing from 14 original case studies, the book presents the stories of 14 principals and 29 teachers with a systematic and methodological uniformity. Intertwining the Finnish example with a greater narrative about how universities are changing their teacher education to face the complex challenges of education in the 21st century, this book documents cutting-edge advancement in the field of international school education.
This paper provides a general overview of changes in flooding caused by climate change in Finland for the periods 2010–2039 and 2070–2099. Changes in flooding were evaluated at 67 sites in Finland ...with variable sizes of runoff areas using a conceptual hydrological model and 20 climate scenarios from both global and regional climate models with the delta change approach. Floods with a 100-year return period were estimated with frequency analysis using the Gumbel distribution. At four study sites depicting different watershed types and hydrology, the inundation areas of the 100-year floods were simulated with a 2D hydraulic model. The results demonstrate that the impacts of climate change are not uniform within Finland due to regional differences in climatic conditions and watershed properties. In snowmelt-flood dominated areas, annual floods decreased or remained unchanged due to decreasing snow accumulation. On the other hand, increased precipitation resulted in growing floods in major central lakes and their outflow rivers. The changes in flood inundation did not linearly follow the changes in 100-year discharges, due to varying characteristics of river channels and floodplains. The results highlight the importance of comprehensive climatological and hydrological knowledge and the use of several climate scenarios in estimation of climate change impacts on flooding. Generalisations based on only a few case studies, or large scale flood assessments using only a few climate scenarios should be avoided in countries with variable hydrological conditions.
The ages and sizes of landslides occurring in seismically active areas can be used to reconstruct the seismic history of the area and estimate the maximum moment magnitudes of past earthquakes. Here, ...we present a data set of 121 landslides discovered in northern Finland that were analyzed for their morphometric characteristics. We show that 89 debris slide type landslides in the data set are clustered close to known postglacial faults (PGFs) and thus provide information on the characteristics of postglacial paleoseismic events. By using empirical correlations between the landslide volume–area data and earthquake moment magnitude, we estimate maximum moment magnitudes Mw≈6.9–7.7 for postglacial earthquakes in the Suasselkä, Isovaara–Riikonkumpu, Venejärvi, and Vaalajärvi areas, where earlier estimates based on fault length and displacement have yielded magnitudes varying between Mw≈6.5 and 7.5. We also show that the landslides in northern Finland are located within a radius of 35km from the closest known PGF and that sizes of the landslides decrease as a function of distance from PGFs, hence providing strong empirical evidence for their seismic origin. As far as we are aware, this is the first use of landside data in quantifying postglacial seismicity within the Fennoscandian Shield area.
•121 landslides from Finland were analyzed for morphology and paleoearthquake origin.•Debris slide type of landslides fulfills the criteria of being seismically-induced.•Landslide volume–area data indicate Mw≈6.9–7.7 postglacial earthquakes in Finland.•These estimates agree well with Mw≈6.5–7.5 estimates that are based on PGF ruptures.
The determination of reliable geotechnical parameters from laboratory testing is highly dependent on sample quality. Over the past decades, undisturbed sampling of soft sensitive clays has been ...performed using various apparatuses and procedures. This paper outlines details of the design and performance of a new Laval-type tube sampler employed for the investigation of five soft clay sites located in Finland. The investigation was conducted using the new tube sampler and two different piston samplers. The sample quality was evaluated based on the recompression volume during reconsolidation to the in situ effective stress in constant-rate-of-strain oedometer tests. Test results show that tube samples are generally characterized by higher quality, especially in low-plasticity clays. In particular, the quality of piston samples is highly affected by the apparatus condition and sampling operations. Furthermore, the influence of storage time on tube samples was investigated. To guarantee a proper confinement, and thus reduce swelling, a pressurized system was applied to the tube samples obtained in two soft clay sites. Results demonstrate that the sample quality is not significantly affected by storage time as long as the soil is properly stored in the tube.
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