ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY 2012 - Startsida | Åbo Akademiweb.abo.fi/meddelanden/english/2012_01/2012_01_News_Bulletin.pdf · enjoyable way”, explains Anna Sell, a re-searcher into

Olav Eklund: The mountains in Finland were once as high as the Himalayas

2012ÅBO

AKA

DEM

I UN

IVER

SITY

IN THIS ISSUE

CONTENT 1/2012. 3. Communication and digital media. 4. Finland reminiscent of the Himalayas. 6. Users are not in step with the newest technology. 8. Everybody has the right to enjoy music. 10. News in brief. 12. Mediation challenges our way of thinking. 14. Eating disorders among young people. 16. There’s more to politics than just elections. 18. Fresh ideas and valuable visits. 20. News in brief.

0604 08 12 14Users are not in step with the newest technology

Finland reminiscent

of the Himalayas

Everybody has the

right to enjoy music

Mediation challenges our way of

thinking

Eating disorders among

young people

Published by Åbo Akademi UniversityCommunicationsEditor-in-Chief:Thurid Erikssontel. +358-2-215 4124e-mail: [email protected]

Editors of this issue:Mia HenrikssonNicklas HägenIngela OllasMarcus Prest

Web editor:Peter SiegfridsTranslation and revision:Sarah BannockHeidi GranqvistInternet address:www.abo.fi

Editorial address:Åbo Akademi UniversityDomkyrkotorget 3FI-20500 Åbo, FinlandCirculation: 3,500 copiesPrinted by Tammerprint OY

ISSN 1796-7147

P. 2 • ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY NEWS BULLETIN NR 1 2012

•• Today, an endless number of channels are used for communication: social media, websites, podcasts, mobile phones, TV/ra-dio and printed media. The prodigious flow of information constitutes a challenge both for those producing it and for those search-ing for it. How best to coordinate several streams in the dissemination of news? How best to subscribe to and follow the informa-tion one needs and wants? The crucial thing is to prioritise those media which are key in a particular instance and where a visible pres-ence is important for reaching specific tar-get groups. Digital media provide for great-er interactivity and offer global coverage in real time, but they also give less control over what is written, twittered and updated. In-teractive media require presence; pictures and videos are increasingly important in re-lation to text, and the speed of technical de-velopment is mind-boggling.

DO wE NEED A wEbsiTE ANymOrE?As stated above, it is vital to be able to keep up with developments. Organisational web-sites are no longer necessarily the primary source of information. Google and YouTube are the most popular search channels. Face-book, too, is an important channel for guid-

ing us through the information jungle. Åbo Akademi University has a presence on sev-eral social media sites, including Facebook, blogs and YouTube; the next step is to inte-grate these with our website.

Mobile applications and services have in-creased rapidly as more user-friendly smart phones have been developed. Åbo Aka-demi is the first Finnish university to have launched an app, which was developed by a company established by IT experts who are graduates of Åbo Akademi. This issue of the Åbo Akademi University News Bulle-tin contains further reading on mobile tech-nologies and current research in the field. Organisational websites are increasingly be-coming a platform for information storage, while the actual communication takes place elsewhere. So, it’s time to forget all about web structures and navigation by means of countless links and sub headings. Users are finding their own ways through.

Wishing you all interesting reading in print and online!

Communication and digital media

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

The art of using social media and keeping up with developments in the digital media involves constant updating. • by Thurid Eriksson, Head of Communications

ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY NEWS BULLETIN NR 1 2012 • P. 3

•• What happens when a mountain range collapses under its own weight? This is what a group of researchers will find out in a proj-ect entitled 3D modelling of the collapse of the Svecofennian orogen.

“A mountain range collapsing under its own weight is a subject on which there isn’t very much prior knowledge. It concerns the large-scale movements which occur after a continental collision”, says Olav Eklund, Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at Åbo Akademi University.

The four-year project is funded by the Academy of Finland. The Academy’s deci-sion to fund the project was motivated by the problems addressed in the research be-ing recognised as topical and important, as well as by the presence of sufficient compe-tence within various fields of geology at the participating universities for realising it.

Åbo Akademi University carries out re-search in petrology in cooperation with the Universities of Turku and Helsinki. The re-searchers at Helsinki also work within the field of seismology. The Unit of Geophys-

ics at the University of Oulu al-so makes a contribution, while analogous laboratory experi-ments are carried out by doc-toral students at Åbo Akade-mi, at Uppsala University and at Frankfurt University. Altogeth-

er the project involves about 20 researchers. “When looking at a geological map, one

can’t just view it as a two-dimensional sec-tion; there are things also under and above its surface. It is a three-dimensional reali-ty”, Olav Eklund explains.

“All the data we collect is first translat-ed into numerical information in order to be turned into a 3D model with the addi-tion of the aspect of time. The result will be a model which can be used for exploring how the Finnish part of the Svecofennian moun-tain range has developed over an extreme-ly long period of time. The mountains here were once as high as the Himalayas, but have then levelled out and changed into a flat sur-face.”

The area of reference used in this research project is the Himalayas and the Tibetan Pla-teau north of the Himalayas.

“The Himalayas is one of the young-est mountain ranges in the world and was formed when the Indian and the Eurasian Plates collided. This led to a compression, which resulted in an extension moving in a

Finland reminiscent of the Himalayas

•Olav Eklund, Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at Åbo Akademi University.

The Finnish areas of the Svecofennian domains seem to have been to some extent misinterpreted in the past. Geologists are now creating a new 3D model of the area. • by Michael Karlsson

GEOLOGY


west-eastern direction. It’s the same thing that happens with a balloon: when you push it in the middle it’ll form a bulb at both ends.”

