Sari Yli-Kauhaluoma

Tale taming radioactive fears: Linking nuclear waste disposal to the “continuum of the good”

We examine how the constructor of the world’s first repository for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel in Eurajoki, Finland, aims to shape lay understanding of the facility’s risks and to tame the nuclear fears of the local community by producing positive associations, imagery and tales. Our empirical material consists of the constructor’s newsletters targeted mainly at the local residents. In the narrative analysis, we identified a storyline where the construction of the repository is linked into the “continuum of the good” in the municipality of the construction site and the surrounding areas. The storyline consists of five different themes all emphasizing the “continuum of the good” in the area: cultural heritage, well-being, developing expertise, natural environment, and local families. Our study contributes to the literature on pro-nuclear storytelling by showing how the inclination is towards narratives that are constructed around local symbols, cultural landmarks, and institutions.

Intricacies of back-office

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how back-office service staff cope with the intricacies of administrative work. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies the research approach of “at-home ethnography” in a university back-office. The primary method of data collection was participant listening in the field, either in formal interviews or casual conversations. Photography helped the authors to zoom the conversation in to specific artefacts in administrative offices. Findings – The study identifies both forward- and backward-looking recipes as essential administrative tools that back-office staff develop and use to handle intricacies that emerge in their daily work. Forward-looking recipes are based on anticipatory cognitive representations, whereas backward-looking recipes are based on experiential wisdom. The study elaborates on the different kinds of modelling practices that back-office service staff engage in while building and applying these two different kinds of recipes. Practi...

Seeking connectivity to everyday health and wellness experiences: Specificities and consequences of connective gaps in self-tracking data

Objective Self-tracking technologies have created high hopes, even hype, for aiding people to govern their own health risks and promote optimal wellness. High expectations do not, however, necessarily materialize due to connective gaps between personal experiences and self-tracking data. This study examines situations when self-trackers face difficulties in engaging with, and reflecting on, their data with the aim of identifying the specificities and consequences of such connective gaps in self-tracking contexts. Methods The study is based on empirical analyses of interviews of inexperienced, experienced and extreme self-trackers (in total 27), who participated in a pilot study aiming at promoting health and wellness. Results The study shows that people using self-tracking devices actively search for constant connectivity to their everyday experiences and particularly health and wellness through personal data but often become disappointed. The results suggest that in connective gaps the personal data remains invisible or inaccurate, generating feelings of confusion and doubt in the users of the self-tracking devices. These are alarming symptoms that may lead to indifference when disconnectivity becomes solidified and data ends up becoming dead, providing nothing useful for the users of self-tracking technologies. Conclusions High expectations which are put on wearables to advance health and wellness may remain unmaterialised due to connective gaps. This is problematic if individuals are increasingly expected to be active in personal data collection and interpretation regarding their own health and wellness.

Smooth flows, unhurried stays: everyday organizing in a downtown commercial centre

Abstract This study explores local actors’ participation in everyday organizing and thereby in the production and maintenance of social space in the urban milieu of a downtown commercial centre. By local actors, the study refers to retailers and maintenance workers such as security guards, cleaners and facility managers. The study is based on extensive empirical research being conducted in the Kamppi Centre, located in the heart of the city of Helsinki, Finland. The Kamppi Centre consists of a complex of commercial shops, offices, residential housing and public transportation terminals. It is a hectic urban milieu in a Finnish context and operates 24/7. The study identifies critical locations in the Kamppi Centre, particularly entrances, as well as the central indoor shopping plaza and the corridors where local actors are constantly negotiating the social space with the public. These places provide endless challenges to local actors’ everyday dealings with people and to the material flows and stopovers at the site. The study elaborates on local actors’ careful management of those places and on the organization of both people and material flows and visits as a way of producing and maintaining social space in a complex urban environment.

Technology-Related Interruptions and Paper-Based Documents in Back-Office Knowledge Work

This study examines how administrative staff in the back-office aim to maintain the continuity and flow of their tasks that is critical for producing appropriate administrative results in time. Based on an ethnographic study of administrative work, the results suggest that administrative staff in a back-office environment prepare for information technology-related interruptions that may affect the continuity and flow of their tasks. To overcome and tackle these possible interruptions in the workflow, administrators interact through paper-based documents as workarounds to information technology. The study identifies and elaborates three different types of paper-based documents - recipes, proofs, and sketches. The study reveals that different materials, i.e. paper-based documents and information technologies, are closely entwined with each other in back-office work. The study begins to detect important affordances of paper-based documents as administrators attempt to work around the perceived constraints of information technology to maintain the flow and continuity of tasks in administration.

