The Sami people have struggled for centuries to maintain their culture in spite of pressures against it from colonialism. The formal education systems of Norway and Finland have acted in discord with Sami decision-making since their inception. In response to this lack of decision-making power, there is a dynamic internal process at work; Sami people have begun to take control of their own schooling. / This thesis qualitatively examines the processes of curriculum development and implementation for wood handicraft programs at the Sami colleges in Guovdageaidnu, Norway and in Anar, Finland, and details the most significant educational and political factors involved in the transmission and production of indigenous knowledge associated with Sami handicraft. Factors associated with the teaching of Sami handicraft in the form of increasing commercialization, generalization and mechanization in formal duodji education and the stereotyping of Sami cultural imagery pose potential risks to appropriate transfer of Sami cultural knowledge. This thesis will show that the teaching of Sami handicraft (duodji) is an educational and political tool that helps develop and define modern Sami culture. Accordingly, attempts by the Sami colleges to incorporate greater indigenous knowledge have resulted in the implementation of modern indigenous curriculum that promotes cultural knowledge through the teaching of Sami handicraft.

Thesis (doctoral)-Universität, München, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [271]-294) and index.

Thesis (doctoral)-Universität, München, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [271]-294) and index.

The spread of information technology and the dissolution of international borders have had a significant impact on the challenges and opportunities faced by today's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Innovative behaviour on the part of SMEs is a prerequisite for a successful transformation of the opportunities offered by these structural changes into growth and profitability. Thus, the overall aim of this thesis is to advance the understanding of small firms' innovative behaviour as manifested in the adoption of online channels and internationalisation. This doctoral thesis consists of an introductory chapter and six self-contained essays. The introductory section develops a general analytical framework for the thesis by reviewing the literature on innovation and organisational innovativeness and identifying key determinants and processes. The first four essays seek to explain a firm's propensity to adopt online channels and suggest that firm size and a firm's willingness to cannibalise, i.e. a firm's readiness to reduce the actual or potential value of its earlier investments, differentiate between adopters and non-adopters of online channels. Expectations of alienating resellers through online channel adoption may prevent a firm from adopting. Customers' pull, competitors' push and previous use of the Internet turned out to be strong drivers of online channel use. The fourth essay employs a two-wave research design and highlights that changes that occur in the technological and economic environment in which firms operate can, over time, change a firm's pattern of decision-making from innovation adoption to conventional cost-benefit approach. Essays five and six focus on the internationalisation of SMEs. In particular, essay five focuses on the process aspects of internationalisation and suggests that early importing has a modest direct influence on exporting, and that early importing activity indirectly enhances a firm's international experience and capabilities. Essay six investigates how competitive interactions affect internationalisation and suggests that cooperation with competitors, or coopetition, is a noteworthy internationalisation motive. This thesis contributes to the literature on innovation, internationalisation, electronic marketing and small business management and demonstrates that the dynamic forces associated with innovative behaviour affect SMEs adoption of online channels and how they work with customers and suppliers abroad. / Spridningen av informationsteknik och en kraftig ökning av handel och samarbete över ländergränser har haft en betydande effekt på de utmaningar och möjligheter som dagens små och medelstora företag (SMF) står inför. De små och medelstora företagens innovationsbeteende är dock en förutsättning för att de framgångsrikt skall kunna ta tillvara de möjligheter som dessa strukturella förändringar skapar för att åstadkomma tillväxt och lönsamhet. Således är det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling att utveckla kunskap om innovationsbeteende i små företag, så som detta manifesteras i användande av onlinekanaler och deltagande i internationaliseringsprocesser. Denna avhandling består av ett inledande kapitel och sex fristående essäer. I det inledande kapitlet utvecklas ett övergripande analytiskt ramverk för avhandlingen, utifrån en litteraturöversikt av begreppen innovation och organisatorisk innovativitet där de viktigaste determinanterna och processerna identifieras. De första fyra essäerna försöker förklara ett företags benägenhet till adoption av onlinekanaler och föreslår att företagets storlek och vilja att kannibalisera, dvs ett företags beredskap att minska det faktiska eller potentiella värdet av dess tidigare investeringar, skiljer sig mellan de som använder respektive de som inte använder kanaler på nätet. Förväntningar att återförsäljare skulle bli negativt inställda om företag börjar använda onlinekanaler kan hindra företag från att investera i dem. Karaktäristika hos kunderna, utmaningar från konkurrenterna och tidigare användning av Internet visade sig vara starka drivkrafter bakom användningen av onlinekanaler. I den fjärde essäen, som baseras på data insamlad under två olika tidsperioder, visas att de förändringar som sker i den tekniska och ekonomiska miljö i vilken företagen är verksamma, kan med tiden innebära att beslutsfattandet skiftar från innovationstänkande till traditionellt kostnads​​-nyttotänkande. Essä fem och sex fokuserar på internationaliseringsprocesser i små och medelstora företag. Den femte essäen studerar i första hand internationaliseringsprocessen och visar på att tidig erfarenhet från importverksamhet enbart har en mindre inverkan på omfattningen av företagets framtida export. Tidig importerfarenhet har emellertid även en indirekt positiv effekt på företagets proaktiva attityd till internationalisering. Essä sex undersöker hur interaktion med konkurrenter påverkar internationaliseringen och visar att samarbete med konkurrenter, eller ”coopetition”, kan ha en betydande effekt på motiv till internationalisering. Denna avhandling bidrar till litteraturen inom områdena innovation, internationalisering, digital marknadsföring och ledning av små och medelstora företag. Den visar att de dynamiska krafter som ligger bakom innovationsbeteende påverkar små och medelstora företags användning av onlinekanaler samt hur denna företagsgrupp arbetar med kunder och leverantörer utomlands.