Today, there are GPS stations on the Hi-malayan mountainsides showing how the mountain range is extending at the moment. Several million years ago, the same thing happened in the Nordic region.

“Today the earth’s crust in Finland cor-responds to a section which occurs at about 15 kilometres depth in the Himalayas. Be-cause of erosion in our country we are down at what is called the middle crust and are therefore able to study things that can on-ly be guessed at in other parts of the world – information on the middle crust in these places can only be gained by experiments and through creating seismic images. The middle crust is more plastic in comparison to the brittle top earth crust”, says Profes-sor Eklund.

GPs TEChNOlOGy rEvEAls NEw iNfOrmATiON“In Finland, structures of the bedrock have been measured for as long as 80–90 years, but it is only recently that GPS technolo-gy has revealed that there are great similar-ities in some parts of this country with the geology of the Himalayas. There are sim-ilar magmatic species of rock, and struc-tural maps and deep seismic profiles clear-

ly show that there have been collisions both in Finland and the Himalayas; plates have been pressed together from the south and mountain masses have expanded. Seismol-ogists have previously interpreted the struc-tures they have found here as typical of com-pression, but actually these are continental plates that have collapsed”, Olav Eklund ex-plains.

Deep seismic profiles have been made in many places in Finland.

“We also have very good access to detailed maps, since Russia repaid the Soviet debt by, among other things, having Russian seismic enterprises make deep – and expensive – seismic profiles all over Finland. These maps clearly show where the earth’s crust ends and the so-called mantle begins to be dis-cernible.”

The fact that the interpretation of the sta-tus of the bedrock is now changing from a compression model to one of extension is a big thing.

“To put it clearly, this means that the var-ious species of rock that we see on the map might have been at totally different places when the bedrock was formed, and there-fore we can now get an entirely new pic-ture of how things have happened, how the Earth functions and develops. And we also get new information on where we can find mineralisations.”

It’s the same thing that happens with a balloon: when you push it in the middle it’ll form a bulb at both ends.

• Mount Everest. The mountains in Finland were once as high as the Himalay-as. Today the earth's crust in Finland cor-responds to a sec-tion which occurs at about 15 kilometres depth in the Hima-layas.


•• “The point of mobile applications is to support people in their everyday activities; to help them do what they would be doing anyway in a better, more efficient and more enjoyable way”, explains Anna Sell, a re-searcher into information systems at Åbo Akademi University.

On the initiative of Professors Christer Carlsson and Pirkko Walden, the Åbo Ak-ademi University Information Systems De-partment has for the last ten years under-taken annual surveys of how Finns have taken to mobile technology.

“50 per cent of all Finns have a smart-phone. So the technology is there, but it’s not being used to its full capacity. It takes a long time for users to find what is useful for them personally”, says Anna Sell.

Various applications for mobile phones

have been sold in Finland for about ten years, but the previ-ous WAP service was difficult to use and often a disappoint-ment. This is one of the reasons why the use of the smartphone

lags behind the potential offered by its tech-nology.

“Today it’s easy to download an applica-tion in order to test it and delete it if it proves to be useless. Previously it was more compli-cated to download and transfer applications from computer to phone. Besides, they were often quite expensive”, says Eyal Eshet, a doctoral student in information systems.

A current trend that the researchers dis-cern is an increase in the popularity of ap-plications with maps and navigation tools. Social media and applications creating com-munities with other users are also a strong trend.

“It’s difficult to predict what will be the next great breakthrough, but mobile read-ing has become very popular in China. We’ve made small-scale studies that show

Users are not in step with the newest technology

It takes a long time for users to find what is useful for them personally.

Every second person in Finland has a smartphone. But few will be using all the technological finery it offers. • by Nicklas Hägen

INFORMATION SYSTEMS


this to be something of a trend”, says An-na Sell.

“According to the latest sales statistics from Amazon, more books for the Kindle e-reader are now sold than ordinary books”, Eyal Eshet points out.

He finds that development is currently al-so moving more towards location-based ap-plications.

“I think that in future the emphasis will be on services based on where the user is. So-called augmented reality, a virtual, ex-panded reality, which provides informa-tion on, for example, the Eiffel Tower when tourists aim their mobile phone towards it, is becoming increasingly popular at the mo-ment.

Åbo Akademi is the first university in Fin-land to launch its own mobile application. It is available for iPhone and Android at the moment, and can be downloaded for free.

To start with, the application contains information about the university such as maps, news and the lunch menus of the stu-dent cafés.

• In her research, Anna Sell (picture, to the left) focuses on the use of mobile technologies among consumers and in information sys-tems. Eyal Eshet ex-plores the utilisation of a user perspec-tive in the develop-ment of mobile app-lications.

The Mighty Eagle has spoken•• Rovio, the Finnish game compa-ny that developed Angry Birds, is ex-panding more rapidly than Facebook and is aiming at being listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Peter Ves-terbacka, the “Mighty Eagle” at Rovio and an alumnus of Åbo Akademi, says that the success of the company is ex-plained by ambitious targets and close cooperation with the fans of the game in the development of the product.

“Often, when a company has de-veloped a successful product, they choose to use their strengthened po-sition for developing new products. Instead, we have chosen to continue working on the same product”, says Peter Vesterbacka.

“It took 51 other games before we developed Angry Birds, so our success did not happen overnight.”

In the USA, Angry Birds is so popu-lar that the game was given an adver-tising slot during the Super Bowl final of the National Football League. It was considered such good publicity for other – paying – companies to be seen with Angry Birds that Rovio got their commercial for free.

•Peter Vesterbacka spoke on the subject of games and design during the EDGE2011 seminar at Åbo Aka-demi University.


