Children in immediate danger: Emergency removals in Finnish and Irish child protection

This paper presents a qualitative analysis of front‐line practices regarding emergency removals in Finnish and Irish child protection. It examines how the responses to children's immediate danger are framed by legislation and how front‐line practitioners assess the child's situation and make emergency placement decisions. The data consist of interviews with 16 Irish and 33 Finnish social workers. These child welfare protection systems respond differently to a task that appears to be similar. The Irish team‐based practice rests on the social workers' shared assessment of the child's needs, and the formal decision is made by the courts (or police officers at night‐time); and the Finnish practice involves only one single social worker who makes both the assessment and the removal decision. The Irish system is tightly time regulated, whereas the Finnish system provides a more flexible time frame. Both approaches put a lot of stress on social workers' practice, which also includes creative workarounds (e.g., “planned emergency removals” in Finland). Future research will need to explore these features from the point of view of a child's right to protection.     

Using the Dual Control Model to Investigate the Relationship Between Mood,Genital, and Self-Reported Sexual Arousal in Men and Women

Recent findings suggest that there is considerable interindividual variability in how mood affects sexual arousal and that the dual control model may be helpful in explaining this variation. The current research investigated whether mood interacted with sexual excitation and inhibition proneness to predict subjective and genital arousal. In this study, 33 participants (18 men; 15 women), ages 18 to 45, attended three laboratory sessions where they completed questionnaires assessing preexisting mood and propensity for sexual excitation and inhibition, then watched a series of neutral and sexually explicit films. Subjective sexual arousal was continuously indicated during each film, while genital temperature was measured using thermographic imaging. Sexual excitation and inhibition interacted with various mood scores to significantly predict both subjective and genital arousal in men and women. Several gender differences were found. For example, vigor scores interacted with sexual excitation proneness to significantly predict genital but not subjective arousal in women, while the same interaction significantly predicted subjective but not genital arousal in men. The findings supported the hypothesis that the dual control model is an important framework in understanding how mood influences both subjective and genital sexual arousal.     

The ambiguity of Europe and European identity in Finnish populist political discourse

Europe is a profoundly flexible concept and, in Ernesto Laclau’s terms, a ‘floating signifier’ which is given various meanings depending on the speaker’s political aims. The article focuses on current populist and nationalist political discourses in Finland and the articulation of Europe and European identity in the political rhetoric of The Finns Party. In the rhetoric, Europe is given contradictory meanings. On the one hand, it is perceived as a cultural and value-based community which shares a common (Christian) heritage and values. Identification with Europe and the promotion of European communality are particularly pronounced when a threat towards ‘us’ is experienced as coming from outside the imagined European borders. On the other hand, the European integration process and Europe as a political project can be articulated as threats not only to national independence, identity and cultural particularity but to European cultural identity as well.     

The interplay between objective and subjective ethno-cultural diversity in predicting intergroup relations

This nation-wide probability sample survey study among Finnish majority group members (N?=?335) focused on the interactive effects of objective and subjective ethno-cultural diversity on three indicators of intergroup relations: outgroup attitudes, perceived group and personal discrimination, and outgroup trust. Complementing previous research that has mostly examined a linear relationship between cultural diversity and intergroup relations, special attention was given to moderate diversity contexts, which are claimed to pose different challenges to intergroup dynamics than high- and low-diversity contexts. It was hypothesised that majority group members who live in contexts characterised by moderate levels of objective diversity but subjectively perceive high levels of diversity will report more negative outgroup attitudes, lower levels of outgroup trust and higher levels of discrimination, as compared to those living in low- or high-diversity contexts. The hypothesis was confirmed for perceived group discrimination and outgroup trust. The results highlight the need to acknowledge possible non-linear relationships between diversity and intergroup relations.     

Getting on the right track? Educational choice-making of students with special educational needs in pre-vocational education and training

This paper explores the educational choice-making of students with special educational needs in the context of Finnish pre-vocational training and one of its programmes, ‘Preparatory and Rehabilitative Instruction and Guidance for Disabled Students’. The authors enquire into the kinds of educational choices available for students in the preparatory programme, and how student counselling meets their educational hopes and future plans. The analysis draws on an ethnographic study of special needs education in post-compulsory education in Finland. It shows that students need to reflect on their educational plans within institutional and diagnostic restrictions and guidance. The authors state that educational choices can be negotiable, but more attention must be given to deconstructing the self-evidences and institutional barriers linked to the transitions of young adults with special educational needs.     

Ecosocial innovations enabling social work to promote new forms of sustainable economy

Social work research and practice that address environmental sustainability have already become prominent. However, a change in unsustainable economic structures is also urgently needed. This study explored emerging opportunities in theory and practice for a sustainable economy that are relevant to the aims of social work. As practical examples, our study concerns ‘ecosocial innovations’, i.e., social innovations that combine ecological and social goals. We analysed how these grassroots innovations in the field of social work reflect crucial shared conceptions of alternative economies. The qualitative data set comprised of 50 ecosocial innovations and six case studies in five European countries. The findings show a rich diversity of ecosocial innovations and describe how they reframe economic purposes, value economic diversity and democratise the economy. We suggest that social work might consider these practices as opportunities for collaboration, especially regarding work with people on the margins of the labour market.