Sweden and Finland were one country for more than 600 years and there are many remaining links between the two countries. Throughout the period, but even today there are Swedish and Finnish populations on both sides of the Gulf of Bothnia. When Russia conquered the Finnish part of the country in 1809, the state and its population were separated and the situations for the language groups changed and developed differently in Sweden and Finland. During the period studied in this thesis, 1866-1939, a new type of nation emerged in Europe, based on versions of nationalism constructed on ethnicity and language. Elementary schools played an important role in this nation building, spreading the mother language and the nation’s history. Elementary school textbooks were designed in relation to nation building, language and ethnic identification.  The thesis compares how Swedish and Finland-Swedish textbooks describe ethnicity and common history in Sweden and Finland in a period of nationalism. The main aim of the thesis is to compare how two textbooks-traditions describes their Swedish and Finnish populations and if, or how, the textbook history is to be seen as related to these descriptions. The textbooks examined were written for elementary schools from 1866-1939 to be used in the teaching of history and geography. The research question focuses on descriptions of Swedes and Finns and whether it is possible to see differences in the nation’s historiography. Patterns of reproduction or transformation are also analysed in the textbooks. In the study 105 textbooks were examined and the quotations from the textbooks connected to the aim are sorted and analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis.  The results show that Finns are rendered invisible in Swedish history textbooks. The geography textbooks describe Swedes as cultural and civilised with a peace-loving national character, while Finns are described as uncultured, peripheral and stubborn. This pattern is similar in Swedish and Finland-Swedish geography textbooks. At the beginning of the study it is a positive stubbornness, portrayed as brave and truthful to Sweden. Later on, the stubborn Finn is described negatively as old-fashioned and clinging to old habits. The Swede´s are described as more flexible through time; they have refined their national character and developed cultivation and democracy.  The historiography differs in what is described, and how. One example is that the Finns´ contribution to the common country is quite hard to find in the textbooks.  Swedish textbooks also seem to want to steal the honour from any Finnish success by placing Swedish ethnicity before Finnish national identity in cases where Swedish-speaking Finns have done great things. These types of descriptions are both reproduced and transformed as the actual relations between Finland and Sweden change and it is obvious that textbook history does not tell about the past but rather the story that the present wants to propagate.