•• From the perspective of teacher training, there is no point in talking about musical or unmusical teacher students or pupils. To-day, music is regarded as a kind of basic right for all pupils. Music helps children in several ways, which have only recently been clear-ly proven by research. This insight is a great encouragement and guiding principle for Cecilia Björk in her work as a new university lecturer in the didactics of music.

“The main aim of music teaching in our schools is, in accordance with the nation-al curriculum, to create a positive and cu-rious attitude to music among the pupils, to encourage and support the active playing of music. And this is something all pupils have a right to. Music is inherent in newborn chil-dren and the skills can be developed, but the process must be given time and patience.”

There has been a kind of a paradigm shift in the teaching of music: away from dividing pupils into musical and unmusical ones and regarding music teaching primarily as a tal-ent competition, and towards seeing music as a broad key subject, which paves the way for several other skills which are important for the children’s development.

“The increasingly advanced brain re-search, in Finland as well as in other places, has revealed connections between music and the development of the brain, which have so far not been explored to such an extent. Mu-sic is so much more than it has so far been be-lieved to be. The ability to learn languages; to acquire fine motor skills, such as being able to write and draw; body coordination and var-ious cognitive skills can be considerably im-proved by actively playing music. And in spe-cial education music can be used as a strong intervention which helps many children to do better in school and life.”

fAr TOO fEw musiC lEssONsPlaying music also affects, for example, sleep, mood, and the ability to focus and learn, and brain researchers have seen an increase in the density and development of some parts of the cerebral cortex associated with the ac-tivity. Therefore, Cecilia Björk finds it unfair if all pupils are not given the opportunity to participate actively in music teaching in our schools. However, the present situation, with one hour of music teaching as the lowest re-quirement, and three at the most, does not

A new view on the role and importance of music in schools encourages the subject of music education at the Åbo Akademi University Faculty of Education. • by Ari Nykvist

EDUCATION

Everybody has the right to enjoy music


Teachers with musical mindsAndreas Strandvall and Victor Mattsson are both first year students in the pri-mary school teacher-training programme. They have complet-ed their first course in music with the guitar as their instrument, and more is to follow.

“Playing the gui-tar and singing has always been impor-tant to me. As a pri-mary school teach-er I want to be able to convey this feeling to my pupils, and there-fore I want to study as much music ed-ucation as possible during my training here at the Faculty of Education”, Andreas explains.

“Being a former rapper and active-ly involved in social issues, I’ve noticed how efficient music is in stimulating all our senses and how, for example, social com-petence improves through playing mu-sic. I was surprised myself that I learned to play the guitar in just a few months, when I got the right kind of encourage-ment and teaching”, Victor says.

Both regard mu-sic as a varied and in many respects im-portant key subject throughout school.

make it easy to reach all pupils.“The present number of hours is too small

with regard to how important music is for the development of our children. In addi-tion, pupils have to choose between dif-ferent arts subjects from the eighth grade, which means that they might have no mu-sic lessons at all. At the same time, new re-search shows that the acquisition of basic musical skills by children can also improve the quality of their lives as adults, since this makes it easy to reconnect to music by, for example, starting playing an instrument or singing in a choir.”

The primary goal of music education at the Åbo Akademi Faculty of Education is to teach future teachers to encourage all pu-pils. The training also aims at breaking the myths, prejudices and stereotypes that still surround and limit the concept of music.

“We try to use the students’ existing knowledge and skills in, for example, play-ing instruments as a point of departure. The examination of courses therefore today in-volves everything from the piano and the guitar to the cello, capoeira instruments, the kantele and drums.”

iNsPiriNG DiAlOGuEs wiTh sTuDENTsCecilia Björk is particularly interested in what is called the “student voice”, that is, what the students themselves think about music in schools. Since all students have re-cent personal experiences of school music teaching, a continuous dialogue with the teacher students is a way for her and her col-leagues to introduce new ideas and elements into their teaching.

“The Faculty of Education is also lucky and privileged in having a full-time profes-sional singing teacher, Mikael Pennanen-Dahlbäck. He and I, plus one full-time hour-ly teacher, and several competent part-time hourly teachers, endow music educa-tion at Åbo Akademi University with fairly good opportunities to provide diverse mu-sic teaching corresponding to today’s re-quirements. We’re also planning to renew our equipment in order to be able to offer more instruments and digital tools than be-fore. But it is after all, we humans who play, create and need music. Music can be made by simple means, the important thing is that it is alive.”

• Music is so much more than it has so far been believed to be,” says Cecilia Björk, university lecturer in the didactics of music at the Åbo Akademi University Faculty of Education.


NEWS IN BRIEF

An anthology on legitimacy•• Three professors and eight re-searchers at Åbo Akademi Univer-sity have put together an anthology on legitimacy. The book is called Le-gitimacy: the Treasure of Politics and is published by Peter Lang International Academic Publishers.

The anthology is a result of the proj-ect “Legitimacy and Ethics. The Indi-vidual, the Community and the Rule of Law”, which started in 2005, and it contains articles within the subjects of philosophy, sociology, international law and human rights, as well as theo-logical ethics with the philosophy of religion.

The main intended audience of the book is researchers working on politi-cal philosophy or social debate, but it can also be used in teaching.

“Our plan was to write a few texts together, and this resulted in the idea of extending our work to an anthol-ogy with contributions from sever-al disciplines”, explains Tage Kurtén, Professor of Theology, who has co-ed-ited the anthology with Professor Lars Hertzberg.

“The idea is that the book does not discuss issues normally associated with legitimacy, but presents new ap-proaches. For example, citizens are emphasised as being the foundation of the legitimacy of those in power” says Professor Kurtén.

