The Village of the Year Competition Constructing an Ideal Model of a Rural Community in Finland
The Village Action Association of Finland (SYTY) organizes the Village of the Year competition annually to award active rural communities. The competition has taken place since 1985, but after the village action movement was integrated into Finnish rural policy networks in the 1990s, it also became a part of rural policy instruments. The competition can be considered a governing technique that constructs norms and an ideal model for rural communities to pursue. In this article, I study the representation of an ideal rural community by analysing the criteria of the competition. I also look for changes to see whether the integration of the village action movement into rural policy is reflecte…
Kun pienestä kunnasta tulee kylä : kuntaliitosten vaikutukset maaseutuyhteisöissä
Agency, expertise and working life skills : Students’ conceptions of the generic competences required in the world of work
Fundamental changes in working life highlight the demands on the co-operation between the educational sector and working life, that should contribute to students’ employability. In addition to discipline-specific expertise, the development of working life skills has received increasing attention when it comes to employment. Drawing on data from Finnish universities of applied sciences (n=5) and universities (n=3), this paper examines how students (n=380) value the generic competences needed in in the world of work. The study is based on European reforms of labour markets and educational structures. This paper adds to current discourses around employability by highlighting differences betwee…
Political community resilience in declining rural areas in Finland
Abstract In this article, we study how declining rural communities build political resilience in Finland. Community resilience is an adaptive process through which rural communities try to maintain their viability in changed circumstances. This process does not entail a submissive attitude, but rather active agency and an effort to influence matters concerning the community’s well-being. We focus on the political dimension of resilience by identifying different local tactics that rural communities adopt to promote their own development following municipal mergers. We classify these tactics into three categories: cooperation, conflict and community-led development. The significant difference…
How do community development activities affect the construction of rural places? : A case study from Finland
Community‐based development practices have been seen as the prevailing paradigm for rural development. Rural community development practices are employed especially through local non‐governmental organisations, such as village associations, to ensure that rural communities are vital and attractive places to live. In this article, we explore how community development practices affect and shape rural places. The data were collected in three Finnish villages that each have an active village association and that have adopted community development practices as their method of keeping their village viable. According to the results of our study, the impacts of community practices on rural places c…
Kylät tulevaisuuden paikallisyhteisöinä
Tämän artikkelin tavoitteena on kylien eli maaseutumaisten paikallisyhteisöjen tulevaisuuden luonteen hahmottaminen. Peilaan jälkimodernin paikallisyhteisön piirteitä aktiivisista kylistä keräämääni aineistoon. Miten jälkimodernille paikallisyhteisölle ominaiset piirteet, kuten kommunikatiivisuus ja avoimuus niissä rakentuvat? Mitä haasteita ne tuovat tulevaisuuden kylätoiminnalle ja kylien kehittämiselle? Jälkimodernit paikallisyhteisöt eivät rakennu vastavoimana individualismille, vaan osana sitä. Ne pyrkivät vastaamaan samalla sekä ihmisten yksilöllisiin intresseihin ja valintoihin että yhteisöllisyyden ja kuulumisen tarpeeseen. peerReviewed
Yksilöstä yhteisöön : uusliberalistinen ihannekansalainen maaseutupoliittisessa ohjelmassa
Miten työelämäläheisyys saadaan opetussuunnitelmatasolta osaksi käytännön opetusta? : esimerkkinä kulttuurialan koulutus
KUMU kehittää ongelmalähtöistä pedagogiikkaa
Taide- ja taiteilijapoliittinen ohjelma : poliittinen ohjelma taiteen ja taiteilijoiden aseman edistämiseksi
Developing Connective Pedagogy in Cultural Research—A Case Study from the Teachers’ Perspective in Adopting a Problem-Based Approach in Higher Education
The article examines the challenges university teachers face when adopting connective pedagogy in organizing teaching. Instead of studying the learning outcomes of the method, we decided in this research to focus on the teachers&rsquo
Workers’ and volunteers’ ideas about the benefits of young people’s cultural participation : a critical capital-based approach
This article deals with non-profit sector and voluntary workers’ understandings of the benefits of young people’s participation in cultural and leisure projects in Central Finland. Active participation is highlighted on a policy level as a solution to social inequality, exclusion, and marginalisation among young people. The article focuses on the cultural, social, economic, and political dimensions of participation by exploring the advantages that cultural projects bring to young people. The article theorises these dimensions by drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of capital to provide a more critical account of the participation paradigm. Fifteen workers and volunteers on cultural projects were …
Nuorten yhteiskunnallinen osallistaminen kulttuuri- ja vapaa-ajan toiminnan kautta
Nuorten osallistumisen ja osallisuuden lisäämisestä on tullut tärkeä yhteiskunnallinen tavoite, jota yritetään edistää erilaisten ohjelmien ja projektien kautta. Tarkastelemme artikkelissa osallistamista tutkimalla nuorille vuosina 2017–2018 suunnattua kulttuuri- ja vapaa-ajan toimintaa Keski-Suomessa. Tutkimme, miten kulttuuriin liittyvällä toiminnalla pyritään edistämään nuorten laajempaa yhteiskunnallista osallistumista ja osallisuutta. Olemme haastatelleet 15 projekteissa työskentelevää tai vapaaehtoisena toimivaa henkilöä, ja analysoineet aineistoa osallistumisen kulttuurisen, sosiaalisen, taloudellisen ja poliittisen ulottuvuuden kautta. Tulosten mukaan nuorten osallistumista tutkitt…
The discursive construction of an active rural community
In this article, I will study active rural communities, how they are constructed in the speech of local people involved in community development practices. Over the past twenty years, community-led development practices have been a new paradigm for the rural development in Finland, which has been reflected as increasing number of village associations. I will analyse the discursive construction of the active community by interviewing all the present and previous leaders of three active village associations in the province of Central Finland. Active rural communities are constructed through village associations, by their local activities and self-consciousness as active communities. In the lo…
Asukasosallisuus alueiden kehittämisessä : näennäisestä rituaalista jatkuvaan vuorovaikutukseen
Osallistuminen oman asuinalueen kehittämiseen on kansalaisille vapaaehtoista, mutta virkamiehille osa työtä ja sen tavoitteita. Millaisia haasteita kuntien ja kaupunkien toteuttamaan asukasosallisuuteen liittyy, ja miten vuoropuhelusta asukkaiden kanssa tulee rakentavaa ja hedelmällistä? nonPeerReviewed
Enemmän vuorovaikutusta, vähemmän vastakkainasettelua : Palkittu maaseutugradu tarkastelee paikkaperustaista kehittämistä
Promoting neoliberal ideology in Finnish rural community development : the creation of new moral actors
Today’s political ambitions are based on the neoliberal aspiration to diminish the state’s role and responsibilities, and to transfer those responsibilities to local communities and individuals in ways that idealise those communities, promising to ‘give power to the people’. Instead of highlighting individualism, neoliberalism now celebrates communities and participation. This article deals with the effects of this ideology with regard to Finnish rural policy objectives. Drawing on Finnish village action programmes as data, we argue that these ideological views aim to transform individuals and create new moral actors. Our research indicates that Finland’s rural policy objectives invoke acto…