Pertti Alasuutari

The Sage handbook of social research methods

The SAGE Handbook for Social Research Methods charts the new and evolving terrain of social research methodology, covering qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods in one volume The Handbook includes chapters on each phase of the research process: research design, methods of data collection, and the processes of analyzing and interpreting data. As its editors maintain, there is much more to research than learning skills and techniques; methodology involves the fit between theory, research questions, research design, and analysis. The book also includes several chapters that describe historical and current directions in social research, debating crucial subjects such as qualitative versus quantitative paradigms, how to judge the credibility of types of research, and the increasingly topical issue of research ethics.

The uses of the national PISA results by Finnish officials in central government

In this article we attempt to analyse how OECD knowledge production is integrated with the process in which Finnish education policy takes shape. This is done by analysing the uses of the OECD PISA Study by Finnish central government officials. The main question posed is: How do these officials interpret the PISA results so as to justify the decisions made in Finnish education policy in the past or to point out new areas of development concerning basic education? The analysis shows that the interpretations of the PISA results tend to favour those responsible for actions within the central government. In the texts analysed, the scientificity of the PISA programme is presented as beyond question, while the direct usefulness of the research results for the further development of national education is also proclaimed. As to the specific results of PISA, the excellent learning outcomes of Finnish students are claimed to be due to educational reforms conducted and decisions made by the central government, whereas shortcomings and areas in which the officials see a need for improvement are argued to be dependent on the actions of other agents. Thus, the analysis shows that the conclusions drawn from the PISA results in texts representing the views of central government are biased and serve to justify its policy agenda.

The rise and relevance of qualitative research

The article discusses the development of social research in advanced economies and relates the rise of qualitative research to social changes. The paper suggests that partly, qualitative research emerged because some of the articles formerly classified as ‘non‐empirical’ or ‘theoretical’ gave way to an increasing share of articles classified as qualitative. In addition, the rise of qualitative inquiry meant that the everyday reality which produces statistical relationships between the variables of quantitative analysis is given more attention. Since the rise of qualitative research has primarily taken place at the expense of non‐empirical or theoretical rather than quantitative articles, one can argue that it has contributed to an overall systematization of social research. Overall, qualitative inquiry simply carries on one aspect of social science, the mission to study ‘the social body,’ the practices that make up social institutions and produce the regularities reflected in statistical relations.

Use of the OECD in justifying policy reforms: the case of Finland

The paper addresses the question, how nation‐states as sovereign actors adopt and implement worldwide policy models, thus creating isomorphic developmental trends, by analyzing the ways in which international governmental organizations are used to promote and legitimize policy reforms at the national level. The use of the OECD knowledge production in governmental documents in Finland is used as a case example. The results show that by appealing to the OECD both as a source of information and policy recommendations justified by scientific knowledge, national policy‐makers contribute to creating and reproducing an epistemic community, which makes it understandable why advanced economies follow isomorphic developmental paths.

The domestication of foreign news: news stories related to the 2011 Egyptian revolution in British, Finnish and Pakistani newspapers:

The article studies the domestication of foreign news by identifying the different ways in which the Egyptian revolt was reported and discussed in Britain, Finland and Pakistan. The data comprise the press coverage of the 2011 events in three newspapers: The Times in Britain, Helsingin Sanomat (HS) in Finland, and the Daily Times in Pakistan. We argue that, in addition to journalists, there are other agents who contribute to domesticating foreign news items. This makes understandable the unexpected differences between the three newspapers. One might assume that coverage of the Arab Spring would have been more impartial and less emotional in Britain and Finland than in Pakistan, which is culturally closer to Egypt. The opposite was true, however. The coverage of the events in Daily Times primarily consisted of hard news. The Times and HS, on the other hand, sent their reporters onsite, and the news stories used several discursive means to bring the events experientially closer to their readers. Yet, the Egypt uprising was used as a lever in domestic politics more forcefully in Pakistan. That is because the uprising was domesticated to local politics by other actors than just journalists.

The Discursive Side of New Institutionalism

This article introduces various strands of neoinstitutionalism, with the focus on sociological institutionalism, particularly ‘Stanford School’ sociological institutionalism and discursive institutionalism. The article points out that in opposing individualist rational choice theory, sociological institutionalism takes a strong structuralist stance in which actors are depicted as agents constituted by the scripts of rationalist world culture, mindlessly enacting worldwide models. In contrast, discursive institutionalist scholarship focuses on research about the actual practices through which global ideas are incorporated in local contexts, as well as on the discourses that motivate actors in the modern world to behave so uniformly in several ways, even though the culture of modernity specifically celebrates individualism and sovereignty and denounces mindless compliance. These studies have highlighted the key role of local actors in the local-global interaction. Yet these orientations must not be seen as separate schools of thought, but rather as developments within neoinstitutionalist sociology. In other words, recent years have witnessed an increased interest in the forms of local-global interaction. Case analyses have shown that synchronization of national policies seems to be a side effect of local actors utilizing broadly shared ideas and values in justifying their political objectives.