One issue dealt with in the anthol-ogy is the question of why politicians are so reluctant to raise taxes even though a large proportion of the pop-ulation would be willing to pay more in tax in order to secure public health care. This indicates a disparity be-tween those in power and the citi-zens. Politicians cannot do anything but either follow or distance them-selves from the opinion of the citi-zens.

•• An alternative interpretation of Finnish history, from the Middle Ag-es to the present. That is the aim of the new Academy of Finland research project “History of a Society: Re-think-ing Finland 1400–2000” to be carried out in cooperation between the de-partments of history at the Universi-ty of Jyväskylä, the University of Tam-pere and Åbo Akademi University.

The project is to be completed by the 100th anniversary of Finland’s in-dependence in 2017.

“We’ll definitely abandon the old, te-leological interpretation of the histo-ry of Finland, which is an interpretation where history moves towards a goal, as if on a given track. Such an interpre-tation provides us with certain impor-tant stages of development, which im-ply that Finland was meant to be the independent nation state which it has ended up being. We want to write a history which shows alternatives and exposes the driving forces involved”, says Nils Erik Villstrand, Professor of History at Åbo Akademi University.

This project is an attempt to look at

society at large. It is an ambitious un-dertaking, which will be built around four areas, each with its own separate research group, investigating struc-tures (population, the economy), in-stitutions (politics), societies (every-day life) and world-view/identity.

Villstrand points out the impor-tance of judging each period accord-ing to its own premises. When monar-chies and states developed in the 13th century, it was only a question of time before somebody would stake a claim on the region which is Finland to-day. The only uncertainty was wheth-er the claim would come from Swe-den, Novgorod or one of the countries south of the Baltic Sea.

“There are those who say ‘what right did the Swedes have to come here’, but the alternative of being left in peace as some sort of Ugric orig-inal state did simply not exist. Since the Middle Ages we have been part of a larger context. We might perhaps experience interaction with the sur-rounding world as something new, but this is not the case.”

Finland is a coincidence


Cellulose offers green materials•• In the search for new and environ-mentally friendly raw materials, the Laboratory for Industrial Chemistry and Reaction Engineering at Åbo Akademi University has for the past few years fo-cussed on cellulose and sugars.

“If we want to have a sustainable society, the upgrading of cellulose is important. When using biomass on-ly the carbon dioxide which has com-bined with the wood is emitted, and furthermore, biomass is renewed in

only eighty years”, says Mats Käld-ström, who has written his doctori-al thesis on the refining of biomass at the Åbo Akademi Department of Chemical Engineering.

He has worked on acids in solid forms, as they are used in heteroge-neous catalysis, a method very com-mon when working with fossil raw materials, but unusual when it comes to biomass.

“Since solid particles are used, het-erogeneous catalysis is very environ-mentally friendly. There are, for exam-ple, no strong acids that might leak. But biomasses are somewhat com-plicated, as they are a mixture of so many different components, and

when a catalyst is added, the num-ber of components increases further. If the aim is to produce something on an industrial scale, ideally one would want pure materials, since using a mixture of different compounds be-comes expensive, says Käldström.”

“The paper industry is looking for new opportunities, and developing pro-cesses in order to produce chemicals from biomass at a competitive price is a very topical subject. The hydroly-sis of cellulose, which is already the ba-sis of our pulp and paper industries, is regarded as being the most important starting point for bio refineries. So we have the infrastructure, but new meth-ods should be taken into use.”

Futurepulp experts•• Camila Honorato, Christian Sievek-ing, Eduardo Keim and Tomas Nun-ez have been chosen by the Chilean company Arauco to major in subjects relating to pulp and paper in the field of natural materials technology at Åbo Akademi’s Department of Chem-ical Engineering. Arauco is the largest pulp producer in Chile. The compa-ny has connections to Finland through the construction of one of the world’s largest pulp mills in collaboration with Stora Enso.

The four students were select-ed from a large number of applicants. Åbo Akademi University was cho-sen as their place of study after sever-al European and North American uni-versities had been explored. Arauco found Åbo Akademi to be the place best suited for the company’s future key staff to advance their knowledge of fibre, paper and natural materials technology and chemistry. The com-pany is particularly interested in the Åbo Akademi Laboratories of Fibre and Cellulose Technology, Wood and

Paper Chemistry, and Paper Coating and Converting.

“I’m looking forward to solving vari-ous problems within the company us-ing the knowledge I'll get during my training here”, says Camila Honorato.

“I have a degree in process engi-neering, so what I’m learning here is directly related to my previous stud-ies”, Christian Sieveking explains.

“Before coming here, I worked in a bio energy project for a few months”, says Tomas Nunez.

The Chilean students will attend a ten-month study programme which

has been tailored for them by Åbo Ak-ademi University. The programme is called ÅA Expert and is open to com-panies within the forestry industry as an advanced training course for future managerial staff.

“Today, there aren’t actually that many Finnish students who appreci-ate the opportunities offered by the pulp industry. A programme like this brings good students to Åbo Akade-mi University”, says lecturer Jan Gus-tafsson.

Professor Pedro Fardim is Head of the ÅA Expert programme.

• Jan Gustavsson, Tomas Nunez, Camila Honorato and Christian Sieveking.


•• In her doctoral thesis, entitled Medling vid brott. En begreppslig analys av en konfliktlös-ningsmetod i en senmodern tid (Crime medi-ation. A conceptual analysis of the conflict resolution method in late modernity), Heidi Jokinen studies the use of language in medi-ation and the moral dimensions of this lan-guage use. The thesis is written within the subject of theology at Åbo Akademi Uni-versity.

