“My Responsibility, My Food”: Meat, Slaughter and Self-sufficiency

This article examines views on meat, slaughter and human-animal relations in the contemporary self-sufficiency trend. The point of departure of the analysis is ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with individuals striving towards becoming more self-sufficient in the region of Ostrobothnia, Finland. The focus is on the interviewees’ narration of their practices and experiences of animal husbandry, and more specifically on the role of affect and body in the killing of animals for human consumption. The material is analysed utilising cultural analysis inspired by phenomenology, and the findings are discussed from the perspective of post-domesticity. The analysis shows how the interviewees negotiate and justify their choices regarding meat, and why they prefer self-sufficiency farming and home slaughter to industrial agriculture and slaughter. This form of small-scale animal husbandry is characterised by affective relationships between bodies, which counteract the processes of post-domestic modernity that generate disconnectedness between animal and human, food and origin, producer and consumer. &nbsp

Factors influencing health-seeking behaviours of asylum seekers, refugees, and undocumented immigrants: A systematic review of peer-reviewed articles

This review investigates the impact of personal and contextual factors on health-seeking behaviours in terms of health-related information and healthcare service needs and utilization among asylum seekers, refugees, and undocumented immigrants using an adapted framework based on an extended Longo health information model. The 73 peer-reviewed records included in this systematic review were obtained from WoS, Ebsco, and Scopus. This review shows that culture, religion, policy, and systematic inequalities may play three different roles for our studied population, including facilitators, barriers, and health-related information sources. The findings indicated that providing universal health-related information and healthcare services may not meet all of the healthcare needs of our study population. As a result, healthcare providers must take a cross-cultural approach when designing, developing, and delivering specific health promotion programmes, treating patients with respect and attention, and providing health-related information and healthcare services based on ethnic, cultural, religious, and migration statuses

E-health services and devices: Availability, merits, and barriers - with some examples from Finland

Empowering individuals through e-health can be considered as the current trend in developing healthcare services and devices. The aim of this article is to shed light on availability, benefits, and limitations of using these services and devices in people’s everyday life. This study is a descriptive review based on a non-exhaustive selection of previous studies that define information exchange, information formats, opportunities, and restrictions of e-health technologies. The main focus of this study is on presenting available e-health services and devices while describing their benefits and limitations. This approach has the potential to provide new insights into the future development and integration of e-health into the healthcare system of a country. The idea behind this review is to provide a better understanding of e-health services for authorities, healthcare professionals, individuals, and related beneficiaries.Empowering individuals through e-health can be considered as the current trend in developing healthcare services and devices. The aim of this article is to shed light on availability, benefits, and limitations of using these services and devices in people’s everyday life. This study is a descriptive review based on a non-exhaustive selection of previous studies that define information exchange, information formats, opportunities, and restrictions of e-health technologies. The main focus of this study is on presenting available e-health services and devices while describing their benefits and limitations. This approach has the potential to provide new insights into the future development and integration of e-health into the healthcare system of a country. The idea behind this review is to provide a better understanding of e-health services for authorities, healthcare professionals, individuals, and related beneficiaries

Nyckelpigan som nyckelsymbol. En kultursemiotisk analys av Svenska folkpartiets partisymbol

