Hannu I. Heikkinen

Gamified physical activation of young men – a Multidisciplinary Population-Based Randomized Controlled Trial (MOPO study)

BackgroundInactive and unhealthy lifestyles are common among adolescent men. The planned intervention examines the effectiveness of an interactive, gamified activation method, based on tailored health information, peer networks and participation, on physical activity, health and wellbeing in young men. We hypothesize that following the intervention the physical activation group will have an improved physical activity, as well as self-determined and measured health compared with the controls.Methods/designConscription-aged men (18 years) attending compulsory annual call-ups for military service in the city of Oulu in Finland (n = 1500) will be randomized to a 6-months intervention (n = 640) or a control group (n = 640) during the fall 2013. A questionnaire on health, health behaviour, diet and wellbeing is administered in the beginning and end of the intervention. In addition, anthropometric measures (height, weight and waist circumference), body composition, grip strength, heart rate variability and aerobic fitness will be measured. The activation group utilizes an online gamified activation method in combination with communal youth services, objective physical activity measurement, social networking, tailored health information and exercise programs according to baseline activity level and the readiness of changes of each individual. Daily physical activity of the participants is monitored in both the activation and control groups. The activation service rewards improvements in physical activity or reductions in sedentary behaviour. The performance and completion of the military service of the participants will also be followed.DiscussionThe study will provide new information of physical activity, health and health behaviour of young men. Furthermore, a novel model including methods for increasing physical activity among young people is developed and its effects tested through an intervention. This unique gamified service for activating young men can provide a translational model for community use. It can also be utilized as such or tailored to other selected populations or age groups.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01376986

Social Movements' Pressure Strategies during Forest Disputes in Finland

Abstract Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) and rural social movements have become influential actors in natural resource governance. This article analyzes forestry dispute strategies in three cases from northern Finland, applying Actor-Network Theory (ANT), with special attention to its concept of translation, to analyze emerging multilevel stakeholder networks that include both human actors and non-human interests. Our particular focus is on the race for spokesman status on behalf of such ‘third parties’. We find that the more heterogeneous actor-networks the stakeholders build, the better opportunities they have to reach their goals. Successful strategies build environmental policy actor-networks in particular by combining different levels of human interests with different ecological arguments.

Challenges in acquiring a social licence to mine in the globalising Arctic

In recent decades, the mining industry has expanded globally especially in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Mines often boost rural economies, but may have also negative impacts on environment and local livelihoods, such as tourism and reindeer herding. That is why acceptability and undeniable right to operate – the social licence (SL) to mine has become more and more important in mining related discussions. We examine empirically issues relating to SL in two mining projects in Finnish Lapland, Hannukainen in Kolari and Suurikuusikko in Kittila. The main results emphasise the importance of transparency in mining operations and the continuity of communications with local stakeholders in building and maintaining the SL to mine. If the transparency of operations is lacking and issues come to publicity only via the media, this may affect the public image of a company and finally challenge its SL to operate and, in the long term, potentially effect the financing decisions of mining investors. We show that acquiring and keeping up a SL links not only to the developments in the actual mining site, but is also connected to processes taking place in other localities. These connections may emerge in various scales; between various local communities, mining companies and global financing principles, for instance. We use and propose ‘multi-sited ethnography’ as a method to describe and better understand complex linkages which may effect the SL to mine.

Multidisciplinary and Participatory Approach for Assessing Local Vulnerability of Tourism Industry to Climate Change

Abstract The major part of the attractiveness of Nordic tourism relies on natural resources and features such as the landscape, the flora, the fauna and the four seasons. Lately, it has been predicted that climate change will alter these preconditions of nature-based tourism destinations, which may have severe consequences for the tourism industry. Nevertheless, tourism is also bound to many other societal changes that may influence the economics and the development of peripheral communities dependent on tourism and bring new challenges in maintaining their vitality. For assessing these challenges and potential adaptation measures a multidisciplinary and participatory approach was developed in the EU LIFE+ project VACCIA (Vulnerability Assessment of ecosystem services for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation) Action 12: Tourism. The aim of this article is to evaluate this approach for assessing the local vulnerability and adaptation of tourism to the challenges of climate change in two tourism municipalities of Northern Finland.

Managing predators, managing reindeer: contested conceptions of predator policies in Finland's southeast reindeer herding area

Preserving biodiversity and establishing healthy and thriving populations of predator animals are the expressed aims of many wildlife and ecosystem conservation projects and initiatives. However, such conservation strategies are often in conflict with the traditions, practices and land-use priorities of local communities. This article concentrates on the situation concerning the predation of reindeer (mainly by wolves) in Finlands southeast reindeer herding area and its immediate vicinity, but makes reference to the broader situation of predation and reindeer herding in Finland. Based on analysis of statistics and interviews with local stakeholders, the research findings refer to the intermingled contradictions related to conceptual, statistical and other management relevant knowledge and resulting problems, for example, in conservation hunting licensing. The article concludes that the wolf comprises a complex case for nature conservation initiatives and sustainable reindeer husbandry and that, in practice, it has particular implications compared to other policy approaches to dealing with the problem of animal predators. The article ends with some theoretical considerations as to whether we can improve our understanding of modern human-environment relations by deriving ideas from the actor-network theory debates.