“The concept of mediation has proved to be a charged one. When mediation is raised as a topic during discussions, strong feelings are often expressed concerning the concept, although few know what it actually entails”, says Jokinen.

What kinds of reactions does it provoke?“People are convinced that mediation

is totally wrong. Then they point out how wrong it is to commit crimes and that crimes must be punished.”

So there is a view that mediation lets the offender get off?

“Yes. We have a very punishment-cen-tred way of thinking, with a strong convic-tion that crimes must be punished. But peo-

ple are often blind to the fact that there are always two parties in a conflict. They might feel that they aren’t being heard during a trial, since the court, where both sides are represented by lawyers and judges, only deals with the legally relevant facts. In a le-gal description, much of what the conflict between the two parties is actually about, might be overlooked.”

How is theology connected with the theme of your thesis?

“In mediation, human individuals and their ability to draw conclusions on the ba-sis of their behaviour and situation are giv-en priority. This puts the focus on central theological concepts such as truth, forgive-ness, atonement, punishment. I study how these concepts are used in various situa-tions, since even if the same words appear in different contexts, their meaning varies according to the context.”

“In addition, the Christian idea of love is present in mediation, that is, in the form of a possible goal: atonement. A court of law does not aim at achieving peace of mind for the parties involved; the court is there to ‘see

When the parties in a conflict are willing to resolve their dispute, mediation can be used. Mediation brings up Christian concepts such as truth, forgiveness, atonement and punishment, and our understanding and use of these concepts. • by Marcus Prest

THEOLOGY

Mediation challenges our way of thinking


The search for a common descriptionMediation is an en-counter between the victim and the per-petrator of a crime, who want to reach an agreement on the description of what has happened be-tween them. Some want to solve the conflict. A neutral mediator partici-pates in the encoun-ter.

According to the law, mediation can-not be used, for ex-ample, in cases where a vulnera-ble child is involved. Another condition for mediation is that there must be a vic-tim. Traffic offenc-es, or drunk driving where nobody has been injured or put to risk, cannot be the object of mediation. However, shoplifting, for example, can be mediated, because although the victim is not a person, nev-ertheless the interest of the shop or chain of shops can be rep-resented by some-body.

Usually, it is the police or the prose-cutor who suggests mediation.

that justice is done’. And what this justice is, is regulated by the law, which is interpreted by lawyers and judges. Mediation does not have to be an alternative to courts of law; in our society we sometimes need an indepen-dent administration of justice which is car-ried out by neutral parties. But sometimes those involved in a conflict are able to solve their own disputes.”

“The parties get an opportunity to speak out, take responsibility, show remorse. They appear as human beings.”

Are there any clearly negative aspects in the use of mediation?

“I read that the government is planning to forbid mediation in cases of violence in partner relationships. If mediation becomes a way of avoiding expensive legal proce-dures, there is an obvious risk of protection by the law of individuals from violence be-ing weakened.”

“But if we look at mediation with an em-phasis on the aspect of morality, it’s no lon-ger so evident that some types of crimes should be excluded. Mediation ensures that the perpetrator takes responsibility for his

or her crime, which doesn’t mean that the perpetrator is trying to avoid being pun-ished – it means that the offender is forced to see what she or he has done and also to face the victim.”

The title of your thesis includes the con-cept of ‘late modernity’. In what sense is late modernity reflected in your research subject?

“Mediation is part of the spirit of the times, that is, of late modernity. Instead of forcing a standard solution on the par-ties, they are given the opportunity to de-fine the crime and its consequences them-selves. This means that there is much more sensitivity to contextual factors. In ad-dition, the significance of small stories emerges.”

What kind of material have you used?“I’ve read plenty of literature on media-

tion within the fields of sociology, philoso-phy, law and, of course, theology.”

•• statistics: Two per cent of all crimes report-ed in Finland are passed on to mediation. In 70 per cent of these cases, a solution is achieved.

• Heidi Jokinen says that we have a very punishment-centered way of thinking, which over-looks much of what the conflict between two parties is actually about.


DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

Researcher Doctor Rasmus Isomaa was awarded the annual Harry Elvfings legat researcher prize of 8,000 euros. The prize enables him to continue his research. • by Ari Nykvist

Eating disorders

among young people

NEWS BULLETIN FROM ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY NR 1 2010 • P. 14P. 14 • ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY NEWS BULLETIN NR 1 2012

• Rasmus Isomaa completed his doctorate at Åbo Akademi University in the spring of 2011 with his acclaimed thesis within the field of developmental psychology, called Eating disorders, weight perception and diet-ing in adolescence. His work shows, for ex-ample, that particularly young girls who start dieting because of psychological reasons run an almost 15 times higher risk of developing eating disorders than girls who diet for other reasons such as looks or over-weight.

The thesis received the high-est possible grade. Rasmus Iso-maa is now going to continue his research on the subject using, among other things, new clini-cal studies.

“The prize gives me an ex-cellent opportunity to further explore important issues con-cerning eating disorders among young peo-ple. Now I can also continue my cooperation with the Stockholm Center for Eating Dis-orders and participate more frequently than before in large conferences and workshops on the subject”, Isomaa says.

In a current clinical research project in co-operation with the Fredrika clinic for eat-ing disorders in Jakobstad, Rasmus Isomaa is monitoring young people who have been treated for eating disorders at the clinic since it opened in 2002.

The first preliminary results are promis-ing.

“Close to 90 per cent of those treated for various eating disorders have recovered. This is a high number. But at the same time, we should keep in mind that 10 per cent were still ill at the time of the follow-up. An important question is what kind of treat-ment they should receive instead.”

lOw sElf-EsTEEm wiTh vAriOus symPTOmsRasmus Isomaa is also writing an article on various symptoms of a lack in self-esteem, anxiety and depression among adolescents. This is part of his cooperation with the re-

search group AMHC (Adolescent Mental Health Cohort) at the Universities of Tam-pere and Helsinki and with the National In-stitute for Health and Welfare.

