Learning and the ' Ba ' in the Development Network of an Urban Region

In order for an urban region to learn and develop, it is necessary for its development network to learn. In this article, Ikujiro Nonaka's learning model, which emphasizes the significance of tacit and explicit knowledge interacting in a spiral process and thus enabling creation of new knowledge, is applied to learning in a development network. Nonaka and his colleagues have also conceptualized specific places ( ba ) to correspond to every phase of knowledge conversion. Favourable conditions or places can also be developed for knowledge conversion in a development network: this article presents some potential ba for the development network including practical examples from Tampere Urban Region (located in Finland).     

The Natural Environment of the Shipwreck Vrouw Maria (1771) in the Northern Baltic Sea: an assessment of her state of preservation

Vrouw Maria, a merchant vessel sailing from Amsterdam to St Petersburg in 1771, ran aground in the northern Baltic Sea. Her cargo included Dutch works of art bought by Catherine the Great. The wreck was located in 1999, 41 m deep. This study aims to understand environmental factors and physical stresses affecting the wreck, using three different approaches—studying the wreck as an artificial reef; describing the conditions inside the wreck; and measuring the physical stresses caused by currents. The methods applied were biological, archaeological, hydrological, geological and physical. The data will be a basis for further monitoring. © 2010 The Authors     

Border guarding and the politics of the body: an examination of the Finnish Border Guard service

In previous studies, the question of the state control over the bodies of people at border-crossing points has been of great interest, while less attention has been given to the bodies that carry out border surveillance and control. This article introduces a new perspective on the study of the state and gender by examining the imaginations and rationalities of state border guarding and the politics of the body in the Finnish Border Guard (FBG) service. By taking the body politics and gendered relations of border guarding as an analytical starting point, this study takes a step forward toward ‘feminizing’ the study of borders and border securitization. The article scrutinizes the depictions, articulations, and conceptualizations of the work competence in border guarding and the performances of female border guards in the official media of the FBG organization, as well as discusses how the interrelations of border guarding and body politics become structured around questions concerning masculine romantics, the (in)capacities of female officers and the embodied nature of border monitoring. The study shows the pervasive, and also controversial, nature of gendered imaginations and rationalities in the domain of border guarding in contemporary societies.     

Laughing at northernness: postcolonialism and metafictive irony in the imaginative geography

This paper examines the role played by literature in constructing regional otherness focusing on a case study of Northern Finland. In the case of the Finnish North the direct connections between literary tradition, cultural imaginativeness and spatial otherness have been distinctive. Literary stereotypes concerning northern exoticism and the romantics have formed an imaginary contrast with the southern culture, a homogeneous region without any contradictions, imagined by the southern culture in a manner that meets its own hegemonic needs. The defining of the North exclusively in terms of a binary opposition between nature and culture has implied a multidimensional exercise of power in which culture and civilization have justified their own existence by excluding their opposites. In this article northern literature is perceived as a ‘tool’ not only for constructing otherness but also for deconstructing and decolonizing it. Northern imagination is viewed from a metafictional perspective, and the focus is on how the postmodern northern irony is self-consciously concerned about its own social discursiveness, i.e. northern marginality. In the present case the metafictive approach also stands for a methodological possibility for geographers to view literary discourses of otherness more from above. Attention is focused on the eccentrically obtrusive northern artist Rosa Liksom, the pseudonym of a novelist/visual artist who has transformed her northern irony into an emancipatory project.     

Transformation of forest policy regimes in Finland since the 19th century

In this paper, interpretations of sustainable forestry are investigated against the historical background of transformations in the industrial utilisation of forests. Three distinct forest policy regimes in Finland since the 19th century are identified. First, the introduction of the German forestry model, with the central notion of sustained yield, and the establishment of the Finnish Forest Service took place simultaneously in the latter half of the 19th century. These actions aimed at changing patterns of local forest use considered detrimental to long-term forest utilisation. Second, a national forest sector was established during the 20th century. Industrial forestry was seen as a guarantee of economic independence for the new nation-state. Third, during a recent phase the influence of non-governmental organisations and international forest industry companies has increased, and traditional power relations have changed as issues such as biodiversity, forest certification and global investments have been introduced to the debates. It is concluded that the recent transformations in forest management should be read as transformations in industrial forestry rather than as abandonment of industrial forest use models; the legacy of the 19th century German forest science still prevails in forest management.     

The Theophany and Meal of Exodus 24

ABSTRACT

The Hebrew Bible may give the impression that there was a clearly definable area called Geshur. The Biblical view is often adopted in scholarly literature. The kingdom of Geshur plays a role in the reconstruction of the political situation during the early monarchic period, especially during the reign of King David.

However, historical sources for Geshur are shaky. These Biblical traditions may contain an early core that may even preserve an ancient memory of Geshur, but their historical value is much smaller than what scholarly discussion would implicate. They do not justify many of the views found in scholarly discussion. Scholarship has also sought to corroborate the Biblical traditions with two external sources but the evidence is very problematic, and, in the worst case, its use is reminiscent of Biblicism, where the main function of external sources is to corroborate Biblical texts.     