The domestication of early childhood education plans in Finland

The article analyses how the implementation of early childhood education plans in Finland is linked with international trends and what happens in the process through which such worldwide ideals are domesticated to the local conditions. Through a detailed analysis of different stages of the process, the article sheds light on the question of how, to what extent and at which levels the national path of change is converged with those in other countries. The results show that the early childhood education system has not fully met its declared objectives. However, it is emphasized that declared objectives of a reform must not be confused with the ‘original’, perhaps worldwide model, which is then contrasted with actual practices. Similarly, the actual form that the new practices assume must not be mistaken for the effect of a genuinely national tradition. Rather, the ideals and objectives stated in the documents related to the reform in question must be seen as part of the political process and of a global form of governance that the reformed policy represents. Not only the model being domesticated but the rationalities, counterarguments and forms of resistance which different parties invoke to defend their interests are often transnational.

Spreading global models and enhancing banal localism: the case of local government cultural policy development

This paper addresses the question of how cosmopolitan consciousness coexists with persistent banal nationalism or localism. The argument put forward is that these two phenomena are reinvigorated by a single process, here called the domestication of transnational models. The newspaper media coverage of an R&D project aimed at developing local government cultural activities in Finnish towns and cities is the object of a case analysis. The results show that although the project contributed to standardizing local government cultural activities and spreading the idea of cities as strategic actors, through the way in which the project was covered in the local media, it strengthened a local viewpoint on the whole process. It drew on and constituted residents’ identification with their local domicile and the idea that local government citizens are members of a team that has to do well in global competition. Second, the comparative data made available was capitalized in local politics.

Modernization as a tacit concept used in governance

The article discusses the tacit concept of modernization in its various guises as a transnational framework and as part of world culture. The historical formation of the idea of modernization is traced back to the Enlightenment philosophers. The article further discusses how the idea is embedded in contemporary discussions of society and social change. In discussing how modernization discourse is utilized in spreading and domesticating worldwide models, the paper points out that it is coupled with the cultural framework of competition, in which cross-national comparative data are commonly used as evidence. The article concludes that to avoid unknowingly chasing its own tail, social science needs to see its own role in society, and study the feedback loop from scientists’ desks to policy models and back again

The nominalist turn in theorizing power

[Tập san nghien cứu văn hoa Châu Âu] đa phat biểu rằng Tập san sẽ ‘tham gia vao cac thảo luận co tinh phe binh về cac tương quan quyền lực lien quan tới phạm vi giớitinh, giai cấp, tinh dục, tộc người va cac điểm vi mo va vĩ mo của xung đột chinh trị’. Tuy nhien, quyền lực la gi? Thật kho ma định nghĩa được; no cũng chủ yếu giống như khai niệm la danh cho nghien cứu văn hoa va cac nganh khoa học xa hội noi chung. Cho nen trong nhiều tinh huống no bị bỏ ngỏ khong được định nghĩa, mặc định rằng thinh giả đa biết no nghĩa la gi. Như được nhắc tới trong lời mời viết bai cho hội thảo quốc tế mang ten ‘Power: Forms, Dynamics and Consequences’ [Quyền lực: cac dạng thức, động lực học va hệ quả] tổ chức 9/2008 ở Tampere, Phần lan, một bai phat biểu then chốt định hinh phần cơ bản của chủ đề đặc biệt nay: đối với cac nha khoa học xa hội quyền lực, ở những chừng mực khac nhau, giống như những gi thanh Augustine đa noi về thời gian: no la trọng tâm cac nghien cứu của chung ta va chung ta nghĩ rằng chung ta biết no la gi nhưng lại rất kho để giải nghĩa.’ Trong cac nghien cứu văn hoa, Michel Foucault co lẽ đa trở thanh nhân vật quan trọng nhất tac động đến tưởng tượng của chung ta về quyền lực. Ong đa thực sự thach thức giả định thong thường phổ biến ma quyền lực vận hanh bằng cach đặt ra cac giới hạn cho những khat vọng va ham muốn của chung ta. Vi dụ, trong vấn đề tinh dục ong chỉ ra rằng mạng lưới quyền lực xung quanh no đa lam cho cac chủ thể con người ‘trong phần thế giới của chung ta’ mong mỏi khao khat sự phơi bay về tinh dục, thừa nhận no để giải phong khỏi những kieng kị trước đây, va thật vậy duy tri chế độ quyền lực – hiểu biết – khoai cảmma thấm nhuần va điều khiển bản năng giới tinh hang ngay (Foucault, 1980[1978]). Mặc du đa hơn ba thập kỷ troi qua kể từkhi xuất hiện cac nguyen bản co ảnh hưởng lớn về quyền lực của Foulcault, Ong tiếp tục