“In order to detect various symptoms of young people not feeling mentally well,

schools should actually screen for low self-esteem rather than for various specific symptoms of illness.”

The increasing problems among young people, which take the form of, for example, bullying, an increasingly fierce hate debate on the internet and the riots in England in the au-tumn of 2011, are, according to Isomaa, the result of a growing polarisation among the young.

“There is a large group who are able to make use of the ex-cellent and numerous new op-portunities our youth is offered

today when it comes to education, culture, leisure activities and various forms of par-ticipation. But an increasingly significant group of young people isn’t able to utilise the opportunities offered and they run the risk of being marginalised.”

mOrE COmmuNAliTy AND PArTiCiPATiONThe increasing competitiveness of the jobs market, demands for an adequate educa-tion, for continuous further training and for living and thinking in a certain way in or-der to be successful makes many young peo-ple feel pressured, insecure and inadequate.

“One way of counteracting this would be to stop the internal streaming of schools. This could be done by returning to coher-ent basic groups, particularly in the upper secondary school, which today is run more or less like a miniature university, where many pupils feel lonely and insecure. If more pupils felt a sense of togetherness instead of loneliness, much would be gained. Also we could be better at taking care of our stu-dents at universities by, for example, meet-ing them more often for individual discus-sions.”

Teaching responsibilitiesBesides his contin-ued research, Ras-mus Isomaa will also be teaching a variety of courses. He is re-sponsible for part of the minor subject of youth studies; gives courses on eating disorders in all parts of Swedish-speak-ing Finland and par-ticipates in the de-gree programme in Mental Health Pro-motion.

“From the autumn of 2011 the subject of school psychology is offered here at the Department of Social Sciences in Vasa. So I’ll have a very inten-sive, but interesting academic year, when it comes to both re-search and teach-ing”.

Schools should actually screen for low self-esteem rather than for various specific symptoms of illness


•• Henrik Serup Christensen has com-pleted his doctoral dissertation within the Danish Political Science Research School, POLFORSK, where Åbo Akademi Univer-sity is also a participant. His study is called Political Participation beyond the Vote – How the Institutional Context Shapes Patterns of Political Participation in 18 Western Europe-an Democracies.

Traditionally, voting in elections has been regarded as the most important connection between citizens and the decision-makers. According to Christensen, there has been a great deal of development in the kinds of ac-tivities which are regarded as political par-ticipation; these change constantly.

“Elections are obviously central, but there has also always been a need for other op-portunities for people to express their polit-ical opinions. In my thesis I study political participation that occurs between elections. This involves, of course, participation in the activities of the political parties, but also more unconventional forms of participa-

tion. Examples of activities included in the concept of political participation are vari-ous protest activities, participation in vari-ous movements, and lifestyle politics such as political consumption. It’s also easier to par-ticipate in various ways today over the inter-net”, Henrik Christensen notes.

“Before I started working on my disser-tation, I focussed on issues about decision-making in the EU, but became interested in political participation and the question of institutional structures instead. I entered through the back door, so to speak, and re-alised that there were interesting issues to explore.”

Participation in party politics in the tra-ditional sense has dwindled. People are no longer interested in participation, since it requires time and involvement.

“It’s easier to participate through, for example, political consumption, that is, buying fair trade products or boycotting certain products. That’s also a form of par-ticipation.”

There are forms of political participation other than just regularly voting in elections. Party activism, protest activism, activism in organisations and political consumption are some examples of how we can participate in and influence social issues. • by Heidi von Wright

POLITICAL SCIENCE

There’s more to politics than just elections


Christensen’s study analyses the sit-uation in 18 democratic countries in Eu-rope: Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Switzer-land, Spain and Sweden.

“In these countries, the terms ‘polit-ical participation’ and ‘political institu-tions’ have similar meanings and it’s there-fore useful to make comparisons between them,” says Christensen.

“In my thesis, I explore the question of how the institutional system influences the level of political participation. There is al-so a discussion on whether political par-ticipation among citizens has decreased or whether participation has taken new forms. One further question that arises is how these forms of participation should be compared; whether they carry equal weight within the framework of represen-tative democracy.”

Henrik Christensen says that traditional-

ly party participation has been regarded as being at a relatively high level while alter-native political participation has been less significant in societies with an open insti-tutional structure. Correspondingly, ac-cording to this view, party participation would be lower in more closed societies, while alternative participation would be higher.

“My results indicate that the institution-al structures of democratic states do have an impact on political participation, but that the correlation between the system and participation is more complicated than it’s been believed to be. It seems that both traditional and alternative participation is greater in open societies.”

Henrik Christensen himself has not been politically active in the traditional sense.

“I’m a political consumer, that’s my way of participation. I’ve never been an activ-ist, but I’m interested in how people think and act when it comes to political partici-pation.”

• Henrik Serup Christensen has studied how the institutional system influences the level of political participation in eighteen European countries.

It seems that both traditional and alternative participation is greater in open societies.


LETTER FROM AN EXPERT

•• In recent years we have learnt so much about internationalisation, internation-al co-operation and networking that many people at the university might feel tired of it. We have also learnt how to write Europe-an project proposals and push them through in Brussels.

Last but not least, we have learnt how to communicate with continental Europe, where you seldom say what you really mean, as we are used to doing in Scandinavia. We should express ourselves indirectly, so indi-rectly that peculiar research results are de-scribed with the word ‘interesting’, or ‘I do not completely understand’ – some Finnish researchers might say ‘completely wrong’.