In both western and Russian historiography the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40 enjoys, at best, only a passing reference in any narrative of the period and is poorly integrated into existing scholarly analyses of the Soviet regime under Stalin. It is my contention that this conflict offers an invaluable opportunity to test for continuity and change in the form and function of the Stalinist system. Between the disastrous efforts of its forces and the condemnation of the international community, the Kremlin was confronted with the serious challenge of how to portray the events of the war in the media, while managing domestic and international opinion over the course of the fighting. This thesis examines the extent to which the Soviet regime under Stalin had the institutions and agents in place at the close of the 1930s to cope with the crisis of war in Finland; to be in command of the military campaign, while simultaneously controlling the direction of the official narrative about the fighting; and to censor conflicting interpretations, experiences and information channels, which might expose the Red Army's woeful performance on Finnish territory. This mobilisation of press, propaganda and censorship organs in the face of widespread international condemnation and domestic disquiet constituted a significant challenge for a regime still dealing with the sudden reorientation of the Communist International, required after the Soviet Union's conclusion of a non-aggression treat with Nazi Germany in August 1939. An international perspective is central to this thesis, with a view towards assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the public face and private practice of Soviet information controls.

Sweden and Finland were one country for more than 600 years and there are many remaining links between the two countries. Throughout the period, but even today there are Swedish and Finnish populations on both sides of the Gulf of Bothnia. When Russia conquered the Finnish part of the country in 1809, the state and its population were separated and the situations for the language groups changed and developed differently in Sweden and Finland. During the period studied in this thesis, 1866-1939, a new type of nation emerged in Europe, based on versions of nationalism constructed on ethnicity and language. Elementary schools played an important role in this nation building, spreading the mother language and the nation’s history. Elementary school textbooks were designed in relation to nation building, language and ethnic identification.  The thesis compares how Swedish and Finland-Swedish textbooks describe ethnicity and common history in Sweden and Finland in a period of nationalism. The main aim of the thesis is to compare how two textbooks-traditions describes their Swedish and Finnish populations and if, or how, the textbook history is to be seen as related to these descriptions. The textbooks examined were written for elementary schools from 1866-1939 to be used in the teaching of history and geography. The research question focuses on descriptions of Swedes and Finns and whether it is possible to see differences in the nation’s historiography. Patterns of reproduction or transformation are also analysed in the textbooks. In the study 105 textbooks were examined and the quotations from the textbooks connected to the aim are sorted and analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis.  The results show that Finns are rendered invisible in Swedish history textbooks. The geography textbooks describe Swedes as cultural and civilised with a peace-loving national character, while Finns are described as uncultured, peripheral and stubborn. This pattern is similar in Swedish and Finland-Swedish geography textbooks. At the beginning of the study it is a positive stubbornness, portrayed as brave and truthful to Sweden. Later on, the stubborn Finn is described negatively as old-fashioned and clinging to old habits. The Swede´s are described as more flexible through time; they have refined their national character and developed cultivation and democracy.  The historiography differs in what is described, and how. One example is that the Finns´ contribution to the common country is quite hard to find in the textbooks.  Swedish textbooks also seem to want to steal the honour from any Finnish success by placing Swedish ethnicity before Finnish national identity in cases where Swedish-speaking Finns have done great things. These types of descriptions are both reproduced and transformed as the actual relations between Finland and Sweden change and it is obvious that textbook history does not tell about the past but rather the story that the present wants to propagate.