The Social Construction of Nuclear Community Building Trust in the World’s First Repository for Spent Nuclear Fuel

ONKALO, the world’s first repository for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel, is being constructed in Eurajoki, Finland. We study how the constructor of this facility portrays it to the local community in order to influence lay understanding of the disposal risk, build trust, and gain public approval for the construction project. The study is based on a framing analysis of the newsletters published by the constructor of the facility in 2000-2014. The results suggest that the nuclear industry has developed increasing understanding of the social and communal aspects of public resistance to nuclear power. To create trust and to increase acceptance locally the industry is socially constructing a nuclear community around the repository. The gap between the nuclear experts and the local residents is narrowed and the repository is portrayed as being a shared project within the local community advancing the common interests of the industry and the residents. This may represent a new trend in pronuclear storytelling.

Exploring Social Dynamics in Technological Innovating A Case of Early Phases in a Chemical High-tech Firm

This study explores the crossroads of entrepreneurship and innovating. In particular, it aims to identify the types of social dynamics that take place as entrepreneurs seek to commercialize a high-tech invention in the early phases of a new venture. The empirical case focuses on an analysis of a group of scientist-entrepreneurs and the development of their social relations with representatives in several large, established organizations as they jointly develop and apply a chemical invention in an industrial process. As a result, the study identifies and specifies five different types of social dynamics crucial for entrepreneurs in the development of industrial innovations in the early phases of a firms existence. The study highlights the importance for new entrepreneurs of gaining access to industrial projects. Also, the results discuss the intensity of collaborative relations and raise issues regarding power in social dynamics. Exploration de la dynamique sociale dans linnovation technologique Un exemple des premières phases dune entreprise chimique de haute technologie Sari Yli-Kauhaluoma École déconomie dHelsinki, Finlande La présente étude examine le carrefour Entrepreneuriat-Innovation, cherchant en particulier à identifier les types de dynamiques sociales qui se créent lorsque les entrepreneurs cherchent à commercialiser une invention de haute technologie dans les premières phases dune nouvelle entreprise. Lexemple empirique est axé sur lanalyse dun groupe dentrepreneurs-chercheurs et sur le développement de leurs rapports sociaux avec des représentants de plusieurs grandes organisations, solidement établies, au moment de développer et de mettre ensemble en œuvre une invention chimique dans un processus industriel. En conséquence, létude identifie et fait état de cinq différents types de dynamiques sociales dimportance capitale pour les entrepreneurs lors du développement dinnovations industrielles au cours des premières phases de la création dune entreprise. Elle insiste aussi sur limportance que revêt, pour les nouveaux entrepreneurs, la possibilité daccéder à des projets industriels. En outre, les résultats font valoir lintensité des relations collaboratives et soulèvent des questions concernant le pouvoir dans la dynamique sociale.. Exploración de la dinámica social en la innovación tecnológica Un caso de las primeras fases de una industria química de alta tecnología Sari Yli-Kauhaluoma Escuela de Economía de Helsinki, Finlandia Este estudio explora la encrucijada entre el emprendedurismo y la innovación. En particular, tiene como objetivo identificar los tipos de dinámica social que ocurren cuando los emprendedores tratan de comercializar un invento de alta tecnología en las primeras fases de una empresa de nueva creación. Este caso empírico se centra en un análisis de un grupo de emprendedores científicos y el desarrollo de sus relaciones sociales con los representantes de varias importantes organizaciones sólidamente establecidas al colaborar en el desarrollo y aplicación de un invento químico para un proceso industrial. A raíz de esto, el estudio identifica y especifica cinco tipos diferentes de dinámica social de crucial importancia para los emprendedores en el desarrollo de innovaciones industriales durante las primeras fases de la creación de la empresa. El estudio hace hincapié en la importancia para los nuevos emprendedores de obtener acceso a los proyectos industriales. Los resultados exponen, además, la intensidad de las relaciones colaborativas y plantea cuestiones sobre el poder en la dinámica social. Eine Untersuchung der sozialen Dynamik bei technologischen Innovationen Untersuchung einer frühen Phase in einem chemischen Hightech-Unternehmen Sari Yli-Kauhaluoma Handelshochschule Helsinki, Finnland Diese Studie untersucht den Scheideweg von Unternehmertum und Innovation. Sie versucht insbesondere, die sozialen Dynamiken zu identifizieren, die bestehen, wenn Unternehmer versuchen, eine Hightech-Innovation in den frühen Phasen des neuen Unternehmens zu kommerzialisieren. Der empirische Fall konzentriert sich auf eine Gruppe von wissenschaftlichen Unternehmern und die Entwicklung ihrer sozialen Beziehungen mit Vertretern verschiedener, großen etablierten Organisationen, während sie gemeinsam eine chemische Innovation in einem industriellen Prozess entwickeln und anwenden. Das Ergebnis der Studie identifiziert und bestimmt fünf verschiedene Typen sozialer Dynamiken, die fur Unternehmer bei der Entwicklung einer industriellen Innovation in den frühen Phasen nach der Unternehmensgründung besonders wichtig sind. Die Studie zeigt, wie wichtig es ist, dass neue Unternehmer Zugriff auf industrielle Projekte erhalten. Darüber hinaus wird in den Ergebnissen über die Intensität der gemeinschaftlichen Beziehungen und über Aspekte bezüglich Machtstellungen in sozialen Dynamiken diskutiert.