Terrible! I might exaggerate a little, but in any case,

in addition to this endless networking in Eu-ropean organisations, it is sometimes nice to co-operate directly with competent and nice colleagues from abroad, informally and on a bilateral basis.

A marvellous example of a straightfor-

ward and efficient connection is our col-laboration with the Chemical Reaction Engineering Research Group of Professor Rüdiger Lange at the prestigious Technical University of Dresden (Technische Univer-sität Dresden, TUD). Our contact dates back more than 15 years, to a few years after the German reunification.

A COmmON lANGuAGEI had met Rüdiger, at that time Herr Ober-assistent at Martin Luther Universität Hal-le-Wittenberg (de facto he worked at the Merseburg unit of that university) at an international conference. Soon it became clear that we spoke not only a common lan-guage (German), but also the same language of chemical reaction engineering. We had the same core competences, but our knowl-edge bases were supplementary.

Quite a few years later, when my friend Rüdiger had become an ordinary professor at TU Dresden, the real collaboration could start. We organised shorter research visits;

Fresh ideas and valuable visitsInternational co-operation is truly rewarding. There are strong links between Åbo Akademi University and the Technical University of Dresden. • by Tapio Salmi, professor, Åbo Akademi University


we participated in smaller and larger sym-posia, organised by groups in Turku and Dresden. Finally we made a formal Erasmus agreement.

In March 2011, I had the pleasure to be one of the invited lecturers at a top-level sym-posium, organised in honour of the 60th birthday of Rüdiger Lange in Dresden. The visit was a refreshing bathe in the deep wa-ters of chemical reaction engineering and a lot of new ideas for further co-operation emerged.

In May 2011, an international conference CAMURE-ISMR was organised in Naanta-li by the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Group of Åbo Akademi University. Profes-sor Lange was one of the key figures behind the event: he was a member of the scientif-ic committee and he contributed with plen-ty of advice for the conference organisers.

GuEsT rEsEArChThis autumn Rüdiger Lange was the oppo-nent at the doctoral defence of Bright Kuse-ma – the topic was the catalytic transfor-mation of a hemicellulose, arabinogalactan. Bright was very bright at the defence, so ev-erything went well.

At the moment, we have three guest re-searchers from Dresden: Nora Becher inves-

tigates the hydrolysis kinetics of hemicel-luloses to obtain the primary sugars, which are valuable platform chemicals of the future – real green chemistry.

Arne Reinsdorf is involved in a project in which we aim to produce dangerous, but necessary chemical intermediates by means of a safe technique in micro structured de-vices. In this way, the exact amounts of chemicals can be produced on site, where they are needed, and the need for risky transport by road and rail can be avoided in the future. Keep the tiger in the cage, is our slogan.

Frank Mammitzsch works with computer simulations of autocatalytic chemical pro-cesses. This research task takes place in the hard core of chemical reaction engineer-ing: for self-accelerating (autocatalytic) processes, the flow conditions in chemical equipment must be optimised to maximise the yield of the desired product. This is called process intensification.

The students are happy with their projects and the social environment at Åbo Akademi University. Soon it will be time for our stu-dents to go to Dresden.

Vorwärts!

In addition to this endless networking in European organisations, it is sometimes nice to co-operate directly with competent and nice colleagues from abroad.


NEWS IN BRIEF

•• It is no news that the media industry is go-ing through substantial changes. It is still, how-ever, too early to draw any far-reaching con-clusions on what the media landscape will look like when the new technologies launched over the past few years have established them-selves and seriously taken root in our lives, along with the associated changes in costs. The social media will obviously have a large part to play in this new arena, but it is less clear exactly what kind of role they have now and will have in the future. One thing is clear, which is that the print media industry is facing a par-adigm shift.

“Daily newspapers have been produced ac-cording to the same business concept for 170 years. Change is happening now, but we don’t know how quickly it is happening”, says Timo Ketonen (to the right in the picture), one of the leading figures of the EDGE research group at the Åbo Akademi University School of Busi-ness and Economics.

The EDGE research group is concerned with studying business models which are undergo-ing fundamental transformations.

Timo Ketonen is an expert on the media having worked for 18 years in the industry, and was in banking for five years prior to that. He is currently working on his doctoral thesis, called the Disruptive Business Model in the Chang-ing Media Industry, which has the objective of studying the media behaviour of consum-ers, digitalisation and new business models for both established media companies and new actors in the industry.

The researcher, Dr Niklas Kiviluoto (to the left in the picture) is another member of the EDGE team. He has been recruited to the me-dia research project and will next focus on ex-ploring the daily engagement in the media of people at different stages in life: as students, in working life and as pensioners.

“In the second phase we will be trying to predict what the future will look like. For that, I’ll use the Delphi method on a selected num-

ber of persons within the media and other en-terprises, whose task it is to try to predict and adapt to the changes we will be facing”, Kivi-luoto explains.

One of the new technologies that has been talked about for a long time, and which is now widely used by the public, is the e-book reader.

“Nevertheless, I want to suggest that printed products definitely have a future. The question is what that future will look like. But it is abso-lutely obvious that printed, physical material has a specific quality, and magazines and jour-nals will probably survive in printed forms for longer than newspapers”, Timo Ketonen pre-dicts.

“Some say that the days of the newspaper will very soon be over, while others claim it will take a generation, that is, 20 years, before the field undergoes any radical change.”