Development of Participatory Institutions for Reindeer Management in Finland: A Diagnosis of Deliberation, Knowledge Integration and Sustainability

The objective of this chapter is to diagnose the mechanisms by which a focused effort to integrate knowledge based on various professional and disciplinary backgrounds can result in emergent participatory institutions for resource management – in this case reindeer herding management in northern Finland. Considering knowledge integration as a process of institutionbuilding makes sense, since in environmental governance literature institutions are widely understood as working rules that are common knowledge to resource users (Ostrom 1990). In this context, the crucial point is the process of knowledge transfer through networking and communication. Three stages of knowledge integration characterize the entire research effort, which the authors conducted as Workpackage 1 (WP1) under the RENMAN project: (1) pioneer networking, (2) translational networking, and (3) modular networking (Bruun et al. 2002; Hukkinen et al. 2003b; Forbes et al. 2004). Our typology of knowledge integration draws from recent literature on organizational learning in innovation (Bruun et al. 2002; Langlais et al. 2004). The project became a prime example of a focused effort of knowledge integration, because every stage of it was based on participatory processes. We go on to show that the processes of knowledge integration hold the characteristics of emerging institutions for resource management: formal and informal rules were developed for the participatory process of the RENMAN project and proposed for future reindeer management; the rules were geographically specified; legitimate participants in the process were clearly defined; and conflict resolution and sanctioning mechanisms were proposed during the project (Hukkinen et al. 2002, 2003a; Heikkinen et al. 2003a).

Dismantling the barriers to entrepreneurship in reindeer management in Finland

We will (1) show that reindeer herders in Finland have a long tradition of entrepreneurship; (2) identify administrative and policy obstacles to fulfilling the entrepreneurial capacities and (3) recommend actions to remove the obstacles to indigenous entrepreneurship among herders. Successful herders in Finland have embraced key entrepreneurial virtues: positioning themselves honestly with respect to their challenges, sparing resources and thinking strategically about the future. Unfortunately, government policy and administration in Finland do not facilitate the full utilisation of the virtues. However, policies and administrative structures can be reformed with carefully designed participatory approaches that rely on the expertise of herders, government officials and researchers of reindeer management. Our data comes from interviews, field visits and workshops organised during a three-year EU project on sustainable Reindeer Management (RENMAN). In addition, we have collected success stories of self-employment and entrepreneurship from four decades of fieldwork among herders in Finland.

Gamified Persuasion: User Experiences of Online Activation Service

The authors have empirically examined the persuasive properties of digital games from a multidisciplinary perspective. Besides the relevant cultural and psychological theories related to the game phenomenon, the authors have included a case study where a persuasive online activation service was tested among young men N=280, average 17.9 year old in the promotion of physical and social activity. The emphasis of the article is on qualitative material, which is based on in-depth interviews of 10 individuals, as well as participant observation considering the user experiences regarding the activation service and gaming in general. The authors have concluded that games contain persuasive characteristics based on human culture and psychology and that these characteristics could effectively be utilized in physically and socially activating games.

Participatory meaning making of environmental and cultural changes in reindeer herding in the northernmost border area of Sweden and Finland

This paper explores the adaptation possibilities of reindeer herding regarding environmental changes at the Northernmost Swedish-Finnish border region. Four herding communities of Konkamaeno-Muonionjoki River Valley were chosen due to the cultural and environmental diversity of the region and the similarities of livelihood challenges. The objective is to conduct vulnerability assessment on the relations between reindeer herding and various environmental changes creating pressure for change. By such participatory assessment, we explored the interplay between cultural resilience and transformation as perceived by reindeer herders and whether the changes are considered as fair enabling the renewal of the livelihood or unjust imposed from outside. Our approach is based on interviews and workshop during which a scenario exercise was used for opening up critical discussions of potential transformative changes of herding. Results emphasise the multidimensional complexities of adaptation from the local point of view and the prominent role of cultural continuity within reindeer husbandry.

A Teleological Approach to the Wicked Problem of Managing Utría National Park

Utria National Park is a remote biodiversity hotspot in Colombia. It encompasses ancestral territories of the Embera indigenous peoples and borders territories of Afro-descendant communities in El Valle. We explore environmental value conflicts regarding the use of the park, describing them as a Wicked Problem that has no clear solution. Juxtaposing how the territory is perceived by different communities, we employ Faber et al.s heuristic of the three tele of living nature to search for deficiency in the third telos, service, which we take to be symptomatic of Wicked Problems. Based on field data encoded using the three-tele heuristic, concerning how the respective communities would like to use the park area, we identify deficiencies in the third telos and develop recommendations regarding how these might be addressed.