De nordiska staterna delar förutom det geografiska läget också en sammanflätad historia och värdegemenskap. Trots många likheter så skiljer sig och också länderna sig åt gällande de valda försvars- och säkerhetspolitiska inriktningarna. Av de fem nordiska staterna är tre av dem Nato-medlemmar: Norge, Danmark och Island. De återstående länderna: Sverige och Finland är försvarspolitisk obundna utanför EU samarbetet. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka Sveriges och Finlands försvars- och säkerhetspolitiska inriktning som alliansfria och att jämföra dess likheter och skillnader utifrån kontexten av ländernas gemensamma historia och geopolitiska läge. Studien ämnar uppfylla syftet genom att undersöka ländernas försvarspropositioner som för Sveriges del utgavs år 2015 och för Finlands del år 2016 för säkerhetspolitiken och 2017 för försvarspolitiken. Genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys bryts dokumenten ned och relevanta delar plockas ut efter ett kodschema. Undersökningen visar att Sverige och Finland till stor del gör en gemensam säkerhetspolitisk inriktning. De säkerhetspolitiska målen grundar sig på upprätthållande av territoriell, folkdemokratisk och samhällsfunktionell suveränitet. Länderna är överens om att EU bör stärkas säkerhetspolitiskt, att Nato är den viktigaste säkerhetspolitiska aktören i Europa, att ytterligare nordiskt och Svenskt-finskt samarbete är positivt och att Ryssland är den bakomliggande orsaken till ett försämrat säkerhetspolitiskt läge. Skillnader finns också mellan hur Sverige och Finland beskriver Nato och Ryssland. Finland ser positivt på Nato-medlemskap samtidigt som Sverige inte nämner medlemskap alls. Gällande Ryssland så fördömer Sverige tydligt den ryska aggressionen i Krim samtidigt som Finland ger en mer försiktig beskrivning av Ryssland. Försvarspolitiskt visar studien att Sverige och Finland ser förmågan att både bidra och ta emot internationellt stöd ses som en central aspekt. Sveriges försvarspolitiska inriktning tycks också bli allt mer lik den finska. Detta innebär att Sverige ställer om från ett smalt insatsförsvar till ett åter bredare nationellt fokuserat försvar, likt det finska. Ett tydligt exempel på detta är att det svenska totalförsvaret och värnplikten återuppväcks.

This essay examines how the local Civil Guard in the town of Vaasa, in the Finnish civil war of 1918, were presented based on the notion of masculinity in texts by Axel Iversén. In this study discourse analysis with a qualitative approach has been applied. The study shows that the role of the Civil Guard in the civil war mainly revolves around the discourse on safeguarding the nation's independence and protecting Finland as a nation. Based on Judith Butler's theory of performativity this study shows how masculinity is created from a repetitive practice based on concepts such as freedom, courage, offensive, equality, youth, organization and efficiency. The study confirms previous research which shows that according to the Civil Guards notion masculine ideals were related to nationalism, patriotism and sacrifice for the nation's independence. Furthermore, the study confirms the importance of the homosocial relations for the construction of masculinity within the Civil Guard. The discourse on offensive action regarding the Civil Guard is prominent, regardless if it is in battle or the organization of the Civil Guard.

This essay aims to study which competencies, motives, and conditions that volunteer rescuers in the Aland Islands Sea Rescue Society consider important. An underlying aim is to investigate the importance of volunteer maritime rescue for the members themselves and for the local community from a maritime rescue and safety perspective. This is accomplished by examining qualitative ethnographic interviews through Discourse Theory. The essay explores what work tasks and competencies (such as knowledge and skills) volunteer maritime rescuers consider important and what strategies they use to acquire competencies. It even explores what motives they indicate as important for becoming involved as a volunteer rescuer and what conditions enable or limit their participation in the Sea Rescue Society The essay even explores why voluntary lifeguards need to exist in society and how com it exists.    The results show that each volunteer rescuer has an individual motive that keeps them engaged. The volunteer rescuers need a general competence but may also have special competence in maritime rescue practices. The living, health, work, and family situation of the volunteer rescuers are conditions that enable or limit their participation in the Sea Rescue Society. The finances of the maritime rescue service may also be a condition enabling or limiting.