Printed media still relevant

The Delphi method •The Delphi meth-

od is a formalised method developed within modern futu-re research. A panel of experts respond to a number of questions. With the aim of reaching a common standpoint or clearly discerning the basis for differ-ent evaluations, the responses are com-piled anonymously and the experts are then given the op-portunity to change their views a number of times. The objec-tive of this method is to hinder the au-thority of certain ex-perts from excessi-vely influencing the opinions of others.


The Sibelius Museum was established in 1926. It is the only diversified music museum in Fin-land. Its large collections include traditional in-struments as well as classical instruments from different corners of the world.

The permanent exhibition displays music his-tory and instruments from many different cul-tures. The museum houses a separate depart-ment dedicated to the life and work of Jean Sibelius.

During the autumn, winter, and spring sea-sons the museum hosts chamber music, jazz and folk music concerts on Wednesday eve-nings. The building, designed by Woldemar Baeckman, is one of the most original Finnish creations of the 1960s and attracts visitors inter-ested in architecture from all over of the world.www.sibeliusmuseum.abo.fi

Centres of Excellence lead the way in teaching•• For the period 2011–2015, Åbo Akademi University School of Busi-ness and Economics and the Depart-ment of Psychology and Logopedics will receive 55,000 euros per year for developing teaching at the university.

The idea is that these units will be at the forefront of teaching develop-ment. The teaching at these Centres of Excellence is already at a high level and is to be developed further – and a new feature is that these practices are now to be shared with other units at Åbo Akademi.

Pekka Santtila, Professor of Psy-chology at Åbo Akademi University, says that the greatest challenge with-in teaching – as it is also internation-ally – is the gap between theory and

practice. Some of the additional fund-ing that comes with being a Centre of Excellence, will be used for employ-ing former students as mentors. They will, for example, teach the students what is expected of them in working life and introduce them to new forms of treatment.

“I can’t think of any argument as to why the most efficient form of treat-ment would not be applied in any giv-en situation, and why we wouldn’t explore which method is the most ef-ficient. And this is done by being up to date with the current evidential situa-tion. This is important as most of our students will be employed in posts fi-nanced by public means”, Professor Santtila says.

“Furthermore, we have to be aware that the evidential situation changes constantly.”

Barbro Schauman, Senior Lecturer in the area of organisation and man-agement at the School of Business and Economics, says that the depart-

ment has been successful thanks to its modern teaching methods; the tra-ditional model of lectures and exams has been abandoned.

Maintaining links with working life are also important at the School of Business and Economics.

“Our students also work on proj-ects that have been commissioned by companies: they cooperate with professionals at – for example – ad-vertisement agencies”, says Barbro Schauman.

Pekka Santtila notes, however, that a distinction must be drawn between theory and practice.

“There is a balance which must be kept. We are not a vocational school, and theory and scientific aspects have their place.”


TURKU�CONVENTION�BUREAU�is here to make it as easy as possible to bring your international conference to Turku, Finland. We will provide you with expert assistance in choosing the best venues and hotels for your meetings, gala dinners and social programme. Our services are free of charge. Welcome to Turku!

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www.abo.fi/master

Åbo Akademi University offers the following Master’s degree programmes taught in English:•Master’sDegreeProgrammeinBiomedicalImaging•Master’sDegreeProgrammeinChemicalEngineering•Master’sDegreeProgrammeinElectronicandMobileCommerce•Master’sDegreeProgrammeinEmbeddedComputing•Master’sDegreeProgrammeinInternationalHumanRightsLaw•Master’sProgrammeinComputerEngineering/SoftwareEngineering•Master’sProgrammeinComputerScience•Master’sProgrammeinPeace,MediationandConflictResearch

These programmes lead to internationally recognised Master’s degrees in Science. The University has degree students enrolled from every corner of the world. In 2011, about 800 international students were registered at the university. This gives Åbo Akademi University one of the most international student populations of all universi-ties in Finland.

Admission requirementsA completed university level Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field is required for admission. Applicants must also prove their knowledge of English with an internationally recognised language test. For detailed information about admission, please see www.abo.fi/master

phone: +358 (0) 2 215 31 | e-mail: [email protected] | Address: Tavastgatan 13, FI-20500 Åbo


www.ab

o.fi

ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY IN BRIEFÅbo Akademi University is located in Åbo (Turku in Finnish) and in Vasa (Vaasa), some 400 kilometres north of Åbo. Åbo Akademi University is the only Swedish language multi-disciplinary university in Finland offering studies in the Humanities, Business and Economics, Caring Sciences, Chemical Engineer-ing, Education, IT, Languages, Law, Natural and Bio Sciences, Psychology and Logopedics, Social and Political Sciences, and Theology.

Facts and figures7,000 students 500 Master’s degrees per year 65 Doctoral degrees per year 1,300 teaching and administrative staff External funding comprises more than one third of the total budget

An international universityÅbo Akademi University offers an international environ-ment for all its students. Most departments provide study opportunities in English for international students. There are currently more than 800 foreign students from 70 different countries studying at Åbo Akademi Universi-ty, which makes it one of the most international universi-ties in Finland.

Leading research in many areasÅbo Akademi University has an acknowledged position at the forefront of research in such areas as biotech-nology, chemical combustion, human rights, material sciences, optimization and systems engineering, process chemistry, democracy research and comparative religion.

Key words- Top quality education and research, international atmos- phere. - Friendly and welcoming environment in the oldest university town in Finland. - Close to the unique, beautiful archipelago with over 20,000 islands.

Åbo Akademi University, Domkyrkotorget 3 20500 Åbo, Finland

Phone: +358 (0) 2 215 31 E-mail: [email protected]


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ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY 2012 - Startsida | Åbo Akademiweb.abo.fi/meddelanden/english/2012_01/2012_01_News_Bulletin.pdf · enjoyable way”, explains Anna Sell, a re-searcher into