The Monotheism of the Deuteronomistic History

The Hebrew Bible is often characterized as a monotheistic book, but a closer inspection reveals that monotheistic passages represent only a thin and late layer: There are only six passages in the Deuteronomistic history that contain monotheistic vocabulary. They are late additions that belong to the latest editorial phases of the composition. They were probably added to the composition in the 5th century BCE or later. This means that the final shift to monotheistic conceptions, as far as the Deuteronomistic History is concerned, occurred in the Persian period. The monotheism of the Deuteronomistic History is “nationalistic.” Although other gods are assumed to be non-existent, the other nations are not invited to join the Israelites in their worship of Yahweh. This also reveals the preliminary stage of the monotheism. It is improbable that there is a planned religious system behind the monotheistic passages of the Deuteronomistic History. The authors are convinced that there is no other deity but Yahweh, but all the consequences of this view have not yet been drawn. The authors assume that Yahweh has already created humankind as well as the whole world. This idea is not found in the older texts. It is probable that the monotheistic authors are dependent on a later form of the Pentateuch, which already includes a creation story. The idea that Yahweh lived in heaven, whence he spoke to the Israelites, is also late. It is the end of the development caused by the destruction of Yahweh's physical representation in the temple where he lived: Yahweh moved to heaven. Differences between the monotheism of the Deuteronomistic History and Deutero-Isaiah are evident. Deutero-Isaiah is more open to the possibility that other nations worship Yahweh. Deutero-Isaiah also makes a connection between idol criticism and monotheism, whereas in the Deuteronomistic History these themes are found in different texts. Idol criticism seems to be older than monotheism. The differences between the monotheism of the Deuteronomistic History and Deutero-Isaiah suggest that none of them is dependent on the other. Although some mutual interaction and influence should not be excluded, they seem to be two distinct developments that took place in different contexts. While external influence is also possible, it seems that many roots of the monotheism of the Deuteronomistic History can be found in the older conceptions of Israel's religion and especially in the Deuteronomistic theology, which is a product of the events in 587 BCE. It is probable that without the destruction of the temple Israel's religion would not have developed monotheistic conceptions. In view of the literary development in the Deuteronomistic History, any pre-587 BCE dating of monotheistic conceptions or phraseology is improbable.     

Transition from hunting to animal husbandry in Southern,Western and Eastern Finland: new dated osteological evidence

The beginning of animal husbandry in Finland is one of the most debated topics in Finnish archaeology. For this study a total of 69 bone materials from archaeological sites in Southern, Western and Eastern Finland, dating from the Middle Neolithic to the Early Metal Period, were analysed: 52 represented identifiable animal bones. These data were complemented with those from previously analysed bone materials. A total of 19 domestic animal bones were radiocarbon-dated to determine their connection with a particular cultural period. However, 13 of them proved to belong to the historical and not the prehistoric period, emphasizing the importance of radiocarbon-dating and context awareness when interpreting prehistoric bone materials. Among the radiocarbon-dated material were the oldest dated sheep, cattle and horse bones in Finland. The oldest radiocarbon-dated domestic animal bone in Finland, from sheep or goat, derives from the Late Stone Age Kiukainen Culture site, while cattle and horse bones date to the Bronze Age. This is later than expected. However, the available material does not exclude the possibility that some animal husbandry was practised in Finland earlier. Nevertheless, domestic animal bones are rare in samples dated to the cultural periods studied, while hunting and fishing represented important subsistence activities.     

Food as a Cultural Practice among the Mapuche in Santiago de Chile

This article highlights the role of food as an essential tool for immigrant Mapuche families to reinforce their ethnic identity and pass it on to the younger generations in Santiago de Chile. Food and food-related practices were a topic that many Mapuche referred to when they were invited to talk about their culture and life in Santiago; this simultaneously revealed their relation to ‘others’ (Chileans) and their connectedness to their ancestral lands in the Araucania region in the south. Staying attuned and connected to the south through Mapuche food strengthens feelings of cultural continuity and belonging, such that Mapuche ethnic identity does not surrender to the city, but rather is re-created in a new environment.     

Reframing belonging: affective localism and the early fiction of Reino Rinne

The early fiction of a novelist and journalist born in the north of Finland, Reino Rinne (1913–2002), is illustrative of the post-war interest in a redefinition of cultural belonging. The aim of this article is to offer a reading of Rinne’s works that throws light on the way they exemplify a post-war articulation of affective localism. What is especially characteristic of the affective localism produced in Rinne’s early fiction is the deployment of certain narrative elements, realism as an aesthetic regime, tropes of spatial belonging and historical myths that are endowed with affective charge. A comparison between Rinne's first novel Tunturit hymyilevät. Kuvaus Lapista 1900-luvun alkuvuosilta ([1945a]. The Fells are Smiling. Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava), and his collection of short stories Erämaan omia ihmisiä ([1949]. People of the Wilderness. Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava), reveals that there was a change in Rinne’s artistic practice. While Rinne’s first novel revolved around a promise of reciprocity and happiness, the collection of short stories shows the dissolution of the optimism that, according to Berlant [(2011). Cruel Optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press], is at the core of all attachments.