This article is a cultural semiotic analysis of the symbol of the Swedish People’s Party in Finland, the ladybug. The authors dwell upon why the ladybug seems to have so positive connotations and what makes it useable as a symbol of a political party. This symbol is studied as a part of a system of signs, from a cultural semiotic viewpoint, in order to show how meaning is made, and how the party – as well as everything else Swedish in Finland – is represented. Using semiotics, the authors make visible the cultural associations of the ladybug – patterns which they believe are largely unconscious. The numerous positive connotations of the ladybug from folk beliefs hint at a code connecting these pre-modern beliefs to a plethora of contemporary areas of usage. The results of the analysis are viewed in the light of Sherry Ortner’s term ‘key symbols’, and utilised to deepen the discussion about implications that the use of the ladybug has for Swedish in Finland. The authors believe that the ways in which the sign ‘ladybug’ is being used affects the ways that Swedish in Finland is represented, lived and perceived.Artikkelissa tarkastellaan ympäristöhistoriallisesta näkökulmasta eurooppalaisia, pääasiassa ranskalaisia kuvauksia karibialaisista papukaijoista 1600- ja 1700-luvuilla. Tutkimalla papukaijan varhaismodernin ajan luonto- ja kulttuurihistoriaa artikkeli esittää, että ero kategorioiden villi ja kesy välillä oli tärkeä distinktio suhteessa papukaijojen arvoon ja käyttötapaan kulutushyödykkeenä. Tutkimus tarjoaa myös mahdollisuuden selvittää, voiko papukaijan itsensä ääntä kuulla analysoiduissa kuvauksissa. Papukaijan sijoittumisesta kulttuurin ja luonnon rajalle johtuu, että jako näihin kahteen kategoriaan on ongelmallinen. Yhtäältä papukaija edusti villiä trooppista luontoa siirtomaissa, toisaalta se oli viihdyttävä lemmikki, joka sopeutui ihmisen toivomuksiin ja vaatimuksiin matkimalla hänen puhettaan. Papukaijojen ”luonnollinen villeys” nimettiin useissa tapauksissa ei-toivotuksi ominaisuudeksi. Kun papukaijoja kesytettiin, ne yritettiin saada unohtamaan oma villeytensä erottamalla ne lajitovereistaan ja viemällä ne pois elinalueiltaan sekä maantieteellisesti että symbolisesti. Näin papukaijojen ajateltiin ”sosialisoituvan” ihmisten maailmaan. Kuilu ihmisten ja eläinten välillä on merkittävästi kapeampi kuvauksissa papukaijoista lemmikkeinä kuin kuvauksissa villeistä papukaijoista. Papukaijan ominaisuudet, jotka tekivät siitä houkuttelevan – sen hyvänmakuinen liha, sen huomiota herättävä kauneus ja sen kyky puhua ihmisten kieltä – olivat voitokas yhdistelmä kulutusmarkkinoilla. Sitävastoin papukaijat itse näyttäytyvät häviäjinä eurooppalaisten Karibian kolonisaatioon liittyvissä tapahtumissa sekä sen seurauksena tapahtuneessa mannerten välisessä lajien vaihdossa ja ekologisessa imperialismissa.I artikeln gör vi en kultursemiotisk analys av Svenska folkpartiets i Finland (SFP) logotyp nyckelpigan. Sommaren 2012 fick partiet en ny logo där nyckelpigan återigen intar en central position efter att den under några år inte varit lika framträdande. Vi frågar oss varför nyckelpigan verkar uppfattas som positiv och vad det är som gör att den kan fungera som symbol för ett politiskt parti. Med hjälp av ett kultursemiotiskt grepp studerar vi tecknet nyckelpiga som en del av ett teckensystem i syfte att synliggöra hur betydelse skapas och hur partiet, och därmed – i vid bemärkelse – det svenska i Finland representeras. Med hjälp av ett semiotiskt närmelsesätt synliggör vi nyckelpigans kulturella associationer, mönster som vi tror är mer eller mindre omedvetna och som därmed också påverkar oss. Vi tror att sättet som tecknet nyckelpiga används på har följder för hur svenskt i Finland framställs, levs och uppfattas. Nyckelpigans många positiva konnotationer från folktron ger vid handen att det finns en kod som ger en förbindelse mellan dessa folkliga föreställningar från bondesamhället och de många användningsområden nyckelpigan har i dag. Vi diskuterar analysresultaten med hjälp av Sherry Ortners begrepp nyckelsymbol inför en fördjupning av analysen om eventuella följder av användningen av nyckelpigan som symbol för det svenska i Finland. Nyckelpigan har kommit att bli kulturellt viktig i en finlandssvensk kontext i dag, dels genom dess förekomst i folkliga föreställningar som ett gott – till och med heligt – djur, dels, och i synnerhet, genom SFP:s användning av nyckelpigan som partisymbol. På grund av den starka kopplingen mellan partiet SFP och de svenskspråkiga i Finland har nyckelpigan även kommit att konnotera det svenska i Finland. Nyckelpigan blir en extremt komprimerad bild, en metafor för den version av Svenskfinland som SFP verkar vilja värna

Diskursteori möter kritisk diskursanalys

Recension av: Egan Sjölander, Annika & Gunnarsson Payne, Jenny (eds) 2011: Tracking Discourses. Politics, Identity and Social Change. Lund: Nordic Academic Press. 342 s