Mapping the Activities Between a Public Research Organization and Interest Groups: A Case Study of LUT CST in Finland

The management of interest groups is the key element of fund raising and project development for a public research organization (PRO). Management is never a simple task. However, its complexity increases considerably when the research field of the PRO is generic, with numerous potential industries utilizing the research results. This paper discusses the identification and managing of interactions between a PRO and its interest groups. The case example is the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), hosting the Centre for Separation Technology (CST).     

Clues, Margins, and Monads: The Micro–Macro Link in Historical Research

This article discusses the new microhistory of the 1970s and 1980s in terms of the concept of exceptional typical, and contrasts the new microhistory to old microhistory, in which the relationship between micro and macro levels of phenomena was defined by means of the concepts of exceptionality and typicality. The focus of the essay is on Carlo Ginzburg's method of clues, Walter Benjamin's idea of monads, and Michel de Certeau's concept of margins. The new microhistory is also compared with methodological discussions in the social sciences. In the mid-1970s concepts like the micro–macro link or the microfoundations of macrotheory were introduced in sociology and economics. But these largely worked in terms of the concepts of typicality or exceptionality, and this has proved to be problematic. Only historians have developed concepts that escape these and the older definitions of the micro–macro relationship; indeed, the "new microhistory" can best be described in terms of the notion of "exceptional typical." The essay explores the meaning of this notion.     

Beyond moving people: excavating the motivations for investing in urban public transit infrastructure in Bilbao Spain

This paper explores the context and contradictions that have brought Bilbao Spain, a city of some 1 million inhabitants, to its stature as a leader and model of contemporary public transit. The decision to invest in public transit infrastructure is situated within an urban context that includes historical, economic, urban design, social, environmental and political motivations. From this contextual rooting, public transit projects are examined for their potential to achieve both a tangible set of objectives and an intangible symbolic meaning that presents transit projects as being about more than just moving people.     

Russian nuclear energy diplomacy in Finland and Hungary

We compare Russian nuclear energy diplomacy toward Finland and Hungary, where the Russian state corporation Rosatom intends to build nuclear power plants by the 2020s. Russian nuclear energy diplomacy features Rosatom working with other state institutions, its own subsidiaries, and an extensive network of companies and R&D actors to support Russian nuclear power projects abroad. Using the structuration approach, we find three interests driving such diplomacy: energy business and associated profits; modernization of the Russian economy, including the diversification of its export structure; while foreign policy interests are also involved, considering the constraints emerging in EU–Russia energy diplomacy in the oil and gas sectors, including the sanctions since 2014. Some domestic actors in Finland and Hungary make the linkage between nuclear energy and foreign policy as explicit as do some Western commentators. Seeking to pursue these interests, Russian actors must accommodate their considerable assets to the structural constraints they encounter in the target countries. We identify four structural dimensions: the Russian actors are well endowed as regards the resources, technology, and infrastructure dimension; and the dimension of finance, business models, and markets. However, on the institutional dimension, they face a less controllable environment. Regarding the ecological dimension, they must conform to local safety requirements. In both cases, Russian actors were able to strengthen perceptions of joint interests with actors in the target country facilitating the nuclear power plant projects, thereby paving the way for the use of soft power.     

The Excursus in the First Song of the Georgics and Vergil's Didactic Technique

The article discusses form and content of the excursus closing the first song in Vergil's Georgics as part of a didactic project conveying teachings about the cosmos. The poet's use of the catalogue of portents and the other elements in the passage are analysed from the perspective of the didactic genre. It is argued that Vergil develops didactic poetry by integrating everyday experiences with considerations about the relationship between religion, politics and agriculture.     

Time and the other time: Trajectories of Fiji time

This article looks into the valuation of time in Fiji with particular emphasis on ‘Fiji time’, an idiom typically employed in reference to unpunctuality or relaxing. The article discusses Fiji time through four exemplars in order to illustrate the degree to which Fiji time is compatible with labour-based valuations of time.     

Some Reflections on the Poetic I in Vergil's Georgics

In this article, I shall reflect upon the relationship between the didactic speaker in Vergil's Georgics and the images of the poet associated with it. In my view, the first person voice in the poem is employed in different contexts and situations that influence its appearances and have the effect of creating associations between the textual ‘‘I” and the real poet. The didactic first person speaker or instance is a formal structure belonging to the text. But it easily seems to be merged with the historical author behind the text as well.     

A palaeotemperature record for the Finnish Lakeland based on microdensitometric variations in tree rings

X-ray based tree-ring data of maximum latewood densities (MXD) was combined for south-eastern Finland. This data originated from subfossil and modern pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) materials comprising a continuous dendroclimatic record over the past millennium. Calibrating and verifying the MXD chronologies against the instrumental temperature data showed a promising opportunity to reconstruct warm-season (May through September) temperature variability. A new palaeotemperature record correlated statistically significantly with the long instrumental temperature records in the region and adjacent areas since the 1740s. Comparisons with tree-ring based (MXD and tree-ring width) reconstructions from northern Fennoscandia and northern Finland exhibited consistent summer temperature variations through the Medieval Climate Anomaly, Little Ice Age, and the 20^th century warmth. A culmination of the LIA cooling during the early 18^th century appeared consistently with the Maunder Minimum, when the solar activity was drastically reduced. A number of coolest reconstructed events between AD 1407 and 1902 were coeval to years of crop failure and famine as documented in the agro-historical chronicles. Results indicate an encouraging possibility of warm-season temperature reconstructions using middle/south boreal tree-ring archives to detail and enhance the understanding of past interactions between humans, ecosystems and the earth.